Technologies

Product package

From comparing my own film poster and magazine to existing ones of the same genre it shows I followed various conventions I researched about and applied it to my planning and production. The focus of the character's eye/s within the central image by having it in the centre or near hotspots is conventionally used with thriller-horror film genres as they are “windows to the soul” and also many people say that you can see the emotions and intentions from looking at the eyes. This is very conventional within horror film posters as they focus on scared of the unknown. The location of the title of the film is often at in the centre or lower bottom as according to the route of the eye, it is draws attention to it and is usually one of the last and most memorable things the viewers will see. Contrast in background colour to the text used are also conventional in not only thriller-horror film trailers but with films in general to catch the audience's attention. The film magazines usually adjust to the colour scheme of the featured film to complement the central image, this also creates consistency within the products. They have the common use of the cross symbol which connotes impending doom and danger relating to the crucifix. Many cover lines are on both of the existing film magazines to suggest that the magazine is full of interesting content and intrigue the readers into wanting to know more. Following the route of the eye, the first thing you see within the poster is the tag line just like an existing film poster "orphan" to intrigue the audience into wanting to find out more as it hints possible plot line. The first thing you see following the rule of thirds on the film magazine is the banner and masthead to intrigue the readers into the content available inside, the masthead at the top is a conventional layout for the majority of magazines which makes form of media easily recognised due to the ordinary expectations of magazines.

Created with Wallwisher

The combination of the film trailer, film poster and film magazine were able to create a memorable and recognisable brand identity. It follows the conventions of existing product packages I analysed in research and applied it to my planning and production. Like the majority of existing packages, there are consistent elements throughout all the products such as the font used for on screen text for the trailer was used for the title of the film on the poster and the magazine, it also follows the same colour scheme of red, black, white and grey and the actor within the trailer and on the magazine cover and poster has the same distinctive make up and costume which makes the audience immediately associate the image with the film. Some of the on screen text from the trailer is used as a tagline for the film poster, this gives hints on the possible storyline and intrigue the audience. All these make links with the different forms of media within this package to give it consistency and recognisable. From the audience feedback I completed for my film poster and magazine, their first impressions were that it looked professional and that the picture and fonts are very conventional to the genre as it focuses on eyes. It is very consistent with the same font and colour scheme for both which makes it easy to identify and reflects its genre well.The central image draws the attention and complements the colour scheme as the pop of colour from the pupil complements the light green colour used for cover lines. The audience feedback shows that the different products complements each other well and can be classed as one package.

Conventions

Audience feedback on film trailer

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Audience feedback from tsang7787

Focus group:

 

The answers I got from the focus group I carried out supports the majority of the points mentioned on my online survey. They were all able to identify the genre of the film trailer easily which shows that the conventional elements we used within the trailer were effective. Like the majority of the people who completed the online questionnaire, they said that they liked the music as it built up the tension throughout the trailer and the fast paced montage at the end. They also mentioned that the strengths of the trailer was that the trailer did not give too much of the plot away which was intriguing and the weaknesses was that some of the on screen text was moving too fast and also some scenes moved too fast also which could be confusing.

The answers I got from carrying out this focus group supported the answers I received from the online survey and from this I found out ways of improving my trailer further by slowing down the on screen text make certain scenes flow better so the audience knows what is going on.

Final Film trailer

Film trailer progress 3

Feedback on trailer progress 2

From the feedback I collected on wall wisher, it shows that it definitely improved from the first draft but to improve it further, suggestions such as making certain scenes shorter and choppier to make it more conventional and to add on screen text to make the plot of the film clearer.

From that I decided to make certain scenes shorter and to come up with effective on screen text which would explain the plot better but not give it all away.

Claudia and I watched existing horror-thriller film trailers for inspiration.

Ancillary Photographs

[Original photo]

[First edit]

         

[Improved edit]

Film Magazine draft

Draft 1

Draft 2

Final draft

Film Poster drafts

Draft 1

Draft 2

Draft 3

Draft 4

Final draft

Production Diary: Day 8

12th November 2012

As we managed to get new footage last friday, we decided to improve our first draft of our film trailer accordingly to the comments received from our target audience. We decided to cut out some scenes which seemed unnecessary for the trailer even though they would have worked in the film and changed the fast paced scenes to give it a more climatic ending. Now that the second draft is complete, we can get more feedback to see what else we can improve on.

Film trailer progress 2

Production Diary: Day 7

9th November 2012

From the feedback we received on our first draft we decided on which scenes to cut and what new scenes we want to film to give the ending of the trailer a more climatic feel. We watched a lot more existing thriller-horror film trailers to get inspiration and after a few hours of research we decided on specific scenes we will film today.



 To make our trailer more climatic, we decided on adding more action of the ghost within the plot to make it clearer what she is doing. We started off at Abi's house and ended up going to Rebecca's due to certain props within her house such as her wardrobe. We had difficulties with the costume due to the wig being left at the last location but luckily Rebecca had one similar that we could use. Untangling the wig took up valuable time, the situation could have been avoided if we allocated the responsibility of picking up wig to one of us before we left the first location. I was in charge of the camera and partially directing the lighting and position of the actors. I positioned the camera the way I thought would suit the scene best but after filming Abi directed me to film at a different angle. She kept changing her mind on where she wanted the camera even after I said the angle she asked for did not show the actor but she still insisted on using it. From the opinion I gave to Claudia about the lighting seen through the camera I asked her if she could shift the lamp slightly to give a better effect but Abi told Claudia to change the lighting again. It became confusing as I directed Claudia then Abi directed her with something else and as I positioned myself with the camera with what Claudia and I thought was best, Abi directed me to change the angle. It took a lot longer than it should have for the short amount of usable footage we filmed today. We believe one more day of filming should be enough to make our improvements.

Feedback on trailer progress 1

From the feedback that we collected on wall wisher we have what our target audience thought was good and what could be improved.

"I like how music runs almost all the way through the whole trailer as it creates something like a theme song which would be easily recognised if advertised on tv etc"

"The music gives the trailer an eerie atmosphere but there are some scenes that are too long which slows the pace down. It did have some fast paced editing near the end but it as an anti-climatic feel to it."




"The music used at the end complimented the action within the clips very well but some scenes seemed so randomly put together"




"It scenes are randomly put together, even though the majority of it flows I got slightly confused with the possible plot of the film"




"Some really good camera angles but the editing could be more fast paced to give it more of an impending doom atmosphere"




The majority of the people who gave us feedback commented on anti-climatic ending, the scenes seeming out of place in certain places and the fact that the editing could be faster paced. To improve this we came up with ideas to make it more dramatic at the end. For inspiration, everyone in the group watched existing horror-thriller film trailers.

Storyboards of new scenes:

Production Diary: Day 6

8th November 2012

Today we finished the first draft of our film trailer by adding the sound, the title of the film at the end and little things like claudia's phone call voiceover.


It was a lot harder than we thought to find suitable music to compliment the actions within our film trailer but we ended up going with a piano melody. We have now uploaded the draft onto youtube and made a wall wisher page asking for feedback as we feel it can definitely improve.

 Once we get the a substantial amount of feedback left we can then decide how we could add or take away certain segments to improve our film trailer further.

Film trailer progress 1

Production Diary: Day 5

31st October 2012

I started editing the video previously on iMovie but then I accidentally deleted the project but luckily I did not loose any of the raw footage we filmed during the past few weeks. Due to the technical difficulty I had to start from scratch but one thing i did realise from the deleted edit was that the order we originally planned on the storyboard was too logical to how it would happen in the film if it was made. I thought we needed to change it to give it a more intriguing feel to attract the target audience. I arranged a day with Claudia to help me adjust and improve the sequence of events within the trailer.

As I had Final Cut Pro on my computer I thought I would give it a try as the software is more advanced than iMovie. We were able to adjust the lighting and colour saturation accordingly to scenes as some scenes are meant to be during the night. Claudia helped me by giving her opinion and advice on what she thought would flow better and which clips to use between the several takes we did on the same scene. We also discussed the plot of the rest of the film to give us a clearer idea of how to portray it in the trailer and we came across things online which described the reason behind why the ghost is haunting Mai and killing other characters.

“Ghosts” are souls that remain on earth harassing and causing trouble for the living. They are thought to be souls that failed to reach the afterlife because of 1) some problem they encountered on their journey; 2) a lack of a proper send off by their living relatives on earth; or 3) tragic circumstances surrounding their death or life. Special rituals are often held to send these ghosts to their afterlife destination.

“vengeful ghosts,” who have died in an accident or have been angered by some perceived injustice and need to be appeased

We spent approximately 4 hours editing and managed to edit the video aspect of the whole film trailer, all we have to do now is to add music, sound effects and on screen text and our first completed edit will be finished.

Production Diary: Day 4

24th October 2012

Today was our last scheduled filming, we had to quickly adjust the storyboard from the character of Mai bumping into a stranger on the streets to her bumping into a student in the corridor at school as it was just more convenient to cast someone as the unknown student than to find an adult that would be free during the day. As the person in charge of the make up was at another school during the period that everyone else was available, I decided to carry on with the filming of the student and Mai and wait until the end of the day to film the close up of her hand/arm with bruises which can easily be edited in. As we filmed the close up after school, I had to use my hands as substitute of the students on the film but as it is only a small section of me seen.

Then filmed a small scene we forgot to film yesterday on the way back to the location to chose to film at then we filmed all the scenes with the mum character as it was the only day we that every one free. I was in charge of the filming and partial directing again with contribution to Claudia for confirmation and we managed to film all the footage from the storyboard for our trailer. Abi was able to edit a screen shot on photoshop to make a news article on the iPad look realistic which made the scenes more believable.

All we have to do now is start editing the footage together and if any parts need re-filming, we will have time to improve it.

Production Diary: Day 3

23rd October 2012

Today we planned to film the two little scenes left behind from last time so that all the scenes at the location was complete. I was setting up the camera equipment while Claudia did Abi's make up, I filmed and directed today, trying to try various camera angles to achieve the best result possible as some of the shots i planned were not always the most effective or accessible.

We were filming at Abi's location for longer than we thought and our schedule was pushed back by half an hour but we were still able to get help from Oli to be the male character within our film trailer and complete  what was planned. It took many trials to get the restraining scene look realistic as everyone was unsure what action to do but in the end we were able to get useable footage.

Due to the lack of cooperation we got from George (the original puppy we planned to be in our film trailer), we used a different dog. Lu was less excitable and listened well to the commands so we were able to get the filming done.

Production Diary: Day 2

19th October 2012


Due to the bad lighting of the original footage we filmed in Abi's bedroom we decided to re-film it today. After discovering the night vision setting, the footage was a lot clearer. We managed to film the majority of the film trailer today completing all but two scenes located there. Me and Claudia helped Rebecca prepare her make up and costume again for her to be within the shower scene. I was in charge of filming and partially directing Abi and Rebecca within the scene with the help of Claudia's opinion on the camera angle and lighting, trying to follow the story board created during planning.

Production Pitch feedback

I collected audience feedback on my production pitch by linking the prezi alongside my online survey onto different social networking sites such as twitter and tumblr.

I wanted to get feedback from both males and females as our film trailer is aimed at both genders, but as the survey was online and anonymous I did not pick who completed them. I got more feedback from females then males but it will still be useful to see what they think of the story line and if it is conventional or not.

The people who completed my online survey ranged between 11-20+ years but our main target audience is teenagers aged between 14-19, which the majority of the people who completed the survey was.

 What is your first impression of the film trailer synopsis?

•  Informed and to the point; gives all of the necessary information without rambling
• I think it's a really good concept and very well thought out, use a lot of conventions associated with the genre.
• It is conventional but with a twist which makes the plot intriguing
• It looks intriguing
• I think it's a pretty cool idea. It would be a great novel if you can put the whole thing into a story
• Speechless
• My first impressions are that the trailer has a well thought out plot, the pictures used give a relevant image of the trailer and that existing movies of the same genre have been taken into consideration well
• It sounded intriguing and actually rather scary
• Creepily but interesting too

All of the feedback I got from all the people were very positive which means that the story line we came up with should be effective if we portray it correctly onto film. Also as the majority of the people who completed the questionnaire were within our target audience, it suggests that the film trailer should be successful. From the previous survey I completed on audience research, the majority said that the most intriguing element they find in a film is the story line, from the feedback we got suggests that we achieved one of our targets.

I also received a comment on my Prezi presentation, which mentioned my effective way of making the presentation straight to the point and getting our idea across.

 All of the people who completed the questionnaire have said that our genre was easily recognised which shows that the conventions within our story plot were successful.

All of the people who completed the survey have said that they found the plot line intriguing and as the majority of the people who gave us feedback fit into our target audience, which suggests that it will attract our audience.

I asked the people who completed the survey to rate how conventional our film trailer was, there people rated between 7-10 but the majority scored it an 8, which shows that our plot is conventional.