Final Film Poster

Final Magazine

Evaluation

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

There are various ways in which our products use conventions of real products that

exist in the media. For example after looking and analysing horror trailers, it is clear horror trailers are designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm and invoke the audiences hidden worst fears. Most horror trailers start off with slow paced music combined with slow paced editing so as to connote a state of equliberium, this further engrosses the audience into the film as it makes it more realistic for them to image themselves in the position of the characters in the film. After the slow paced beginning begins the rising action on Freytags pyramid with quick flashes and fast paced editing to make the audience feel on edge, the dramatic music also helps to build up the horror tension by having a heavy beat when the scary figure appears makes the audience jump which is the aim of a horror film. This technique can be seen in our horror film when the two characters walk down the path, then when the scary character appears on the path after they have walked away there is heavy beat in the music so as to startle the audience. We needed this to be dramatic as this is the first point in our trailer where the scary character is shown so we had to make sure to get the timing exactly precise on the point that the scary character appears to fit the dramatic technique of conventional horror trailers.

Slient Hill is an example of a film that uses the technique of having a slow paced beginning that breaks into a quick fast paced style music.

Another way in which our products use conventions of existing media products is the mise en scene used in our trailer and poster. The foggy background creates a spooky type feel to the shots which is a convention of real film trailers to create the mood of whatever film they are aiming to portray through the use of the setting. As well as this the characters in our film are the type of average teenagers which appear in conventional horror trailers as the target audience which most horror trailers appeal to are the same age as the characters as the ones in the trailer so as the viewers can relate to them. For example in the conventional horror film "the house of wax" there is a group of older teenagers on a camping trip, the effect of using young characters like this, much like what we have done in our trailer is to highlight their vulnerability which puts the audience on edge which is the aim of a horror trailer. The main convention in a horror trailer is the main scary character, it is important that much like conventional horror trailers such as "The Grudge, The Ring" that the character has a scary appearance so as the audience are scared of the character other wise it wouldn't work as a horror trailer. In our trailer we tried to create a scary appearance on our character through make up, costume and hair, by having her hair over her face makes the character look weird and daunting as her face is covered this is a convention used by "The Ring" to make their character look scary. We also chose to dress our character in white so as to give the impression of a ghost combined with the deathly like makeup of a white powdered face so as the character looks unattractive to the audience therefore making the character scary and intimidating which is the aim of a horror. Horror trailers also use a variety of different shots so as to create the most dramatic horror effect, conventional horror trailers use quick flashes and close ups to emphasize the victims panic as well as to scare the audience with quick glimpses of the scary character's face. In our horror trailer we have aimed to use this technique to maximize the horror effect as having quick flashes the audience don't have a chance to really see what it is and who it is which makes the audience more scared and on edge throughout the trailer as they are in anticipation of the next time the characters face appears.

2)How effective is the combination of your main product and anncillary texts?

To combine with our main video of our horror trailer, we also created a magazine and a poster to promote the launch of the new film. To create an impact on the 3 products we kept the same theme throughout the three pieces by using the same type of watery effect text. On both the film trailer and poster we have a quote from the trailer on the poster so as to help to create a brand for the film, the effect is that the quote is then instantly recognizable which the audience can relate to the film, therefore helps the film to be a success. The font is the same on both the magazine and the captions as it suits the theme of the film as it looks as though the text is dripping, how

ever for the poster the word awakening is in a different font as to have the characters face in the text, as the font we used in the other pieces wouldn't work as an overall piece, we therefore decided to use a different text much like how they did in "The Ring". As well as this to make the combination of our products effective to help to sell the film, we used the same type of picture on both the poster and the magazine of the main scary figure in the same setting that the film trailer was shot. The reason for doing so was so as the audience can establish the main character in the trailer by having the same picture used on two separate media products shows that this character is the main centre of the storyline. Furthermore, by having the shots taken on the location where the filming was done intrigues the audience as they want to know more about the setting as having a small insight into the storyline of the film forces the audience to want to find out what happens in the film.

The top two images are quotes from the film trailer which also are seen on the film poster (at the top bottom). So as the audience can associate this quote with the film, therefore essentially creating a brand for itself. We decided to keep the overall layout of the captions, poster and magazine very simple as after looking at existing products in the media around the horror genre this is the layout they give them so as the main focus is either on the words, in the case of the captions in the film or is on the focus of the main scary character in the case of the poster and magazine.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Our target audience being older teenagers and young adults, we decided to show a group within this age range our final trailer. We asked them to give us feedback on what they did like and what they thought could be improved. All of the people we asked said that they especially liked the slow paced beginning going into the fast paced editing when the action begins, they said that they also like the variety of different shots such as long shots and close ups accompanied

with the quick paced editing. As well as this they also said that they like the music as it fitted well with the shots and was edited together in time with the music to create the maximum effect of a horror by having the loud beats when the scary character appears. Furthermore they also said they liked the fact there was only 3 people in the whole trailer as oppose to 5 or 6 as they could connect with them more as by only having 3 people made it less confusing to follow the storyline as they could distinguish the difference in characters such as who the victims were and who the main scary character was. As well as this we asked them to make comments on both the poster and magazine cover, they all said that they like the use of the image as it gave them a small insight into the film by the setting of the lake being in the background, as well as allowing them to

understand that the character on both of these pieces was the main scary character throughout. They also said they liked the watery effect writing used on the magazine so as they could relate it back to the film trailer. To improve on they suggested that we could possibly use a mixture of boys and girls in the trailer so as to give views from both gender angles, we did consider this aspect when deciding who to cast in our trailer however we chose to use only girls as it highlights their vulnerability as oppose to having boys which are perceived to be stronger and so would not have had the same effect. Overall we are pleased with our finished outcomes and now know what to improve on to meet the needs of our target audience if we decided to do this again.

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

Throughout the whole process of the trailer, magazine and posters I have relied on different media technologies. The main technology that I have needed in order to create my blog is the internet so as I can record my research and planning stages on each product. As well as this I also used the internet for You Tube to analyse different existing media such as looking closely at mise en scene, the characters, sound and camera angles to gain inspiration for my own trailer.It was easy to get different videos onto my blog by copying the embedding code that is either to the side or underneath the video. I also used You Tube and Google to help me to do my grids of nine so as to help with my planning stages of how to structure a horror trailer for maximum effect. I also used the internet to find a song for my trailer I eventually found one on Youtube which was a soundtrack from "The Ring". My final use for the internet was to use Scribd to get my different posts converted into a format that was compatible to upload onto my blog through an embedding code.

Furthermore I used technologies such as a video camera to capture the footage, this technology was difficult to use without a tri pod as we soon realised having to re shoot some of footage as the camera looked to shaky and unprofessional. As well as this we also used Premiere Pro to edit all the footage to produce a final outcome, this was a new technology for me to use and at first I found the different editing techniques hard to use however the benefit of this programme is that you can try out different techniques such as different dissolving techniques and undo them if you don't think that its working. I also used a cannon camera to take pictures to analyse my locations used as well as to capture the images for the magazine and poster, this technology helped in my planning stage as after taking the shots for my products I was able to upload them on my blog and evaluate which pictures were successful and which ones weren't.

As well as this I also used the technology of Adobe Photoshop to create my final magazine cover and poster, I created these pieces on a Mac computer which is was a essential part of creating all three pieces as the programmes I need would not have worked on a normal windows computer.

Props to Develop Mise En Scene In Our Trailer

For our story line we needed to create a newspaper article so as we could explain why the two characters wanted to go to the lake. We decided to do this by having them find an old newspaper of a girl drowning and so curiously wanted to go and see the place. Here is the newspaper article we created which appears twice in our trailer once as a flash back and once in the present day when the character is reading the article.

Production company

At the start or end of each conventional horror trailer there is a production company so as the audience can relate the company to the film, this can be a selling point as if it is a well recognized company such as "LIONSGATE" who make well established films which audiences will be familiar with. For our trailer we had to make up our own production company as if we used an existing company it would be seen as copy right. Below is our production company logo, we think this is effective as we have used the same cloudy background as the "LIONSGATE" one however seeing as though ours is a horror trailer the black clouds give it a horror type feel so therefore suits the genre of our trailer.

Analysing The Make Up Used For The Scary Character and Main Character

In our trailer it was important to make sure the scary character's make up was scary so as the audience saw this character as scary as in conventional horror films there is always the scary character which has an odd, eerie appearance that the viewers are afraid of. After myself and my group member looked at scary films we took notice of how they used makeup to achieve a scary look to the character. However as we are only A level media students we obviously were unable to create the dramatic makeup looks which appear in the horror trailers that we watched as they have proper make up artists and hair stylist to make sure they get the look right.

Here is the makeup we used for our character:

To make our character have a scary look we made her eyes look sore and bruised by using red to make them look sore and brown eyeshadow around the eyes to make them look bruised. To make her face white we used flour and white powder so as to give her a ghostly look, for her mouth we made her lips pale and used black eyeliner so as to make them look cracked which further added to the dead decaying look we was going for to help connote horror to the viewer.

For the main character of the trailer, we left her make up and outfit normal for a teenager to dress like, so as the audience could relate to her. We chose to do this as it further involves the viewers into the film as the target audience are around about the main characters age so as they could put themselves in her situation which heightens the drama.

stages of editing

Stage 1

The first stage was to create the background so as we could start to layer on top of it to create the finished product. So as to make the overall image more daunting and scary we decided to edit the picture to black and white and change the contrast so as to make the overall image more eerie so as to connote the horror genre.

Stage 2

The second stage was to add the text to the poster such as the release date so as the audience are aware when the film is out. We also decided to add a quote of "what is forced to sleep, will one day awaken" as it relates to the storyline of the trailer as well as the exact words appearing in the trailer which the viewer will instantly recognise. The words also connote a horror trailer as they are chilling and eerie.

Stage 3

The third stage was to add the title of the film so as the viewer instantly knows what the film is called. We decided to put the main characters face in the title of the magazine in colour so as to stand out as a contrast to the rest of the black and white poster which helps to highlight the panic and fear on the characters face to connote the genre of horror.

Stage 4

The final stage was to add a quote from a magazine as this is a convention of real magazines as if there is a quote from an established magazine it helps to sell the film. We also added the age rating certificate as this is also a convention of film posters it helps our poster to look more professional.

stages of magazine cover

First Stage

The first stage was to choose a picture with a spacious background as we could layer text and images over the top. We then took the image of the character and changed it to black and white to connote the genre of a horror as the black and white effect makes her look more ghostly like.

Stage 2

The second stage we added in the title of the magazine by creating a grey box and layering the word "Flick" over the top after this we then moved the image in front of the lettering as this is a typical convention of existing magazines. We then drew another box over the image and change the opacity so as it was see through and wouldn't cover the image up too much, we then wrote the name of the film the magazine was aiming to promote in the same watery type font which will appear in the captions in the trailer.

Third Stage

We then added a strapline across the top of the page so as to give it a bit more structure as well as helping to sell the magazine as the strapline gives a good indication of what is in the contents of the magazine which is a selling point. We also added a pug which relates to the film the magazine is promoting this was also a way of selling the magazine as pugs are eye catching and stand out on the page. Finally we added the date and price as this is a convention of every magazine and makes our look more professional and realistic.

Fourth Stage

The fourth stage was to add the remaining text on the cover relating to the contents of the magazine. This is a good selling point as if nothing else has already attracted the buyer, what the magazine is offering inside might do and so would help to sell the magazine. We made sure to keep a dull colour scheme so as to help to connote the horror genre across to the buyer.

Editing Process For Our Trailer

To create our trailer we used the programme Premiere Pro to upload our footage and edit them to create our finished product. Before you can connect your camera, you have to connect it to the computer via a USB lead, after this you then click the type of connection on the camera and convert the files into BDMV files so as Premiere Pro can read the type of files that needs to be imported onto it. After this you then stream the files over into a separate file and import the files into premiere pro.

When all the footage was uploaded we had to create a new project, after this the editing screen appeared with all the clips down the left of the screen.The screen below is the screen that you first see when you start a new project, then you drag the clips over from the left to the bottom screen and then begin to start editing. The tools down the left hand side of the page enabled us to dissolve different shots together to create smooth transitions between shots, we could also change shots to black and white, we could also dip shots to black and to white to again create a smooth transition between shots.

The tools in premiere pro down the right hand side enable the footage to be cut, so as if we only wanted part of the shot we could cut it using the razor tool to cut the clip where we wanted it. As well as this we could use the zoom tool to zoom in close to the clips so as we got the cut exactly right or exactly in time with the music.

Another tool we used to edit our trailer was the speed duration tool, where we could speed up shots so as to distort the speed or slow down shots so as to create a slow motion effect. To do this we had to left click, select speed duration and enter a number either to slow down or speed the clip up.

Evaluting Pictures for Promo Pack

1) This image is of one of the characters in the trailer screaming so as to connote fear to the audience. This picture has a good mise en scene of the lake in the background which links to the story of the film. This picture is unsucessful as the main person in the image is too dark and her face cant been seen clearly enough to crop to create the poster we wanted.

2)This is again a picture of the main character in my trailer screaming so as to connote the horror genre to the audience. This picture works well as her face is clearly visible and can be cropped to the style we want to create our poster, it is also well lit from the natural light and so has a clear professional finish to it. The mise en scene around also connotes horror as it is clear that is a forest which is a typical setting for a horror as it is daunting and eerie.

3)This picture is not sucessful at all as even though the picture is clear and well lit from the natural light from being outside, the main character does not have a scared expression on her face and almost looks as though she is laughing. This does not connote a horror genre to the audience and so would not be a succesful image to crop and use in our film poster.

4) This image is a succesful image to consider to use in our film poster, it has a good natural lighting so as to make the picture extremely clear. The mise en scene connotes horror as the surroundings are dull, grey, dreary colours which help to create a depressive eeire type atmosphere to the audience. The main scary image in the picture stands out in the white outfit so immediately grabs the audience attention so the main focus is on the character which is a big relevance to the film. The mise en scene also links to the film as the main storyline is based around a lake type setting. The way in which the character is holding her arms out connotes horror as well as relating to the film as it could come across that is she going to jump into the lake?

5) The next image also has the same mise en scene of the lake which is a main relevance to the film so gives the audience an insight into the setting of the film that it is at a lake and in a forest. The main scary character stands out against the dull grey background so as to highlight the character in the picture. This picture is unsuccessful however, as the placement on the characters hand look uncomfortable and clumsy as though they are not supposed to be like that and so doesnt help to connote the horror feel that we were aiming for.

6) This image again has the lake and forest background which is relevant to the film so helps the audience understand the setting of it. The main character is in white which stands out against the dull surroundings. The fact that the character is standing there with her arms down almost stiff like is intimidating and un nerving as it is out of the ordinary to stand there like that, also the fact that her hair is over her face also add to the horror genre as the image looks more daunting and scary.

Intial Ideas For Trailer

Myself and my group member decided to brainstorm together some ideas which would be most effective when creating our horror trailer. By looking at techniques such as Camera Angles, Editing, Mise en scene, Sound effects, music, special effects, setting and dialogue we could decided which techniques to use to create effects suited to the horror genre.

Camera Angles

Close Ups

Extreme close ups of characters(victims) emphasize panic and fear, extreme close ups of scary character cause panic to the audience.

Mid shot- to show characters and scary character

Long shot/ establishing shot- to establish setting/location

P.O.V shot

Long shot

Low angle

High angle

Ariel shot

Over the shoulder shot

Editing

Following Todorov's theory editing tends to go slow at the start to show a state of equliberium and then picks up to a fast pace when the action begins.

Blunt cut

Jump cut

Fade to black

Fade to white - connotes dream/ flashbacks

Establishing shots

Elipsis

Shot reverse shot

Cut to flashback (black and white editing to show flash back when girl is drowning)

Mise en Scene

Props

Car

Old newspaper

Limited amount to show seclusion in the forest

Characters

Two girls going to the forest and the ghost who drowned
Two boys going to the forest and the ghost who drowned
One boy and one girl and the ghost who drowned

Costumes

Old fashioned dress for ghost scary character (to show that she is not from the present time)
Normal everyday clothing for the two other characters showing that there ordinary people
Dull colour clothing to fit in with horror genre of trailer

Sound Effects

Screams
Heartbeats
Heavy breathing
none - (to make music sound more dramatic)

Music

Mainly want a song which starts slow, sad and eerie to begin with but turns fast towards middle and end to add that dramatic horror effect.

Wake Me Up Inside - Evanescence
This is going to hut - Hans Zimmer

Special Effects

Slow motion
Speed up shots
special effect such as a swirl to distinguish past from present

Setting

Forest/woodland location
A lake/river
Part set in a house

Dialogue

None
Limited Dialogue
Lots of dialogue (as oppose to captions to be a narrative for the trailer)

Intial Ideas Film Magazines

Magazine Idea 1

Magazine Idea 2

inital ideas for poster and film magazine

Film poster initial ideas

Idea number 1

Film Poster Idea 1

Idea number 2

Film Poster Idea 2

Story Board 3

Storyboard 3

Inital Story Boards

Storyboard 2

Storyboard 1

Storyboard

Looking at Fonts

It was important to make sure to get the font right in both the promo pack and the film trailer as it gives the overall finished product a more professional look. It is also important that the style of font fits in with the type of film, we are creating a horror trailer and so focused on horror type fonts. Also as the story line for our trailer was mainly to do with a lake we decided it would be effective to use a text which looked as though it was dripping down so to connote the idea that it was a watery type font but still scary at the same time.

This type of font is called "my scars" we thought this one was very effective as it has the effect of a water drip but is not to over done, it is also in smudged type capital letters which adds to the water feel but also helps the letters stand out on the page. We also feel this would be a good font to use on both our trailer as well as the poster and magazine cover (only with regards to the title of the film) so as much like in conventional films by having a continuous font on all the promotion pieces it enables the audience to identify the film straight away, so therefore makes its own brand for itself which is vital when advertising a new film.

This type of font is called "blood feast" we initially liked it as it had the water drip effect, however after looking at how it fit on our digi pack and film trailer we decided that this wasn't the appropriate font for our products.

This type of font is called "you murderer" again it has the smudged water type effect that we were looking for, however it is very subtle and isn't really enough to connote to the audience a dripping type effect as much as what we would of liked. It is however a good font in the way the letters are not all in line as it helps to create a horror type genre as it connotes that not everything is how it seems in the film, much like how the font is used in this way on "the return" poster by having the "R" the wrong way round shows that this is of some relevance to the film as not everything is how it appears which is typical of a horror film.

the return poster with the "R" turned round the wrong way is typical of horror posters to distort the lettering so as to connote a horror type feel to the text. Me and Mia chose to use font number 1 "my scars" as our font as we feel it best suited our theme and storyline.

Re-Shooting

Our initial idea was to have all the shots shot in the dark as we decided this would add to the horror element as the darkness and the shadows would help to create a good mise en scene in the trailer. Me and Mia shot the whole of our trailer in the dark with the aid of a lighting kit, however when we uploaded the videos to edit in premiere pro it was clear to see the idea of shooting in the dark made our shots look unclear and grainy. We then decided to re film the whole sequence we had filmed in the dark again and chose to use a foggy day as we thought this would add to the mise en scene, when we uploaded the new footage we could see that it was a much better quality and the foggy background was a better mise en scene than the dark as the misty background added a scary look to the shots.

Another issue we had with filming was the middle sequence, we first decided to show the story that the two characters (Reygan and Gemma) got lost when the sat nav guided them the wrong way to a deserted lake, however after editing the first part of the trailer together we decided this would be too difficult to explain and make sense so we decided after the old fashioned newspaper fades out it fades into the present day newspaper and the two characters find it and decide to go there to investigate it and the scary character (Mia) haunts them.

Video Inspirations

Myself and Mia looked a different existing horror trailers to analyse them to see how they use the different effects to make it more dramatic and scary. We chose to look at this unofficial trailer of the ring to look closely at the main character Samara Morgan and the way she acts an moves in the video so as to use these in our own one to make our character more scary. When she crawls along the floor we saw this as very effective to use in our own trailer as it heightens the horror element, the way her body moves along the floor is out of the ordinary and scary which is typical for the main scary characters to look/ act in a horror trailer. We especially liked the costume of her in this video as we feel it adds to the frightening effect, the long hair and white clothes emphasize the horror element as you cant see her face which instantly looks quite daunting and scary. We will try and aim to recreate this type of look in our our horror trailer as we think it is very effective.

Audience Feedback From Questionaire

Both me and my group member Mia devised a series of questions regarding to horror trailers so as we could use these answers when editing together our own horror trailer which would help us to meet the requirements of our target market. After posting the questionaire on our blogs we analysed the feedback:

What gender are you?

The feedback we had to this blog was a mixture of male and female as we are aiming to target both.

What is the main element that excites you in a horror trailer?

The majority voted that they prefer to see lots of shots of the main scary figure so as to keep the pace fast and flowing which overall makes it more scary.

Do captions help you to follow a horror trailer?

It is clear to see from our feedback to include captions as all of the people we asked voted yes as it enables them to follow the story better.

Does dialogue help you to understand a horror trailer better?

After analysing the answers it is clear to see our target audience prefer a horror trailer to not include dialogue.

Does screaming or quick noises help to build up tention in horror trailers?

The majority of the people we surveyed answered yes as it makes the whole trailer more jumpy which is typical of a horror trailer.

Do you prefer more quick or slow paced editing?

All of the voters said they preferred quick editing so as to reflect the pace of the trailer.

What type of music helps to build up drama for you in a horror trailer?

The majority of the people we asked said they liked a slower start which builds into a quick paced climax of horror images and action.

What type of characters do you like to see in a horror trailer?

All of the voters said they liked to see a mixture of the victims as well as the main scary character in the trailer.

How we can use this in our own trailer

After carefully analysing the results obtained from the survey it is clear to see we are aiming our trailer at a mixed gender market. The target market prefer a more quick paced editing which reflects the shots of a mixture of both the victims and flashes of scary character. The type of music needs to have a slow start so as to show a state of equlibreium which then builds into a fast paced climax of quick music and editing. Also we now know that our audience prefer captions to dialogue as it helps them to follow the trailer easier. This survey helps us into creating a trailer suitable for our chosen target market of teenagers and young adults.

film magazine

Film Magazine

empiree

Empire Mag

The Return