Evaluation Question 4

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

     The first thing I had to do was do research in order to find out as much information as possible that would help with making the trailer and ancillary texts. I began by doing  research into the history of trailers and how they have changed through the decades. I also looked at different genres and posters, I researched teaser trailers and magazine covers. The media tools at my disposal to do this research were Google and Google image. YouTube was incredibly useful for getting film trailers form analysis.  After this I chose the genre of trailer I wanted to do. I drew a storyboard that I could follow when shooting the trailer, I aimed the trailer for a 2-3 minute length. I drew several storyboards before choosing a final one, even this was further refined even as I shot the trailer. 

   I found the shoot to be simple and straight forward and accomplished most of what I eventually used in one day. I used a Panasonic digital palm cam to shoot footage. Most of my research was done online. Any research, planning and modifications I posted on my blog. I tried at all stages to get feedback from my colleagues and teacher. For my ancillary texts I used "Photoshop" to create and edit images for my poster and magazine cover. This tool allowed me manipulate and create pictures and text, I used such techniques as cropping, colour gradients, cut and paste, filler and air brush tools. 

 I used "Premier Pro" to cut and edit together my trailer. I found this package much easier and a far more powerful tool than "iMovie" which I used last year and found to be slow and cumbersome to use. This package allowed the linking and linking of video and audio. I found to be a very powerful and time saving feature. Video could be linked with layers of sound that can be built up slowly. I allowed the removal of unwanted diagetic sounds and the addition of sounds of my choosing whether diagetic or non-diagetic. The video could also be very easily manipulated, sections of footage could be cut and arranged in the order of my choosing very quickly and with the minimum of fuss. Text could be added at will and made to fade in and at out very easily. All this made the construction of the trailer very easy.

      

    The evaluation was done through a questionnaire which I prepared on Microsoft Word. This was printed and handed out to my class mates, other friends and family that wished to take part. These were then collected and analyzed for to determine what was positively received and what was negatively received. 
    
 All the research, construction, planning and evaluation work was continually updated and posted on my blog account on Blogger. At first I found this media tool to be difficult to use as I had never blogged before. But with practice this has become second nature and I have been able to construct blog pages that contain high definition pictures, videos and text. 

Finally I used a iDVD burning software on my computer to prepare a DVD with my trailer and the ancillary texts as DVD extras.

Evaluation Question 3

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To determine if my teaser trailer and ancillary texts were effective in getting audience attention I needed to get feedback from people. This was not only to see if the techniques I used in the making of the trailer were effective and did their job of enticing audiences, but also to see where I could make any refinements together with the ancillary texts. 

To do this I made a short questionnaire in which people participated by answering short questions about my work. The questions I used are presented below:

1. Do you think the trailer follows the conventions of the horror genre?
2. How would you rate the direction of the trailer?, give a rating out of 5 with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent.
3. Do you have any criticisms, if so what are they and why?
4. Was there anything that you particularly liked, if so what and why?
5. How well do you think the trailer ties in with the film poster and the magazine?, give a rating out of 5, with 1 being poorly and 5 being very effectively.

The results of feedback

1. Most people thought the trailer followed the conventions of the horror genre
2. On average the direction of the trailer was rated at 3.23 out of 5
3. This was quite an open question and I got all sorts of replies. Generally there was some criticism that the blank gaps were too long, some complained of motion sickness. The missing person poster shot was unsteady and the antagonist wasn't hidden very well.
4. The title screen was well received as was the shock ending at the end.
5. On average the audience rated the trailers effectiveness of tieing with the ancillary texts at 4.17.
   

Evaluation Question 2

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

My main product is the trailer which comes across as spooky and menacing, this is the intention. The ancillary texts in the form of the poster and magazine cover incorporate the same themes as the main product and are therefore instantly recognizable. This makes the combination of main product and ancillary texts very effective. The use of the same font "Cracked" and colour scheme together with the same forest/moon silhouette is distinctive. The narrative themes of the main product are menace, danger, shock and dread. These are portrayed through a combination of jump cuts, first person POV shots low to the ground and frantic running though a wooded area. The soundtrack included diagetic sounds of wheezing and breathlessness, indicating a possible attack or chase. Non-diagetic sounds in the form of spooky background music add very effectively to the sense of dread throughout and heighten any shocks that may come later and particularly at the end when the trailer has seemingly finished. 

Ancillary texts complement the main product. The same colour themes and graphic design are carried over from the trailer. The trailer used the poster backdrop at the end, this backdrop is also used in the magazine cover as well. This helps to tie all three products together which in turn helps to promote the product. The title of the film is plastered in a big font size across the poster and the magazine. The poster also includes positive endorsements from other media sources such as film magazines or newspapers. The magazine cover mentions articles inside covering behind the scenes information, cast and crew interviews and full reviews. All raise the profile of the product.

Evaluation Question 1

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

The title of the film was prepared in Photoshop using a font and colour scheme that adheres to the conventions of the horror genre. I chose a forest scene with a large full moon in the background, both are identified with the horror genre. I decided to put the title at the end, which is usual in a lot of teaser trailers, I wanted the title to stick in peoples minds and revealed it a spine tingling non-diagetic sound, this also conventional with the horror genre. In addition I chose a forest setting as this gave a spooky and menacing feeling, which is the type of feeling I was going for. The font of the title is "cracked", this denotes a chilling broken or damaged theme, as it is menacing, which is the feeling I want to give to the audience about my film. The positioning of the title in the teaser trailer, the font and the setting are all quite typical of and in keeping with horror teaser trailers. I used spooky white writing over a black background which is also typical of the horror genre. I used red for the background and title font as this also gives connotations of blood and gore.

The setting and location is shown early on in the teaser, this is the norm for horror teaser trailers. It is important the audience know from the start that my film is set in wood, after all it's in the title. This follows the convention of other teaser trailers such as "Friday the 13th" where the setting is made apparent at the beginning and it is obviously a campsite. The costume and props in my trailer were very typical of a teen film. I chose clothes that were as stereotypical as possible, especially with the "hoody youth". 

Camerawork and editing is also typical of a horror trailer, I used jump cuts in rapid succession, sequences running with the camera low to the ground to accentuate speed. I also tried one shot in monochrome to add more atmosphere. I tried to make my trailer as typical as possible, again so that it is obvious from the very beginning it was a horror film. Overall, my narrative and characters representation is very typical of a teen slasher horror. The sound track I used was a royalty free sinister horror themed one, this helped greatly with the atmosphere of dread in the trailer.

Audience Feedback

In order to check the effectiveness of my product and ancillary texts I produced a short questionnaire for viewers of the trailer. Their feedback would give me an idea of what went well with the project and what might need improving. The questions I asked are as follows:

1. Do you think the trailer follows the conventions of the horror genre?
2. How would you rate the direction of the trailer?, give a rating out of 5 with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent.
3. Do you have any criticisms, if so what are they and why?
4. Was there anything that you particularly liked, if so what and why?
5. How well do you think the trailer ties in with the film poster and the magazine?, give a rating out of 5, with 1 being poorly and 5 being very effectively.

After showing my trailer to friends and family members, the feedback I got showed they were impressed at what is possible with the equipment I had available to me. They liked the way the trailer was constructed and agreed that it followed the conventions of a horror trailer.

There was some criticism that the blank gaps were too long, between cuts, perhaps those could have been tweaked more. Also some complained that the rapid jump cuts with POV chase shots gave them motion sickness. The shot that lingered on the missing person poster was too unsteady and could possibly have been re-shot using the tripod to steady it.

The grab scene could also possible have been re-shot, at the time using the small screen on the camera didn't make it apparent that the antagonist hiding in the bushes was visible. I was aiming for a rapid grab out of the blue, however no-one noticed it the first time they saw it, but afterwards because they knew what was coming they noticed someone hiding in the bushes.

Everyone liked the title screen and how it appeared and loved the shock ending, which by the way was my 2 year old cousin Amira who has a very loud and shocking scream when she gets excited or annoyed.

I found that the audience felt the ancillary texts complemented the trailer very well.

Hood In Da Wood Trailer

Here is the finished trailer, I have edited what footage I had at my disposal into something sinister and scary. There are some scenes that I think might have gone a bit awry and could possibly have been improved. However my friends after viewing the trailer say they can’t really tell. Initially the trailer was packaged in full HD 1080p resolution, which created a 158meg file. When I tried to upload this to my blog, it was exceedingly slow to upload, I left it overnight, a full 9 hours and it was still not finished in the morning. I decided to cancel the upload and repackage the file to a smaller size and resolution. I tried a 360p resolution which produced a file of around just 0.7 megs, this uploaded without a hitch within 5 minutes. I am unhappy about he resolution I was forced to post but I burned a higher resolution version on a DVD+R and included the ancillary texts as DVD extras.

Below I present  my completed trailer for ‘Hood In Da Wood’. 

Editing

I started editing two weeks ago and I have just finished today. Editing did take longer because I was using a different programme but I did find it easier than the iMovie software this time round. Because I have been using my own Mac at home I have better programmes installed to work from. I did for a while have to play with the program to work out how to use the tools and correctly activate functions. This software had a lot more effects to choose from too, and I love the fact that you link and unlink the audio from the actual film. This was a big problem for me with iMovie because I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of the background noise because it wasn’t needed in some shots. This is why I liked using this programme more. Below is a picture of the editing and the shots all coming together. 

 

I had to create at least two minutes of  trailer. Also because you can unlink audio most of the audio in the trailer was audio unlinked from a different scene that I had filmed for example the heavy breathing, the running sounds and of the twigs breaking. These sounds were all mine that I had decided to use instead of trying to find them on royalty free music websites. But I did rip some music from YouTube which was free.