Evaluation question 2

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

• There are a number of different ways in which the combination has been effective in creating continuity between our texts. However i also think that there could be further elements to create a greater effect.
• 
  
  The image on our poster is of a male wearing a hoody holding a knife about to stab the female central protagonist, but his facial identity is hidden which creates a narrative enigma, this develops to an image of Ben (Ben  Crossley) wearing a hoody but this time holding a phone on the magazine front cover, therefore the audience will draw conclusion that because there is continuity between the two anxcillary texts of a male in a hoody standing in a similar stance (as they're both holding something) we therefore know the killer is Ben. This works in well with the film teaser trailer which anchors this idea with Ben being talked about as paranoid and then spying on his girlfriend in the same hoody to connote him as the killer, which is what we want the audience to think, therefore we accomplish the false sencse of security that we know who our killer is until the big reveal that the killer wasnt Ben all along but Lewis (Ben Illif) whose one of Caties friends who she tutors, this unerves shocks the audience.
  
  
• 
  
  We were able to connote this as you never see an image which includes Bens identity (his face) and hands holding a weapon in the same image, either his face is scene or a figure in a hoody holding a knife, the hoody is the costume/propp that keeps continuity between each causing you to think hes the killer further anchored through dialogue, this also helps to leave a little mystery which is emphacised as shock in the audience when the true killer is revealed.
  
  

• 
  
  The images on the poster connote both violence and sex, from the signifiers of a hooded male with a knife and a naked gril in the shower, these factors link into the BBFC rating  of '15' which we have given to our teaser trailer and the film if it was made for the reasons of it including scenes of a sexual nature and intentional violence without humour as described for a 15 BBFC classification rating, which is the national governing body for films released foror public consumption in the UK and Northern Ireland, and also because we researched similar horror films within this genre and found the majority to also be classified a 15, such as 'Prom Night'.  Below are two rough cuts, the first shows a scene which can be construed to have a sexual natue including mild nudity {the female in the bath is not actually naked but wearing a bikini and then covered by bubbles as she was not yet 18 and yet we had hers and her parents consent to film} and the second is of intended injury as a result of violence.
  
  

(sexual nature/mild nudity)

(violence)

• The poster also links into the film as although being inspired through the iconic shower killing image of 'Psycho', its also has been used to connote a horror film with female deaths, this is one of the key conventions of horror and so was used in our film trailer. The Magazine does the same but with the convention of a male killer being used and incorporated into both our magazines main image and film teaser trailer.
• All the characters are carfully arranged on the poster in a group around the killers knife the denotation of this is that they're the vitims creating more of a narrative enigma to who the killer really is, Ellie is at the top of the pyramid shape of characters nearest to the girl in the shower, to help connote to the audience the girl is her and that shes the central protagonist.

• After audience feedback we realised the less educated reader of a media text ie(general public) may not understand the concept that the victim is stood in the shower, so we took many pictures of shower heads chose one and cut, re-sie and rotated it to fit into the poster on 'Adobe Photoshop'.
• Our film logo also fits into the theme of bathrooms whilst kept simple, we used the letters 'A' and 'J' to make an arrow shape which links to media being full of connections whilst also applying to us as theyre the letters of our first names, the object of a different shower head was also added to link into the poster and manipulted to compliment the letters through the process'Filter-artistic-neon glow' when added it looked more of a complete shower, becomeing more of a phalic object which is commonly used in horror films, also tapping into the ideology of patriarchacl society commonly accpeted as the dominant ideology, and in this one too as the killer is the one with control and is a male, until the end when the funal female finally escapes although the male has still ruined her life and murdered all her friend hence has the control.

• We added water drops, as when consulting audience eedback we discoverd it was such a simple shape that it was quite unidentifiable as a symbol of a shower head intertextually linked from 'Psycho', the drops we did in a darker blue to connote the darker aspect of our film, ie that we're a film production company which specialises in horror films, this logo was then added to our teaser trailer, poster and magazine to help create continuity between the three.
• To make the anxcillary tasks of  a magazine and poster work even better with our final product of a teaser trailer, we could have increased the continuitythrough colour for example although we already used the commonly used tints for horror which are yellow for the poster, blue in the magazine and both in the teaser trailer, it may have been better to use just one of these colours throughout as the audience may have found it easier to draw connections to them, however we had chosen to do it this way through research e.g 'Prom Night's poster has a yellow tint and the DVD front cover uses blue and yet they still have the link of red text and used the same tagline on both, which is what we did.

• Another way in which we could improve the effectivenes of the combination of ancillary texts and teaser trailer would be to have the central image on each, of the central protagonist which is Catie a female. I feel this would keep more continuity when linking them into the film, and would establish her better as the central protagonist, however we used the images due tp research of other horror films in that not all but most would have a male killer on the front, because it better establishes the genre of the film. such as 'Friday the 13th' and 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'.

Evaluation question 4

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

• 
  
  Since producing the animatic which was used to plan our film trailer and to pitch it to our target to make sure it worked and attracted them, there are a diverse range of areas where I feel I have progressed and improved in. These include areas in directing, editing and cinematography. I’ve furthered my knowledge in shot sequencing especially since last year on the programme Imovie6, as Final-Cut is much more versatile which enables me to achieve smoother shot sequencing, meaning I inevitably found easier to cut edit effortlessly which meant I could accomplish invisible editing, whilst still producing fast pace clips during the montage to scare and keep the audiences attention, and have a slower beginning to build tension and establish the narrative. In the animatic we used a lot of title slides and some transitions which made it a little disjointed, despite providing good establishment of narrative, also still images were used for the anamatic from a digital camera which made the animatic look as if it had lots of jump cuts, this looked unprofessional and would seem to distract the audience, which is not what’s wanted in a horror film as the audience attention must be gripped to a specific point; which is why a common convention of horror films is that the mise-en-scene must be kept uncluttered and purposeful. In our final production however we were able to choose transitions to make the film run smoothly and appear professional. Although we only used simple cuts, this was chosen for a reason, this being that it fitted with the conventions of the genre.
  
  

• Although Final-Cut is much more versatile than imovie6, with its many more tools, filters, transitions, effects and applications it can still be a little difficult to navigate and a bit time consuming, in making sure all the clips and sound are cut in the same place.In addition there is not a huge area to see the timeline on, as oppose to Imovie 6 where all clips are clearly and largely seen weather being used or not, however Final-Cut is very precise seems to be much more advanced than Imovie6.
• I also advanced my knowledge in the use a SONY camcorder; where by I demonstrated my practical skills in cinematography. I have shot a number of different framings, angles and movements. Through the animatic and rough cut for my film, trailer, I have been able to develop my skills in each of these three areas. I have learnt how to use the camcorder to more precision whilst also developing my own skill and innovation away from the screenplay in both angles and framing's. The main areas I have improved with the camcorder are in zooms, pans and tilts (movements). When shooting both the animatic and rough cut I found that I always made these shots quite jerky which would distract the audience. In our final production I had become more competent with the technology and found that I was able to shoot each of these to appear steady and smooth, however still being purposely jerky when I needed to be; for example the camera movement would need to be a little jerky in zooms and stalking scenes of the victims, to give the point of view of the murderer which makes the audience feel as if they’re really there more, and also to feel more empathy with the victims as it scares the audience more.
• 
  
  We have used a digital camera this year to take images of our cast, propps location etc whihc we uploaded via a lead to our blogs, we feel this is a much quicker way of getting our picture onto the blog than using the scanner like last year.
  
  
• 
  
  To research films we used websites such as IMDB, play and the search engine Google, out of these I found IMDB to be the most helpful as it included lots of information about every film which was cleverly layed out in easy to find sections and links includng characters images/names/information, plots and even trailers it also gave information about similar films, prequels , sequels, sppoffs and re-makes, this made our research much simpler and more acessible to navigate.
  
  
• For most people a daily visit to the internet is normal especially with incresed use of social networking websites such as Bebo, Facebook and the recent 2 year boom of Twitter.'According to research by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, movie trailers rank third in popularity among the 10bn videos viewed online every year, after news and user-created video.' (from website)
• 
  
  This has been further advanced with the growth of viral marketing, in which movie trailers are cleverly used to target their audience either as a climax, launchpad or campaign. For example 'Cloverfield' (JJ Abrams) which was released in july 2007, this trailer was shown in  American cinemas before the huge blockbuster; 'Tansformers' this trailer manipulated footage of people running and screaming in New York city with explosions to give the effect of it being filmed with a normal camcorder as a home movie, which incorporated a lot of jerky movements to make the audience feel as if they were really there in a realistic world and also  because it was so jerky and was only seen through one set of eyes it left the audience in much suspnse only bits of scenes could be seen.
  
  

• 
  
  Due to re-shoots and more footage needing to be taken than just a short film would need, as a full length feature film must be established and advertised within 90 seconds, we encountered a few problems such as our camera/tape malfunctioning half way through meaning we had to change them to a newer version of Sony cam-corder, and because unfortunately the window to see what’s playing is so small on ‘Final-Cut’ as opposed to the near full-screen on Imovie6, we were unable to see the various shoots being shot on various settings, however we feel it isn’t that noticeable or detractable for the audience, never the less if we had done it again it would of course all been on the same setting of ‘standard 4:3 or wide screen 16:9’. Below is an example of each setting to illustrate the difference, the difference however is much more subtle on the trailer as it uses only short takes.
  
  

Standard 4:3

Widescreen 16:9

• As this year we used more programmes with the soundtrack as well as ‘Dance Ejay’ there was a ‘keyboard’ and ‘Cubase’ where the sounds were incorporated together, these media technologies were new to us meaning some of our louder drum beats are mostly all meant to be incidental on actions or murders to emphasise them to the audience increasing tension and shock felt, however not all of them are exactly right and may be a tiny bit off, although still being quite effective if we’d had more time and knowledge of the software used for soundtrack we would have made sure that the sound was a little bit tighter and clean cut.

• Our voice-over was quite well heard as it was recorded right next to the camera, however sound wasn’t as clear when the two female characters were talking we liked this idea and partly purposely chose not to use the boom microphone apart from not having a means of transport for the expensive equipment, as ambient sound was achieved and is a part of everyday life meaning it creates verisimilitude for the audience, making the film all the more real to them as the sound in the background of the film is the same as in their lives.
• Final-Cut also helped with the sound problem as we could lightly adjust the soundtrack sound down, and the dialogue up so to clearly hear both without any huge noticeable dips and dives in volume, to distract the audience, the soundtrack volume being ever so slightly lower also connotes that the dialogue being exchanged must be very important and crucial for establishment of film narrative.

• To upload my final film and rough cuts onto my blog i used a website called Photobucket which i signed myself an accont upto and uploaded thses chosen clips to from Final-Cut and Imovie6 in school, meaning i could access them on any computer with internet access, this made it asier to complete my coursework as i could add a clip as and when needed and didnt have to be at school to do so, which meant all my blogging didnt need to be done at school. This was very helpful.
• To do my media corsework write up essays i used the new technologie of a blog on the website Blogger. I found this to be easy, simple to use and mostly reliable however it had its faults for example saving a post which included a video clip didnt seem to work as a result of form errors as did my post on 'genre research and intertextual links' which i had to make a new post for in order to work, also when thevideo ws first uploaded on half of the screen could be seen on my actual blog, i therefore think tht the space for writting uploading images videos etc should be of the same measurements as whats seen on the blo, as my purposeful layout was lost when published as a much larger space had been shown when editing, this was most unhelpful.
• We also used the combined technology of a 'vodcast' to effectively help evaluate our work, it worked well as a vodcast is the combination of a podcast and a video, meaning as we evaluated our work using a voice-over recoreder we were able to demonstrate visually with images and film stills at the same time.

Evaluation question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?


After taking some initial sample scenes we had substantial audience feedback from our media class. We chose to use our media class for audience feedback as they fit in well to the traget audience, which was youth both male and female, so felt audience feedback from them would be the most effectively helpful. They suggested more footage to be taken to help establish the narrative as it wasnt always clear as the preferred reading after watching the sample scene. From this i discovered even though we were producing a film trailer it would still need a sustantial number of shots all of which including coverage to help ditinguish the narrative more clearly. After our re-shoot we obtained more audience feedback, such as at the beginning of our trailer we filmed some long shots of social events, w edecided to shoot one of the social events to be the group of girls talking in a bedroom, with focus on two of the characters, Catie (Sarah) and Lisa (Hannah) having a personal conversation which helped to establish the narrative of the film more clearly, as well as creating a situation for the audience to feel emapathy for the central protagonist.






The audience feedback was to break this clip up and have some of the quicker, shorter shots inbetween in where Ben (Ben C) is walking into the garden, to spy on Catie. From this we learnt how to create more tension and suspense throughout the film trailer, also to break the clip up using the razor tool, as it was a fairly long clip and would get boring and monotomous for the audience to watch in one, but with these fast shots inamongst it gave the clip a bit of an edge, creating something different whilst sticking to common codes and conventions of teaser trailers. The clips below and above this paragraph are the two shots we cut up and merged together intermitently as a result of audience feedback.







During the second half of our trailer we have three main killings,the film trailer then ends with the killer stood behind Catie (Sarah) with a knife followed by a shot of Catie's reaction. The audience feedback to this change was possibly to copy the killing scenes and cut them so they were really fast short montage shots and then place them inbetween the two end shots. After activley taking the decision to do this, we found it worked very effectivley. From the audience feedback i learnt that through a film trailer the genre and breif plot must be established of the film, so that the audience are well informed but not too much so that they dont want to watch the film to find out the ending, this kept the audience in suspense as they don't know if Catie(Sarah) will eventually be killed or not as the trailer ends on a cliffhanger. (below are two of killings before being cut)




After taking the few shots of our last killing of Caties best friend Lisa (Hannah) we had some very useful audience feedback, The feedback was that the shots were too a littledark and the scene too cluttered which may divert the audiences attention away from the main focus (character) in shot, however that it was a good intertextual link to have DVD's on the floor where Lisa was watching tv from the film 'Scream' as Drew Barrymore famously confess's to her killer shes going to watch a scray movie which prophetically seals her fate of death, our re-creation of this therefore was having the DVD's on the floor whilst alreay watching tv in the dark, which also made her look more vulnerable. From this audience feedback i've learnt when taking footage, lighting plays a vital part especially in horror films and sometimes you may need more light than you actually think, also that the locations should be as simple and clear as possible which helps to enable the main focus is on the desired action taking place. Lisas killing is shown below (before it was cut)





After we screened our rough cut to other pupils who are the same age of our primary target audience (which is the youth audience), we decided to take some more footage to establish that Ben (Ben Crossley) was one of the clear suspects as a killer, as feedback was that this was essential in the trailer to engrain into the audiences heads that Bens the killer meaning, that when the twist of him not being the killer was revealed it would be an even bigger twist surprise to the audience. (the shot to establish Ben as the prime suspect is below)

We went through various stages with our poster. We started off with a main image which, after adding the billing block, reviews and BBFC rating we recived audience feedback that communicated it would be a good idea to incorporate some more pictures and blend them in with our main image. After some consideration we thought we should add small pictures of each of the six main characters in the corner of the poster just to establish to the audience who the main characters are. From this audience feedback i've realised to produce an effective poster it should incorporate a number of different images and that you need to establish some sort of narrative to the audience through the poster, but still be kept quite simple so nt to get cluttered.

We originally had two reviews on our poster, both of which were from tabloid newspapers, which were 'The Star' and the 'The Sun'. The audience feedback on these reviews was that because our film was to be a low budget film we should probably include a review from a magazine that was involved with low budget films, it would also target a wider audience as not only tabloid reader were likly to trust our film to be good but also film magazines as well, therefore appearing more reliable to the audience. As a result we used 'Fangoria'. This audience feedback showed me it as well as using a mainstream established company as a reviewer it also good to link it specifically to the genre somehow, as people who read those sorts of magazines etc are more likley to be interested in our film than general public.
To incorporate this idea we included films such as ‘The Shining’ and ‘Psycho’ which are both famous horror films, and also used another horror film magazine; ‘Fangoria’ as one of the reviewers, these small but significant extra factors helped tremendously to establish this was a magazine about horror films, and was a descent one as it talked about reliable film and reviewer names.

The first time we attempted our magazine we took inspiration from film magazines such as ‘Sky’, which is why our original image for our magazine front cover was of three of the main characters, Catie (Sarah), Ben (Ben C) and Lewis (Ben I), stood smiling together as if they were on a promotional photoshoot. However because our film is a low budget horror film; after recieving some audience feedback that considering the film is the genre of horror, the characters look very happy, so we decided to use an image from the trailer as a still. Which was of Ben the; suspected killer as we panned up to his face in a hoody, after he receives a text, meaning his facial expressions would be quite creepy.

After we placed this on the magazine front cover we received some more audience feedback and they said that the picture was too dark as was the magazine front cover. After some discussions we went away and re-took the image with a digital camera, making sure we had enough light, by taking it on an early winter morning which also ensured that there was a blue tinted sky behind him which is a convention of horror films, and also helped to illuminate the image a little further, attracting customers further to it. From this audience feedback I’ve learnt that lighting is a very important factor as it can make people feel a certain way or come to a different conclusion even the establishment of film genre, especially as what you see on your camera may be completely different to what you see on your computer screen. I have also learnt that you should associate the genre of your film to the magazine (E.G. If the genre of your film is horror, advertise it in a horror film magazine)

This is the original image used for our final magazine which we manipulated using the programme Photoshop, and took using a digital camera

Evaluation question 1

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

In our media product we have used developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products. Making it a post-modern media text as we've recycled old ideas of horror films into the way we percieve and design them in new ways, thus making our text still original and creative as no 2 people would have made the exact same film with the same research.From our research we found that often in Horror films there are four main stereotypical characters which can be found inmany horror films such as John Carpenters 'halloween' and Nelson McCormick's 'Prom Night'. This use of real media products is particuarlyshown in the stereotypical 'Final Girl' which includes characteristics of; intelligence, and brunette hair, also signs of trouble are always far more apparent to them, the 'Final Girl' usually finds the corpses of her friends which alerts her to the danger that encases her. She is also usually quite  innocent, we called her character name Catie which means pure, juxtaposed to her best friend whos blonde, busty and a bit more of a 'slut' a 'scream queen', which is intertextually linked to the the 'scream queen' in 'Donkey Punch' whos also blonde busty and therefore sexually active, we also gave our 'scream queen' the same name, shes also killed first. This binary opposition is a common convention of horror films and helps to anchor to the audience quickly and effectively the genre of our film which is of corse horror. These two female stareotype are confirmed through the images of the female central protagonist who play the finla girl in Halloween 'Jamie-Lee Curtis', and the loose blonde who plays a scream queen in Hell Night 'Jenny Neumann'

We also intertextually the character type of our male characters ie the popular male (Ben) with a girlfriend is sporty so has a 'jock' type figure, juxtaposed to his almost enemy (Lewis) who has a slimmer body and more 'geeky' looking appearance.

This convention is clearly shown in films such as Hell Night, Scream and Halloween, as demonstrated in the images shown we took alot of consideration into our cast and their costume; to best connote the ideology of stereotypical characters in horror films by followingthe typical conventions of them.

We have also used forms and conventions of the plot/narrative; from films such as 'Prom Night' where the killer murders the main female central protagonist's friends before he gets to her which is what we did in our film, this is almost like the killer is getting closer and closer to her, which also links into the title of our film 'Think Closer'.

Despite using many of the codes and conventions of a fillm teaser trailer we made the less mainstream version of a teaser trailer in that we our trailer has; lots of clips to establish the plot and communicate the genre to the audience, as we were inspired by the effectiveness of the teaser trailer for 'Valentine' more traditional teaser trailers are simple so not too much of the film is given away, with lots of establishing dialogue, we develop this by using lots of shots giving lots of information not necasarily in the right order so to keep a narrative enigma, but to give the audience a sense of the film itself, whilst supplementing the begining a little with one shot of speech so the audience isnt left completly bewildered, this clip was cut up into three on 'Final-cut' using the razor tool and used intermittentantly which also helped to establish the key characters, film genre and breif plot through use of prophetic language, ie that Catie saying her boyfriend is a bit paranoid and that she doesnt know whats going to happen automatically seals her fate that something bad will happen, this is a coomon convention of horror film teaser trailers; that a false sense of security is briefly established then taken away which un-nerves the audience also enhancing the drama of the film.

Our media product also uses forms and conventions from 'Valentine' where one of Catie's friends is murdered in a bath and one of the characters from 'Valentine' played by Denise Richards is killed in a hot tub, however we did develop this convention because we used a bath instead of a hot tub due to the fact we were not able to find a hot tub in time for shooting and we felt a bath would provide more verisimilitude and be further intertextually linked to the shower killing scene from ‘Psycho’, however to use the convention from ‘Valentine’ further we made sure the female in the bath had the same colour brunette hair of Denise Richards in the film and who would most closely look like her out of our female cast.

We have also developed the intertextual link from 'Psycho' of the famous shower scene, by having one of our killings also in the bathroom but developed it by the female victim to be a long haired brunette instead of a short haired blonde and in a more vulnerable position by having a bath instead of a shower making it easier for the killer, and ensure making it a more dramatic scene as if she doeant die from the stabbings she'll die from drowning.

We also incorporated this idea into our logo by adding a running shower in our logo to symbolise flowing blood from the phalic object lettering and the intertextually linked shower head, it was furthermore used in our film poster as the main scene in the background is a blurred image of the central female protagonist having a shower with the murderer stood behind the glass with a knife in a stabbing motion, it was again intergrated into our magazine front cover as one of the runing clips on the film strip at the bottom was a still from our film of the bath killing, as this would be the most likely link used in a real life situation as the magazine would'nt be produce by the same company as the teaser trailer, poster and logo but is till very effective especially when all combined together, this running theme in our film and ancillary tasks helps to keep the continuity of our coursework helping them to interlink into eachther easily. (below is our part of our developed version of the shower scene in a bath before being cut and without the killing added)

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We challenged the common convention of horror, in that the stereotypical killer is usually a male who is both physically and visually intimidating (Thomas Hewitt, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) . These characters often even before they are revealeved transmit an air of unease through their manner and actions. They often also hide their face with a mask or have or have some form of deformation (Michael Myers, Halloween and Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th). However we decided to challenge this by casting our actual killer to be a harmless male friend, who isnt intimidating but geeky, has a skinny frame and not many friends, but still a nice boy to the audience, we decided this idea would be effective as, this character creates a false sense of security for the audience, meaning that when his true identity as the killer is revealed its a huge surprise making the audience doubt anyones honesty.

However we did choose to use the suspected killer of Ben Crossley on the front of our magazine front cover, as he's a rugby player so is broad built and would be seen to be intimidating by wearing a big dark hoody, as he took up most of the image it made him seem visualy more intimidating, and when combined by the tinted blue sky in the bcakground helped further identify the genre or horror, as this tint is a common convention of horror media products.

We have also challenged another convention of horror which is not to include an authority figure in our film, despite being presant in most horror flms such as 'Last Houe On The Left', 'Prom Night' and 'Halloween' which feature the prime authority figure of family ie parent, aunties , uncles and police.

We chose to do this because in my opinion and from observational research i have conducted, i think that parents have a much smaller role in the lives of teenagers today. Therefore our horror film will be easier for our target audience of youth to relate to it today as its more similar to thier lives.

Final Cut

Permission slips

• We got all of our actress's and actors to sign this image rights document, including their parents as they were all under 18 years old, to confirm we had permission to photograph, videotape, and record themselves for  our Media Studies coursework production, begining 1st September 2009 and ending 10th January 2009.
  

Permission Image Rights A2 Copy

Production schedule

Test Footage: Friday 6th November

Shooting of Killings (Day 1): Thursday 12th and Friday 13th November

Shooting (Day 2): Monday 16th November

Shooting (Day 3): Monday 23rd November (final shooting day)