Lucy Hutchinson
Candidate Number- 6289
Centre Name- JFK School
Centre Number- 17131
Miss Korving

Poster:

Link for trailer on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAyIramTOXo

Website:

Evaluation

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

Website:

Poster:

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

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback? In class, we shared our trailers, posters and websites with our classmates/target audience and asked for good and bad points of the products. This feedback helped us with creating our trailers as it allowed us to understand our target audience a lot better, and to make sure our products reflected that. Below i created a collage to show the good/bad comments i received from my classmates/target audience to help me with my website design. After these comments i was then able to change specific elements of my website to help it connect with the target audience better. I then did the same for my Poster.

I also posted my poster on facebook - a social networking site, and asked my friends on facebook to give me feedback of what worked and what didn't on my poster. I recieved good and bad points, which helped me with my poster, as there were a few parts of it i was then able to change.

Finally, i asked for feedback on my trailer at 2 stages: One where we were half way through creating our trailer and the next when we had nearly finished the trailer. Our classmates viewed the first stage of the trailer and this is the feedback we got:

Good:

- "The ending of the trailer was really effective with the pulsating hand, as it helped tell the audience the genre, and looked very gorey and real!"

- "The scene where the girl is walking through the corridor helps tell the story well, and also helps reach out to the target audience. The music goes really well with this scene as the change in pitch and sound effects reflects the mood of the scene/story and again helps tell the story to the audience well"

- "The door slamming effect at the end of the trailer fits really well with the imagery, however it could be scarier!"t

- "I like the scene at the begining of the film where the girls are getting ready in one of their rooms. This shot is effective as it sets the overall mood of the film and gives it a modern effect as you don't necesaary see this in all horror films"

- "The shot where the girls are running up the lane with the tourch, reflects the horror genre well, especially when it feels as if someone is walking up behind them, scary!"

Bad:

- "However, the trailer is too short compared to professional trailers"

- "The individual pictures at the beginning of the trailer take to long to upload, this needs to be much faster, or you could even use a collage/montage instead which would look more effective"

- "One suggestion on the scene in the corridor and the close up of the poster, would be to add a voiceover of a missing news report. This would give the audience an idea of what's happening, as well as adding to the 'mystery' that lies within in film/trailer

- "Include voice-overs when the graphics appear, for example on the 'everything' writing scene"

- "The talking at the beginning scene is not effective enough"

We received good and bad feedback, although the feedback was very constructive, as we were able to talk about and understand peoples views on our trailer whether they were good or bad. The feedback was extremely useful, as our classmates reflected our target audience, so listening to their feedback helped us when further editing the trailer.

After finishing our trailer, we then decided to film our feedback on a camera recorder. We filmed groups of people talking about what they liked and didnt like about our trailer after watching it and their overall opinion on the film - including whether or not they'd like to watch it etc. We filmed one of our groups in our class as they were representative for our target audience.

I then recorded 4 individuals at my other school - this worked more effectively as they had never seen the trailer before - therefore they could give me their honest opinion on what they thought about the effectiveness etc of the trailer

I then uploaded and merged the videos together onto Youtube.

Follow the link below if trouble with media player:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9OmW2C-GKN4

Finally, we uploaded our trailer onto Youtube - a video sharing website. We then posted this on Facebook to our targeted audience, and asked for feedback on the trailer (e.g what they thought of it). Here are some of the comments we received:

- "Ewww the bit at the end with the hand is horrible! didn't expect that"

- "AH i want to see it!! make it a film :)"

- "Oooo the hand bit creeped me out!"

- "So good, well done girls :)"

- "the music is so good! i want to watch the whole film now haha"

Below is an example of the 'likes' and comments, an hour after we uploaded the video to Facebook.

Overall I learned a great deal by feedback. I mainly learnt what could be improved in order for my trailer to fit well and comply within my target audience. I also learnt what was good about our trailer originally which showed i had applied my skills well within the task.

I was extremely happy with my final products as i felt i had listened to feedback and used it constructively to improve my products in order to gain the interest of my target audience.

Although if i were to do the trailer again, i would change only a few aspects of the trailer. If i had more time for the task, i would make my trailer a lot longer, as i felt ours was a little too short. I would also change some of the camera angles and included more of a variety of 'unusual' shots which are predominately used throughout horror/scary films.

Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages? New media technologies: New media technology is any type of application meant to transfer information via digital techniques, computerized systems or data networks. The most prevalent examples of new media technologies include Internet-based concepts like websites or digital mediums such as CD-ROMs and DVDs. When creating my trailer I used avariety of new media technology. Without the technology I would not have been able to research, design and create my trailer. On my trailer I used:

1) A Laptop 2) Movie (Computer Programme) 3) Photoshop (Computer Programme) 4) Internet - (Youtube, Facebook, IMDB etc) 5) ITunes 6) Camera Recorder 7) Camera Tripod 8) Microphone 1) The laptop I used was one of the main pieces of new media technology along with the camera recorder. The laptop allowed me to access specific vital programmes such as Imovie and Photoshop as spoken about below. The computer allowed me to store my clips of my trailer from my camera via USB port. I was able to organise and store my work ready to put it together with my group.

2) Imovie is a programme that came withmy computer software. Imovie allows you to create trailer/films by adding in your own clips from your camera, and then allows you to edit it to specifically how you want it. Imovie has a series of functions. Imovie helped me a lot with my trailer, as I was able to put it all together using this programme.

Imovie allowed me to: add in clips which i downloaded off my camera, edit the lighting, exposure, sharpness, contrast, and saturation of the moving images, add in music and change the pitch, volume, reduce background noise, add special effects to the moving images, such as changeovers (fades), zooming in of clips, special effect sounds, borders, text and many more. If I were without this programme I would find it extremely difficult to put together my trailer as it had every function that was needed to make a professional trailer.

3) Photoshop is a programme specific for editing photographs and images. I used Photoshop to create my Poster, Website and aspects of myTrailer such as the graphics. For the research of my project, I used Photoshop to edit previous film horror images and added me own text to the previous images to give me an idea of what I could create for my poster. This helped along with my planning as I already had a clear idea of specific features of a horror film poster/website/trailer.

Alternatively if this technology was not available to me, I would have done my poster/website/graphics by hand, using sketches to help me plan and colouring to help me develop my ideas.

4) In order for a starting point of my trailer, I had to use the Internet to research the typical horror genres, which were already out. I used IMBD to research and specific trailers which fitted in the horror genre. This website helped me with my creativity and gave me a range of ideas for my trailer. I used Youtube to research music typical of a horror trailer. I was then able to download/convert music from this site and apply it to my trailer via iTunes. I used the Facebook – a social networking site to get feedback on my trailer. I uploaded my trailer on my Facebook page and asked my friends to comment on what they thought was good/bad about it. Doing this helped me get an idea of what the audience thought, as well as giving me good and bad points which I was then able to change.

5) iTunes is a music library. I used this for downloading music for my trailer, as well as special effect sounds. If I were without this programme I would find it hard to include music/sounds into my trailer, however I could alternatively use a microphone to record any voices or sounds in particular that I needed.

6) The camera recorder was the main piece of new media technology used in my trailer. The camera recorder enabled me to film the scenes to go in the trailer, and allowed me to zoom in and out in particular scenes to get different camera shots/angles.

7) The camera tripod was used for scene 2 where the girls are sitting in the bedroom. The camera tripod held my camera in a specific position – and gave me a camera angle I wanted, so no one needed to hold it as we all needed to be in this scene.

8) I used the microphone on my laptop to record the voice over for my trailer. This was very helpful as I was able to edit the pitch/volume/background noise of the recorded voices. Without the microphone I would have to use acoustic music/voices to go along with my trailer.

Diary Entry of Filming for trailer

As we began our filming, we kept a diary entry of what we achieved in each day

Day 1:
For one of the scenes we needed to film specifically at night. For our location, we chose to use a country lane for the scene. In this scene, it is of where the 3 girls were running away with touches in theyre hands with someone behind them creeping up on them. After this, we then shot another scene where the girls are sitting together in the woods, realising that ellie is missing after a loud scream.

Day 2:
Our next scene was to be shot in the day scene. This scene was where the girls were filmed packing and preparing for their school camping trip in one of the girls rooms. Although we had a problem with the camera angle, so we will need to re-film this section asap.

Day 3:
The next scene was based in school. Filming in the school gave the film a better understanding for the trailer/for the audience, as the girls arrive back at school seeing missing posters of there friend Ellie everywhere. In this scene, I filmed Lydia walking through the corridor, picking up and reading the missing poster. I then filmed Lydia going into a room and the door slamming behind her.

Day 4:
Lydia then filmed in her garden where the weather seemed perfect for the particular scene. As it was dark and rainy I shot the last scene featured in our trailer with the hand with blood on it twitching in the mud and the rain to leave the audience in suspense/horror

Day 6:
We then got together and decided to change some of our trailer (first draft). We changed what our peers did not like about the trailer, such as the lack of voiceover etc. This proved to be a really productive day as we were able to get as much as possible done without doing more filming.

Day 7
In our lesson we decided to film the clip where one of the girls (lydias) hand is covered in blood, dragging down the window of the school door. I filmed this from outside the room. We chose to do this as we thought it'd go well with the previous scene where one of the girls (lydia) walks into a classroom door suspiciously and the door slams behind.
Here is some photographs of us getting ready for the scene



Day 8
We then filmed a scene where one of the girls (kerrie) was in the toilets, with a man (dave) peering over watching her, then kerrie turning round to find no one was there. We shot about 3 of these scenes to get the perfect clip, but overall it worked really well.

Day 9
Next we needed to change the beginning scene of our trailer due to the feedback we received from our target audience. We filmed the close up shots of the girls outside in our lesson. Using moving imagery instead of images gave it a more professional feel as before it didn't flow very well with the rest of the trailer. We also re-filmed the scene in the bedroom where the girls were packing as the camera angle cut off one of the girls heads, making it look unprofessional and messy!

Trailer Feedback

In our groups we showed them the first drafts of our trailers and asked for negative and positive feedback.

Good:
- ending of trailer with the pulsating hand
- locker scene - missing posters
- door slamming effect
- shot at beginning of girls getting ready
- shot of long road: girls running
Bad:
- Too short
- Clips of girls individually instead of photos
- Add in a missing report to the poster
- Include over-voices
- Scream noise - move to different place
- Talking/dialogue not effective enough

Trailer: Imovie

For our group trailer, we chose to use 'IMOVIE' a programme on Mac software. Imovie programme allowed us to cut our clips, add background music, add special effects, sound effects and different transaction effects to each scene. The programme was very suitable for making our trailer.
Example of imovie:


Firstly for our trailer, i added in the clips we were going to use and cut them to desired timings to fit with the trailer. Here is an example of how i trimmed the clips to fit in my trailer:


We then added still images into our trailer, for example the graphics such as the name of the film, when it was out and what production company was etc:


We then added music (digetic and non-digetic) to our trailer where we wanted it to match with the clips, we also added sound effects such as the 'door slamming' to add to moving images as it helped enhance the actions and create suspense/tension for the audience which fitted well with creating our horror genre for our film


After adding the audio to the moving images, we were then able to edit the settings of the music and sound effects. We were able to fade in and out the music to match the scenes and music change, we were also able to add special effects to the audio such as 'muffled' effect. We were also able to control the volume of the music with the background noise, making it so we could hear the music or hear the dialogue at specific times.



We then were able to pick the length of the music by dragging it across underneath the scenes to match the moving images.


We were also able to change the colours in the footage we filmed, we could change the saturation, brightness, sharpness etc.


we were able to include transitions between each slide by choosing from a selection
we mainly used 'cross dissolve' in our trailer


We also added voice overs to the still text on our trailer, we did this by using the record button on IMOVIE where we recorded two people talking. We were also able to change the picth of the dialouge and add different effects to create a more scary effect to fit in with the genre.
Below is an example of how we recorded the voiceovers on IMOVIE



Then, after filming more footage, we found an editing tool where you could change the movement of the camera. We were able to crop/fit the footage to how we wanted it and were also able to change the camera movement to a 'pan' in one of the scenes where the hand grabs the door.
Below is an example of the above


We then changed the begginig of the trailer where the pictures of the girls were placed. We decidede to film the girls individually for 1.3seconds.


We also decided to change the font on the trailer after feedback.


We also included in an extra scene into the trailer and more graphics. The graphics are what you find in a normal film trailer, where a review from, for example the newspaper comes in.



One of our scenes was filmed on a portrait angle, and when uploading it onto imovie, we had a problem as there was a black border around the moving image. To resolve this we used the 'cropping and rotation' tool when we were able to cut and crop the moving image so it had no black border.


We also changed the music at the beginning scene to an acoustic version of 'Teenage Dream' by Katy Perry, as we felt it fitted better within the trailer.


We also re-filmed the scene of the girls in the bedroom as before the camera angle cut off one of the characters heads, therefore making it look unprofessional and lazy.


We then changed the colouring of the name of the film 'Oblivious' as we felt it suited better in a different colour to the rest of the text.

FINAL website

FINAL poster