Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

By Alima Ali

My chosen brief:A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer together with two of the following three options

• A website homepage for the film

•A film magazine front cover, featuring the film

• A poster for the film

I chose to create a magazine font cover featuring the film and a poster for the film.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products? Codes and Conventions: Film trailer

•Within my film trailer, i used a variety of different camera angles and shots but primarily focused on using close-ups and panning of the camera. The main purpose of the close-ups and extreme close-ups were to engage the audience within the fast paced action and for the audience to identify the characters expressions and emotions. •The duration of the trailer was just over a minute which gave the audience enough time to gain a brief insight into the storyline without giving too much away. This is the average duration for a teaser trailer. •From our research, we identified that a number of transitions mainly ‘Black to White’ are used within a horror teaser trailer to create enigma. We made use of such transitions throughout our trailer and also included blackouts and fast cuts to build up suspense for the audience.

•We ensured that the trailer started off with the film institution logo which was Artisan Entertainment. The purpose of this was so that the audience could identify the creators of the film and the age group that the film is targeted at. Artisan Entertainment produced the film The Blair Witch Project which is a horror film so by including their logo at the beginning of the trailer, the audience would be encouraged to go and watch our film as they would be aware of the fact that this institution had created The Blair Witch Project. I included the green screen right at the beginning of my trailer as it appears on every single film trailer and is a legal requirement which is why i had to include it in my trailer.

Music in film trailer:

•I used a song that was used for the film ‘Dead Silence’. I chose this song as it is a dramatic song that starts off slow, but then builds up speed and is able to successfully reflect the horror genre of my trailer. The music has an element of darkness and is in synch with the transitions used in my trailer.

•Despite having little narrative in my trailer (aside from the film release date and the film website), I feel that the music created an overall dramatic effect. The horror teaser trailers that i had researched had some sort of an eery sound track which is why i felt it necessary to include music in my trailer.

Text in film trailer:

•I included text mainly near the end of my film trailer. The first piece of text that i included was the film’s release date so that the audience are aware of when the film will be shown in cinemas which a common convention of film trailers. I also included the films website which not only acknowledged the title of the film, but also the site which they can visit to find more information about the film. I used a white font colour so that it stood out against the black background.

Codes and Conventions: Film Poster

• I used the same font that was used on the Blair Witch Project film poster on my poster and also created my own red stickman and placed it above my film title. The stickman leaves the audience in thought as to what the symbol may mean and how it may be relevant to the plot.

• The background used on the poster is woods which indicates to the audience that this is the main location and setting for the film. Like the background on the Blair Witch project, I inverted the image so that the hooded figure stands out against the dark background and this in turn, reflects the films genre.

• I included ‘If you go down to the woods today you will surely be in for a big surprise’ as the films strap line and this also signifies to the audience that the films prime location is the woods and a film strap line is a common convention that is always included on the film poster.

• I placed the strap line above the film title, similarly to the Blair Witch Project and also included the films website right at the bottom of the page which provides audiences with more information about the film. This is a common convention that is included on all film posters.

• My film poster makes use of four main colours: black, white, grey and white. These colours are also used on the Blair witch project poster and the colours make a bold statement. The colours that I have used on my poster allows the audience to identify the films genre and creates a sense of mystery and darkness.

This is the magazine cover that i designed which features my film ‘The

Outsiders’

Codes and Conventions: Film Poster

•The magazine cover on the right-hand side is the cover that I did for my ancillary task. A common generic convention of film magazine covers most specifically Empire magazines is to feature a main character from the film on the cover which is seen as being the viewers main focal point. The image that i used is a mid shot of a hooded figure whereby the face has been edited and covered in scratches, nails and a plaster for the mouth which turn reflects to the audience the films genre.

• Another convention is to clearly display the magazine title on the cover, usually within the top margin. I used the same font that is used for the ‘Empire’ magazine title and added a red outline, red being a consistent colour that i had used throughout the magazine which can be interpreted as representing blood and hence, representing the genre horror. The use of black and grey adds a sense of mystery and darkens and leaves the audience in thought as to who the figure on the cover may be which encourages them to read the magazine to find out more about the film.

•A common convention of Empire magazines is to advertise one film in particular and to display content relating to that film and/or to that films genre on the front cover and this is what i did on my magazine cover. The strap lines that i had used on the cover alongside the films featured for the ‘Real Reviews’ sections are all iconic horror films. For those who are unable to identify that Empire is a film magazine, the strap lines used are able to distinguish this to the audience.

•Other obvious magazine conventions is including the magazine issue number, the price of the magazine, the barcode and the magazine website and I displayed all four elements on my cover. The website is shown so that the target audience know which site to visit to find out more information about both Empire and the film The Outsiders.

•The strap line ‘The outsiders-World Exclusive!’ which I positioned above the masthead indicates to the audience that the film is exclusive and restricted and so, has not yet been featured anywhere else. This gives the audience the impression that they are only able to find out more about the film if they pick up and read the magazine. Such strap lines that advertise the film is a common convention of film magazines.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary

tasks? • I believe that the combination of my main product goes very with my ancillary tasks and believe that the films genre is easily identifiable in all three products. I ensured that i used a consistent colour scheme as well as typeface throughout which in turn, signified to my target audience that the products were a package and that they were promoting the film ‘The Outsiders’. At one time, i used 2-3 different fonts on my cover but i felt that this was necessary as when i conducted my research, i noticed that on many of the magazine covers, a combination of different fonts were used as opposed to just using one particular font.

• On both my main product and ancillary tasks, i ensured that the i had included an image of the hooded figure, primarily so that my target audience would be able to identify that the figure played a significant role within the film.