EvaluationBy Tim Ogden

Conventions

This shot has been adjusted so it is much whiter and over exposed. This is used to signify violence in the trailer, and make it appear more stark compared to the other shots. This is a convention of horror film trailers as violence isn’t allowed to be shown on public TV. It also makes the film more appealing as it can make it harder to discern what is actually happening during the moment of violence. Trailers such as Sorority Row and Saw implement this method. In hindsight, a black and white extreme high contrast should have been implemented to make the violence appear more shocking, which would be more enticing for a potential viewer. It is also very clear from this snapshot what it going on, something which would degrade the overall effectiveness of the trailer as it defeats the concept of horror.

The location for filming was carefully chosen to ensure that it would give the trailer an organic look which could be related to. Horror films nearly always take place in secluded environments so that help is far away, and so that the incident is relatively confined. The lighting was also a key factor. It was bright enough to be able to provide clear film, but dark enough so that it could be made to appear scarier and that the overall impression given was not of a bright sunny day, which would not be suitable for the horror genre theme.

This location was considered but ultimately rejected as it had to much natural light and not enough space to run around, neither of which would be suitable to match the conventions of the horror film genre.

There are several edited in screens with text to give a better idea of what is happening and/or what the film is about. This is a conventional theme in film trailers of all kinds in place or with an audio narrative. This gives a better understanding of what the film will be about. This is more appropriate for a teaser trailer and horror film than an audio narrative, which would remove the scary aspect of it.

Fade to white, and fade to black were both used in the trailer. This is a conventional way of cutting to new scenes in a film trailer, and almost acts like a time lapse to give a wider scope of what the film will be about, rather than showing 30 seconds of the opening scene, which wouldn’t exactly entice people. Above you can see two consecutive snapshots showing a scene which faded to white. For that particular scene white was used as it matched the colour of the scene better than black.

Colour correction was used in every shot of the trailer as the stock colour of the film wasn’t suitable for the theme of the trailer(horror film) as it contained to much colour, and the colour was to dense. The above shot is the original, and the below one is the edited one. Colour correction is conventional in nearly all films and in horror films it is often used to create a scarier, more surreal location or one which lacks the brighter colours associated with security and happiness.

In my magazine I used several conventions which are common in magazines. For example, I made sure that the text was behind the head of the main image. This was done to create a professional looking cover, which is obviously conventional and required for any successful media. The main cover story is situated in the centre-bottom of the cover and uses larger text than the rest of the page. This is conventional as it follows the root of the eye and attracts the reader to the main story of the magazine. Symmetrical composition is used for the main image as it suggests that the person is key to the issue. The cover lines are arranged on each side of the central image to ensure symmetry and to fit into the root of the eye path. They are also arranged to as to cover as little of the actors face as possible.

The poster uses a large title situated at the top of the poster, which is relatively conventional for a film poster. It also has a large main image which more or less covers the entire poster. The picture uses a black and white colour scheme which matches the colour theme of the film. It also has a slogan, which is in red and outlined with a red glow. Slogans are conventional of most films and are often a key advertising point. It also features the release date in the conventional format and location on the poster. The billing block is also in the conventional location and font on the poster. The main image is of a person standing in front a patch on light in the woods. This gives some suggestion as to the location but is also relatively surreal. This is conventional of most film posters. The face of the actor is obscured, which adds some mystery to the poster which is a conventional aspect of a horror film poster, as revealing the actors face would largely reduce the fear associated with the film.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts. The use of the same font (Garamond) throughout the three products which aimed to link them together through this common connection. The same actor was used in all three of the products to ensure an obvious direct link between them. Low key lighting was used in both the trailer and poster to link them, and the black and white scheme was also used. These were used to create a clear, easily identifiable brand identity for the film to ensure successful marketing of the film. Additionally, both the poster and trailer were kept relatively basic in terms of the storyline to ensure that it would be easy to match them.

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

Research:During my research I used Wall Wisher to do Audience Research on the trailer I was reviewing, which made it much easier and faster to get accurate opinions and views on the trailer compared to doing it by hand. It also made it possible to share the page to get more results and embed the YouTube clip.I also used YouTube to find appropriate film trailers to review for my genre.

Planning: During my planning I constructed an animatic, which was scanned in and edited into a sequence with music in iMovie. This allowed me to produce a relatively accurate representation of what the scenes would be like, compared to a large poster of the animatic drawings, which would not provide and sense of flow. I also used a still camera to obtain shots of potential locations for the filming during the planning process. This allowed me to show them and discuss the locations with other members of the team.

Production:During the production of my trailer I used a digital film camera to capture the scenes. I then edited the scenes in iMovie. iMovie was useful as it allowed to me to perfectly cut the scenes together and add effective transitions to the trailer. I was also able to adjust settings such as Exposure, Contrast, Brightness and Saturation of all of the scenes to change the atmosphere. This was done as the original colouring of the shots were far to vibrant and bright-which didn’t match the theme of the film.

Evaluation:I used websites like Survey Monkey to help me collect audience feedback for my teaser trailer as they can collect data and easily turn it into a graph.