All Finished Products

My finished teaser trailer along with both ancillary tasks.

Evaluation Question 4

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

Throughout the production process, planning and construction of my teaser trailer I used multiple technology devices. The biggest technology device that played a role in my product was my Apple IPhone. I used this to film the footage for my teaser trailer, this was also part of my communication technique between me and my cast in regards to dates, times and clothing situations. To an extent my mobile phone also helped me with my research as I can access the internet through this device.

Blogger is how I document my work, this helped me express my ideas, upload files, where I could write about and describe the content. Through this I was able to keep track of the filming I had done and also the ancillary tasks that were set. With blogger I was also able to embed my teaser trailer amongst other trailer and images to further analyse.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I showed my horror movie teaser trailer to a media specialist and many people all within the age range of my target audience, following this I asked them to comment on their thoughts of the trailer and what could be improved. Overall with the feedback I received from the group of people and the specialist I showed my video to. Most were positive however the negative comments either had been changed or where totally out of my control (Lighting etc). Due to the feedback I received in regards to my teaser trailer, I know In the future making a video will be a lot easier. Also I have learnt along this journey is that the planning for the video, the idea within your head, the image you portray, is not always the outcome. The techniques you shall use will ultimately be the same to achieve my objective, however I needed to think of my target audience and the codes and conventions that follow in a teaser trailer.

Evaluation Question 2

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

I was required to produce a teaser trailer, along with two ancillary tasks which were a magazine front cover and a film poster for my film trailer. Thriller is my chosen genre, so the codes and conventions of a thriller is shown through all my media products. The purpose of a film poster is to advertise the film through the title, the images and actors/actress, designs and taglines. Flowing this would make the poster sellable, attractive and also linking with my other products.

Researching teaser trailers taught me that this is the basis in which the themes, characters, images and colours first derive from. Although my characters in the film aren’t the same as the one on my front cover, I feel they still link. The font, colours and titles are consistent through each product. Therefore a combination of both ancilliary tasks and teaser trailer, helps advertise and promote each other mainly the main product (teaser trailer).

Evaluation Question 1

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

I wanted to do a thriller teaser trailer, therefore I researched existing products of this genre such as The Strangers and Scream. I incorporated patterns that are common within these films (The Strangers and Scream) along with other conventions found in thriller horror films. I have used forms and conventions of real media products such as the preview cards, because no matter the film or even type of film this was found at the beginning.

My Film Magazine Cover

 

 

My finishing product, film magazine front cover (horror).

 

 

 

Steps To Make My Magazine

 

These are the steps it took to make my magazine cover, first I made the image black and white. Total Films Star Trek issue inspired the front cover image I took.

 

 

 

Secondly I added the title of my magazine, I came up with the name studio film whilst in the studio taking this picture. This fits perfectly as most productions are taken within a studio, just like the image I took.

 

I added the title of the film “DELIRIUM” at the bottom of the page in big bold letters so my audience knows that this is a new film I’m trying to advertise. This will be along with other subheadings I will add.

 

 

Planning My Magazine Cover

I hadn’t found a magazine that I really liked to use as part of my influences, so I was happy with the research I have done so far, I will pull different features from each magazine to use.

Horror Magazine Research

When I researched horror magazines Fangoria kept popping up, I looked at a few of their front covers, although this is a popular horror magazine I found the type of magazine covers weren’t really what I was looking for.

 

The covers aren’t suitable for the audience I’m trying to target, as my teaser trailer wouldn’t be categorised under the gory side of horror, more thriller.

Total Film

I have begun research on possible candidates to use for help with my magazine cover based on my new release “DELIRIUM”. So far I have looked at

 

Total Film

This magazine is promoting a new release “Star Trek” I used this for inspiration as it shows me how to advertise my film on a magazine cover. I also really like the image on the front cover, the black and white effect makes the image look really dated, and the purpose of this is to show the franchise of star trek on whole hasn’t lost its character whilst becoming more modernised.

 

My Final Film Poster

 

My finishing product for my film poster, I am more than satisfied with outcome.

Editing My Film Poster

These are the steps I had to take in order to get my film poster to my standard of quality. With the help of Photoshop I managed to manipulate my picture to look exactly how I wanted, darkening the colour of the blood in contrast with the face which I whitened. This was all made to create an illusion of my mass murders who hide behind a mask.

This was the first stage of me developing my image, I darkened the colour of the blood to give a more creep like and spooky feeling. I wanted a major contrast between the face and the blood pouring from the eyes so increase the contrast even more, I had to make the face bright white.

 

I made the contrast in the image between the blood and the face however it wasn’t enough, something was missing. I found an image that was textured, which just gave the poster that little bit extra as it didn’t look so flat.

 

Taking The Film Poster Image

Taking pictures for my film poster, this involved a mold of someone’s face and fake blood. I used studio lights to correctly light the mask so when it came to uploading the image to Photoshop it would be much easier to edit

Planning My Film Poster

I don’t have any inspiration for my film poster because I know what I want to create, a mask suited my idea best. I began by searching for a mask, eventually I found a mold of someone’s face to use. I want my poster to be relatively scary with blood running down the face, I will use Photoshop to turn that blood black as I fell this will give my poster a scary atmosphere. My title will be positioned at the bottom of my poster as I don’t want to distract my audience from the main image. I will put some of the titles include in my teaser trailer underneath the title, for example the casts names. To indulge my audience into my teaser trailer I will have to make my poster quite cold and spooky to give the illusion of horror, I will do this all by using Photoshop to edit my image.
    

Beginning My Ancillary Tasks

I have chosen both Film Poster and Magazine Cover for my ancillary tasks. As my teaser trailer DELIRIUM  has victims being snatched by masked murderers I felt as if it would be best to have a mask as part of my film poster. For my magazine cover I wanted to have a picture of a girl who appears to be a victim of a crime to link in with my synopsis.  

My Final Teaser Trailer

My finished production. Im proud to say this was the teaser trailer I initially aimed to produce, this includes the green preview screen and my DELIRIUM title to give this teaser trailer a more legitimate feeling. Each scene links to give a better idea of what the storyline for the main film would actually be, this was my main objective otherwise whatever I was trying to achieve wouldn’t make sense. 

Adding A Title To My Teaser Trailer

Trying to find a title for my teaser trailer wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, whilst watching the playback of my trailer I thought long and hard on what would appeal to my target audience, but also what match my concept. Originally I thought of calling my production “The Missing” as both victims go missing however I didn't fell as if this was the best choice. So I decided to call my teaser trailer “Delirium” DELIRIUM is a state of mind when one is disturbed or unsettled that occurs in fever, or other disorders. I knew this was the best fitting title for my production as my victims where in a similar state. 

Editing My Footage

My final teaser trailer, I felt this video is much better than my original teaser trailer as the production process became smoother along with the film footage, in terms of actually filming and the recorded footage. I believe the procedure improved extensively, due to there actually being a link between each scene. My audience will now be able to identify with my concept. When it came to putting my footage in sequence compared to my last trailer, I felt I was more confident with the footage I was editing, I believed this teaser trailer would actually entice the viewer.

Costumes For Next Shoot

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Along with all black clothing that I asked two of my cast members to wear, I also had to provide them with masks. I could only get hold of one balaclava so I made the second mask out of black material. I chose all black for what's considered "bad men" because black is commonly associated with death, evil and mourn. The purpose of these masks are to hide the identity of the killers, so the victims almost become confused as to what is actually happening.

Planning Re-Shoot

 

These are my plans for the re-shoot, as I made quite a few mistakes the first time around I made a note of what changes needed to be made. This helped me when it came to actually filming, because I knew the direction I was heading in with the help of my second storyboard. Explicitly describing my casts costumes and the exact time for the shoot because last time I didn't expect it to get so dark outside so quickly, resulting in extra dark shots. So this time around I have to allow for more time in-order for me to have a longer time slot to film.

Teaser Trailer Re-shoot

My first attempt at making my teaser trailer wasn't so successful, although I had a storyboard to follow when shooting my footage. Once I uploaded the footage to final cut pro and actually put the videos in sequence, I come to realise their wasn't actually a story to follow, not an actual link between the videos for my audience to recognise my idea and essentially want to watch the movie I'm trying to promote. In order for my to fix this problem I believe I will have to re-shoot the whole thing, I will plan out better what i wish my teaser trailer to look like, also making a new storyboard is important as my initial storyboard isn't useful. Properly organising the next shoot is what will make it my most successful teaser trailer yet. 

First Teaser Trailer

This was my first attempt at editing my video footage for my coursework. Once I had put the footage in sequence, feedback from a specialist suggested I needed more footage for my teaser trailer in-order for my audience to understand the concept of my teaser trailer. 

Filming

A problem occurred on the day I had arranged to film. One of the cast members was extremely late, so by the time we had reached the location (Shirley woods) it was too dark to film anything. Once I had everyone together we rescheduled for two days later. This was a more convenient time for everyone, also leaving me enough time to edit the footage I would film at this later date.

Preparing To Film

My arrangements between me and my cast were made via text message this was useful, as problems could easily arise and this is a quick form of communication. Through text message I also let my cast members know where to meet, what time and the attire in which I wished them to attend in.  

Production Company Logo Development

After positive feedback from fellow media students I made a decision to stick with this design as my production company logo. From looking at other companies such as paramount, working title and universal and other mass production company logos, I really liked paramount’s design purely because it doesn’t appear to be too complicated however very effective and this is what I aimed to achieve when making my very own logo. I have used Photoshop to help edit my design essentially all I want is the outcome of my logo to be at a professional standard.

Film Production Companies - Influences.

Usually at the beginning of every film trailer you will see a production company’s logo. I will need to create my own design for my production company. The style of the logo doesn’t need to be complicated, however my symbol shouldn’t be too simple I want to my audience to recognise that I have actually put some effort into my design. I aim to create an effective production company logo with a great sense of style and powerful colours.

I have selected a few major productions companies to research their logo:

Some examples of Columbia Pictures are:

·         The Amazing Spider Man

·         Men In Black 3

·         Django Unchained



Examples of 20th Century Fox:

·         The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

·         The Day After Tomorrow

·         Babylon A.D

·         Life Of Pi

 

A few recognisable films from Paramount are:

·         Titanic

·         The Godfather

·         Iron Man 3

·         The Avengers

 

 

Films from Miramax:

·         Cinderella Man

·         Gone Baby Gone

·         The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas

 













Universal Films:

·         Jaws

·         The Mummy

·         The Wolf Man

·         Fast & Furious 6

 

Working Title Films:

·         Bridget Jones

·         Notting Hill

·         Love Actually

These are all examples of major production companies, some look very detailed and complicated, whereas others look very simple. So looking at a range of logos and the establishment they came from, I fell something in between will be achievable. I will use these company’s logos as part of my inspiration when I comes to making my own.

Main Influence

The Strangers:

The teaser trailer for the strangers is one of my favourites which is essentially why this film is my main influence. This trailer uses a series of different shots in order to express the plot of the film, the stranger uses lots of short clips to create a sequence of fear for the audience to endure. Engaging the audience to a rather captivating trailer leads to box office figures.

 

 

 Like most legitimate trailers, the movie preview screen appears. Giving the audience a sense of security that the teaser trailer isn’t a fake to what they really hope to see.

 The stranger’s, starts by using a quote in a sequence using old photography methods of a flick camera.

 After the use of the flicking camera, the scene cleverly transforms to an image outside the strangers, victims house.

These particular shots are during the beginning of The Strangers teaser trailer, what I found most interesting is this is 25 seconds deep into the trailer and you can already identify this with a horror film. Camera shots and editing allows you to recognise the genre of the trailer, this cleverly done as most teaser trailers don’t usually have actual film footage.

 

Target Audience

Target audience is a step in my research process, as I will produce a horror teaser trailer I have to take into consideration who it will appeal to, who will watch my production?  There are particular films I looked at to confirm target audience as they were inspirations when thinking of my initial idea to create a horror teaser trailer.

These were:

 

• The Strangers – Certificate 15

• The Conjuring – Certificate 15 

• Sinister – Certificate 15 

These films have a common denominator being they all have the same age certificate. This was beneficial for me as I fit this particular group so I was able to relate to this particular age group also I was able to question my friends and external sources within this category to help improve or even add to my idea for my horror teaser trailer.

From looking at these existing products I gathered that the target audience for my teaser trailer would suit between the ages of 15 – 20. Nonetheless I still recognise although this is the target audience I choose to pursue, not everyone within that age group will appreciate my teaser trailer. Since not everyone within this age range will correspond with a horror film as it won’t be their preference in film.

Horror Film Survey Results

Horror Film Survey

My Horror Movie Trailer Survey

(Please Circle The Answer)

What Gender Are You?

· Male

· Female

How Old Are You?

· 10-15 Years Old

· 16-20 Years Old

· 21-25 Year Old

· 26+

How Often Do You Watch A Horror?

· Every Week

· Every Month

· Every Year

· Other …………………………………………………………………………………..

How Do Horror Films Make You Feel?

· Scared

· Anxious

· Excited

· Nervous

· Confused

· Other…………………………………………………………………………………….

Who Do You Like To Watch A Horror Movie With?

· Alone

· Parents

· Siblings

· Friends

· Partner

What Kind Of Settings Frighten You The Most In A Horror Film?

· A Domestic Setting

· A Haunted House

· Forests

· Isolated Outdoor Locations

· Other………………………………………………………………………………………

When Watching Horror Movie Trailer, Do You Prefer To Discover The Whole Storyline?

· Yes

· No

· To An Extent

Influences

 

Scream:

The Scream trailer opens when a simple house phone starts ringing, immediately gaining her innocents, a short haired blonde women answers the call with no hesitation. This could be considered to be the codes and conventions of a horror film as the beginning of the movie starts of soft. We know the film is a horror genre because of the many horror conventions used in the opening alone, these being things like venerable teenage girls, isolated settings, and night time scenes.  Introducing the story subtly, “hello" she says, with a deep mysterious voice reply "hello"  leaving the women disorientated wanting to no more about the caller she confusingly asks "who is this" at this precise moment in the trailer the director added non diegetic music into the effect making a modest phone call into something bigger than what it actually is. The person behind the phone avoids revealing their identity and reluctantly but yet flirtatiously answers the question “I’ll tell you my name if you tell me yours" as the phone call continues the caller asked the women what the noise is in the background. Clueless giving an explanation "its popcorn" that particular moment the audience can see that this is a negative representation of a blonde woman because typically blondes are meant to be stupid and thoughtless. This stereotype of them is correctly shown as she tells “scream” about her current movements, but yet the caller is still unknown. This gives the caller a better understanding on why she is cooking popcorn and ironically asks if she likes scary movies. Slurring her words the women replies "uhuh” the caller once again diverts the subject; he persistently asks once more what the women's name is. This is just 30 seconds into the trailer and you can automatically see that the audience for this film is older teenagers to young adults between 15-20 as they can relate to the teenage character in the narrative. More specifically to how it relates to this target audience would be that teenagers typically stay home alone to watch movies “videos”.

 

The Strangers:

 

A modern American horror film released in 2008 about a couple in their holiday home who are lately bombarded by mass murderers in masks (convention of horror film, stereotypically killers are in masks). Due to the killers covering their faces this brings immediate animosity to the atmosphere as the audience strung with curiosity, this obtained in the trailer. The trailer also uses narrative credits to engage the viewer and explain the plot. The non-diegetic music gives an uneasy feeling this adds to atmosphere already created. This trailer uses typical conventions of a horror film, until it reaches mid trailer where country music (non-diegetic once again) is used, an unusual characteristic of a horror film trailer due to this factor I believe the audience would of found this strange, buying into the concept of the horror film. As much of the horror/thriller genre is targeted at a younger audience, the target market for this film would be 15-25. Like many thriller films the movie was rated 15, because of the use of tension instead of gore.