Evaluation Media Studies Mohammed Yasser

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

As the genre of my film was horror I had to look back at other films within the horror genre. So I decided to look back at other trailers such as Shaun of the dead and the grudge. While watching these trailers I have noticed they have many things in common and the main things are the way they use mise-en-scene, codes and conventions, characters and settings. With the Grudge trailer I noticed they used really dark lighting such as low key lighting and the reason they have done this was to create tension and make the trailer scarier. Also in the Grudge trailer I have noticed that they have used a character which is the villain in just white night robe which is what we have used in our film as our villain wears the white robe. They have used many props in the film Shaun of the dead such as the bat and the other weapons which shows that they are fighting something which is the zombies and this just outlines the horror genre. The way the audience can tell our trailer is horror is by the way we have used mise-en-scene such as the setting we have used as we used a house which is one of the typical settings for an horror film, the camera shots we have done such as the close ups where we could show the audience a little view of the villain and we have used other shots such as establishing shots to show the setting, we also chose to shoot the trailer at night because again this would outline horror and this would make the film much more scary as no one is out at night and no one can save the victim. Also the costume we have used was the long white robe on the villain as we took this idea from The Grudge and The Exorcist.

Continued…

On our teaser trailer we decided not to reveal the villains face to much as this would tease the audience to watch the film as they would want to see how the villain looks like. In the trailer we added an black and white effect to the villains face as this would hide her emotions and this would make her look more scary. We use technical codes and conventions and we made the trailer fast paced as it is a teaser trailer so it is short and we have to try giving quite a lot of information as we can. Within both trailer I have chosen to keep the trailer fast paced. The reason we chose to make it fast paced in our teaser trailer is because we wanted to get the audience more engaged and we had to do this by flashing short scenes at them and some images. In the teaser trailer we decided to add sound effects such as the bang sound effect which we got from YouTube, the reason we did this is because we wanted to make the audience jump and be scared and when we showed a little clip at the end of the teaser trailer of the villain we decided to make the bang sound a bit louder which makes the audience jump and scare them that this is the killer. We also took the idea in the teaser trailer of the villain picking up the camera from the film Paranormal Activity because while watching this trailer I found it really scary the way the ghost just picks up the camera and you just look eye to eye with the ghost. It almost gives that feeling that the ghost is really looking at you.

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Me and my group decided to add text and we did this to grab the audience attention more and this would make them think more when reading the text and leave enigmas in their heads that what does this mean. In the teaser trailer I chose to add a text at the end which said the secret will be revealed this October. The reason I did this was because in the teaser trailer the victim is trying to find out the secret and the audience is thinking what is the secret so I decided to add this text to tease the audience that in October they would be able to come see the film and find out the truth.

When editing the teaser trailer I used the blade tool to cut out the scenes which we filmed, I decided to make them shorter as I wanted to teaser trailer to run at a fast pace and switch from different scenes so I had to cut out the filming I did not need and then I decided to just put short clips.

Continued…

The way me and my group have challenged the codes and conventions in real media products is the way we have made the female character the villain and we are making her kill the people. Normally in horror films and other films you would see the women as the innocent one and they are trying to escape or in most horror films the female is the one which survives such as Sidney from Scream. But we have decided to take out the male role and go against the stereotype that men are the strong and the harsh ones, we chose to make the villain a female and make her look as the strong one and she is doing the haunting. We have also stuck the fact that women always survive as the victim is also a girl and she is being haunted but in our trailer we do not reveal if she has been caught, killed or survives because we want to leave enigmas in our audience mind.

What did I learn from audience Feedback?

When I made my teaser trailer I did a focus group which I asked some girls and boys some questions on my teaser trailer. When I asked them my first question about what they liked I found out that most of them liked the way I used my sound effects such as the person breathing as this gave them a ghost feeling that someone was in the room with them, they also liked the way I used the bangs effect which I edited into the teaser trailer as this made them scared, especially when I used it at the end and showed an image of the villain this was done good because it made them jump as I raised the volume of the bang.

Another thing I found out they liked about my teaser trailer is the edits I used such as the blur and the black and white effect. They think the way I used this on my villain was really good because it did not reveal the villain too much and also made her look scary. They said it was not good to reveal the villain as this would tease them to go watch the film.

Some things I found out they did not like about the trailer is they length, some answers I got back told me I should make the teaser trailer a bi long. One person told me that I need to add more scenes as he did not hardly know what was happening in the trailer and this would not persuade him to go watch the film. So I would need to in the future when producing a film trailer add more scenes and maybe some text so it could give the audience a clue about what is happening.

Continued…I also got some audience feedback from the video I took from my class mate mojo who is also studying media. I asked him to talk about my poster and my front cover magazine. Some good things he said about the poster was the way I used the red text and the e red blood spills as these were good codes and conventions for horror. Also in my poster he liked the way I used the font when writing the name of my film. For my front cover magazine he liked the way I used the blur effect on the masthead as this was different to other Empire magazine as this would tell the audience this is an horror edition. He said he likes the way I put the horror films on the side of the magazine as this told him straight away this was a horror magazine. He liked the key image as this was the main villain and she looked really scary and he likes the back ground of the magazine as this was the setting of the film. So overall I used mise-en-scene well through the costume of the villain and the way I used the setting at the back of the magazine.

I also did a podcast of a girl this time who was another student from my media class and she also spoke about the poster and front cover magazine. The things she liked in my poster was the red text and the blood spills and the red text. She also liked the way I used my villain in three images as she looked scary. In my front cover magazine she liked the masthead effect which I used the blur. She liked the background as well and she also liked the key image as it covered up most of the page. The way I used dark colours is another thing she liked as this represented horror.

Continued…Some things they did not like about the front cover magazine is the way I put the iron man 3 bubble there as it did not go with the rest of the genre of the magazine. They did not like the fact I showed my villain too much in the magazine and the poster because this did not tease them enough to go watch it in the film as this spoilt it.

Overall I learnt that I should of made my teaser trailer a bit longer as this would give them a better idea of what is going on. I need to add more scenes and maybe expose some of the other characters in the trailer. In my magazine I should not have put the iron man 3 poster as this did not fit in with the trailer but I tried to do this because I wanted to make it cross genre so this would attract a wider audience but this not work out well.

But I did many things they liked such as in my trailer they loved the sound effects I used as this made them jump and it went along with the trailer, they like the way I used the edits and this was the way I hid the image of the villain. In my magazine they loved the way I used low key lighting and made the background the setting of my trailer, the like the way I did my masthead as the blur effect I used made it more spooky and gave that ghost feeling. The way I put other horror films also made the magazine the horror genre. In my poster they liked the way I used the red text and the red blood spills as this represented horror and danger so this was good, they liked the way I used the key image many times as this told them the villain was the main character.

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

Slideshare and Final Cut Pro

This allowed us to share our PowerPoint presentations online. Slideshare. The reason we needed this was because we had to put up our PowerPoint presentations on our blog and the best way to do this was by using slideshare. Another software we have used which has helped us a lot was final cut pro. This software has allowed us to put our video together. This software let u upload everything from our images, our filming and sound effects. We were allowed to put the whole trailer together and put it in whatever order we wanted. We could add images wherever we wanted and make sound effects play for long periods. And the best tool on this was the blade tool because this allowed us to cut out whatever we did not want. In our filming we shot some scenes but did not need all of it especially in our teaser trailer as we needed the scenes to go quick so the blade tool allows you to cut what you don’t need then you just go to the select tool and click on the part which you did not want and then delete it.

Laptop and Apple mac

The way we have used our laptops to help is by using them to access software’s such as Microsoft word and PowerPoint which we have used to create our work and do some of our work. We used word documents when we were analysing the trailers, posters and magazine front covers and we used the PowerPoint when making mood boards and while making the evaluation. After a few months the school installed the new Apple macs which were really good and had the main software which we have used to make our film trailers and that software is Final Cut Pro which is a software to make and edit videos.

Photoshop We have used Photoshop in our coursework to help us create something really important which is my magazine front cover and my poster. The first time I used this was when I did my preliminary task back in AS media but I struggled to use this. But I am more comfortable now and know how to add affects such as the motion blur affect which came out really well because it gave that spooky ghost effect. The software is overall really good because it allows you to upload images from your camera which you have taken and the software allows you to edit the images and make effects to them such as black and white, low key lighting or high key lighting. The best features of this was the motion blur because it allowed me to edit the title and make it look attractive as this is one of the main things the audience would read first, other things like the magic wand tool was amazing as if I wanted just the image of just our villain but I took the picture in her sitting room, I could use the magic wand tool and the rubber tool to get rid of the sitting room at the back and take away and crop out all the parts I did not need until I have a perfect picture of our villain

Camera workWe used a Nikon camera to do shoot most of our filming. We first started shooting around the school area where we used a classroom to shoot some of our trailer and then we decided to use some of the grass area at the back of the school to try and make it look like a forest. When we was shooting all these clips we decided to make the male character the main victim but we then decided to change this and decided the female role should be the victim. So then they decided to go and get some props such as the white contact lenses and do make up so that's when they took the Nikon camera and went home and started shooting at the house. This is where the main trailer was filmed. They used the camera to shoot some scenes on the road where one of my group lived. Then they did some filming in the house where they used the kitchen, sitting room and other rooms in the house. 

They also took some shots such as close ups to show the ghost picking up the camera, they used establishing shots on the street at night so people can see where the location is. We also shot some over shoulder shot where you see the girl talking on the phone and then you see the ghost from behind. We decided to shoot many scenes like this where you could see the ghost stalking the victim and chasing the victim. Some scenes such as when she runs into the room and closes the door. Another scene which is like this is when she is talking on the phone in the sitting room and you can see the ghost watching her from the door. 

Internet 

we used the internet a lot especially when doing our research. We used websites such as Wikipedia to find out information about institutions such as twisted pictures and Lionsgate. The reason we wanted to find out information on them is because these are the institutions which would be distributing our film. We also used the internet to find information on different directors. The reason we wanted to see different directors is because we wanted to see how they produce their films and how they use their budget. I used Google to find images of existing posters and film magazines so that when it came to producing my poster and magazine I could use their ideas and set myself a template. I also used Google to search other things I needed for my research such as statistics for teenagers as they we're our main target audience.

YouTube  When it came to analysing my trailers I had to find some

trailers from YouTube. I searched for horror film trailers and this is where I found Saw 2, Shaun Of The Dead and The Grudge. I also used YouTube to find sound effects such as the bang which I used when making my teaser trailer. I had to look up different sounds which I could use. And I also found the girl singing ring around the roses from there. We also used the sound track from Mama when we made our main trailer and the teaser trailer. So YouTube helped us when finding sounds especially the non-diegetic sounds we used. The girls in my group also used YouTube to look at clips of how to do make-up so they searched how to make their skin pale and have the ghost image then they used one video which we have put on the group blog. 

Blogger We used this as a portfolio for our work. Everything we have done from producing our trailers to research has gone onto the blog. As there are three of us in our group we each produced our own blogs which we put our own work into but then we created a group blog where we put some work which involved us all as a team. Things like the actual trailer, the storyboard, analysis of settings, analysis of sounds, analysis of our props and costume have all gone onto the group blog. But things like our own analysis of trailers, posters and magazine front covers. Our poster and magazine front cover have also been put in our own blog. 

How effective is the combination of our main product & ancillary task?

When every film institutions makes a film they have always put promotion as one of the main things as this is the way they would attract the audience and they would have to advertise in many ways so that many people do find out about the product. So they would create a trailer, poster and maybe promote on an magazine. So I have decided to do all them as well with my group. We decided to create an trailer which is one of the best ways of advertising as this gives the audience a better view of what is going to happen in the film whereas a poster is just a frozen image but the trailer has scenes from the film, has sounds which would create an dramatic effect, has all the characters, has text so that the audience can have a hint about what is going to happen in the film and also the institution’s because the audience know what specific institutions produce. So we decided to create this and this would be the best way of promoting as this would be played on internet such as YouTube as people watch trailers on them, social websites such as Facebook and Twitter as people share the links but most of all trailers are mostly seen when people go cinema as before the film starts there is around 25mins of adverts and trailers so if we was o ply our trailer before a big film then we would be likely to attract more customers.

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As well as the trailer I then decided to go and make a teaser trailer as some people prefer trailers which are fast faced and some trailers which don’t tell them too much about the film so they decide to watch the teaser trailer as this would not spoil the film for them and also because it is fast paced. Then my group decided to individually create our own poster, the reason we did this was because posters are also a big way to advertise. This is known as guerrilla marketing as institutions put up posters in really busy places where people would walk past and notice. So I have created a poster where I will put underground stations such as the big stations at Kings Cross where 1000’s of people go past everyday and this would make it much more likely to be seen. Also after creating a poster I could put it up in other places like on billboards which are seen by nearly every person walking on streets and who drive a car as the billboards are massive and can be seen. Things like bus stops and shops could even put up the poster.

Continued…Finally I decided to create a magazine front cover as this is something people buy in their every day life. Magazines are sold in many different shops and some times shops like hairdressers buy magazines just to leave in their shop for their customers to read. I chose to advertise my magazine front cover in an magazine called Empire which is one of the biggest film magazines. The reason to this is because of the other big movies they have advertised such as SAW, The Batman, The Avengers and Ironman. They promote films in every genre which is good because this means many people buy this magazine as the magazine target market would be for people who love films overall because they put films from every genre so this means they would attract many customers. So I have also designed a magazine front cover to attract many customers.In my magazine I have put the name of our film as this would allow audience to research and know more about our film, I have included other horror films so that the audience know clearly the genre of our film is horror. I have put a scary picture of our villain so that the audience can have a better view of the villain and see how scary she looks. I have used dark colours to stick to the typical codes and conventions of horror which is low key lighting as this creates that dramatic tension and also as the villain in my magazine front cover is wearing white she would stand out if the rest of the magazine is black and dark colours. I have also included a bubble with information on the Ironman