What are real media texts?

Real media texts are media products we wish to examine, whether it is a television program, a book, a poster, a popular song, the latest fashion, camera, internet etc.

What are the conventions of a horror trailer? I have watched a variety of different horror teaser trailers. A convention that stood out within these are that a lot of fast and quick paced imagery and clips are used to help emphasise the tension and suspense of the teaser which is used through editing. The monster is often enshrouded in darkness and we rarely see its face in most posters.

A monster or representation of distorted humanity and evil: The monster is mostly a singular entity and is often pictured in the background if at all as if to linger over his victim(s). The monster often has a trademark tool for killing i.e. a claw, hook or knives that is emphasised in the pictography.
The victims are often displayed in different colours than the text and monster to show innocence or neutrality. The lead character that is often the sole survivor (another regularly used convention of the horror genre) The best horror trailers ask a question. They set up a premise or a situation, and then leave the viewer wanting to know more I have also noticed that with teaser trailers the storyline is more secretive, thus being to prevent too much of the main action being revealed. This helps to ensure the sense of unknowing and enticement. The main aim of horror films are to shock, panic, entice, alarm viewers of factors that play on individuals common fears and present an extraordinary situation. During a teaser trailer short snaps of pain are introduced to attract and ensure that the horror representation is implied. Here are some examples of film trailers which do this

The Unborn
This is an example of the convention that shows short shots of people in pain as we see a lady screaming using the cinematography of a close up in order for her face expression to stand out.

As you can see the victim is wearing blue which portrays innocence whereas the villain is wearing black which connotes that he is evil and from hell which supports the convention.

One of the conventions of a horror film is to have a character of some kind of monster or distorted character which is also proven in Propps theory. The unborn shows this as we see the strange looking creature crawling across the floor which therefore connotes he is evil. .

Orphan trailer analysis

This shot immediately implies that the genre of the trailer is horror as we see the character screaming which suggests someone is in pain or is angry. This therefore attracts the target audience who is attracted to the genre to want to watch the film in order to find out the story behind it. The convention of using captions is usually used in a trailer as it increases the suspense which draws the audience into wanting to watch the film. A s you can see the villain of the story is wearing white in order to stand out in the black background which portrays she is evil in comparison to the innocent looking child who is sleeping although the colour white is usually used to convey pureness and neutrality in horror films is shows that she is evil as it represents evil Such as ghosts.

Insidious tr ailer
The equilibrium of the trailers begins with a normal life of a family which is calm which is conventional for the genre of horror as when the trailer continues things begin to happen and get worse. This supports Todorovs theory.

The evil character within a horror film usually has a trademark for being evil which is portrayed with the dark silhouette of a hand with a claw however only reveals the arm of the villain which leaves the audience is suspense. This is conventional of a horror trailer to show short clips which have been edited of the film in order to attract the target audience into watching the film. This can also support Propps theory as the villain can be clearly identified as it is represented as a dark scary person where as we can see the child is the princess role in the film as the young boy needs protection from the devil. This is conventional of a trailer not only just the genre horror as it displays the people who created the film, the film name and also the website of the film in order to attract recognition by using various media texts which has been achieved through the internet.