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.