Evaluation: Question 4

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

Evaluation: Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation: Question 2

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

Evaluation: Question 1

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

Before creating my coursework I started by researching conventions of film trailers in general. During this process I decided that the genre in which I wanted to create was horror, and the subgenre was psychological horror and so I set to discover these conventions. Following on from this I looked into iconography and ideology. In terms of my ancillary tasks, for both the magazine front cover and the film poster I looked at the general conventions followed by my deconstructions of real media texts.

Film Trailers

Film trailers (in general):

Conventions:

• Length: maximum of 2 minutes 30 seconds
• Scenes do not have to be in the order they appear in the actual film

Used, developed or challenged:

I have used the convention of trailers being a maximum of 2 minutes 30 seconds as my trailer is under the maximum time at 2 minutes 8 seconds 

I have used the convention of scenes not having to be in the order they would appear in the actual film as the order the scenes in my trailer (especially during the montage) are not the order in which they would appear in if the film were to be real

Horror (film genre):

Conventions:

(Depending on the sub-genre)

• Ghosts
• Aliens
• Vampires
• Werewolves
• Curses
• Satanism
• Demons
• Gore
• Torture
• Vicious animals
• Monsters
• Zombies
• Cannibals
• Serial Killers 

Used, developed or challenged:

I have used the convention of ghosts - as this is what applies to my sub-genre of psychological horror

Psychological horror trailer:

Conventions:

• Darkness
• Location usually a house
• Flashes of light as a transition
• Screaming
• Eerie music
• Doors slamming
• Dialogue used as voiceover
• Company information at the beginning
• Close ups of faces
• Titles of film at the end
• Release date at the end
• Supernatural being is not shown in great detail
• Victims are usually female

Used, developed or challenged:

Used =

• Darkness
• Location usually a house
• Flashes of light as a transition
• Eerie music
• Doors slamming
• Dialogue used as voiceover
• Company information at the beginning
• Close ups of faces
• Titles of film at the end
• Release date at the end
• Supernatural being is not shown in great detail
• Victims are usually female

Challenged =

• Screaming – I think screaming in horror films is quite clichéd and wanted to avoid being too ‘obvious’
• Supernatural being is not shown in great detail – I wanted the supernatural being to be shown as I wanted the viewers to be intrigued by her and make people want to watch the film

Iconography:

Conventions:

• Haunted house
• Symbols of death
• Disfigured face/mask
• Screaming victim
• Murder weapon
• Good and evil
• Dark places
• Blood and body parts

Used, developed or challenge:

Used =

Haunted house

 

Symbols of death - skull and crossbones and cross on one of the actresses t-shirt plus the ghosts is mainly wearing black (which is a colour usually associated with death)



 

 

 

 

 

 

Murder weapon - at the end the ghost is reaching for a knife out of the block

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dark places - the clip of the ghost in the dark hallway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is also evidence of good and evil as the 3 victim are good and the ghost is evil

 Challenged =

• Disfigured face/mask – this wouldn’t have fitted with the theme/mood of the film
• Blood and body parts – it’s a psychological horror, not body horror

Ideology:

Conventions:

• Slow paced
• Montage
• Close ups
• Reaction shots

Used, developed or challenged:

The conventions that I have used are a slow pace (to start off with), a montage is included and both close ups and reaction shots can be witnessed.

However, I have challenged the slow pace they are supposed to be according to their ideology and I have only made some of the trailer slow paced – the montage is relatively fast paced.

Existing media text deconstructions

I deconstructed three texts from the horror genre, and specifically the psychological subgenre and judging by what I witnesses in those three this is what I found in my actual trailer:

Close up

Establishing shot

Over the shoulder shot

Shot reverse shot 1

Shot reverse shot 2

 

Reaction shot

Other than shots and editing there was also diegetic sound (dialogue) and non-diegetic sound (the music) 

Magazine front cover

My research into film magazine front cover showed that the conventions are:

• Clearly displayed large title
• Close up of the main image of the actor/s
• Suitable colour scheme

Used, developed or challenged:

All of those conventions have been used in my magazine front cover

 

My magazine deconstructions showed me that film posters should have:

• Large, bold title
• Website under title
• Large main image
• One colour scheme
• Small images included
• Information about the film
• Barcode in the bottom right

Used, developed or challenged:

Used =

Challenged =

There are no smaller images on the front cover as I didn’t think that they would fit the layout

Film posters

My research into film posters showed me that the conventions of them are:

• Image of the main actor/s
• Large title
• Tagline
• Release date
• Billing block

Used, developed or challenged:

I have used all of these conventions in the film poster

 

My deconstructions of real film posters showed me:

• They have one image
• Large bold title in the centre
• Smaller tagline under the title
• Billing block

Used, developed or challenged:

Used =

• One main image
• Billing block

Challenged =

Large bold title in the centre - the actor is central in the image; I did not want the title to cover her

Smaller tagline  under the title – the tagline is smaller than the title however it is not located under the title as I felt that it worked better on the opposite side of the poster, otherwise there would be too much blank space as all of the writing (other than the billing block) too concentrated in one area

Questionnaire

When I was doing the research for my psychological horror trailer the reasons the participants gave for what they liked about psychological horror were:

'They are intriguing, mysterious and they keep you guessing'

I think that my trailer will have adhered to what they like as it is intriguing, mysterious and it does keep you guessing - for example who is the ghost, why is she haunting those girls, what happens to Nina and ultimately what happens to Jenny and Alex in the end?

Also according to my questionnaire they said that they watch psychological horrors for enjoyment with some saying they like to be scared by them and also like getting an adrenaline rush from them, which also leads to which type of gratification my trailer is - entertainment. I think my trailer could be seen as entertainment as its purpose is to scare and cause an adrenaline rush such as in moments when the ghosts hand hits the window of the bathroom which signifies the start of the montage which has music that builds on the adrenaline rush.

Focus group

In terms of what my focus group said they expected to see/hear in a trailer: Voiceover, title, release date, clips from the film, I have included the title, release date and clips from the film but not a voiceover as I didn't feel that a voiceover would suit my film and instead went with the common convention of using the characters dialogue to act as a sort of voiceover instead.  

 

 

 

 

 

Final Video And Ancillary Tasks

The final video and ancillary tasks together:

Final Draft Of Film Trailer

Final changes made from the second draft:

• The first piece of music starts from the beginning of the production company information(instead of after that clip)  
• Extra piece of music at 1.14 (start of the montage music track) in order to introduce the montage music without it being too sudden
• At 1.42 there is an added section of the Robert Christopher Haunted Sky track over the section after the montage - which also carries on over the music on the titles

Second Draft Of Film Trailer

Changes made from the first draft:

• Colour correction on the clips
• Effect placed over the eye at 0.35 to make the colour appear duller and almost black and white
• Some dialogue was removed from 0.46 (oh yeah um was removed)
• Some dialogue was added at 1.04 (the sound was cut so Jenny said ina instead of Nina - this has now been fixed)
• Sound effect added at 1.14
• Different music was added over the montage (Big hand buries the twelve by If these trees could talk replaced Wake of the martyrs by The secession as I thought the original song didn't fit the trailer very well)
• There was a heartbeat added on the clips after the montage
• The hand reaching for the knife was made to appear transparent or 'Ghost like'