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

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

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

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

media products?

TrailerFor the film trailer, me and my partner tried to follow as many conventions of the horror genre as possible. This was done through the use of misc-en scene and specifically through location and costume. The deliberate choice of choosing a house to set our trailer was very successful, because it allowed us to experiment with different parts of the house; for example the bedroom, stairs and hallway, which where key places we decided to film. This setting also allowed me and my partner to film specific parts of our trailer we were not quite happy with repeatedly making the job simpler when it came to editing.

• We discussed different locations we could use to film the trailer, for example outside on the street near the house, or even at a graveyard. However, I did not feel these different locations were necessary for our trailer and may have gave us trouble when trying to convey the storyline. This was one of the reasons for our emission of the first seen, which was in the front garden, where we tried to set the scene and give our audience a view of the house. This however, I felt hindered the trailer, as it was not very eye catching and made it look like we were trying to consume time to fill the allotted two and a half minutes we targeted. I feel these decision were crucial in making our trailer as strong and engaging as possible.

• The editing element of our trailer was very much a trial and error; deciding to play around with the order of the trailer was extremely effective and followed the conventions of a film trailer. This is because film trailers do not usually occur in chronological order, so that you don’t give the audience the entire film storyline, making them want to go and watch the film more. We used many straight cuts in our trailer and this was to give the trailer a sense of naturalism making it more likely to connect with the audience, because it is more realistic. I worked with splitting various clips, so that our trailer wasn’t all in chronological order, to match the conventions used by many different horror trailers. Furthermore, I use d a number of fades to black during my trailer, which give the audience a brief moment of relief, before the next horrific scenes comes up; another convention used by horror based companies.

• Moving on, sound was what I found the most challenging part of the process in developing the horror trailer. This was due to the fact, we found it hard to find a sound that matched and suited the trailer. This lead us to having to make our own unique sound that complimented the trailer, therefore making it a more terrifying horror piece matching the media conventions of a horror trailer. The sound we used was created on ‘garage band’ and I feel it gave the trailer more impact, because there arte certain highs and lows of the music, indicating to the audience what is going to happen next, or whether or not something scary will take place.

• Link below is of trailer.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD2A2mQfF9M&w=560&h=315

2) How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary task?

• I feel that my main product and ancillary task are very effective, because all three products match and look like they belong together. They also having a running theme through all and specific tag lines are used to make sure that they are unique and different to any other. I think my main product of the horror trailer has worked very well due to the way me and my partner worked together and split the responsibility. The editing was what I feel is the most effective part of our trailer and looks extremely fluent and professional. The ancillary task compliment the trailer, as they show the main images and message of our trailer, therefore making the combination very strong.

• I feel the trailer’s narrative told a coherent storyline that was easy to follow my audience, which is important as you want them to stay engaged all the way through. My ancillary tasks. I believe the fact me and my partner had conflicting ideas on how the trailer should look at times had a positive effect on the eventual outcome of our trailer, because it helped us to put our best ideas together and showcase what we were trying to represent. It also made it easier for me when it came to designing my ancillary tasks, because I knew how I wanted it to display the same message of: innocence, mystery and a tormented young girl.

Poster My poster I feel matches many of the conventions of a media product. This is because the image is the focal point of the poster and is directly in the centre of the page. It also has a tag line which most horror posters have, creating a theme and something for the reader to remember. The colours also follow the conventions of a horror poster, as they are black, white and red which all connate with the genre of horror. I do not feel I challenged any of the conventions of a horror poster, as I feel this may have led to my poster not looking as professional and appealing to my audience. Throughout the development of my poster, I looked at many different horror poster to see if any would suit my poster. The poster I found looked the best and most effective was that of ‘The Exorcist.’ This made me try to create a poster similar to this, as I thought it looked incredibly original and also very modern.

Exorcist poster My poster, Z.O.E

Magazine Cover

My magazine cover challenges the conventions of most horror magazine covers. This is clear through the use of the image which is a long shot and normally magazine front covers are close up shots. I chose to challenge this convention, because I felt that this shot allowed me to get all the features in that I wanted to portray; including the prop of the teddy bear in her hand, the white dress and the cuts on her legs, which would not have been in the shot unless I used the long shot. The cover lines however, do follow the conventions of a horror poster, as they are images related with horror on one side and some things to do with film on the other.

• Also there is a competition which the audience could win by buying the magazine, which again is a convention of a horror poster. The magazine cover includes the date of the issue and a barcode, with the price below, another key convention of not only a horror magazine, but all types of magazines. By doing audience research I was able to find out what makes a magazine cover enticing and used my own experiences to produce my final product. One influence for my magazine cover was ‘Fangoria’ which you can view on the next slide. If you compare mine and this magazine you will see various similarities, such as colour scheme, but also some differences, e.g. the image shot type, which I already stated challenged the conventions

Fangoria magazine cover

Rated magazine cover

3) What have you learnt from your audience research?

• From my audience research I learnt what elements make the best horror trailer, poster and magazine cover. This was through questionnaires and group interviews which are all featured on the blog. The group interviews helped us to gather the general opinion of how to construct a trailer and which ones they felt were the most effective. As well as this the interviews helped us understand what we should not do in our trailer, such as setting it in many different locations, as they said it did not show fluency and makes it harder to follow. Our audience was those who are from the age of 16-18. This is the age group me and my partner decided to target, because we to fall into that bracket, therefore we felt we had an idea of what this age group would like and find interesting.

• Our questionnaire was needed as part of our research, because it shows specific individuals opinions, therefore meaning our audience could not be swayed by their peers. The questionnaire was more in depth than our group interview, as we asked the audience to give us their own examples of what trailers they like instead of me and my partner giving them the options of what they might like. Both of these ways of finding out what our audience wanted helped us to create all our tasks and the main concept we were delivered with by our audience, is that they wanted a running theme throughout our tasks, as it makes it look more professional and would entice them to come and see our film.

4)How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

• I used various media technologies to construct my research, planning and evaluation stages. To construct my research and planning my main use of technology was mainly through Photoshop, as I this was the best way to show the development of my poster and magazine cover. I also used video clips to show my development, as I think it makes it easier to hear some sort of audio and visuals to convey the points that I was trying to convey, especially through audience research. One of my favourite ways of presenting video clips was through YouTube and this was the main way in which I presented the development of my trailer, which is evident on my blog. YouTube allowed me and my partner to share what we had done and also gave other people in my class to view how our trailer was looking and give us feedback and critique.

• Moving on, for our group meetings, during our research and planning me and my partner used media technologies to portray what we going to do in terms of costume, props and location. This was done through having conversations on Facebook, messaging and twitter, which is showcased on the blog. This helped us create our media products, so that even when we were not working on our constructions together we were still able to communicate in other ways that would benefit our trailer.

• Slideshare was yet another way I decided to present my research and planning and also this evaluation. I feel Slideshare enables you to create easy to follow information that you need to convey. This is because you can organise it in a way that shows fluency and leads from one part of your concepts to another. Furthermore, I used pictures as part of media technology to construct my research , planning and evaluation throughout. This was a great way to give people who viewed my blog visual representations of how my work had developed. I uploaded all my images through jpeg, and the pictures which I did not take myself were found through the search engine Google and helped me to show all my research and planning such as poster and magazine covers research, which were crucial in helping me develop my ancillary tasks.