NOTE TO EXAMINER

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Enigma Trailer

Final Trailer

Enigma Magazine Cover

Final Magazine Cover

Evaluation Question 1

Our media product supports many of the conventions of professional media products. The reason for this is because while we where filming, we kept all the specific rules in mind and made sure we didn't break any rules.

For example the 180-degree rule when we are filming, we have many shots throughout our media piece where we panned the camera and when doing that it is very easy to break the 180-degree rule.

We found ourselves filming scenes many times over, this was not always because we messed up the filming, sometimes the characters minor facial expressions were not suited for the scene, the scene was instigating horror but their facial expressions suggested otherwise, to keep consistency and the horror theme going we had to re film and make sure everyone knew the how they had to act specifically.

Another way, in which we have stuck with the conventions of a horror movie, is through the use of sound. Almost all horror movies have a high content of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The sound alone is usually enough for the audience to distinguish what is going on in the trailer, I believe our trailer does this too as without video and sound it is possible to distinguish between a tension building scene and a shock scene.

One thing that we have done is kept our whole media production in black and white, from the people who have viewed it we have had the same feedback. We are fully aware how this may challenge the conventions of a real horror trailer. However there are two ways to look at this, you can look at it in the form of consistency, in that sense we've stuck to the book and kept the whole horror trailer in black and white. However when you look at other horror trailers they are never all in black and white, they may be mostly but there is always a scene that has colour and this adds effect. The one issue we had with filming was that the times we got together to film tended to be during the day, so the scenes we did film had to be darkened and when using the Mac computer and darkening the scenes, it did not always look to good when they where darkened so we had to play about with the balance of the colour, so by making them black and white and then messing around with the darkness of the scene we where able to come up with the darkness we needed, that is then when we applied it to everything because at the time it was consistency that we where looking to achieve.

Another way me have challenged the conventions of a real media products is the dialogue, we don't have much throughout our piece. This was the case last year also; we personally feel that we are able to achieve quite a professional piece without having much dialogue. When our media piece was viewed by our teacher this is one of the first thing he picked up on immediately which could have possibly been floor in the piece. So we made plans to do some voice over. One thing which I personally noticed was how we act when we are in front of the camera, we pay generous amounts of attention to how we act to be able to give as much detail away as we can through our actions, this is one as to why we don't have much dialogue in our finished media product. Dialogue

For example one of things we included was a P.O.V shot, and when we filmed this and reviewed it on the Mac computers it was obvious due to the shadow on the floor that the camera was in hand however we re filmed the scene and although in the second take we filmed it exactly the same however you could not fully tell that it was a camera in hand it looked as if the character was having a drink, which then brings us onto the other idea behind the filming, the characters have been previously drinking, instead of having dialogue to show this we show it through their actions. In the media piece it is shown through the silly mistakes and the dopiness that the characters portray, for example going to the wrong vehicle, walking in a strange slurry manner. Also the scene where the two main characters enter the vehicle, one of them instantly shuts his eyes in the car before the shock of something in the back seat scares them back out.

Another way we may have challenged the conventions of a typical horror trailer is with some of the scenes mentioned in the previous paragraph, although it is a horror trailer and the intention is to scare yet interest an audience, however the part where the two main characters are portraying that they are under the influence brings an element of comedy, because they go to the wrong car and then have a tug for the car keys and this comes across as quite funny because they aren't sober and they are not aware. this may challenge the conventions of a professional media product however i personally think it may be a good thing because it shows something slightly different and bending the conventions is not seen as a bad thing by us a group.

What may be seen as a flaw in our product as previously mentioned is we do not have enough monologue however we do try and make up for that with the filming. i can only be accounted for so much however because the narrative and the story need to come together and as we have not paid full attention to monologue we may have to add parts to make up and explain in our piece more of the story line, in the first few draughts of our media piece it was pretty obvious to ourselves and the people who viewed it that the story was not fully clear, and we did more filming to help clarify what the story was about however as I said there is only so much filming you can do for a trailer that is going to last roughly 2 minutes.

As well as our movie trailer our movie poster and magazine cover also challenge and support many conventions of horror texts.

Firstly our poster consists of dark bold colours throughout this is a very common aspect of most horror trailers and is instantaneously recognizable to the audience to be a visual metaphor for danger and evil. The use of colour on our magazine cover is also in support of horror conventions as it also uses large amounts of dark colours, however the magazine cover also utilises the common connotation of red and uses it to symbolize blood, which is an easy link to make with death or injury.

Furthermore our poster also challenges horror text conventions through the central image. In most horror posters the central image is often a very large and busy image. However in our poster the eye is very simple and blends into the background very easily. The reason we decided to this was because we believe our mind is capable of creating a unlimited amount of scary thoughts where as a poster can only show so much so by using a small image it makes the audience think of there own ideas of why there is a lack of imagery and opens up there mind to think of various scary scenarios.

In addition our magazine cover also challenges horror text conventions in many ways such as through the use of the smoked background. The way in which this challenges common convention is because with most mainstream film magazines such as empire have a blank solid coloured background unless the background is part of the central image. I believe challenging this convention resulted in a better magazine cover as it added another element and was visual more engaging.

Overall through out all of media products I think the combination of challenging and supporting convention has resulted in us creating a new twist on a classic horror. I believe this to be a positive thing as it still includes all aspects people love and associate with horror whilst simultaneously added new unexpected features, which catch the audience off-guard, or by surprise to heighten the entertainment or the way in which they take in information.

   

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

Every trailer is important to the promotion of a movie however this is not the most important factor of promoting a movie. The recognition of any movie trailer comes from three main products, which are:

Trailer – This is the first ad released when a movie has been made. There are many ways in which these trailers can be seen by the viewers. Depending on what the promoters would like to do they could show these trailers in between programmes which are the best way of bringing in the public to watch a movie. Other then this company places the trailer onto YouTube which is one of the biggest used online services. If the ad is good and attracts viewers they will possibly share the video around to other friends on social network sites like Facebook or Twitter.Poster – the film poster is another important factor which needs to coincide with the trailer, for e.g. you cannot have a comedy trailer if the poster is a horror. This is misleading and the producers will most likely loose viewers. Posters are used all around different cities being part of billboards, bus stops, and on walls. This is also a great way to bring in the viewers and for that reason the poster will need to be of high quality.Magazine – Many people read magazines, in these magazines there are many different advertisements which are about different purposes. To have a magazine front cover for a movie it will need to be the same quality as the poster is as it plays the same importance. This also attracts people to watch the movie.All three products are required to be of the same quality and used for the same purpose in this case to advertise the release of a movie.As we have decided to create a horror movie trailer we are also required to create a magazine front cover and also a poster. We have received feedback on our main product which is the trailer and the reactions we have got back is perfect as we did receive a few negative points however the trailer applies to the genre perfectly according to the audience the feedback also gave us an idea of the effectiveness of the trailer.  With the combination of the main product, poster and magazine it has made the chosen genre more applicable and effective. We were using Photoshop to create our final poster and magazine. The design of both products was due to the amount of research we had carried out, researching many horror posters and magazines. It is very important for any movie which contains all three products to keep the consistency of the colours used and the house style. We decided to use an image of the character for each of our products to keep consistent, linking to the actual trailer. On the poster we used a typical layout which every other professional poster has to keep ours professional. The layout contains the characters names at the top with the cast and crew at the bottom. When carrying out research we had found out the many people look towards the middle or slightly above which we experimented and worked. Due to the experiment we contained the item we wanted to be the most attracting in the middle and slightly above is an eye which contains a little message in it. When looking properly into the eye you will be able to see the little text saying no escape “NO ESCAPE” this text is very effective as it is placed in the eye. Looking into the eyes of people you can see what they are thinking or the mood that they could be in. In a horror movie when the eyes are looked into there is a clear sign of fear which is why we decided to have that message.  Also being consistent we have not used many colours on the poster as the actual trailer is shown in black and white which creates a special kind of atmosphere. Also the text is in your face and slightly blended in to the background. The text is also right in your face as it creates it also places a big part in creating an effect. The most valuable text on the page is the quotations from magazines which create credibility; this also has a good effect on the viewer as the reviews for the movie has come back positive.In my opinion I think there is a great combination between the main product, and the ancillary text (magazine cover, poster). We as a group have taken a key element from the trailer which we applied to the ancillary text so all products are consistent.One of the main aspects of our film is the colour of the font matched with the colour of the trailer. The font is written in a black and white on the poster however the whole trailer is shown in black and white, whereas the magazine is mainly black with white lines.

 

As you can see on the magazine there are the white swirly lines over the black background. Our decision to use these lines was due to research taken out, keeping the magazine simple yet effective. Many other Empire horror magazines don’t really have anything behind the main character as there is no room but with ours we have also created a mysterious effectOn our final poster the colour scheme is once again carried on and it is easy to see the contrast of the black and white areas. The eye is one of the characters from our trailer you see it nice a clearly as it is shown around a light backgrounds however at the bottom the is this mysterious figure hidden with a black background.

Another key element is the use of images on each ancillary product. We have once again kept consistence with the 3 products as from the trailer we have obtained images which are now used on both the poster and the magazine cover. In the trailer we do not get much close ups of the characters however now we get slightly more off the characters. I think this is a quite effective combination between the main product and the text. As in the trailer we get a slight turn in mood with one of the characters, which we can also tell by looking to the bottom of the poster.The colour of all three products are dark and mysterious but all in different way. The poster is the most effective when it comes to the use of the darkened colours as the images help out. Out of all three products the magazine has is the one which lightens the mood as it is colourful compared to the poster and trailer.

The main thing that will get the movie a big reputation is the consistency we have used throughout each product. In my opinion all three products are as important as each other however the poster will be the main hit for our movie as it creates the most impact as a horror product.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 4

original and secondary magazine cover

although we had completed our original magazine cover we were not happy with it and so have made minor changes as well as a major change to the main picture

original cover

alternative magazine cover

Making Of Our Magazine Cover

Making Of Our Poster

Unusable Scene

this is some footage we have filmed but is not able to be used due to it not fitting with our ideas

Current filming

Because we learnt last year that filming does take lots of time and preparation, we put together a plan for filming right at the beginning of the year so we could keep on top and preferably be ahead of things, another thing that has come at the perfect time is a house being refurbished which we have at our disposal, although we have only finished the research section of the practical side of the media course, due to doing the same thing as last year we had a clear idea of what we are going to do so therefor we thought there is no better time to get started then right at the beginning.
The house we are currently using for most of our filming is currently as mentioned being refurbished, most the furniture in the house has been removed, the floors walls etc are all being re-plastered and re-laid and we have caught this in the process so the house at the moment has a very rugged effect, scary, abandoned almost which helps us to create the idyllic effect we had in mind.
We are currently using two cameras, one of the cameras we are using is for the filming and we have another camera to use for the stills of location we we then hope to upload to our blogger accounts. The cameras being of a high quality enables us to films and set perfect to the location, last year we had to do the filming on a simple camera which we where given and then do lots of editing on the Mac computers using iMovie, once we had our end product although we experienced using so many different effects etc, we felt that so much of the movie was effect, and the camera quality wasn't great it didn't give the real effect that we where looking for, however now we can film a higher level of film and make the horror seem less effect and more realistic.
We have done a lot of filming we realised we are not going to even use half of it, this was similar to last year as we realised there is simply too much footage and too much excess, the trailer as i mentioned in previous tasks needs to be spot on, so much that people want to see more, not so much they know too much, not so little so they have no clue. At the moment they have so much vague footage that it will not give enough information or give much of the plot.


We decided to stick with horror for a few main reasons, first reason was that we had already gone through it all last year and knew lots about the genre, the other reason was that we did horror last year and we got our grades, we could use this and watch it, see what didn't work, what we didn't do so well and improve on it, the third reason was that not only had we done it the year before, but the whole process of getting it done, the effects, the techniques, the themes all this work in different areas that we had done we felt we could use most of the same stuff and we had done it before so we could do it again, possibly to a higher level.

While we were filming recently in the being renovated house, 2 younger siblings of one of the group members came to the house, we thought we would make the most of this, and based on our answers from the interviews, the conclusion for one of the questions was that people do find a movie with a young child in it more scary, so we dressed one of them up in larger clothing and made them scurry around the corner in one of the scenes we filmed that day, it proved to be very effective.
from the beginning we said we wanted more of a cast because then we could do more, improve the piece rather than it just starring the usual same people, (us) and now we have used them for a scene we can film a follow on scene using them also, this is an advantage which we where not expecting however came at the perfect time.