Media texts often reference other texts such as...
A pastiche takes elements and incorporates them into a new work
A parody mocks or pokes fun at another work. An example of this in the horror genre would be paranormal activity. This film is used to mock other horror's but has actually turned out to be the start of hand held footage films that have become very successful in the market.
The ideology of a psychological horror trailer is very important to draw the audience in. Certain fonts and colour schemes have to be used to show the audience what genre in is trying to portray. These colours are often dark and eerie with exaggerated fonts and titles. A lot of the mise-en-scene is littered with images of death and religion which first started with a happy family.
The Hypodermic Needle Theory
This theory suggests that the media injects attitudes and beliefs into its audiences mind through media texts. This theory is also known as the magic bullet theory and the audience are often seen as powerless with no interaction in to the media text. This means that the audience can not prevent their own influence and often become overwhelmed and enticed into the media text without any power over it. This theory relates to my film trailer as it may put thoughts through my audiences mind about child abduction. This could be in a good way by making people think more when taking their children out to parks and watching who is about. However this could be bad as it may put idea's into members of the audiences minds that could result in the media being banned, for example 'Clockwork orange' (1971).
Uses and Gratifications Theory
This theory suggests more about what the audience does with the media rather than what the media does to them. This theory argues that the audience take a firm role over the production of media and how successful it is. An example of this would be social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as the audience that uses them determines how successful they are and controls what happens on them. The media say that this theory helps an audience with diversion, escapism, information, pleasure, social identity and sometimes sexual stimulation. For example, watching a horror film with violence in can relieve aggression from the viewer watching it so they are less likely to want to preform violent acts in real life. This model can also relate to 'Moral Panic'. This is when the audience reveal their secret fears when watching horror films or violent scenes and constantly wonder and panic in the back of their minds about what is going on. This relates directly to my trailer as it really makes the viewers think about what is going on behind the scenes of the storyline in the trailer and makes them want to view the film.
Memes and Tropes
A meme is an element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation. A trope is then the image, video or piece of text being copied and spread, usually via use of the internet. This gives the audience power over their media consumption and lets them assume an active role in interpreting and integrating media in to their own lives.
I will use memes and tropes in my film trailer to show the conventions of a typical horror film presented in recent years. Most of these involve hand held camera's as the footage seems more real and raw to the viewer. This comes across as more sinister and frightening as it makes the audience feel like this could actually happen to them, setting in moral panic. I believe this is the audience a pleasure that is most successful in the film industry nowadays as it presents how the audience like to feel the anticipation within something that can happen in their own home. This shows how post modern our world is and the fact that something terrifying that could happen to a 'normal' person is so satisfying and thrilling.
