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Evaluation Question 3

Audience Feedback

We decided to get a range of audiences as well as our target audience of teenagers to watch our horror trailer because we felt that it would be a more coherent response due to our target audience also being teenagers.

We asked them a variety of questions about our horror trailer and from this we were able to conclude a form of evaluation for our final media product/s.

Below Melissa and I have created a video of our audience giving feedback on our horror trailer:

QUESTION 3

We asked our audience a variety of questions and recorded their responses…

What went well?

One main audience feedback was their enjoyment of the variety of camera shots and angles that we had used in our trailer. Our audience really thought that the different camera shots, angels and movements that were included within our trailer significantly helped to showcase the horror genre well and often made them feel quite tense. For example, at the beginning of our trailer we make use of high and low angle shots with canted angles when tracking Callum’s character when he is following Rhianna. Many of the audience members said that it made them feel quite ‘off edge’ when watching the video because of the way the camera shots were constantly changing.

Another particular audience feedback that was picked up on was the build up of tension using sound/music. The audience particularly thought that the diegetic sound such as the sound effects that overlapped the clips, emulated the tension in sections of the trailer. This in particular was seen at the end of the trailer where the sound pitch gradually increases and gets louder as the shots cross cut to one another, creating panic in the audience. The music from this point directly correlates to the action in the shot as it slows down and a heart beat is heard before suddenly a loud jump scare sound effects is used when the zombie jumps out at the screen.

The audience also noted that they liked the editing techniques. In particular, the found the various glitches and VHS overlays that were used over images and typography very effective. This in particular is seen at the start when the warning sign appears on the screen and a variety of glitches appear to break up the warning that is flashes at the audience. The audience felt that this effect made the trailer seem more real which created more tension in them due to the distortion they were viewing.

The audience feedback also showed that we effectively created a narrative/storyline that they would find enjoyable. They also noted that the narrative did not give too much of the plot away which left them on edge and wanting more, however it gave enough away for them to understand what was going in throughout the trailer. We notified the audience of the Narrative theory we had used: Disruption, Recognition and Attempt to repair, and from this information they informed us that we had successfully achieved these narrative points throughout our trailer. This was important for it to effectively fit to the conventions of modern horror trailers that we had found from our research.

What could we improve on?

There were a few things that the audience said that we could have improved to make our horror trailer more effective. One audience feedback that we had was in regards to lighting. Audience members informed us that our trailer may have had a more tense atmosphere if we had darkened more shots and filmed in more low-key lighting. For example, many of our shots in the stages of disruption were shot in the light and this meant that the shots may have not been as scary for the audience. This could have been improved by filming later on in the evening for the shots to be darker and more frightening for the viewers. Although we did add a grey overlay over all of our shots, in some of the clips this was not always effective and this could have been improved with this use of low-key lighting. To improve on this feedback we could have filmed more shots in low-key lighting or re-film the shots in low lighting, or we could have also added a darker tint. Despite this improvement, our audience felt that our general shots were effective and linked well to the horror genre.

Some audience members thought that us going against conventions of zombie horror could have helped our trailer be more abstract and would attract a wider demographic of people. We were informed that we could have achieved this by reducing gore, making the zombies more human like and making them more ‘paranormal like’.

One audience feedback stated that we could of used setting a bit more for effect. For example, they said that we should use more outdoor shots rather than the large proportion of indoor shots that we used. They felt that outdoor shots may have created a greater sense of ‘Exposure’ to the audience because the victim would have no where to hide. To combat this, we could have filmed additional shot outside and implemented them into the disruption section of the trailer to showcase the extreme fear that the characters were feeling. Despite this, audiences still proposed that our use of many indoor shots created an extreme sense of isolation, which was our original intention therefore we still achieved what we intended to as well as following the conventions of zombie horror.

Overall, receiving feedback from our audience allowed us to see that we had effectively aimed at our target audience in a suitable way.

April 26, 2017 0

Poster Final Draft

We have created the final draft of our horror poster. We decided to choose this poster out of the two original drafts that we poster because we felt that the close-up shot of the victim/villain was quite intimidating towards the audience and would make them feel more uncomfortable than the other poster that was a long shot of a silhouette in the school corridor. Although the poster that we did not pick established the setting with the corridor, we felt that this poster established the setting as well as the characters due to the presence of the girls uniform in the main image. This is a significant feature of our poster because it allows the audience to evaluate what the film will be about and what sort of characters will be in it. This acts a unique selling point for our entire promotional package because it effectively attracts in the target audience.

FINAL POSTER DRAFT

April 24, 2017 0

PANDEMIC – DRAFT 1

This is our first draft of our main horror trailer product!

We have arranged the clips in the original narrative order that we intended and have yet to add the title and the billing board. After rendering our first draft we also discovered that our institutions did not work therefore we will have to ensure that we can solve this problem when rendering our final product for the best quality.

DRAFT 1

https://www.youtube.com/upload

April 14, 2017 0

Film Magazine 2nd Drafts

After creating the three drawn up versions of our horror magazine covers Melissa and I went on to take the images we had drawn out and use Adobe Photoshop to create the digital versions of the magazines. We decided to go for a very basic draft in order to simply see where the items on our cover will go and what sort of colour schemes will feature in our magazine. This will help us to come to a final decision on what will look most effective on our horror magazine cover.

So far we have created two drafts for our horror magazine cover:

Draft 1

Draft 2

Thoughts

As these are only our second drafts, there are many things that we will need to consider when creating out final draft such as typography colour schemes the darkness of the images compared to the typography.

February 14, 2017 0

Film Poster: 2nd Draft

After drawing out a basic idea of what we wanted on our horror posters, we decided to create two drafts of mock ups of the posters on Photoshop. The two posters are quite contrasting however are both effective in their own way. When we create our final draft we will put a tagline onto our posters so that they fit perfectly into the conventions of horror trailers that we have researched into.

Draft 1

Main image:

For our first draft we looked at the close-up shot of one of our victims that would turn into a zombie within the trailer. We knew this would be effective on our audience because they would remember the character within the film and identify the film with them when they watch the trailer. When we initially took this shot of Kimberly she had no make-up on or zombie like features such as cuts or bruises, however we used Photoshop to edit these featured onto her to make her look more realistically zombie like. We reduced the darkness in the image and placed layers of various colours to create bruises and bite marks.

Typography:

The typography on the poster is very industrial and we felt that this would work extremely well due to many zombie films having conventional army and industrial themes to them. We decided to make the letters a deep blood red to create connotations of blood and death which are important in making our audience aware of what sort of horror film this will be. We added a layer over our typograpy of blood splatters to make the letter look infected and to have themes of gore on the poster.

Billing Board:

We wanted to ensure that the billing board looked realistic and didnt take too much attention away from the main features of our poster therefore we made it white and kept it simple at the bottom of the poster. We researched into what sort of typography succesful film posters have used to create these billing boards and dowloaded the correct font from a website. We believe that the typography and layout of the billing board is very effective and realistic.

Release Date:

We chose to put this at the very bottom in a cental position of the poster because from our research we have learnt that this is where release dates are conventionally put. We want to ensure that our poster looks as realistic as possible therefore we knew that putting our release date in a conventional place with plain conventional writing would achieve this effect.

October is also associated with halloween and fear therefore we decided that this would be the best time to release our zombie-horror film because audiences would want to go out an do something for Halloween.

The film poster that inspired us to create this poster was the Dawn of the Dead poster:

We really liked how effective the close-up shot of the zombie was and how only half of them was infected. We knew that if the audience were aware that the zombies were once human it makes the film seem more realistic making them more feaful overall.

We also used the theme of blood splatters and the plain billing board to make our main image stand out the most like this poster and we also ensured that our title was also red to reflect ideas of blood and gore to the audience.

Draft 2

Main Image:

This draft was created through our research into the dawn of the dead posters. This shot was taken with the inspiration of the zombies that lurk from the darkness in one of the dawn of the dead posters. We used a framed shot of the corridor to represent the film as being set in a school to reflect the genre and to also represent themes of institutionalisation which are conventional to the zombie horror film genre.

Typography:

We decided to keep the same typography and effect on our title for both posters because we feel that it is the most effective for the sort of theme we want to go for with our horror trailer and poster. Despite this, we did edit the title slightly differently to the other poster by placing a black splattered layer over the top to make the writing apear as though it is rotting away, just like the zombies do in our film. The layer also makes the title look even more industrial which again is effective at keeping the conventions of the zombie horror genre.

Release date:

We decided to go for a more dramatic effect on the release date of this poster and used cratchy writing to represent the violence from the zombies and the gore that will be featured in the film. It also makes the audience more apprehensive to watch the film because they will find fear in the date that is released due to it being written in red and being associated with death. The sharp letters suggest connotations of weapons such as knives and teeth that the zombies will attack with and this would create tension in the audience, however would make them more excited to see the action within the film.

The horror poster that inspired us to create our own second draft was also another Dawn of the Dead poster:

We thought that this poster was very effective at showing off the zombie horror genre and we wanted to recreate that but with a darker theme. We recreated the idea of having zombies walking towards the audience however we decided to just use one to make the audience feel more isolated and scared of what the person actually is.

February 14, 2017 0

Film Magazine Analysis

In order to have a deeper and more insightful understanding of film magazines and how they work to promote film, I thought it would be best to analyse three very different magazine covers. This task will allow me to identify key features of film magazines that make them so effective, which in effect will make the film a success.

This close analysis has made me aware of the importance of a variety of features in film magazines and how I can manipulate them to make the most effective film magazine cover. For example, I now know that by having the masthead in all capitals and in bold, it will make the magazine seem more important and it will stand out to the audience more. I will be sure to use this feature in my film magazine cover in order for a successful outcome.

I have learnt from this research task that all film magazines obtain the following features:

The Masthead
Main Image
The Strapline
Anchoridge Text

Here is my analysis of the following film magazines:

Magazine analysis from Louise Richardson

If the slideshare above does not work, the link is below:

http://www.slideshare.net/LouiseRichardson10/magazine-analysis-72124883

I have also included Screenshots of the analysis below:

February 14, 2017 0

Research into Institutions and Titles in Horror Trailers

Within our Horror Trailer we will need to include the film title, institution logo and the release date of the film, therefore it was important for me to research into existing horror trailer institutions that obtain these features and analyse what makes them so successful. I have decided to do this in order to implement these successful features into our own horror trailer. The horror trailers that I have chosen to analyse are relatively modern due to the fact that our horror trailer is related to a modern era. We want to make our horror trailer as relatable as possible for our modern target audience and this task will help us with this.

Below I have created gifs to represent what I am analysing:

Film 1 VIRAL

Institution 1: Blumhouse productions

This insititution is one of the most applicable logos to the horror genre. Its theme follows the conventional horror film genre by showing and represents clearly to the audience what sort of film they are about to watch. This institution focuses only on the horror genre and is very effective at doing so.

The name ‘Blumhouse’ links back to the paranormal sub-genre of horror that is represented in the institution logo. As I have learnt from my research, a large proportion of paranormal horrors are set within houses and the fact that they have reflected this in their institution shows the type of empty and isolated themes that they will put across within their films, therefore putting the audience on edge and building up the initial tension ready for the film.

Institution 2: Dimension Films

Dimension films is a common institution within the horror genre. Its black background keeps the dark theme going throughout the trailer and its plain graphics make the audience feel isolated. This institution is quite different to the others as it doesn’t change according to what film it is producing unlike other institutions such as Warner Bros.

The word ‘Dimension’ suggests the idea of multiple themes that will be introduced within the films they have produced. The fact that the institutions logo is 3D also reinforces this idea and links back to the institution name.

Film Title: VIRAL

The film title closely relates to the sub-genre zombie-horror that it represents. This is done through it having bacteria in the background that emerges from the darkness. This links to the theme of disease due to the connotations of death that the black filtered bacteria suggests. This is effective because it gets the audience questioning as to what the bacteria actually is and whether it will harm them. This will lead to the success of the film due to the audience being drawn in by the mystery of the trailer.

Release Date: Jan 2017

Film 2 Lights Out

Institution 1: Warner Bros

This institution is very popular within the horror genre and films associated. The original logo is often adapted for each film so that it fits the genre. In this case, the background is darker and the letters appear more faded and old making the old fashioned horror theme stand out.This technique also adds mystery to the beginning of the trailer and begins to build the vital tension within the audience as they watch the trailer.

The pace in which the institution is displayed to the audience is quite quick and a black fade in and out effect is used to do this. This makes the audience feel isolated and it begins to increase the tension that they feel due to the quick pace of the trailer.

Institution 2: New Line Cinema

New Line cinema is also a very common institution within the horror genre, however very much like Warner Bros it has made films such as:

The logo has been adapted to fade into a dark, cloudy night background which represents themes of darkness and isolation to the audience. This initially sets off the tone for the film and reinforces the audiences fears of being alone and in the dark. Also, the producers have cleverly edited the logo to look as if it is moving away from the audience into the emptiness of the night sky. This again makes the audience feel very alone creating a higher sense of fear within them in preparation for the film.

Film Title: Lights Out

The title ‘lights out’ initially strikes out at the audience due to their childhood fears of the dark. Darkness is a very conventional theme within horror films and trailers, therefore by them using it as a title this means more fear is actually created overall in the audience.

The institution name is written in ‘scratchy’ like typography as if it has been scratched onto the wall by a ghost child or person. From my research into horror genres, I know that this theme of scratchy writing is often seen in paranormal films and this tells the audience what sort of fear they are in for when they watch this film. Continually, the name of the film also links in with the light switch that is framed within the shot. The audience can clearly see that there is no-one there to turn the light switch off, however, the camera movement suggests that something is approaching, and the light switch flicks down on its own. This is quite shocking for the audience and the screen instantly changes to a black screen displaying the release date of the film. The mystery that is created from this editing overall draws the audience in, making them want to see who the villain actually is.

Release Date: Aug 2016

Film 3 The Woman In Black

Institution 1: CBS films

This institution logo has been adapted from its original plain form to fit the paranormal genre of this film trailer. In the background we can see dust and smoke which suggests old age and mystery to the audience. This is a common theme in the horror genre and the fact that they have used dust around the institution logo, it represents the theme of an abandoned house that is used in the film The Woman In Black.

Institution 2: Cross Creek Pictures

Very much like the previous institution in this horror trailer, the logo is surrounded by darkness, dust and smoke which are all conventional themes of the genre. This institution links closely to the windows of the manor house that are feautured in the film which makes the shot look eerie and isolated. This is important for setting the tone of the film with the audience.

The name ‘cross creek’ works well in the horror genre because due to its connotations with death. Cross creek suggests a dangerous river creek that could lead to a serious accident. This fits well with the horror genre because of its themes of death and danger. The word ‘creek’ also brings about connotations of creeking floorboards and doors that create tension in the audience. This also links in with the creepy house that is used in the film and the many creeks that are heard around it at night to create fear.

Film Title: The Woman In Black

This film title cleverly reflects all of themes that will be featured in the film. The writing is wiped onto the condensated window as if a ghost has written it and this automatically tells the audience that the trailer has paranormal themes. This idea is reinforced as a black vale flickers across the screen. The fact the film is called the woman in black shows that this could be her and this creates tension and mystery in the audience as the do not know who or what she is as she gets closer to the screen.

The fact that the title is written onto a window represents where the film will be set, which in this case is in an abandoned house. From previous research I know that this setting is a very conventional place for a horror film to be set.

Fades are used throughout the entirety of the film trailer which adds a sense of mystery to the trailer.

Release Date: Feb 2012

February 13, 2017 0

Magazine Draft Ideas

Before making the official mock ups of the magazine cover Melissa and I decided to draw out two rough ideas of what we would like to create. We decided that it was important for us to feature all of the characters within our film on the magazine cover so we used this idea to create two contrasting magazine covers.

Draft 1

For our first margazine draft we plan to have all of the characters within our horror trailer running away from the zombies behind them. We feel that it is important to represent the basics of what the film is about to the audience so they can then go on and question what the narrative of the film is and so on.

An image of the drawn up version of our magazine draft is below:

Draft 2

This draft focuses on the villian of the horror trailer and we have found from research into magazines the it is effective to have just one character from the film to represent it and to have people remember the film by. By using the zombie the audience will begin to question quite alot about the film because the image will not give much away.

Draft 2 is seen below:

Draft 3

We decided to create a short blog for our ideas on draft 3 for our magazine cover:

February 6, 2017 0

Creating National Warning Signs

Why did we decide to create a warning sign?

In order to give our horror trailer full effect and realism we decided to create a warning sign about the disease. We will have this flash up in a shot where the children are working on computers to give the effect that the warning was unexpected. This would create tension for the audience because they would be aware at how unready the characters in the film are.

Why did we design it the way we did?

We decided to use large capital letters to represent that the warning is official and associated with industrial, army like institutions that are conventionally associated with zombie pandemics. We used two versions of the warning sign and layered them over each other at a fast pace so that the warning sign would flash up at the children. This will make the scene more distressing for the audience and would show the panick that the characters are feeling. This effect will help to create more fear in the audience which is our main purpose of the horror trailer.