Q4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Blogger - I decided to use and update my blog to show my progress on planning as well as filming parts of the project. This allowed me to show how I was progressing and to also relfect on my use of time management. Throughout the course I allowed my teacher to mark and analyse my work to see if I had any mistakes so that I could then make an improvement towards my final grade.

Internet - I used the internet throughout a majority of my project, I used it mainly to grab existing trailers, posters, magazine front covers for research into existing products. I also used it to gather information about the history of film and the horror genre. I used websites such as "dafont" where I searched particular fonts for my magazine front cover and poster task. 

Websites used to share my work

YouTube - This site was used for the evaluation process of my production as I uploaded my trailer onto YouTube in order to gain and receive audience feedback.

Facebook - This was what I used to gain feedback for my trailer as I uploaded it onto this social networking website which meant that people could access and comment upon my media product.

Filming equipment

Camera - This was used for the construction of my trailer, where all the footage was conducted for the editing process.

Tripod - This was used in the construction of my trailer for a majority of the scenes where I needed a still camera or where I needed to do specific shots such as zooming in and out, tilting and panning.

Document files - This is where my videos are saved, "windows video files" as I then dragged and dropped this into my editing panel.

Photoshop - This was used in the construction and planning stages of my production as I first used the programme to create my production company logo. 

Macromedia Fireworks - This was mainly used to construct my secondary products of my poster and my front cover film magazine. This programme helped to construct more realistic products as I could use the various fonts, effects and colours to make the products fit well with the conventions of a typical poster/magazine.

Powerpoint - This was especially used to design the still frames for my trailer, for example the frames which created the fade out during the trailer transitions and also the ending credits which displayed the my horror logo.

Filming

Here are some of the photos my group took of me whilst I was directing a few scenes for my trailer. we thought it would be useful to take these photos as it would show the progression we had through this particular task. I used the tripod for my still shot, panning and tilt, this played a key role in making the that I wanted. As you can see below it shows different stages in creating that perfect scene which would then be added to the editing process.

Editing

Apple Mac - I used the apple mac when editing and constructing my trailer. There was a particular software on the Apple Mac called "imovie" where I constructed all my editing of videos on. I used this to cut some scenes that where too long, create a faster paced trailer (having the genre of horror in mind) and also used the effects available on the imovie which included slow motion for scenes such as the the three characters running away from the villain. I also used the jump cut after every scene to show the progression of the trailer and to add the typical horror feel to make the audience jump. 

Transitions between the shots were used to emphasis that this was a very aggressive action packed horror trailer. I used the "fade out" and "fade in" transition mostly which worked well with the non diegetic music playing in the background. Every time the shot fades out you get a 2 second pause which created the tense build of a horror narration.

Q3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Feedback from my target audience would be very important to my evaluation as they are the people who give me the critical analysis which would provide help for me to improve on the task's. I consider everyone's feedback because it would help me make my work better, I find the critical analysis most effective as they result in how I should adjust my work to make it more outstanding.  

Types of audience feedback

Advantages of Interviews

-You receive more personal responses

-Longer detailed answers

-Helps me with linking the responses to my products

-It enables me with more reliable data and also helps the audience answer things freely 

The disadvantages would be that it is very time consuming and it would be hard to process all the data as this wouldn't involve many closed questions.

Advantages of questionnaires

-These are kept anonymous most of the time

-It is kept quick and easy, doesn't take long to complete

-I would receive many quantitative and some qualitative date

Disadvantages are

-People may not answer the questions how I would want them to (when they don't understand the question)

-They may not give reliable data as they could get bored after some questions and start putting down unreliable answers

-Some question doesn't allow the participant to give really long and detailed answers

Quantitative data

The advantages of using this type of data would be:

-Quick to get

-Easy to process

-Receives a general idea of views and opinions

Disadvantages are:

-Doesn't get a detailed response

-Doesn't allow the audience to give a description of why they liked or disliked certain things

Qualitative data

Advantages of using this data would be:

-It enables the person to go into detail on the particular question

-It gives a more personal view and is more reliable

Disadvantages would be:

-It is hard to process the information

-Very time consuming

To gain my audience feedback I decided to create a focus group to watch my trailer and then answer the questions from a questionnaire I had created. Through this, it enabled me to get a mixture of both detailed qualitative answers and quantitative data. To make sure I received quantitative and qualitative data, I made sure I included both open and closed questions. I also allowed the group to speak out and say what they liked and disliked about my trailer to get a more detailed answer and opinion.

My Questionnaire

Here are some of the results I got from my Questionnaire:

Here are some samples of answer I got from my questionnaires and focus groups:

What did you like about my trailer?

"The trailer was amazing, great acting and editing"

"I liked the narrative structure, it all made sense"

"Very good and professional acting"

"Showed information but not too much given away"

"The music matched everything that was shown in front of us"

"The killing scene looked realistic"

"Love the choice of music"

What things in my trailer would you improve?

"Could of had a scene after the credit to make the audience jump"

"Raise the volume of dialogue in the library scene"

"One of the disturbing shots involved a random scene"

"Maybe show more characters getting hurt or killed"

Technology

This is where I decided to upload my trailer onto YouTube as well as Facebook as I felt this would be the way to get the ratings and feedback from my audience. From doing this, it enabled a lot of people to get involved and go into detailed criticism without having a certain question they needed to answer.

From my trailer I received more positive feedback rather than negative or critical.The most common comments which I received where "great use of editing". I made slight improvements such as sound and music to make sure that it would fit in with the genre which is horror.
The negative feedback I received were:
"Could have made the diegetic speaking during the library scene a bit louder"
"Show more interaction between the male and female characters"
"Could have a better credit block at the end of the trailer"


Positive feedback I received for my trailer:
"It was entertaining and gets your heart racing"
"The Music suited the trailer perfectly"
"The setting is based very locally, showing that it was conventional for the genre of horror"
"Great use of directing and camera shots"
"The effects made the trailer, very professional"

At the moment my horror trailer has been watched 54 times over the popular website YouTube, I decided to upload it onto YouTube as I felt this would be the most appropriate way of me sharing my work to others. The advantage of using YouTube would be that it is easily accessible and is shared publicly, so anyone can view my product as long as they type the right subject into the search box.

This is my other media product which had really positive feedback on as I included all the basic convention that a poster holds. The conventions which I am talking about would be the film title which has a horror feel to it. I have also included the dark red colour to represent the subject of death which then relates back to the genre of horror. As you can see I have also included an image which dominates the whole poster as it shows the villain digging into the camera shot, which represent the aggression of which this character holds and also gives a hint to the audience on how he kills his victims.

Evaluation of feedback

The feedback I received from the questionnaire, focus groups and social websites such as YouTube and Facebook, allowed me to reflect on my project as a whole. I also reflected on the scenes and editing effects that were maybe seen less realistic which then allowed me to improve on my work and create the most professional piece of work possible. Although I did receive some very positive feedback, they were completed by a very similar age group which doesn't give me a diverse range of answers.

Overall I think that audience feedback is essential for the success of any project, because it enables you to see mistakes you may not see and to also have a view on how your target audience responds to your media product. This is very important as you would want to attract your target audience and the feedback ensures that you are following the right conventions which matches your audience's expectation.

Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In our group we produced a horror trailer as the main product and for the ancillary task I produced a magazine front cover and a horror poster which related to the trailer. One main feature we decided on as a group would be how the villain would be shown or exposed to the audience. On the poster the villain is displayed holding a shovel and it looks as though he is trying to aggressively dig into the camera. The villains face is never shown as we want him to be kept as secret as possible. This fits into the idea for our promotion strategy effectively as I believe this would be the selling point to attract many of our target audiences. Another selling point of my horror trailer would be the prop which is a shovel, because I chose to use the shovel in both the main product and ancillary task. This is what I think would make my trailer stand out from others as it is unusual but it suits the storyline of my film trailer.

Order of production
If I were to market my production I would firstly release the teaser trailer as I think this this would make more of an impact to the audience. It is more common sense to release this first as well as if the poster was released before then the audience wouldn't really have an idea of what it is about. Whereas from watching the trailer, it draws the audience in and then when they see the poster they get more of an useful insight from it.

Fonts
When picking a font for my products, I had to show it was associated with the horror genre. So I wanted it to be creepy and scary but also making sure its eye catching so it would attract my target audience.

 went through many fonts trying to find the perfect one, the font I finally chose was called "face you fears" I felt it was compatible with the horror theme as it seems ridged and strong as we used it in a large font to emphasize the seriousness and force that it brings. I used this font to represent my products such as for my poster in the words "house of sins". I also included it in my magazine cover as one of the key features to promote my horror trailer.

Then I linked it to another one of my products being my trailer, in which I used it at the end of the trailer as the title card making sure I linked it back by using the same font and the same colours to make it shown that it is the same products.
For my magazine cover I chose not to use this same font because from my research I found that existing magazines all independently have there own style and layout, so I wanted to make sure it looked like a realistic magazine font cover by choosing a non-horror font but then adding horror theme so that it would match my image. As you can see from the right, I used the basic magazine conventions including the masthead, subheadings and features and barcode and price.

Main attraction
As the killer is the main attraction in most horror films, I wanted to keep the theme and image of the villain as the main factor of our unique selling point as the fact that this character uses an unusual weapon (a shovel) makes it very unique to promote my trailer. Although our killers costume is of normal conventions; dressed in dark clothing, black hoodie and black gloves, I felt that this convention was a good one to keep as it has a very good effect. This stereotype has been built up over the years which is why I feel it works well with our task.

I took many photos and videos of the villain in a black hoodie to show that he is the main attraction in this particular product. The whole hoodie scene is to make sure the villain is never exposed and to also add a bit of modernity in my trailer as the criminals in this generation dress in this way to protect themselves from exposure and punishment.

How my products linked

Throughout my three products there is a clear link in the colours red and black. These two colours are classic horror colours such as red is seen as danger, blood, hurt and black seen as dark, creepy and scary, so these were perfect colours to use together as they showed the theme of horror very well. The colour black was used as the background on my poster design as I felt this would add the horror feel which I intend to do throughout my ancillary task's. The red is used as a sign of death in the film and to also make my image stand out even more, almost making it 3d. Another reason why I chose to use black was to hide the identity of the villain and by doing this, making it more frightening and again making the audience think. I then used the white to create the information on the cover but made the title red to link to the image and make clear that it is a horror genre and to show its importance on the page. I used the same colours on my magazine cover to show the link between the two, again having the magazine heading which is the most important much like the film title at the top and against a dark background to emphasize the red. Lastly I used these colours in my trailer for the text again the red and black colour combination just heightened the horror effect throughout my trailer making the text haunting.

Characters & target audience

Here are two female characters who played in a role of teenage students 

The characters staring in my trailer play a key role in determining the target audience, my target audience would be 16+ which is why I have made my characters about the same age so that they could relate. My trailer clearly shows the characters, firstly introducing two female characters having a conversation in a library scene and this creating fear in my target audience by showing that this could happen to anyone because of the similarities. My film posters unique selling point would be the villain being shown in a establishing mid-shot portrait and also hiding his identity, which then creates mystery and intrigues the audience to want to see the film to find out who the killer is. My magazine cover also shows the villain but from a different angle, from his waist downwards as I feel he is the selling point of the trailer he should be be previewed in different shots to let the audience know that "he is coming for you".

Main products and ancillary text

When advertising my products I used different media technologies and marketing campaigns for my poster, magazine cover and trailer. The marketing campaign had to be effective otherwise people wouldn't know about the film or want to see it, so I chose varies way in which I could reach out to my target audience, such as: social networking sites, billboards, point of sales, shops and websites to give my product more publicity and also to start a hype about the film.

A film poster is known in a way of advertising as it represents the product which is why I chose to place my film poster like most others in obvious places. This meant areas such as bus stops, on buses and train station adverts which are ways of travel that many people use including my target audience meaning it will be noticed and hopefully will also draw them in. I also used big billboards to reach out to people as they are eye catching so it will grab the attention of the public audience.


Here are some of the ways in which I would distribute my products to attract the audience's eye.

Facebook fan page - This technique would draw the attention of most of my target audience as there are usually teenagers using this type of socializing site. Also they could spread the word and make it become viral by letting the friends know through the website and even inviting them to let them see what its all about.

Billboards are an effective way to attract the public people, as these can be seen in many places such as near schools, in cities, near shops and etc. I chose to have a billboard advertisement because I feel these would generate the reputation of my products.

Bus stop banners or advertisement boards are also effective as they attract most of the people who take public transport especially the school kids, business workers, and even the elderly who may find this type of advertising very eye catching.

I also had to advertise in certain areas such as social networking sites because a lot of young people such and 16 year old's and above would use these kind of sites. They use these to connect with other people their age so if we have the trailer on Facebook, they can share it with their friends which help me on advertising. This is cross media because Facebook is used for us to advertise but we then also advertise Facebook by uploading our trailer onto their site.With YouTube which was also used in my marketing campaign, in the use of synergy as I uploaded my trailer to their site to give them publicity and also my product.
Another way to keep the audience still involved is to have other competitions publicly such as the radio, where people can win free tickets for example. And finally an obvious way of advertising is through a television advert, showing the horror trailer.
So overall I feel my publicity campaign will be very effective as it will reach out to many of my target audience, in a range of different areas and hopefully making my film successful.

Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For my horror trailer, I have decided to inform my target audience by creating advertisements such as making teaser posters to draw the audience into a better view of my horror trailer. The main source of what advertisement which I used was creating a horror trailer which lasted approximately 2 minutes. During this trailer it shows a narrative in what would happen if this was an actual film.

The whole purpose of creating the products during this coursework was to mostly promote the film and have more audience to contribute by making a critical feedback. I made research on the whole horror genre on my blogger and posted frequently analysis on past horror genres to compare and relate to mine.

Research

For my research I also analysed particular horror trailers so that I had some inspiration carried to make my own trailer. One trailer I admired the most would be “Scream 4” as it is quite a modern horror film so I grabbed some ideas from them and mould it into my trailer. The effect I liked most would be the dramatic fading in and out of every action sequence, as it showed the audience the tensest parts of the trailer.

Scream 4 inspired our editing techniques

I also did research on existing magazines to show that I fully understand the main conventions on how to make one for my task. I looked at the basic conventions of making my own film magazine, those conventions consist of a Masthead at the top of the page and how effective it is when you put it on the top left hand side of the page. I have also noticed that magazine companies always have a barcode which is always placed near the bottom right hand side of the page.

Comparing my trailer to existing trailers

This would be the disruption shot, which then brings in the fast paced editing and  horror  music

This would be my disruption shot, which kicks off the fast paced editing. showing the beginning of our narrative structure 

Researching recent products at the start of my project made me realise the typical forms and conventions of a real media product out today. "30 days of night" was a horror film which I chose to briefly analyse, however as a group we looked through a range of horror trailers which would inspire us to apply in our own trailer. Analysing these trailers both physically and mentally we found that the typical conventions were:
-Gentle diegetic sound to start off the equilibrium
-During the "disruption" lots of fast paced shots and sounds are used to complement the action on the screen
-A disturbing shot, often someone killed, dead or hurt.
-More disequilibrium are used than equilibrium.
-More cuts and more transitions during the disequilibrium scenes.
-Most often has a vulnerable character and a villain.
-The soundtrack often changes to create a thrill.
-A scare shot at the end of the trailer.
-Ends with a title card and credit block

Typical convention of female in a "disturbing" shot

Conventions for trailer
In our horror trailer we followed some of the typical conventions which existing films used.
-One soundtrack that starts off gentle and eerie then crescendos into a heavy thump of non diegetic sounds
-We start the trailer with an equilibrium
-We have many flashbacks
-A disturbing shot of a victim being killed
-During the disruption we have lots of fast paced shots and sound that complement the action on screen
-The editing becomes more apparent with more shots and shot angles
-Fade to black to create the suspense
-Title card and credit block

Vulnerable male as a victim

Stereotypical young female who gets killed

Our unique villains killing equipment

In our trailer we challenged the conventions of a typical horror trailer by having a young vulnerable male as one of the victims as he runs away from the villain. This would be challenging the conventions because stereotypically it is a fragile female who is the victim. However, We also followed a typical convention by having a young female being killed first in our trailer. Another convention which we challenged would be the villains prop, we decided to use a shovel as the killing equipment. In a typical horror film you would usually see a knife or sharp instrument used to murder or hurt a victim. We chose the shovel in order to challenge the normal conventions.

Conventions for posters and front cover of magazines
As well as looking at trailers we also analysed magazine covers and posters which were both used to create an target audience and to also promote the product.

Here is a existing poster showing what a typical horror poster presents, as you can see:
-The red writing connotates the feel of danger
-A credit block allowing the audience to know who is involved in the film
-A scary image with manipulated lighting to create a greater outcome
-A image inside of an image exposing a lady screaming which then shows the vulnerability and scariness
-Deformed title text shows the creepiness of the film

 Here are some existing film magazines which show the typical conventions on a front cover.
-Bold and easy to see the masthead at the top of the page
-Main image and features are easy to see, biggest hook
-Website, date, issues, price and barcode
-Image is similar with the hooks and subheadings
-Red writing to imply danger
-The occasional free gifts

Existing "empire" magazine

My final magazine design

I decided to base my magazine on a already existing magazine product in order to make the magazine cover I made look more realistic. So my magazine would consist of similar conventions to the ones you see above.

Overall I believe my main product and ancillary task both, challenge and develop forms and conventions of real media products as I believe that they look realistic and would easily fit into the horror genre on the book shelves in shops. I also feel that our horror trailer does actually challenge conventions, example having a shovel being the killing instrument. But uses the traditional horror conventions and follows the form of an original horror trailer.