Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our group intended to create a horror trailer that not only
resembled a realistic Hollywood production but a trailer that would be slightly
different to every other existing trailer.
We as a group, fully understood that the media product we were to create had to reproduce the functionality of those existing horror film trailers that we had previously researched. Inorder to do this, we searched for the most similar film that related closely to our own by this I mean the similarities between the plot, characters/actors and setting. We combined the concept of Blair Witch Project 1999 and our film, Torment (2013). The group all agreed that the Blair Witch Project was a prime example to work around using it's template and low budget success. We then further decided to use information in the trailer as convention - stating the 'facts' - connoting the realism of the film as well as using a documentary format.
Therefore we decided to embrace the
forms and conventions of a real media product. In order to do this, we
researched trailers by watching them and analysing them – what affect did they
have? And how? how could we pursue the same effect? This way, not only did we
learn techniques but we gained a lot of inspiration. We realised that as soon
as you watch a horror trailer, you know it’s a horror trailer due to the set of
conventions that they so distinctively contain. We also wanted to make this
obvious.
The rest of my answer
will include 9 screen shots of my media product compared to frames from real horror trailers, contrasting too and outlines the
similarities.
Here is my
first comparison with the sourced film stated below. In production we actually
imitated this screen shot, using a similar text. This beginning passage of text may persuade the audience to continue on watching caused by the curiosity this certain information may have caused. We decided to use this
particular text of information to add an authentic touch and document the
viewer with important ‘information’ of the film itself which will in fact, help
the viewer to follow a sense of the story line. Our element of realism is also provoked by this text as it is this fictional scenario that is believed to have genuinely taken place. Which contributes to the creepiness; particularly when backed up by statistics.
A
teaser trailer is a short trailer that will be used to advertise an upcoming
film. Often released a few months before the due date, the teaser will help
create interest and anticipation and simply give the target audience knowledge
of the film; to give them something to look forward too. A teaser trailer is a
lot shorter compared to an official, theatrical trailer – usually just under
two minutes. It’s main purpose of to literally ‘tease’ it’s audience, hence its
name. From this, the audience with be able to grab short snippets from the
movie while without being revealed too much of the plot or crucial plot details. It should allow it’s audience to develop an idea of the storyline, genre and of
course the actors involved in the film. This will determine whether they want
to go see it or not. They create an excitement and hype about the film that
will gradually lead them to come up in conversation; supported by the use of
posters and film magazines. Teaser trailers are often made while the film is
still in production or being edited. As a result of this, the teaser may
include scenes and/or alternative versions of scenes that are not actually in
the finished film. In many cases, teaser
trailers are only made just for big-budget, popular or sequence movies.
The
title of the film is usually presented at the end of the trailer along with any
other important information including the release date. Some teaser trailers include a list of the directors and producers
involved in the making of the film. This will help the audience to make any
connections they might have if they’ve previously experiencing a film with them
before. As well as the creators, the teaser may present a lift of the actors
included in the film. This list is expected to be shown at the beginning of the
trailer therefore the audience will know who to expect and look out
for/recognise. This can be important to the marketing of a film as the audience
will sometimes decide whether to see the film or not based on who’s starred in
it.
This is another comparison from the same trailer. The two
screen shots are very similar in MIS EN SCENE in terms of what both shots
contain; both actors are ‘discovering something’ or looking for something
despite one using a touch to search, the two captions are very closely related.
Both are in darkness with a small use of light to show a part of the actor.
When you look at either of the screen shots it’s quite scary as the shot itself
makes you believe there is something or someone beneath the darkness that
surrounds the actor.
Q2. How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?
A films success can be greatly dependent on it's distributor. A film distributor's role will be to control and manage the films marketing and circulation of movies in theaters. As well as the way the film can be watched elsewhere such as home viewing (DVD, rental, television rights, etc.). Despite whether the film is good or not, the distributor still plays a huge factor on the judgement of this. Film distributers are vital for those films that are small and independent because they are less likely to be known or paid attention of which that don't contain big name stars whereas studio pictures do therefore, it is crucial for viewing attention to be focused on them. The distributors will also decide the budget of the film in terms of advertisement; TV commercials, internet, magazine, posters, trailers, promotions. These methods of advertising can be crucial for the film as it informs the audience to watch it. They have to aim to gain the attention of their target audience and in order to do this they must persuade the audiences that they must see this film and that it will be worthwhile. Age groups all react differently to advertising, a proportion of cinema users are in the age range of 15-24 of whom are likely to react to teaser trailers, internet blogs/websites, film posters, and reviews online or in magazines. Not only will the distributor organise marketing but they will also usually arrange screenings for exhibitors, as well as other marketing techniques that will make the exhibitor believe they will profit financially by showing the film. The distributer will make the decision to which and how many theatres the film will be shown in and how long, which will determine how much money it can be allowed to make during its theatrical run. Distributors ensure their physical delivery to the theater by the opening day, monitor exhibitors to make sure the film is in fact shown in the particular theatre with the minimum number of seats and show times, and ensure the prints' return to the distributor's office or other storage resource also on the contract-based return date.
Within the group, we decided it was essential to maintain a consistent
curious yet mysterious theme within both the ancillary products and
main product.
After discovering 'Silent Hills' horror poster of which I particularly found effective in terms of creepiness. I was satisfied with it's element of such a spooky simplicity of which I wanted to imitate as my own thus I used this poster as inspiration. We had a photo shoot with our inspiration in our mind, with a clear image of our desired magazine main image and portrayed the a-like pose and position. Very familiar with photoshop due to past AS media creations, I edited my chosen image and enhanced it with unearthly, strange effects to make it look as sinister as possible.
When creating my film poster I considered many features of real film posters by searching through portfolios online. I then analysed these various posters to notice that many were similar in a number of ways. From just briefly looking at these posters I regarded the title, the main image and colour scheme as the most significant features of the poster.
Focusing more on the use of lighting within my magazine product, I thought I'd keep it dark - but not too dark. I 'grained' the image and made the model, myself, stand out from the background behind me. The lighting actually reminds me of a flash from a camera as if, I'm only meant to be seen for a short second. I wanted to keep the portrait simple. I chose to wear clothes that would fit my character in the film; girly, quite classy and just casual clothes in general - nothing
that would indicate that i'm initially a sinister character. This keeps the curiosity throughout the ancillary products. I also wanted to keep to minimum text as I think that the more text and titles added to the cover would reduce the creepy appeal. I used a splash and drip effect of blood in order to involve some real horror conventions and to more importantly, make it obvious that the magazines a horror magazine.
In terms of use of text, I decided to use red, black and white, all three colours that connote horror. As well as the reason that it looked appropriate for each text making it stand out and highlighting the key feature.
For my film poster I used a snapshot of the very ending of Torments trailer. We had initially planned this shot to use it in further ancillary products and so I did. After a little bit of subtle editing the image appeared more poster-like rather than just the plain screenshot and had gained a spook-ier effect. The positioning of the image worked really well with my plan of how I wanted the poster to appear as. For example, 'his head' leaves enough room to the left hand side for the title to be placed. The layout worked really well together without being to squashed together. This means the poster is easy to see and read. The image is the centre image and is the first thing to be noticed when glancing at the poster, continuing on to the title. The image is also quite surreal to an extent, it's at an angle of which is realistically looking down to the viewer as if to be calling for help. Above the title, I included the line 'inspired by a true story' and just below, 'from the director of hostel' - both in a very shadowy, foreseen font. The purpose of adding these two lines is just to inform the audience and to hopefully convince them even more to watch it. In small print along the bottom of the poster, I added the names of actors, production companies and a link to the films very own website.
Q3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Our given feedback was very important to the group. It was vital that we received others opinions from a audience point of view. In terms of how we could improve in order to increase the result of effectiveness of our final product from different aspects. As well as gaining an understanding of which areas within the trailer, in detail, that would need adjusting or enhancing.
The purpose of creating and developing questionnaires and surveys is to simply create initial ideas for plots and trailers. However the results give the producers a chance to re edit some of their material to appeal to the audience more. The majority of answers can also change the outcome of the overall film i.e changing locations, characters and props. With the feedback we gathered from the viewers that were included in initial research we then linked each and every evaluative feedback with the initial questionnaires. We agreed that a large number of aspects didn’t actually 'live up' to what the audience themselves were expecting at the beginning of the trailer. As a way of forming feedback, we displayed a 'class viewing' of each groups horror trailer over the duration of a lesson. We were given feedback sheets including what we liked, disliked and our opinions of improvements. This would highlight key advantages and disadvantages to everyones trailers.
From this, we as a team, agreed that we needed to prioritise these particular requests or 'advice' from our audience as opposed to our own preference. Therefore with a new, somewhat fresh perspective on how to make our horror trailer, Torment, creepier, more thrilling and more importantly, more entertaining than ever - we decided the most productive advice from the feedback would replace the ineffective aspects of the trailer with more horror trailer conventions. For example, we changed the description of text that we had originally used due to negative feedback we received. We also learnt that it was vital that we needed to add more thrill to the trailer; in order to emphasis this convention we increased the pace of transition which did in fact improve efficiency conveying the frightening horror scenes we wanted to portray.
Overall without product feedback referring to various flaws in our product, I feel we as a group could have been naive and just very easily left the considerations that resulted in a less effective product.
In order to construct, create, design and develop all three of my products; my magazine, poster and trailer, I used various technologies and a number of equipment kinds. In terms of media technology, our options were limitless. Computer software to physical use of video cameras and tripods, all were taken to our advantage to benefit our trailer. Without a doubt, we were fortunate that our possibilities were endless in the way that media technology benefited us.
As followed are the platforms that occurred during the production of Torment horror trailer.
Because the use of jotty notes, spider diagrams and basic notes we actually required technology the least at this beginning stage. We were able to plan using story boards and brainstorms to record our important notes that soon because ideas. We built on these notes and developed them further each session of discussion.
As a survey, we used a website called 'Survey Monkey' of which we composed our questionnaire that we would later receive our feedback via. However the survey also led us in which direction we should include in the film during planning.
Most vital, to film our trailer, we used a HD video recorder belonging to the college that was provided to us. Both still and moving images were able to be captured on the device. Within the team, we had one main recorder, Oscar. However we did all take a turn to gain some experience and practical knowledge from it which worked out well. After travelling to one of the group members relatives buildings, our film location, we recored hours of footage that we would later carefully choose from. We purposely filmed the trailer hand-held as this is what our films' theme revolved around; conventional for low budget films such as The Blair Witch Project. Therefore the use of a tripod was not required.
After providing ourselves with hours of material, the team would concentrate on accompanying ourselves with Macintosh Software, Final Cut pro. Each group was assigned their own iMac which would contain every useful programme to produce our horror trailer. With each of our own iMacs, we would be able to save our work directly onto this certain desktop which would save time each lesson rather than waiting around for the server to load.
Final Cut pro was the most significant amongst all of the tools used throughout the project. It provided us with the functionality needed to result in a professional outcome and without this piece of media technology, our trailer would not exist. It was a programme new to all of us, with only very basic skills learnt during the A2 preparation in late 2012. Despite our lack of practice however, our skills developed gradually over time during the construction of the trailer.
Photoshop, Premiere Pro and GarageBand were the three main professional programmes we used that required minimal training. More advanced, more complicated features were available to use that if used correctly and well would have a substantial effect but as a team we kept the usual, more basic tools that the programme had to offer; we didn't want to risk loosing the quality or quantity of footage due to in-proper use of tools.
Garageband was used to create original and unique sound effects and our very own soundtrack as a piece of music; with one member of the group feeling confident due to existing skill and knowledge of the programme. We were open-minded to the soundtrack we'd like to use, however we had a certain standard of creepiness and suspense we wanted to pursue. As well as keeping in mind how the piece would fit to the clips of the trailer while of course keeping in nice harmony and complimenting the footage. Using Apples Garageband would mean that our music would be 100% original.
iMac Programmes were not the only media products involved in the creation of the trailer. We have to appreciate the important use of the internet - partiually in the research stage of production. IMDB (Internet Movie Database) contains the basic or in-depth and simply interesting details for millions of movies, from cinema blockbusters to niche, low budget releases.
Once we had completed the editing process, using Premiere Pro, we would uploaded our completed trailer onto Youtube. Now available to the general public, like any other professional horror trailer. This meant it was very realistic. In fact, YouTube allows the user to upload their videos free of charge, for restricted or free viewing by the public. Each video is uploaded in the same way. Film makers are able to share their video, which can be shared again like a circle which in time dramatically increasing views/reach.
The final action for us to take would be to use Blogger.com to upload all our final work to. I believe that myself and my team used the correct and appropriate media technology in particular contexts, maintaining a high standard.
