OUR FINAL SHOTS FOR POSTER AND MAGAZINE FRONT COVER

REAL CASE STUDY

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24538798

A 12 year old Floridian girl took her life as a result of being bullied by a group of girls. This all happened over the internet, raising the awareness of cyber bullying, whilst showing that it is a serious form of bullying. The 12 year old committed suicide by jumping to her death as she found it hard to bear the bullying online and also in school. The bullies also gave harsh comments to the victim telling her that she should ‘drink bleach and die’. Two girls have been arrested, and remain in custody. The bullying took place at a crucial time within Rebecca’s life, as she was in the middle of puberty so her insecurities were high so the bullies had attacked at the worst time. This therefore created more doubts within Rebecca’s mind forcing her to act upon it which led to her devastating death. This case study correlates with our won horror film, as it portrays a young girl who became ‘terrorised’ by a group of girls. Which is essentially what happens within our narrative, the female who gets bullied within our narrative also takes her life. As a horror film this will be effective, as the audience will feel heartbreak for the character once this happens.  It also plays on real life events that happen, playing on the audience’s fears and also displaying situations that occur on a daily basis within the world (bullying). The bullying that features in our horror is also because of a boy, directly the same as the case study. There is fear for both the younger and older audience, as the younger audience will gain a sense of realism as they could be in a similar situation, but the older section of the audience, and may have children so for something so devastating to happen within their lives would be horrific, carrying out the aim of every horror to convey acts that scare and remain within the audience’s minds. The young girls family are grieving as they feel that they did what they could, as when the bullying occurred they took their child out of school in order to make it stop however it continued. Perhaps parents are not always able to keep their children safe. It is clear that cyber bullying is a worsening aspect of bullying and will need to be monitored by parents. The bullying in our horror film takes place in school, so the parents have no chance to stop it, the victim is also much older with the age of 17, so the problem would not be once for them to go and confront their parents about. 

NARRATIVE 1

Set in a school, a group of friends (6) are all sitting, around, with 1 outsider Genner who falls in love with the boy in the group. She became obsessed, stalking, keeping objects he had touched. However this boy had fallen in love with a girl within his friendship group. G now takes it upon herself to arrange a date for herself and this boy, the rest of the group encourage her even though they know that she will not succeed. The meeting is set upon a bridge, although he never shows leaving G distraught. She then takes a picture of him out of her pocket and burns it, she commits suicide due to being so heartbroken. Her sorrow is so deep that she overcomes the boy who she fancied and possesses him. He then does unusual actions causing his friends to realise something is wrong. He (with G inside of him) then stalks the group of friends and tries to destroy their lives. Everyone is stuck in the school, trapped by the boy who is possessed. He individually finds ways to torture the girls who had bullied G, and eventually murders them. The girls find out that it is G who has possessed him. The boy then comes to the final girl, who he loves, and he fights with himself not to kill her. You are able to see the fight within him, and finally in order to kill G he has to murder himself to leave him girl alive.

OUR PITCH

We as a group created a pitch outlining what our trailer would be about, how we would make our vision come to life and what gave us inspiration. This was then presented in order to gain feedback from the target audience, allowing us to better our ideas and also get a genuine reaction from our creation.

 

 

 

 

ANALYSIS AND FEEDBACK OF PITCH

We presented our pitch to our peers who are also our target audience, enabling us to receive crucial feedback on our narrative from an early point in our developing the narrative process. The main feedback of our pitch was to make sure that the elite group and Genner were clearly separated in order to display the bullying perfectly. This is constructive criticism that can not be overshadowed, we as a group much make sure that the bullying is displayed tastefully, whilst making a continuous occurrence throughout the trailer. The constructive criticism that was given to us was :
- Make the narrative clear throughout
- Keep the trailer sophisticated
- Keep to conventions, or challenge them do not ignore them.

These have therefore become our aims whilst developing the our narrative, if we do not keep it clear then our target audience be completely unsure as to what is going on as well as the concept . If the narrative did not make sense our trailer would be unsuccessful immediately and therefore any of our other names would be insufficient.

Our inspiration to the sophistication of our trailer is due to James Wan, an extremely successful director of several horror films. Through analysing him, and his work we as a group were able to understand techniques that will all contribute to the final product of our trailer.

Conventions are a major part of any film but in particular horrors. If these conventions are not apparent within our trailer than our target audience would mistake our genre therefore making our trailer instantly unsuccessful.

Furthermore from our feedback we were also told from our peers that what we had worked on so far is extremely detailed and well thought out, not only had we thought through our narrative step by step but had also thought of ways to back up our suggestions. For example using pathetic fallacy in order to prove that  disruption will occur. This allowed our creativity to flow further, whilst empowering us to develop our narrative further with the confidence that our ideas had the right impact on our target audience.

DIRECTOR CASE STUDY

IDEAS FOR COSTUME, HAIR AND MAKE UP

IDEAS FOR PROPS

LIGHTING IDEAS

There are many different lighting techniques used within horror trailers.

UNDERLIGHTING:
Underlighting is a main technique used to create dramatic effects. The use of underlighting creates one half of a face to be dark and once light, this can create the effect of good and evil within a character. We want to use this technique in order to portray Jamal our protagonist when possessed, to display to the audience that although he is possessed he still has some purity within him subtly giving more insight into the character himself.

LOW LEVEL LIGHTING:
This type of lighting is used repetitively in order to portray a creepy, mysterious and dark. The main connotation of this group of three is danger, a element which makes everyone feel vulnerable, making it the perfect time to scare our audience. This effect can also create shadows, which resembles the idea that not everything you see is real, due to a shadow only being the outline of your body, it does not reveal your emotions, expressions or attitude. Further reinforcing the fear of the unknown.

 

 

 



 

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING:
This type of lighting is used in many sequences, and will be used when in our common room scenes, as it will need to be light enough in order for the camera to see the characters. A torch is also used in order to insert intense light in particular scenes. For example our stab includes Jamal over the shoulder of his girlfriend whilst being possessed, therefore we need a sudden impulse of light directed on his face when in the unlit corridor. This will intensify the jumpy moment.

IDEAS FOR CAMERA

The Psycho shower scene covers many different camera angles, that can be effective in a number of ways which is why it is such an effective scene to analyse. We begin with a medium shot of Marian Crane which reveals only half of her body, but however she is wearing no costume leaving her completely vulnerable to the viewers as well as Norman Bates, who is about to kill her which she is completely unaware of but the audience are much more aware of what is about to happen forming dramatic irony. The colours that are present during this scene are extremely minimal, white is the main colour of choice which connotes purity, innocence and vulnerability all attributes that feature within the antagonist. The camera angles form a match on action from a medium shot to a point of view shot, enabling us as the audience to understand the emotions that are running through marian during these moments, further intensifying the scene and making the audience feel weary. Later on in the scene a medium shot is still displayed with an over the shoulder shot in order for the audience to see that there is a body behind the white shower curtain. At this specific moment there is a contrast in colours of white and black instantly connoting good and evil. Characters that live through the entire movie. Close ups are also used within this scene in order to capture the intense emotion that is displayed on Marian's face once she is faced with the killer Norman. This then leads into an extreme close up of her mouth which further intensifies the extent that she is shocked, scared and surprised. There are a number of close ups used within the scene, for example Marian's hand being dragged down the wall once stabbed several times. Furthermore the last shot within this sequence is a zoom in extreme close up of the plug whole which blood has been pouring into, the plug whole itself is a circle which could be a play on 'the circle of life' which is in fact ironic due to Marian's life ending. All of these features contribute to making the audience doubt their thoughts, or even continue thinking once the film is over, making the narrative extremely successful.

NON DIEGETIC SOUND IDEAS

IDEAS FOR NON DIEGETIC SOUND

Sound that does not come from the world of the movie Throughout the trailer, there will be the sound of a drum. This will start from the beginning of the trailer at a slow and steady pace, at a soft beat gradually working its way to a more harsh and harder sound. The purpose of the drum is to create tension, something that s present within many trailers. For example the clock ticking within

 

The Possession trailer when building up to find out what is wrong with the younger daughter. Its effective and keeps the audience on edge. By starting this drum at the beginning of the trailer the audience will feel on edge from the outset then as soon as they feel comfortable with the noise the sound will become harsher and for example a quick close up of Genner's dark face will appear to leave the audience gasping. Throughout the Montague the drum will continue to play but pick up the pace as the shots will get quicker, and the sounds will get louder as the audience will feel much more tense. This will work to keep the audience intrigued, on edge and interested. Another idea for non diegetic sound we have for our trailer, is to include a voice over of a 'bystander' who has found Genner's dead body and is on the phone to the police. This will include a frightened, worried and astonished voice saying ' police, police please .. there's... there's ..... a ..... dead body. .......................yes. ...........I..... I don't know... who she is.......... yes, young........ I'm sorry........... i don't know.............ok......yes............help.....her.' This will play for over a 30-35 second period, which will end with a loud scream which will correlate with what is displayed on screen. This is an idea that we got from The Devil Inside trailer, as a similar voice over appeared at the opening, and we found it affective, as the audience were gripped and interested into what was happening.

Also because the voice over would not be by a character on screen, forcing the audience to pay attention to what was happening on screen in order to understand the nature of the call. A scream will be placed at the end of the film, which i will correlate with the image on screen (Jamal's possessed face), this will be used for the stab. Inevitably frightening the audience one last time, encouraging them to go and watch our fright filled film. Echo's will also feature within our narrative, the effect of this technique is to create a unfit mental state which Genner is in, and the audience will then share as they will hear her thoughts. This echo will appear once Genner is being cornered by members of the elite group, and they are bullying her. By these words 'Get a life' 'He will never love you' being echoed, the audience will be able to put themselves in the shoes of Genner and understand just how confused she is feeling. Creating an effective sound technique.


The diegetic sounds that will feature will be screams that are happening on screen in order to capture the complexity of the situations that are occurring. Footsteps will also occur, this will appeal to the audience's senses whilst being aesthetically pleasing. Although we have more non diegetic sounds within our trailer than diegetic, we still feel that this will be extremely effective as the non diegetic sounds help pull together the trailer as a whole, whilst emphasizes our footage.



The sounds within The Women In Black are extremely inspirational. The non diegetic nursery rhyme that features throughout highlights and emphasis the best features within the trailer whilst collaborating with what is on the screen, this is the sophistication that we wish to establish.

RECONNAISSANCE

One of our locations is the common room, this will bring the idea of realism to our audience, as the cast are sixth formers so they would have a common room to go to proving our trailer to be a realistic representation. This is the general effect of the common room to resemble a reliable representation whilst capturing the students at their lows and their peaks. For example there will be scenes of Genner alone and staring over the elite group, as well as the group sitting around and just talking about general topics such as parties and clothes. Through this location the reality if sixth formers will be acknowledged.

All of the above a shots of the girls toilets. It is a well known fact that girls go to the toilet in pairs or in groups, this idea is played on within our trailer. A lot of bullying does occur within the toilets, which is ironic as there are many assumptions about teenagers when being bullied at school and one of them is to hide in the toilet, so we decided to take this to a further extent and actually place some bullying within the toilet. The effect of this is that the connotation of a toilet is a clean, place where no one will come and check up on you; the perfect spot for a bully. Forming the idea that Genner is not safe from the bullies.

 

The bridge is a vital location, as this is where Genner is supposed to meet Jamal for their 'date', but however ends up being the place she commits suicide. There are obvious connotations of a bridge which apply intensely. The effect of this particular location is that is slightly involves dramatic irony the audience are aware that she will not meet Jamal and something terrible will happen, it's just the time between Genner's realization and her drastic death.

NARRATIVE 2

It's a winter day, and some of the sixth form students are free in the common room. A group of 5 girls and 1 boys are sitting in the main seating area. This group is the most popular of the year, and seen as 'elite' from their fellow pupils. One girl, who is of a dark nature always sits in the isolated area at the back of the common room, she tends to just stare at the group. With the elite group there is a couple Jamal and Taylor. The dark natured girl Genner is always looking out for J&T, as she has a crush on Jamal. The rest of this elite group tease Genner, as they know she has a crush on Jamal. A slight hint of bullying will occur, this will not be brutal but real, name calling, pushing in the hallways and hints of teasing will be present. This will take place over a period of time. One day the bullying is taken a step further as the elite group get hold of G's phone number and tell her that J is actually interested in her, they arrange a meeting place which is a park/ isolated area with a bridge (connotations of a bridge are present). The elite group minus Jamal and Taylor are at this isolated area but are hidden behind a tree, awaiting G's arrival, they are filming her as their intention is to send her a text revealing that he will not come and does not/will not ever like her leaving her distraught to which they will record. They view this as a funny prank. However this does not go to plan breaking the equilibrium. When G receives the disturbing text message, she feels distraught. She unexpectedly reveals a photograph of J&T and rips it, setting alight to one half. The elite group are shocked, but are still filming through their camera phone. G then breaks down, and takes this one step further by committing suicide due to her feeling, she cannot bear this humiliation. The elite group now are aware they have footage of G taking her life, which is because of them, making them involved in this crime. The group then burn their phone, in an attempt to destroy all evidence. They then take themselves home, and try to get rid of all these images within their heads. The time comes to be back at school and they let J&J know exactly what had happened, who all agree that they should forget the whole thing and move on. Within the next week strange things occur, elements that show that G's spirit is with the group. Later on in the week the whole group are just walking through the school building and all of a sudden the doors lock, the lights turn off and there is no escape. Each character scared and screaming, they notice a change in Jamal; his eyes have changed colour and his voice completely different. Suddenly he starts announcing 'I know what you did, you killed me ' etc, which eventually lead the terrified group to believe he has been possessed by G. Creating the recognition of disruption. J, being possessed by G tries to scar each member of the group as revenge for her constant bullying and trauma, she wants them to feel the wrath of her, and know how much it hurts whether it be mentally or physically. One by one there are dilemmas where J (possessed by G) is one to one with each member of the group either killing them, or violently hurting them in order for them to always know and remember that they have been hurt by them. After taking on the group, J then finds his way to his girlfriend J, who G wants to kill as she has the one thing that G was never able to have. J does not want this to happen as J is his high school sweetheart, he then has a plan if G is determined to kill J he would rather die than his girlfriend. An attempt to repair the damage will now take place, the characters attempt to get to the school chapel, in order to connect with God and ask for forgiveness but they are trapped and unable to get out. Now there is a visual change from G to J, back and forth continuously as J does not want to kill his girlfriend Taylor. In the end, he decides to kill himself; there is a visual fight between all three characters. Where the audience are able to see just how hard the fight between J and G's possessive force is. In the end J commits suicide, in able to kill the possession of G as well as himself. This kills the force and J's character leaving the rest of the characters distraught, and the building then becomes unlocked. The last shot for the audience is the left over image, of the half of the picture that G ripped up but did not burn, which will show the face off... Forming the new equilibrium.

 

 

 

 

IDEAS FOR FILM NAME

MAGAZINE NAME IDEAS

As a group we came up with a number of magazine name ideas such as the following:
FLICKS
MOTION
CINEMATIC
TOTAL MOVIE
TOTAL CINEMA
BLOCKBUSTER
MEGAMOVIE
FIRST FILM
FANATIC
FILMFEST
MOVIE MIX

We chose these names for our magazine name as they seem fun, and natural. Our horror front cover will be a one off Halloween edition which is why our names are not as horrific.

Our favourites were:
MOTION
FLICKS
MOVIEMAX
FILMFEST

In order to come to a agreed conclusion we decided to take it upon our target audience, so we asked 20 people. 8 out of the 20 chose FLICKS, thus finalising our decision on our magazine name.

IDEAS TAGLINE

Our tagline is ‘The obsessive love that never dies’.

 

This immediately correlates with the narrative of our movie, as Genner has an obsession with Jamal which leads her to commit suicide, however she doesn’t die as such because she possessed Jamal, who is in fact her obsession. The image on our film poster is of Jamal with Genner over his shoulder just staring at him making it obvious that she has a specific obsession with him.

We had been inspired by a number of supernatural horror films, as their taglines collaborate perfectly with the film narrative keeping the production sophisticated.

The devil inside’s tagline is ‘no soul is safe’, which the audience link directly with the image and film. The image is of a nun which is someone who the audience would connote as pure, and innocent so for her to get possessed would indicate there is no hope for anyone else as she is the purest in society.

The insidious tagline is ‘It’s not the house that’s haunted’ once again correlating directly to the film, as the young boy Dalton is haunted due to his family background. Whereas the mother firstly believed there was something wrong with the child. Again this is visually accepted as the young boy takes the centre third, and shows some force has taken him over, enabling the audience to have full awareness of what is going on in addition to giving them a slight insight into what the narrative could be about.

The Possession tagline is ‘Darkness lives within’ this once again joins with the narrative because the young girl is possessed with a spirit trying to get out of her human body. This is shown within the image on the poster, signifying to the audience the basis of the movie.

 
We had a few other ideas, but they all based around our actual tagline. These included : 'the compulsive love that lives forever' and the 'the possessive love that doesn't end'. Both taglines do not feel as sophisticated as our chosen one. The term compulsive does not unite with our narrative as well as 'obsessive' due to it not directly correlating to the narrative. Also living forever seems rather positive compared to 'that never dies' which feels like a disturbance that keeps appearing. Through small yet crucial problems with the tagline is what made us change our minds and create our final tagline: 'The obsessive love that never dies.'

CHOSEN ACTORS

Below are our chosen actors:

JAMAL- GEORGE FOSTER

GENNER- MILEN GHEBREMICHAEL

TAYLOR- BETSI MEGAN BURCH

KIM- CHERISSE ILAG

CANDICE- KARISMA KHUTTAN

BRANDY- HEATHER LANDY

CHANEL- PRISCILLA DUAH

PRACTICE SHOTS

 

 

These are our practice shots, were we directed our characters for our magazine front cover and poster. The use of a black t shirt on Jamal intensifies the idea that he is possessed, as black features heavily on his clothing. Black connotes evil, danger and darkness all attributes that Jamal has once possessed. However there is slightly too much black, due to the colours it is implied that Jamal is evil, but he is pure until possessed. Therefore a colour change to a white t shirt seems much more appropriate. Jamal's facial expressions are also too frigid, and need to be more open to portray the fact that someone is within in trying to break out. Unintentionally the vein's on Jamal's arms are popping out which could indicate a particular strain on his body, which is happening through the possession.

The shot of Jamal and Taylor is lovely, it captures their romance perfectly, but however is slightly smudged therefore a retake is needed, this will happen when Jamal is in a white t shirt as he is not at all possessed in this image and needs to remain pure. Taylor's clothing represents her personality perfectly, a genuine, bubbly and cheerful girl. Taylor's costume also implies that she takes her time at sixth form seriously, as she is dressed smartly with part of her personality shining through the costumes. Their expressions together reflect how comfortable they are around each other, just the image that we were going for.

FILMING SCHEDULE

FILM POSTER TAKE 2

As a group we have decided to change our idea, as we feel that we have innovated a better idea.
Our idea now is a medium shot of Jamal, showing a blank expression. Genner will appear in his eyes, connoting that even if he doesn't want her she will be with him. It also signifies the mental disturbance that she has had on him due to the possession. In addition to these factors a symbiotic link is created as the same character and shot appears in both the film poster and magazine front cover. Making our audience aware of our movie, and intriguing them further.

INITIAL IDEAS FOR FILM POSTER/MAGAZINE FRONT COVER

FILM POSTER

- Genner in the bridge setting shadowed out, with profile lighting to show her as half ghost, looking down at the photo.
- Medium close up of Jamal, with Genner in the background just staring at him.
-Close up of Jamal with Genner his eyes, with evil expression with head down.

WE HAVE CHOSEN THE MEDIUM CLOSE UP WITH HALF OF JAMAL'S FACE AND GENNER IN THE BACKGROUND STARING AT HIM, AS WE FEEL THIS DESCRIBES THE TRUE NATURE OF THE NARRATIVE.


MAGAZINE FRONT COVER

- Medium close up of Jamal's face all black eyes showing he is possessing with under-lighting. This is out main idea, as we feel this image conveys our basic narrative without giving too much away. It also provides the perfect interpretation for the readers to acknowledge.

CALL-SHEETS

HISTORY AND BACKGROUND OF SUPERNATURAL HORRORS

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF SUPERNATURAL

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LOCATION IDEAS

MOCK UPS

POSTER 1:

SHOT: Over the shoulder
COSTUME: White t shirt on the protagonist, and black top and trousers on the antagonist.
MISE EN SCENE: The setting would be near the bridge, so several tree's would be in the shot.
HAIR/ MAKE UP: Make up on the Protagonist would be a contoured look in order to highlight and define particular elements on his face. The antagonist's hair would be down curly, with thick eyeliner on in order to confirm the evil thoughts of the audience would have assumed about the character.
TITLE: The title would be placed on the top of the poster in a poster bold fond, for the audience to acknowledge straight away with the strap further down the page.



POSTER 2:

SHOT: A medium shot of antagonist

COSTUME: White t shirt in order to symbolize the purity the character has.

MISE EN SCENE: The background would be dark which is to connote the protagonist who will be within the eyes of the antagonist to show he has no escape. 

HAIR/ MAKE UP: Once again a contoured face, with dark eyes due to eyeliner to capture his possession perfectly.

TITLE: Poster bold film name is placed at the bottom of this poster for the audience to become intrigued with the image first. The strap is then placed underneath for the final piece of persuasion.  

MAGAZINE FRONT COVER:

SHOT: A medium shot

COSTUME: Black t shirt

MISE EN SCENE: A white background to prove that there is still some purity within the possessed protagonist.

HAIR/ MAKE UP: Once again, a contoured face, with the possessed eyes from eye liner. 

TITLE: The title is once again placed at the bottom of the page, as sell lines are placed around the edges. 

STORYBOARDS FOR TRAILER

FILM POSTER

MAGAZINE FRONT COVER

TRAILER

POST PRODUCTION QUESTIONNAIRE

EVALUATION

This is an evalutation which acknowledges my flaws and highlights my strentghs throughout my year 13 promotional package which consisted of a horror magazine front cover, poster and film trailer.

I evaluated myself through the following questions:

 

EVALUATION 2

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

EVALUATION 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our target audience are both male and female from the age of 16-35. Both are educated and enjoy the idea of further education, they have an extreme desire for horror films and find the adrenaline rush fulfilling. Not only does our promotional package appeal and apply to the needs of our target audience but fulfils them.

In order to gain research from our target audience we had to conduct post production research, this would tell us how well we had accomplished our goal to fright the audience. This research was targeted at the lower ages of our target audiences as we uploaded our pieces to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, in order to receive feedback in a convenient way. By carrying out our research in a public -way it made receiving feedback easy, as the social networking sites that our promotional package are displayed on would play a part in the daily routine of the lives of our target audience. Furthermore we also filmed a selected group of our target audience to voice their opinions on our trailer, the benefit of filming this feedback allowed some answers to be much more genuine and in depth. This selected group involved sixth formers which correlates directly with our trailer, due to the same aged characters staring within the trailer.   

 

 

 

By carrying out this research we were able to find out what parts in the trailer proved to be frightening, and whether or not they would go to watch this film from the trailer. We also questioned the effectiveness of our magazine front cover in addition to the film poster in order to understand the most persuasive parts of these pieces. By uploading these pieces on social networking sites it allowed our target audience to voice their opinions freely without feeling they needed to create a bias answer.  We found out that our magazine front cover and film poster are extremely successful in promoting a supernatural horror, due to the iconography. Our target audience also acknowledged the same character being used within both pieces which is our main symbiotic link. We were praised for our editing on the magazine front cover, as our protagonist fulfilled the gloominess, overpowered and distressed character which we wanted to portray. Another element which was praised by our target audience was the stab which concludes our trailer. A member of our audience labelled the ending as ‘shocking’, which reinforces the emotions which we wanted our target audience to feel. Furthermore by generating a video from our audience feedback, we were able to understand the scenes within our trailer which most appealed to the target audience. By a  member of our audience describing the stab at the end  as 'shocking', implies that there is a fright for the audience to look forward to as well as intriguing them to wonder why this has happened. This proves to us as a group, that we have been successful in creating our stab, as the correct feelings apply to our audience when viewing the stab. As well as this one of our target audience members announced that our trailer includes 'elements which make you wonder what happens next', this is the aim of our trailer, we wished to create a trailer where the audience were kept guessing with the underlying frights which would cause the target audience to feel as if they need to go and watch the movie in order to keep piece of mind. By conducting this research we as a group we now have the understanding that our target audience believe our trailer is effective, due to them generating the emotions which were intended by us in the production stages.
  

In addition to this  a member of our audience voiced that our poster has an effective strap line:
 ‘ based on a true story’ as it intrigues the audience. We also received constructive criticism from our target audience, which included our typography choices, with this information in mind we as a group can take a lead decision as to whether or a change in typography would suit our promotional package best. It can also benefit the promotional package by strengthening the symbiotic link. Through these constructive criticism, we are able to adjust our creativity to appeal to our target audience much more directly.

 

By generating audience feedback it has allowed us as a group to gain first hand information from our direct target audience. This is extremely valuable as we are able to understand whether or not our promotional package appeals to our audience, and therefore if we have fulfilled our aims. Such as Daniel Rudge suggesting we should  'blend' the colours more on our poster. By this being addressed we now as a group understand that by altering the poster to make the colours blend better within the harsh tone it will result in a much more sophisticated poster. We had learnt from one member of our target audience that our trailer itself does not ‘make sense’ , which we then analysed ourselves and found it to be true. We now understand that if we change our straps within the trailer there can be a sense of journey throughout, allowing our target audience to fully understand what has occurred within the trailer along with the element of surprise still applying. By having this feedback from a member of our target audience it has immediately helped us as a group to alter and create an effective final piece, due to the narrative being understood. Without this feedback our trailer would have not succeeded. In addition to this we were also given ideas on how to adapt our pieces in order to make them much more professional, by smoothening the edges of our poster, this would result in our final poster forming a much more sophisticated look. After taking into consideration these points the perception of our own pieces have altered, as we are now able to see the slight flaws in the promotional package. Nevertheless we are also praised for our work, after one member of our audience addresses our work as 'amazing' indicating that the promotional package does in fact appeal to the audience. This has worked to our advantage as we now can adapt our package to our liking and our audience's liking which will allow it to become more effective.

 

                                                                                                              

 

 

EVALUATION 4

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

Initially I assumed that the media technologies we would use for our promotional package would include Adobe Photoshop and Premier Pro as the main programmes that the production would take place on. In addition to these there would be the use of YouTube in order to gain experience from other trailers whilst constructing our own, as well as the use of Google images to provide us with the relevant images of film posters and magazine front covers.

Throughout all three construction, research and planning and evaluation stages it was vital that we used media technologies in order to show off our creative and technological skills that allowed us to develop a sophisticated promotional package. The first stage of technology began with research and planning, with the internet guiding us with the help and skills we needed. For example on YouTube we watched trailers such as The Devil Inside in order for us to gain the inspiration for our own trailer. There were several benefits of using YouTube, as it played an integral role across every stage of our development. This would be where we would turn for inspiration when constructing all blog posts in addition to the promotional package. For example, whilst carrying out our trailer overviews it was a necessity that we watched a handful of horror trailers in order to review the key codes and conventions, whilst analysing our inspirations from each trailer. Without the help of YouTube it would have been made watching trailer much more complicated as a downloading process may have had to be carried out. Furthermore YouTube is accessible from many different media devices; there are apps which allow you to go onto the site via your mobile phone and tablets, allowing me to gain more evidence for the completion of our trailer overviews within minutes.

In addition to this, we had to find specific magazine front covers through the online web, allowing us to add to the knowledge we have on the horror genre. This remained apparent all throughout the research and planning stage, as we kept checking back on our evaluated posters and front covers to make sure our points were relevant. However when searching for horror magazine front cover on Google, real magazines would not always come up, as past students work was also found on the search engine. The easiest magazine front covers that came up were general film magazines such as Total Film and Empire, which only featured special editions as a horror issue. Fangoria remained the hardest magazine front cover due to it being a niche market, this is prominently due to the magazine being solely for a horror audience, therefore many of the images may be of an explicit content for innocent people who search the internet or even children. The website for Fangoria offers a lot of detailed information such as features and interviews as well as interviews in the form of videos for the audience to get all different multimedia aspects. However there is no reference to previous magazine covers making it harder for me to get hold of. Eventually I was able to get hold of some front covers such as the insidious one, this was found after searching through past students media studies blogs.

Cameras were also used before the construction stage, forcing us to adapt to the effects that a camera withholds. We also took practise shots, as well as carrying out a reconnaissance, where we had to start shooting for practise. With these shots a camera was not used, instead a mobile phone which proved to be of a lesser quality than our real shots. Once shooting these practise shots it was from here we realised in order to gain a sophisticated appeal a camera would be the best option. The camera what we used was not one of a professional standard, meaning we had to improvise with specific shots however it also allowed us to film, although there were a few elements on the Nikon such as back lighting could be a feature when recording. There were many mistakes which we realised we had made after shooting, for example our opening shot is of the common room in order to establish to our audience the age of the characters who feature. We carried out this pan freehand, which obviously would lead to the shot becoming shaky and unprofessional a problem which we never even thought about until we played it back. We were then aware that perhaps a tripod would be the best solution, through using this tool it enabled us to create a much more sophisticated sequence, whilst still having the same shot. If I had the chance to return to the camera and change some shots I would defiantly opt to change many of the medium shots of the antagonist to low angle shots. This would create a better representation as the irony of this character being seen as an overlord when really she is the most vulnerable causing controversy in the audience’s point of view.

 

Media technologies such as Photoshop helped us in the post production stages with the ancillary tasks. My skills in year 12 were extremely basic, although they were developing. I feel that through my ancillary tasks in year 13 I have grown custom to the production stages on Photoshop, whilst mastering the tools such as the stamp tool, allowing me to professionalise our film poster. In addition to this I had found new ways in order to create effects such as the colours balance.

The magic wand tool is extremely basic but however requires a lot of patients and depth, if you’re not precise of careful the background and parts of the image. This proved to be difficult when constructing my magazine double page spread in year 12, due to the different positions my artist was in, but I have made a huge improvement with this for our year 13 pieces, by editing out the background from our poster. 

The Clone tool is part of the reason why our possessed eyed have been so effective, it is sometimes hard to create the same effect twice or as well do it as well as the previous one, therefore by creating a possessed eye on one of our antagonist’s eye, and slightly doing the same on the other I was then able to clone what I had done on the perfected eye and just copy it onto the other will not problems. Although adobe Photoshop can be difficult at times, mastering how to get control of the layers as well as learning new aspects such as how to create possessive eyes, a new tactic I have now mastered also. This was a feature I would not have even thought about learning but now that I have, it proves just how creative one programme lets you be, thus proving just how much I enjoyed the process in addition to pushing our ancillary task to the best possible standard. Cameras were used to film our trailer which helped us develop our skills. From our previous experience with the cameras in research and planning, we were able to film our trailer with the knowledge we previously gained. The camera quite literally allowed us to construct our trailer, in order for us to then use Premiere Pro in order to put together our trailer, whilst adding transitions such as cuts, fade to blacks and various other types of edits.

Premiere pro is a programme which I was not aware of until year 13, instantly I had worry that I would not know what to do or how to construct a trailer in a sophisticated manner in which we hoped for. These feelings were shortly abandoned as we had the opportunity to take a class which would make us more familiar with the programme whilst teaching us the basics. After taking this class I still have my reservations about the programme, however felt that I knew the minimum to get through the production stage. My knowledge now included how to import clips, shorten them and how to add edits to the sequence. This was slowly followed by adding audio to the sequence in order to dramatise the action that is taking place in the clip. After becoming familiar with the programme I took it upon myself to try out different elements as I felt this would give me the best idea of what edits I could make to scenes. This is when I became confident with the programme, through watching YouTube videos I was able to educate myself into darkening specific scenes, with the help of the RGB curves I was able to alter the extent of colour that would feature in each scene. Furthermore once confident with the programme I had the opportunity to experiment with the sounds that occurred, by overwriting some of the sounds an echo was applied to the sequence, creating a better effect for the audience. 

Premiere pro pushed the creativity out of me due having no choice but to experiment with the tools they supply. Not only were media technologies used to make our trailer, but also within. For example it is not shown completely in our trailer but touched upon; a mobile phone was used in order to record the suicide that had been filmed which is stated in our narrative.There is a sequence of one character throwing a mobile phone, which adds to the setting of the scene, because how unrealistic would our trailer be if not one teenager was shown with their phone. This sequence is followed by a cut to emphasize that a change in time has occurred. The uses of fades within our trailers are to portray that little time has been exchanged within shots. Adding to the realism of our sophisticated trailer, this was created thanks to the different technologies used.

There are some inspirational elements within the trailers that I had studied, for example, the use of lighting within the Insidious trailer provides a thrilling suspense for the audience. The adrenaline that each member of the audience contains will be the reason for them going to watch the full film. This has inspired us due to the fright we felt once watching this scene, therefore if we incorporated a similar effect into our trailer hopefully our target audience can share the same emotions working in our favour to persuade the audience in watching the film.

We as a group were inspired by the opening sequence within The Devil Inside, this displays a phone call made to the police by the killer Maria. The effect of using the phone call made the audience feel like they were part of this scene as they were there when the phone call had taken place which is what made this scene so successful in our eyes. We then decided to try and apply the same concept to the beginning of our trailer in order to achieve the same feel for our audience. We created this by downloading a specific font which we felt would display the correct typography that could relate to words being said. Adding the text to a black background and placing transitions on the scene is how the effectiveness was conveyed.

Conclusively media technologies were used when constructing my post production evaluation, through the uploading on blogger. Forcing me to keep the creativity flowing through the evaluation. Feedback was also received on the internet through social networking sites such as twitter.