Jack5085: 2012

Below is the script I had written before hand in response to the 4 evaluation questions that I then answered in my podcast:

The four questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are:

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

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

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

1) During the production of my slasher horror trailer “Indigenous” I was heavily influenced by a variety of different movie trailer all with elements to them that I wanted to emulate in my own trailer. A few examples for instance were “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, “Shark night” and “Wolf Creek”.

In both “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Wolf Creek” they create an overwhelming feeling that these characters are alone, isolated with no way of escape. This was something I found vital for my trailer which is shown in my choice of filming locations. All are rather remote, with no inhabitants, no one around to help. Each location I’ve also tried to give that ore of eeriness and mystery with the distinct feeling that something bad is going to happen here, a common convention vital to any horror. The problem I faced was my original footage was far too bright to create this sort of effect. So to solve this problem I imported my original footage from Final Cut Pro into Color where I could alter the lighting of the shots and make it into that dark gritty look which is often a feature of British film and to give it the desired effect I was looking for. I also added different soundtracks over the film to achieve this effect. I added a soft, slow eerie soundtrack over the parts of the trailer where it became apparent something was wrong. At this point I used a track that would connote mystery and confusion along with a sense of fear. Whereas later when it hits the disequilibrium the music is more fast paced to create tension and then eludes to a heartbeat with a soft creepy soundtrack overlaid to show the seriousness of the situation yet the disbelief of the characters that they find themselves in this situation.

The element I wanted to take from “Shark night” was the upbeat start to the trailer where all the characters have finished their finals and are going to celebrate by going on vacation further adhering to Todorov’s narrative theory with this being the equilibrium. This can immediately be seen at the start of my trailer where the two characters are talking and clearly state they want to celebrate. To show this I have this part of my trailer distinctively lighter than the rest and with a soft guitar rift to show the peaceful happy nature with which the trailer starts. In this way I think my trailer flows like a horror trailer should and follows the common conventions.

2) I felt that all my products combined work well and I think that they do compliment each other. I was most pleased with the main task trailer as I felt it flowed really well altogether and that it was very professional in that way. It achieved all the aims I had wanted it to and met the correct criteria for a horror trailer whilst appealing to my target audience. It follows the common conventions such as the way the trailer only gives teaser shots of the villain while never fully revealing the character. However there were certain shots and elements I did want to add to my trailer but never got the chance to which if I did it again I would have added in. For example I did have a shot where my villain attacked one of the characters but it never revealed the character actually being struck. This is often found in horror trailers as a way to end the trailer and that was the original idea I had but I somehow lost the footage and therefore was unable to add it.

In terms of my poster I was very pleased with how the final product turned out. I think it has a professional look to it and would most certainly appeal to my target audience. The bleak dark background is in keeping with the style of the film and once again the villain is never fully revealed leaving the audience wanting to know who they are and what they look like. It even gives the sense of him searching for the characters, which connotes tension. It follows the common conventions of a poster as it has the character as the main point of the poster with it being the first thing the audience will be drawn to. I have also linked my poster to my magazine by making the pull quote “Best of British Horror” from my magazine Motion. I thought this was a very clever way to give my magazine a more professional look to it. The addition of several social networking sites at the bottom of the poster is in keeping with the new form of media that is now used to advertise movies. I also added the YouTube logo, which was where I had the idea of uploading my video to.

I believe my magazine cover was the least strong of my 3 tasks but I think it is still a good magazine cover and does have a professional look to it. I liked the stormy background as it connotes a storm that this evil character is at the centre of. I wanted to create my masthead in After Effects as I could have made it look better and given it a more original, distinctive look. However, I think I have made the best use of the resources available to me and used a font from 1001 freefonts. I duplicated this to give my masthead a more 3D look to it. I modelled my magazine very much on “Empire” magazine, which can be seen in the way I have laid out my magazine cover, and even some way in the colours I used. I used three main colours on my magazine, which follows the common convention of any magazine giving my product continuity. I also added a website for my magazine and put it inside the masthead as seen in “Empire” magazine. I had also previously added a website for my film on the poster further continuing to show the use of new media.

3) I used Survey Monkey in order to gain audience feedback, which can then be linked to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which my target audience of youth most commonly use. This means the majority of my audience feedback will come from my target audience which will further help me to improve my project.

Through my Survey Monkey I found that 60% of the responses were from males and 90% of the responses I got were from individuals aged between 15 and 24, which was my intended target audience. I had also learned that 55% of responses were from the E social grade which, when looking at the age most people were, would indicate the majority being students. This immediately enabled me to nail down a target audience so I knew what I would be aiming for and therefore I knew to make it more appealing to this audience.

I learned a few different things about what aspects of the trailer are most appealing and important to these audiences. The most important seemed to be to view the main characters of the film with it getting 85% of votes and a joint second being the music score and for the trailer to develop in chronological order both collecting 55% of votes.

This is also how I originally decided on the genre of my film trailer as 75% of the responses I got voted for Horror as their favourite genre of film trailers. As this was such a clear favourite amongst audiences it allowed me to make an immediate decision to do this whereas if it was only 55% or 60% with another getting 40% it may have been more difficult as I would have been missing out on a large amount of audiences.

Audience feedback has also shown me the importance of the Internet in reference to film trailers as 85% of the responses I received from the survey stated that they often watch film trailers via the Internet. This then showed me the importance of this resource and so I knew by uploading my trailer to popular video sites such as YouTube and Vimeo would vastly increase awareness of the product amongst audiences.

4) During the creation of my trailer I used many different technologies such as “Adobe After Effects”, “Final Cut Pro” and “Color” to further develop my product. This links into Gauntlett’s quote that “new methods…recognise and make use of people’s own creativity, and brush aside the outmoded notion of ‘receiver’ audiences and elite ‘producers’.

I’ve had to use different technologies for different purposes such as Survey Monkey to gain Audience feedback, as previously stated in my last questions. I’ve had to use Adobe Photoshop for both of my ancillary tasks of a magazine cover and a film poster. I was also able to use Blogger to blog detailed planning and research that I had previously done for my project and the answers to my Survey Monkey questionnaires.

I used “Adobe After Effects” to create my title sequence which took a long time to create and perfect and in order for me to create this and make it to its best I had to follow a strict tutorial on “Video Co-Pilot”.

To film my trailer I used a Canon 600D camera that produced a high quality image not far off professional filmmaking quality considering the film “Black Swan” was shot on a 700D camera. This has then led to a more professional better quality trailer.

Even now in the evaluation stages I am using a mixture of Prezi and Podcasts to produce my evaluation of the final products to show the wide spectrum of media technologies used throughout the project.

When I reflect upon my photo shoot I think the initial shoot and the resulting images were all very interesting and came out well, with several options for me to use on my poster. As I previously stated in my magazine journal one of the problems I faced was that my original actor, Merran, could not attend on the day I needed to do the photo shoot but this was easily overcome by using a model of a similar build so that it appears they are the same person.

I also wished I had shot separately at a different location without the model as I then could have imposed them on the background. This is because I had originally thought of doing my poster as a wooded area with a bloody hand launching its way out of the bushes and toward the camera. Even though I managed to get some shots of my models hand I could not get a shot fitting enough to impose it on to. However, with the general outcome of the photo shoot I was very pleased and knew I had some terrific shots to work with allowing me to produce a film poster of high quality.