Goodbye

Over the last 2 years of studying Media Studies at A Level, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning new things and developing my skills further in order to achieve the best possible outcome. Doing Media has helped my develop my creativity skills in my other subjects such as Art. I think this would most definitely help me next year as I plan to go to UCA to complete a foundation year to then go on to university. I am proud to say that the work that I have produced, particularly this year such as the film trailer, poster and magazine, I am proud of myself and my group in what we have achieved.

I am going to miss media, however, am grateful for being part of it and being able to take others on my journey through the work that I have produced.

Goodbye,
Brandy X

Question 1A - Practice

Describe how you develop your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decisions making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
 

I have developed my knowledge and skills throughout my two ears of studying this course. For my AS production, I had created a two minute film opening which I chose to based on the horror genre. It was based on a girl who had been spirited in some way and she had hunted and attacked what looked like an innocent boy in the woods. For my A2 production, I had created a film trailer which was about a family that looked 'normal' and it shows the girl grown up where she is attacked at her own home. We chose to base this also on the horror genre as we were familiar with the codes and conventions of a horror and so were aware with what we needed to do in order to make it successful.






I believe I have developed my digital technology skills through the use of camera. This shows when I reflect back on both of my productions and see a huge difference in the quality of the final productions. For AS, I used camera phones to record my footage and so when it came to editing everything together, some of the footage was facing the opposite way and so it was hard to cut in and out of shots to fit it all together. This led the final production to look unprofessional and so it looked low budgeted. Also, the sound was all muffled when listened to through a camera phone. However, I developed my skills of using a professional camera which was a Nikon and decided to use this in my A2film trailer. Due to this, the footage was very clear and so the lighting and shots was picked up really well and so the final production could look like how I had planned. I also used a tripod to ensure the shows were straight and not unbalance which is not something that I had access to at AS. Also, due to me using a professional camera, it had picked up all the necessary sounds that we needed and so we could fade these in and out of the soundtrack. This is effective as it gave the whole final outcome a much more effective and professional look.






Another way that I had developed my skills in the use of digital technology is through the software that I had used. At AS, I used Adobe Premiere Elements 10 which was useful, however, the transitions and edits were basic and did not included as many sophisticated and effective transitions such as when creating the production titles for the opening two minutes, I used simple effects such as fading in and out the image and then the same for the titles underneath the images. I believe this improved at A2 as we decided to use Premiere Pro which was a much more updated transitions , allowing up to have more choice into what works well and what doesn't. This was extremely effective when creating the production titles for the film trailer as we included different effects such as we used an image of a dog in black and white in which we then made it flash and appear in colour. We then had a second image in colour and added an additive dissolve over the top to make it appear more dynamic for the audience to watch. We also made it short and snappy and so the audience could get into watching the trailer. These transitions were not available to Adobe and so I had to experiment on Premiere Pro to find what suited best throughout the whole trailer and what fit the conventions of a horror genre.




Another way that I have improved is the amount of footage that I had recorded and the quantity of the shots between AS and A2. At AS, the number of shots taken was very limited to due to the phone battery running out or the lighting was not good. I had overall not filmed enough and so when it came to cutting down shots and fading different shots in and out, I had run out of shots and so had to end up padding out the opening two minutes to meet the necessary length and so resulted in it appearing more like a trailer than the opening two minutes. This made it look unprofessional and not like what the task asked. To improve this at A2, we ensured that we double filmed each shot and so we had more than enough footage to edit in the final making of the production. This resulted in us having a better outcome but also made bloopers out of the footage that didn't work or were not used.

Audience and Genre

Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratification model looks at how the media appeals to its audience's need's. Some of these needs are to inform and educate, to identify with characters, to escape from reality, for entertainment or for social interaction. As our trailer is an thriller horror genre, it is important for our audience to connect with the characters in order to empathize when they get into trouble. We made our victim, a young female in order to appeal to the target audience. This gives the audience an escape from reality as they are absorbed in the story. Additionally, we have created a great deal of suspense and fear, this creates an entertainment for the audience while also allowing them to escape from the boring everyday life. We created suspend by adding tense music and cutting the shots with the music. We also added dip to black to create an eerie atmosphere and creating a climax for the final scene when the victim gets taken. When audiences watch films such as horrors, often they want to go back to friends and the them about it and fit in tot he norms of youth culture. therefore if our film connects the audience members, they are more likely to interact with others,, sharing their opinions on the film

In our trailer we did not use Male Gaze as a key feature; this is based upon our story line being a horror of us using a vulnerable young girl. Opposed to her appealing to the male eye due to her young age and innocence, the audience instead feel the need to protect her. We felt it wasn't necessary and wouldn't affect our audience because the percentage of boys are only risen because it is a stereotypical date, where the girl and boy attend to watch a horror so the girl can cuddle up to him for protection. Therefore, even though our film may not directly appeal to males because they are more interested in action for example, we still have a general audience of viewers.This is shown by in the movie 'The Conjuring' 54% of viewers were female, followed closely by 46% of 

Our trailer fits into the genre of horror as it conforms to the main conventions within this genre. We have conveyed this to the audience through the use of sound, building tension and setting a much more dramatic atmosphere. We have done this and so the audience can get a feel of the emotion of the characters but also and so they are aware that something is going to happen. We have also made it clear of the genre through the characters such as the antagonist who is dressed in dark clothing with a hood and has his face covered and so remains a mystery to the audience who this is and what he is doing there. This also makes it exciting for the audience as they are unaware of what is going to happen but also fits into the conventions of a horror as we are aware that the antagonist is someone that we do not wish to come across but its someone that is predominant in the horror genre. Some of the camera shots that we had used hints to the audience that the genre may fit into the horror theme such as when we have the victim walking up the stairs and the camera is panning up but focusing on her feet. Although this is effective on its own, as we have paired it with the dramatic music which creates a more tense atmosphere, it makes the audience want to carry on watching the production. 

The mise-en-scene is not particularly set in the stereotypical dark forest or the haunted house as we wanted to make our idea original but still fit into the horror genre. We ended up filming in three different locations for our trailer as we felt that it was important for the audience to see the different stages of the characters and the film trailer. The first setting that we used was a family home as we wanted to express the family as a traditional happy family home. We wanted to show the family at the beginning and so the audience would understand how the characters got to where they are. this fits into the horror genre as it is effective for films and trailers to start off normally before everything starts to go wrong. The second location that we used was only a section of the stairs and the bathroom as it was something that we wanted to include but did not look as good when filmed at the 'family home'. The final location that we used in our trailer was a small studio flat that is all on one level. We used this to show the audience how the child character had grown up and the audience were able to witness this and are able to follow the characters on a journey. This fits into the genre as it makes it much more interesting for the audience to know what is going on and how the characters go from a 'good' life to one that is 'disrupted' and 'ruined'. To fit into our genre, we had the antagonist dressed in black which is typical in this genre as we don't really find our who this is until the very end.

For the costume in our trailer, at the beginning, we had the parents dressed in their everyday clothes and the child is in her school uniform and so the audience are able to see them as what they would be in their normal everyday lives. This fits into the genre as we do not want the audience to see everything go wrong from the beginning as it would take away the excitement, which also allows the audience to see the personality of the characters. Further on in the trailer when we see the youngest character grown up, she is dressed in clothes that are popular to the target audience and so a pair of jean and a coat and so they are able to relate to the characters as much as they can. This fits into the genre of horror as although it is part of their everyday lives, it tells the audience that the characters are not ready for what is going to happen as they are not expecting it. This makes it more effective for the audience to watch. 

Generic expectations have been adhered to in our A2 production trailer. This is evident through our typical story line that includes the codes and conventions of young girl. By using a young girl is effective as the audience which is mainly females, are able to put themselves in the young females shoes adding to the suspense that it creates. This is effective as when we introduce the antagonist, which again is another expectation to see in a horror. the audience are immediately aware that something bad is about to happen. With the young female we enhanced her innocence by her wearing a school uniform making her look sweet; with the antagonist he was wearing all black, creating the atmosphere of danger which the colour black connotes due to it being dark, mysterious and eerie. twas effective to use a male as our antagonist because they are known to have more power and strength, insisting that the getaway for the young girl is pretty much impossible adding to the frightening atmosphere.

We also followed the generic expectations by the location. For example, we used a deserted house in a run down area. This is effective as it does create fear and anxiety among the audience. The soundtrack links in with this as we cut from normality in one scene to the young girl grown up and alone. With this the non diegetic sound comes more upbeat, ominous in order to create a build up of tension, reaching the climax of when she is officially taken.

We have also adhered to the generic expectations with the editing of our trailer. This was achieved by researching other horrors similar to us such as Taken. This enabled us to include many fades to black and fonts which can add to the eerie atmosphere. This was effective as it allowed our trailer to look more advanced which can result in an increase number of watchers.

Our production is different from others in the same genre, as we have shown the development of the young girl from a child in to a young adult. this helped the audience understand her better as they know what obstacles she has faced during her life. It also develops a better connection for the audience. Another way in which our film is different to others, is it is set in a very ordinary middle class town. this isn't necessarily conventional for an thriller horror film as usually they are set in dark gloomy villages. This makes the film seem more naturalistic and creates more fear for the audience as they can relate to the locational settings. We decided to cast a young black male actor to be our antagonist as we believe the audience would feel the story more as it relates further to their life. Also there is a large moral panic across the UK of 'Hoodies' and therefore using the stereotypical character allows the film to have a greater effect. In Travis Dixon's archetypal stereotypes, he devised the buck character that is a young black aggressive character. this stereotype is often represented in films as the antagonist. This makes our film conform the the conventions of the genre, however giving it an edge as the antagonist is very young and is often in the youth culture today.

How the poster, trailer and magazine link

In our magazine poster and our film poster, we have use the same image as the main image on both covers to show that they are advertising the same film. On the film poster, we used a long shot of the image to show the surrounding buildings around her, suggesting that she is alone which is the main story behind our trailer. We had this in black and white and so it contrasts against the image of eyes that we have positioned at the top of the poster. On the other hand we decided to do the image ion the magazine poster to be much more zoomed in and so the audience can focus on her as she is the main character throughout the film trailer. We decided to have this image in colour and fade another image of smoke over the top and so it still fits into the genre of horror but makes it aware to the audience that it is a magazine.This all links in with our film trailer as we have used the same character with the same costume on and so we can show the relevance between all three.

The name titles that we used in our film trailer were very similar to what we have used in our film poster as we think that it is important to keep the names the same to show who is in the trailer and who is involved in creating the final out come. We have presented both the names in the trailer and the poster the same as we would see them in successful media products and so the names that are not the main characters in the trailer are presented together at the end but also in the poster, the names are displayed along the bottom and so it is set out how we would see it on DVD covers. We have used the same font on both the trailer and the film poster and so we can keep it simple but effective for the audience viewing it. When creating the name and the font that we have chosen for our film name, although they are not in the same font as we found that it did not look as effective and professional on both the magazine and the trailer, we did keep the font the same for the trailer and the film as it is clear to the audience that we are advertising the same film product. 

Using Conventions from Real Media Texts

At AS, my opening two minute film did not reach the codes and conventions of a horror film as the lighting of the opening two minutes was too bright to fit the codes and conventions of a horror film,. Because we had filmed the footage on camera phones, if we tried to film it when it had gotten darker then we would not see the characters clearly and so the audience would not be able to see what is happening. It did not fit the conventions of a horror as it did not seem realistic  due to someone getting attacked in broad daylight is quite unusual and would not particularly happened in day-to-day life. However, it did meet some of the conventions such as the use of production titles at the start of my opening two minute film as I have created two to go one after the other. For the first one, I have the writing appear slightly before the image which is in black and white. This contrasts our second production title which starts off black and white but then as it appears it flashes in colour. We then had an image of a women being beaten by the ‘devil’ with a quote over the top. In our A2 work I feel that our production titles met the codes and conventions of a horror film a lot more as the music is clear to hear and its starts from our very first production titles and so when the trailer actually starts, it blends in with the person playing the piano. The music that we are using it mysterious and so makes the audience wonder what is going to happen next which is something that audiences expect from a horror genre film.  There is quite music playing over the top in the AS production which I found that when it was put all together, it does not stand out as much as I thought it would and so gives off a much more calm effect rather than being dark and mysterious like I had planned for it to be. We also had names of the main characters in the film to show their importance, however, they did not really stand out as much as I would have liked them to, they had just been placed against a black background which is something that you see in almost every film and so our opening film lacked individuality. Although we had looked at different openings within the same genre as ours, we still seemed to lack the key points that made up a horror film such as the quality of the final film when it was put all together, it should be sharp and clear for the audience to see. However, in my opening film, from the very start the quality of the camera was very low due to using a camera phone and so the final product was almost blurred and distorted.

I did not really have a director that influenced my work as I looked at Lasse Hallström which directs films that fit into thriller, romance which would not be useful to me as mu genre was horror. I think my final film may have been better and I would have come up with much better and original ideas if I had done abit more research into film directors that were part of my genre as I would have a better idea of what they think the main features of a horror film were to make it stand out more, making the audience want to carry on watching it. Most of my AS work was experimental as we had to change some of the shots and sections that we had filmed without planning it all out as when it was planned out it did not work as well as we had hoped it would have. Therefore it resulted in me not really knowing if it was going to work and how it is going to look. When putting it all together and watching it through, it was evident to see that it wasn’t well planned through and so therefore was not at as high a standard as it should have been.

I have developed in all these areas for my A2 project as I have planned out each section thoroughly and so I was sure that when I had put it all together, it was going to work. When we as a group had our first idea, it was originally going to be an action film as it was something different to what we had all done last year. I looked at other successful films within the same genre such as Taken and it was directed by Pierre Morel.  Although we had done our research in this specific area, we found that the better ideas we had fit into the horror/thriller genre more and so we went back and showed our thought process and had done research in the horror genre too. Also, I feel that the skills that we had incorporated into our film trailer are much more developed from the previous year as we are more familiar with the tools, however, we did still experiment with the different tools to ensure that we were using the best transitions and editing techniques to make the trailer stand out and from the others within the same genre.  

Post Production

From looking back at my audience feedback is that one of my biggest problems is the fact that the camera changed from vertical to horizontal halfway through the film and so it looked unprofessional and not very exciting to watch. I also found that the audience watching it did not really learn anything about the characters that are in the film trailer, which left them confused when watching the opening film. Another problem that I had received from the feedback is that the lighting did not necessarily fit the genre of the film as although it was based on horror, the lighting could have been darker and so makes the audience more aware of the genre and also makes it more effective to watch for the audience. Some of the other main points of feedback that I had received for the film is that there was not enough footage in the opening film and there were quite a few titles considering it was an opening two minutes. This gave off the impression that it was more of a film trailer that I had made at AS rather than the opening of a film which was not the task that was given. When editing the film I had found that I had edited quite a lot out as it was no good to use due to the camera being shaky in many areas, however as I did not record enough footage in the first place to add into the opening film, I had to use titles instead which gave the impression of a trailer rather than an opening. Also when cutting the film, I did not use many fade tools and so the end of most of the clips were quite harsh and didn’t blend as well. This effected the outcome of the project overall as it was all over the place and did not really work to my advantage. Because of this, my final project looked messy, unorganized and unprofessional which is not how I imagined it to be at all.

I have definitely taken on board the comments from the feedback and used them towards my film trailer as I found that they were useful and valid points. In my A2 film trailer I have filmed much more clips than I need and so I have enough to cut and fade in and out from. We even went back and re-filmed some clips and so we were sure that we had enough to work with. This definitely benefited us in this way as I didn’t realised how much I would actually have cut, fade and replace sections to fit in with the music and to also make it exciting to watch as well as meeting the codes and conventions of genre of film that I am doing. At A2, one of our biggest challenges were lighting as we had to re-record some footage, however this turned out well in the end as we adjusted the lighting but also used editing tools and transitions to make our film trailer fit into the needs of a horror genre.  In our film trailer, we gave more information about the girl as a little girl and her background life and then her as a grown up person and so the audience can get a slight better understanding of the characters that were involved in the film trailer. Another thing that I have improved in my A2 work is the use of a camera that has a lot better quality and o it makes the footage clear but also picks up all the sound that we record and so the audience can hear the diegetic sound that we included in the trailer. 

Research and Planning

I looked at opening films from the same genre that I had wanted to do off YouTube which included ‘The ward, ‘Sinister’, ‘Texas chainsaw massacre’ and ‘Cabin in the woods’ and went on to analyse them and so I could see what should be included in this particular genre. When it came to using the storyboard that I had created, I found that I did not follow it like I thought I would as the shots that I had planned to use did not fit in as well as I had hoped, and so therefore had to make up a couple of shots without planning them out first. This was not the best idea as when it came to watching my opening two minutes and back at my research and planning, they did not look like they linked as well as they should have done, which was also resulted by me not recording down all the changes that I had made and why I had made them. This would result in anyone viewing my work and opening to minutes to be confused by what is actually going on in the opening as it is confusing to watch. To record some of my ideas that I had for AS, I had used blogger to create posts at different stages of the process. To see what the audience liked I had carried out questionnaires for my audience to answer which would help me to establish what the audience liked and didn’t like. This was effective to a certain point and so I could see what they had liked and disliked and so I could be aware of what I should and shouldn’t add to the trailer. However, I don’t think that I had done this the best way as I only asked people of a particular age, as it would have benefited me more to ask a range of people and gather my ideas from that. As part of my planning I researched different shots that I could add to my opening two minutes, however, these camera shots that I was looking at and added to my trailer were quite basic and so my final outcome was quite basic. Secondary research that I used in my research and planning were statistics that I used from and online film website and so I was able to see what gender and age would fit my film opening. This helped me to decide what would be best to include in my opening and what wouldn’t. However, when it came to making the opening film, I found that actually it leaned more towards a female target audience, suggesting that I had not read back over my research and had adapted my opening to the right target audience.

I have developed the way I have done things in A2 but my biggest development was ensuring my film trailer would be effective to appeal to a particular target audience that I wish it to. I had done research on the different codes and conventions on the internet such as romance, action, horror and thriller and so I could get an idea of what really appeals to me as I would have the most fun making the final trailer. For my questionnaires this year, we had created one that had an age box, a film genre perforation and a name that they would like the film to be called. This helped us as a group the build our trailer around this to fit the needs and expectations of the target audience. As part of our research and planning we had created actors interviews to show how they felt about the film but generally to get to know them better. The shots that I had included in my A2 project are a lot more complex and the levels of the camera change and so the audience is not just watching it all from one level making the trailer more dynamic to watch. When it comes to recording any ideas on blogger, I had made sure I had recorded any changes that I had made such as genre or setting and so the audience understand how I got from one point to another. 

Creativity

As a group we came up with ideas by brainstorming around the genre that we wanted to do which we instantly knew would be horror. However, as we were quite unorganised and so we did not give the project as much thought at the beginning and so when it came to getting a final product to work with, it was just a couple of ideas thrown together that did not make sense at the time. We had influence for our final film from the film ‘The Ward’. We then built up a mind map and a storyboard to show what was going to happen at each stage, however, we had to redo them as they did not show individuality in our film. When it came to editing our film, we used Adobe Premiere elements to edit our film, however the transitions we used were quite basic and when we cut down our film, we did not add fades in and out of each shot and so it seemed jumpy and just cut from one shot to another. This made the final outcome appear unprofessional and it did not run as smoothly as we intended to do. We included a couple of different shots in our film at AS such as long shots and close up shots to try and make the production more professional. We had intended for our opening film to be a lot more shocking and catching for the audience to watch but when watching the final opening scene together, it did not meet any of these standards. Our opening film mainly consisted of a girl walking around the woods and suddenly killed someone. This was not effective at all as it did not necessarily meet the codes and conventions of a horror film as we intended. 

One of the main advantages that I think I have this year at A2 is the fact that I am working in a group of people who good friends with already which was beneficial when it came to coming up with ideas and acting out the different parts. This is because we are all comfortable with each other and so we were not fazed by any ideas that anyone came up with. Although I was unsure if I was going to continue into A2 or retake the AS year, I found that I would be better to go into A2 and work harder to improve my grade overall. In A2 I have found that I have been a lot more organised and I knew what I was going to do at each stage, resulting in me achieving a higher standard of work. At A2 I used Premiere Pro to create my film trailer rather than premiere elements as it gave me a better opportunity to expand my editing skills and make everything look more realistic as it is has more up-to-date tools that would help to make our final trailer more effective. This year at A2, we have met clear codes and conventions of a horror film in our final trailer such as the upbeat and dramatic music and the dark, bold titles which flash up throughout the film trailer. Also, our film trailer builds suspicions for the target audience mainly through the music and how we use premiere pro to layer over the top of each other. When looking at my work from last year, although I incorporated far too many titles in my opening two minutes to tell the story, however, this year I feel that by having someone play a child and showing how she grew up in the trailer, helps the audience get a better understanding of the characters and what their role is.

Digital Technology

When doing research for my opening two minute film, I had looked and analysed films within the same genre of film on youtube that I wanted to do which was horror and so I would be able to see the conventions of the that genre and how I could use elements of this in my project. Technologies that I used to create my opening two minute film was Adobe premiere elements 10 as I found that it would be more useful to me than movie maker because it allowed me to edit, cut down clips and add transitions for my film which would help me to achieve the final outcome that I had wanted. However, I found that when I had uploaded all my clips to adobe, they were all facing different ways and so it was harder for me to edit each section and try to make it fit together smoothly.  The equipment that I used in my two minute film opening was camera phones which were a Samsung galaxy S4 mini. This did not turn out as well as I thought it would as we had filmed on different phones such as an IPhone 4S too, we found that when it came to putting the final film together the quality if each clip was different and so made the whole film look unprofessional. Also, I found that using the phones was not such a good idea as when me and my group were filming, our phones may die and so we would have lost some of the footage that we had already recorded, resulting in us having to go back and re-record what we had already done. Another downside of using the camera phones when filming our phone is that not only did the quality of the footage was bad but also the sound that we had tried to film was coming back muffled. Also, when filming on a camera phone, we could not keep the camera steady all the time which resulted in some areas being slightly shaky. This resulted in me having to include an instrumental soundtrack over the top and so you could not here any of the diegetic sound that I had planned to include.  Problems that we had with our technology overall is that the quality of the film did not turn out well and at the time I had not had much experience with adobe premiere elements 10 and so when it came to putting the film together, I struggled with knowing how to do certain things such as adding transitions to my work to add effect. To record my ideas, I used a website called blogger which allowed me to record any thought processes that I had and any idea which I was able to come back to, change or add anything at any time.

This year in making my film trailer, I think I have improved in many of these areas. When filming this year, the camera that we had used was Sony CX 405 handy cam, which had much better quality and so our footage came out very clear. This was also helped by the fact that we had used a tripod when using the camera and so it was very still when we were recording. Although I had planned to use a Nikon Coolpix L830 16MP bridge camera, I found that the quality did not match up as well as the Sony camera. When it came to sound in our film trailer, last year I did not use my own sound as I ran out of time in making the opening two minutes, however this year we had included original music of the piano which we used as our non-diegetic sound. When doing our research for the music, we looked at websites such as incompetech which showed different themes of music and we were able to change the themes so fit a particular mood. We also included diegetic sound in the film trailer of the characters talking, giving the trailer a more professional outcome when it was completed. When editing the footage, we used premiere pro to edit our film. Although I was not familiar with this software, I picked it up really quickly and the tools on it allowed us to add much more transitions and effect to our work to get a more polished outcome. Another thing that I have improved this year is filming more clips than I need as last year I did not do this which resulted me in not having enough footage to cut down and add new things in. Whereas this year we found that we had recorded too much and so used them on our blog pages to show the process of making the film trailer and the final outcome.

Evaluation Feedback

In your responses to your final production make sure you are clearly referring to choices and outcomes in an evaluative way - make sure you are addressing the areas outlined by me below:

What did you do? Explain a transition or effect you opted for in the editing process.  What effect did you achieve?  Explain how the choice you made was intended to make the target audience think or feel.  How does this show progression in your use of skills? Explain how this is better than your AS production's outcomes by linking to what you did in your portfolio last year.

These choices are really important for you to reflect on to show you fully understand how you have developed your skills - and make sure you evaluate the comments made by the test audience (the class) using specialist terminology.

We do not have long until the deadline for this final stage of your portfolio - so make sure you are pushing yourself and achieving the marks your efforts this year deserve!

Evaluation Activity 4

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

We used many different technologies within the research planning and evaluation stages. The camera we used was the Sony CX405 Handy-cam camera to film our trailer as it is has high definition image and high quality sound recording facilities. We believe it is very important to have a high quality camera because the trailer will look high budget and professional. Whereas, last year my footage was at low quality and did not give off the full effect of the audience as I intended. When we were filming we found that the camera was very good as it could adjust to some of the lighting, there are certain effects that allow us to make the images stream together seamlessly as the camera adjusts the lighting depending on the time of day. We also used a tripod with some of the shots in order to make sure the shots were steady and professional looking. Last year I did not use a tripod and so some of my shots were shaky and were facing the opposite direction and therefore found it hard to create the high budget feel that would endorse the audience to be gripped to the film opening. 

In terms of the editing format, our group used adobe premiere pro. We were given the opportunity to use the school's computers and the format of adobe premiere elements, however we found the format hard to use and didn't render the footage as fast as we wanted. The editing format that we used instead was premiere pro which allowed us to become very experimental with the footage. We also used transition tools such as the fade to black etc, it allowed us to create a high budget effect for our trailer. On one of the days of editing, we prioritized the titles. We spent hours looking through the fonts and different shadowing effects for the titles. We found the software extremely effective when achieving our titles as there was a wide range of choice and styles and colours, which gave us the opportunity to test them our in our trailer and see which one fit the conventions of a horror film the best. 

When making our poster, we spent a lot of time, learning how Photoshop works and how to create a professional look for the poster. We wanted to fade the picture into the back ground by creating a black blur around the picture. Once we had found out how to blur the edge with the paint tool, we wanted to change the contrast and colour of the image, making it appear darker and adding intensity to the image. This effectively overall made thew final poster appear much more high budgeted than before and made it appear much more professional. 

Evaluation Activity 3 - Audience Feedback

Evaluation Activity 3 - Talking about our Film Trailer

I think our film is similar to other film trailers as it follows the codes and conventions of a horror film. It builds tension for the target audience, creating effect and so they would want to carry on watching it. This is important in a film trailer as you want the audience to be gripped and ready to go and see the film. Also they dramatic music and surprising titles gives out more information to the audience such as the background of what is happening and so the audience are able to get a slight understanding of the story line. 

I think we have many strengths in our film trailer which overall gave us an effective finish. One of the main strengths I think is the way we have layered non-diegetic sound over the top of each other which allowed us to add dramatic 'bangs' in with the quieter piano music which contrast and makes the audience aware that something may happen. The diegetic sound that we had included of the two parents arguing was made to echo as if they were talking over the top of each other and showing the extent of their arguing. Another strength that I believe we had as a group is using different camera angles and so the audience saw footage from different angles making it more dynamic and interesting to watch.

A weakness that we had when making this trailer is the fact that not only did we have to re-film some of the footage because of the quality being different due to filming it on different cameras, I think we could have made the final shot of Carly's face slightly longer and so the audience are able to see the panic that is on their face, making them want to sympathize with the character more which is what we want. 

Evaluation Activity 2 - Voiceover

We decided to record a voice over of our trailer to explain to the audience why we had included different shots, the location that we used but also elements that we had included such as production titles. However, on e point that we had forgotten to discuss in the voice over was the use of social media and how that has an impact on the audience. It is effective as it encourages the audience to explore the media products further and how they are able to get involved with updates and promotion of the film. We believe this is a key feature when making the film successful as it helps to spread the work with other media technologies. 

Evaluation Task 1

In the first frame we used a panning shot of the location in the garden. This was effective as it allowed the audience to understand the difference between her lives before and after she grew up, giving in depth prevalence on the young victim allowing the audience to therefore feel sympathy for her. However, as it is a horror the non-diegetic music added over the top created an eerie atmosphere, representing that even though everything does look normal it doesn’t mean it is. Which could create suspense following the conventions of a horror genre. The lighting of the surrounding is quite dim and the autumn season represents cold and darkness. This again is ominous which adds to the genre of our trailer.

This links with the second frame which is a close up of a man’s hand playing the piano. This was used as a special effect as the non-diegetic sound was placed over it and we fitted it within the time scale of his fingers allowing it to be efficacious s and make it look like he was playing this eerie piece. This was a successful prop used as pianos can connote sadness e.g. when played at funerals. Therefore, it allowed our audience to know what emotion to feel and when. These two frames are calming, emphasizing the build up to the climax which is effective as the audience would be on the edge of their seat. 

The third frame introduces the victim as a young girl. She is portrayed as playful and innocent with a close up of her smiling and laughing around the table. This shows her family to be a neutral and normal middle class family, at this point. Then the fact she is dressed in her school uniform, looking very natural which emphasizes her vulnerability and helps create that atmosphere of everyday life. This is effective as it enables the audience to potentially relate to the trailer which could increase popularity. 

In the fourth frame we used match on action. This is a skilled shot as is effective due to it being the trailer look more advanced, rather than just following the characters around. Through this process we had to trim each shot to make it look seamless in our trailer. This medium shot is effective as again we see the happy home environment, which soon disappears. The fact that when the young girl sits down in the centre, with both the parent immediately standing up to argue could connote she has no protection or support, again allowing the audience t feel sorry for her. The effect of this is that we can see why in later life she has no contacts to report back to and nowhere to go. 

In the fifth frame we are shown a low angle shot of the flat that the young girl has moved into. The effect of having a long shot of this shows the rural area and shows an immediate contrast to where she used to live before. This also helps to create the atmosphere that something is about to happen as the music immediately juxtaposes from calm but tense music to just upbeat music telling the audience something bad is about to happen. The rural area expresses the vulnerability of her as something bad is more likely to happen is a lonely detached house compared the a middle class street. 

This then links with the sixth frame, where we see a man, dressed in all black with his hood up. The fact he is wearing black connotes danger and allows the audience to understand clearly that he is the protagonist. Again in this shot we used match on action just to emphasize the protagonist showing him in the shot for longer. This is an effective shot as I begins to tell the story of the trailer. The fact his hood is up and we are never introduced to his face creates mystery and enigmas. I sit somebody in the past? Who is it? This is effective as the enigma will make the audience want to watch the film which is the purpose of the trailer. 

In the seventh shot we are actually shown the protagonist and the victim in the same shot. Here the victim letting her hair down ready for the bath, with the door slightly open and the protagonist subtly walking past. This is effective as it creates real tension for the audience. This also represents how easy it is to unknowingly knowing somebody Is in your home, making the audience feel uncomfortable to what will happen next. The girl is shown in high key lighting, still showing her prevalence and the fact that she is harmless compared to the protagonist shown in the dark which connotes evil. Having a male protagonist and a female victim follows the conventions of a genre as this is commonly shown in horrors and men are known to be more dangerous compared to females who are always portrayed as innocent and less powerful. 

Then finally as the music increases to its climax and the audience are aware that the protagonist is in the house but don’t know when he is going to attack we are introduced to a medium shot of a hand with a black glove over. The glove is effective as it allows the audience to think what he is going to do to her. Kill her? Kidnap her? It also adds to the mystery of the protagonist. The fact he has grabbed her at the most unaware time (her reaching in for clothing) allows the audience to jump as they did not expect that it was going to happen then compared to the other times where there was an easy possibility. This is effective as it makes our trailer unpredictable which many people enjoy in the horror genre. 

Finally our last frame which is the ninth is our title. The fact of having our title at the very end means the audience have to watch the whole trailer to see what it is called. As well as this the audience are more likely to remember the name of the trailer compared to if it was introduced at the beginning, before understanding the story. This is effective as it could increase our viewers when it is released. Although modern trailers follow the conventions of white writing on a black background, we decided to use silver which had a gradient allowing it to be lighter at the bottom. This is effective as it made the final product look sharper and the white at the bottom adds a glow making it look eye catching, as it still stands out from the black background. The text we used was Felix Titling as it was really bold which we wanted top again make it stand out. The title was coped and rotated upside down and then faded. This was successful as it created a shadowed look which made our trailer look more skilled but also was different compared to just having it in the center of the screen alone.

Audience

Due to our film having an age certificate of 15, this set us a good idea that our target audience would range for the 15 to younger adults such as 22. After doing research of the demographics for the majority of horror movies we found that this age category was the most appropriate for our trailer. This is successful as allowing our target audience to be 15 allows a wider range which could potentially increase profits. The typical ratio to watch our trailer would mainly be girls, this could be represented in the female cast, relating about a troubled girl. Therefore,many females could relate to this character and find this as a coping mechanism to escape from their own lives. Although, the percentage of males watching horror movies can still represent huge interest in this genre, but this could just be because males and females are more likely to attend a date to the cinema to watch a movie, stereo-typically for the female to cuddle up to the boy. As we found out from our survey our target audience enjoy horrors that create a mystery as their favourite TV programme Sherlock Holmes, we uncovered the meaning of this and it was proven they found the mystery in the programme engaging, getting them excited to watch next weeks episode. Our target audience listen to quite a lot of pop music, in the charts, to keep up with the trends in day to day society.This allows them to have something in common and mingle as a friendship group providing a topic for conversation. We tried to create this mysterious effect in our trailer by having a secretive villain out to get this young girl, where hes face in never exposed throughout the whole trailer, only as man with a black figure. This young age category tend to shop again in the most trendy places such as River Island, Misguided, Topman where it allows them to go out and interact and enables them to become a fashionable idol whether it is only in the environment of school or work.

Final Film Trailer

Magazine Cover

Film Poster

Day 3&4 of filming

These are just some short bloopers that we were unable to use in our final film trailer. Our group had just gathered around Beths house as that is where all our footage was. We had re-filmed the bathroom scene and so we could improve it and then we can include it in our film trailer, as before when we filmed it, it did not look as good or effective as it now does. 

When filming the running shots, we had to do this a couple of times as we found that either there was someone in the shot that wasn't supposed to be or we ended up laughing due to the way she was dressed or how she was running. We just have some final editing to do overall and then our trailer is finally complete. 

Edited Eyes For poster

This is our edited eyes for the film poster. We wanted to make this one of the main features of our film poster and so it would stand out against the black background. To do this, we used Photoshop to brighten the image and make the eyes stand out by selecting the center of the eyes and brightening them up a bit. When it came to adding this to our film poster we found that it did not blend in as well and overall the image looked quite ashy against the black background.



Taking this into consideration, we found that by adjusting the brightness and contrast of the image it worked much better giving the poster a much more professional and completed finish. This is the final image that we decided to add to our film poster as we found that it had blended better into the poster but also made tho poster as a whole look much more effective. 

Practiced production titles - names

I have created a few of production titles with the casts names on and who is involved to practice and experiment with the titles that we would prefer to use in our finished film trailer. I have set them out all in different styles to see which one looks the most effective when put into the trailer. As a group we decided to use the the first one as we thought it looked better in the film trailer as it makes it look more realistic.

I found that after watching this back, the third and fourth idea looked more like what would go at the end of a film and so may not fit in as well into a film trailer. Also they ran for a while which would not be useful in a film trailer as these are usually short and quick.  

Production titles

For the production titles, we used various images off the internet and edited through premier adobe elements 10. One transitions that was used was a zoom in transition as these appeared to be very effective and eye-catching to the audience as they are very popular in film trailers when they start. For the first image we had it start at black and white which then faded into colour which showed an effective contrast between the two. We then added the title before fading back out of the image making it look much more polished. 

For the second photo we kept it large and then added the same photo over the top of itself using transition boxes which zoomed in on itself to add depth to the photo. we then had a smaller version of the same image appear but this time with the title before it faded in and out. We also enhanced both images to make them appear brighter and make them stand out more

Editting our Magazine Cover

Here, we are editing our film poster and adding any finishing touches to in order to complete it. We were trying out different fonts in various colours and styles in order to find which one best fit or theme on the whole. We decided to keep the same font on the whole poster and so it does not over-complicate anything or make anything too difficult to read for the target audience. We decided to make the title of our cover Red as it is eye catching for the target audience and so instantly stands out. Also this fits the conventions of horror stereotypes as so there fore attracts a wider target audience, due to the colour appealing to all different kinds of people. 

Editing eyes image

Our group had taken a picture of our teacher and are now editing it to place on our film poster. we decided to use an image that we had taken ourselves rather than an image off the internet as we want to be able to edit it and change things in order to achieve a higher grade. We are planning on changing the brightness and contrast of his eyes to make them stand out from the blurred and dark background of our film poster. This will be able to make us get the genre of horror across to our targeted audience as they would be able to see a clear link between why we  have chosen darker colours and how it all links together. Once we have edited the photo we are going to blend it into the background of the poster. We wanted to enhance the colour of the eyes and make this a unique selling point for the film poster.

After having this idea we wanted to make sure that the majority of people agreed with us so we took a vote on which people were attracted to this feature; if it was placed in a DVD shop would they pick it out. We took a quick tally of 34 people aged from 16-28, through young teenagers to young adults where the horror genre appeals to the most. Out of 34 people 29 said they liked this feature and found it eye catching.

Making the production titles

We have just taken a short video to show how we are making our production titles and the programming that we are using in order to get the most professional and satisfying look for our film trailer.

Opening Titles

Opening titles allowed us to decide which font type we preferred to incorporate in our trailer, and we went with the Adobe Ming STD, one we researched in our practice font titles. The reason we chose this font is because it was most suitable for our horror trailer as the sinister and and mysterious look was intriguing and adheres to the conventions of a horror. We then believe this font and title can successfully engage an audience who is interested with this genre. Although our favourite opening title is the white writing against a black background, I changed the background to dark blue to give the title some texture and see what this look liked. We believe using a dark blue would still give off that eerie atmosphere but do prefer the modern day black background, white font.