Evaluation
Q.1
In what forms does your media products use, develop, or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Before
creating my product I researched into existing horror products to find out the
common conventions and codes used. This would help benefit my product as
researching all the main conventions and adding to them will provide me with
the information to create a stronger product and have a greater appeal to the
target audience.
I
researched into horror posters, trailers and websites and analyzed the main
codes and conventions they have used to portray “horror” to their target
audience. To keep it conventional I used a typical font and layout on both my
poster and website. My trailer also followed similar conventions as the common
time frame was used without giving too much of the plot away, the total length
was 1:24
The
poster I created used and challenged real media products in many ways. Firstly,
when creating my poster I took the existing horror conventions into context and
the general code was that the male is the villain. I wanted to challenge these
conventions and reversed the roles to use an innocent character as the villain,
instead of a conventional monster. This is where I got the idea of young girl.
If you would stereotype a young girl, it would be positive and innocent.
However using the girl as a villain goes against this stereotype puts the
viewer out of their comfort zone. “The Ring 2” poster inspired me when creating
this product as their whole story is based around the horror caused by this
little girl and in society she would be judged as harmless. Secondly my poster
featured dark, distorted lighting to emphasize the sinister feel and use the
conventional dark, paranormal atmosphere. The name of the film is “Anonymous”,
This entices the viewer to go see the film as the name ’Anonymous’ creates a
sense of mystery and makes the viewer want to find out more.
Another feature that uses this is the image of the girl with her face covered by her hair hiding her identity therefore creating fear on the unknown in the viewer. The girl is positioned directly in the middle of the frame, with a direct mode of address suggesting power and dominance, and almost intimidating the viewer. Also a close up shot is used, this suggest the horror in this film Is up close and personal and not the convectional distant attack. The image is dominated by the tagline of ‘nameless, faceless’ again a very open ended title as to not give to much information away. I decided to use these features so the narrative was not instantly given away, provoking the viewer to think about the film. Black and White was used to match the stereotypical conventions of a horror film by creating an unknown sinister effect. This therefore links to the trailer title “Anonymous”.
To
keep a similar house theme throughout my products I used the same colour
scheme, fonts and images in my website as my poster. This also helps make the
website more user friendly and easier to navigated around, along with the
navigation bar being in the same place on every page which is a common theme of
many professional websites. I used screen shots from the trailer and took extra
photographs for the background of my website to add extra visual impact to the
pages, also to relate it to the trailer. I wanted each page to have its own
look, however still relate to the rest therefore
chose separate images. Most of the images were subtle suggestions of
what was going to happen in the plot, without giving too much away and creating
suspense in the viewer. For example my “Story” page was the victim sitting in
his room. This is where a lot of the shots were set in the trailer and therefore
set off the story. I have done a similar idea to each of the pages on my
website to relate back to the trailer itself. This is convention used in a lot of
Horror websites, such as “Insidious”, the “Story” page has the boys bedroom as
the background. This is where a lot of the horror brewed in the film and
created a story.
To make the website more interactive and get the audience involved I used a variety of different flash elements and sound to really create a sinister atmosphere. After analyzing them “Insidious” website, I learned that using sound with images really brings the viewer in and creates a sinister zone. Another feature I decided to use similar to the last exorcism website was the trailer playing automatically when opening the website, to get the audience involved with the website, and make the audience familiar with the plot before entering the site.
I used wider marketing techniques, such as creating “Anonymous” merchandise. These consisted of T-Shirts, Posters and Mugs. Even if this is a conventional marketing technique it makes the viewer a lot more interactive with the website and also the trailer itself.
I
challenged media conventions and developed many aspects in my trailer. Firstly
the reversed roles were used again. The villain is in fact a young girl instead
of the usual middle-aged man. This was chosen as to create a sense of shock, as
usually children are seen as being innocent. We filmed the trailer in a
conventional “Sub Urban” household, to create that false sense of security. A
lot of the shots in the trailer were featured in the bedroom. However bedrooms
acts as a place of safeness, whereas in our trailer the first attack happens in
his bedroom. Similar to the poster and website, the colours and lighting used
was quite different from the norm. Throughout the trailer no blood or scenes
of violence/murder are shown, as we thought that this would create
suspense in the viewer, as they would not know what is going to happen. We went
for the more psychological approach, of using mind tricks and
disturbing the victim without actually showing any brutal murder scenes and
graphic violence. This seemed more effective, and
a successful development forms the common gore/violent scenes of many
horror trailers. To make this type of horror effective, we used sharp fast cuts
to create delusion and confuse the viewer. We stuck to the conventional 1-2
minute long trailer, as we would not want to give too much away. The slower
cuts and shots at the start of the trailer introduce the characters, setting
and build tension. Later on in the trailer is when the fast cuts kick in,
emphasizing the chaos and increasing the horror. The quicker cuts allow for the
villains identity to not be exposed, as we only show flashes of her, for
example right at the end of the trailer.
Q.2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
My 3 products created a similar combination
throughout production. Firstly, the same theme was used in all of my products.
This helped the audience recognize that all the products are linked together
for an iconic use, and also for marketing. I kept the colour scheme and fonts the same
throughout as it is a typical font seen on many horror themed products,
therefore the viewer would instantly recognize the genre, and I also
made each product relatable to the plot of the film by including images of the
villain. I placed the image of the
villain in the center of the image in all of the products to show dominance
throughout all 3. As my product consisted of an unknown horror I used a
grainy/static style to each if them to keep that “Anonymous” feel.
Q.3
What have you learned from your target audience feedback?
 |
| Long Shot |
 |
| Close Up |
Using
questionnaires and target audience feedback we learnt that our trailer didn’t convoy
the narrative enough and our shots went on for a longer time than conventional
horror trailers. As we wanted to keep the trailer fast paced to keep the
audience excited the narrative got lost as the straight cuts were too short to
show any story, also that the villains motives weren't explained
enough or the relationship between the villain and the victim was unclear. To
help this we re-done some of the shots in our trailer to create more of a
relationship and motive. We filmed an establishing shot of the “Sub Urban”
household, introducing characters for longer and getting an accurate
perspective on the environment. As some of the shots were too long we used the
video editing software “Final Cut Pro X” and “Sony Vegas” to cut down the shots
and create a smoother flow to the trailer.
One
of the ways in which I gathered information from the audience to receive
feedback was a questionnaire. This was to gather information about
the audience’s favorite horror sub genre, what type of horror films
appealed to them and what they would like to see and not to see in a horror
film. The magoratory
said they preferred a paranormal/psychological horror rather than a
slasher/gore horror. This provided us with the information that viewers prefer
to be mentally challenged when watching a film and have something to think
about/discuss to create that psychological feel. Viewers also said they preferred
fast action and quick cuts. This is therefore why we used jump cuts, to speed
up the chaos and add to the horror factor. We also found out using a blue
colour correction would create that sinister atmosphere. Ita cold feeling that emphasizes
horror upon the viewer.
During the development of my products I used a wide
range of media technologies. Firstly when researching media conventions and
carrying out other forms of research I found the Internet is a very useful
source, to gather images and information. Because of the sites like “Youtube” I
was able to accurately analyze old and new horror films and get detailed
information of the codes and conventions used. We used a sketched storyboard as
a animatic for our trailer. This followed the cuts and sounds that our real
trailer would have. We made this by hand drawing the sketches and then scanning
them into “JPEG” files, which then lead on to piecing them together on “Song
Vegas”. When
filming the trailer we used a “Nikon D300i” as well as a “Canon 5D”
to achieve a high definition picture. With certain shots we used the 5d where
we wanted there to be more detail, for example the close up of the victims eye.
However at our first attempt of editing we experienced a problem with over
processing. The product was simply rendered to many times and this lead to
pixilation, which therefore distorted the quality. Going back to the original
files and being more careful when rendering soon fixed this.
Throughout
the filming of the trailer we frequently used a tri pod. This therefore allows
us to get a steady, still shot without shaking and also allows us to get a
smooth panning shot across a room. We edited the film shots on “Sony Vegas” and
“Final Cut Pro X”, these are used by many professional filmmakers and editors.
We added sound into the trailer as well by cutting up audio files and timing
them perfectly with the actions. When we finally finished the trailer, it was
then uploaded onto the popular video sharing site “Youtube” and got embedded
into their hard drive. I have a personal YouTube channel that I work on in my
own time with over 2000 subscribers, this therefore allowed the trailer to be
advertised to all these people and got some really positive feed back. When
creating and constructing my poster I used media technologies such as “Adobe
Photoshop CS5” this is a professional editing program that allowed me to go
into in depth detail and precision when editing my poster. The actual image in
the poster itself was taken in a studio, with a white background and soft
artificial lighting. Having control of the light increased my limitations and
allowed me to be a lot more creative with my poster. I used a “Canon 450D” to
capture my image. This provided me with a detailed shot of the girls face which
I could then do further editing in Photoshop. The program I used to create my
website was a site called www.wix.coms. With this I was able to add animations,
flash and sounds to my website and lastly import pictures. Doing this made the
website more interactive.
One
of the ways in which I gathered information from the audience to receive
feedback was a questionnaire. This was to gather information about
the audience’s favorite horror sub genre, what type of horror films
appealed to them and what they would like to see and not to see in a horror
film. The magoratory
said they preferred a paranormal/psychological horror rather than a
slasher/gore horror. This provided us with the information that viewers prefer
to be mentally challenged when watching a film and have something to think
about/discuss to create that psychological feel. Viewers also said they preferred
fast action and quick cuts. This is therefore why we used jump cuts, to speed
up the chaos and add to the horror factor. We also found out using a blue
colour correction would create that sinister atmosphere. Ita cold feeling that emphasizes
horror upon the viewer.
Q4.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluating stages?
 |
| Over Processed Shot |
 |
| Accurately Rendered Shot |
Throughout
the filming of the trailer we frequently used a tri pod. This therefore allows
us to get a steady, still shot without shaking and also allows us to get a
smooth panning shot across a room. We edited the film shots on “Sony Vegas” and
“Final Cut Pro X”, these are used by many professional filmmakers and editors.
We added sound into the trailer as well by cutting up audio files and timing
them perfectly with the actions. When we finally finished the trailer, it was
then uploaded onto the popular video sharing site “Youtube” and got embedded
into their hard drive. I have a personal YouTube channel that I work on in my
own time with over 2000 subscribers, this therefore allowed the trailer to be
advertised to all these people and got some really positive feed back. When
creating and constructing my poster I used media technologies such as “Adobe
Photoshop CS5” this is a professional editing program that allowed me to go
into in depth detail and precision when editing my poster. The actual image in
the poster itself was taken in a studio, with a white background and soft
artificial lighting. Having control of the light increased my limitations and
allowed me to be a lot more creative with my poster. I used a “Canon 450D” to
capture my image. This provided me with a detailed shot of the girls face which
I could then do further editing in Photoshop. The program I used to create my
website was a site called www.wix.coms. With this I was able to add animations,
flash and sounds to my website and lastly import pictures. Doing this made the
website more interactive.
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