Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Audience Research
kk
Age
Would you go to the cinema for a new horror film?
Does advertising affect you wanting to see a film?
What elements are most important for horror?
Settings
These graphs shows that I will be aiming my movie at males. Ideally I will be shoting in a abandoned house or the woods and will include female leads, darkness and gore.
Monday, 22 March 2010
Monday, 15 March 2010
3. What have you learn from your audience feedback?
We arranged a viewing for about 20 students and let them watch our product and talk about their views on it. We did this to learn more about how our text positions and moves an audience how well it does that. I think direct audience feedback can be vital to improving a product as it lets your target audience tell you exactly what they want, and this can result in your product being much more effective.
The product was shown once to the audience and then specific parts that the audience had commented on were shown again. The time when the viewing was done, it was still in its first cut stages with further audio and visual editing to be done to become most effective. Audience feedback was highly positive about the use of depth of field and the camera shot usage. Some of the audience found the first cut hard to identify with since there was no clear protagonist being portrayed apart from the assumption of a ‘final girl’. This was down to it being the first cut and audience/character identification points had not been completely clarified. This has now been rectified.
Most of the positive feedback focused on how our text followed a lot of the ideas and was slightly iconic to the horror or more specially the slasher genre. We achieved this by looking at various films of that genre throughout the decades. These were films such as: The shining, Halloween, The hills have eyes, Wilderness, Eden Lake, Friday the 13th, Blair witch project and 28 days later. These particular films stood out in terms of their huge popularity and unique styles within the horror genre.
A technique used similarly among all of them was trying to make the victims emotions seem more real and more intense, usually being helped by specific camera techniques. We tried to implement this by using a lot of handheld footage with lots of high and low angles, one member went as far as climbing a tree to obtain these angles. When these techniques were mentioned with the audience, they commented how it worked together to give the impression of being watch and lost. Focus was another point the audience discussed; they liked how we used depth of field on obstructing objects (trees, bushes etc) to enhance the feeling of being watched. Most of the audience also liked the nods to the slasher genre.
The places with room for improvement was mostly audience/character identification, which we believe has now been achieved through the use of voiceovers and dialogue to make it easier for the audience to identify. Another common critical comment was of the soundtrack, which at some places did not match the visuals tempo-wise. Overall this text could defiantly be made more effective through incorporating these suggestions into the next editing session.
There was quite a few comments about the horror genre, it was pointed out a few times and commented on codes we had used to actively represent the genre. Some of the codes were used where: sounds such as crows in the background that add an eerie feel and has become almost cliché in some types of horror films. Some of the other codes we put into the trailer to link it to the genre were: lighting, depth of field, extreme close ups, canted angle shots, light and dark mise en scene and keeping the killer mostly shroud in darkness.
The product was shown once to the audience and then specific parts that the audience had commented on were shown again. The time when the viewing was done, it was still in its first cut stages with further audio and visual editing to be done to become most effective. Audience feedback was highly positive about the use of depth of field and the camera shot usage. Some of the audience found the first cut hard to identify with since there was no clear protagonist being portrayed apart from the assumption of a ‘final girl’. This was down to it being the first cut and audience/character identification points had not been completely clarified. This has now been rectified.
Most of the positive feedback focused on how our text followed a lot of the ideas and was slightly iconic to the horror or more specially the slasher genre. We achieved this by looking at various films of that genre throughout the decades. These were films such as: The shining, Halloween, The hills have eyes, Wilderness, Eden Lake, Friday the 13th, Blair witch project and 28 days later. These particular films stood out in terms of their huge popularity and unique styles within the horror genre.
A technique used similarly among all of them was trying to make the victims emotions seem more real and more intense, usually being helped by specific camera techniques. We tried to implement this by using a lot of handheld footage with lots of high and low angles, one member went as far as climbing a tree to obtain these angles. When these techniques were mentioned with the audience, they commented how it worked together to give the impression of being watch and lost. Focus was another point the audience discussed; they liked how we used depth of field on obstructing objects (trees, bushes etc) to enhance the feeling of being watched. Most of the audience also liked the nods to the slasher genre.
The places with room for improvement was mostly audience/character identification, which we believe has now been achieved through the use of voiceovers and dialogue to make it easier for the audience to identify. Another common critical comment was of the soundtrack, which at some places did not match the visuals tempo-wise. Overall this text could defiantly be made more effective through incorporating these suggestions into the next editing session.
There was quite a few comments about the horror genre, it was pointed out a few times and commented on codes we had used to actively represent the genre. Some of the codes were used where: sounds such as crows in the background that add an eerie feel and has become almost cliché in some types of horror films. Some of the other codes we put into the trailer to link it to the genre were: lighting, depth of field, extreme close ups, canted angle shots, light and dark mise en scene and keeping the killer mostly shroud in darkness.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
How Effective is the combination of you're main product and ancillary texts?
The teaser trailer is an integral part in the marketing of a film. It is shown well before the films release and works to not uncover much of the story but still maximise interest. The trailers short enough to hint at the narrative but to leave more questions than it answers. With this in mind I made my teaser trailer 1.26 long, this keeps in line with teaser conventions. If we had had more time and resources I would have included more establishing shots and with a more fitting location.Word of mouth is probably the most important aspect of film marketing to try to control, as good or bad word of mouth can make or break a film. Good word of mouth increases inter
est and awareness whereas bad word of mouth can cause the audience to avoid viewing the film. In light of this, I’ve intentionally made the trailer, through use of suspense and the killer character, a film that people will talk about, giving a lot of free publicity.
I am targeting the horror audience of predominantly 16-25 aged men. To do this I am including a lot of genre indicators in the marketing material, this makes sure the target audience has an interest in it.
When a film is finished it is usually contested over between the distributors in each market such as the UK, the US etc. When looking at a film the distribution company will usually look for something new or original, something that will draw the audiences in, something like a hook. The production company usually gives all the rights of distributing the film over all markets to the distributors at this point. The distribution company will then work to find its core audience, and design the marketing campaign around them. The first thing release to the public will be the teaser trailer, long before the film’s release. Leading up to the release there will be posters, full trailers, magazine features etc. This maximises interest and awareness for the release, trailers may also be used as an extension strategy once the film is out and sales are starting to fall. Trailers and posters are usually then used again for the DVD release.
The trailer works quite well with the look of the poster and magazine cover as the characters seen in the trailer are featured on the poster and front cover. I decided to use the same setting as the teaser for my magazine to make them more cohesive. The tagline on the poster is ‘your in his house’ this relates to the teaser and the setting for that and the magazine. In retrospect it would have been more effective if I had used the poster tagline in the teaser to increase cohesiveness. We used a close up of the final girl in the poster to help display her emotion to the audience and changed the contrast to darken the mood to that of the other products. Using the final girl once again help the poster work well with the teaser and we maintained the use of darkness and setting throughout all 3 products.
I was influenced a lot but the new Friday the 13th film poster when making mine. I admired the use of darkness and location of tag lines, credits and title. I didn’t analyse the magazine as much in terms of cohesiveness because at the end of the day its not controlled by the film company so will often bear little resemblance. I have used similar colours for the picture though.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Both these shots use POVs; this is a staple of the horror genre, and usually from the antagonist’s perspective. It is used quite often in slashers and links to the idea that the audience identifies with the antagonist in horror. The other main element in this still is the use of depth of field and focus to show that the POV is in a hidden position; it is more obvious in the Eden lake shot but is still quite clear in ours. The characters all need to be facing away for this shot to work effectively, which has been done with both.
Running is seen in almost every slasher at some point and these films are no exception. POV is used in ours as it is a very common convention for horrors, slasher in particular to show it from the antagonist’s perspective. Their trailer uses a low angle and it denotes high status and action, which is evident in the shot.
This is a commonly used shot in the recent genre nicknamed 'torture porn' the character is completely trapped at the close up of their face shows their despair. The Saw one looks a lot more dangerous due to the contraption on the woman’s head but again budget prevented anything like this in ours. The lighting in the saw one is quite bright as this is a film that relies on pain and gore for its horror instead of using the darkness and keeping it creepy. In ours we tried to incorporate the creepiness by making the room quite dark and having Rebecca look down.
Both these shots show pretty much the same thing and it terms of mise en scene, with the antagonist touching furniture on the way to a victim which is indicative body language. Darkness is used in both to connote fear and the idea of not knowing what’s lurking in the darkness which is another common convention in horror. In our shot we have blood on the hands and on the table which connotes death and having killed, great for horror. The convention of darkness is used once again.
The use of shadows is a highly effective convention of the horror genre. Both the shots use shadows to imply a violent act, without actually seeing it, the audience uses its imagination of the act and this can be scarier than simply seeing the act. In both shots the weapon is raised high to imply a lot of force behind it. Their shot uses POV of the victim which isn’t seen much in horror anymore, but is effective for jumpy moments.
A close up on the masked face on the antagonist. Without showing any emotion or eye movement this shot can come off as very creepy and also high status. The blood in ours connotes a lot of danger and violence. The close up, although it is commonly used to display emotion, here shows a lack of, this is a nice turnaround of common cinema convention.
These shots both have an antagonist about to strike a character with a weapon, and are in the process of walking toward/ raising the weapon. The use of motivated lighting works well in our shot as the weapon swinging in the way of it attracts interest to it and raises tension. This is flickering lighting which is another common convention in horror. Darkness is used again in these images and due to its extreme use it can be hard to make out objects in these low quality stills, this adds to the mysterious atmosphere of the films. 
Establishing shots in horror are very important for establishing the mood and tone for the film. Trees or forests are great for establishing shots as they can connote; wilderness, confusion, darkness and the unknown. Shots that look to the sky are also a great horror establishing convention.
A close up on the masked face on the antagonist. Without showing any emotion or eye movement this shot can come off as very creepy and also high status. The blood in ours connotes a lot of danger and violence. The close up, although it is commonly used to display emotion, here shows a lack of, this is a nice turnaround of common cinema convention.
These shots both have an antagonist about to strike a character with a weapon, and are in the process of walking toward/ raising the weapon. The use of motivated lighting works well in our shot as the weapon swinging in the way of it attracts interest to it and raises tension. This is flickering lighting which is another common convention in horror. Darkness is used again in these images and due to its extreme use it can be hard to make out objects in these low quality stills, this adds to the mysterious atmosphere of the films. 
This is a medium shot of the antagonist exerting physical dominance over the final girl; again this is common in slashers. Both the shots show the antagonist coming from the back, which adds to the surprise aspect of the shot. The shots also both neither have any other characters in, this adds to the fear aspect as there is no one that could help them and interrupt the physical dominance. In the shot from Friday the 13th Jason is exerting more dominance that ours, which works quite effect, also the way that he does not engage eye contact and appears to not make any effort are horror conventions.
Establishing shots in horror are very important for establishing the mood and tone for the film. Trees or forests are great for establishing shots as they can connote; wilderness, confusion, darkness and the unknown. Shots that look to the sky are also a great horror establishing convention.We tried to follow the teaser convention of keeping it short, this helped us to condense our ideas into a shorter space, keeping it interesting without giving too much of the plot away.The music we use in the teaser is very emotive of the atmosphere we tried to create. It also uses a very common teaser convention, of working up to a crescendo slowly throughout the trailer, but without a musical resolution. This is great for increasing interest as it makes the audience want to watch the film to see its ‘crescendo’ of events.
I believe that the trailer contains enough key elements so that the target audience (16
-25 year old males) will recognize the conventions and see that it appeals to them.We have indicated the genre of the movie through the use of music and characters, this is very important for the trailer as the viewer needs to know if the product will appeal to them from the beginning, and the genre is a good indication of this. The name of the movie is also important, as awareness cannot be increased without people knowing the name of the movie, so this was indicated throughout the trailer. The production values also help with increasing awareness, which is the main job for the teaser as the companies involved are already quite well known, raising expectations for this film. Some directors such as Sam Raimi http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000600/bio are associated with top horror movies and the mention of his name in a trailer increases the interest for the audience.
-25 year old males) will recognize the conventions and see that it appeals to them.We have indicated the genre of the movie through the use of music and characters, this is very important for the trailer as the viewer needs to know if the product will appeal to them from the beginning, and the genre is a good indication of this. The name of the movie is also important, as awareness cannot be increased without people knowing the name of the movie, so this was indicated throughout the trailer. The production values also help with increasing awareness, which is the main job for the teaser as the companies involved are already quite well known, raising expectations for this film. Some directors such as Sam Raimi http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000600/bio are associated with top horror movies and the mention of his name in a trailer increases the interest for the audience. This deviates from usual teaser conventions and is usually seen in theatrical trailers but I think it works here to get the audience to show interest from the beginning. The beginning of the trailer is set in a forest, which is a horror convention, and this is because it is great for creating a sense of isolation, fearing the unknown, and not being in used to the surroundings. These are all brilliant for horror. The second setting for the teaser is the basement/dungeon style place. This is also a common setting for horror films, and this is because it is very effective in creating the sense of it being a place for secrets and the past to be hidden, and connote our primitive instincts and repressed terrors. Along with the use of darkness (a very common horror convention) creating fear of the unknown, they work together to create a great atmosphere for a horror movie and especially a teaser trailer. The camerawork is very expressive rather than naturalistic, this is a common convention for horror, and works to create an atmosphere that the audience can feel and be part of, I feel we have used this style well in the teaser. We’ve tried to incorporate the theme of known vs. unknown in our teaser as it is a common horror convention and increases interest as a product. A convention I have followed is not giving away the actual release date. This is often done in teaser trailers as it allows for delays and increases interest. The production companies are mentioned, but other details, such as actors or previous works aren’t. This is a common convention for teaser trailers, as it does not distract from the mood of the teaser and as time is limited in teaser trailers, this can be very important. I have tried my best not to reveal details of the story in the teaser, as not giving too much away is a common teaser convention we stick with to increase interest and curiosity.
Monday, 1 March 2010
'How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Web 2.0
The web 2.0 approach to showing my work to teachers was very different to previous methods and introduced a new dynamic. One of the weaknesses of the web 2.0 style of evaluation is that not everyone in our group knew how to use these websites straight away; also it can be viewed by anyone at anytime so the threat of plagiarism must obviously be quite high. Another weakness with using this method was that due to the huge amount of multimedia available on the websites it was very easy to get distracted from the task at hand, which was never a problem when the Internet was not used.
Blogger
Blogging was also a new concept that I used during the project and I learnt how to set up and maintain a blog both useful skills in this day and age. Having a blog that is editable and viewable at any time, means that wherever I am, I can work on my coursework, an obvious improvement over old methods. Having it viewable at any time also means that teachers can view and offer tips in real time, thereby enhancing the blog as soon as areas for improvement have been spotted. . Blogger ended up becoming a very interactive style blog towards the end, with hyperlinks, pictures and videos making plain text more interesting
Youtube
Youtube makes it a lot easier for me to do research wherever I am and it has compatibility with the blogging website, making it easy to upload videos too it, this would have been a lot harder using previous methods. When evaluating through audience feedback, I found uploading the videos through Youtube extremely useful to show the teaser in a variety of places and situations. Youtube was really useful during this project as it can be used to view plenty of modern teaser trailers that I could draw inspiration from, before Youtube was around the only option would have been going to the cinema to view them, this would be a lot more time consuming and less effective. Youtube was also used to host the trailer so it could be shown to lots of different audiences, giving the opportunity for lots of audience feedback.
Flickr
Flickr was another new website that I started using during the project. It became very useful for its ability to annotate pictures as well as hosting them, which I found invaluable during the research phase. Flickr, which again works with blogger which is (very) useful, was used to annotate still in the research phase and then analyse my teaser stills in the evaluation phase, Flickr makes annotating very simple and easy to do.
Facebook
During the construction phase, modern social networking websites made it easy for us to arrange when we were free, we used Facebook, which allows us to all communicate freely, arrange shooting times and check other group member’s calendars. This was much more extensive than old methods of meeting up. I also used facebook at the evaluation phase after I had shown it to audiences in my college and got their feedback, I posted it to my friends on Facebook, which made it visible to about 500 people in my target audience, which greatly improved the amount of feedback I had.
Google Images
Not that new anymore but still very useful, Google images proved invaluable during the research phase, easily browsing through the internet to find relevant pictures to be used for research and ideas for the ancillary tasks. It was also used, in conjunction with Youtube, to build my horror mood board, and the amount of results it got back, combined with being able to only search for specific sizes gave me exactly the kind of images I needed. Google images does have a few weaknesses though, in that it cannot search for certain types of pictures eg. Creepy, as it relies on the names of pictures, which is usually named after the source material, meaning I had to know which movies were creepy before starting the search
Camcorder
The camcorder we used was vital in recording our trailer. We made use of the inbuilt microphone aswell, making it possible to record audio and visual at the same time, this meant we could spend less time filming and more time on the other elements. We recorded using a4:3 ratio, as our camera didn’t have traditional wide screen 16:9 mode however we made good use of this, as it meant it could easily be uploaded to Youtube and shown to others. We used some of the features on the camcorder such as backlight and night vision, to achieve some visuals with a darkened mood, and we also used it to make settings that had bad lighting seem more aesthetically pleasing. One of the most useful features about the camcorder was that the viewing screen could be turned to many different angles, meaning angles that would be impossible for a person to view from could still be captured and monitored effectively.
Tripod
. Tripod was used consistently throughout the filming and photography process. We sued it to maintain steady shots, and avoid blurring the pictures, although we did use a lot of handheld style filming, the tripod meant we could add a level of professionalism to the footage, always very important in trailers. We could also use it to film from areas that would not be possible with out the added height of the tripod
Camera
. I used a ancillary tasks and made great use of its flash function to capture dark scenes. While filming I bought the camera with us, so when we were filming a shot that would also work great as a still, I could capture it, straight away, this is how I got my poster image. Using a digital camera was really useful, as it is cheap to use on a budget, and pictures can be viewed instantly, which is extremely useful in dark situations where it is very easy for the picture to become blurred or unviewable. Also it can be easily transferred to computer and stored, without threat of deterioration, we made use of this by trying out many different images with the other elements of the ancillary tasks in Photoshop to see which fitted best
Garageband
Garageband was very useful, as it allowed for a lot of creativity and can deliver high quality recordings on a budget. It saved a lot of money compared to recording the actual instruments and routing effects units through them. It comes with a wide array of instruments and most have a modulation and pitch shift function, adding a sense of dynamics. For a music production suite, it was relatively simple to use, obviously I was at an advantage, having done music tech and understanding it, but even the people in my group who had never tried something like this before found they understood it within a few minutes. The keyboard function, which allowed you to use a qwerty keyboard as a midi keyboard was put to good use, since we didn’t have an actual midi keyboard to use, we recorded all our stuff using this method (in most music production suites such as Cubase and Reason, this is not possible). Its compatibility with Finalcut pro was also very useful as it meant we could watch our trailer alongside our track at any stage through the music making. This was obviously very useful for keeping the music in time with the shots and following the mood.
Photoshop
. Photoshop was obviously one of the most important tools for the ancillary tasks, and has enough effects to achieve a high level of looks. Aswell as the ancillary tasks, I also utilized it for my moodboard, extracting stills from trailers and the montage above. It allowed me to import many different layers and text fonts, aswell as work from a semi transparent drawn template. The main things I used it for, editing wise, was sizing, positioning, colour changing and contrast/brightness changes, all of which made it appear more professional. It basically has enough effects to achieve any kind of picture you want, and its editing functions make it very easy to see how certain parts would look differently, and then change them back. The effects also make it easy to make pictures look great even if they are slightly out of focus or blurred, they can be edited to look great. Without it my ancillary tasks would of looked a lot less professional. Text can also be made to look a lot better using effects such as outer glows and shadows to create something interesting and eye-catching. When I got feedback from my audience on their reactions to the poster and magazine I found it very easy to change any element they didn’t like.
Finalcut pro
Final cut pro was new to me for this project and I have learned a lot about it, how it can be used to give a seamless finish to a film. It was the editing software we had to use, and this type of editing is vastly superior to the older methods, using glue and tape, and saves a lot of time and allows for more creativity. The capture function saves a lot of time, as it allows shots to captured straight off the tape, which I used to give myself more time for the other parts of the trailer. One of the weaknesses of this method is that it is not a simple to use program unlike programs such as Garageband. However favouring function over ease of use means it has a wealth of different effect that I could use in my project and is also used by many media professionals. There is so many effect in this program, which is so useful for horror, where shots are more expressionistic than naturalistic so all the effects can be used to connote moods and atmospheres. One of the main effects I used was a sudden flash that I inserted between shots to surprise the audience and keep them engaged. Cross fading was also used a lot in my trailer and helps set the mood for it and look professional. The timeline makes it very easy to cut between shots, and the audio channel is simple to use. This program has compatibility with Garageband and Livetype that I used to decrease the time spent working around different program formats etc.
Livetype
This was a program that I used for the text in the trailer. It gave me a lot of text effects and font, and could be edited quickly and pretty simply. It was useful for achieving the distorted kind of font and old projector style shaky text, both great horror conventions, and added to the atmosphere of the teaser. It compatibility with Finalcut pro meant I could easily insert text in-between shots or on top of shots without trouble.
Dafont.com
Dafont proved invaluable during the ancillary tasks as most of the stock fonts available on todays computers look alright for smart documents, but aren’t really suited to creative and genre specific needs. Dafont has a useful preview function where you can see your title, heading, bullet point etc. in all the available fonts in each category, this saved a lot of time. This also saved a lot of money, as traditionally these fonts would have been created by a graphic designer at a high cost, but Dafont allows you to use a as professional looking font for free. Its font formats were also compatible with photoshop, which obviously made things a lot easier and meant I could apply all the photoshop effect to them and edit them quickly.
Creative Commons Sound Sites
These websites helped us find free sound effects to use via creative commons rights. Make things a lot cheaper and saved a lot of recording time, was mostly used for banging, slams and heartbeat sound effects, just to heighten the tension.
The web 2.0 approach to showing my work to teachers was very different to previous methods and introduced a new dynamic. One of the weaknesses of the web 2.0 style of evaluation is that not everyone in our group knew how to use these websites straight away; also it can be viewed by anyone at anytime so the threat of plagiarism must obviously be quite high. Another weakness with using this method was that due to the huge amount of multimedia available on the websites it was very easy to get distracted from the task at hand, which was never a problem when the Internet was not used.
Blogger
Blogging was also a new concept that I used during the project and I learnt how to set up and maintain a blog both useful skills in this day and age. Having a blog that is editable and viewable at any time, means that wherever I am, I can work on my coursework, an obvious improvement over old methods. Having it viewable at any time also means that teachers can view and offer tips in real time, thereby enhancing the blog as soon as areas for improvement have been spotted. . Blogger ended up becoming a very interactive style blog towards the end, with hyperlinks, pictures and videos making plain text more interesting
Youtube
Youtube makes it a lot easier for me to do research wherever I am and it has compatibility with the blogging website, making it easy to upload videos too it, this would have been a lot harder using previous methods. When evaluating through audience feedback, I found uploading the videos through Youtube extremely useful to show the teaser in a variety of places and situations. Youtube was really useful during this project as it can be used to view plenty of modern teaser trailers that I could draw inspiration from, before Youtube was around the only option would have been going to the cinema to view them, this would be a lot more time consuming and less effective. Youtube was also used to host the trailer so it could be shown to lots of different audiences, giving the opportunity for lots of audience feedback.
Flickr
Flickr was another new website that I started using during the project. It became very useful for its ability to annotate pictures as well as hosting them, which I found invaluable during the research phase. Flickr, which again works with blogger which is (very) useful, was used to annotate still in the research phase and then analyse my teaser stills in the evaluation phase, Flickr makes annotating very simple and easy to do.
During the construction phase, modern social networking websites made it easy for us to arrange when we were free, we used Facebook, which allows us to all communicate freely, arrange shooting times and check other group member’s calendars. This was much more extensive than old methods of meeting up. I also used facebook at the evaluation phase after I had shown it to audiences in my college and got their feedback, I posted it to my friends on Facebook, which made it visible to about 500 people in my target audience, which greatly improved the amount of feedback I had.
Google Images
Not that new anymore but still very useful, Google images proved invaluable during the research phase, easily browsing through the internet to find relevant pictures to be used for research and ideas for the ancillary tasks. It was also used, in conjunction with Youtube, to build my horror mood board, and the amount of results it got back, combined with being able to only search for specific sizes gave me exactly the kind of images I needed. Google images does have a few weaknesses though, in that it cannot search for certain types of pictures eg. Creepy, as it relies on the names of pictures, which is usually named after the source material, meaning I had to know which movies were creepy before starting the search
Camcorder
The camcorder we used was vital in recording our trailer. We made use of the inbuilt microphone aswell, making it possible to record audio and visual at the same time, this meant we could spend less time filming and more time on the other elements. We recorded using a4:3 ratio, as our camera didn’t have traditional wide screen 16:9 mode however we made good use of this, as it meant it could easily be uploaded to Youtube and shown to others. We used some of the features on the camcorder such as backlight and night vision, to achieve some visuals with a darkened mood, and we also used it to make settings that had bad lighting seem more aesthetically pleasing. One of the most useful features about the camcorder was that the viewing screen could be turned to many different angles, meaning angles that would be impossible for a person to view from could still be captured and monitored effectively.
Tripod
. Tripod was used consistently throughout the filming and photography process. We sued it to maintain steady shots, and avoid blurring the pictures, although we did use a lot of handheld style filming, the tripod meant we could add a level of professionalism to the footage, always very important in trailers. We could also use it to film from areas that would not be possible with out the added height of the tripod
Camera
. I used a ancillary tasks and made great use of its flash function to capture dark scenes. While filming I bought the camera with us, so when we were filming a shot that would also work great as a still, I could capture it, straight away, this is how I got my poster image. Using a digital camera was really useful, as it is cheap to use on a budget, and pictures can be viewed instantly, which is extremely useful in dark situations where it is very easy for the picture to become blurred or unviewable. Also it can be easily transferred to computer and stored, without threat of deterioration, we made use of this by trying out many different images with the other elements of the ancillary tasks in Photoshop to see which fitted best
Garageband
Garageband was very useful, as it allowed for a lot of creativity and can deliver high quality recordings on a budget. It saved a lot of money compared to recording the actual instruments and routing effects units through them. It comes with a wide array of instruments and most have a modulation and pitch shift function, adding a sense of dynamics. For a music production suite, it was relatively simple to use, obviously I was at an advantage, having done music tech and understanding it, but even the people in my group who had never tried something like this before found they understood it within a few minutes. The keyboard function, which allowed you to use a qwerty keyboard as a midi keyboard was put to good use, since we didn’t have an actual midi keyboard to use, we recorded all our stuff using this method (in most music production suites such as Cubase and Reason, this is not possible). Its compatibility with Finalcut pro was also very useful as it meant we could watch our trailer alongside our track at any stage through the music making. This was obviously very useful for keeping the music in time with the shots and following the mood.
Photoshop
. Photoshop was obviously one of the most important tools for the ancillary tasks, and has enough effects to achieve a high level of looks. Aswell as the ancillary tasks, I also utilized it for my moodboard, extracting stills from trailers and the montage above. It allowed me to import many different layers and text fonts, aswell as work from a semi transparent drawn template. The main things I used it for, editing wise, was sizing, positioning, colour changing and contrast/brightness changes, all of which made it appear more professional. It basically has enough effects to achieve any kind of picture you want, and its editing functions make it very easy to see how certain parts would look differently, and then change them back. The effects also make it easy to make pictures look great even if they are slightly out of focus or blurred, they can be edited to look great. Without it my ancillary tasks would of looked a lot less professional. Text can also be made to look a lot better using effects such as outer glows and shadows to create something interesting and eye-catching. When I got feedback from my audience on their reactions to the poster and magazine I found it very easy to change any element they didn’t like.
Finalcut pro
Final cut pro was new to me for this project and I have learned a lot about it, how it can be used to give a seamless finish to a film. It was the editing software we had to use, and this type of editing is vastly superior to the older methods, using glue and tape, and saves a lot of time and allows for more creativity. The capture function saves a lot of time, as it allows shots to captured straight off the tape, which I used to give myself more time for the other parts of the trailer. One of the weaknesses of this method is that it is not a simple to use program unlike programs such as Garageband. However favouring function over ease of use means it has a wealth of different effect that I could use in my project and is also used by many media professionals. There is so many effect in this program, which is so useful for horror, where shots are more expressionistic than naturalistic so all the effects can be used to connote moods and atmospheres. One of the main effects I used was a sudden flash that I inserted between shots to surprise the audience and keep them engaged. Cross fading was also used a lot in my trailer and helps set the mood for it and look professional. The timeline makes it very easy to cut between shots, and the audio channel is simple to use. This program has compatibility with Garageband and Livetype that I used to decrease the time spent working around different program formats etc.
Livetype
This was a program that I used for the text in the trailer. It gave me a lot of text effects and font, and could be edited quickly and pretty simply. It was useful for achieving the distorted kind of font and old projector style shaky text, both great horror conventions, and added to the atmosphere of the teaser. It compatibility with Finalcut pro meant I could easily insert text in-between shots or on top of shots without trouble.
Dafont.com
Dafont proved invaluable during the ancillary tasks as most of the stock fonts available on todays computers look alright for smart documents, but aren’t really suited to creative and genre specific needs. Dafont has a useful preview function where you can see your title, heading, bullet point etc. in all the available fonts in each category, this saved a lot of time. This also saved a lot of money, as traditionally these fonts would have been created by a graphic designer at a high cost, but Dafont allows you to use a as professional looking font for free. Its font formats were also compatible with photoshop, which obviously made things a lot easier and meant I could apply all the photoshop effect to them and edit them quickly.
Creative Commons Sound Sites
These websites helped us find free sound effects to use via creative commons rights. Make things a lot cheaper and saved a lot of recording time, was mostly used for banging, slams and heartbeat sound effects, just to heighten the tension.
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
It is the task of distributors to find out what audience will want to see the film the most and attract the biggest audience. Of course the film industry is product driven as in if people don't want to see the film marketing is unlikely to persuade them see it, in this respect it is important that distributors check out if a film has a audience that will be able to create enough revenue. A distributor will usually have talks with the filmmakers and producers (that will of thought a lot about who the film is aimed and how it will look before shooting), the exhibitors (whether they will play it or not) when deciding whether to take on a film but will talk to a lot of other people e.g. publicists and advertising agencies throughout. Another aspect they consider when deciding to distribute is if it has any imaginative ideas or a 'hook that could be worked around to generate a marketing campaign.
Star power, name directors, being an event film can all work as marketing 'hooks'. Films 'marketability' will also play a key role in deciding the marketing strategies with any target audience being thought out and trying to discover the best way to speak to them. As well as the theatrical release there are a few other areas in which the film can generate revenue that the distributors will need to think of such as: DVDs, pay/subscription television and free-to-air television. Some films end up getting most of their revenue from this area. The marketing has to be almost perfect to convince the audience to see their film with over 500 films released a year, there’s a lot of competition for the public to choose between.
There are numerous ways to make a film seem more appealing such as displaying any awards it receives, displaying critic’s ratings, sequel or franchised story. The marketing objective of any film is to create visibility, raise awareness and engage interest more than the other films being advertised.
There are a few ways of reaching the consumer such as posters, online and mobile, trailers, media advertising and publicity.
The most effective is trailers as they make the viewers want to see more and let them see the good elements. This is the common way for the distributor to advertise in cinemas, advertising on TV is often very costly and the expected return cannot always justify it.
Star power, name directors, being an event film can all work as marketing 'hooks'. Films 'marketability' will also play a key role in deciding the marketing strategies with any target audience being thought out and trying to discover the best way to speak to them. As well as the theatrical release there are a few other areas in which the film can generate revenue that the distributors will need to think of such as: DVDs, pay/subscription television and free-to-air television. Some films end up getting most of their revenue from this area. The marketing has to be almost perfect to convince the audience to see their film with over 500 films released a year, there’s a lot of competition for the public to choose between.
There are numerous ways to make a film seem more appealing such as displaying any awards it receives, displaying critic’s ratings, sequel or franchised story. The marketing objective of any film is to create visibility, raise awareness and engage interest more than the other films being advertised. There are a few ways of reaching the consumer such as posters, online and mobile, trailers, media advertising and publicity.
The most effective is trailers as they make the viewers want to see more and let them see the good elements. This is the common way for the distributor to advertise in cinemas, advertising on TV is often very costly and the expected return cannot always justify it.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Representation of women
Much research has shown the stereotypes of women as domestic, marital and a consumer is usual in most areas of the media however modern horror challenges this stereotype a lot. Women are represented in quite a different way in horror than other genres. However a lot of the basic conventions are still in there. The women on the ‘good side’ will always be attractive; I cannot recall a single movie when the innocent girls are unattractive. This is due to what’s known as the ‘male gaze’. The idea that the media always portrays things as through the eyes of a heterosexual male and is down to the face that heterosexual males make up the best part of the viewing public thus making sense to make it most relevant to them. The ‘Good girls’ are always represented as attractive as the males will enjoy watching them more. Mostly women are not shown as antagonists in most circumstances since that would conflict with the slight innocence and passiveness seen in all female characters. A long running trend in teen horrors is that the least innocent girls will fall victim to the antagonist first with the protagonist being an innocent girl that in most cases survives. This brings up a few questions about representation – why does this theme keep recurring and what effect does it have on society. One theorist concluded that the reason for this was down to the audience empathizing with the protagonist and releasing their own unconscious feelings of fear thus the innocent characters would be easiest to portray through.How women are represented in horror
Up until the eighties women in films were usually used as love objects or rescue objects for the male hero. They were sexual objects, helpless, dumb and weak, needing the male character to seduce them or save them. They were one dimensional characters and nowadays would be seen as a very sexist representation. The male gaze prevented any of characters as being seen as more than sex objects. Their addition to the plot was usually to be saved or be seduced.
This is still seen in films today such as Cloverfield or Die Hard and (especially James bond but it is based on books from a more sexist age) but it has almost completely vanished from horror. This is because horrors today are less about quests and more and survival. Another important factor in this change was ‘Alien’ in 1979.This brought a tomboyish heroine in as the main protagonist and although strange at the time, was a box office smash and brought in a new era of females being seen as more than just sex objects and becoming victim heroes. The victim hero is usually tomboyish e.g. Ridley Scott and may or may not be attractive but is not very sexual. This is to prevent the viewer using their ‘male gaze’ and seeing the victim hero as a sexual object. This type of film became very successful during the eighties and usually contained a ununderstood antagonist that seemed inhuman, these became known as ‘slasher movies’. The formulaic idea of a female victim hero and the inhuman antagonist was copied many times and most of the first movies spawned many sequels e.g. Halloween, Nightmare on elm street or
Friday the 13th.In Halloween the lead character Laurie is not lustful and seen as more interested in her studies than guys this is a clear example of the victim hero being a non sexual character and surviving perhaps because of it. The other female characters in Halloween are very sexually active and could be seen as the kind of stereotypical sexualised women common in pre 1970 movies, these characters all meet grisly ends, being killed by what could be seen as phallic symbol, a knife. This seems to hint that the stereotypical sexualised women would not fare well in a dangerous situation whereas un-sexual girls could cope. A Freud theory is that female victim hero’s can’t attack the enemy directly and need a phallic symbol such as a knife or gun to get the masculinity needed to beat the enemy. Although this might seem like an abstract idea it is seen in a lot of horror films, although it could be argued that a phallic object such as a knife or gun is needed to defeat the enemy anyway since the character is lacking in physical strength. This was a step forward in the characterizing of women in movies but it wasn’t until the 90s with the serial killer thrillers that we started to see women high ranking jobs with authority or in their older ages.
Friday, 20 November 2009
Horror Moodboard
This is my idea of what is scary in horror movies. The focus is mostly on deformed people as this is great for unsettling people. The use of darkness and shadow also plays a big part in fear aswell as most of the pictures I have picked out are in dark situations. I find that distored people have alot more to scare than common monsters. Another important part for scary images is eyes the mouth eyes picture and zombie picture both show distored eyes which I think tap into primal fears we have.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
When a stranger calls analysis
The trailer indicates the genre through the use of ominous music. Another indicator of genre is the aggressive and monstrous antagonist which is common in nearly all horrors. The setting and mise en scene is also a great indicator of genre, alone in a house at night, and a lot of shadows rather than well lit rooms add to the tension.
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Eden Lake
Eden Lake Trailer
The trailer begins with a seemlingly harmless start but the ominous music suggests otherwise. It defiantly indicates the genre with the music, and the inter-titles and on screen action. The flash editing also implies the horror genre. One of the things that makes this trailer effective is the way it makes the antagonists seem annoying but harmless at the beginning and then gradually turns them into psychos that must kills the two main characters. The ending shows the title of the film to make sure the viewer remembers the film if they enjoyed the trailer. The music changes noticeably at this point to make sure the viewer takes notice of the title. The trailer picks out a few aspects that the target audience will be interested in, primarily the action and slasher elements and also the lower class nature of the antagonists. These are shown through short shots of the aspects. The story is explained through the speech of the characters and through inter-titles although these only give the set up as it seems more involved in the film. The inter-titles use black background and white text as it fits in more with the genre. The music builds up through the trailer without a resolution, this leaves the audience wanting more
Monday, 2 November 2009
Friday the 13th analysis
Friday the 13th teaserr
The teaser starts with the conventions of showing the companies involved, letting the audience know right away that it is made by famous compaines. The first shot is of a lake at sunset and follows the convention of starting slow before raising the tension. The mood builds up using darkness and slow fades puncuated with very short shots of a torch being shined. The trailer is effective as it doesn't really let you see whats going on and you are only allowed a little detail towards the end. The trailer uses a voice over of Jason's mum talking about him, most people will know the story and reconize what franchise it will be through this, the end is the camera panning around the mask which is the trademark of the killer, which demonstrates how famous the franchise is. Darkness is also used throughout the trailer, not letting the viewer see much makes them want to see more as well as being scary.
The teaser starts with the conventions of showing the companies involved, letting the audience know right away that it is made by famous compaines. The first shot is of a lake at sunset and follows the convention of starting slow before raising the tension. The mood builds up using darkness and slow fades puncuated with very short shots of a torch being shined. The trailer is effective as it doesn't really let you see whats going on and you are only allowed a little detail towards the end. The trailer uses a voice over of Jason's mum talking about him, most people will know the story and reconize what franchise it will be through this, the end is the camera panning around the mask which is the trademark of the killer, which demonstrates how famous the franchise is. Darkness is also used throughout the trailer, not letting the viewer see much makes them want to see more as well as being scary.
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Teaser Trailers
Avatar Teaser Trailer
Up teaser
This Teaser is very simple since there is no text just the moving house flying. This works wells as it really makes the viewer want to see more of it and understand it. The genre is evident through the use of the bright colours and the pixar style of animation. The name of the movie isn't included but its unique enough to be remembered in its idea of a floating house.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Propp theroy's in the shining
I think prop’s theories work to an extent but I found they did not work in the order prop described. A lot of the events did happen as they were described but in different orders. I think this is because horror films follow different routes to conventional stories with the villain being concealed and plot elements being added slowly to add to the fear. Prop’s theories on the character types were defiantly right though and made me think a lot about characters and their roles and came in useful. The story elements give you a lot more depth to analyse the story, which are also very useful when analysing.
Monday, 5 October 2009
The return of the repressed
The return of the repressed is the idea that emotions or thoughts that are not socially acceptable are repressed into the unconscious and eventually rise as symptoms or when they have the socially acceptable moment to come out. People, Freud says, are primal beings at heart and still have the urges to kill anyone that annoys us or rape someone but we suppress these urges due to the nature of society. These feelings cannot be fully destroyed however and are only repressed leaving traces of these urges in our behavior. An example of this would be the idea of people watching so called 'torture porn' films and enjoying them due to their repressed desire to kill.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tormented Analysis
This is my horror trailer. I think it gives a clear indication of the genre although it starts off as looking like a teen drama before adding a horror element. This works well as it demonstrates that this film isn't just a straightforward horror. The trailer starts out by listing the associated film company, this is a convention and it shows that the film is associated with big companies. The name and release date of the film are included along the bottom the entire way through the trailer to ensure it is remembered. The music starts off reflecting its environment as a house party having some dance music playing; this gives it the image of teen house party and adds to the mood. When it is revealed that someone has died the music cuts out for emphasis. The build up music then begins which changes the mood and make the viewer want to see more. The story is told by clips of the characters talking that allow the viewer to get the idea of the story and connotes normal conversation. The trailer also implies characters dieing from an unknown killer similar to slasher movies giving more indications of the genre.
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