How effective is the combination of your main production tasks with the main production?

MAIN PRODUCTION

The main production we created, was a short horror film called 'The Orphange'. So typically, the film had to have an obvious start, middle and end point-with a twist or major drama point, which is conventional of many of the short films we researched such as 'Across the Hall'.

'The Orphanage' is about a girl who ran away from the orphanage, leaving her sister. She returns, seeing the old, burnt down building looking for answers about what happened, especially to her sister. After searching the house, she comes across an old diary-her sister and the diary shows her what happened through flashbacks, realising she is not alone..

ANCILLERY TASKS-FILM POSTER

Again, I did a lot of research into existing film posters, although I focused mainly on horror posters as this is what my film was. In order for me to create a good poster with horror conventions I looked at posters such as 'The Ring', 'Woman in Black, 'Shutter Island', 'The Return' etc. From my research I found that the posters use very dark, grim looking colours, often the photos being dull or black and white. Another typical convention in the colour or the text, that the use of red and white was very common. Also another convention was the use of tag lines, reviews, actors names and often making a link to the director or 'staring actor'...'academy award winning producer' etc. Furthermore, I found the use of facebook/twitter promotion somewhere on the page was common with the most recent film posters + the official website of the film. Furthermore, the most common convention I saw, was the age rating and small text of people included. Another convention I saw was the editing of the text on the poster, so that it wasn't just a normal font-such as bluring the letters or smudging them such as 'The Return' poster.

After planning and putting together my ideas, I am happy with my overall poster. I used a shot from the location that I took on set, edited the contrast and put a black and white filter over the top. I kept going over and over my poster, getting feedback from others on what to change/what not to and eventually was happy with my overall poster. I feel like I used a lot of conventions and also linked my poster back to my film- especially the image that I used, therefore I made it possible to link my poster to my main production.

OVERALL PRODUCTION ANALYSIS

All together, I think that all were successful and you can see a clear relationship between them all, such as the fonts, colour scheme, imagery etc. For example in the main production-film I used a dark filter from final cut pro, using a lot of dark shadowy scenes and a lot of sound effects such as crashes/bangs, panting and shouting which are all typical conventions of a horror film. Furthermore I adapted this onto my poster by using a black and white filter, which enhanced the dark shadows which I think again portrayed the convention of a horror poster being dark and scary. Also, my radio trailer had a creepy, piano rhythm as a backing, which I felt was the most important convention I wanted to include in it. It also had bits from the real film setting an enigma and a loud scream at the end as another enigma, as this was a very typical convention of radio trailers. Also I included 'FROM THE ACADAMY AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR OF SHUTTER ISLAND' as speech, as this then linked to my poster, and it was another convention of a trailer. All in all, I think my 3 productions portray the horror genre well and I am happy with the final outcome. I feel they all show conventions that are alike existing horror films.

The function of my main production was to create a short horror film lasting between 30 seconds- 5 minutes+. With my film, I had to incorporate typical conventions of a horror such as the sound effects, location film set out (beginning, middle and end) and include some sort of twist or event, which would be typical of a short film. The function of my radio trailer was to advertise my film and set up an enigma to the audience, making them be enticed to see it, giving them enough information-such as the release date, but not too much to give the story line away. Again with my radio trailer, I had to include things such as bangs and scary music, as unlike a film trailer the imagery wasn't there to attract them in, so I had to create a big tense atmosphere through enigmas so they'd want to see it, giving snip-its of the film. Lastly, with my poster, the function of that was to make it eye catching enough to my audience to come over and have a look, then promote the film the best I could using imagery and wording. I think that by the use of my image I set up enough of an enigma to make the audience want to see it, as it clearly portrayed a horror film. Another function of the poster was to give the audience an insight of what it's about-e.g. Through the title, but nothing gave the story line away, creating an enigma which is another convention.