Evaluation 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From our audience feedback we had learnt what had worked well and what hadn't. We had posted our Poster on the social media website Facebook in order to gain feedback on what people would change and went well with the overall outcome of our poster. This had helped us make changes within the poster to make it more realistic rather than leaving it to be the same. We had changed our poster from our original as we had added the release dates onto the poster to make it look more professional apposed to our first attempt.

We had then posted our film onto YouTube and Facebook in order to get more feedback on how our trailer was perceived by the public. We had found that many people pick up on the amount of cuts and titles there are in the trailer, which i feel are what makes the trailer catching to the audience. The feedback we had gained had allowed us to reflect on the decisions we had made when making our film also making us think about why we had made those decisions. We had arranged the music in our film to highlight the main parts in the trailer in order to engage the reader to what was happening. In the beginning of the film we had used a wind sound that accompanied the institutions and the age certificate. This makes them stand out as there is a sound at the beginning of the trailer which will let the viewer/audience know that it had started also making the trailer flow more with the sounds mildly overlapping so the blend in together. This helps the overall events and aspects of the trailer flow well together. The flow of the trailer was picked up in feedback as there were many comments of the transitions and titles with how the moved and connected the trailer and the aspects of the genre.

Evaluation 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Construction

We had used technologies such as YouTube and Google when constructing our trailer. We had used these from gaining ideas of what to use when making our own. When constructing our trailer we had listed horror/thriller films that we thought we could gain ideas from to help us think of a story line for our trailer. When looking at the other trailers we had used YouTube, which we had used in other aspects of our planning and research. YouTube is fairly new to the technology side of media as it has started airing online in late 2006 and had been constructed in 2005. Whereas Google had started in 1998 which is obviously older than the newer website of YouTube. We had used YouTube as it has allowed us to find any video we had needed to help us with creating our trailer. 

Research

We had used technologies such as YouTube and Garage Band when researching for our trailer. We had used YouTube to look at many other horror films to gain ideas of the typical conventions that were involved into the overall outcome of the film and trailer. This was in order to find reasoning's as to why the titles were a specific colour or why that name was chosen in particular for the film. We had used garage band in order to create different songs for our trailer. Having different choices when we had came to finishing our trailer and choosing a track for the music, helped us as we had a few to choose from instead of only having one. This had helped us with being more prepared when our initial trailer is finished allowing us to make a better decision as to which sound we would prefer for the trailer.

Planning

When planning our trailer we had used technologies such as YouTube and Garage Band which had allowed us to search many different sounds in order to generate ideas that we could use in our own trailer. When planning we had also used Microsoft word in order to write down our ideas.

 

Evaluation

During evaluation I had used new media technologies such as Prezie, which had allowed me to present my findings in a different way. Using this technology had also allowed me to expand on my knowledge of new media technologies, I had also used the footpath layout as it had symbolized the journey through the making of our trailer. I had used simple colours in order to make it pleasant and clean to look at. When creating our evaluations we had also recorded audio of us evaluating and had created a short video on our evaluations also putting the relevant picture to back up our points.

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

Comparing Trailers With My Own

When researching into horror film trailers we had noticed that the overall presentation of Eden Lake had connected with our own. Our trailers were similar from the setting as they were both filmed around a woods which often lets the audience know of the genre of the trailer. There is a small difference between the trailers as in Eden Lake the trailer shows the main characters in the woods at night time as well as daytime, whereas our film the events take place during the day in order to challenge typical conventions of a horror film. Another similar aspect is the parts filmed in the bathroom.

 

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Another trailer we thought was similar in the aspect of the length is Nothing Left To Fear, which entails many aspects and conventions of the horror genre. In our trailer, we had also used different conventions in a shorter time to other trailers which we feel has a bigger impact on the audience and keeps them engaged in what is happening from the pace of the trailer.

Poster Development

 

This is our updated version of our film poster. From our first poster we hadn't really changed much of the bulk of the conventions, only added the 'coming soon' and '31.10.2014' so that it looked more like a professional poster.

Final Poster

This is the final edit of our poster for our promotional package.

We had edited the poster like this as we thought having the boarders of the image blacked out created a sense of darkness to the overall outcome.

Editing Processes

During editing we had mainly used imovie and photoshop to complete our work. We had imported our film onto imovie and had chosen the parts that were best to include into our trailer, also checking through our film a second time to make sure we had chosen the best parts. After this we had set out a rough idea of as to what our trailer was going to look like so we knew what to aim for. To help us with this we had researched plenty different horror trailers to gain knowledge on their conventions. This had also helped us with knowing what to use at the beginning and end of our trailer. When editing we had started by laying out the shots we had wanted in the order we thought was best then we had used the clip trimmer to cut the shot down to only the film that we had wanted to use. This had made the trailer come together as it made the shots flow better. When all of the trimming was done we had made the clips slower to build up tension in the trailer which had added suspence to the overall outcome of our product. This was then followed by editing the look of our film by changing the brightness and contrast between the images. After the editing was finished we had added our titles in the places we think they suited best which had completed our trailer.

Strenghts/Weaknesses

Throughout the process of making our trailer we had faced many strengths and weaknesses. One of our strongest aspects of making our package was Photoshop as both people in my group had taken a seperate subject that used this skill highly in it's work so both of us had a good range of skills and knowledge about this particular area.
A weakness that we had came across was with imovie as both of us did not know how to stop an insterted image from moving until we had googled and youtubed it which had also resulted us in gaining more knowledge about the program.
Another one of our strenghts was making the music as we were already familiar with the program from our last coursework we both knew how to use and manage it. This was a strength as we did not need extra time to make this part of our trailer so it helped us gain more time in completing our trailer to the best standard.

Digital Technology

When creating our trailer we had used the program iMovie in order to edit our film. We had chosen this program over final cut as we felt that it was less complicated to use which had given us the advantage to progress with our project. When using the program we had extended on our knowledge of using it from AS level as this coursework had a higher technical coverage that was required from making our own music and a range of cuts to incorporate into the trailer.

 

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When making the music we had used Garage Band which had enabled us access to many different sounds that we could use in making our music. Using this had also extend our knowledge from last years coursework as we had to make our own music where as last year it was optional. This had benefitted us as we had contributed more to the technical aspects of our overall product.

 

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During the process of making our film I had also used Photoshop in order to create the billing block and the poster and magazine. I had already known how to use Photoshop due to using it in another subject, again extending my skills and how to use them in my coursework.

 

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During the research for our trailer we had used YouTube in order to compare different genres and conventions of their trailers. This had helped us as we had access to many different trailers for us to gain ideas and make comparisons between our own and other trailers.

Magazine Research

When looking at different types of magazines it is clear as to what the main conventions of a film magazine are. I had noticed that many of them have a large bright coloured title which makes the brand and magazine stand out to its customers, this also makes the buyer look at the cover to see its main contents, making it more tantalizing to buy. Many magazines also have a large image of the star of the new film they are promoting on the front cover, making it clear as to which film they are reviewing. When looking at the image we can also see that it has been highly edited which entices the reader to look closer at the image, showing the professional aspects that have contributed into making the magazine. When looking closer at the magazine we can see the adverts for the articles inside the magazine, also allowing the reader to know the contents of the magazine. Some magazines also provide posters of new films and/or characters that are popular with the general public, one of the elements that makes up the magazine appealing nature with its audiences.

Tag Lines

The taglines we had chosen to incorporate into our film are 'WHAT THEY THOUGHT WOULD BE A PRICESLESS TRIP' 'COULD COST THEM' 'THEIR LIVES'. We had chosen these tag lines for our trailer as we felt they had made a larger impact on the overall outcome. We had used the words 'priceless' and 'cost' to keep within the theme of payment and debt maybe forshadowing events in the film itself.

The tagline we had chosen for our poster was 'WHAT WILL YOU DO NEXT' this was due to the fact it was a rhetorical question about the film to the audience making it have the same sense as a game. This also adding to the overall outcome of the perception onto the viewers and audiences.  

Storyline

The storyline of our film had consisted of three main characters, a couple in the young adult life stage and the man which kidnaps the couple. The opening scene of the trailer was intended to be the couple having a fun day out which ends up with the woman being kidnapped when the boyfriend had gone to the shops. the next shot would of been the boyfriend coming home to have found his girlfriend to be gone with him also being kidnapped. We will then see the couple beaten up in a remote place which is unfamiliar with the trailer ending on a scene of the girlfriend screaming.

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Our new storyline consists of a group of friends embarking on a camping trip for a weekend, yet when they get there things seem to start going wrong. The trailer will consist of quick cut shots of running and events that happen throughout the film enticing the viewer to watch the film. There will also be title in-between the shots in the trailer to let the viewer know the basics about the film yet not giving too much away. The trailer will also consist of the age certificate and the producer of the film to give the viewer a deeper knowledge into the film and its makings.

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We had changed our storyline ides as we had thought that our old storyline was only aiming towards the older age groups rather than people closer to our age of 17 - 18. Aiming towards this age groups would also give us a wider range of ideas as this is closer to our age allowing us to know what the audience will be looking for in a new horror/thriller movie.

How I Created Horrorific Aspects

When filming our trailer we had many ideas of the shots that we wanted to incorporate. This would have allowed us to make the trailer more interesting to the viewers and have a variety of shots and angles. We had incorporated shots such as dripping blood into water which would add a sense of danger to our trailer, adding a slight aspect of gore. We had also shot a bloody hand falling into the water with the blood dispersing which also added the sense of gore to the overall outcome.

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Throughout the trailer there are shots of people running with someone chasing after them, showing the victimisation of the characters in the trailer. This adds a sense of horrific aspects through the audience looking at the film as if it was them which was running as we had filmed the running scenes to show that the camera was the murderer with a higher status compared to the victims.

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Another horrific aspect of our trailer was the music which consisted of a loud guitar riff and a low drum beat which created suspense to the trailer and the events that were happening. We had chosen music like this in order to catch the viewers attention as for when they are watching. The music starts off quietly then becomes louder so that the audience can hear a calm peaceful guitar tune up until the main body of the trailer kicks in which is when the louder music starts to play, letting the viewer know that it is the interesting bit.

Poster Mock-Up

This is a poster I had made for a recent film in order to extend my skills on making posters for my coursework. This had enabled me to work on photoshop and use skills I have gained from other subjects in other aspects of my work. Making this poster had allowed me to practice making a poster which will allow me to make sure the final poster for my film trailer will be to the best of my ability as I have had time to practice using all the different elements and conventions to make a film poster. I had chosen to make a poster on the film 'The Hunger Games' as it is of a different genre to the trailer my pair is working on, which had also allowed me to research different aspects of posters from different genres, films like romance usually have the couple as the centre focus of the poster whereas genres such as horror or thriller have the item or person of which inflicts the fear in the plot of the story. Conventions like these are what allows the viewer to see the genre of the film by slight differences from the font, the colour of the font, the main image and the institution of the film.

Change In Character Names

Our character names  had changed due to the change in plot of our trailer. We felt as though the characters had needed a more common name in order to connect with the audience more. The names we had chosen are:

• Danny - We had chosen this as we felt it was a common boys name and also added a sense of a childlike nature through the name being Danny instead of Dan or Daniel.
• Kerry - We had chosen this name as we felt it had a sophisticated tone to it making her the obvious victim for the film.
• Kayley - We had chosen this name due to the fact it had a higher feminine nature to it than other names we had came up with.
• Jessica - We had chosen this name as we felt as though it isn't very common in films and it has both childlike and mature qualities.

Genres of Films

There are many different genres of films some of which people prefer more than others. There are the main genres such as romance, rom-com (romance comedy), Thriller, Horror, Sci-Fi, Comedy and animation.

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Genres such as animation are made more for the younger ages, many Disney films are animation which people assosiate with children as Walt Disney was a childrens author. Animations also take the longest to make as there are many different drawings used in order to make the whole film. These are the reasons as to why we did not use this genre.

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Romance is a popular genre with females in the teenager and young adult stage of the life cycle. Romance films usually involve a good looking man and women and follows their stroy through how they meet and fall in love. We did not choose this genre as we didn't feel like we had the correct setting in which we could film as many romaces are set in cities and capitals such as New York.

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The Rom-Com genre is harder to pull off than most genres as there needs to be an equal balance between the romance and comedy aspects of the film otherwise it will be more one genre than the other. We didn't choose this genre as we felt we wouldn't be caught in the ideas we had to work on a trailer of this genre.

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Comedy is one of the most loved genres as they make the audience laugh and engages them in the storyline and events in the film. Comedy trailers also seem to engage the audience more than other genres as they show them a teaser of the main comedy in the film, making them want to see it to see what happens. We didn't choose this genre for our film as we felt it would challenge our skills too much rather than let us expand on them positively.

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Thrillers are sometimes on the boarderline between the Horror and real-life genres of films, sometimes leaning more towards one than the other. These films are usually made to put the audience on edge rather than scare them in order for them to engage in the events of the film.We didn't choose this genre for our trailer as we felt the balance would be too challenging to portray to the audience as they may get confussed with which genre the film is meant to be.

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Horror genres is one of the easiest to portray as once you get into the mindset of being scared it is more achievable to portray horrific aspects to the audience. Usuing some of the aspects in the trailer works as it hooks the audience, making them want to see the full story of the film and how the event had came around. We had chosen this genre for our trailer as we felt we could produce a piece of work that we will be proud of.

How I Created The Image For My Poster

The blood for my poster was created by using black and red paint with some water and flour. I had started by mixing some red with a bit of black paint until I had the colour I thought was closer to the colour of blood. Once I had created this colour I had added a small amount of water until the consistency of blood. After this I had added a small amount of flour so that the mixture did not run as much as water yet didn't change the loose consistency a large amount.

Once I was satisfied with the colour and consistency of the mixture I had set up the photography studio, using one of the studio lights in order to create a small shadow on the model and highlight the blood on the hands of the model. When applying the mixture I had poured a little over the palm of her hands and then held them down so the mixture ran in between the fingers, the held them up so it ran down the back of the hands. I had done this in order to create a sense of gore from the running blood to tie in with the horror genre of my trailer.

When taking the images I had placed the model in the centre of the studio so there was a blank background in the photos. I had then asked the model to hold her hands over her face as if there was a sense of mystery as to whom it was behind the hands, I had then played around with the positioning of the hands in order to create the look I was aiming for. I feel having the face of the model covered adds to the horrific sense of the poster as it makes the blood the main focus of the poster, immediately indicating to the audience what the genre of the film is.

Skill Development

Our skills have developed through out this process as more was required in this task compared to other works. For instance the amount of cuts and the overall pace of a trailer is faster then a film opening in general immediately adding more skill with editing the films. Choosing the genre of Horror helped us expand and develop our skills as it had many different aspects and conventions required to make the genre noticeable to the audience.

Our research skills have also developed as we had researched deeper into the genre and had analysed the outcomes of our findings which had allowed us to see our progress.

Different Magazine Brands

There are plenty of magazines in the market today, some of which are magazines about tv and films. There are magazines called:

• Total Film
• Empire
• Premiere

Which are the most known tv and film magazines.

The magazine Total Film usually covers Hollywood scale films such as and Marvel film or The Hunger Games (Catching Fire), this may be due to the status of the magazine itself. When thinking about which magazine title to use for our own trailer we had came to the conclusion that Total film would be the wrong choice as they usually portray the more action type films which is a different genre to our own.

 

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The magazine Premiere is not as well known as Total Film although it is popular in its own respect. This magazine usually markets a range of films, yet when researching into their covers it seems as though the pictures used are mainly of the main actor/actress from the film usually not in character. The magazine probably does this as many people will see a film staring an actor that they like so it could boost their sales. When thinking about what magazine to use for our trailer we had thought that this particular magazine didn't cover the genre specific aspects we were looking for.

 

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The magazine Empire is a well known magazine and usually covers films such as X-men and Harry Potter. There is also a small percentage of the released magazines that have been based around horror films such as Silence Of The Lambs. When deciding on the magazine title that me and my partner are going to use we had chosen this one as we feel that our genre of film will suit the title more than the other magazines.

Target Audience Of Trailer

We had decided to make our target audience for our film 15-21 or around these ages as we felt the contents of the film matched up to the horror films with an age of 15. We had thought that aiming between these ages would match our film as it would match the ages of the characters so older viewers may not connect with the film/characters as much.

When researching about our trailer we had put out a questionnaire to people of different ages and with a range of feedback it was obvious that people between the ages of 15 and 19 preferred horror films to any other genres of film due to the events.

Poster Photo Ideas

For our posters, my partner and I had came up with some ideas of what the picture should be and why. Our first idea was of a picture of the main character being dragged through a woods, this as to give the effect of the film on the viewers. We had planned on having the model being dragged through trees with the silhouette of the murderer in the background of the image. During editing I would have made the whole image darker and made the main character the main focus of the image.

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Our second idea was just of the eyes of the actress in order to create a sense of danger to the image. We thought that having the eyes would foreshadow the events in the film with the group being watched. This image would have consisted of the eyes with bruises and cuts around the face which showed the horrific aspects of the film.

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Our final idea was of blood running down the hands of the main character covering her face which added a sense of mystery to whom she was or why she was covering her face. The blood also foreshadowed the gore aspects in the film.