Evaluation

Question one;

When making our horror movie trailer we paid close attention to the formulas and conventions set up by previous horror movie trailers. The concept behind each character is one that has been used many times before and has proved successful in other horror movies. For example Jessica's character is always worried and often questions what the rest of the group does. She is also the one who wanders off which normally leads to trouble. The idea behind this character has been used in films such as Scream and Psycho. We challenged conventions by using a young child instead of a complete group of teenagers in our trailer. I think this idea was very successful because it gave more of a contrast between the villain and the protagonists and also gave our film more edge because the young boy is seen drinking alcohol. It also raised the stakes and makes people want to see the movie because they want to know if the boy lives. The plotline is a very commonly used idea. There has been many films in which a group of teenagers decide to spend the night in an abandoned building. An example of this is House of Wax. We added our own twist to this plotline by making our abandoned building a theatre. The idea of theatres and putting on shows is an ongoing theme throughout the trailer and the title. The use of fast paced flashing images is a commonly used tool in horror movie trailers. It suggests the film will be thrilling and will have the audience on the edge of their seats. The use of titling has also been used many times before. It is a less cliched way to tell the audience what the film is about and some of the themes it has in it. Here is a short director's commentary me and Jess made together;

When making our movie poster we also tried to stick as close as possible to the codes and conventions of the genre. Similar to other horror movie poster the colours on our posters are very dark. The main colours are red and black similar to the poster for the film 'the Last House On The Left' and many other horror media products. The use of shadows in the image is an idea that is used in nearly ever horror movie poster to create atmosphere. The use of a gothic font is a very effective convention of horror movie logos. We added our own twist to that convention by using a type writer font which has an old fashion style, similar to the gothic font, but we used it because this is the same font used in play scripts. This will link back to the theatre theme. Horror movie posters often show violent, horrific images. We tried to use this convention by showing a dead body covered in blood in the center on the poster. Things like blood and dirt have become iconic to horror movie posters. There are very few that don't use these iconic images.

Before creating our horror magazine cover I did a lot of research in to what the conventions are. I also wanted to look at what the main differences between horror posters and horror magazine covers. I found that the images are a lot less horrific on magazine covers than on the posters. The image is used a lot more to advertise and promote the stars of the film on a magazine. So when taking our cover photo we made sure we showed all the actors faces. They're body language shows they're character. This is similar to other horror covers I looked at. We still used the normal colours code used in horror media products. We used a lot of black shadows to create atmosphere and mystery. We also used the colour red a lot. This is a convention used to give the sense of blood and horror. To link all our media products we use the same logo and the same colour scheme. This is a commonly used idea, used to create more brand awareness.

question two;

Overall I think our film campaign would prove very effective. We have a strong brand image and have used media in an inventive way. We have considered many different horror conventions and have also found our own new unique ways to challenge them. A brand image includes things like colour scheme, logo/font, iconography, soundtrack and themes. By using all of these things correctly to link each different media product we have created a campaign which is difficult to ignore.

Synergy is when you divide your media campaign across the different media products and formats to create more brand coverage. For example showing your movie trailer on TV, the web and before other films. You could also make a wedsite or facebook page. Here as an example of a horror movie wedsite:

http://www.officialsaw.com/

When advertising our film I think it would be important to show the trailer before other films in the same horror genre. Our target audience range from teenagers to young adults. The kind of people who use Facebook and YouTube. So it might be a good idea for us to show the trailer before YouTube videos. We have also created a group on Facebook of the people who've seen the trailer and liked it. Our film will also attract diehard horror movie fans. This is why it was important to advertise our movie in a horror movie magazine which will be read by these kinds of fans. The poster follows conventions by not giving too much away apart from the genre. The title is a contrasting colour to the background and will stand out well among other movie posters. Because of our young target audience is also might be a good idea to give the film its own official website. The Internet is a very good way to link all of our media products. For example the poster and trailer could have the website address written on it. Another example is that the Facebook group could have a link to the IMDB page and vice versa. This kind of linking of media is the best and most effective way to build a strong campaign which is difficult to ignore. These images are two examples of some real live horror movie posters for the two recent films Scream 4 and Paranormal Activity 2 in which they have used the idea of advertising their movie website on the movie poster. This will build interest around the film;

One way we could have improved our trailer, magazine and poster is by having small adverts on the bottom for the Facebook group this way we could link all our media products more effectively.

This is our Facebook group. It proved very useful in getting audience feedback during the production stages: http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_181316455227151

Overall we were lucky in our production stages because very little went wrong thanks to our scheduling and overall organisation skills. We did a lot of testing and planning at the location before we went so we knew exactly what we were in for and could be prepared.

Question three;

We knew from looking at other horror movies that the target audience is very often teens and young adults. The horror movie genre has quite a large fan following. After we had made the first edit of our trailer, magazine cover and poster we need a Facebook group and posted all of our media products on it. This was a very effective way to get truthful, relevant feedback from our target audience. We got some good constructive comments on our magazine cover from other media students. Lowri commented; 'characters facial expressions really work well, and the font works well with the horror movie genre.' Louise commented on our movie poster; 'really theatrical, works well with the theme of the film.' Comments like this showed us what to focus on and what our audience thought of our work so far.

Another way we tried to build helpful audience feedback is by interviewing members of our target audience. We videotaped some of the more useful and constructive interviews. Here is the video;

Here is a Prezzi I made previously depicting things our target audience might be interested in. Doing this free search was helpful in deciding what we wanted our characters to be like and do in the trailer. Here is the link; http://prezi.com/hwzyt2znl1ip/target-audience/

Here is the link to the Facebook group as well; http://www.facebook.com/#%21/home.php?sk=group_181316455227151

Questions 4;

When doing the blog it was important to use media technologies in clever and helpful ways. For example when I heard about evaluating the location because I had taken so many photos I thought it would be a good idea to add a slideshow. I had never done this before and it was an interesting challenge. I tried to research what would be the best way to put a slideshow on my blog. I eventually found a free website which let me make a slideshow and it also lets me frame it with a movie real style frame. The teacher suggested we use slideshare, but I thought using the web application I used would be more effective and more unique. I found it very hard to get videos onto the blog because uploading full-quality videos took a very long time on blogger. So Jess and I used YouTube to apply our videos to the blog. I tried to use Prezie as much as I could, because I found it a much more fun and interactive way to display information. It took a while for me to get the hang of using it, it is unlike any web software I have used before. But with practice I got much better towards the end. Mostly getting information onto my blog was quite simple and straightforward, looking back I could have maybe used more of a variety of technologies but I felt through a process of elimination it was better to use the ones that proved most effective and produced the desired results. I utilised the screen grab tool as much as I could to show the process of making each media product.

Magazine Cover After Audience Feedback

We did some audience feedback, as evidenced in one of my earlier posts, to see what people liked and disliked about our horror magazine cover. One person said to make it look more like a magazine cover we should give it a masthead. We thought this was a good idea and a good way to add in a kind of catchphrase. Another person said that some of the fonts needed to be changed to make them fit the genre more. We took all of our audience feedback into account and it helped us to make our cover look a lot more professional.

Stage fright Movie Magazine Cover

Another part of our horror movie campaign to create a horror magazine cover advertising our movie. First of all we started off by taking a couple of different photos of our cast the same day we shot the trailer. We have previously discussed and planned ideas for the cover so when it came down to the day our ideas are well organised giving us a starting point to experiment. Here is one of the pictures we took a how effective a different angle would be before we chose our final image;

I suggested that we use the image in which they are looking straight at the camera because this is a lot more powerful and dramatic.

We talked about what some of the differences might be between a horror movie magazine cover and a horror poster. I mentioned that after looking at the magazine I had bought at forbidden planet it was quite apparent to me that horror movie magazine covers are always a lot more commercial than the posters are. This is most likely because magazines are aimed towards advertising stars and celebrity culture where is posters are more about creating an atmosphere and building interest in the film.

First of all we cropped our original image into a close-up of the actors frightened faces. I think this makes it look more claustrophobic and makes the viewer more intrigued to know what the actors are looking at. Turning the image into a close-up altogether gives it more impact.


Jessica mentioned that she thought the image was not scary enough. I came up with a great way to build more of a horror atmosphere. To add more shadow to the image I added another layer and painted black in all the areas where the shadows would fall and then according to how light or dark we wanted the shadows to be, we could just the opaquency of the layer. We also use this technique to give the flashlight more glare given the image more of a horror movie style and making the surroundings seem more dark in comparison.



The actors are in quite proposed position but the way that Jessica's character is down on her knees makes it very dramatic. This also shows her character as being frightened and concerned. The young child, played by Edward, is clutching onto a sister giving a sense of innocence. The two other characters are a lot more strong and bold. To show this we made them stand up and look a lot more prepared with a wide stance, as if ready to fight. The image is very classic horror

with also a team eliment. Similar to Scooby Doo or the cast of house of wax.

Another important thing to consider when creating on magazine cover was what the logo might look like. When I looked magazine I bought at forbidden planet I noticed that there are a lot of classic horror movie conventions used. For example blood and shadows. In mind I suggested using the font which was similar to the one used in Rocky horror picture show. The words 'the lost a limb' as a certain amount of dark humour to them again similar to the film Rocky horror picture show. Comedy and horror has proved to be a powerful hybrid. As shown in such films as Scream and Beetlejuice. I thought it would be a good idea to use this in our movie magazine cover.

Last Trailer Edit!

After talking to Charlie Ward an editing expert, we decided to make some small changes to the titling in our trailer.

He said the titling needed more movement to give it more impact. I tried using different titling effects, such as 'fly-in words' where the words would zoom towards the viewer, but I thought this looked rather tacky and didn't fit the horror genre. It looked like a style more commonly used in sci-fi or super-hero films. Charlie Ward also suggested that we could add a 'strobe' effect to the titling to give it a sense of movement and to shock the audience even more. I re-edited the titling with the strobe effect and it was very effective. It might remind the audience of lightning, something which is iconic in the horror movie genre ever since James Whales classic Frankenstein film used it to such telling effect.

We also considered having the title of the movie on a black background instead of an image of the mask. This would have had m

ore impact but we found it very hard to find the original title on photoshop. Also I got the idea of having the title over the image from a trailer for the film Scream 4. It was very effective in that trailer and I think it is still quite chilling in our trailer. Even though it might draw away from the title.

Overall I am very pleased with the final edit of our horror movie trailer. I think it should build a lot of interest in and anticipation for the film.

Directors Commentary

Jessica and I made a directors commentary over our Horror Movie Trailer to explain the thought process behind each shot. We talk about where we got our ideas from and how we build character.

Title Logo

I spent a long time on photo shop trying to come up with effective logo for our movie. I tried using the traditional Gothic font with a black shadow but I felt it did not relate enough to the themes in our trailer. I went on to DeFont.com to try and find a more theatrical font. I found a very art deco, Broadway style font and tried turning it red with blood dripping down. Afterwards I decided that this was a bit too obvious and made our film seem comical and cartoonlike. Then
I thought about using images and draw too pictures of scary, iconic drama masks on Photoshop. I tried putting on either side of the image but then I thought about something I'd read on a poster. 'The human brain can figure out a word only by reading the first and last letter'. Using this information I tried a new logo in which the masks would replace some of the letters. I think this gives it a cool, modern feel. I got a typewriter font which is similar to the ones used in old-fashioned scripts. I thought that this logo was the most effective and also the images are quite chilling.

Risk Assessment

This is the Risk Assessment we made for the location of our trailer. Jess works at the Young Actors Theatre so she knew the location very well and also had access to the information we needed. We filled in the table together making sure we had covered every possible risk. We went to the Theatre and found a fool plan of the building. This made it easier to discover and locate risks. It was very helpful when trying to find fire exits and extinguishers. Having our Risk Assessment made us more relaxed when filming because we knew what to do in case of an accident.