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

For my research I used the following:

Google Images- Google images was used in terms of research for both the main teaser trailer product for stills from existing horror trailers and for the ancillary texts for pictures of existing magazines. Searching for pictures is fast and efficient as well as you can save any image you find in order to make it much easier on us so we can always look at a design or existing product we liked all the time. 


Youtube- Youtube was used in my research to look at existing teaser trailers in order to see how they were filmed and made to look like. We spent a lot of time analyzing many theatrical and teaser horror trailers in order to come up with a way in which our groups product would actually look like. It was always used in terms of research for shots, angles and styles of music to be placed into the trailer and was very useful.


For Construction I used the following:


Camcorder and Tripod- We used the camcorder to film our teaser trailer. The came with a decent zoom function that was needed for our ECU of the eye. Due to certain cameras not being able to shoot in 16:9 ratio e were limited to a 4:3 ratio which didn't cause any problems. When shooting we used the camera in a hand held position and also using a tripod for steady shots. The tri pod allowed us to keep a steady shot and also able to create canted angles thanks to its flexibility. 


Final cut pro- Final cut pro is the editing software we used to edit our trailer. At first we had to learn the basics of the program which i found easy to get use to as I felt it was similar to another software Photoshop. The trickiest part was probably assembling the trailer using the timeline but was quick to overcome thanks to the tools it provided. After we got the basic layout of the trailer we started to edit. it was fairly easy to add fade-ins an fade-outs and also add filters tot he trailer to give it it's own unique style. After a while i eventually got use to cut and editing on the timeline which made me more efficient in creating the trailer.


Photoshop- Photoshop was the program we used to create our ancillary task. I am very familiar with Photoshop so creating these tasks was fairly easy. Photoshop allows you to create anything your imagination can come up with. It is fairly simple to use an get to grips with. I encountered no problems while using Photoshop.


Creative Commons Sound Site and garage band- We used the creative common sound website for our music. It was simple to search for the music we wanted because we was able to search in categories. After we had obtained our music we then imported them into Garage band along with our trailer. Doing this allowed us to get the timing spot on. Also garage band allowed use to create the voice overs with their sound effects.


I used the following for my evaluation -


Blogger and Flickr - Blogger was used to document all of our work. The site enabled us to keep all our work in one place. Because our work was stored on the internet we was able to easily access our work from home making it more convenient.  Blogger is very efficient to use and is less time consuming then physically writing it all out, with the idea of picture upload into the essays, hyperlinks, videos etc it becomes a more interactive experience. As well as being simple to use it was also easy to find the work we done by the idea of labeling which made it much easier to find work which would be much harder with paperwork. The link between Flickr and Blogger was a very useful feature. We could upload a picture into Flickr add our annotations and then import it into blogger which is all done on the Flickr website. Adding annotations to an image saved a lot of writing as it allowed us to present the image and include informations about certain parts of the image. This mad the reader have a better understanding of the image aswell as my thoughts and particular parts.


Youtube- Youtube was used to upload our teaser to the internet. Youtube is a well known site and traffic's millions of users each day. So there was big chance of people leaving feedback on our trailers. We was also able to show our friends the teaser so more feedback was gained.






      

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We had a screening in front of our target audience which were in our target of the 16-24 years of age group (They were around 17-18), we showed them our teaser trailer in return for audience feedback on what our teaser highlights were and what it done bad at to help us improve or take into consideration for upcoming trailers that could appear.

Music/Sound: 

+ Had some good sound effects, some were very effective an helped with the feel of the trailer

+ Music fitted well with the trailer

- Music suited the start but needed a build up to create suspension. It lost it's impact towards the end

The music in the trailer was a 50/50 spilt. Some liked it and they said it seemed to fit with the whole style of the trailer leaving a mystery to it. Others stated it caught their attention at the start of the trailer but generally lost its impact towards the end. The audience seemed to find the hand scratching the floor to have a very effective use of sound as it causes distress and makes them feel uncomfortable.  

Cinematography/Editing:

+ Good use of canted angles

+ Certain shots play with the eyes thanks to the use of lighting.

+ Transitions were effective and some were unique.

- Inter-titles seem to be too quick for the audience to read.

+ Extreme close ups of eyes were effective.

+ Canted angle in the corridor were effective.

- Extensive use of the eye shots made the trailer tedious.

The audience seemed to like the editing and cinematography in the trailer as it created a unique and interesting style. They enjoyed most of the shots but didn't like the excessive use of certain shots which eventually made the teaser tedious.

Mise en scene:

+ Very good use of props helped create immersion. 

+ Certain shots have effective use of lighting.

+ Good use of locations, they fitted with the theme and the scene.

Other feedback:

+ Voice-overs create immersion in the world and help develop a plot

- Trailer seemed too short even though it ran at a average teaser length.

+ They seemed to like the style of the movie and its effects, some of the audience said it was original 

+ Effective mise en scene

Looking at the feedback made me realise how successful our teaser trailer had turned out to be. My aim was to create a mysterious and slightly mind bending trailer an it seemed to work to the majority of the audience. There is obviously some improvements that will need to be made but overall the outcome seemed to be successful to the audience.  

  

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

As a whole, I believe from a promotional standpoint that all three of my products effectively tease the audience with my horror movie "Phantasm". 

My poster- My poster that I produced is a slightly unusual one it shows direct gore but shows the style of the movie and a tag line that helps shape the plot. The poster ticks all of the conventions of a poster its stars, theme/genre, credits and often a tagline to whet audiences' appetites. The posters main focus is on the lead actor which (if a massive movie star) would bring fans of the actors into the audience. As the poster is to be displayed in a Cinema

foyer it will need to stand out from the rest. I accomplished this by creating a disturbing image the blood red colour stands out and draws the audiences view. Overall i think that my poster has turned out successful and is effective.

Magazine Cover- Normally a magazine featuring a film will normally have the leading role plastered on the front. I went for a alternative method and used a still from the film. It has silhouette figure in the background which leaves a mysterious look which is a perfect theme for my film. To help market the film I included a "Top 50 horror movies of all time" title, this is extremely helpful for boosting my movie by putting it in a  Top 50 list. Also the movie is featured in a popular movie magazine which normally don't feature the horror genre on its front cover. This also helps boost the movie as it gives out an impression of it being a massive hit.

Teaser Trailer - I think that my trailer reinforces the style of my film more than the other texts. It has it's mysterious feeling to it and shows off the films style. the trailer comes in around 1:12 which is the average for a horror trailer. The trailer has a slow pacing to it which helps deliver the powerful disturbing imagery. By the end of the trailer the viewer is left wondering what happens next, the trailer has a hazy plot so many different ideas will pop in to audiences heads. Overall it is a effective teaser and has succeeded.  

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

Click on the images for my flickr analysis!

On the left are stills from my teaser production and on the right are other film stills

Final Product: Ancillary texts

 

My Finished Trailer

Our groups story board

Mood board

Here is my mood board i created using various
images from film and artists. I chose to make
the image black and white as the majority of
the films i selected are old horrors. It also
adds a dark mood to the image aswell.

Audience research

Here is some graphs showing my audience research. Because my survey was around the college most of the
the results are from teenagers . The majority of the people we asked were males but all of the females we asked liked horror which was a suprise.  

My pitch for a horror movie

A girl who suffers from a rare diesease were her vision goes now and again. Her family then decides to move a town closer to the hospital so it is easier. She learns that the town has a history of murder and death. She is put on a medical trial that will help her with her vision. she is now able to see fully and every now and again she sees horrific images of people being murdered. she soon realises that they are flashbacks of the murders that have taken place in the town. She is puzzled why she is starting to see these visions and questions the doctor who put her on the trial who seems to avoid most of the question which raises her suspicion. She stumbles around his office and finds out he his actually performing an ancient ritual and she was the sacrifice and now she has to get the truth out and fight for her life.  

The role of the distributor and the marketing plan

The role of the distributor is to decide when and how to release a film in order to optimise the films chances. The distributor is given a budget to market the film. This budget normally comes from the producer or the rights owner. A distributor may release any number of films sometimes just one to two or as many as 25-50 in a year.

When a distribution plan is set up the distributor will look at:
Who the film is for?
Who can be convinced to buy a cinema ticket to see it and why should they do so?
What sort of audiences have similar films attracted recently?
Through a combination of market knowledge, commercial experience, statistical research and professional judgement, distributors gauge the audience for each film. When the distributor has estimated how much the film will earn (with low/medium/high estimates) they can prepare a budget to release the film. You can not rely on conventional wisdom when planning a new release. To distribute a film successfully the distributor will need a detailed understanding of the target audiences i.e age group, gender, lifestyles, social networks, media consumption patterns and income. By looking at the audiences media consumption pattern will help the distributor know where to promote the film i.e newspaper.

The audience can vary considerably from film to film. The most frequent cinema goers tend to be teenagers, students and young adults. More than half of 15-24 olds in the UK visit the cinema at least once a month as it is a favourite out-of-home activity. But the audience is growing as adults aged 35 account for the growing proportion of tickets.

Competition is always a primary consideration for distributors. They will look at which films the other distributor will most likely release at the same time or during the following weeks. To beat the competition the distributor will look at it's film and see if it has any star power. If the film has big iconic stars it is most likely to gain a bigger audienece. Also they will look at whether if it is an event film or a mass market blockbuster film.

Every film released has a marketing plan the distributor will use various advertisment stratergies to capture the films audience.

Posters - A poster for the film may appear on billboards, prime space for advertising, banners, window clings and mini posters they also appear in cinema foyers as teaser posters. A poster produced for every release is in quad format (the traditional UK size of 30"x40", landscape orientation) or one sheet format.

Trailers - With trailers normally the distribution company releases a teaser for the movie to create hype and then nearer to the release of the film a theatrical trailer.

Online - Online promotion is now becoming the most effective way to promote films and other media products. With millions of people logging on to the internet there is plenty of people to grab. Normally a website is set up for the film and the URL is displayed in trailers and posters. All the trailers are normally diplayed on the website and once a film is days from release or released fans create fan websites for the film creating more advertisements.

How women are represented in the horror genre?

In the horror genre the majority of women are stereotyped into being a helpless, scantily clad victim running away from a monster. Horror plays on the fact that women are some what inferior to men with them being helpless and hardly able to prevent anything. Also the protagonist is a female character who seems to always survive the night. But the female who is cast as the protagonist has some male like qualities which distinguishes her from the rest of the women.

If the main protagonist is a female she ends up being the so called 'final girl' (a term coined by Carol Clover) who survives the event. She is normally a virgin who differs from the rest of the group and has to struggle and fight the monster off. As a horror flick slowly progresses characters are killed off until it reaches the final girl. The final girl struggles to stop the monster and succeeds but the monster is not killed. Even though the women helped stop the monster she did'nt kill it which relates back to women being inefective at getting the job done. This is representing women in a negative light.

In slasher movies teens are normally the target for the monster and among these teens are women. Normally in a slasher movie the women who are murdered have negative connotations and were promiscuous and/or are interupted duing sex. It's normally the virgin who survives the night. In other horror films the women is always put through the most pain as she watches loved ones die around her. It could be in the middle of a wedding that gets interuppted and the female is forced to sit and watch as her world gets teared apart. So normally the women who is the protagonist has to go through the most pain in horrors and are represented as the most vunerable.

Normally in horror the most horrific things happen in places that are considered safe. In slasher movies it is normally set in a household which is considered safe. A stereotypical women belongs to the household where she does her chores. So this makes the women a victim to the monster as they are attacked in there own homes where they spend most of there time. The men are normally shown away from the home or are an early victim to the monster. Whenever a male is shown in a horror movie he has power over the women which they may or may not abuse. If the male is shown abusing the power he normally ends up dead by the end of the movie. In fact normally characters who break laws, abuse power or break sacred vows are normally the target for the monster and the innocent ones survive and the majority of the innocent characters are women.

The 'Final Girl' in most horror movies are quite often a tomboy. Laurie in Halloween (1978) is presented as a tomboy and she differs from the rest of the women. In the film you see the story from both perspectives and as the film progresses you start to like Laurie (which is unusual for a horror movie) and you hope for her to survival. When characters like this are cast women are normally more commonly found as the hero and is remember for their actions.

Even when the women becomes the hero she has to show signs of masculinity as she slowly becomes a monster in an attempt to stop the antagonist. When a women holds a knife or a gun she is holding a phallic object which connotes masculinity.

The film Carrie is a feminist story about a young girl who is abused at her school during her menstruation. During the film she is bullied by her class mates and mother who appear to be the monsters if the movie. Towards the end of the movie Carrie herself becomes the monster as she burns down the school. Carrie is a different take on the horror genre as it shows the hero slowly becoming monsterious this narration has been used several times in recent films. In this film instead of showing men what they want from a women they see their greatest fear of women.

Women are presented in some postive ways but they still have their flaws in the horror genre. The horror genre places the stereotypical women in a situation where showing masculinity will help them survive and escape the nightmare that they are in. It appears that the women who don't show masculinity end up dead in horror and plays on the fact that women should act like women.

Horror teaser trailers

A teaser trailer is unlike a typical theatrical trailer, they usually are very short in lenth varying
between 30-90 seconds and often contain little, if any, actual footage from the film itself.
Sometimes it is simply a shortened version of a theatrical trailer which is normally followed after
the teaser. The teaser is usually released well in advanced to the film and 'teases' the audience
about the film. A teaser also creates hype for the film and tells the audience that the film is
coming.




This is a teaser trailer of The nightmare on Elm street (2010) it is a remake of the 1984 classic horror slasher movie. This trailer is quite unusual for a teaser as it far surpasses the average teaser trailer length and also clearly tells the audience the story. This teaser has created hype and also even some reviews on the film already about the cast choice, style etc.




This is a teaser for the film Mirrors. It uses clips from the film and effectivly tells the audience what the film is about. It also tells the audience the main star of the film which could gain extra viewers with the star power.
It uses little clips from the film mixed with intertitles which gradualy speeds up to create tension.



This is a teaser from the spanish move [REC]. The teaser runs at the expected length and also creates hype for the film. This teaser is in english even though the film is in spanish but it does tell the viewer that it is a spanish film. The teaser also tells the audience that it is in a handheld camera view. 

Applying Vladmir Propp to The Shining

In class our teacher asked us to determine whether or not Propp’s narrative structure applies to the film the Shinning. Propp’s narrative structure is separated into six segments: preparation, complication, transference, struggle, return and recognition. I found is that these segments don’t follow the story in chronological order. Also multiple stories from the film could be fitted into the narrative structure. Looking at how the structure fits into The Shining shows it is a unique film and fits the pyschological horror genre well. Also the character types fit also and also some characters given the impression of being the hero at first and ending up being the villian.

The return of the repressed

The return of the repressed is an emotion or thought that has been hidden in the subconscious due to a traumatic experience. The mind will try to prevent this emotion or thought from rising but the emotion will find a disguise and surface.

Horror trailer

Here is a trailer for "28 days later". The trailer builds tension throughout untill the end where it shows what seems to be the atermath of the movie. It is an effective trailer and will appeal to fans of the zombie sub genre.