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

In the horror genre it it conventionally a killer, monster or something supernatural that takes on the role as the villain. The shot from our teaser trailer Skin Deep is very comparable to this shot taken from the My Bloody Valentine 3D teaser. The killer is only shown briefly in teasers to intrigue the audience. This keeps the killer mysterious and scary. Using the killer too often in a teaser would cheapen the shock of seeing the killer perhaps making them less scary. The audience should be left wanting to see more after viewing the teaser. Both of these killers are wearing masks to conceal their identities. This is very conventional for the horror genre as it makes the killer scary, mysterious and hidden. Not knowing who they are makes the film's events much more unpredictable. The mask should make the audience fearful of the villain and the character in the film would also be terrified of the killer. Both of these shots are extremely similar with nothing being seen past the killer, making the situation more mysterious and intriguing. The masks also have a large focus on the eyes helping to add to the scare factor.

The point-of-view shot from inside the car is very similar to one taken from The Hitcher (2007) teaser. Both shots are framed very similarly. The mise-en-scene for the Skin Deep shot involves a dark road. This is lit only by the car headlights creating interesting lighting and also connoting that the road is in "the middle of nowhere" as there are no streetlights. This is very conventional for horror as the genre is usually set in small suburban areas. This makes the audience question where the characters are and they expect something bad to happen as the setting looks deserted. The shot from The Hitcher is very similar by connoting that the characters are in the middle of nowhere. Less scenery is shown outside of the window screen creating a sense of mystery not knowing what is outside the car. The blue lighting also adds to the mystery as does the rain. While these two shots are slightly different they both achieve the same goal which is to leave the audience wondering where the characters are.

This shot from the One Missed Call teaser shows a close up of a phone message and is very similar to one that we used in our teaser. The use of a prop to help give important narrative information in the trailer keeps it different and interesting. These shots are only on screen for a brief time so that the audience can quickly get the needed information from them. These shots help create an enigma for the situation with the audience wanting to know who has contacted them. The killer contacting the victim through without physically talking to them helps to keep them mysterious. In the Skin Deep teaser this shot is used in a very quick sequence???with the following shots being very fast ending with the killer being seen and the car breaking to a stop. This creates excitement for the audience.

Towards the end of teaser trailers the title of the film is conventionally given. This is saved for the closing moments of the teaser so that the audience are intrigued into finding out what the film is called. The title of the film is usually given, so that the target audience who respond to the trailer will learn the name so that they can go and see it at the cinema. Howev, sometimes a title is not given to add more mystery. This intertitle from A Nightmare on Elm Street uses the same colour scheme as the one used in Skin Deep. Red against black is very common for horror as red contains connotations of blood, anger, danger etc. and black has connotations of the unknown, scary and is very dark. The use of red on black highly contrasts each other making the film title very visible to the audience. The Skin Deep font is very rounded and stylish and looks like blood  dripping. The A Nightmare on Elm Street one contains a blurry smudge also giving a blood like effect.

Saw VI contains a very similar shot of a car driving. In both of these shots the headlights are the main focus. This creates interesting lighting and also connoted night time. Horror is usually set in night as it is much scarier, mysterious and things can not be seen properly. A shot of a car driving creates an enigma as the audience do not know when in the film it is taking place so therefore they are left to wonder if it is the characters before they are tied up and tortured, or if it is after and they have escaped. In the Skin Deep teaser the driving shots create suspense showing the character in a dark scary environment with climatic the reveal of the killer being in the back.

This still is very similar to one taken from the Eden Lake teaser trailer.  Both show the film's "final girl" running through the forest/woods which is a typical setting for the horror genre. This very brief shot of the character running connotes the danger that she is in and that she is trying to escape. The depth of frame is utilized well (a key convention of the horror genre) with the killer being present in the background. The antagonist/villain/killer  is in the background in both the Skin Deep and Eden Lake shots. The mise-en-scene is practically the same in both shots. The gitl in the foreground, killer in the background with rows of trees/plants lining the path in the forest. The costume colour for both "final girl" are very similar with a white/light colour clothing to connote their innocence.

Both of these shot involve a character tied to a tree. Both have visible cuts on their face and have a very scared expression. The shots from the Skin Deep and Eden Lake teaser's are both close ups of the characters face from a weird angle. This is very conventional for horror trailers as it is disorientating. The character is likely to be tortured or to have already been due to the cuts. Shots of scared victims helps the audience to sympathize with them. It also helps to show how evil the killer is and to create a fear for them.

Extreme close-ups are very conventional shots for the horror genre. The use of an extreme close-up in a horror teaser is very common as it does not show where the character is or other important information that tells the audience what is happening. This is disorientating as the spectator do not know what is going on. This is an enigma to the audience as they would want to know more about the situation and to find out what is going on. It helps to create mystery and tension. The eye itself can show how a character is feeling as in the My Bloody Valentine 3D shot the pupil is looking off screen making the character look very scared and alluding to the fact that someone is there likely to hurt them. A close-up helps to identify with a character. Both shots have interesting lighting with the My Bloody Valentine 3D shot being heavily lit creating shadow and a high contrast. The Skin Deep one is lit to give shadow. The pupil is the focus of these shots.

This shot from My Bloody Valentine 3D's teaser is very similar to the shot from our teaser. Both of these shots include the killer standing in similar postures and dragging an axe. This introduces a murder weapon to the teaser to help make the killer appear as very dangerous. The killer is very small and seen from far away, This is to keep the killer as mysterious and to not over use them. It provides tension and suspense as the audience will want to know if/who/when it will be used against. Their identities are concealed to add mystery. Both wear very dark costumes and a mask. While the shots are in different locations the use of the shot serves the same purpose.

The teaser lasts approximately a minute. A longer theatrical trailer would be released sooner to the films release date. Teaser trailers are shorter as they want to tease the audience. The audience should be teased about the narrative, not getting all of the information. This should leave them wanting more. Keeping the trailer short is also good as it is more likely to hold the audiences attention that one that is 2 ½ minutes. Teasers are produced while the film is still in production. Therefore they can only put together a small collection of clips from the film, before the rest of the film is filmed.

For our teaser we chose to make it short for the reasons listed above. The audience learn several element of the narrative. The teaser provides the audience with the certain information. They learn that someone is driving their car and see a “killer” in their rear window. A text message is received reading “don’t look up”. This creates an enigma as to who sent it. Following this it cuts to people tied up in the woods. The audience do not know who these characters are and why they are tied up. They also do not know that there is a connection to the person who is driving the car. The intertitles “beauty is only skin deep” and “a knife goes in deeper” hint at the fact that beauty will come into question in the film. Shots from a modelling photo shoot are shown, containing both the person who drove the car, and someone who was tied to a tree in the woods. This establishes the connection between the female characters and links with the intertitles. As the photo shoot is contrasted with the same characters seriously injured, the audience should understand that the killer seen in the car is killing models.

Following this sequence more shots are shown from the film. This includes the main character running through the woods, close-ups of eyes, faces, hands and weaponry. The audience do not have details of how the character got into this position. They do not know if she had also been tied up, or if so, how she got free. They do not know how the girl who we see in a series of close-ups got to be tied up and injured. Although they can guess that the killer is responsible. The weapon also adds an enigma as the audience will wonder if the killer uses it on the characters. As no dialogue is present it adds a further enigma as to what is going on and what the characters are thinking.

Overall I feel that we included just enough narrative elements to tell the audience what the film will be like. However we saved much information from then so that they would want to watch the film to fill in the gaps. The audience should want to find out if/how the characters escape and who the identity of the masked killer is.

Intertitles were used in the teaser. There are two near the beginning. This includes a sentence that is fragmented across two different intertitles. The first reads “beauty is only skin deep”. This is a well known phrase and gives the first hint to the model characters. The second reads “a knife goes in deaper”. This puts a twist in the phrase. There are several shots in between these intertitles. The intertitles really help this sequence, providing information about what is happening, and carry the audience along into the story.

Sound was very important for the teaser. A slow and mysterious score is used during the car sequence. This creates the dark and mysterious mood, taking the audience into the diegesis. A loud “boom” sound effect is used when the killer is first seen by the character. This is designed to make the audience jump/scared, and also show the panic of the character. Screeching breaks are then used to tell how quickly the character stops the car in fear. Sound effects are placed on top of the photo shoot scene. This was the sound of a camera “clicking” noise. The effect works with the shot to ensure that the audience know that a photo is being taken, and that the shot isn’t just randomly freezing. The non-diegetic music during the rest of the teaser is slightly different. The music is a little faster, and uses repeated notes. This pairs with the more exciting part of the teaser where the character is running through the woods, while still keeps the tone the earlier parts had. More sound effects and “booms” are used to gather excitement and pace. It is used as a build up to the eye closing close-up.

A protagonist is clearly established. This is due to amount of screen time the character portrayed by Fern Anderson is given in the teaser. The character receives a lot of close-ups and also point-of view shots.