Final trailer

Ancillary tasks- film poster and magazine cover

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

We used lots of different media technologies in the process of creating our media product. During our planning stages, we used social networking sites, such as ‘facebook’, ‘twitter’ and ‘blogger  to distribute our questionnaires. This helped us reach a wider quantity of our target audience as a lot of young people use social networking sites to communicate.

When creating our media products, we used numerous programmes to construct them; we used ‘final cut express’ to produce our trailer. This took practice to get used to, as we had never used it before but after a few attempts, we managed to use it correctly. When creating our ancillary products, we used ‘Photoshop’ to edit our photos and generate our magazine covers and posters. This was considerably easy to use, as we had practice from our AS coursework. After we had finished our media product, we used ‘quicktime converter’ to change the file from a ‘PSD’ format, to an ‘AVI’ format.

To film our media product, we used digital camcorders that we then uploaded to ‘Final cut express’. We also used digital cameras to take shots for our ancillary tasks which we uploaded to ‘Photoshop’.

We found that using the internet to construct research was the most useful way of creating a basis for our film trailer. We used search engines such as ‘Google’ and ‘Yahoo!’

What have you learned from audience feedback?

When we presented out first draft of our media product to our focus group, there was aspects that we needed to change, and others that we decided to keep. For example, in out first draft of the trailer, we had one piece of music that was continuous throughout. After showing this to our focus group, they commented that the music we had chosen did not match with our torture scene, and so we had to choose two different pieces that would match.

Our focus group also mentioned that the whole product looked more like a short film, rather than a trailer. To improve this, we added lots of jump cuts in the torture scene and editing of the party scene.

 By doing this we managed to achieve a product that looked more like a trailer and less like a film that showed individual and separate stages.

After showing the developed trailer to our focus group, they agreed that the trailer had been improved and looked better with the changes.

During our planning process, we came up with a questionnaire that we handed out to our target audience. From this we were able to distinguish what our audience would like to see in a horror film, and base our trailer around these findings. For example, the feedback suggested that our target audience would relate more to a group of teenagers in distress than an elderly person, and so we decided that we would use a group of teenagers in our film trailer.

How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?

When I was planning my ancillary texts, I considered that I should have a theme running throughout them. As the trailer is a horror film, I thought that it would be appropriate to use dark colours to suit the mood of the subject. The shots in my ancillary texts are black & white, and I thought that this added mystery, and yet effective. I have used the same shot on both my magazine cover and film poster, as I liked the composition of the photo. I decided that my shots should show a connection with the trailer, and so I used the killer holding a knife as it is shown frequently throughout the trailer.

In my film poster, I have edited the image so that the light is showing in colour. I thought that this stood out, as the rest of the photo was in black and white. I also chose to have this particular photo as there was a lot of focus on the knife, which has significance of the film trailer.

When considering distribution for my film poster, I recognised that my film would be rated 18, and so had to regard where I would advertise. For my poster, I decided that I would place it near colleges, near cinemas, and on buses/bus stops as it would be attracting its target audience- 18-21 year olds. For the magazine, I decided that it would be best fitting to advertise the film on the cover of a movie magazine such as ‘Empire’ or ‘TotalFilm’ as it would be appealing to people who read this magazine.

                               

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

Our media products follow and challenges many paradigms of real media products.

For example ‘Toderov’s theory of narrative’ shows a period of equilibrium, point of disequilibrium, moment of disequilibrium and the new equilibrium. We have chosen to follow this theory, as most real media products conform to this. We think that out product shows a clear definition of each of these

1. period of equilibrium

2. point of disequilibrium

3. period of disequilibrium

For the period of equilibrium, we have chosen to use long, slow shots as this is appropriate for the mood of the trailer at this point. As the trailer progresses to he moment of disequilibrium, we used faster jump cuts which reflect the disposition of the trailer.

We have also followed numerous other theories, for example, Carol Clover’s’ final girl’ theory. Although we did not follow this in the literal sense, we used the idea in our own way. We chose to have a group of final girls, instead of just one [shot].this is shown in the film trailer “The decent” (2005)

4. final group of girls

4a. the decent- group of girls

In our trailer, we have also used the ‘SEX/ALCOHOL=DEATH’, and differentiated this clearly from the other characters.

5. sex/alcohol= death

 The mise-en-scene (costume) also shows this, as we have chosen to put the main character in a short skirt, a convention of a ‘party girl’. This is presented in “Halloween” (1978)

5a. Halloween- sex=death

We thought that by doing this, it would put more focus on out main character, which follows the opposite convention.

Another convention that we have followed is the ‘mystery of the killer’. A common paradigm of real media products is that the audience cannot see the face of the killer like in “Scream” (1996) .

6. mystery of the killer

6a. Scream- mystery of the killer

 This conforms to the fear of the unknown, something which is a fear factor in horror films. We chose to follow this as it added a sense of fear to our trailers. The killer is also dressed in a black outfit, something else which is apparent in real media products. Black is often associated with death, and so we thought that it would be appropriate to put our killer in black costume.

Additionally, we used the paradigm of ‘the motive of the killer’ in out trailer.

 In real media products the killer has often been provoked to kill/kidnap like in “All the boys love

Mandy Lane

” (2006). We chose to follow this convention as it showed that anyone could be a victim, something else that adds an element of fear to the audience.

7. motive of killer

7a. All the boys love Mandy Lane

                                                                                                          motive of the killer

For out location, we chose to set it in busy environments, such as a school, house, and a pub.

8. school

8a. house

8b. pub

8c. Cherry tree Lane- safe place

 We thought that this would be effective in our trailer as a pub is often considered a safe environment to be in when there are other people around, and so to put this in a horror film, we thought it would challenge the conventions of the setting being in a desolate environment as shown in “Cherry tree lane” (2010). This adds fear-factor to our trailer, as the audience may then think that it cold happen to them in a ‘safe’ environment.

However, in our torture scene, we have conformed to media conventions, as it is set in an isolated location  like in “Eden lake” (2008). This adds suspense to our clip as the victim cannot get help, which is frightening for the audience.

9. isolated

9a. isolated location

9b. Eden lake- isolated

The final convention that we have chosen to follow is that our media product doesn’t show any of the characters being killed, only tortured [shot] as shown in “The Texas chainsaw massacre” (1974). By doing this we have shown the audience that the character is in need of help, but we do not show the outcome, something which is more likely to want our target audience want to see it.

10. tortue

10a.Texas Chainsaw Massacre

                                                  torture

Risk assessment

18.risk assessment

View more documents from Miaa929.