updated report

Evaluative Report for Media Coursework

My task was to produce a campaign for the genre of horror, which included a main campaign poster, a teaser poster and a DVD front, back and spine. To find out more about our given genre I had to undertake research in order to know important information I would need when creating my campaign. When in the process of making my posters and DVD, codes and conventions were key, so when carrying out my research this was something I looked into, specifically in the horror genre. I found out that codes and conventions were one of the main aspects within horror and the campaign, there are a limited amount of codes however can be expanded on to fit a films audience and narrative. Whilst undergoing research on the horror genre I discovered that within horror there are subgenres, for example: paranormal being the subgenre of ‘Paranormal Activity’, and guano being the subgenre for the ‘Saw’ franchise, this would be something else I would have to consider.

Living close to a wooded area, and this being a popular choice of setting within horror, I decided to look into films that included this. ‘Wrong Turn’ (produced by 20^th century fox) was my number one choice as the whole franchise is based within this setting and was a horror that done well. I looked into all of the main campaign posters that had been made for ‘Wrong Turn 3’ and a continual link could be seen throughout. 4 out of 6 of the posters included the monster as a main part of the poster, and 3 out 4 of these, the monster was torturing the female victim with an axe. Already I was introduced to 3 important codes and conventions that I could expand on; the monster, the monster’s weapon, and the victim (often female). After reviewing all of the posters made, I looked into the final that was used to advertise the film. I closely examined typography, codes and conventions and the image as a whole. From this I gathered much information that would help me when making my own. The typography was large and sharp and mixed between the white and red colours (red obviously being something that runs throughout the horror genre in comparison to blood). There were a mixture of codes and conventions, some more noticeable than others. An axe being held high, highlighted by a bright light breaking through the trees was one of the clearer examples. Secondly, the female victim who is screaming and is about to be killed by the monster, who stands over her to connote domination. A lot is given away in the poster however enigma codes are still represented, these were what I wanted to create in my campaign, to draw the audience in.

My target audience was something I had to consider dramatically and to do this, I created an audience profile based on information I had gathered. I knew that horrors were watched by teenagers through being in this age group myself, there for a I targeted my film at 16-21 year olds. This was also based on the fact that the majority of horrors were an age rating of 18 and mine was also going to be this, and this lied in the middle of my target audience. I had to consider gender also, which I knew I wanted to be aimed at both men and women, but to make sure this was appropriate, I carried out primary research and handed out 50 questionnaires. By doing this I could be sure what my audience really wanted. It was clear that both men and women were fans of horror, and my film was popular by both genders. Hobbies and interests, social scale and occupation seemed less important but I soon realised that they were equally important. I targeted my social scale to be within the D/E category because this was generally students/unemployed and also those in a part time job (this also being my target for occupation), which as I’ve discussed was due to teenagers being fans of this genre. My audience hobbies and interests were based around student being in groups and watching films, and also often visiting the cinema to watch new release horrors.

From all of my research I carried out, primary and secondary, I now had to begin practical. I used the woods as a basis for my photographs to be edited into my poster and DVD cover. I had to consider my characters and decide who I wanted to be included within the photographs. I decided that I would take photos of both the killer and victim, however not together in the same photo as I thought this would give off better enigma codes. My victim was going to be female due to this being iconic with horror. Once I had found a suitable model for my photographs, we went into the woods to take the photographs. I wanted to show that she was being tortured and her innocence was being tainted. We tried the idea of having a low shot of her being dragged across the floor and from this I established the idea of just photographing her hands. We found barbed wire which was perfect for the genre and having her pale hound grasping the wire looked perfect for the DVD cover as not much was given away.

For both my main campaign poster and DVD case, I decided I wanted the killer to be the main subject however I did not want his face to be revealed. I took photos of the behind view of him holding different weapons in each photo. I believe that his identity shouldn’t be revealed because this would give away too much and I wanted enigma codes to be important with my audience. Once I had gathered enough photos to choose from for both DVD and poster I needed to consider narrative.

This was not the right way to work because I should have taken photos to fit my chosen narrative however I believe my method worked well and I thought of a detailed horror like narrative to fit my photographs.