The Grim Truth: Completed Trailer on YouTube

Complete Poster

Complete Magazine

Evaluation: Question 4

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

Prezi 1: Technologies in Research & Planning.

Prezi 2: Technologies in Construction. 

Using iMovie & Garage Band 

Using Photoshop

 

Evaluation: Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

TRAILER COMMENTARY

During both research and construction stages I gained audience feedback through different platforms and all feedback has helped me to shape my media products.

Questionnaires: Me and my partner gave a questionnaire to college peers to find out their views and opinions on horror films and what conventions they did or didn't expect to see in a horror trailer. We asked question like what types of location would you expect to see and what editing transitions do you feel would best suit a horror trailer. Giving the questionnaire to people in college also helped as people ages 16+ are our target audience so it was useful to see what they liked about horror films/trailer and how we could en corporate this into our trailer. This is what led to use deciding to use a handheld camera as our target audience enjoyed horror films such as Paranormal Activity that used this effect.

Audience Interviews: We interviewed two people of our target audience and asked about rating of horror films, this led us to make our trailer a 15 as our target audience found they enjoyed horror films that were rated 15 more appealing to go and see at the cinema rather than those rated 18. We also asked them about sound and locations and if they preferred conventional sounds and locations.

Social Network Feedback: Social networking feedback was helpful to see what other people who weren't necessarily in our target audience thought of both the trailer and our individual magazines and posters. Through social networking feedback we found out what type of horror films people liked and what plots would interest them.

Feedback from media class: We presented the rough cut of trailer to our media class and tutor and this proved to extremely helpful as they gave honest opinions on what elements they liked and which ones to improve on. When we showed the rough cut people liked the editing transitions so we kept those in and added more especially during flash back scenes (we used fade to white rather than black as used in the rest of the trailer) so the audience could see the difference between what was real and what was a flashback.When we presented the trailer again we also showed our magazines and posters and the feedback received was helpful as people were able to tell the genre and how it related to the trailer and they gave improvements that were helpful.

Overall audience feedback has been helpful for my individual tasks and for our trailer as it has allowed us to get an insight of what a target audience would want from a horror trailer and relating products. It has helped me to develop my work to suit the audience accurately.

Evaluation: Question 2

How effect is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

Representation of character: On both my magazine and poster I have used Harriet the main character from the trailer. I have chosen to show her in her 'mental state' and her outfit on the poster and magazine reflects this as she in a hospital gown rather than in her 'normal state' which she is seen in the trailer when she is entering the college. I chose to use Harriet on my ancillary products as she is the main character so the audience will most likely recognize her and people are usually more interested in the main character of the film.

Good vs Bad: In the trailer it could be suggested that Harriet is the bad character and the group of friends, Shepa, Jess and Nic, are the good characters. However as the trailer develops it suggests to the audience that Harriet is mentally unstable so she is not intentionally evil it is her mental state.

Locations: We used locations in college such as the canteen as this fitted with our storyline, we also used some other room within the college as it an old building with a lot of features and character so it doesn't look like a typical college building. We shot the asylum scenes in a small, empty room within the college we kept the framing quite tight on these scenes so the audience really believed it was a mental hospital room. We filmed some of the 'action' scenes in the woods, it is quite a conventional location used in horror film trailers. For my magazine I used a plain white wall for the background as I have cut out the location and I also used this location for the poster.

Colour & Lighting: In the trailer the lighting is low key and dark which fits with the genre well. In the woods scene in the trailer the lighting is quite high key as it was daytime when we filmed this, however I think it works well as a contrast to the low key lighting used in the rest of the trailer. On my poster I used a blue tint over the image to give more of a horror feel I think this works well and fits with the genre effectively.

Evaluation:Question 1

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

Presentation1 from GabyMurphy

Q1 extra from GabyMurphy

Research & Planning: Poster

This is my poster so far. I still have changes to make. I am going to change the background to include props from the trailer and also edit the picture. The steel tongs need work to make it look more professional and I am going to some more colours to the poster than suit the genre.

Research & Planning: Magazine

This is my magazine, there are still some changes I am going to make especially to the red area as the text is overlapping the main image and I want to change this whilst still keeping the font eye catching.

Research & Planning: Progress

Research & Planning: Trailer

This is our trailer so far, we have added our soundtrack and finished editing.

Research & Planning: Soundtrack

This is the soundtrack we have created for our trailer.

Research & Planning: Editing Log

This is mine and my partners editing log.

Research & Planning: Location Recces & Risk Assessment

These are the location recces and risk assessments for my magazine and poster.

Research & Planning: Sound Research

Heartbeat Sound- This sound works well in horor film trailer as it usually makes the audiences heartbeat increase too and it creates tension. I think this sound effect could work in our trailer layered over our soundtrack at first and then getting louder to build up the tension.

This effect could be re-created by our main character Harriet as it sounds quite haunting and could work effectively.

Research & Planning: Film Poster Codes & Conventions

This is the poster for the thriller Case 39. The poster uses conventional features seen in many posters.

The tagline 'Some cases should never be opened' is featured in the top right of the poster and it stands out against the dark background.
The photo used on the poster fits to the genre and also allows the viewer to get a sense of what the film may be about.The photo features the two main characters, which is a common convention of posters and this can draw in the audiences.
The title of the film is written in write and again it stands out against the dark background. It is in a bigger size font to stand out more to the audience.

The cast and crew information is included underneath the the title of the film. It includes the main actors name and crew members. All of it is written in Steel Tongs font, a font that I will be using in my own poster. This section of the poster also features the distribution logo, production company logo and the website for the film.
The rating for the film is included, along with the release date of the film, with a another tagline 'They'll never stop'.

These conventions are going to be used on my own poster to make it realistic.

Research & Planning: Trailer

Research & Planning: Magazine

Research & Planning: Poster

Research & Planning: Audience Feedback

This is the second lot of feedback me and my got from our class. We showed our trailer and our individual poster and magazine.







  

Poster & Magazine: People were able to tell the genre of my magazine and poster correctly. Other feedback said the image used on the poster and magazine were good and also that the fonts were effective.  Some suggestions to improve were that there was too much white space on the right side of the poster and for the magazine the left looked too plain. From this feedback I have since changed the layout of my magazine and am working on my poster.

Trailer: People said we had used a good variety of shots and good editing transitions. One of the main improvements people suggested were to make the voice-overs louder as it was hard to hear. Me and my partner are currently working on.

Research & Planning:Magazine Progress

Research & Planning: Poster

Research & Planning: Magazine

Research & Planning: Tag Lines for film poster

These are some possible tag line for our trailer that I would use on my film poster.

'Keep your friends close'

'You never know who your friends are'

We decided to use the first tagline as it is a twist on the phrase, 'keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer' and it fits with plot of our trailer.

Research & Planning: Trailer Updates

Today we did some more filming for trailer. We filmed;

- Scenes in the park, the character running though the woods
- 'Mental illness' forms on the wall
- Blood on hands and a knife
- Pans around the woods
- Shots of feet running

We are going to use most of this footage in the trailer and are going to edit it later this afternoon and see how it works with the footage we already have.

Research & Planning: Film Poster Shots

These are all the photo's I took for my film poster. I am currently edited the photo I picked.

Research & Planning: Magazine Breakdown

 

This is the cover breakdown of an issue of 'Empire' magazine.

Research & Planning: Production Documents

Shot List's

Research & Planning: Film Magazine Progress

This is my film magazine so far, I am unsure if I like the outcome so far especially with the font,however I am planning to take my pictures this week and then see how they look with the style of the magazine so far.

Research & Planning: Shot Locations

Harriet's mental asylum scenes

We used an unused room in college and create a bed, this location worked well as the room had a lot of empty space. It also had a pin-board which worked well for mise en scene as we put extra props up on the board which made the space look more like a hospital room.

College Confrontation Scenes

We are going to use the cafe area in our college for the scene with 3 girls talking about Harriet's character. We are going to try to do this at a time when the cafe won't be that busy, however we do want other people in the background so that it creates a sense of realism.
We are going to use other location in college for the one on one scenes with Harriet and each of the other characters. Some of the locations we are going to use are stairs, door with a window.

Park

For the last scenes/ climax of the film/trailer we are going to film in the park nearby college at around 4pm when it will be starting to go dark.

Research & Planning: Make Up Test Shots

This a make up look I am planning on using for our trailer. I used white, black and grey eye-shadows to create a tired look as I think this fits with what is happening to our main character in the trailer.

Research & Planning: Social Networking Feedback 1

This is some Facebook feedback from the rough cut of our trailer.

Research & Planning: Magazine Progress

This is my film magazine so far, I am going to do some test shots this week to try and see what kind of image I want to use.

Research & Planning: Audition Script

Case 39 Extract

 

These are extracts from the horror film 'Case 39' that we are going to use for our audition script.

Research & Planning: Magazine Cover Idea's

For my magazine cover photo I am going to take a photo of Harriet who is the main character from our trailer.
I have decided not to have the magazine issue as a special horror edition, just an exclusive on our film, including interviews and behind the scenes.

For the colour scheme of the magazine I am sticking to the three colour rule using black, white and either blue or red.

I am planning on using two fonts on the cover that I will mostly download from 'da font'. I am calling my magazine 'Rewind' as it links to film and cinema.

Research & Planning: Filming to be done

- Asylum scenes could be re shot using feedback we received

- 3 characters chatting in college about Harriet's character

- Fear scenes, each characters individually

- Park scenes with all characters

Research & Planning: Things to do

Upload audience feedback
Social Networking feedback
Auditions
Upload unedited footage
Magazine/Poster test shots
Pod-casts

Reearch & Planning: Podcast 2

Me and my partner did a joint podcast showing the progress on our trailer so far and what we have left to do.