Use of Titles

The Use Of Titles:

                             
Throughout our trailer, there are several different types of titles being used. For example we created two production titles, starting off with "Asylum Productions". This title we had created and wanted it to be different so we used a old fashion video camera placed on a tripod as we thought it would go well with our trailer. We then have the theme of black and white colours because it goes well with the convention of horror, but these colours stand out more. The colour black shows darkness, fear and mystery, whereas white shows peace, innocence and calmness. And these colours link to the protagonists and antagonist.


                                                               The other production title we created and chose for our trailer is "Woodland Films". When creating the title, we used a abandoned forest which is shown being in the dark. We then added white text over the picture so that it would stand out and able to be read. To add more effect of the darkness of the woods, we decided to lower the lighting of the original picture to set in a certain mood, such as dull and gloomy. The theme of a dark location is conventional to horror movies which is effective.

Above is our title for our horror trailer "The Craze" and we had used this in our trailer at the end, so the audience knows the title of the film being shown. For our trailer title we decided to create it in adobe fireworks. We kept the black background so that the text would stand out more and would be easier to read. For the text "The Craze", we used the website "https://cooltext.com/" which is a website full of different fonts to choose from and also being in different categories and we looked in the horror category and came across the text we used for our title. The text we chose looks kind of sinister style which is good as we wanted it to link to the genre of horror.   

The final title we had included in our film production was the production credits which had appeared at the end of our trailer but also it is also seen being on the bottom of our film poster. For the production credits, we used the conventional design for it in a film trailer. We had the small white text on a black background so that it was clear to read if the audience were interested to read the credits. We then have the release date of the film at the bottom of the production credits and we made it large and bold. This is information for our audience as this is then telling them when the film is being released into cinemas. 

Use of sound evaluation

The use of sound being used in The Craze:

In our trailer, many sounds were being used. Starting off with dialogue, which was used many times during the trailer. With the dialogue we used conventional cliches, this has been used in a scene of the protagonists on the sofa watching TV, when around 0:20 in the trailer, we hear one of the main characters Shannon, say to Sean "Sean, this looks quite serious". This line is a popular thing used in most horrors as this shows the innocence of the protagonist by telling the audience something bad could happen to them. We then hear another line, but coming from the antagonist which is being aimed at the protagonists. The clown said "You can't escape now". This line is very conventional to a horror film as it will make the audience feel off edge because of this line and the audience will appeal more which is effective for our trailer as its being shown as a horror.

There is then non diegetic sound being used throughout our trailer, which is the soundtrack. Throughout the trailer, we used different types of soundtracks because we didn't just want one as it would be continuous and the trailer wouldn't be shown as a horror. With the different soundtracks, they had different tempos and volume and we would choose which soundtrack went well with each scene. An example of a good part of a soundtrack was when we had the scene of the protagonist seeing the antagonist across the road waving at them, the scene was quiet which made it tense and then it would start to build up for loud, high tempo to set the scene but also the tension between the three characters, making the audience engage more into the trailer.

Representation Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

With location it is one way we have conformed to conventional horror stereotypes. When filming for The Craze we used the location of the air raid shelter and once we were inside there was no lighting at all and was very dark, with no one in it and seen to be abandoned. With no lighting in the shelter this was effective because it would set the scene of when we filmed the antagonist and protagonist together and would make the scene very tense. We used this location for effect and this was also unknown to the protagonist which made them explore and to be intrigued. 

As a group we felt like the location we filmed a few scenes for The Craze, looked similar in the horror film "SAW". Both locations are shown as derelict as this is where most antagonist are commonly shown.

Another way we have conformed to conventional horror stereotypes, is the appearance of our antagonist who was the clown. To have the antagonist like a clown, we felt as a group inspired by Pennywise who is the clown from IT, but there is a difference between our clown and the clown in IT and what it is, is that our clown is more evil and crazy with appearance and the way they act , but Pennywise in IT has more of a funny side to him as he is trying to entertain kids and kidnapping them. 

There is an image of the clown in The Craze and then an image of Pennywise from IT and these two images show the similarities and differences of our antagonist, one is the facial appearance of our clown he has a mask on his face to hide his identity, whereas Pennywise has makeup on to show his facial expressions so that the audience are appealed more to this character. Another is the use of the colour red on both costumes, the colour red suggests blood, danger and possibly fear, which is both shown in our trailer and the film IT. But my personal opinion is that our clown is more of a psychopath with a sinister and crazy personality and has a dark and dangerous appearance and wearing casual clothes to make him look different and unique rather than being like Pennywise who is shown having a comical personality and is shown to be a clown at a kids party. 

The Craze Director's Commentary

This is the director's commentary for the Craze trailer.