Final Trailer

Final Ancillary Products

My final ancillary products


My Final Magazine

My Final Film Poster

Evaluation - Q4

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

Evaluation Question 4 Technologies Used on Prezi


Using all these technologies have helped me to gain a wider persepective on research, creating and evaluating my products. It has allowed me to present my work in more interesting ways, think of more creative ideas and look at existing products. It has also allowed me to research my target audience more effectively and has allowed them to judge my work to the way I wanted.

Evaluation - Q3

Evaluation

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Evaluation of process:

I found using social networking sites to be less useful as they are not designed for this type of feedback and 'liking' doesn't give me constructive criticism. I found personal contact was much more useful. I found using surveymonkey the most useful as it put all my data together for me so that I could reflect easily. To improve I could of used emails or gathering focus groups which would have been effective especially in the post production stages as it allows someone to suggest improvements you wouldn't immediately think of.

Evaluation - Q2

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


Click below to see the flickr annotations on both images, they discuss how they compare with the trailer and how I had linked all 3 products.

Evaluation

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Comparisons of products

After final feedback I have made the writing in the yellow bubble less angled so that it is easier to read. I have also made the banner along the bottom smaller and added a plus for more buzz words to attract the audience, the flickr annotations still apply.

After final feedback I deleted some of the writing at the top because along it was well linked to the film it was too much for people to read and the short snappy sentences left will make people remember them and tease them more than before. I also made the masthead slightly bigger. The flickr annotations still apply.

Evaluation Q1.

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

I used movie maker and included a voice over to explain how my products compared to real ones.

Main Summary:

• I used a logo at the beginning which is conventional for any trailer because it makes the audience aware of the film producers.
• The typewriting style suggests we are being told cofidential top secret information thats on a computer, its giving a narrative to the trailer which is important in giving the audience an idea about what the movie is about, this is shown in the 'Quarantine' movie both are setting up the scene.
• To set the scene I used an estbalishing shot which gives a creepy feeling with the bad tv effect, this is also shown in 'When a Stranger Calls'.
• I used an estbalishing shot of the barn to sugget isolation in the middle on no where which is also demostrated in 'The Strangers' trailer where they do an establishing shot of the house.
• Low key lighting helps to set the tone of a horror, the torch being the only source of light is suggesing a horror because they have limited vision. This is shown in 'Grave Encounters' where they pan the room with only a torch.
• The use of weapons is an obvious connotation of horror because it signifys danger, pain and torture, this is also shown in 'The Strangers trailer' where they show a knife.
• The mid shot and camera angle of the girl in the barn with the zombie behind her is dramatic irony because we know something bad is about to happen.This is also shown in 'The strangers' where the woman is being watched by a masked figure. The fact that they are all female protagonists is a convention of horror movies shown in 'When a Stranger Calls.' This shows my trailer to be conventional.
• The hand held camera effect is conventional for horrors, it demostrates that the footage shown wasn't meant for a large audience. The fact that the camera cuts out on mine emphasises this but also raises the question in what made it cut out was it the zombie which is scary, this is also shown in 'Paranormal Activity' where it also cuts out.
• The close up of the zombie showing blood stains, creepy makeup and a pitch fork are also connotations of danger and a horror movie, this is also shown in the 'Quarantine' with similar makeup and a white gown.
• The lose up of where the woman gets dragged backwards was inspired by the 'Quarantine' I decided to include this because you don't know why she is on the floor but it looks as though she is trying to escape, and you don't know what is dragging her or why or where she is going which all connotates a conventional horror film.
• I included a shot of a doll I couldn' find another trailer that does this so this subverts the conventions however I included ths because I thought it has connotations of withcraft and as though the zombie is holding onto her childhood or maybe she is into voodoo dolls.
• I included a shot of the unknown caller, I decided to include this because its creepy that someone is trying to contact the girls in the middle of no where, where they are trying to escape this is also shown in 'When a Stranger Calls' it suggests harrassment linking back o the horror genre.
• The end is conventional because it flickers off saying 'Alone' making the audience aware of the title of the film, when it is going to be shown all the websites and social media sites to visit for promotional purposes, this is coventional because all trailers do this, the fact that mine flickers off also reinforces the hand held effect.
• The magazine is conventional because the mastheads are the same size, the images mode of address are directly at the audience, it includes buzz words in circles and bubbles to make the consumers what to buy the magazine. Theimage is alo conventional taking up 2/3 of the page, there are also mini stories and banners which draws in the attention of the reader making them want to buy it.
• The Film poster is conventional because they both use the traditional steel tongs writing at the bottom of the poster, they also display the websites and social media links, the images both take up 2/3, and the strapline also gives an indication the audience about what to expect in the film.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK POSTER & MAGAZINE

Using surveymonkey.com I was able to collect feedback on my anchillary products.
I have collected these results and using www.flowchart.com created a flow chart of this information shown below.

Audience Feedback on Film Poster & Magazine

I decided to send out a survey which I had created on surveymonkey.com, I sent messages out on facebook to get my target audience to give me some comments.

Here are the actual surveys:

Poster: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LQFRWNS
Magazine:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LW2XKLR

Alone teaser trailer 2012

Before adding in my extra footage I decided to annotate my video on youtube explaining how my trailer portrays the conventions of a horror movie.

Film Magazine with Flickr annotations

Film Magazine, a photo by melissa2016 on Flickr.

Flickr annotations of film poster

wITH ADJUSTMENTS, a photo by melissa2016 on Flickr.

Conventional Trailer?

Shots

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Analyzing my survey monkey questionnaire

I decided to ask this question because it is important that my trailer is conventional and that the images, themes and genre is put across correctly to the audience, this question got 100% on horror which is excellent and is what I wanted for this trailer.

For my trailer to be conventional it must have a fast pace, have creepy music that builds up suspense. The majority of the people that took part agreed that my trailer was conventional which is very good and is what I wanted. The person that said no could be referring to the lack of video footage which was due to the filming being in poor lighting and the second shooting having to change actress and wasn't as professional.

I thought it was important to ask this because my initial feedback on my first ever attempt of exporting my trailer people said that there was no narrative presented in the trailer. I then added the typography at the beginning to make it clear to the audience about what the plot and what to expect with the cliche of until now ending the titles. The results where mixed about 3/4 of the people said it didn't need one and only 1/4 said that it did which was interesting. I think the voice over could work however it would have to be the correct voice and as the majority say it doesn't need one I am not going to have one.

The typography is important because this helps portray the genre of the trailer. I downloaded the font from dafont.com under the typewriter section, I chose to do that because the idea of the trailer is that this footage has been found and is evidence that something exists and that girls have been disappearing and the typography is the style on a video camera or on a computer reflecting this hand held style film.

Linking to the question above I thought that my audience should get an idea of what to expect int he movie but only a tease that makes them want to go and watch the actual movie. 3 people said they didn't get an idea of what the movie was about which again could be down to the lack of good footage I was able to use due to the poor lighting but 16 people agreed that you did get an idea which was important and is a good aspect of my movie to tease the audience but still present the traditional conventional teen horror.

The pace of the trailer is important because if the clips are too long it becomes boring and people no longer want to watch the movie. I added an effect on final cut pro called blink which flickered in and out of the final scenes when the suspense was building up. 16 people said that the pace was quick enough and 3 said that it wasn't which could be that the title pages were too long, but the clips themselves were already massively reduced down. 

Question 7 - I asked for written feedback

"I'd improve it by maybe slowing down the writing at the end. I liked the old style of movie reel."

"You could do with a bit more information, and I liked the word font"

"I think in the last part the pace is a little too fast, where the text appears and says something along the line of, 'you wouldnt want to watch alone' i had to rewind to reread what it said. Really like the scream and other noises, heavy breathing or something could have worked well where there wasnt much sound"

"One thing I liked: the tension in the trailer- especially during the typing at the start, made me very nervous as a viewer! one improvement: actually make the film too"

"I really liked the trailer, it was fast and you didn't know what to expect so it meant it was exciting to watch. Also I don't think that it needs any improvement!"

"Effects on the scream, potentially more screams at the same time."

"The trailer made great use of building suspense and relating the horror genre. only improvement would be to get a deep voiced voice over to emphasise the feeling of horror along with the typography."

"More flashing and distorted imagery, a faster pace will build more tension. But otherwise, really good"

"I thought the trailer was extremely riveting and the horror genre intrigued me as being the audience in. One improvement could potentially be add a longer video in."

"Some music playing, probally heavy metal something like that, or a creepy piano,- you can get a load of royalty free horror music from somewhere online"

"Some shots were held for too long. I loved the suspense it built up."

"I liked the typography, but it might be a bit bigger, and I loved the trailer overall, it made me wanna see it"

"Improvement- more footage of the film. What I liked- It was very eyecatching and keeps the viewer hooked"

"Improvement - make it a tad longer i liked that the story is about something up to date"

"Loved the end titles of alone ect"

As you can see from the above quotes there was a range of feedback, I used these as I was improving my trailer, the suggestions of using more clips I decided to add in the girl being dragged backwards which was on my second shoot but because the clip was so short it didn't matter about the different actress and this also linked into the quotes about increasing the pace and giving more footage. I also added a heart beat sound and increased the volume of this because there were a lot of suggestions about the sound effects used.