A2: Evaluation

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

I produced a film poster as part of a promotion package. The poster ties in well with stereotypical conventions of a psychological thriller as it does not give much away about the film to the audience. In order to get the effect I wanted I researched and deconstructed several posters of the psychological thriller genre, not only giving me a greater insight into the conventions used but also enabling me to develop my research and analytical skills. Many of these posters used dark and dull colours with typical conventions such as the direct mode of address. This created a sense of tension linking again to its genre. Considering these stereotypical conventions for psychological thriller posters, I produced a poster using Adobe Photoshop. My poster included dark colours such as black, connoting concealment and mystery and the use of red which also suggests danger and obscurity. I used an image which looked as though it was a still from the film; creating more of an effect as it makes the poster appeal to more demographics. I also included another image of the protagonist’s eyes making direct contact with the camera; creating a sense of realism and connection with the audience and making the poster look more professional as the direct address is a typical convention. This improved my use of editing techniques, as I was able to merge two images with more layers without making it look out of place, also enabling me to challenge conventions of real media products, as it is not typical for a poster to include more than one image on the cover.

Many of the film posters I had researched used main images with the direct mode of address. To include the direct mode of address on my poster, I took an extreme close up shot of the eyes, and merged it with the main background still shot taken front the film. This not only challenged the conventions of film posters, but also successfully made it look professional and realistic.

The film trailer I created has many conventions of thriller trailers. After researching and analysing many trailers, I came to the conclusion that most of these had typical scary sound effects linked to suspense, with voiceovers and continuous cuts clear throughout. The beginning of my trailer features the MPAA rating card, suggesting that it has been approved for specific audiences, a typical feature for most film trailers. The first scene features a girl walking in a field with only her shadow visible to the audience. This links to the psychological thriller genre as it creates obscurity and suspense. The use of tense sound that has a low pitch at the beginning gradually increases whilst the trailer carries on. 
My films name is Mental State, which tells the audience what the film is about. It links clearly to the genre and supports existing media products belonging to the 'psychological thriller' genre as it revolves around the film and makes the clear link. The title of the trailer is black and white and in all my media products the title is justified to the right in order to create an effective house style that challenges existing media products.

The film magazine cover follows many conventional patterns of real media products such as, the positioning of the magazine name at the top of the page – the Masthead. The main image which reflects the genre and makes it clear to the audience, colour schemes of the text matching and tying in with the image creating a house style throughout, font sizes that vary on significant text and the use of a barcode, date and price. The magazine front cover features one main image following the conventions of other film magazines as well as the lures on both sides of the image. However, one convention that challenged many conventional film magazine front covers was the use of text that mentioned many other films on the bottom left side. The only magazine that seemed to follow this convention was an issue of ‘Empire’ which made it rare and perhaps more appealing to the audience as they may want to know about these films too, prompting them to buy the magazine, ultimately making more sales. 

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

The two ancillary tasks and my main media product all worked well together to create a successful promotion package for what could be a real film. The psychological thriller genre is rare for filmmakers, however I managed to gather sufficient information on the genre and construct a media product that reflects the conventions of many real media products. I had created a house style for the two ancillary tasks. This included the use of colours such as red, black and grey that made it look more professional as it all had a link. Film wise, synergy is the way all the elements are similar in style and themes, so they work well in promoting the film. I believe that my media products complement my film trailer, as they have many elements that link them together and promote them being a successful synergetic package. I used the same colour schemes throughout my products, reds, greys and blacks creating an effective house style.

Featuring prominent items on the poster and film as well as other promotional packages are a common form of synergy used in the mainstream film industry. Looking at existing and successful use of synergy makes clear that it is vital for the marketing of the film. One of the most recent and famous Hollywood films, Fast and Furious 7 (2015) demonstrates how significant the use of synergy is. It creates a house style that makes audiences be able to distinguish a film from the rest. All of the elements of synergy resemble each other in style and graphic. It is evident, from the posters and stills that the main characters are used on all of the media products. The film also has merchandise that is visually identical to the film to promote it. 

I successfully managed to use synergy as a promotional strategy for my media product. For example, the shadow figure is a prominent feature in promoting my product. It allows the audience to distinguish my media product from the rest.

The film poster could easily pass for a real media product as it evidently has much of real media product conventions on the cover as well as an easily identifiable house style. 

My main product the trailer was extremely effective when it was combined with my media products for the ancillary tasks as they had all linked because of my use of synergy.

The film magazine cover and film poster linked to each other because of the clear house style of the theme of mystery and obscurity. The colours are also similar and the backgrounds link to the film.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The audience for my media product will include a wide range of people, mostly teenagers both males and females from the age categories of (12 – 18). Therefore, it will be relatively popular amongst the youth; they will probably be studying at secondary school. My target audience will most likely be attracted to the thriller genre and have an interest in action and adventure.

The majority of my target audience are likely to have mobile phones and other gadgets that enable them to watch videos or films on. They are likely to have iPods and maybe tablets. They are young, hence fond of modern technology and aware of all the latest news. They live an active life so keep track of things. Using social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram will enable them to access film trailers on YouTube easily, and if it appeals to them, they will be prompted to watch it.

I believe my target audience is likely to contain a lot of people who are fairly interested in films and watching trailers and reading reviews before watching the film itself. The specific genres that they would be interested in would be pop and hip-hop music. I think they would also enjoy suspense and a sense of thrill that comes from the music and sound effects used. They would mainly watch trailers and films on TV and social networking sites. These include, Sky Movies. Watching thriller movies such as Psycho would be a popular choice amongst my audience. 

The audience would spend a lot of time on Internet because it is a place where they can easily access any kind of information, so my audience would be able to access the trailer and film posters easily. The social networking sites also appeal to a wider range of audience, so this may enable me to expand the audience for my media product.
I received feedback on YouTube after uploading my video:


Much of the feedback I received had been positive and showed that my initial product was good. However, online social networking platforms such as YouTube was not the only website I had received feedback on. I also showed the video to different students from my school. This was effective as I received suggestions on how to improve from different groups of the audience. I found that younger age groups '12-14' were more interested in the trailer than older students. Suggestions such as: 'Use less still image shots' was useful as I removed this and made the trailer look more professional and realistic.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
While planning and researching my media products, I used a wide range of programmes and media platforms to help me with it. 
To help me with the research of my film trailer, I used websites such as YouTube to watch existing film trailers that were successful. 

YouTube is an online video based media sharing website, it was one of the main online products that I used in order to conduct my research and planning.

After setting up my own channel, I uploaded my trailer on it and received feedback in the comments section. The multi-platform nature of this website means that you can access it from mobile devices and tablets as well as computers or macs therefore users have constant and easy access to the website.Having my work online was a very positive aspect as it is easier to share with friends, family and colleagues.

I shot my film using a digital camera, the Panasonic HD digital Camera. I found this camera extremely helpful as it allowed me to take high quality photos and videos, whilst being relatively easy to use and requiring little skill to operate. Having no experience in producing films I was very worried that I would not be able to get a lot of footage, which would be able to become a product of a high standard. However, I was glad to see that my camera was ideal for using focus pulls as it created beautiful blurry backgrounds, whilst focusing on the object. Taking into account my limited budget and time, this camera was extremely useful and helpful and made my media product turn out better than I had expected. The fact that the trailer belonged to the 'psychological thriller' genre was helpful as handheld shooting links to this particular genre.

A program I had used to edit my images was Adobe Photoshop, this also included the editing of my trailer images such as the credits at the end of the trailer.

Adobe Photoshop was a helpful website to use to edit my photos and still from the video. Having no experience in rather simplistic editing websites such as iphoto, I was terrified of using adobe Photoshop as an editing program as I thought it would be too simple for my A2 ancillary tasks, however, I was able to do a variety of different editing techniques on it such as the merging of two images which I was not aware of during AS.

The Internet enabled me to thoroughly research different existing media products relevant to my production.I found inspiration from various platforms across the web, picked certain images and videos and inserted them into my planning and research post. Furthermore, I researched my target audience and looked at existing and successful trailer for films on YouTube. I also looked at the comments section on these trailers to help me whilst producing my own trailer.

I used Google Blogger to keep my coursework up to date. Blogger is a free and open source blogging tool.

It is a convenient way to display and distribute all of my work and it also provides a fast and convenient way to access your work from the internet. The blogs all belong to a domain blogspot.com. I added a lot of hyperlinks, inserted videos and images and kept my research and planning in it. In turn, this had made my work easier to access and understand.

Another useful program I used to edit my trailer was imovie. Imovie is a video editing software application on macs or any apple product. It is an easy and useful editing app and can be used to import and export videos and images after it has been edited.

I found that this software was easy to use and it had everything I needed such as transitions and the option to add text. 

Overall, I was satisfied with the websites I had used to produce my media products. 

A2: Final products

Film Magazine Front Cover

Film Poster

 Film Trailer

A2: Trailer Analysis

After finishing the trailer I received feedback on the video by uploading it on the school youtube channel and showing it to other students. Much of the feedback I received was positive on youtube. However, feedback I received from students who watched my trailer included some suggestions and improvements for it. One of the suggestions I received was to make the trailer shorter including less still image shots as this makes the trailer look unprofessional. I acted upon this advice and removed the majority of still images used in my trailer to make it look realistic and professional.

http://youtu.be/P7oFnFJuml4

I included a variety of shot types to make the link to the psychological thriller genre much more clear.

Like every trailer, the MPAA rating card is a significant aspect to make it look professional and show the audience that it is a rated trailer. 

The distributors to be referenced is also a significant element of a trailer . I made sure to include this at the beginning of the trailer making it look realistic.

The first sequence of my trailer includes still image shots. They appear as flashbacks and gradually increases the tension. The use of more than one flashback links to some of the trailers I had found in my research.

Different angled shots made a huge difference in creating an effect for my trailer. The high angle canted shot allows the audience to see both characters in the frame. We can see the interrogator questioning as well as the girls reactions. 

The shot types also include a close up so we get to see the facial expressions and reactions. A psychological thriller film has many close ups of the protagonists face allowing us to see their reaction.

Like many trailers, I edited one stills that had cations on them explaining to the audience what the film is about or alternatively, increasing the suspense and mystery of the subject that the film revolves around.

Hand held recording was also effective as it gave the shot a shaky effect.

This still shows a mid shot of the girl sitting alone.

The last sequence show the girl walking away from the camera in the same location as the starting of the trailer.

The last sequence also focuses on a still of the protagonist walking away from the camera in a void.  This links to the psychological genre again as it causes mystery and places emphasis on the obscurity surrounding the girl.

Like many trailers, at some point of the trailer the audience sees the release date and credits mentioning the actors, directors and everyone who worked as part of the film. I decided to include this at the end of the film as the release date is what the audience would be waiting to see.

A2: Film Magazine front cover analysis

The film magazine front cover is dedicated to promoting the film. It has a still image of the protagonist on the cover and text that gives readers an insight on what the film is about.

Main Image: The main image is not making direct eye contact with the camera as this is a feature common in many psychological thriller or horror film magazine covers. To support this convention I did not allow the direct eye contact as it increases the mystery.

Masthead: The masthead is one of the most eye catching texts on the page. It is evidently the largest and boldest and promotes the magazine.

Banner: The banner also promotes the film allowing audiences to see exclusive behind the scene images.

Lures: Every magazine includes a lure to help sell the magazine. The lure I used was the banner 'say hello to our big screenplay special' as it pulls the reader in giving them an insight into what the magazine includes persuading them to buy it and read the rest of the article.

Colours: The colours used link to the colours on the films poster and the trailer, creating a synergetic effect and a house style. The reds, blacks and whites not only link to the rest of promotional package but also connote mystery, obscurity and evil linking to the psychological thriller genre.

Sell lines: To sell the magazine, I included a 'preview special' on the cover which includes all the most famous films of the year allowing readers to read exclusive stuff on these films. This is a technique magazines such as 'Empire' use but only on certain magazine issues as it helps increase the sales of the magazine.

A2: Post Production

Post Productions Section 1A

Describe how you developed your skills in post-production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making.

Paragraph 1: Should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.
Paragraph 2: Should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. Use a detailed example.
Paragraph 3: Should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. Again there should be detailed examples to support all that you say.
Paragraph 4: Should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by detailed examples, and reflecting back on how this represents a move forward for you from your earlier position.
Paragraph 5: Short conclusion

A2: Film Poster Analysis

The film poster I had produced for my ancillary task received a lot of positive feedback from audiences.

Main Image - The main image I chose to use as the background for the film poster was in fact a still shot from the trailer. This supported typical conventions for film posters as it looked appealing and linked to the psychological thriller genre as well as telling the audience a little about what the film is going to be revolved around. The main image also features a shadow of the protagonist, this was done in order to create an effective link with the psychological thriller genre.
I also merged another image using photoshop. The second image was an extreme close up of the protagonists eyes. At first the poster only featured the main image on it, however I figured that a lot of existing posters have an image on the front that make direct eye contact with the reader. This looked effective as it looked more sinister and appealing at the same time.

Ratings - The star ratings at the top of the poster are used as lures to persuade the reader to watch the film. The star ratings are from different magazine tabloids and newspapers make it look more realistic. I also featured one particular review at the top of the poster 'Brilliantly written, terrifically acted... one of her best!' These reviews are included by a lot of mainstream film posters, crediting the film to make it appeal to the audience such as this one:

Title - The title of my film 'Mental State' is positioned on the right hand bottom side of the poster. This is simply because I have created a house style and decided to stick to this as it made the film much more recognizable and creates a synergetic pattern. Even the colours used, red and white link to the house style making the poster stand out from others and immediately allowing the audience to link it to the film.

Colours - The use of reds and whites link to the films theme and house style. I kept synergy in mind whilst constructing the poster to make it look much more professional and realistic. However, I also introduced a new colour - blue to give the audience a glimpse of the film and make it look more pleasing to the eye as it creates a nice contrast with the red, white and black.

Credits and Date of release - It is typical of all film posters to include credits and a date of release. The credits tell the audience who acts in the film as well as giving them details about the producers, directors and other main people who worked in or on the film. The date of release is perhaps one of the most significant aspects of the films promotion. This gives the audience details on when the film will be released and showing in mainstream cinemas so they can go to watch it.

Overall, I was pleased with the final result of my films poster. I had received positive feedback on it and made final changes after receiving suggestions on what I should change from my media class.

A2: Editing

Editing the trailer took more time than expected. I received feedback on what I had already done and this was effective as I was able to make proper changes to the trailer. 
I edited my trailer on imovie using the mac and I soon became used to the software and using the tools on the programme to help me edit the trailer. 

I had already gathered footage and had to work on putting this together effectively to make it look like a professional trailer as part of a promotion package for a real film.

I received suggestions on my trailer on how I should make it look good. Some of the suggestions I received were:

• Include various cuts and increase the pace of the trailer
• Make sure the pace of the music also increases whilst the cuts and editing is increasing
• Use the imovie text and transitions tools to include cuts to a screen with text on it to tell the audience more about what is happening in the trailer making it more effective and clear for them
• Use a mix of both diagetic and non diagetic sounds in your trailer that make the link to the psychological genre much more clear

A2: Filming

I began filming the trailer in sequences, starting with the shortest. I made sure to include a variety of shot types such as a point of view shot, long shot, extreme long shot and a close up as well as a canted angle shot.
I filmed in a non linear chronology and this proved effective as I managed to edit everything together without the trailer looking as though it had been filmed at different times in a non linear order.

A2: Research and Planning - Trailers

Trailers
A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theatre after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film begins.

Movie trailers have now become popular on DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, as well as on the Internet and mobile devices. Of some ten billion videos watched online annually, film trailers rank third, after news and user-created video.

Definition 
Trailers consist of a series selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the maximum length allowed by the MPAA. Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film.

Some trailers use "special shoot" footage, which is material that has been created specifically for advertising purposes and does not appear in the actual film. 

MPAA rating cards for theatrical trailers 

A green band is an all-green graphic at the beginning of the trailer. Until April 2009, these cards indicated that they had been approved for "all audiences" and often included the movie's MPAA rating. This signified that the trailer adheres to the standards for motion picture advertising outlined by the MPAA, which include limitations on foul language and violent, sexual or otherwise objectionable imagery.

Action trailer Analysis

There are approximately 30 cuts in the first 35 seconds of the trailer. Because it is a action movie, it would have more cuts and the pace of these cuts would increase as the trailer moves on. This creates more of an effect on the audience and increases the tension and suspense of the dilemmas and actions in the trailer.

The use of voiceover at the beginning along with the sound effects creates an exciting effect as the audience gets to know what sort of characters are in the movie. Everything included in the trailer such as the fact paced edits with extreme long shots and quick instant close ups link to the genre - action/adventure. From this I learnt how to create an almost synergetic effect in the trailer alone where absolutely everything links with each other. The music and the pace of it increases in the trailer.

A2: Research and Planning - Film Posters

As part of my research, I decided to look at different film Posters and analyse them.

One of my favorite Film Poster that i came across was the 'Limitless' one. The idea of three images being present on the cover made it look more appealing. As well as this, the editor added the names of the actors under each image. The title of the film 'Limitless' is  positioned on the bottom of the page.

The layout of this particular poster appealed to me and may be one of the posters I base my film poster on.

Two conflicting images were present on this poster as well as the vertical film title positioned in the middle separating the two images.

A2: Research and Planning - Film Magazine Covers

Researching different covers for film magazines and analyzing them was useful as I came to fully understand the generic conventions used.



Masthead - A defining feature of Empire magazine is the ever changing appearance of the Masthead. While the location and size of the title remains the same, the colour and theme often changes with the genre of the film advertised in the main image. This is a very attractive and appealing method of grabbing the reader's attention and automatically relating the topics of the magazine to the film story, so if the style appeals than the reader will be inclined to read on.

Main Image - The main image is the focal point and main focus of the front cover. It is positioned in the very centre of the page which is particularly eye catching and perhaps the biggest feature on the page. The mid shot of the character holding a weapon immediately tells the audience that the film belongs to the fantasy/adventure genre. The image also feature another merged image with the supposed villain looking at the character. The main image not only looks visually stunning but also informs the audience a little about the plot.

Catch-lines - The catch phrases used particularly 'THE FINEST MIDDLE-EARTH COVERAGE CONTINUES INSIDE' provide encouragement to the reader and almost lures them in persuading them to read more inside and buy the magazine.

Colour Scheme - The colour scheme of the magazine is very important to the theme of the magazine's story, it also stands out to the audience in numerous ways. The dark blue contrasts well with the black used and also contrasts well with the golden coloured text making it clearer for the reader to read. The colours are used to perhaps connote mystery, adventure and evil. At a glance, the genre of the film is instantly recognizable.

A2: Genre

Psychological Thriller

Psychological thriller is a fictional thriller story which emphasizes the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states. In terms of classification, the category is a subgenre of the broader ranging thriller category, with similarities to Gothic and detective fiction in the sense of sometimes having a "dissolving sense of reality", moral ambiguity, and complex and tortured relationships between obsessive and pathological characters. Psychological thrillers often incorporate elements of mystery, drama, action, and horror, particularly psychological horror. They are usually books or films.

A2 Planning

First Sequence

A young girl is walking alone in a field like location.The location will be edited to a dark sinister effect. The sound in this scene will be both diagetic and non diagetic.

Second Sequence

She is sat in an empty room being interrogated by another woman who looks middle aged. The interrogator will not be shown whilst saying this, only the girl being interrogated is shown. 

Third Sequence

All sound will be muted, the girl is alone in the interrogation room. Whilst camera pans out, a non diagetic scream. Music starts again

Whilst camera pans out, cuts to black.

The End.

Filming dates:

All dates are in 2014
Friday 7th November - approximately 2 hours needed, 8:30 to 10:30. Scene 2

Featuring two main characters

Saturday 8th November - approximately 3 hours needed. Finish scene 2 and scene 3.

Featuring main characters in interrogation room

Tuesday 11th November - approximately 2 hours needed. Continue filming scene 3 and finish it.

Featuring main character in interrogation room

Thursday 13th November - approximately (1/2) hour needed. Finish filming scene 4.

Featuring main character in bedroom

Script in detail

First sequence

The camera pans from the right side to the girl. Long shot of her walking. Location is made obvious and visible because of this shot. The mise-en-scene will be basic and simple. The girl will be wearing casual clothing. The diagetic sound will be casual, non-diagetic music. This scene will only last for 1 minute. The camera pans away and cuts to scene two, just after her last thought appears. Constantly cuts to screen that asks the questions 'what if?'

Second sequence

For more effect on the audience, I am going to use over the shoulder shots, and effects such as swift, unclear flashbacks. Non- diagetic and diagetic sounds are both going to be included in this scene. The non-diagetic sound may consist of the beeping sound security cameras often make. Diagetic sound includes the door banging whilst the interrogator walks out. Extreme close up of the girls face, camera goes blurry.

Third sequence

The scene begins with a blurred shot, continuing swiftly from the end of scene 2. The girl is alone. Diagetic sound - everything is muted. whilst the camera pans in, a loud scream. Extreme close up of eyes

Research

I researched a short film and came across one where the audience could see the thoughts of the characters in the film.

https://youtu.be/Wl2_knlv_xw

Through research I had found some key questions which may be useful when I start to plan my trailer.

1. Who/What is the film about?
2. What is the basis of the action in the film?
3. From who's point of view is the audience being shown the story?
4. What is the theme?
5. What is the style/genre of the film?

I wanted my trailer to include several different effects and interesting techniques. To do this, I researched existing films and trailers which incorporate outstanding effects, emphasizing the impact on both the characters and audience.

In the last two minutes of 'The Walking Dead' during Shanes death the producer had included swift flashbacks whilst the character is dying. 

The flashbacks appear as extreme close ups and are not clear to the viewer. There is also a sound effect when during the flashbacks. The fact that my short film will be based upon the idea of the state of mind, I decided a concept like this would be suitable and effective.

My trailer will consist of an empty room, with a camera positioned in the top corner. So, the film appears as though it has been shot using a security camera. The 'Rec' icon will also appear on the screen to make the security camera footage look realistic.

Just like Shane's death scene in 'The Walking Dead'. The camera will constantly show flashbacks and quick shots to the street and a hand covered in blood. As an alternative to filming these scenes, I will take snapshots of the street and use those.

The street will be dark, foggy and mysterious. 

The interrogation room will also be dark with a black and white effect. An example of the sort of interrogation I want to use would be as such.