1. Ancillary Texts
1.1. Poster
1.1.1. When it came to my poster I had an initial idea before looking at conventional film posters, the majority of posters I looked at related to my genre used a great deal of special effects, which I have no skill in what so ever. Because of this, I decided to challenge the conventions, as I was also covering elements of thriller in my product, such as the dark low key lighting, as well as screaming in my teaser trailer, I decided to incorporate this into my poster. The aim for a thriller product is to create unease for the viewer. As I had analyzed 'The Gallows' (2015) for my research, it was clear in the teaser trailer that the girl was portrayed as vulnerable, the lighting was dark and ominous, with a clear colour palette of blood red to reinforce this unease even further. As well as this, there was explicit shots off blood and gore in the teaser trailer, which I carried through into my own teaser trailer and wanted to in my poster. I wanted my poster to be deliberately ambiguous and menacing, my initial idea was to use a similar shot to my teaser trailer, as companies tend to do this, 'The Gallows' did exactly this, and used the image of the girl in a fetal position, vulnerable, in the dark lighted room. For my own poster, I used the image of the girl and her mother, smashed, with blood splattered across. This follows the idea of 'The Gallows' as it creates anxiety and disturbance for the viewer, blood is uncomfortable for people, as it suggests death and horror. However, I realized I had to include stereotypical poster conventions, one of which was a small 'quotation', which I took advantage of to take that ambiguity one step further of my story line.
1.2. Magazine Cover
1.2.1. Before creating my poster, I analyzed several posters from 'Empire' and 'Total Film', as they are both well known for creating effective and successful magazine covers, especially superhero ones. When analyzing Empire film covers, it was apparent that they were more popular for covering my genre on their magazines. When analyzing their covers, it was clear that a location wasn't given away in the background, which would be useful for me as I want to tease the audience as much as I can, as well as create a dark and enigmatic sense to my cover. The characters were also central to the covers, with 'Empire' written boldly at the top, and a strong title written across. The covers themselves were also littered with critics, and persuasive business techniques such as 'First Look Inside The Hobbit'. Taking this on board for my own magazine cover and linking my target audience that was most likely to buy the magazine. I decided to make mine a special superhero edition, which developed the code and convention; across my cover, I had mentions of all the upcoming superhero films of 2016; 'Deadpool' 'Batman vs superman', as well as others.
2. Editing
2.1. When it came to editing, I took a great deal of inspiration from the 'Man of Steel' shots, and wanted to shoot slow and ambiguous shots, where very little was given away. To do this, I
3. Research
3.1. To begin with, I researched into the codes and conventions of teaser trailers; in order to have a better understanding of the key features of a teaser trailer, I also looked into trailers, so I could identify the differences between the two more clearly. When it came to creating my teaser trailer, it was important I used the stereotypical codes and conventions, so it was distinctly different to a normal trailer. One convention I utilized was very little information given away, the main protagonists face was shown in chiaroscuro lighting - so the character wasn't entirely shown; the rest of the characters identity was shown in family photos, from when she was a child.
3.1.1. When conducting my research, in order to have a better understanding of my genre in teaser trailers, I created a 'five teaser trailer analysis'. However, because my the genre I had chosen, speculative fiction, is not a common teaser trailer, I decided to add other elements to my product. Modern superhero films such as The Batman Trilogy have began to embrace the darker side, this is a theme particularly explicit in 'Watchmen' (2009), where justice is given to all, no matter who they are. In post modern superhero films, superman was seen as an all round 'goodie', fighting for justice, where the villain was a one dimensional character. However, in watchmen, we see even the 'superheroes' are not as 'good' as we believe they are, and this convention is challenged. Because of this, I decided to research into the psychoanalytical side of these heroes, and discovered it was conventional that the majority of them had a troubled past, I decided to use this in my teaser trailer. To do this, I showed her in a distressed state, screaming, and helpless in a dark room to reflect her mental state. To reinforce the idea of her being through a childhood trauma, I had one particular shot where an image of a mother and daughter was smashed, and there was blood trickling down. Because I wanted to incorporate the darker side to my teaser trailer, I also looked at several thriller and horror teaser trailers. From analyzing and researching these trailers, I found that lighting was a very important element, which lead to me using chiaroscuro lighting in my teaser trailer.
3.1.1.1. One convention I challenged was creating a teaser trailer in speculative fiction, as superheroes are such a worldwide phenomenon, (1938 was the year when the first superhero comic was published). Thus, superman is a well known character and it is much harder to tease an audience. Therefore I pushed this convention by deliberately filming a misleading trailer, when the heroes face is shown, it is in shadows - leading a sense of enigma about my protagonist, which is unusual for superheroes.
3.1.1.2. However, I realized it was important to follow some codes and conventions for a superhero trailer, when analyzing the five trailers it was clear that a voice over was very effective, and used in each trailer. Which was useful for my own teaser trailer as it provided extra information, although it was extremely ambiguous it contributed to creating that emotion for the audience.