Dear Moderator

Dear Moderator,

This is my A2 Media Blog. On my blog you will find that I have posted my finished horror poster, film magazine and horror trailer at the top. To look at my posts press on the “older posts” at the bottom of the blog or use the navigation menu to the right to view all the previous posts on my blog that can't be seen.

Thanks for looking and I hope you are pleased with what you see!

Final Trailer

Final Poster

Final Magazine

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

TRAILER-

I chose to challenge the normal convention of having the production company at the start of the trailer and instead swapped this with the classification and then straight into the titles this was because I wanted the action to start very soon as well as warning audiences what content was to be in the trailer to avoid offence. I added the production company ‘Chiller Productions’ to the end of the trailer alongside all of the credits, adding this to my trailer used the Dyer’s star theory as the production company and all the music producer, makeup artist, director and producer all take part in how the success of the film is going to be regarded to most audiences. I chose the idea of ‘Chiller Production’ to show that the company specialise in horror films from the world ‘Chiller’, this will show that the horror film will be well constructed and more successful as that is all the production company produce adding more interest from the audience.

Normally release times are shown at the end of a trailer however I challenged this by choosing to have the very first title credit at the very beginning of the trailer and giving the exact date while following gothic features by quoting ‘THIS HALLOWEEN’ fitting in to a spooky annual event making the release day a massive success due to cliché celebrations. As well as this I added a further reminder however going back to follow the normal convention as I added ‘COMING SOON’ before the credits at the end of the trailer.

Through editing I followed the conventions of typical lighting within horror trailers by changing the brightness of colour within my clips this portrayed suspense and also an eerie effect on by trailer. Filming in night vision effects or in darkness enabled me to show to the audience the typical horror film conventions. As well as this I followed the conventions in regards to the sound adding low drones, high pitched violin signs and creepy wind sounds and even well-known spooky rhythms to my trailer this added further effect onto the clips building in tension and suspense within the trailer gripping the audience and making them jump from crash and bang sounds. 

I followed the normal conventions in regards to my main character, in most horrors a young venerable character normally female is the victim of supernatural events which is exactly what I chose for my film/trailer. Following scenes inspired by films such as paranormal activity, REC and the idea of witchcraft from the conjuring I followed the typical trailer techniques with a unique way in order to grip my audience and ensure they watched my film.

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

What have you learned from audience feedback?

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

EVALUATION

For the evaluation stage I wanted to still use creative ways to present my answers due to them being quite long winded with a lot of information, I wanted my work to be presented in a fun way as I had done before with my research and planning. So using things I had already used such as Glogster, Powtoon, Prezi, Power point and slideshare helped me to present my ideas clearly and interestingly.

Textual analysis of secondary research with conventions

Typical conventions for a horror trailer:

Normality disrupted

Action split up with credits

Music- fast pace, low drones, creating tension

Dramatic angles on camera

Dark and scary settings and weather- stormy day, church, clouds

The best bits are shown

Clear view of the storyline

Shows the well known actresses and actors

Supernatural elements

Titles mainly at the ending of the trailer

Screaming and commonly used dialogue ‘Help me’ ‘who’s there?’

Fast pace sections 

Camerawork:

Unlike many new horrors Insidious doesn't use the 'shaky camera effect' and instead it seems to use different camera angles, panning and a still camera throughout (maybe placed on a tripod). Close up shots are used for certain sections but mainly throughout the trailer their are long shots, reverse angle shots and also birds eye view shot as if someone is looking up to something on the roof. There is a lot of panning and a lot of zooming into close up shots from long shots. Overall i think that the camera work isn't too extreme which helps to not take away the actual filming itself and with the camera work that there is in the trailer enables the audience to get the most out of the storyline.

Mise en scene:

Costume: There are no real extremes within the costumes of the actors and actresses they are kept very normal and causal. This is to suggest the change of normality when the supernatural things start to happen, it enables the audience to believe that it could happen to them making it much scarier. It makes the storyline seem realistic as it shows a stereotypical family. The figure (demon) we see is hiding behind the husbands mother so we only see his shoulder where he is wearing black which was probably intended to focus the eye more on his face.

Make up: The normal actors and actresses make up is made to look casual however stressed at times typically the wife (bags under eyes). The make up of the devil figure uses reds and blacks with yellow eyes and jet black hair. This bases the make up on images of the devil itself. The make up of this demon type figure is well addressed to the audience what the character is and fits in well with the story line however only with a slight realism for me personally.

Lighting: Low key lighting throughout the trailer, the colour of the images and clips have been made darker also. Even when daylight is shown there is still an element of darkness within the image to make it very shadowy on certain objects and faces. Having it this way fits in with the horror conventions of darkness and also makes the trailer itself more eerie and frightening.

Facial expressions, positioning and body language: Most facial expressions within the trailer are very shocked, frightened and horrified apart from the clips showing normality as they are happy and smiley, this helps show the contrast between a normal life and the horror. Their body language also does this same thing and is mostly enclosed, up tight and frightened to show them scared however starts very relaxed. The facial expression of the figure is very menacing and with the grin on his face shocks and frightens the audience.

Settings and Props: Hospital, American style house and Attic- All horror related fitting in with the conventions and also sustaining the dark, scary feel while following a very traditional haunted house storyline throughout.

Sound: The bang/ crash sound of the production company is a good way to break the silence and even make some jump from the sudden sound, it also brings more interest to the production company. When the title comes up there is a technical distortion sound and apart from the main dialogue heard in the trailer there is elements of a low drone and wind sound behind most clips as well as the clicks from the start of the trailer. There are lots of crashes and bangs at the scary parts to make the audience jump and nearer to the ending the music gets loader with high pitch violins sounds with the low drone underneath. At the ending there is one last high pitched crash to draw further attention to the title and release date.

Duration: The trailer itself is 1 minute 50 seconds a typical time for trailers. As this trailer is gripping it gives enough time for the audience to grasp the storyline and actors and gives enough to promote the film. If the trailer was any longer then too much information will be let out and not enough will be left to intrigue the audience to find out more and want to go and see the film. As well as a trailer having to tease the audience into wanting to see the film if it was too long it would get boring and having a long winded, non interesting trailer means that audiences wont go and see the film. 

Editing: The editing within this trailer is also typical to the normal horror trailer as it is face pace showing the best sections of the film alongside portraying the storyline to the audience. The classification at the start is typical in many trailers to enable the right audiences are watching the trailer to not disturb certain viewers and It is a good idea to be put in when editing the trailer. The production company at the start is a typical technique within any trailer which is what this trailer does and creates the uses and gratification of personal identity to the audience as they will base thoughts on the production companies previous works. Having 'Insidious' and 'Is' after a couple of clips shows continuity as well as promoting the name of the film, this isn't a typical technique however i felt it worked well in this trailer making the trailer itself much more interesting. It speeds up much faster at the end also with the credits at the ending saying the date after the title shown again.

Analysis of technology used in trailer

Plan title credit- analysis of font and mise en scene

Annotations of still images, feedback and reflections

First Draft Trailer

How did you implement feedback?

Plan of title credits and design- analysis and mise-en-scene

Finished Storyboard

Risk assessment

Trailer Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire Results from ahashf

Trailer Questionnaire

Initial Thoughts

Trailer Brief

To design and create an original film trailer, certified at 15, to promote the release of my own production. I will be using my own original content.

Audience feedback on my poster

Audience feedback:

‘I like how the same title for the film is used for the magazine and trailer’

‘The names of the actors could be bolder to show importance and involve the dyers star theory of people being drawn to the poster through the known celebrities’

‘It looks like a real poster especially with the credits and its good to have a release date as it gets audiences excited’

‘The picture is scary and looks like it has been edited really good’

‘The title ‘Awoken’ could be made bigger to draw attention more’

‘I love the main image with her hiding behind something dark it creates mystery, her eyes look really cool too and the fact her hair looks kind of static’

‘I like the style of the (Coming to cinemas near you.. October 14) however it could be hard to see for some people’

‘Having links to Facebook and a website is good to as I can look for more information and get more excited for the film’