Evaluation question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms of real media products?

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

When first embarking upon creating my zombie horror teaser trailer, I wanted to create a high quality trailer which reflected the codes and conventions of a professional teaser trailer, incorporating the features which are included. The genre of zombie horror I am working with is also hard to create realism, and stray away from comical aspects. So to create this verisimilitude, I looked at a range of existing texts and pulled intertectual references to gain inspiration and ideas for my own production.

Creating a promising zombie character was perhaps my greatest challenge.  There are two types of zombie typically seen in zombie horror films,  George.A.Romeros slow moving zombie, which is often seen in films such as Night Of The Living Dead (1968) or a modern take on the zombie character in films such as 28 days later by director Danny Boyle.  I decided to go with the more modern take on zombie, this was for a number of reasons. One being to get a preffered reading from my target audience who are generally of a younger generation, who will be familiar with the more modern take on the zombie character. The film I mainly looked at from a zombie aspect is 28 Days Later (2002) by Danny Boyle.

I took inspiration from the 28 days later trailer and considered it as one of the most important sources I looked at, as it gave me an idea of how I wanted my trailer to look like and the general features which are incorporated.  The use of the white writing at the beginning on a black background with words which are related to the genre ‘Exposure’ etc, is something I wanted to incorporate into my product. A clever way of building suspense, with flickers of the film inbetween to give a glimpse of horror then speeds up with quick editing, messing with the heartbeat.

When considering real media products in the zombie horror genre, special effects and make-up are a huge part of creating a realistic zombie look. I made this section an important priority. Whilst researching I came across Tom Savini who was known as George Romeros wingman. I looked up his work on various past horror films Dawn Of The Dead (IMDB) and ^{Friday 13th.}.(IMDB)

                                          Tom Savini

After studying the way in which he incorporated make-up for a zombie look, I went on to experiment with my own. I used white make-up and black shadow to signify a dead-look, using fake-blood to signify the gore factor. Below are some extra pictures taken by me on set whilst producing the special effects.

I wanted my ancillinary texts to reflect real media products, these texts include a film magazine cover and film poster. When creating my film magazine cover, I wanted to include features on actual film magazine covers such as Empire, the biggest film magazine in the U.K and Total Film magazine. These features included a bold title, I chose ‘CUT’ to relate to the general film theme, but also incorporate the horror genre. I also included feature pictures, which show what is inside the magazine. The other feature stories are horror related, as it is a low-budget horror film magazine. This includes an exclusive interview with legendary make-up artist Tom Savini and up and coming summer zombie horror films.

Like most typical zombie films, the zombie represents something significant. For example a particular generation or social group. I decided for my zombie cast to represent a region of the u.k. Southerners came up to the north for a weekend away, where the find out the yorkshire dales is infected. They then become lost and go on a terrifying journey of being attacked/chased/infected etc. They are the worst group of people you could possibly face e.g a group of mobs.