In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?
My media products, a film poster, film trailer and magazine cover, all challenge many conventions of real life media products. We ensured that we conducted in-depth product research of existing media products to gain knowledge of what aspects they use so we could include these in our own products.
Film Trailer
Effects: We used Final Cut to edit our film trailer. We used the Razor tool to cut our initial footage so that we were left with the best quality and most effective clips. We were then able to edit and add appropriate effects which would portray our thriller/paranormal genre successfully. One effect that we used was the 'Bad TV' effect which is at the beginning of our film trailer. It makes the clip of the demented woman appear disorientated, which is fitting for her character and also portrays our chosen genre. Our research shows that the film Paranormal Activity uses a similar effect to 'Bad TV' therefore we knew it would be effective and would portray our genre well. We also used the colour corrector tool to add a slight colour filter to some of the clips, making them have a red/orange tint. This added to the clip as it made it appear more aged and eerie, which supports our thriller/paranormal genre and also, the colour red is representative of danger and is a common colour used in films of our genre. We also used the brightness and contrast tool to make the clip slightly duller to add to the eeriness.
Sound/Music: Initially, we used Garage Band to sample some sounds and also create some ourselves. This was useful because we were able to try out all of the different instruments to see which noises they made and which would be the most suitable for our film trailer. For our final piece, we used Garage Band to create our soundtrack. We decided to use a crackling, disorientated sound to match the 'Bad TV' effect at the beginning of our trailer. This supports our genre of thriller/paranormal. We also decided to use a sorrowful, slow soundtrack for the clip in which the victim is seen walking towards the demented woman's house. This works well with the slow motion we used here, as it makes the girl appear victimised and the slow pace of the sound and the slow motion leaves the audience tense and waiting to know what is going to happen, which is how we want our audience to feel when watching our film trailer. We ensured that the music pace quickened when the action got more dramatic and faster paced. We decided to use a tense, fast paced, heavy beat sound for this part of the trailer. This went well with our use of fast cross cutting, leaving the audience unable to look away from the action as it builds up. Silence also plays an important part in our trailer - we use silence at the beginning of the trailer after the crackling sound. This creates a tense, eerie atmosphere for the audience and the still image of the demented woman looking out of the window, along with the silence, leaves them wondering what is going to happen next. Our research into film trailers of the thriller/paranormal genre show that many films of this genre used a similar soundtrack to the one created – they often begin slow and then get faster paced with a louder more higher pitched sound and heavier beats to portray the action happening on screen. Every trailer we analysed, for example, ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘The Strangers’ used this technique, therefore we had no doubt that it would be effective and would appeal to our target audience.
Superimposition: Many of the trailers we analysed used a voiceover, however, we decided to use superimposition in place of a voice over as we felt that the text on screen would be more effective and create an eerie atmosphere for the audience. We also thought that we could be more creative with on screen text and use effects to distort the text and make it appear flickering and shaky, which would relate to our thriller/paranormal genre. Using Final Cut, we used the 'Earthquake' effect to make the text appear shaky and disorientated. Along with this we also used the font 'cracked' as this has cracks in and looks really edgy and distorted, relating to our thriller/paranormal genre. We used white as the colour of our superimposition as we felt that this bold colour would stand out against the dark backgrounds and enable the audience to read it whilst also standing out and being really bold and defined. For the title of our film 'Un-Hinged' which appears at the end of the film trailer, we decided to use the colour red as this was the colour of text we used on our other ancillary products. We wanted to ensure that our work continued to be consist and professional. We also used the same font for 'Un-Hinged' as we used on our magazine cover and film poster to show consistency and professionalism.
One film trailer we were inspired by in particular was the ‘Paranormal Activity’ trailer which includes an interesting use of superimposition:
One film trailer we were inspired by in particular was the ‘Paranormal Activity’ trailer which includes an interesting use of superimposition:
We wanted to get a similar effect to this kind of text on screen
Shot Types: We used a range of shot types during our trailer, some examples including close ups, extreme close ups, high angle shots, long shots, etc. Our
analysis of a range of thriller/paranormal genre film trailers has taught us that many trailers of this genre use extreme close ups and close ups during their trailer, often portraying the victim’s fearful face or showing the scary appearance of a villain. This is effective as it shows the pain and fear the victim is experiencing, heightening the fear factor of the film. Close ups of villains also reinforce the fear factor as they show the audience the scary appearance of the bad character, making them feel scared. We decided to use an extreme close up on both our victim and our demented woman. The extreme close up on victim showed her scared facial expression moments before the demented woman was about to attack her. This extreme close up builds tension and makes the audience want to know more as it blocks out all of the surrounding action and just focuses on one point in extreme detail. We also used an extreme close up on the demented woman’s eyes at the beginning. We gradually zoomed into the demented woman’s face, which along with the extreme close up, builds tension. When editing our film, we gave the demented woman red eyes which are often symbolic of the bad character in thriller/paranormal films. An extreme close up showing these eyes instantly shows the audience she is negative and they are instantly scared as it is not the norm to have red eyes and they are often associated with evil characters.
Transitions: After much analysis of film trailers of the thriller/paranormal genre, we found that many used slow fades at the beginning of the trailer and then sequences of fast paced crosscutting towards the end when the action became more exciting. This is a technique we also intend to use as it coincides with our soundtrack well – this also starts off slow and gradually becomes faster as the action quickens. Experimenting on Final Cut gave us the opportunity to find suitable transitions that were slightly more original that the usual fades and wipes. For example, we found that Final Cut offered a wide range of transitions such as cut outs of shapes. However, after experimenting with these transitions we decided to mostly use simple fades as they are effective and look professional. They also create tension when they are at a slow pace, as the ‘fade’ gives a ghostly kind of vision, which relates to our chosen genre of thriller/paranormal. We found that the trailer for thriller/paranormal film ‘The Sixth Sense’ used many slow fades. This created an eerie atmosphere, whilst also alluding to ghosts. This inspired us to use slow fades. Towards the end of ‘The Sixth Sense’ trailer we found that the fades changed into fast paced crosscutting – another technique we used. This made the last scenes of the trailer appear action based and fast paced, creating the fear factor as the audience will hopefully be hooked into the storyline.
Actors: We auditioned a number of actors for the leading roles in our film trailer. We found that many thriller/paranormal genre films used a child as the victim, for example, ‘The Sixth Sense’. Instead, we decided to use a teenager as our victim as we felt that our target audience would be able to relate more readily to a character of their age. This is an aspect we have challenged compared to some popular films of our chosen genre. We felt that if our target audience could relate to the victim, their fear would be enhanced and they’d be able to feel more sympathetic. The actor playing the demented woman is actually only 17; however, we used make-up to make her appear aged – dark make-up under her eyes to portray dark bags and also white powder on her face to make her appear pale and worn. By making her appear older, she is instantly more intimidating to our target audience as they are all younger than her. At the beginning of our film trailer, we have used a ‘home video’ of the demented woman when she was a child to show how normal and innocent she was. Using a child as the villain like character is a popular technique used by thriller/paranormal genre films, for example, ‘The orphan’ and ‘Insidious’ both include a child villain. This reinforces a shock factor for the audience as they would never think that a child could be so evil or nasty as children are associated with innocence.
Costumes/Make-up and Hair:
The costume for our actors in our film trailer was generally quite basic. Or victim, who is a normal young girl, wears a plain jersey top along with jeans. Her hair is straight and she wears no make-up at the beginning of the trailer. We wanted her to appear like a normal, young girl as this would appeal to our target audience as they are of a similar age to the victim. We wanted them to be able to relate to her. The demented woman’s costume consisted of black leggings, a black top and a dark navy coloured over-sized cardigan. This simple costume helped to portray her as a negative character due to the fact she wears all dark colours. Her hair is backcombed and messy which makes her appear crazy and weird and shows the audience she is a troubled character. This is similar to the character of Emily Rose in the trailer for ‘The Exorcist’. Her hair is very unkempt and messy, portraying her as the mental character. We also used make-up on the demented woman: we used purple/blue eye shadow along with black eyeliner to create bruises on her face and chest. We also used this make-up on the victim after she is captured by the demented woman to show that the demented woman has caused her harm. This is similar to the trailer for ‘The Strangers’ as the victim’s appearance became more unkempt and messy once the villain like characters had started to attack her.
Props: The main prop we used during our trailer was a hammer. The hammer is quite significant to our film and we have also included it within the design of the title of our film. The hammer symbolises violence and as it is the demented woman that possesses this prop, it portrays her as the intimidating character as she holds the weapon. We also used a folder which the young victim holds. This is just to portray her age – it shows she is a teenager and a student – and it also portrays her as innocent as she is a student still, which reflects innocence. Other film trailers we analysed such as ‘The Strangers’ used basic kitchen utensil kind of props as the majority of the action is set in the house, the kitchen predominantly. The film ‘Paranormal Activity’ also uses props rarely. We decided not to use many props as we wanted the audience to focus on the characters and the shots used rather than the props telling the story.
Location:
Many of the film trailers we analysed used ordinary, normal houses as the location for their film. For example, the film ‘Paranormal Activity’ is only set in the house of the victims, along with the film ‘The Strangers’. Setting a thriller/paranormal film in a normal location gives the impression that negative things can happen anywhere at all, creating the fear factor for the audience. However, we decided that we would set our film at the demented woman’s house rather than the victim – the majority of films we analysed decided to use the victim’s house as the setting.
Film Magazine
Colour Scheme: We researched a number of film magazines such as Empire and Total Film and they often used colours such as reds, blacks and greys when advertising a film of our chosen genre, which is thriller/paranormal. Therefore, we decided to use these colours to portray this theme successfully. They are colours often associated with this genre therefore we are confident it will portray the correct genre.
Shot: We used a full length shot of our demented woman for the front cover of our film magazine. The shot makes her appear at a higher angle therefore she appears intimidating, portraying her as ‘villain’ like character. We used Photoshop to edit the image of the demented woman, using a black shadowing and glow effect to show a black outline around the image. This makes the image stand out accordingly, ensuring that the image is a main focus of the reader. It also ensures that the demented woman appears intimidating and the use of the colour black suggests negativity about her.
Layout and Fonts: The layout of our magazine cover uses the typical conventions of a professionally published magazine: masthead, left hand third, pugs and plugs, etc. This ensures that our own product looks professional whilst delivering the purpose of a real life magazine, which is to inform and advertise to the reader. Our masthead remains simple, as we decided that the majority of film magazines use a simple, plain masthead whilst using a wide range of fonts and colours for the other plugs and pugs on the cover – this ensures that the main focus is the film rather than the magazine itself. The simple font of the masthead also ensures out magazine remains professional. We used a few different fonts for our plugs and pugs: Tempus Sans ITC, Impact and Poplar. This variation of fonts makes our magazine look interesting and allowed specific words stand out, for example, ‘special edition’ is the only text written in ‘Tempus Sans ITC’ therefore the use of font allows something important to stand out against the other fonts.
Editing: We also used a professional programme to create our magazine cover: Adobe Photoshop. This ensured we maintained a realistic design for our magazine cover and allowed us to use a range of effects to ensure our magazine was eye-catching and attractive to our target audience and also that it suited the genre well. For example, we used the effect ‘unsharpen mask’ on our central image. This made the image appear more defined and bold, making it stand out to the reader. We also used the shadow/glow effect around some of our image and some of our text. This makes the item stand out more whilst also fitting in with the genre, as a shadow creates an eerie atmosphere and this is associated with our thriller/paranormal genre.
Film Poster
Our film poster also uses the typical conventions of a professional film poster. For example, we have made our own billing block, along with a tagline and a heading for our film title Un-Hinged. We have also made a logo for our film company MGM which will be included in the billing block.
Shot type/Central Image: We decided to use a medium close up for the image used on our film poster. We decided on this as many film posters of the same genre as ours that we researched used a medium close up. We also feel that this shot suits the genre of thriller/paranormal as the protagonist character – the demented woman- appears intimidating and scary, fulfilling the fear factor we intended to create.
Title: The title of our film ‘Un-Hinged’ is in the font ‘Poplar’ and is in all capital letters. We felt the use of capital letters made the font bigger and ‘louder’ and links to the genre well as the bigger size makes it appear more intimidating and ‘scary’ which is relative of the thriller/paranormal genre. The colour red is also symbolic to danger which is a theme we wish to portray in our three products. It also stands out against the dark background, therefore will be eye catching to the audience.
Effects: We used Adobe Photoshop to edit design and edit our film poster. We started with the image we wanted to use and then we made the opacity more transparent so the image appeared faded, giving it a ghostly feel – this relates to our genre of thriller/paranormal. We also used the effect ‘Unsharpen Mask’ on our image, which makes the lines and outlines on the image appear sharper, making them become more eye catching to the audience. We also used the shadow/glow tool to make the main title ‘Un-Hinged’ and the tagline stand out more so it was eye-catching. The glow/shadowing effect also relates to our genre as shadows are often associated with the thriller/paranormal genre. Many film posters we researched used this technique as it makes the text stand out and is appealing to the eye of the consumer, however, we have used the effect more obviously as their effect appeared quite subtle whereas ours is very clear and stand out, along with making the text stand out.
Billing Block: Initially, we weren’t sure what a billing block was but we researched a number of film posters and saw that many had a billing block at the bottom. We used Adobe Photoshop to make our billing block using the Text tool.
We then added our group logo to the bottom (MGM). We thought that making a logo would ensure that our products looked as professional and realistic as possible and we also found that some billing blocks didn’t contain a logo, therefore we thought that including ours would be an individual idea, along with ensuring the product looks professional and realistic.
Tagline:
We decided to keep in with these typical aspects of a film poster as they ensure that the product is recognisable as a film poster and also look the most appealing and advertise successfully. Similar to our magazine cover, we also used Adobe Photoshop to ensure that we had the best effects possible to use to ensure that the film poster looked professional and effective.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Colour Scheme: We have ensured that all of our products have a similar colour scheme so that they all portray the thriller/paranormal genre but most importantly, so that they are all recognisable as a product of ‘Un-Hinged’. Our magazine cover and film poster both use the same colour scheme:
The colours used on both of the above products are reds, black, white and greys. We have ensured to use the same film title on both products so that the brand is recognisable and so that our products look professional and realistic. Both backgrounds are black as we wanted to portray the dark, negativity of the plot through the use of colour. The use of black also instantly portrays the film as a thriller/paranormal film. The colours in our film trailer are also very dark as we used Final Cut to edit the contrast of the colour and made the film appear dimmer to portray the dark, eerie atmosphere of the story. The evil character in our film trailer, the demented woman, also wears all dark colours.
Logo:
Above is our film company MGM’s logo. We felt that making a logo would reinforce the professionalism of our products, making them appear more realistic. We have added our film logo to the end of our film trailer, along with placing it next to the billing board on our film poster. By putting it on two of our products, it makes the film more of a brand and more recognisable. We decided to not put it on the magazine cover as we found that none of the film magazine covers we analysed included the film company’s logo.
Film Title:
Our film title for ‘Un-Hinged’ is bright red and in block capital letters. This is very eye-catching and ensures that our film title stands out and is recognised. We have included our film title on all of our three products, which shows they are all products of ‘Un-Hinged’ and also allows our products to be consistent and professional, as we found that all of the film packages we analysed used their film title on all of their three products.
Images:
We decided to use two different images on our magazine cover and film poster. However, we ensured that the two photos of the demented woman were consistent and portrayed her in the same way. For example, she looks very intimidating in both photos we have used. The shot for our magazine cover is a full length shot of her holding the hammer raised in the air. This shot instantly makes her appear intimidating due to the use of weapon and also the fact you can see her whole body as it shows how intimidating she is. We decided to use a medium-close up image on our film poster because, again, it portrays the demented woman as intimidating and scary.
Actors: We ensured that we used the same actors throughout the making of our three products in order to achieve consistency. By using the same actors, we also establish the ‘Un-Hinged’ brand as we are making the characters more recognisable. We also ensured that the use of costume, make-up and hair was used consistently throughout our three products. For example, all of the actors are wearing the same costumes in the images on the magazine cover and film poster and in the actual film trailer itself. We used make-up to create bruises on the demented woman and the victim and ensured that we placed them in exactly the same places in all of the images and during the filming of the film trailer. The demented woman’s hair is also the same in both the images and the final trailer.
I feel that our magazine cover and film poster support the film trailer correctly and that the design of each product matches one another. For example, we have ensured that we use the same colour scheme on all products, especially our magazine cover and film poster which uses the same colours: black, white, grey and red. Our trailer also incorporates these colours, as there is a lot of black used – the demented woman’s costume is black, along with the background of the superimposition. We have also included a number of fades as transitions which show a black screen before switching to the next scene. The colour black is symbolic of negativity and darkness, which suits the genre of our thriller/paranormal products. We have also ensured to use the title of the film ‘Un-Hinged’ on all of our products, in the same font style and colour. As a group, we agreed that using red as the colour for the title of the film would fully support the genre as red is a colour often associated with danger and also with blood, which are both symbolic of thriller/paranormal films. We also felt that the colour red stood out considerably and would be noticeable to our audience. By using the same ‘logo’ for our film on all of products, we have enabled our film title to become recognisable, along with making our products look professional and consistent. We have used an image of the demented woman on both our magazine cover and film poster, which supports our film trailer as we are showing an important aspect of the film itself and advertising it on our other products, suggesting to our audience aspects of the film. We have also ensured that our demented woman looks consistent in all of our products. Although we filmed our trailer and took the photos for the film poster and magazine cover on separate days, we made sure we noted down exactly what make up was used, how hair was styled and what costumes the actors wore to ensure that the characters looked the same on all of our products. For example, the bruises on the demented woman are in exactly the same places on all of our products. This ensures that all of our products look professional and consistent.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Our audience research, which we have gathered through questionnaires and interviews, has proved very helpful when creating our media products. We have taken all of our target audience’s needs and wants into consideration when designing our products as we feel it is important that the products appeal to them correctly whilst also fitting into the genre of thriller/paranormal. Initially, we conducted a general film questionnaire, including questions such as: ‘Which genre of film is your favourite?’ and ‘What persuades you to watch/buy films the most?’. This initial questionnaire was very helpful as it helped us decide which genre of film we were going to – thriller/paranormal. It also helped us recognise that our target audience were persuaded to watch a new film by the trailer more than a film poster or magazine. This suggested that we needed to ensure that our film trailer was particularly effective and of a high standard as this is the main advertisement that our target audience pay attention to. The general questionnaire also taught us that the main aspects that catch our target audience’s eye in a film trailer are the actual film clips, along with the music used throughout the trailer. When planning our trailer, we created a storyboard showing the shots we intended to use in our trailer. We ensured we used an interesting mix of shots such as a high angle shot, to ensure that the clips looked interesting and varied, which will hopefully appeal to our target audience.
We have recently conducted a questionnaire to find out what our audience thought of our final products:
1) After seeing our final products, would you choose to watch 'Un-Hinged'?
After seeing our final products, would you choose to watch ‘Un-Hinged’?
Our general feedback from our target audience was positive: sixteen said they would view ‘Un-Hinged’ based on our products, while four said they wouldn’t. We later discovered the reasons for this:
If no, why?
Three out of the four people who said they wouldn’t watch ‘Un-Hinged’ said it was due to the fact that they dislike thriller/paranormal genre films. This can’t be helped and isn’t due to the work on our products, however, one person said it was due to an unrealistic storyline. This suggests that we should have portrayed our storyline as more realistically, perhaps by making it a less typical storyline, as it is common for young girls to get abducted by mental people in thriller/paranormal films so we should have thought of a more original storyline.
What did you like about our film poster?
We asked our target audience what they liked best about our film poster. The majority said they liked the image we decided to use. This shows that our research paid off, as we discovered that many film posters of the thriller/paranormal genre used a central image of the protagonist character as the main focus of their film poster, for example, the film posters for ‘The Orphan’ and ‘Insidious’ use this idea, suggesting it is an effective, professional idea. The second most popular aspect of our film poster was the use of fonts. We decided to use a slightly disorientated, disjointed font for our tagline, which suits our genre well because we found that many films of this genre use disorientated texts fonts in their products. One example of this is the use of font on the superimposition in the ‘Paranormal Activity’ trailer, which looks unfocused and wobbly, creating an eerie, scary atmosphere. Our target audience appeared to like the colour scheme of our film poster the least. We have decided that this is probably due to the fact that the colours we have used are typical and expected of a film of this genre. We did this to ensure that the poster successfully portrayed the genre however; we could have made it a little more original by using a slightly different colour scheme which isn’t as typical.
What do you like best about our magazine cover?
Our target audience said that their favourite aspect of our magazine cover was the image. From our research of film magazine covers, we found that many of the images used were eye-catching and edited carefully to ensure they stood out. We used an effect called Unsharpen Mask for the image on our magazine cover as we wanted to ensure it stood out and attracted our audience immediately, which it seems to have done. The next most popular aspect was the colour scheme. From previous studies into the magazine industry at AS and also our research into film magazine covers, we found that the majority of magazine covers tend to use a house style, where all of the colours and fonts match and compliment one another. We decided to use the colours red, black, grey and white as they relate to our genre of thriller/paranormal and we intended to portray this to our audience through the appearance of our magazine cover. Our target audience voted the fonts used as the least popular aspect of our magazine cover. This may be because we have used simple, plain fonts for our magazine cover. We decided to use simple fonts to ensure that aspects such as the image and the effects stood out more and also to ensure the magazine look professional – we discovered from our research that many film magazine covers use simple fonts whilst using effects and colours to make them stand out.
What do you like best about our film trailer?
Our results show that our target audience liked the fear factor of our film trailer the best. This suggests that we have been successful when scaring the audience, showing we have successfully portrayed the genre of thriller/paranormal genre. We used effects such as slow motion and slow fades as transitions to scare the audience and build the tension, whilst also ensuring our soundtrack was slow and eerie, then building up into a fast paced, beating song, again building the tension and creating a scary atmosphere. The storyline was also popular with the target audience. We watched a range of thriller/paranormal genres and found that many contained storylines in which characters get abducted by someone crazy, for example The Human Centipede. This suggested that this was a common storyline for our genre and would ensure that our target audience got the ‘fear factor’ however, we aimed to change it slightly so it wasn’t as typical, for example, we found that the majority of demented characters were children, such as in ‘The Orphan’ therefore, we decided to use an adult woman as the villain like character to change it slightly and make our product more original whilst also sticking to the typical forms which portray the genre and produce the fear factor so successfully. Our target audience voted the text on screen as their least favourite aspect, suggesting that they prefer the clips rather than text. From our research, we found that many film trailers used superimposition such as ‘Paranormal Activity’ and we thought incorporating this into our own clip would be successful. However, if we were to do it again, we could possibly use an eerie voice over as it seems sound is popular with our target audience.
What do you dislike about our film poster?
We found that the majority of our target audience said there was nothing they disliked about our film poster. This suggests that our research into film posters was successful as it gave us ideas and aspects to use which we knew were already effective. However, three people said they disliked the fonts used, while three people said they disliked the effects. This may suggest they’d prefer a more simple poster, with less effects. No one said they disliked the colour scheme, which suggests that our colour scheme was suited to the genre and portrayed it well.
What do you dislike about our magazine cover?
Again, the majority of our target audience said there was nothing they disliked about our magazine cover. This suggests that we have met our aims of advertising the film and genre suitably. Six people said they disliked the image we used on our poster. This may be because it is not a typical image used on a film magazine – our research showed that many film magazines used a central image, for example, Empire magazine’s ‘The Dark Knight’ issue uses a close up central image of the joker. This appears intimidating, however, we used this central image on our film poster and wanted to do something different for our magazine cover, therefore we decided on a full length image. We used shadowing and glow effects to make the demented woman appear eerie and intimidating.
What do you dislike about our film trailer?
The majority of those we asked said there was nothing they disliked about our film trailer. Two people said they didn’t like the storyline and another two said they didn’t like the fear factor. This may be due to the fact that they dislike the genre of thriller/paranormal, however, this may be unlikely as we clearly advertised our genre by choosing colours associated with the genre such as reds and blacks and also the title of our film ‘Un-Hinged’ suggests the genre. No one said they disliked our sound, which suggests our in-depth research into film trailers of the thriller/paranormal genre has supported our making of our sound in our clip, as we were largely influenced by the eerie, beating soundtracks often included in films of this genre, such as the soundtrack in the film trailer for The Strangers.
Overall, how would you rate our products out of ten?
The majority of our target audience scored our products a nine out of ten, with seven scoring ten out of ten and only one scoring seven and eight out of ten. This suggests that we have successfully produced our products, which is due to the in-depth research we conducted beforehand.
Trailer Reviews
I asked a five people in my target audience to give me one positive about our film trailer and one negative. This is what I found out:
Opinion One:
Positive: “I really liked the use of text on screen as it added suspense and made the film look really scary.”
Negative: “The storyline is a bit too predictable.”
Opinion Two:
Positive: “The use of sound was really good, I liked the way it sounded really eerie and quiet at first and then suddenly got faster to build the tension.”
Negative: “The demented woman’s costume could have been made to look slightly scarier.”
Opinion Three:
Positive: “The scary music helped to set the atmosphere and I really liked the way the scary woman was zoomed into at the beginning and then she suddenly looked up. That was scary!”
Negative: “There wasn’t anything negative that I can think of.”
Opinion Four:
Positive: “The transitions helped to make the trailer look scary and I also liked the use of slow motion when the victim was walking because it showed that she was in danger and reinforced the fear factor of the trailer.”
Negative: The plot is quite commonly used but I thought it was portrayed well.”
Opinion Five:
Positive: “The ending of the trailer was really scary because it showed the girl all tied up about to be hit by the evil woman. The extreme close up shot of the girl looked really effective and scary.”
Negative: “I didn’t think there were any negatives.”
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Camera: We used a camera often throughout the making of our magazine cover and film poster. However, we first used one when completing our preliminary task. We used my Nikon Cool Pix digital camera to take some practice photos for our practice magazine cover and film poster. We practised particular shots, for example, the victim standing or sitting, unaware of a suspicious character behind her. This practice task was helpful as it made us think about what shots we could possibly use in our final piece.
We also used the digital camera to take photos of the location and possible casting for our blog. It was helpful as we needed photos on our blog to illustrate what points we were making.
Camcorder: We also used a camcorder during the making of our film trailer. Firstly, we used a HD camcorder to record our preliminary trailer. This task was helpful as it gave us an insight into using a camcorder, ensuring we had some basic knowledge when it came to filming for our final piece. When we filmed for our final piece, we used a JVC camcorder.
Windows Movie Maker: We used Windows Movie Maker to edit our preliminary film trailer. The programme was very basic compared to Final Cut and the effects you could do were limited, however, it gave us a basic knowledge of editing films and allowed us to play around with our practice piece and see which aspects we would consider using. For example, we tried out the slow motion effect on Windows Movie Maker and this reaffirmed our choice to use this effect in our final piece as it looked really effective. Once we had edited our preliminary film trailer with Windows Movie Maker, we were able to watch it and see what improvements were to be made, inspiring us to do better in our final piece.
When it came to editing our final products, we used Adobe Photoshop. On our film poster we used effects such as editing the transparency to make the image appear faded. We also used the transparency tool on our film title. One reoccurring tool we used was the shadow/glow effect as this really relates to our theme of ‘paranormal’ and ‘ghosts’ and the thriller/paranormal genre in general.
Garage Band: Before we began to edit, we used Garage Band to experiment with a range of music samples and instruments. This was helpful as it made us realise which sounds and instruments were suitable for our genre. We decided that we wanted to use an eerie, quiet soundtrack to begin with and then for it to get gradually faster with heavier beats as the pace of the action quickened.
Soundtrack Pro: We used Soundtrack Pro to make the final soundtrack for our final film trailer. This was a useful programme as we were able to record our own soundtrack and experiment with our own vocal and sound recordings.
Final Cut: We used Final Cut to edit our final film trailer. The programme has a wide range of effects to use which was really helpful as we were able to experiment with a choice of effects to see which ones worked best. It was very precise when it came to cutting un-needed footage which was really important to us as our trailer had to be a certain time length. The way it has two screens, one showing your current clip, the other showing the changes you have made, was really helpful because you could see if your changes had enhanced the effectiveness of your clip and could compare. We were also able to change the dimness of the trailer using Final Cut which was a really important aspect of the final piece of us as we wanted the trailer to be dark to portray an eerie, scary atmosphere to the audience.
Internet Explorer: The use of the internet was particularly useful during the process of making our three final products. For example, we used YouTube to watch a range of film trailers which gave us inspiration for our own work and gave us an idea of what the current market is. We also used Google and film magazine websites such as Empire.com to find photos of existing film posters and magazine covers. This was helpful as we could see what features they used on their products so that we could make ours look realistic and professional. We were also able to see which effects they used and which image shots and angles. This was particularly helpful as we saw that they used certain shots such as ‘close ups’ of the evil characters for a reason – it portrays them as intimidating and scary to the audience. Many central images were also used of the main character of the film in the centre of the magazine cover or film poster, for example, the film posters for ‘The Orphan’ and ‘Insidious’.
Blogger: Blogger.com was used throughout the whole process of making our media products. It was used to record the progress of our making and to publish our final pieces online. This is important as it is taking advantage of Web.20, which was first introduced in 2004/5. It allows a communication via the internet, for example, people can comment on my work that is published on blogger and also repost it. It is important, as a media student, to take full advantage of the expanding media industry.
