EVALUATION

Erin Frances Machell

Candidate Number: 9587Centre Number: 10160

Centre Name: Sacred Heart Hammersmith

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

I believe the combination of my completed final product is very effective because I have used a font called Blaire caps in my magazine, film poster and trailer. I believe this will add to the professionalism of my corporate identity. This would make the franchise more familiar to the audience making it more popular. Another aspect of my final product that will allow for the product to be more popular is the fact that the model is the same on the film poster and magazine. This means that my target audience will be sensitised to the face of the protagonist, meaning my corporate identity will become more known.A professional aspect of my final product is that the colour scheme remains the same on all three products. This consists of red, white and black. Even in the trailer black screens with red and white connotations about the film pop up. This again allows for my corporate identity to become more recognisable amongst my target audience.

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

products?

• My final media product shares several of the same conventions of prevalent horror films old and new, all of which are still popular today. During the development stages of my work I sought for a film previously produced which possessed characteristics that an amateur film maker such as myself could utilize as a bases. This is so that throughout the entire development process I had a conventional product which I could consistently compare my work to. When looking for a film that corresponded with this criteria, I came across paranormal activity. Although the franchise on the whole was criticised. This was still of interest because it was filmed with a hand held camera, and heavily relied on special effects. I then researched a more popular film which was The Blaire witch project. This film was easier to use as it was filmed in a forest which is a very conventional, yet accessible location for a horror film. Through my product I have developed the conventions of The Blaire witch project by using Photoshop to enhance my film poster. The colour of this shceme also develops conventions as the picture is black and white although I have used new media technology such as Photoshop to make the eyes of the model featured on the front red. This is a consistency of colour scheme which also suggests to the audience that the model is distressed and blood shot eyes is linked to this. This could be seen as enigma and the audience don’t know what is distressing the model on the front which may engage them further.

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My film poster develops the conventions of The Blaire witch project because I have used affects in order to make the main image look more ominous. This would engage my audience more because it would hint the sinister nature of the trailer. In addition to this without the forestation at the back and just a black background I belief my product develops the isolated nature of the film being set in the forest. Without distracting my audience from the main image with background images I have still linked to the location. I have done this using mise en scene as the character featured is wearing a hat as part of their costume. This would indicate to the audience that the film is set outside in a cold location which the character would have to compensate for if they were going to be there for a considerable amount of time, such as a camping trip. The darkness of the surrounding also suggests night time, which most horror films are set in. The main image has been altered to make the stare of the model shock the audience more. The idea of the contrasting reflection on the eyes with the black leering darkness adds to the isolation

• The idea of the contrasting reflection on the eyes with the black leering darkness adds to the isolation and vulnerability of the girl featured as the brightest form of light on the poster is her eyes. To make sure I had developed the poster as best I can I made some other edits as experiments to give myself a wide range of research, as I had already previously researched professionally produced film posters.

• My magazine • My final magazine product also shares several of the same

conventions of prevalent film magazines. I believe that due to my high quality main image, costume, layout, and colour scheme my magazine not only looks professional but develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products.

• Research has been done to show that humans naturally read from top left down to bottom right. After researching this I decided to put a tagline at the top, as this one of the first things my audience will see when looking to purchase my magazine. My tag line is The modern Bible of new film. like the total film magazine, my magazine offers the same professional appearance. My tag line will also make the audience feel as though they will get modernised information by investing in my magazine.

• My magazine conventionally features the main character on the front. I believe my image in particular develops and challenges forms and conventions of real products because the model on the front is striking a glamorous pose, and he gest is confident whereas this would clash with the story line. In addition the model has blood on her face, even though the audience don’t see this throughout the trailer it is for dramatic effect. This could cause enigma as the audience wouldn’t know what has happened to her. This could intrigue them meaning more people invest in my magazine without seeing the film. In addition the same model is on both the film poster and the magazine. This could sensitise my audience and add make my corporate identity more familiar to the public. This would make my magazine more popular as the model would be recognisable to twice as many people.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the development process I consistently asked for feedback from members of my target audience. I did this by creating multiple surveys on Surveymonek.co.uk. I created four which linked to my magazine, costume, trailer and film poster. I did his because the professional quality of my work was very important to me. The fact that members of my target audience could tell me what needed to be improved before and after I made each development to by final products meant that I could maintain a product which would be suitable for my audience, making sure it would still be popular.I have incorporated some examples above. These pie charts helped me to determine the genre of my product for example. Initially I wanted to create a psychological horror although my research showed there was a gap in the market for supernatural horrors, which inevitably would mean my product would be more prevalent.I believe the trailer to also be conventional. Throughout the complete development process I required a conventional product which I could consistently compare my work to. When looking for a film that corresponded with these criteria, I researched paranormal activity. Although the franchise was generally criticised, this was still of interest because it was filmed with a hand held camera, and heavily relied on special effects. I then researched a more popular film which was The Blaire witch project. This film was more practical to use as it was filmed in a forest which is a very conventional, yet accessible location for a horror film.We looked at shots used to make the genre of our trailer more naturally conventional. Tilted camera shots re often used to show hint to the audience the film is not perfect like a fairy tale, a titled camera suggests a twisted aspect to the film, this again could intrigue the audience to see what the twisted aspect is, as from an camera angle this would be unknown.

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

• Throughout the development of our practical work we looked for ways to make our trailer in particular appear more established. As a member of my own target audience I understand that naturally most horror films are set in the night time although it the cameras we were using It would have been too hard to create I high resolution and definition at night. In order to achieve a clear night time picture with the camera we researched filming techniques. When researching this I discovered a filming light that was for amateur film makers. As we had a small set we saw this was a good opportunity to film what we wanted, whilst it was still practical. Although we also saw opportunity's of filming during the day. Horror films often contrast the safety of the day time with the vulnerability that comes with night. We wanted to include this convention in our own work.

We also looked for opportunities to use effects for professional quality. We practiced on iMovie, power director 8 and 10. We even created a fake trailer with sound we had recorded ourselves just to practice creating videos. this meant we could efficiently complete our real trailer when it came to it.

We created the music through an app called music maker jam. We also used primary music made by ourselves as I can play the guitar and some piano, although we felt this didn’t sometimes fit in with the story of the trailer. In order to improve on this we widened our research. Supernatural horrors usually consist of high tension elements such as drums and a deep bass to fill impact the serious nature of the film. This app also came in very handy because I researched another sound making/editing software which unfortunately branded itself every 5 seconds which sounded extremely unprofessional. The music editor we used also allowed me to time when each sound would come in. This was also very postive because it meant I could time high tension sound along with the parts of high tension in the trailer, which is conventional and professional.

This app was very useful with creating unsettling notes. This is because it allowed to choose different depths in pitch and tone. Horror films often play a minor amount of notes out of tune within music in a trailer. This is because it puts the audience on edge and helps to make them feel uncomfortable.

This also allowed me to choose from a range of different sounds I could used, although horror films often choose a very simple soundtrack to stop the audience feeling at ease with common music they would hear on a day to day basis just by watching adverts. Simplistic soundtrack allows the audience to be more in tune with the tension caused by the characters fear and the antagonist.