For my A2 advanced portfolio, we were asked to create a new horror movie
promotional package including a trailer, movie poster and a film magazine front
cover. Me and my group thoroughly enjoyed planning and creating our practical
pieces and overall we feel we created professional looking media pieces. Our
three pieces together form an appealing promotional package and they all follow
certain codes and conventions.
Codes and conventions are key elements that prop up continuously
throughout media texts. Codes and conventions allow audiences to recognise what
the media text is and what genre it is. The overviews of horror movie posters,
trailers and magazine front covers allowed me to be more familiar with
conventions and to see repeated patterns that cropped up. For example,
horror movie trailers have dark lighting, characters that scream; therefore it
becomes clear to the audience that this is a trailer promoting a new horror
movie. Codes and conventions are important because it helps the audience
recognise the media text they are looking at. For my media production, I used a
various amount of codes and conventions in order to notify the audience that
the media text is promoting a new horror movie, and also to give the practical
pieces a professional and believable look. In order to become familiar with
codes and conventions for the horror genre, I analysed many different posters,
trailers, and magazine front covers that were promoting existing movies. From
analysing these different media texts, I was able to recognise certain elements
that continuously propped up again and again which clearly showed it was a
horror movie. In terms of the horror movie trailer me and my group created,
there were a lot of codes and conventions we followed in order to make it a
believable trailer. Narrative structure is a key convention of a horror movie
trailer which consists of an equilibrium, a disruption which is followed by a
fast montage and then sometimes a sting, which is a small clip which is made to
frighten to audience. This narrative structure is a structure that the majority
of horror movie trailers use, because it creates a build up of tension that
frightens the audience. For our horror movie trailer, we decided to follow this
narrative structure because we felt that it was effective in building up
tension until the fast montage which will initially scare the audience. Our
trailer began with our main character seeing her mother again for the first
time, and then taking her back home, but moves on to this normality being
disrupted by the mother being possessed. We have included a fast montage of
action that happens within the film, and we have also included a sting at the
very end of the trailer. Our sting consisted of a loud stab of sound and the
antagonist quickly crawling towards the camera. This is similar to a section in
'The Last Exorcism' trailer when the main character is crawling towards the
camera, however this is not the sting but were used this as inspiration for our
sting. Other codes and conventions within horror movie trailer include dark
lighting and screams, because dark lighting sets a dull atmosphere for the
trailer, and screams are natural reactions to fear, therefore they are included
to emphasise how scary the movie will be. In the trailer for 'The Strangers'
there is dull lighting throughout, which emphasises the fact that there are
people hiding around the house to torment this couple. In our trailer we have included
dark lighting throughout, to create an eerie effect, we also had limited access
to lighting therefore we had to use to light that was available to us at the
time. In the section of our trailer where our protagonist is running, we turned
of the lights and left one light on which created that eerie effect and also
emphasises the fact that she is running away from the darkness. We did not
include many screams; however we did manage to put a few into our trailer
within the fast montage which gave it a jumpy effect on the audience. Screams
are not used a lot in 'The Strangers' trailer, again they have included a few,
but like our trailer, the other sound added on top of the footage creates the
best effect. By using horror genre specific conventions I feel that i have
successfully been able to draw in my audience, by using conventions such as
dark lighting, eerie sounds and screams. Other genre specific horror
conventions that are used are isolated settings, which can be seen in movies
such as "The Strangers" and "Amityville Horror". These
movies include isolated houses almost in the middle of nowhere which means they
cannot get help from people around them. In my trailer we tried to portray an isolated
home, however it did not come across as completely isolated but it does look
like a suburban area which is also common in horror movies. Specific
supernatural conventions also have been used in my horror
movie promotional package in order to fulfil my audience’s needs.
In supernatural horror movies you would expect to see some form of
demonic force that is haunting someone or possessing them like in "The
Devil Inside" where the eldest woman has been possessed. In
our supernatural movie we have also included a demonic force that has
possessed the mother. These supernatural elements have been hinted at
within our trailer in order for the audience to recognise the sub-genre. Stuart
Hall says that media practitioners use codes and conventions in order to
control how an audience interprets something. Therefore we have used
codes and conventions of supernatural horror movies so the
audience can notice the sub-genre straight away. Horror movie posters
also have specific codes and conventions which allow them to be recognised as
horror. Some of these conventions include a main image, film title, tagline,
institutional information placed along the bottom of the frame, and a release
date. Our horror movie poster included a main image that took up the whole
frame, which is typical for a horror movie poster because the main image should
be the main focus. Our main image is particularly disturbing, which again
tends to be something that is included on a horror movie poster, which helps
establish genre. The fact that our image is disturbing means that it will
appeal to audiences who love horror movies, and they will see straight away
that it is within the horror genre. Using a disturbing image will fulfil the
needs of our target audience because this is how they can establish genre. 'The
Possession' movie poster also consists of a disturbing main image, and we felt
that the poster wa svery effective in promoting the movie therefore decided to
use an image that was similar.
We also placed are film title and tagline just under the main image, which is a typical layout convention of a horror movie poster, because this allows the main image to stay in main focus, however the title will still be seen. 'The Uninvited' movie poster also follows this convention where the title is placed underneath the main focus of the image. This convention allows the image to be the main focus of the page and this is usually because the image is usually more captivating than the text within the frame.
Institutional information was included on our poster but like existing posters, we placed it right at the bottom of the frame because it is the least important information on the page. The majority of movie posters such as 'The Possession' 'Skeleton Key' and 'Friday 13th' all have the insitutuional information placed at the bottom of the page because the bottom third of the frame is usually where the least important information goes. By looking at how many posters follow this convention we also decided to place our institutional information at the bottom of our poster because we feel it was too common to change.
We decided to add 'Based On True Events' at the top of the poster
because this allows the audience to believe that what happens in the movie is
true, therefore will encourage them to watch the movie because it becomes more
believable. Based on a true story has been featured on 'The
Possession' movie poster and inspired by true events has been placed on 'The
Strangers'
Film magazines have set conventions which include a bold masthead, along
with a captivating main image. Other smaller images and a puff are also
optional conventions that are usually seen on film magazines. For our film
magazine front cover, we decided not to base our magazine around one genre,
however we did a Halloween special.
Our front cover had a main image that was the main focus of the frame which allows the audience to see that this is the movie being promoted. Again the image is disturbing which therefore will allow audiences to establish genre and also adds to the fact that this is a Halloween special edition. The image is typical for a horror movie magazine because it is there to frighten the audience. However our magazine is not specific to the horror genre but we have made it a Halloween special edition.
We also have a bold masthead that stands out, which allows brand identity to be recognised and it stands out nicely on the page which will allow readers to notice it. Other movie magazines such as 'Total Film' and 'Empire' both have bold mastheads, which shows that it is a convention to have a masthead that stands out on the page and will allow audiences to recognise brand identity.
Other things we included on our front cover was a puff, which was not typically in the conventional place, and a banner of images that went along the bottom third of the magazine. There were also conventions that we decided to challenge or change instead of use them conventionally because we felt inspired to be more original.
Our three practical pieces form a promotional package for a new horror
movie being released. I feel that individually, they all successfully promote
‘Darkness Within’, however as a package, they work better because they all
provide different elements that will intrigue the target audience. As a three
piece package, I think they will effectively encourage audiences to go and
watch this film, and also successfully frighten the audience. The promotional
package will be successful in promoting ‘Darkness Within’ for various reasons.
Firstly, the poster is highly disturbing, in terms of the main image, therefore
would be eye catching and would encourage audiences to read the rest
of the information on the poster. The image is disturbing because the
antagonist looks possessed and her facial features look demonic, this makes the
package more effective because it really captures the idea of horror and the audience
will want to know what is happening to the woman. The film title itself is also
very mysterious, and will leave audiences wondering what this darkness is, and
they will want to uncover the narrative by watching the movie. The film title
is mysterious because 'Darkness Within' indicates that something is wrong with
the woman, but audiences will be left wandering what this darkness is until
they watch he movie. The magazine front cover uses the same image as
the poster, therefore creating a symbiotic link, and this will become easy to
recognise if people have seen the poster already. By recognising the image,
they may be interested in the film, therefore will buy the magazine in order to
read further information on the film. The film trailer, I feel is the most
powerful media piece that will encourage audiences to watch the movie, because
it reveals some of the narrative to the audience, but also has moments where
they will jump, which will encourage them to watch the movie, because people
enjoy the adrenaline rush of feeling scared. The sting is the main section of
the trailer that will make audiences jump because it is very unexpected and had
a loud stab of sound. The section in our trailer when the door suddenly slams
would also make an audience jump because again its unexpected and has enhanced
sound to make it more effective. The title of the movie is featured over all
three practical pieces, therefore will help the movie be recognised by
audiences, and once they see one of the practical pieces, they will most likely
try and find out more information by looking at the other two pieces. The
three pieces complement each other because they all have a symbiotic link that
allows them to become a package. At the end of the trailer, there is a final
strap that included the title of the film and the tagline, and on the poster
this is also the same case. By having this on both practical pieces it allows
the two to complement one another because by seeing the poster, they would want
to see the trailer. The symbiotic link was created by using the same fonts on
each of the three pieces which will allow audiences to recognise the movie. The
main antagonist featured on all three pieces which again creates a symbiotic
link because the audience will remember this character from all three media
pieces. I feel that we have appealed to our target audience successfully
because our target audience enjoys supernatural horror movies. Within the
trailer we have included elements that hint at the supernatural sub genre, and
being a fan of this genre, it would directly appeal to our target audience.
Elements within the trailer that hint at the supernatural sub genre
include the section when the door slams without anyone touching it, and when
the curtain gets re opened without anyone being there. These elements we
included will hint to the audience that there is a supernatural force. He is
also someone who enjoys reading interviews in film magazines therefore we
created "shutter" which is not only based around the horror genre but
we decided to make a Halloween special edition which will encourage
them to buy the magazine because he is a horror fan.
Our target audience is dominantly male, however some females are
included. He is an internet savvy, typical lad that loves watching horror
movies, especially supernatural. In order to carry out post production research
for the ancillary tasks, we posted an online survey which fifteen
people responded to. From this survey we found that many people classed our
work as professional which shows that we have followed codes and
conventions well. Many people said the main image was eye catching because of
it's disturbing nature, which again shows we have created something truly
frightening. Font was something else that was very popular on our ancillary
tasks, they said it was eye catching and looked professional. For
our trailer feedback I got four individuals to sit and watch our trailer, and
then I filmed them answering a set of questions about the trailer and what
could be improved. In terms of the trailer, we received a lot of
positive feedback which has made us happy with our finished piece. They all
thought the trailer was effective because they felt there was a good build up
of tension leading up to the fast montage. The fast montage seemed to
be the most popular section of our trailer because essentially it was the most
exciting element. The narrative was well understood by all of the people who
watched it, which shows that the structure of our trailer worked well to create
a story, and it revealed a sufficient amount of the narrative. Our
sub genre was also recognised by all individuals which shows that we successfully
used supernatural codes and conventions in order to make our genre noticeable.
The editing in the fast montage and the sting were the most praised sections of
our trailer, because they said they editing was fast and sharp that built up
tension leading to the sting. They also said that lighting was effective
throughout the whole trailer because it was dark but you can still see what
is happening and also the use of sound at the start of the trailer
was praised for being eerie. However our trailer was critised for being to slow
at the start of the trailer, the focus group suggested that we pick up the pace
slightly at the start of the trailer because it drags for too long building up
to the tension in the fast montage. From this post production research,
we learnt as a group that our ancillary tasks were very professional looking,
and they followed codes and conventions well. The trailer feedback was positive
and negative. The positives were mainly based around the fast montage which
shows that we could use the editing on Sony Vegas well to create something that
had tension and speed. However the pace leading up to the fast montage was
critised which has shown us that we could improve the footage that we have
selected in the build up and maybe build up the speed more leading up to the
montage. We also feel that after receiving feedback off fellow media students
and our teachers, that we need to improve the sound we have selected for
certain sections of the trailer because some of it cannot be easily understood
in terms of dialogue.
Here is one of the four videos filmed for post production research for
our trailer.
During
the research and planning stage, we used a range of different technology in
order to research existing media texts and keep a track of our personal work.
The internet was the main source of technology needed for the research and
planning stage because it provided us with a lot of information needed to
inspire our own work.
Google
was helpful because when carrying out case studies, we needed as much
information as possible to relate it to our own narrative of our horror movie,
which Google allowed us to do. Google was my main source of information
throughout the research and planning stage, especially when carrying out case
studies on directors. Eli Roth had his own website which i found
on Google, and this allowed me to collect the information i needed for
this task.
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YouTube
was one of the main websites used during the research and planning stage
because we needed to continuously watch horror movie trailers in order to
analyse them and use them as inspiration for our own trailer. YouTube was also
used to research make up techniques we used for our horror movie, such as old
age make up for our main antagonist, and different step by step techniques to
help use the editing software, such as how to create a news strap on Sony
Vegas.
We used
an SLR camera to take practice and real shots for our ancillary tasks,
using a high mega pixel camera allowed our images to have high
quality. Through using an SLR camera I learned different photography
skills and how to create a specific effect by changing the angle of the shot
etc. For example, when taking photo's for my ancillary tasks, we tried out many
different angles and shots in order to get it correct.
Blogger
was another main source of technology used, which allowed us to create a
journey of all our work that we have created throughout this project.
Considering I have never used a blog before, I feel that I picked up how to use
it fairly quickly. By using a blog, I was able to quickly edit any work, and
upload my work as I go, it also gave us the chance to use a range of
multi-media techniques in order to present our work such as videos and
slideshows. Over the period of using blogger, I have developed many
skills, such as learning how to embed a YouTube video onto a post, and I learnt
how to include various multi-media effects. Blogger was quick and sufficient to
complete work, and presented my work almost as a journey which allows the
person marking it to mark it in order. Blogger can be used at home, in school
and whilst you are on the go because you can access it on your phone, which
made my research and planning process easier because if i needed to
edit something quickly it was done in a matter of minutes.
A
Panasonic video camera was used to film our film trailer. Being able to film
our trailer, allowed us to develop many skills as media practitioners. We used
various camera shots and tried many different filming techniques in order to
create originality within our trailer. For example, when filming our original
hallway scene, we put the camera on a hoover in order for it to have the same
effect as a tracking shot. For our ancillary tasks, we used an SLR camera to
take our images and then we edited them on Adobe Photoshop.
Sildeshare
was also used within my research and planning for a couple of sections, such as
presenting my post production results and my case study of Eli Roth. Slideshare
allowed my work to be presented in a formal and sophisticated manor, and added
more multi-media to my bog.
Adobe
Photoshop was the programme we used in order to create our ancillary tasks,
where it allowed us to edit the images we took in order to make them
frightening and add text over the page to make it look like a poster/magazine.
By liquefying the mouth on the main image, we were able to create a demonic
look for this woman, to make it look more disturbing. The liquefying tool was
easy to use, however because we were changing a small section of the image, it
was hard to make it look not edited. My skills in using Photoshop have highly
developed over the two year media course. At the start of year 12 I had a basic
understanding of Photoshop from studying media at GSCE, but after using
Photoshop in year 12, I went into year 13 being able to use Photoshop
confidentially and effectively.
For our
film trailer, we started off by using Adobe Premier Pro. It allowed our trailer
to flow nicely and it had a range of effects that made our trailer more
believable. However, we found the process of Adobe Premier Pro too long,
because we had many complications during the process, which resulting in our
work being deleted. To stop this happening again, we decided to use a different
programme that we found online called Sony Vegas. This programme was simple and
easy to use, and we have managed to create a successful trailer using this
software. The reason why we decided to finish our trailer on Sony Vegas is
because the layout was similar to Premier pro, however all of the tools and
effects were easier to find, and cutting and editing different clips had a
simpler process. We chose to use a programme that was simple for us to use, and
because we had a lot of filming issues, it allowed to edit our trailer quickly
as well. Cutting and trimming footage on Sony Vegas was one of the tools that
was simpler than Premier Pro, which made editing a lot faster. Finding audio
and video transitions was also a lot easier to find and it was also easier to
remove if we did not like it without ruining our whole project.
For our
post production research, I used my samsung galaxy phone to film my target
audience giving me feedback on my trailer. I decided to use my phone because
the quality of the camera was very high and it was easy and quick to upload
onto my blog.
As a
conclusion, our advanced portfolio overall has been a challenging yet
enjoyable experience From working in a group, I have learnt to
co-operate in a team and combine our ideas to develop a horror movie
promotional package. However working in a group also had it's down sides
because sometimes our ideas clashed, which created issues, and we also had time
management issues because of our own personal schedules. In terms of our practical
pieces, we managed to follow codes and conventions in order to create
identifiable pieces. There were not many codes and conventions we challenged
because we felt that in order to create professional looking pieces we needed
to follow these set conventions in order for audiences to identify the genre.
with reference to our post production research, I feel that it helped
us improve our work further because the constructive critisms
we received we took on board and used. However it also showed us that
our work was professional and gave us hope in our pieces.
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