FINAL TRAILER

FINAL POSTER

FINAL MAGAZINE COVER

Evaluation question 1

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

Use of Conventions

When forming my initial ideas - to produce a teaser trailer in the Horror genre - I decided that my trailer would adhere to most of the conventions of horror genre. This was because since the release of the Blair Witch Project in 1999, there has been an increase in films shot using amateur or the "shaky camera effect" style and it was important to conform to the shooting methods to create this style of film Therefore, the majority of the trailer is shot without the aid of a tri-pod to form the hand-held effect and give it a non-professional feel. A teaser trailer is used to build up the audiences awareness and curiosity about the upcoming release of a film. It is shorter in length than the main trailer and depending on the genre has a faster pace. Teaser trailers use quick cuts to create interest; in that the short duration of each shot allows the director to include many pieces of action. Furthermore, the abstract nature of a teaser trailer means that the audience is never quite sure what is happening and therefore may feel compelled to see the film. In relation to conventions of a genre people often only refer to plot and narrative, where as there are technical codes to considers. A problem that I encountered was introducing the quick cuts out of context too early, without enough establishing shots. I therefore added in some scenic pans of the school grounds before the quick cuts to build up tension.

This also worked to establish setting and so helped to orientate the viewer whereas the fast paced, abstract shots disorientated and intrigued them.

Development of Conventions

Horror films usually have a mixed group of characters, both male and female, from all demographic backgrounds. I decided to have an all female cast, to represent an all girls school as well as subvert the stero typical concept of the 'male hero'. Horror films have male characters to protect the defenceless "damsel in distress ". However, my characters have no men to hide behind and the main protagonist is neither strong or a leading figure: she is represented as an ordinary teenager in a frightening situation and is not extrordinary in any sense.

The Cultivation Theory althought usually applies to television suggests that by exposing the viewer over time cultivates and altures their parceptions on particular aspects of reality. The same can be occur in film genres. The audience will get an particular impression of the characters that may well be a negative portrayal, so leading to stereotyping. Within the horror genre you can get very stereotypical characters, for example, the 'dumb' or enigmatic blonde, which Hitchcock frequently used in his films and the overbearing and domineering monster/psycho. I would adhere to the conventions of the characters in a "teen-slasher": the idea of screaming victims convayed throught lots of running shots. On the other hand contemporary films do focus a lot more on researching the peoples' backgrounds to produce a much more realistic portrayal of the characters they aim to construct. However, Yet I wanted the protagonists to also portray 21 century teenagers in a modern school to subvert the stereotypes of today's youth. Therefore their sartorial codes are quite casual and they are not portrayed as "sluts" "chavs" or "rude-girls", which are commonly associated with girls of this generation. Although, like many horror films, the persona and realism of the characters is less of a priority and the creation of a sense of horror and terror is more on the agenda.

Challenging Conventions

I did not set out to challenge any of the conventions of the real media products. My aim was to demonstrate the conventions of the genre - cult/horror. In a way I challenged the concept of a mainstream film by choosing to produce a film, that was initially independent in its style but could cross over and appeal to mainstream audiences. I wanted my film to have independent qualities, as dictated by the budget and production values, but break into the mainstream audience through it unusual filming techniques, narrative and promotional campaigns. The teaser trailer would be produces by Haxan Films as they produce classic independent cult horror films and have a very successful marketing operation. They are attached to

Artisan Entertainment which was bought by Lionsgate in 2003. Therefore the production would get the benefits of being apart of a large production company and distributor. Click here for more information. The narrative of the film is important I tried to generate interest in the storyline by using techniques such as voice-overs and sounds, both diagetic and non-diagetic to increase tension. Teaser trailers are before the main promotional campaign so might not give away a lot of the narrative.

Evaluation question 2

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

My main product and ancillary texts combine effectively as they work together as part of a promotional campaign. One of the ways they do this is through the presentation of the characters. The three characters are presented across all three mediums. The ancillary products follow the same documentary style as the teaser trailer. The cover shot of the magazine and the main image of the poster are shot like stills from the footage, using the same sartorial codes and setting. These are a promotional campaign method; creating a relationship between the three products, building up the characters identity to create interest for the film. Mainstream productions usually have a famous actor on the front of a film magazine and use their star persona to promote the film. However as my production is more independent and has a documentary narrative, therefore I would use the characters as opposed to the actor on the front cover; this is what the audience will recognise them as. It therefore creates a link across all the products as the characters are in them all. The title is an important method of creating interest for the film. I kept it snappy so not to give away to much narrative. It need to generation interest in just the name such as “The Ring” or The Grudge” short titles creates mystery, they are memorable.

Evaluation question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Here are the results from my audience feedback. I did a questionnaire and asked 20 people between the age of 15 and 24 as this is the age group i decided to target during my audience research. Overall The audience was satisfied with my three products, with a couple of improvement that could be made. The audio for the the trailer was the main thing that they suggested to improve. This is because the actor was speaking to quickly and there was a lot of ambient noise picked up from the microphone. I realised during production she was speaking to fast but the environment I was filming in meant that we were constantly picking up sounds from people walking past and from the surrounding environment. Therefore filming a voice over inside in a quite location with minimal diegetic sounds would have solve this issue.
I put my Teaser Trailer on Youtube and asked people to feedback on it. It was useful finding out that my Teaser Trailer was effective in representing its genre. As people commented on the close up night time shots of the characters faces, as well as the ending being scary. This meant that i conveyed the conventions of a horror teaser trailer as they recognises the frighting, intense ending i was trying to achieve. However although it was good to find out what people thought using a site apart of the web 2.0 generation. It is a very informal way of collecting information, and the results are uncensored. Therefore it was better to provide a questionnaire also as you can control what questions you ask. This results in more constructed and related criticism and responses.

Evaluation question 4

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

Pre-production

The Internet was a very effective resource for researching for my production tasks. The video sharing website YouTube provided access to teaser trailers, film clips and promotional videos. This is due to the development of Web 2.0 in which the boundaries between audiences and producers have been blurred. Websites such as Youtube and blogger is encouraging the merge between audience and producer providing an easy and accessible way for the people to upload footage. Youtube allowed me to view a wide range of horror trailers and study their conventions. The official film websites also helped with researching the promotional strategies of a cult horror film. I would initially distribute my teaser trailer on a video sharing website to create a viral buzz before; launching it's own official

website. This would be an effective way to build an audience.

Production

The main media technology I used was a Sony HDV digital camera in the construction of my product. A problem I had was creating the appearance of being night time inside a brightly lit school building

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Therefore I filmed some shots using a hybrid digital SONY Cyber shot DSC-H9 on a night time setting. It worked very well in creating disturbing and scary closes up of the characters. I did not use a tri-pod as I wanted to create a shaky effect to indicate that the production was hand-held. This enforced the narrative that the characters were complete alone, suggesting that the characters were operating the camera. I used a Radio Microphone to produce the interview scenes it was much more effective then using the mic on the camera as it was louder and clear. However as the microphone was quite powerful it picked up all the surrounding background noise such as sirens, cars and people talking. This effected my editing as because of the noise as well as my actor was speaking to fast it makes it hard to cut the audio as there were no breaks.

Post Production

I used imovie to edit my footage things i did:

Extracted audio

As I wanted to create a documentary style horror I shot an interview with the lead character (Sarah) speaking about what they were planning to do that evening.

Link to Sarah's script:http://nsurridgeadvanced.blogspot.com/2009/12/edited-sarahs-script.html

I planned to space out the interview throughout the teaser trailer but found by extracting the audio from the clip I could create a voice over across other shots which reflected the conventions of a Teaser Trailer. It also gives the trailer more depth and makes it more exciting as I can cut down the shots of her speaking which were not particularly interesting.

Splitting clips. Being able to split clips is a very effective piece of technology and important for editing. It is very effective as it allows the producer to cut down long clips and take out unused parts. This part of the imovie software is easy to use, software such as imovie helps turn consumers into producers and the development of the web 2.0. Access to easy to use software means ordinary people can make productions upload them to the Internet for all to see. However Teaser Trailers usually have very quick cuts and imovie will not allow you to cut down a cut to short or you could not add transitions and effects to it. Therefore it is a limitation as it does not reflect the real media products.

Added titles

Although I feel imovie is good software it has some problems that prevent you from getting the desired effects. It has a limited font choice that did not reflect the typography I wanted. To solve this I decided to use the created title in photoshop which I used for my poster and magazine front cover and import it into imovie. I also added another title with the release date on stating "Term Begins September 2010". It reflects the school environment and also follows the British schools term schelling.

Video effects

The main video effects I used were speeding up and slowing down the the length of the shot. By making a close up of a frightening face coming towards the camera quicker. It increases the intensity of the shot making the person seem distorted and scary and the audience will react in a scared manner.

Garage band

Although it is very easy to find suitable sound effects with access to copyright free sites such as

http://www.freesound.org/eesound.org/. I found it hard to find any music that was appropriate and complemented my Teaser Trailer. A typical horror Teaser Trailer has a soundtrack that increases in tempo to increase the pace and excitement. I feel by using garage band

to create sound to go at the beginning of the teaser trailer made it more original and increased the tension. By using a new software it also developed my skills as a producer.

Reviewing my Final Production

Finally I used internet social networking site Youtube to get audiences responses and views on my Teaser Trailer. This is similar to how a real promotional campaign works as the product would be distributed on sites such as Youtube and Facebook. There viewers will leave comments about the film.

Overall I used media technologies through out the construction of my production pieces. The technology I used was a valuble contributer to the development of my production.