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Centre Name: Norbury Manor BEC
Centre Number: 14343
Candidate Name: Shari Powell
Candidate Number: 9535
Unit: G324

Evaluation Question Four - How Did You Use New Media Technologies In The Construction And Research, Planning And Evaluation Stages?

The reason that I keep looking down is because I had written a script of what I was going to say. I preferred to have a script so I knew exactly what I was talking about.

Evaluation Question Three - What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Audience Reactions on Dipity.

The + signs on the bottom of the timelines are more posts that will open if you click on them, they can't all fit on the timeline.

Evaluation Question Two - How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Texts?

Question 1 cuts off a bit so im typing it here so that it's easy to read: The chain on the poster links with the title of the movie. This was done so that the audience could paint a picture that the necklace plays a big part in the narrative. The chain is also in the beginning of the trailer so it shows a running theme. The title of the film is called 'the chain', we used a chain as a prop as it is a cursed object and it's what sets off a chain of events. Cursed objects are usually found in supernatural horror movies and that's the sub genre that my group and I decided to have. Having an image of a chain in the trailer and the poster was really effective as it shows the object which is causing so much destruction. The necklace is the first thing shown in my horror trailer which helps set the narrative and shows just how important the prop is. Throughout the trailer, it's apparent that the necklace connects to the villain and the victim, It's even shown in one of the last scenes in the trailer when Lilith (villain) is laying next to the final girl (Riley) and Lilith is holding the necklace. This is significant in showing the development of the narrative; it reiterates the saying 'don't touch what's not yours'. On the poster, it was important to have the necklace showing as it's being held by the villain. The chain on the poster helped to create an illusion of a downward cross on her face which represents evil. The necklace in the poster is in colour and the necklace in the trailer is in black and white; the colours being shown in the necklace are dark colours. A colour of one of the gemstones is a dark red and the colour red connotes blood and danger. Blood is evident on the villains face in the poster so the colour of the gemstone also links in with the makeup. The colour of the gemstone and makeup link in with the colour used for the title of the film as well. Having all these connections of the chain would hopefully signify the purpose and relevance of the chain to the audience. My group and I really wanted to show off the necklace as it was a symbol we used to symbolise danger.

Evaluation Question One - In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

Final Trailer

This is my official final trailer. The narrative that is displayed in my trailer is of the final girl (Riley) picking up a necklace that wakes the dead (Lilith). Lilith is the villain and starts to haunt, torment and hurt Riley as Riley took the necklace which belonged to Lilith. Dead Silence and Evil Dead helped influence the narrative. We used Lionsgate production logo as Lionsgate is the company that we went with as they have produced several well grossed horror films. The sub genre of the trailer is supernatural horror and we decided to have a supernatural horror because of the audience feedback I received which showed that supernatural horrors are popular and also supernatural is a common theme in the horror genre. Supernatural themes include curses which links in with the narrative that I helped create. I filmed several different shot types so that the trailer wasn't full of just one shot types. I used over 6 different shot types to make the trailer have a variety in it. I feel like it would've been boring for an audience to just watch a trailer filmed in constant mid-shots.

Conventions Of A Trailer:

• Showcase the stars of the film
• Voice Over's used to tell the story and give credit information
• Music plays an important role in creating atmosphere
• Story is not shown in narrative order
• Trailer builds to a climax, where it ends
• The title does not appear until the end
• Unusual angles to show events or characters

Showcasing the stars of the film is a typical convention that you would find in a trailer. For well known movies, showcasing the stars will appeal to a big audience, they may want to watch a film just for the people starring in the film especially if it's their favourite actor/actress. The villain and victim are showcased a lot during the trailer. The villain is the main person who causes conflict so she was a big importance in the trailer. She needed to have enough scenes to illustrate to an audience her role in it and to also highlight the narrative. The victim was showcased in the trailer as she was the one who was being followed by the villain.

 

Voice over's in my trailer weren't necessarily used to tell a story but the voice over used at the beginning allowed a flashback scene and the voice over at the end shows the destruction. The voice over at the beginning introduces part of the narrative and it says "that's a nice necklace, where did you get it?". The scene was filmed in colour but we changed it to black and white during the editing process to make it look like a flashback. The next scene then answers the question and shows that Riley got the necklace from a graveyard. To an audience this may appear really weird and Riley could be seen as the villain because she's in dark clothing and also taking a necklace from a graveyard. It's not ideal to be in a graveyard unless your there to pay your respects to someone who's passed away. The voice over at the end says "Riley, you need to return this necklace". The word necklace is used in both voice overs to show the audience that the necklace is the main problem that's causing so much chaos. The word 'need' shows urgency to return the necklace, it's clear from clips in the trailer that the necklace is a dangerous cursed object.

 

Music plays an important part in creating atmosphere is conventional in a trailer. The music used in my trailer changes at different scenes, the past varies from slow to really fast. We used several different soundtracks in the trailer, using up to 3 different songs to create different atmospheres. We even added sound affects to create atmosphere such as the heartbeats and scream. The heartbeats came when Riley was running away from Lilith which would exemplify exactly how Riley was feeling fearing for her life. Story not being shown in a narrative order is one of the biggest conventions of a trailer. In any trailer for any genre, it would be highly unlikely for the narrative to be shown in narrative order. It's not shown in narrative order because the story would be given away to an audience. They wouldn't want to go away and watch the movie if they've practically seen it in a trailer. Trailers are meant to pick out the most exciting bits which would captivate an audience and make them want to watch more. In my trailer, the story is not shown in narrative order, my group and I wanted to conform to the conventions of a trailer and this was a good way to do it. In my trailer it wouldn't be clear when certain events took place.

The trailer builds to a climax, where it ends is conventional of a trailer and this is what my group and I have done when making this trailer. We put all of the action packed events throughout the trailer and then at the end we have a minor character walking away and an audience is left wondering what will happen to the victim. The scene before the minor character walking away was the first time you get to see the villain laying next to the victim. The villain has the necklace in her hand which could mean more problems for the victim but the audience will never know what would happen as it's reached to a climax. The climax stage is meant to seem as though there's a sense of calmness. The title not appearing until the end of a trailer is evident in my trailer. We kept the title at the end of the trailer because I researched a lot of horror trailers on Youtube and found that typically the title goes at the end. It's at the end as the name of the film will stick in an audience's head, they'll remember the title of the movie because it's the last thing they see after all the action they've seen during the trailer. Unusual angles to show events or characters was present in my trailer when a canted angle was used to show the event of prayer. Riley was reading out a prayer and the props of the Bible and candles helped to show the event of a prayer. This was a way to incorporate religion in my trailer which is an iconography that can be found in the horror genre frequently. 

 

In my opinion, I feel my trailer conforms to the conventions of a real trailer. My trailer manages to involve most of the conventions for it.

Final Magazine Cover

 

A medium close up shot was used for the main image. Typical conventions of a magazine cover are: Main image, masthead, barcode, slogans, colour scheme, dateline , website, cover lines, variety of fonts on the cover and sell lines.

 

The main image is showing direct address and engaging with an audience. Her face really stands out because of the blood and bruising created by using makeup. Her appearance is meant to look quite deathly as she is a ghost and she's representing death. She's the villain so she needs to look menacing to an audience. The makeup was enhanced on Photoshop but all the makeup was done before hand. If the blood needed to be darkened then we would change the contrast or exposure levels in Photoshop. A close up shot is used so the audience can actually see her face, the sole focus is the main image. It's the first thing you see on a magazine cover. I wanted the magazine cover to have a close up shot so that the main focus was on her blooded makeup and on the film poster, the shot type was a medium close up shot so that the costume and props could be displayed as well as still being able to see the face quite close up. The two different shot types illustrated her being the villain and her expressions looked menacing.

 

The masthead is always featured on a magazine front cover. It is telling the audience what magazine it is; 'Empire' is the masthead. Empire was the chosen magazine as it's the most popular film magazine. I also did research into the magazine's history and I found that for the 18th Birthday issue in 2007 for Empire, they picked the top 50 rated 18-rated movies. This showed me that Empire magazine took an interest into the horror genre, knowing that they've had an interest in the horror genre made it easier for my group and I to decide to have them be the company we chose for the magazine cover. On the masthead we put a blood splatter on it. As blood is a typical iconography that shows up in horror movies, we wanted to emphasise this on the magazine cover. Our production company is called 'cut throat productions' and the cutting of the throat in horror movies usually sees blood splattering out of the neck. The production name links in with the blood splatter on the masthead. It made the masthead stand out more as well because usually the Empire magazine isn't covered in blood and is left plain. To a reader, it will still be easy to establish that Empire is the magazine name as the blood isn't covering that much of it. Whilst I was researching horror film posters, I came across the Boogeyman 2 movie poster and it gave me inspiration to have the blood coming off of the 'M' in Empire. On the Boogeyman 2, blood is dripping just from the M and I felt it looked effective. It stood out to me as a reader and I wanted the masthead to stand out to my audience as well.

 

The barcode is conventional on a magazine cover. It makes the magazine more legit and makes it sellable; it shows how it could be a real magazine as it would be distributed. On a typical magazine cover, a barcode is used as the barcode is the thing that needs to be scanned in shops in order for a customer to buy it. The slogan is conventional on a magazine cover as it reels the reader in. In this case the slogan could be passed off as 'evil never dies' which is the tagline associated with my movie. It's the only text in the colour black because the colour black is associated with such negative things. It reiterates what the slogan is saying that evil is black, someone who is evil never sees anything positively. The colour scheme is black, white and red which is a colour scheme that has been kept consistent for both the magazine and poster and even the trailer. A colour scheme is conventional for a magazine cover. It helps allow the readers to know what issue of the magazine it is. If it was a summer issue, you'd expect to see a lot of bright colours such as pink and yellow but with a horror issue, an audience wouldn't expect to see bright colours but instead expect to see dark colours such as the black and red which is evident on my magazine cover. The red and white colours really stick out on a black background and draws attention to all the texts on the cover and also highlights the image.

A dateline is conventional to have on a magazine cover as it tells the readers when the issue will be coming out and also lets the readers know the price of the magazine. The issue date is February 2015 as this is the month and year that we finished creating the magazine cover. Magazines are usually quite expensive so we wanted to put a realistic price of £3.99 on it instead of something cheap which wouldn't of been realistic to a reader at all. My group and I tried to make the magazine cover and film poster look as realistic as possible. Conventionally a website is featured on the magazine but with my magazine cover, the website wasn't put on it. The website wasn't featured on the magazine cover but was featured on the film poster, so it was better to have the website on one of the ancillary texts rather than none. The cover lines are all the features on the magazine. They are normally placed on either the left or right. "Cooking for cannibals" cover line came from an Empire issue in March 2001 when it said "What's cooking?". We decided to spin the cover line and change it by not asking a question but making a statement instead. A cannibal is a person who eats the flesh of other human beings. Cannibals can be found in horror films such as The Descent (2005), The Cave (2005) and Catacombs (2007). It's ironic cooking for cannibals as they're normally the ones feeding off of raw human flesh and they never cook. 'How Psycho are you?' makes reference to the horror film Psycho (1960), it's seeing if the reader will be on a level of psycho like Norman Bates. A reader who hasn't seen the film may not know what it means, it looks just like a simple question but it links in with the real film. 'Top 5 villains' is showing the villains that have proved most popular over the years. As a villain is the main protagonist in a horror movie and they cause the most conflict, essentially they make a horror movie as without a villain, a horror movie is nothing. It's good to give recognition to villains as although they're the evil ones, the horror genre depends on them; they drive a story forward. The word 'special' in the cover lines makes it seem as though you can only get the interview exclusive to this Empire issue. Dawn Gallant is the person who played the villain in my trailer so divulging into her fears is effective as playing a villain, the villain normally doesn't fear anything.

A variety of fonts are usually seen on a magazine cover to keep it interesting. It would look rather bland and dull if there was only one font. The font used for the title of the film and the slogan are the same fonts which were used on the poster and in the trailer; it keeps a reoccurring theme, it makes them stand out amongst the other fonts. The font was found on the website called da font whereas the other fonts were taken from the fonts list in Photoshop. The fonts chosen are simple and don't draw too much attention away from the things that should be the most important: the main image, masthead and title of the film. The sell line is the introductory headline, on my magazine cover it says 'the world's biggest movie magazine', this just emphasises how Empire is well known and the most popular movie magazine, it's rated higher than any other movie magazine. It's put directly underneath the masthead as 'Empire' is the masthead and that's the magazine the sell line is talking about. It's put in small print so that it can be seen by readers and to show it's just not the main text on the magazine cover.

Final Film Poster

These are the conventions of what are normally found on movie posters: Credits, company logo, website, image of main character, film title, release date, tagline and the name of the director. For most film posters, the image will indicate the narrative of the film. On my movie poster, the main image indicates the narrative of the film. It doesn't give away too much of the narrative but the audience will be able to tell that the chain is somehow involved. The makeup used on the main character helps display part of the narrative as well as its apparent she's covered in blood, this also helps to establish the genre of the movie. A medium close up shot was used for the main image to make it a different shot type to the one used on the magazine front cover. I tried a close up shot for the image but it didn't show the chain and looked similar to the image used on the magazine front cover. From the film poster its clear to see that I have tried my best to involve all of the conventions of a film poster.

I have included the credits which are at the bottom of the poster. It's conventional to have the credits go at the bottom of a film poster in small font. Most of the film posters that I researched had the credits in small font so that it didn't draw attention away from some of the other texts on the poster. The name of the director always goes in the credits and in this case my name went as the director. This was a mutual decision between my group and I to put my name as the director, I filmed majority of the scenes for the trailer, I said which shots would look better and made sure to film them and I also directed by telling the actors where to stand and what to do just so the shots came out good. The credits include everyone that worked in my group and in the credits of movie posters this is typical as they involve the people who were involved in the process of making the movie. In the credits we have decided to use Lions Gate Entertainment to associate our production company with. The reason we chose Lions Gate Entertainment to associate our company with is because Lions Gate has produced several highly grossed horror movies over the years. Some of the horror movies that they helped produced has influenced the making of my horror trailer and has given me ideas for the poster. After researching Lions Gate films I've found some horror films that have been made with their company, these include: Cabin Fever (2002), House of 1000 Corpses (2003), The Haunting In Connecticut (2009), Saw VI (2009), My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009), The Last Exorcism (2010), The Cabin In The Woods (2012), The Possession (2012), Silent Hill: Revelation (2012), You're Next (2013), Jessabelle (2014) and The Quiet Ones (2014). Several of those movies I have spoken about previously on my blog and I have seen the majority of them. I named my blog after the film You're Next, My Bloody Valentine 3D helped with a tagline on the magazine front cover and some of those films are supernatural horrors which is the sub genre I have gone with for my trailer.

The website has been incorporated on my movie poster and is the same font used for the title and release date. Websites are mainly always on a movie poster to promote the movie and give more of an insight on what the movie is about. The font used was 'birth of a hero' and this was found on Dafont. The reason all three of those texts were in that font and colour was because they were the most important things I wanted the audience to see.  When seeing a poster, typically you start from the top and work your way down to the bottom and it gives that sort of effect. It also is in size order so it starts with the biggest font at the top and decreases the further down it gets on the poster. The film title is on the film poster and this is to let the audience know what the film is called. Sometimes the title of the film gives away the genre of the movie but with the title of my film it wouldn't be clear to an audience what genre it is. A title of a film such as The Possession, would make an audience know that the movie is going to be a horror. It sounds supernatural and gives off a demonic feel. The release date has been put on the film poster as its a convention of film posters and also lets the audience know when the film is coming out. I've looked at different film posters and some will specify the date and others will say 'coming soon' to add more mystery. I decided to specify a date as the date is associated with romance but I want a horror movie to be released on a love filled day to show a contrast between what valentines day represents and what horror movies represent. Horror movies evoke fear and according to Nigel Kneale in Wells, 2000 he says "horror is what you might feel if you went, for example, into a jungle, or a place where you had lost all of your bearings, where you were no longer sure of anything". This is not the type of feeling someone would typically feel on valentines day (February 14th).

The tagline is the only thing in the colour white. The colour white connotes purity and wholeness, it's the colour of perfection. 'Evil never dies' is a contrast to the colour, the colour white is essentially a black canvas but the villain in the trailer taints what the colour represents. The tagline is also in big font but not bigger than the title of the film because its conventional to have the title of the film be the biggest thing on the poster. The tagline links with the trailer and the magazine cover, in the trailer it's apparent that the villain is the evil thing and was dead but has awakened due to the final girl taking her chain. My group and I wanted the tagline, title and main image to all connect together and they do. Lastly of all the conventions is the company logo. The company logos are in the left corner next to the 15 rating. Company logos are typically found on film posters to let the audience know which company has helped produced a movie. I didn't want the company logos to be that big but I did want them to be noticeable. Lions Gate logo is present on the poster as it's who my group and I decided to associated our production with. It also can be conventional to have a star rating or review on the movie poster but I decided to subvert from this convention as it made the layout look too complex. The colour scheme used on this poster is identical to the colour scheme used on the Scream 4 movie poster.

Comparing Horror Posters To Posters From Other Genres

I have made some collages of movie posters from these three genres: horror, action and romance. I wanted to show the difference between how the posters differ according to their genre. From researching and looking at lots of different horror posters I found that a colour scheme is consistent throughout the majority of them regardless of the sub-genre. The predominant colours that are featured on most horror posters are black, white and red. Black and red will almost mainly always be on it especially the colour red. Red represents blood and blood is featured heavily in the horror genre. The posters of the horror genre tend to be quite simple only featuring one person on it, typically the villain of the film. Symbols that are present in the movie could appear on the poster to let the audience know that an object or a person play a key role in causing conflict.

The collage I made of action movies were to represent the things that commonly most appear on them. It differs from what would be found on a horror poster. Action movies obviously contain scenes that would be more fast paced and exciting. I have found that on action posters, weapons are usually present on the poster which establishes the genre. A location is sometimes present in the back of the poster then has the main character(s) on to the front, again this differs from the horror poster as the location will mainly be the main image for the poster. This could be shown through The Last House On The Left poster as the house is the only main image on the poster. This is to show the link between the title and the image. It will show the audience that the house is important and to watch out for clues as to why whilst watching the movie. For the action poster, the location is put behind the characters to show where the action will take place. Posters for action movies tend to have a lot going on and seems to consist of more than one character which is the total opposite for horror posters where the it's quite minimal and features one main character. The similarity between horror posters and action posters is that they use dark colours such as blues and blacks.

The collage I made of romance movies were to show the differences and similarities to horror posters. With romance posters, there will typically be a male and a female on the cover in some sort of an embrace or next to each other. Romance posters use a lot of bright colours as romance is associated with positive feelings and has positive attributes as opposed to the horror genre which is associated with evil and has negative connotations. Having the two main characters on the front of the poster illustrate who the romantic storyline is about. In horror posters its rare to see the villain and victim alongside each other, this is done to prevent the final girl being revealed if there is one or to give too much away too an audience. Romance posters have a simple layout just like horror posters. In most romance posters they have greenery in the background to create a heavenly feel which is the opposite of what the horror genre would have on the poster. Romance movies won't use a lot of red on the poster unless the red is used in a positive way such as being used to represent passion or lust. Even the representation of the colour red on romance posters is totally different from the representation of the colour red on horror posters. The colour red is more negative when its in association with the horror genre.

Real Media Texts Which Have Used The Villain On Both Magazine And Poster

I have researched on Google some horror magazines and horror posters that feature the main character from the horror movie on both the poster and magazine. I researched this as I have used the main character of the trailer on both the poster and magazine. The real media texts that I have researched also involve the villain from all the movies. For the first magazine and poster Megan Fox was used on both of them. Megan Fox is a well known actress which would make people want to watch it and she's also a sex symbol to males, this could attract a bigger audience and have more people watching horror movies. From the images used she doesn't look like the typical villain. Typically in horror movies, the villain is male and disfigured in some way. She appears attractive and looks like your average cheerleader. For the movie poster she is wearing hints of red which could symbolise her being dangerous and alluring. She's sitting on a table where a hand is poking out of the desk. This already seems strange and is showing  different side to what she wants the audience to view her as. There are hints on both the film poster and magazine cover that reveal a mysterious and weird side to her. On the magazine cover, she's displayed as normal but then blood is seen on her hands. This makes it unclear as to whether she's the one hurt or the one hurting people. The film poster plays up to the colour scheme of the horror genre using the colours red, black and white. She's used on both to show the audience that she plays a vital part in the movie. It's unclear from just looking at them whether she is the villain or the innocent victim. She could be portrayed in both of those ways.

For the Entertainment magazine and poster regarding the Scream movie, it already screams evil. The identity is remaining hidden which would raise questions to the audience as to who is behind the mask. The mask itself links in with the title of the movie. The mask literally looks as if it's screaming, the way it's been made has given the impression of someone screaming. The villain is used on both the magazine and poster which shows the audience that the villain plays an important role in the movie. In the horror genre, the villain is the person who creates most of the conflict, without a villain in a horror movie, the narrative wouldn't have a driving force. Just like the Jenifer's body poster, the colour scheme is black, white and red. These colours together make a very effective poster. The difference between the Scream magazine and poster and the Jenifer's body poster and magazine is that the Scream poster and magazine have been consistent with the colour scheme on both products unlike Jenifer's body which used completely different colours for the magazine.  The magazine and poster for Scream are very minimal and simplistic with little text which allows the central image to be the main focus.

The Entertainment magazine and poster for Carrie are effective as she's drenched in blood for both of them. To an audience, a lot of questions will already arise as it's not normal for someone to be covered in blood. Blood is a key iconography that is used in horror movies. Carrie can be represented as both the villain and the innocent victim in the movie. As she's the main character, she is put on both the magazine and poster. The film is predominantly female which is relatable to my horror trailer and narrative as no males are involved. The on-going colour scheme is apparent yet again, this displays the colours associated with the horror genre. Red is used to connote blood and danger. Black is used to show mystery and white is used to show innocence. They all contrast with each other. For the Entertainment magazine and poster that features Sweeney Todd they both link as he's the main villain as well. Him being on both the magazine and poster let the audience know that he is featured a lot in the movie and he's one to watch out for. This is what I want for my magazine and poster, to feature the villain on both. I feel it's more effective this way and with the right mise en scene, the audience will be able to tell what part they play and it will be able to make the villain easily identifiable.

Feedback From The Questionnaire

For question 1 there was a mixture of responses. Majority of the audience were 17/18 as most of Year 13 were the ones who came to the premiere of the trailer. When asked if the audience normally watch horror films, majority of them said no but there were still quite a few that said yes. The elements that were noticeable in my horror trailer was blood, weapons, religious objects and scary music. These were the main elements of horror that my group and I wanted in our trailer so we were happy that the audience were able to identify this, at least they were able to stand out and be recognisable. The most memorable moment in the trailer to the audience was the prayer scene that Sharna did. This was probably the most memorable because there was a voice over of the prayer as well as flashing scenes of her praying, the scenes stayed on the screen for a long duration so this would be memorable to the audience. Some other scenes only stayed on the screen for less than 2 seconds. To the audience, the trailer wasn't scary. Everyone ticked the no box which is quite disappointing as the horror genre is meant to be quite scary. Some of the reasoning's for it not being scary was that there wasn't enough blood or any jumpy scenes. That's understandable due to some other horror trailers that I've seen which could make a viewer jump. Responding to whether the audience enjoyed the trailer, majority of them ticked the yes box. This was quite satisfying knowing that the audience enjoyed watching it. Some of the responses stated that the reason they enjoyed the trailer was because of the music used. Music is important in creating atmosphere in a trailer so this showed that the right music chocies were used in the trailer. When asked what the audience thought the story was about, everyone gathered that the narrative was about a girl taking a necklace from a graveyard and then a dead person is awakened and comes to haunt her. I was happy that the narrative was blatant to an audience. From the audience feedback we had gathered before where Tiana said she didn't understand the storyline, this was a massive improvement in my eyes as the audience were able to know the narrative just from a 2 minute clip. It showed how my group and I listened and learned from the audience feedback given to us from before.

A lot of people said they would change the trailer but having more scenes with blood in it. The reason we didn't want to put so much blood in it was so that we could stick to the guidelines of having a 15 rating. Most of the ratings were 3/5 with some being 4/5. 3/5 is average but its better than getting a 1 or a 2.

My group and I showed the finished magazine cover and film poster to the audience before we showed them the trailer. A question put on the questionnaire asked if the magazine and poster linked to the trailer. Out of 15 people, 13 said yes and 2 said no. Majority of people thought they did which was satisfying to me. The thing that drew the audience in with the horror magazine was the central image. This may be because its the first thing you notice when you see the magazine cover. Also Dawn is showing direct mode of address so it looks as if she's actually staring at the audience. Everyone agreed that the magazine cover looked like a real media text. This let me and my group know that the magazine cover looked realistic to an audience which was one of our aims. In regards to the poster majority of the audience ticked the box to say yes when it came to thinking the poster looked realistic. On a whole the thing the audience liked most about the film poster was the main image. This was the same as the magazine cover as well, it's clear to me that the main image is the thing that draws the audience in as its in the centre of the page.

Questionnaire For Audience Feedback On My Trailer, Film Poster And Magazine Cover

 

This is the questionnaire that was created to gain audience feedback on my horror trailer, film poster and magazine cover. The questions were designed specifically for the target audience we were trying to have and also to see if there could be any changes done to our product and ancillary texts. We asked a mixture of open ended and closed ended questions to vary their opinions and get a detailed description of their opinion for some questions. The closed ended questions were quick and easy to answer. The open ended questions allowed the audience to think and reflect. The first question was asked to show a variety of people from our target audience. To the trailer premiere, people from aged 15 (year 11) to people 18+ were invited to view the trailer. This was because the target audience for my  trailer was 15-20 year olds.  I collected the questionnaires and found that there was a mixture of ages that came to the premiere which helped me see that I met my target audience. The second question was asked to see if the target audience tend to watch horror movies. If the audience didn't watch horror movies, they may not know the typical conventions to look out for in the horror genre. If they normally watched horror films then it would be easier for an them to assess what we incorporated in our trailer to establish the horror genre.
The third question was based on iconography found in horror movies. We wanted to see if the target audience would see some of the iconography we have tried to include in our trailer. The options we gave the audience were based off of what my group and I felt we had included in the trailer. The only thing we didn't use was a masked villain.

The fourth question was to gather the opinion of the audience. We wanted to know what stood out to them in our trailer. Trailers are meant to be memorable and if there wasn't a memorable moment in the trailer, than the task of making a trailer would've felt like a complete fail. Question five was to see if the audience felt as though the trailer was scary. This question would help us see where we went wrong and what we could've done to improve the trailer. It's too late to change the trailer but the feedback would help us know whether we met the horror genre or not. Question six was to see whether our trailer was enjoyable or not. The main aim was to create a trailer that would be quite scary, memorable and enjoyable. With question seven my group and I were trying to see whether the narrative was clear. We had gained audience feedback on our old narrative and the girl told us she didn't understand the story so it was crucial this time to have the narrative appear blatant to the audience. From a trailer, an audience is meant to gather part of the narrative, it's what will drive them to go and watch a movie to delve deeper into what the film is about. For question eight we asked what the audience would change about this trailer to see if we could apply it to our trailer. The trailer was complete when we showed it to the audience but if it was small changes that could be applied after the showing, then we could use their answers to apply it to our trailer. The last question in regards to the trailer was just to give it an overall rating out of five. We wanted a rating from our audience to see if our trailer was effective in any way.

For the poster and magazine we asked fewer questions than we did for the trailer. The trailer was longer and had more questions to be asked about whereas the poster and magazine cover were pretty straight forward. The first question we asked regarding the poster was whether it looked realistic. We wanted the poster to look as if it could belong to a real movie. If majority of the audience ticked the yes box, then we would've met our goal of making it look like a real media text. We asked what did they like most about the poster because we wanted their genuine opinion. It was an open ended question which left space for them to write a sentence and develop their answer as to what it specifically was that they liked. For the magazine questions, the first thing that was asked was whether the trailer linked to both the magazine and poster. This question will help with an evaluation question as well as letting my group and I know if they worked well together. When creating the poster and magazine, we made sure to pick the same fonts and colours so that a link could be shown. We wanted this to be apparent to the audience and we hoped they'd realise.
The second question from the magazine cover was finding out what the audience thought was most effective about the magazine cover. We chose the three most important features that stand out on every magazine cover so we could see which ones were effective. The third question that was asked was what stood out on the magazine cover. Typically on magazine covers, the central image is the focal point and its what draws the readers in so we wanted to find out if our magazine conformed to the conventions of a magazine. The last question we asked was whether it looks similar to real media texts. This would help my group and I see if the magazine cover conformed or subverted from real media texts. This feedback would also help answer some of the evaluation questions.

Changing The Sounds For The Trailer

These are some print screens from the editing process of the trailer. I changed the cross dissolve which was a transition that was put on the titles to make it dissolve into the next title page. In order for the transition to blend in well with the title, I had to change how long it lasted just so the dissolve lasted long enough. I then cropped a scene as I really disliked it. I felt as though there were too many bed scenes in my trailer so I wanted to lessen the duration of some. I changed one scene from 5 seconds to 3 seconds as in trailers, its more effective to have short scenes so that the audience doesn't lose attention. I changed the sounds on the soundtrack used at the end of the trailer.

Music Used For The Trailer

These were the sounds that we decided to use for the trailer. The music playing was what was used to create suspense and to show a build up of events. That music came when the action shots were happening. The music started in our trailer when the chase scene occured. The chase scene is a typical convention of a horror movie so we wanted to involve that in our trailer. The music helped set the pace of the scene and I think the scene and the music went well. During the chase scene, we also put heartbeat sounds in the trailer over the scary chase music as heartbeat sounds are what you can expect to hear in some horror movies. The heartbeats reflected how the victim would've been feeling running away from the villain. The decision to choose this soundtrack came when my group and I decided that it sounded sinister enough to fit with the horror genre. At first it sounds quite peaceful and has a slow pace but then it turns sinister and the pace quickens. A lot of soundtracks in horror movies go from a slow pace to a fast pace which typically happens during scenes where the villain appears.

Research Into Taglines Of Other Horror Movies

Night Of The Living Dead (1968) “They won’t stay dead”
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) “Who will survive and what will be left of them?”
Alien (1979) “In space no one can hear you scream”
Carrie (2013) "You will know her name"
The Possession (2012) "Fear the demon that doesn't fear God"
Cabin In The Woods (2012) "You think you know the story"
Evil Dead (2014) "They are waiting"
Sinister (2012) "Once you see him, nothing can save you"
Psycho (1998) “Check in. Relax. Take a shower
The Return (2006) "The past never dies, it kills"
Jessabelle (2014) "The dead are back for life"
The Unborn (2009) "Evil will do anything to live"
Hide And Seek (2005) "Ready or not here I come"
Oculus (2013) "You see what it wants you to see"
Drag Me To Hell (2009) "Christine Brown had a good job, a great boyfriend and a bright future. But in three days, she's going to hell"

I researched some horror movies that I have either watched or got inspiration from. The list that I have accumulated are a variety of sub genres in the horror genre but I have tried to find ones that are of the supernatural horror genre to fit with the sub genre that I chose to have for my horror trailer. I found similarities between the taglines as many referenced death in one way or another, In every horror movies death occurs, it's what makes the horror genre.

The first tagline from the 'Night Of The Living Dead suggests there is more than one villain or it's a group of people that cause chaos. The title of the film even suggests that the film is about zombies as zombies only come out at night, they're dead but alive at the same time. The tagline links in with the title of the film, the zombies won't stay dead and are obviously coming after humans. Zombies are associated with the horror genre as they're disfigured and inhuman.
The second tagline from 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' links in well with the title of the film and the narrative. From the tagline an audience would be able to tell it's for a horror genre as typically horror movies are about survival. 'What will be left of them' demonstrates the cutting up of bodies, already the movie seems disorientated and this could connect with the chainsaw in the title of the film.
The tagline for 'Alien' shows how something bad will occur. Screams are a typical sound that is heard throughout horror movies which lets the audience see how frightened the character is. Being in space links in with the title of the film. Aliens are considered extra-terrestrial, they aren't meant to be seen by humans, some people believe that Aliens exist and others don't but this film could create a sense of fear on whether they do exist or not.

The tagline for 'Carrie' already tells an audience that the main focus on the movie will surround a girl. It's addressing the audience directly and making them feel as though she is one to watch out for. The tagline is used to make an audience feel wary, looking at the title of the film, it's clear that the name that will be known is Carrie.
The tagline for 'The Possession' is effective as it shows there is someone that has no fear. God is known to be almighty and by the demon not fearing God, it shows the demon has no fear of consequences, it's almost as if evil prevails over good. The demon could even symbolise the Devil who is meant to be evil and this would contrast from God who is meant to be the protector and saviour. This adds a religious element to the film. Demon also makes reference to the title of the film as being possessed is quite a demonic thing.
The tagline for 'Cabin In The Woods' is another direct address to the audience. It's referring to the actual movie as everything appears normal but it's far from normal as monsters are involved and disfigured people. The story isn't how it looks when you first watch the movie.
The tagline for 'Evil Dead' suggests the same as 'Night Of The Living Dead'. Using the word 'they' makes an audience feel there is a group of villains. This also uses Barthes enigma codes to make the audience question who is waiting and what they're waiting for.

The tagline for 'Sinister' suggests the villain is male. The 'nothing can save you' part indicates that the male is powerful enough to make a character disappear. The definition of sinister is giving the impression that something harmful or evil is happening or will happen, the tagline helps reflect the title of the movie. It seems as if something evil will happen, the word nothing just shows how their will possibly be minimal survivors and the male villain will make sure of this.
The tagline for Psycho reflects the most famous scene of the movie. The tagline makes it seem like such a positive thing. Check in gives the film location away as it sounds like a hotel. Using the word 'relax' makes it seem stress free and not like the horror genre but once you watch the movie, you discover that by Marion Crane taking a shower, she is stabbed to death by the villain.
The tagline for 'The Return' puts emphasis on someone coming back for revenge. It sounds like someone has died but has come back to kill the people involved. The tagline links in with the title as it shows someone is returning and they will return for murder.
The tagline for 'Jessabelle' makes an audience see that dead has been awakened and is coming back and they aren't leaving. This will attract an audience to find out why they will be staying for life and why they've even come back in the first place.

The tagline for 'The Unborn' suggests that the villain will stop at nothing to get its way. The word anything shows that they fear no consequence and want to live for a long time. The tagline for 'Hide And Seek' fits well with the title. The tagline is that of the hide and seek game that people say when they finish hiding. Little kids normally play hide and seek and it's not considered dangerous but the movie being the horror genre makes it seem as though something bad will happen. The film producers have taken something good and turned it bad. Lastly the tagline for 'Drag Me To Hell' uses the rule of three to promote the good lifestyle that the main character lives. It wouldn't seem like a horror movie if "Christine Brown had a good job, a great boyfriend and a bright future" was read alone but when the last line of the tagline is added it becomes more sinister. Her lifespan has dramatically decreased and she doesn't appear to have the picture perfect lifestyle that was being portrayed in the first sentence. Hell is supposedly a place for evil people so now the audience may think of Christine Brown as the evil one. Three days is precise so this would make an audience wonder why her life essentially has an expiration date.

Comparing Final Poster To The One Before

The poster on the left is the final poster that I ended with, the poster on the right is the poster that I designed before I added some final changes. The changes are removing the full stop from 'dies', enlarging the release date, changing the font of the credits, making the 15 certificate smaller and adding company logos. The reason I removed the full stop was because it's not conventional to have the full stop at the end of a tagline. I researched some horror posters and this was uncommon to see. I gained some audience feedback on whether it would look better without it, and majority of my audience found that it would look better. I showed them before and after images so that they could see the comparison and they found the tagline should be left without a full stop as it looked better and they hadn't really seen it on other movie posters. The reason I enlarged the release date was because I felt it was too small. It didn't sit right on top of her hair and the more I looked at the poster, the more I released that I didn't notice the release date. I want the audience to acknowledge the date that the movie would be released on as it's conventional to have the release date on the movie poster. I changed the fonts of the credits because the text being in bold and that long took attention away from the rest of the poster as it's the first thing that was noticed. Normally credits aren't that long so I wanted to shorten it which is what I did on the final poster. It's less dark and looks more like normal credits from an actual movie poster. Also that font wouldn't be used on a movie poster, but the font used on the final movie poster would be more likely to be found on one. My group and I got the font off of Dafont rather than use a normal font that was in Photoshop. I wanted the poster to look as realistic as possible. I made the 15 certificate smaller to make space to fit the company logos. I incorporated the company logos because its conventional to have them on movie posters. It made the movie posters look more official and real.

Comparing Flat Plan Of Magazine Cover To The Final Magazine Cover

The flat plan of the magazine cover is similar to that of the final magazine cover. It doesn't have as much changes to it as the film poster and the flat plan of it did. The title of the film and the tagline associated with the film are both at the bottom which is how the flat plan illustrated that it would look. The barcode has remained on the left hand side of the magazine. I've done some research into the layout of magazine covers and I looked at different magazine covers, the barcode usually goes where it's best suited on the magazine cover and for the magazine cover it is best suited on the left hand corner as text fills up all the other spaces. The plug and teaser are on the left hand side which is where it was on the flat plan. The plug gives more information on the cover lines and in this case it does, it's saying there will be a special interview which links with the bit beneath which says 'Dawn Gallant & her fears. It's clear that the interview will be with Dawn Gallant which will divulge in her fears. Fears are closely associated with the horror genre, the audience are meant to feel a sense of fear when watching horror movies, this is also how characters in horror films will feel as well as they may fear the villain.

Conventionally on magazine covers the name of the main actor is featured which is what has appeared on my magazine cover. Dawn is the name of the person of the main image and is the main actor. The sub-title and texts have remained in the same place on the right hand side of the cover which is shown on the flat plan. The flat plan has been accurate to how the final magazine cover has come out. The magazine slogan has stayed underneath the title in small font, the font size is appropriate as its not the main focus of the magazine. The main image was drawn to show where the blood would be placed on her face, body and clothes. The changes that have been made are only small changes. The blood splatter in the flat plan has shifted from putting it on the end of the Empire and moving it to on top of the 'M' and also making the blood splatter bigger. The only other change that has been made is that the cost and issue date have been moved from above the 'M' to underneath 'E' of the masthead. This change came to allow the blood splatter to go on top of the 'M' and make the issue date and cost a little less hidden. It helped cover the blank space that was there.

Comparing Flat Plan Of Film Poster To The Final Film Poster

On the left is the final film poster and on the right is the flat plan of how I thought the film poster would turn out. There have been several changes that I made from the flat plan that I drew out compared to the actual finished film poster. The positioning of the title 'The Chain' has stayed In exactly the same place. This was done as the title of the film is meant to be the biggest text out of all the texts on the poster. Having the title at the top of the poster drew more attention to it, if I put the title at the bottom of the movie it would've been unconventional as that's where the credits usually go. Even if I had put the title above the credits, the title wouldn't of been the main focus and it would've got lost amongst the release date and the credits. The release date for the film has moved positions. After playing around with positioning's of where all the texts should go, I felt as though the release date looked better being at the bottom of the poster. It's quite large font and in red which draws attention to it. I have kept the colour scheme of the texts the same, putting the most important texts in red. The typography is important when creating a movie poster as it's what draws the audience in. The tagline of the movie 'EVIL NEVER DIES' has changed position as well. I moved it from the bottom in the left hand corner to below the title of the film. The decision to do this was because I didn't think it was placed correctly at the bottom, when creating the poster on Photoshop, the placement of the main image made it hard to put any text on either side, the white from the tagline would've blended in with her top as well so it was the best decision to move it to the top. The same fonts were used on the release date, title of the film and the tagline to make them all link, they also had links to the fonts used on the magazine front cover.

 

 Instead of having the 15 rating on the right hand side, I moved it to the left hand side so that it could be joined with company logos. Company logos are conventional to have on a film poster so I incorporated those in. I felt it looked better to have all the graphics in one corner rather than having some logos on the left and some on the right. I wanted the poster to have a simplistic layout and I feel the changes I made have made the layout more simple. I've kept the credits in exactly the same place as it is on the flat plan because on nearly all film posters the credits are at the bottom of the poster. Before I didn't know which roles belonged to who in my group but once I knew the roles it made it easier for me to type out the credits and finalise the film poster. The main image has stayed exactly how I wanted it to, it's of the villain holding the chain, the colours are the same and I wanted an image of the villain holding the chain rather than one without her holding the chain. The image would've looked too similar to that of the magazine cover if she didn't hold a chain. As I wanted the magazine cover, horror trailer and film poster to all connect, the chain was the perfect thing to bring them all together as it's part of the narrative. The chain is a symbolic which related to Barthes enigma codes: the semantic code and symbolic code as the chain symbolizes the dead and foreshadows events that will take place.

Magazine Front Cover Flat Plan

 

This is the magazine front cover flat plan. This flat plan illustrates where everything will go on the layout. The layout will have conventions of a magazine cover. For example the typical conventions of a magazine cover that have been included on the flat plan are: Main image, masthead, barcode, plug, slogans, colour scheme, date and price, website, cover lines/taglines, feature article, variety of fonts on the cover and sell lines.

 

The colour scheme for the magazine front cover and the film poster is black, white and red. These are typical colours that are associated with the horror genre and are mostly seen on the magazine cover and movie posters.  The masthead will help the audience know what magazine we have gone for, the masthead is usually at the top of the magazine so we have decided to put it at the top to conform to how a magazine is usually layed out. We decided to choose Empire over Total Film. The decision to choose Empire magazine was because I did some research and found that it is the biggest selling film magazines in the UK. Total Film is the second biggest selling film magazine so we decided to go with the one which was bigger meaning they'd have more of an audience. The font colours will vary between red, black and white, putting the most important texts in red to make it appeal to the audience. Barcodes are typical of a magazine cover, it's what lets the audience know that it's an actual magazine, its able to be sold. My group and I decided to have the tagline on both the magazine cover and the film poster. This isn't common to have but we wanted to put emphasis on the narrative and let the audience know that death is involved which again is a big convention for the horror genre. The colour scheme helps create a recognisable house-style. The main image will consist of Dawn giving direct address. I think the main image should be of Dawn looking directly at the camera as it would look as though Dawn is staring at the audience, as it's a horror magazine and she's covered in blood this could be more creepy. Having a variety of fonts will allow the magazine to look more interesting. The same font for the title of the film will be used on both the magazine cover and the film poster. The plugs will give more information on the cover lines being used.

Flat Plan For Film Poster

 

This was the flat plan that I produced for the film poster. The title of the film is at the top of the poster and it's in red. The reason I chose red was because there is blood involved in my horror trailer and I thought it would stand out on a black background. I put the date February 14th to illustrate the release date. I thought it would look good having the release date underneath the title to add emphasis on the trailer itself. The image that I drew was of Dawn, I made the flat plan after I took test shots for the poster. I chose to go with an image of her holding a chain as the chain was a big focal point in my trailer. The chain links with the narrative as the chain is the reason why the dead has been awakened.  I drew the villain with cuts and blood on her face as this is the mise-en scene we used to create a death look. The blood on her clothes I put on as I saw where the blood went on the clothes after seeing the costumes used for the villain. I took the test shots then I analysed the images so it would make it easier to draw. I have drawn the chain as I thought it would look best to have the chain on the actual poster. I put the tagline at the bottom as it was directly next to the villain which would link and show how the villain is the evil one. I put the credits on the bottom of the poster as this is a typical convention of a movie poster: having the credits at the bottom of the poster. I haven't written out the credits as my group and I are still deciding which roles go to who. I put the 15 BBFC on the poster to show the age range the trailer was suitable for. My target audience was 15-20 year olds so having the 15 certificate on it just reinforced my target audience I wanted to attract to view the trailer. I like the layout of the poster from what I've drawn on the flat plan, its simplistic and all attention goes on the main image and the title of the film. The tagline seems bigger than the title but on the real poster I will make the title bigger as it's conventional of a movie poster to have the title as the biggest text on the poster.