eval q1

My media product (horror film trailer) consists of typical film conventions that will be used, developed or challenged. For example a typical convention found in a horror film trailer is fast editing, typography and soundtrack. My media product has hand-held camera movements, in order to create a dramatic and uneasy rhythm. It is shown where close-ups are used of the characters emotions and a particular shot where characters were running away. By using fast editing and unstructured camera movement I think it engages the audience to be in the moment of and feel panic, anxiety and on edge – for what might happen next.

Typography was used from our research showing that not only horror trailers, but the majority of all trailers use typography to help the audience understand what the film is about and to show the title, production companies and release date. We included these conventions into our own trailer. Examples of horror films that we looked at were, ‘Obsessed, Orphan and Filth to Ashes’. We developed this idea into our own trailer by creating an effect to go with it, to fade across the screen horizontally. We found it links in well with the horror genre of mystery.

Other conventions we used were a soundtrack. We thought it appropriate to use an eerie sound with sudden thumps after each typography text was shown on screen. This connoted the calmness at the beginning of the trailer to build up towards the end.

One thing we did develop from our horror trailer research was to release our film in the Halloween month, October. We realised this to be because of the theme of scariness surrounding it. Examples of films we analysed that were released in the month of October were, Paranormal Activity 3 and Red State.

We decided that all our main characters were to be female. The reason we chose this is because the sub genre is ‘psychological horror’ – and it is a stereotypical opinion that women act crazy and obsessive. In a way, we developed this point of view by having the main character display these personality features, however on the other hand we challenged it by having other characters show the audience a much stronger and independent side of a woman – as the victim. Referring to Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory we also took on board the costume and makeup. We challenged the idea of women being expected to have the perfect beauty, and represented them in a way that was the complete opposite, by using dark clothing and average makeup to represent the overall tone of the genre. Use of the dark clothing will confuse the audience as to why the no women are viewed as sexual objects to ‘gaze’ at.

Our trailer fulfilled the uses and gratification theory in the following ways, Firstly, ‘diversion’ because people particularly girls may be starting a new university where they have to meet new friends and introduce themselves to people they are not usually surrounded by.  It is also a diversion for people that age group, whether they attend university or not. It is also thrilling to watch and it’s what people their age do, so they can relate. By this it’s a diversion for those university students to watch the trailer and escape their current university life.  The second stage, which is ‘personal’, which involves companionship. Our trailer has the topic which university students would talk about with each other through 'personal identity'. 

eval q2

Creating our horror trailer we used different programs to construct, research, plan and evaluate. The majority of our construction and research was done on a Mac Computer.  This media technology was actually very useful, because it had a variety of programs that we could use to construct our media trailer on. The only disadvantage is due to the software, which we have only used in the past year, there were some difficulties we found. Mac Computers though did allow us to be more creative by using Photoshop and other programs featured in Adobe. For example when creating typography to be used in the trailer, the program Adobe – After Effects challenged me in a way where I had taught myself the how to use different layers to create text across the screen, and add effects onto the text by using compositions. Using Mac Computers were also useful so we could keep updated with our blogs and start a new entry each time, which helped with our planning and research.  

Another program we used was Celtx. This program on the Macs helped us create our screenplay for the trailer in a formal structure. It was useful in the way it helped us organise the characters lines better and stage actions that were to be filmed. Celtx also came with ‘Master Catalog’ that allowed us to write detailed descriptions of each character. This was helpful in the construction part of our trailer. Also to our advantage it was straight forward to use.

In order to actually construct our trailer we used digital cameras. This was interesting for me because I’ve never used a professional camera before so it was something new. The different camera focus’ and lenses were interesting to use in our trailer because we could change the lense according to the shot being shown. However, because these features were new to us we found certain buttons confusing to use.

eval q3

How effective is the combination of your film trailer, film poster and magazine front cover?

The combination of all my 3 media products made is quite effective – I would rate the consistency of it 6/7 out of 10. For the reason, I was quite pleased how we managed to use the same font throughout the products. We used it in the typography for the trailer, for the title in the film poster and for the masthead, strap-lines and captions on the magazine front cover.  Although we consistently used the same font I think we probably could have used different images of our characters, showing them from different angles. 

In all our 3 products, the images are similar– all taken from a mid-shot althouh this shows consistency of our film campaign, on the other hand having different shots, maybe taken from a high angle or low angle would have showed a variety. Other things that worked well together were the layout of film poster and magazine front cover. We chose the colour theme of dark colours, particularly greys and blacks, which were used for all 3 products. We felt that using these dark colours highlighted the horror genre theme. However, on the magazine front cover we added the colour red. We chose this because to make our masthead and strap-lines stand out from the other dark colours it was a way to grab our audiences’ attention. And the colour red also connotes ‘blood’. Which is a common feature in horror genre films.

Our marketing campaign works well together because it is easily recognisable; we stuck to using the two main characters as the USP displaying two different facial expressions. Rebecca played by Kally Nichalou shows angry and concentrated glares whereas Sarah acted by Junette Salonga was more happy, smiley and content. 

 However, one criticism I have for the combination of our film trailer, film poster and magazine front cover is that the fact that we didn’t have a major use of iconography/props that would link our three media products into the horror genre even more. So given the chance to redo our media products I would add props such as knives and iconography such as bloody and bruised make-up.

Overall, how we publicized all 3 our of media products was successful. But looking at one of the products, particulary the film poster, this attracts a much younger audience. This is due to the reason that film posters are put up every around local shopping centers, schools and so on…

Whereas film magazines aren't as promoted as much so they would be less like to go and purchase the magazine. Instead a website or social networking sites is more popular and the film poster would attract the modern day young audience. This age group use daily so they would be able to come across our website and social networking site easily.

eval q4

Evaluation q4

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Audience feedback overall is very important to see how well other people can understand and connent with your film trailer. Creating the whole film campaign also showed us what our intended target audience thought like and wanted to see. If they weren’t impressed it gave us a chance to change it before being finalized.  From reading our brief we knew that the whole campaign would be targeted at teenagers to young adults, those people who are familiar with social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube where they would be able to get information about our film.  We also believed this would be successful as media technology today allows people to constantly be conncted to the intenet, with smart phones such as Blackberry and iPhone being very popular with the age group of 15-24.

We set up Facebook and Twitter accounts, this was useful because we could directly show our target audience all our media products. Once uploaded to these sites, as well as Youtube – we did receive positive feedback from our peers.

Youtube gave the chance for people to ‘like’ and ‘comment’ our video. From what we found they were all positive comments with many saying they would like it to be created into a real film because they found it was something they could relate to. People also noted on camera angles, shots and locations. Overall showing that our intended audience could identify with our trailer.

On twitter the same thing was done to promote our trailer out there. In one quote someone even said it made them jump – this shows that our trailer fitted into the horror genre.

Facebook received the same positive feedback, many people saying they would actually want to watch this film. Most people of facebook also identified the genre as ‘physological’. We were worried that some people may be confused with this horror trailer as its not the typical ‘bloody and gory’ type. However our audience said they could still understand our trailer despite the trailer not having the typical bloody characters, settings and mise-en-scene.

official attached trailer

This is our final product (our trailer). It is just under two minutes. All our finished editing and typography are shown on it, with all the research evidence shown below in older posts.

stage three editing- adobe premier

This was our final stage of editing where we had added more scenes into the trailer and cut certain ones. Above is the timeline, which shows how many different scenes we had edited and timed the scene carefully due to how many seconds it would play for. By this point we found it more difficult and stressful to try and get everything in place and sorted. For example, even though we had our timeline shots in place, we still needed to find a suitable soundtrack and add the typogaphy  created on another computer which needed to be transferrred. The typography was done on another program called Adobe After Effects, which is discussed in earlier posts, and also allowed us to keep consistency within the trailer and film poster by using the same font. Once that was put into place it was now time to find music that would match the trailer. This would go below the shots in the timeline, where we would start to edit the soundtrack and place certain 'booms' or 'whispers' under the shot it matched with. This was quite confusing to do because we were cutting and pasting the soundtrack each into 1 or 2 second parts.

At the end when the soundtrack had been put into place we watched the trailer. The editing was smooth at first and then sped up dramatically which is what we intended. Overall using Adobe helped us create our trailer just how we planned. Parts of editing were not easy, but seeing the end result actually made all the hard work pay off. 

stage two editing- adobe premier

Now that we had the experience of editing the first shots together, we became more comfortable using adobe premier and our knowledge of the program was increasing. By this stage our storyboard was coming into place because we now had more shots to edit and develop in the timeline. Because we had become more confident using this program we would cut certain shots out that we realised were not needed - such as audio in certain shots. We would do this by unlinking the audio by muting the sound. 

stage one editing- adobe premier

This was our first stage of editing using Adobe Premier. Never using this before it was quite difficult uploading each shot and getting them to link together well, however Adobe Premier did allow us to do it in the end. This shot is where all the characters are put together. We decided to put this at the beginning to let the audience establish who is part of the film trailer. When matching the next shot which is a long shot there was difficulty found even more, we fixed this by putting a dissolved effect in between the two shots which helped in the way where the characters speech was continuos. In the end it was effective and helpful because it meant we didn't have to re-film certain shots again

stages of typography - adobe after effects

We started with a blank composition where to add typography onto the screen, you must select 'layer'. I used this each time I wanted to add a text box onto the screen. The thick red line boxes highlight how long your text is shown on screen, and you can change the position of the text by sizing the text box differently. I separated the red boxes with a quite a few seconds between each, leaving room for the trailer shot to be added in between. 

The red line that is vertical, shows what layer of text is coming up next when you preview what you have written on your screen. At this stage I have finished all the text boxes and put them in their own layers and now start playing it through making sure its in chronological order.

After previewing all the correct text boxes in order, I now look at the different type of effects that we can use. This is shown in the column on the right hand side of the screen. Because the genre of the trailer is horror, I stuck with the effect of 'Fade in'. The fading of the words appears slowly in a faint shadow and disappears the same way. This is effective because it builds up the suspense of what scene in the trailer is going to be shown next. 

The title of the film is a typical genre convention, so I decided to place this at the end of the trailer. However, because this is the main title of the trailer, I decided to use an effect that would differentiate from the normal typography. The name of this effect is 'decoded', but I still kept the effect of the 'fade' to keep consistency.

The release date is also another genre convention of a film trailer - this came after the main title was shown. To keep consistency throughout the trailer I went back to using the effect of 'Fade In'. Although it comes across the screen word by word, rather than the one sentence all together.

From our research, we found that many trailers show the production company at the beginning. We developed this into our trailer by using a font that looks like a typewriter - we thought this would be suitable to the brief by relating it back to students who were our intended audience.

Showing a production name, our research showed that trailers also show a production logo. We did this with no effect, just showing the logo of an existing company. This made our trailer seem more realistic.

magazine front cover final

When creating our magazine front cover, we looked at a range of film magazines and eventually decided on using the star model 'Empire' magazine. From looking at different copies of the magazine we saw that the front cover is the film character not the actor themselves. Therefore we used our two main stock characters as the trailer is centered around their friendship and the 'attachment' between the two of them. To distinguish each character we directed the actors to display different facial expressions. Above, the naive and innocent character - Sarah, acted by Junette Salonga is smiling with quite heavy makeup on. In contrast we have Kally Nichalou who plays Rebecca-  who is the abnormal protagonist, showing a more serious look and is in less makeup. We also considered the position of them two. Having them back to back shows how their friendship isn't quite what they seem because they arent facing each other. Kally is also taller than Junette, showing possibly more importance in the film trailer. Overall, we used typical conventions of film magazine front cover. Examples are, big clear masthead, straplines, large image, barcode, price of the magazine and date issue. 

Photoshoot still shots - magazine front cover

Synopsis - final

First draft: 

When first year college student Sarah arrives at university, she cannot wait to make new friends, socialise and more importantly, further her ambition to be a fashion journalist. In the mean time, Rebecca, an emotional and unstable student is also joining the same university, in a mind frame of disturbing thoughts that lead her to hurting people. Sarah and Rebecca become friends, and soon Rebecca reveals her true colours of a psychopath. How long will Sarah survive before its too late for her to run?

Final:

What do you do when your flatmate starts to control your life and university experience? Sarah (Junette Salonga) is beginning her first year, arriving in London to study Journalism. Rebecca, studying grand art and French (Kally Nichalou) introduces herself as shy and sensitive. Little to Sarah’s (Salonga) knowledge Rebecca (Nichalou) has come from a family background of deep emotions and instability brought about from the death of her twin sister. It has caused her to have an abnormal and obsessive personality disorder, controlled by daily consistent medication. Once Rebecca stops taking her medication, trouble begins at a dinner party where the peculiar student’s anti-social behaviour glares through.  Soon it becomes apparent to Sarah’s friends, Alison (Naomi Medina) and Sasha (Imogen Sweeney) that Rebecca’s secretive behaviour is something to be worried about. How far will Rebecca go until she is stopped? What started off as a disturbing friendship climaxes into a shocking unrestrained bloody standoff between two young girls who are willing to keep everything they want, whether it is a life at university or life itself.  

Film poster final

Furthering our development we came up with our final poster. Including the layout, typography and image. We decided to come up with this poster overall because our research showed that most horror film trailers keep it simple, with the image being the main attraction for the audience. 

Film Poster on Prezi


We picked the effect of using a framed photograph like the images were taken from university records, with their names underneath. We kept the consistency of the font used throughout the film poster and trailer to keep them linked together. We used typical conventions found on film posters such as the production logo, a website and a release date. We also featured our quote at the top of the film poster, usually it will read across the screen, but we decided it be best to read it down, bringing the attention to the pictures below.