Genre

How have you considered genre in creating your media text?

Once me and my group members had chosen and agreed on a film genre, we went about researching generic conventions that link to our chosen genre; horror. We analysed a number of horror film posters and identified certain principles that were displayed on the film posters such as the use of dark colours, most often black, white and red. We acknowledged that the use of such colours could relate to certain concepts such as death and/or blood.

On the ‘Let the right one in’ poster, we noticed that the main focal point was a mid shot of one of the characters face and this caught the viewers attention and thus, we too used a mid shot picture of one of the main characters on our own film poster.

On ‘The Blair Witch Project’ poster, we acknowledged the use of an inverted forest background and felt that such a background appealed to the target audience and so, we used this concept on our own film poster and used an inverted image of a forest as the background.

We analysed a number of magazine covers and realised that the main image used on the front cover was closely linked to the film. As our film is linked to a ‘death-eater’ figure, we used a close-up image of this on our front cover. The use of Black, Red and White on both the magazine front cover and on the film poster reinforced the horror genre and the horror genre was reinforced by the use of ‘eery’ and ‘creepy’ fonts.

n point the Genre?
My media products significantly pinpoint the genre horror and this is expressed through the use of horror generic conventions. The use of a black and white negative effect builds up a dark and scary atmosphere and by placing the person the person in the centre of the poster, we are able to instantly catch the viewers attention.

The costume of the main characters is quite simply a hood and black clothing. This allows the character to somewhat blend in within the background and doesn’t give too much away about the character itself. The fact that the hood is purposely covering the characters face leaves the audience in thought and this is most commonly done in horror films.

The close up of the face that is used on the magazine cover has been edited with a scratchy effect. The use of nails and tape manipulation expresses the explicit horror genre. We chose ‘"If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise’ as our film catchphrase. This builds up enigma and suspense and the fact that the phrase is most commonly used in children’s nursery rhymes adds a rather eery twist. hy?

We have more or less concentrated solely on the conventions of the genre horror. We have however combined horror with the sub genre; Sci-fi. We did this as one of the films that we based our trailer on ‘The Blair Witch Project’ slightly combines horror with sci-fi. However, Horror is the main genre.

What signifies pinpoint the genre?
My media products pinpoint the horror genre as they follow the conventions of a horror film. For my poster, i have used a black and white negative main image as it creates a scary, dark effect. The person is placed in the centre of the image which attracts the audience’s attention. The clothing worn is a cape with a hood to cover the face to create a mysterious effect. The phrase used on my poster 'If you go down to the woods today, you will surely be in for a big surprise...' creates a sense of mystery. The words 'woods' and 'surprise' shows that something bad is going to occur in the woods like a killing.

My magazine front cover is similar to 'Empire' which is a film magazine which reviews mainstream films and art films. I have used red, black and white colours which connotates danger, death and blood. The main image follows the conventions of a horror film because the face of the main character (The Outsider) is edited to a scratched effect and the nails and tape across the mouth shows pain and horror.

Have you subverted any conventions?
My media product does not subvert any conventions because it follows the generic conventions of a horror film. However, my media product is a hybrid genre which is both horror and sci-fi. This is because genre is always changing and to appeal to audiences in this modern time films usually consist of hybrid genres. Also, the audiences expectations need to be fulfilled for example in this case in a horror film the audience expect death, gory frightening scenes and a scary storyline.

What kind of media producer would produce your kind of media text?
Haxan Films Production Company and Lions Gate Entertainment would produce our media text because they produce horror films which consist of similar conventions to other horror films.