EVALUATION: PART ONEBY AIDAN KEENAN

Before creating our trailer, we chose what our plot and premise was going to focus on and who our target audience

was going to be. Once this was decided, we knew that we would need to correctly use typical horror conventions in

our trailer to draw in our target audience and interest them in our film. To do this, we followed the guidelines set out

by Thomas Schatz in his book Hollywood Genres (1981). He highlighted that genre is an important tool in selling to

the target audience, as it helps clarify who the ideal target audience is and how to sell to them to create the largest

success. Knowing that we planned to create a hybrid genre comedy-body-horror zombie movie, we followed the

horror conventions of other comedy-body-horror movies such as Shaun of the Dead (2004). By following these

conventions, we hoped to create a trailer that would match the success and general positivity of these movies.

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In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms of real media products?

Keeping in mind with our comedy-body horror theme, we followed common horror conventions to make sure our trailer was successful. Mise-en-scene was implemented through special effects with make-up to enhance the look of our zombies. This would highlight the gore to ‘gross’ people out, scaring them with stomach-turning events rather than mind-scarring events. Like in the red-band trailer for Evil Dead (2013), gore is one of the main features in our trailer. However, while Evil Dead used gore to scare and disgust the audience, such as the scene where the possessed girl slices open her own tongue by ‘licking’ a box-cutter, in our trailer our gore effects are more comedic, intending to make the audience laugh but at the same time feel uncomfortable.

While our zombie special effects were meant to be scary, they were also designed to include a comedic

effect. Alongside this, the acting within our trailer is both serious and comedic. Like in the red band trailer for

Zombieland (2009), we have an equal mix of comedy and gore. In our trailer we have scenes such as where

one actor slices the head off a zombie with a machete only for a few scenes later to be running towards the

camera waving his arms about. Similarly, in the trailer for Zombieland, we see a montage of the characters

shooting and killing zombies, only for it to be followed by a scene of the older male character crying saying: “I

haven’t cried like that since Titanic.”

Evil Dead (2013) - Official Red Band Trailer (HD): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxLjqazSmQo Zombieland Trailer HD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1-jFLlHLPw

HOW DID YOU WORK ON PACING TO CREATE SUSPENSION

AND SHOCK?

The pacing of our trailer was designed to fit the standard

pacing conventions of horror trailers. It starts off slow with

the opening scenes introducing the initial characters

and then speeding up once the zombie attacks start. A

trailer with similar pacing is 7500(2014). It starts with the

initial introduction of the characters and the boarding of

the aeroplane, before speeding up as the passengers

are traumatised by some unknown force. Another

similarity between this trailer and ours is the overlaying

music. In the trailer for 7500 there is a calm, ironic track

of music playing throughout the trailer as the horror

unfolds. Throughout our trailer, the music was

intentionally picked to be overly dramatic to increase

the comedy within the trailer. Seeing people kill zombies

by itself could be scary or just action-packed. However,

with overly dramatic music layered on top, an element

of comedy is added as it makes the battles within the

trailer seem like the fate of the world depends on their

outcome, when really it doesn’t.

7500 (2014) Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbuIUyzfX5Q

WHAT AUTEUR INFLUENCE DID YOU BRING TO YOUR FILM?

When a director creates a movie with a distinct style, one that reoccurs throughout all or most of their films,

they are known as an ’auteur’. This ‘auteur theory’ was coined by Andrew Sarris in his article Notes on the

Auteur Theory (1962). Directors with distinct ‘auteur styles’ are Tim Burton, with his dark-gothic style, and

Danny Boyle, with his left-wing political style. However, during the construction and filming of our trailer, we

were not following any specific auteur as an influence. Instead, we endeavoured to make our trailer as original

as possible, a task that was considered difficult as zombie films are a very common subject in the horror

industry. Similarly, zombie-comedy films are just as common, so we wished to distance ourselves from

already existing auteur styles to generate an original and interesting trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnniLlnsooI

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