Drafts of both products

Poster

poster

magazine

magazine

Storyboards

This was my first idea for a Horror Poster, it is NOT my actual poster.

Sweeney Todd Magazine cover

magazine cover
Originally uploaded by Sonny Haydn Gardiner1

Megan Fox on the cover of Empire

megan-fox-empire-cover
Originally uploaded by Sonny Haydn Gardiner1

How does Horror movies represent gender?

 To answer the question of how women are represented in horrors, we, as a class, went through three films progressively become more recent. These were Halloween made in 1979, then The Shining made in 1982 and finally Eden Lake made in 2008. Examining different dated films allowed us to see the overall representation of women as opposed to just a certain era in time.

We looked at various roles of the females in order to analyse whether or not they're being viewed in an stereotypical way or not.

We had a look at the four stereotypical features of females which are Domestic, Consumer, Sexual and Familial.
We noticed while looking in these that in the film Halloween there is sexual representation of the characters Annie and Lynda as Annie spills something on her top and takes it off so she's revealing her bra and walking around in rather than finding something else to cover herself up with. With Lynda we see her and her boyfriend have sex and when he walks in the room, which is actually Mike Myers, she reveals her breasts in order to 'seduce' him which is just making her look sexual. The other role taken on it the Domestic role which Laurie, the main character, takes on as she, although still in school, babysits which backs up the domestic position as even though at a young age she's still looking after kids. There are few examples of the Familial role, such as Annie who is the daughter of the Sheriff, and also Judith who is Michael Myers actually sister, although Judith is only seen very breifly at the start so it's hard to decide whether she fits into this role.

The Shining shows examples of the Domestic, Familial and slightly Sexual roles. Firstly they show features of Wendy, the main/final girl, to be very domestic in that even though she's not in their original home she stills takes on the cooking and other roles which fall under the domestic category. She is also seen with a Familial role as she is Jack's, the antagonist, wife and Danny's, the boy, mother. There is a slightly representation of sexuality with the ghost that appear in the room Jack enters (room 237) as there is a beautiful woman naked and Jack is in amazment of her beauty and that she's naked. However, we didn't decide whether it is a representation of the Sexual role as she turns into an old women all wrinkly and, as rude as it is, disgusting. So it's as if it's a trick to those who view women as Sexual by drawing them in then showing this old woman.

Finally, Eden Lake creates Jenny, the main/final girl, a Domestic role as it shows her as a primary school teacher which could imply she's good at looking after the young. She is also looking at by the yobs in her bikini creating a sexual role, and also her and her boyfriend have sex in a tent, although that would give them both a sexual role. However, Jenny is not the only women in the film represented by these roles. There is a woman in a cafe who's taking care of Steve, main guy, and Jenny's orders for breakfast giving her the Domestic 'food sorting' role. She, like many others towards the end, are seen in a Familial way, all having their own families and when she's in the cafe she says "not my boys" suggesting her children giving her the familial role.

Another important factor of the representations of gender in a horror is the visability of the genders. The visability could have a pragmatical meaning of the importance of the gender. So if there are less females then this may be seen as a dominant male movie, and vise versa.

In Halloween, even though Laurie is the main character, in terms of roughly who's main and 'important' in the film, there is roughly about the same amount of each gender in the movie. Creating a half and half representation of gender, which then rules out the stereotypical 'inferior' view of the female.

When it came to The Shining there is a clear dominance of male 'main roles' as there is roughly 2 women that speak in the movie and much more males and has a ratio of about 60:40. This then backs up the stereotypical view of the female by having them appear less in the film.

In Eden Lake, although Jenny is clearly important and is viewed by the audience a lot throughout the film, it shows a substantial difference in the male to female ratio as it has a large amount of males, approximately 8-10 relatively main characters, whereas there are limited females, approximately 3-4, showing a large dominance in males visability.

The male gaze is also an important factor in these films and links in with the Sexual role. The male gaze represents women to be identified or objectified. Identifying someone means you're giving them an actualy identity suggesting they exist and are important, where as objectifying suggest they're just 'objects' to look at.

In Halloween the main protagonist, Laurie, isn't viewed by the gaze at all. Infact she's the complete opposite, with a mixed gendered name, barely any make up, worries about forgetting one of her revision books from school suggesting she does her studies, and her overall appearance isn't particularly fancy and revealing making her identified. Although, it balances out at the objectify both Annie and Lynda. They view Lynda when she's in a bra by the 'monster' watching her through a window. Annie is objectified by her boyfriend, so we think, by looking at her reveal her breasts to 'seduce' him suggestng that she has to by using her sexual features.

The Shining mainly Identifys the women in it, for example Wendy isn't seen as sexual throughout the whole film and is just viewed by identification as she has an important role being the final girl and looking after Danny through the whole film. There are no scenes of objectification of Wendy in the movie. There is an objectification of the ghost in the bath showing her sexual features, although as explained earlier this could be viewed as a trick to the viewer who gets drawn in as she transforms and it makes the viewed disgusted and question the objectification.
Eden Lake only shows one shot of objectification, and this is towards Jenny the main character. The youths are looking at her on the beach sunbathing in a bikini. However the fact that she's the main character and eventually turns into a monster by murdering herself actually identifies her and overpowers the initial objectification.

There is also another way to find a conclusion to this question, and that is by analysing the actually narrative of the moive and the relevance of the characters.
For example in Halloween  there is a death tole of 5, being 3 females and 2 males. However, apart from one character that dies, the rest are related to sexual antics. Whereas the final girl, Laurie, seems to have a reluctance to this and gets shy about minor things compared to sex such as asking a boy to dance that she gets embarrased by. However she survives, potentially saying the smart, innocent and well behaved characters survive and slightly 'curupt' characters, for having sex before marriage and drinking alot etc. will be killed.
The Shining is a hard film to talk about, because there is a death tole of 3 females and 2 male, however all 3 of the females are already dead and are ghosts. So effectively two males die in the movie and no females as the dead ones are already dead and aren't linked into the 'current' narrative story of Jack's family, apart from he see's them suggesting his pyhscological problems.. Also another point is that the main and final character it a female and the male main character, Jack, dies.
In Eden Lake 2 females die, whereas 4 males die making it less stereotypical. However, looking more close ot the movie, there are 3 females and 8 males. So almost all the females die and half of the males. So there is actually no really a reactionary sexual agenda in Eden Lake, as the final girl dies anyway.


As expected there was a large mixed view of these three movies and there representations of genders in the movie. As, for example, The Shining doesn't objectify the female from the male gaze, however it does give Wendy a domestic and Familial role. In Halloween it does objectify the majority of females in the movie and makes them have domestic roles, so this does follow the stereotypical view of women. Finally Eden Lake has a limited amount of females in the movie, however it doesn't really objectify the females, only for a short time but Jenny is the final character and turns into a monster so it equals out.

The Role of the Distributor.

Distributors have the lovely job of getting a wide range of audiences for the production they will be working for. Although distributors get no recognision when a film is made, they're pretty much the reason the film will have gained any attention it may have got, no taking into to account all the ways people can entertain themselves in or outside these days, it's no wonder the job is actually extremely difficult. Not only is it hard to get the attention of the usual occupied audience, but when they do, they have to promote the production better than any other title thats been released at or near the same time. You can easily tell which films have large budjets, because they'll have large advertisement and publicity (which I'll explain in a moment) because they'll have bigger and better distributors.
Distributors main role is to find out everything they need to know about the audience they're attracting. First and most obviously, what is the target audience? young? old? couples? etc.
They could look at other films which are slightly similar and get information about their target audience, but as a whole they have to find out everything about their audience themselves.
They will also have to budjet the release of the film taking into account things such as the actually launch and the post-release. They will then go in organising the publicity and advertisment;

Publicity
Publicity is very important for the porduction of a movie. It can be used to create a word-of-mouth which is useful for creating a good atmosphere and excitment for a movie. The distributors publicity team will arrange for interviews to be taken, usually between memebers of the cast in the moive, artists which will go see the movie when in premier. Biographies and facts of the film, basically most things contained and interesting in the film will be created and given to journalists from the publicists and this is called a 'press kit'. Publicists can also get a wide range of critics to give their critical analysis of the movie. Also they will create marchadise such a t-shirts, mugs, hats etc. and premier, previews of the movie and much more. Distributors can also sometimes, not everytime, create  'promotional partnerships. Getting audiences who purchase something to do with their publicity, e.g. marchandise, a chance to win a competition from it to meet certain cast members or be takn on a tour around the setting.
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This is a comunication through the production and consumer without any costs from the consumer so it is more persuasive to watch as it's free. This also helps for 'Word of mouth' which can create hype and excitement through things like a poster, which can link into social groups as they will be noticing these posters everyday and consult with their friends about it. Quite obviously the trailer itself is part of the advertisment and also creates word of mouth. Usually along side this they will create a wedsite, containing things such as movie shots and the trailer, posters, exclusive 'behind the scenes footage' and sometimes they may get people giving opinions on the film.

Promotions

Distributors will usual set out for an active approach to the audience for the ever so important media advertisment as this is the big contributor to advertisment.

Synergy is a good use of promotions and seems very much like advertisement, but it isn't. There is a difference, promtions can come informs of most things to do with the film, that aren't the film. Basically all marchandise is advirtisement right up until you buy it, whcih then turns it in to a promtional feature. When you buy a promotional feature such as toys, games etc. you actually give the production company a certain amount of that money creating more adverts and things like that. It's the sort of link between a seller and a buyer, but the link is only used for influencing or persuasive purposes.
Promotion can take form in the media aswell, where the advertiser pays for adervtisement on radio shows or tv etc.

Original photos for both products.

Original picture for my poster.

Original picture for my magazine cover.

Teaser trailer and the main theatrical trailer differences

It's hard to notice much difference between teaser trailers and theatrical trailers, although there are differences. Teaser trailers are used to basically say this film is being created, whereas theatrical trailers are trailers saying this film is created and is about to be released or has been released go see it now. Teaser trailers are much quicker and show montages of shots in about 3/4 seconds, too qucik for the human eye to be aware of. For example in the scream teaser trailer there are almost 6 shots in about 3 seconds and I had to pause the trailer over and over again to count and I still think there are more shots. Whereas a theatrical trailer is much more slower and gives the audience a much wider view of the movie. They create shots for an enigma to make the audience ponder what it could possibly mean?


Official trailer


Teaser trailer

Audience Research Analysis

Questionnairres are very important when finding out what to do for your trailer. It gets the best quality response out of any other ways you could find the audience research from.
I felt it is crucial to get an equal amount of female and males to take the sruvey to steer away from being dominant to just one gender. The problem with our survey is that most of the people we were able to get are audience feedback from were actually our friends and people our age, resulting in a substantial amount of people being aged from 16-17 and the occasional parent or maybe teacher, but very few older audiences.
However this just meant that they would be the audience we focused on get our production to be of value to them.
From our audience research we've learnt that the age range will be from 15-18 which made us decide to use younger people for the main actors to make it more convergent. The audience also chose forests as their desired setting which was beneficial because it was already where we set to hold our film.
From our target audience we found that there was a shared response from both female and male. We obviously came as some use because it wasn't too difficult to decide how the production was going to be made. However there were some areas which weren't as easily decided. When is came to the actually genre of the horror, e.g. Gore etc. There were a mixed response about both slasher and supernatural. This made it more difficult to decide what it should be. The reason we went for what we did. supernatural, is because it wasn't as typical as a slasher chasing people down in a forest. We wanted a unique feature to ours, so we decided to, rather than do a supernatural film in a possessed home such as Paranormal Activity, make the supernatural force be outside to scare the audience more,. it would make them feel more involved to the force, rather then feel that it only happens in this 'haunted house'.
The other beneficial concept of a mix responce as it avoided any dominant gender stories. For example it wasn't comletely appealing to just males as oppossed to females, it actually allowed us to open our viewing range in gender terms.
We were able to combine these results in order to create a reasonable production evolving round them. There are many more questions as we decided the more intelligent approach to audience feedback was to branch out with our own ideas and put them together after getting our own responses and these were mine. Some of the questions that were answered were questions like:

'What horror conventions excite you and make you more incline to see a horror movie?'
We had to rely on people with knowledge into horror trailers, like media or film studies students, to give a specific and relevant answer to us. However we did also branch out to anyone we could get the time off, which is why there is a variety in answers. It ranges from the anticipation of the classic horror music building up to something big, or a creepy and calm mentioning of the films tagline 'In space, no one can hear you scream!' But there was a wide response for tracking/following shots, for example in the trailer 'Long Tim Dead' we get put into a point of view shots with the evil spirit and are chasing someone through a corridor. We decided to adapt this to our trailer as it got the largest response from the audience.
Also montages got a very high rating for this question, revealing a lot yet a little of the film in about a 8 second viewing. This is because it reveals to the audience a lot of the movie and makes them ponder more about what they've seen however, it doesn't spolit it so we have decided to adapt this to our film.

For what reasons do horrors appeal to you?
This gave us a very cliche of responses, as the majority were for the 'excitment' or 'thrill' which is what was expected from this question. Although it was still useful because it gave us the ideas to make it more anticipation building. There were some different answers, such as preffered genre to see when going to the cinema with partners or friends for the fun yet scary feeling.

Do you prefer Hollywood or English horror movies?
This was a question we used in order to subtly find out if the audience prefered bigger budjetted films or not with actually stunts etc. or animated. We didn't ask upfront which they prefered because without thinking the initial response would have been high valued ones. The reason for this question is because Hollywood moives are very good and amazing in terms of graphics, but very cheesy and unrealistic, like the films Jason which are about a human man who can take knifes and bullets to the face yet still live. Unlike a lot of horror films from England, such as Eden Lake. Eden Lake is scary because it is very realistic and seems like a slightly potential scenario. Teenage thugs getting out of control and in order to 'cover up' their mistakes they resort to killing.
The response resulted in English Films getting a better rating, so we concentrated on making it more realistic.

Audience research

Is our group we deigned a questionsairre in order to get audience research for our trailer. I decided to use the popular and easy to handle site 'Survey Monkey' as it was easy to use for both the creater and the audience answering it. I split it into 5 questions which I felt were needed to get a good lead into what should be created, The five our 1. Gender 2. Age 3. Preffered Genre 4. Attendance to a cinema and 5. Preffered setting.

 This is obviously quite crucial for our production as it determines the gender of the actors and certain scenes. For example if it was highly male dominated then there would be more chance of any company to objectify women if they were in it or if female dominated they may prefer the concept of the final girl for a sence of power.
Age too is very important as the older the audience the more they will look into the film and be critical. For instance a 15-18 age group would be more likely to enjoy the film and not bother with glitches or 'issues' such as sexism or religion, however if they're older and more 'mature' they'll be more likely to pick up on the idea of sexism or religion etc.

 This is obviously also very important as it determines whether we will have mindless violence or spiritual possession over certain characters and the concept of the trailer would be to workout who and why is possessed.

 This is important for issues such as the budjet. If we found out that our target audience doesn't particularly attend the cinema, then we would be less likely to put great expenses into it knowing we wouldn't make it back. Whereas if our audience was going to the cinema weekly then we'd be more likely to put more of an increased budjet into it.

This is an important question as it determines where we will set our film. If people don't like the 'typical' settings they will be less likely to view it as they will see it as the same as others. So getting the right setting creates a unique feeling to it. For example, if every film that'd recently been released all about mindless violence in a forest, the audience would see them as the same and be less incline to view it, and we want to steer away from looking the same as another distributors film recently released.

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

Comparison of my media product and genuine horror trailer shots.

I think these two shots a very similar as they're both shots of an evil spirit chasing through a corridor. It also has the similarities of both being red filtered to represent some sort of evil spirit. This is a very common theme in horror movies which involve an evil spirit chasing someone around. These shots are good because it puts the audience on edge and makes them think about what could possibly be chasing and what they're chasing. The shot I have compared mine to in from a film called 'long time dead' as this is also about an evil spirit possessing someone. This is a very usual shot in horrors as it puts you in the eyes of the mysterious monster, so you don't see it but you see what it's chasing.

 I chose these shots as these are both showing what you would first believe to be the protagonist. I have chosen to compare these two shots as they're both mid shots of the two. As this shot is the first you see of someone running a mundane life you believe they're the protagonist. I also felt as if the shot I compared it to from the film 'scream' as I believe when the trailer starts and you first see this girl you also, very similarly, believe she is the protagonist. It is a very usual shot to start with making everything seem normal and then suddenly change e.g. in ours the book changes everything but in Scream the phone call does.

 I believe these two shots are very similar as they're zooming in on the paper which the person is holding. They are both point of view shots from whoever is looking at them. They both slightly zoom into the paper making it take up the screen to get a better view of it. We used this scene to give the audience a better view of what he is looking at and so they would recognise it at the place when they arrive at in the film. It is very usual to have someone looking at something in a book or on a piece of paper linking in to the place or the monster of the film.

I believe these shots are very similar because they both watch the door closing and opening. There is a significant to the door and this is why they're both zoomed in on it. We did this for our production as it had a label on it, so when they monster followed the boy into the room you could see that the door he had taken is the same as the one the boy had gone into. We done this shot to make it clearer for the audience to see he is being chased. Doors are very good for horrors seeing the open and close as it makes the audience wonder "what's on the other side? Is he alone?".

I like these shots because they both show a character running away from something which then makes the audience wonder what it could be that they're running away from and why running and not contacting anyone. It gives a sense of them being in the wilderness with something evil. I like the shot because it's a clear shot of the person as they run towards the camera likes as if they're coming your way. We chose it to show something mysterious happening at the start of the production. These shots a very good as you see the character running towards the camera but nothing behind them. This makes the audience wonder what could possibly be there.

] I chose these two shots as they're both of something evil and unusual. They are both close ups of the evil thing and both look like the antagonist. We chose this shot and put it at the end of our production after the credits etc. We do this in order for the audience to think the trailer was other but then suddenly some evil quick close up of something very unusual appears which is used to stun the audience and be intrigued what it was. This shots a very typical for flash shots of the monster to put the audience on edge.

 I feel these shots a very similar as they're both distance shots of a very significant place in the trailers. I got a shot from the film 'the thing' and the shot I chose was of the significant place where all the evil unleashes. I felt this related well to my shot as it too is showing the place where all the evil will be residing. We chose this shot as zoomed in on the picture of the place and then zoomed out and it was there. I felt this worked well as the picture came from the unusual book so it shows that the picture of the water tower had a good relevance to the story. These shots are very typical to get a distant shot of where the evil will take place. It lets the audience see all around the main setting of the place.

 I chose these shots as they're very clear views of the protagonist. We chose this shot as it made the protagonist stick out during the montage we played. We did this as it's an important and almost crucial element to a good trailer by showing who the audience should be paying more attention to who will be the focus of the film. I also linked these shots as they're both arcing shots around the protagonist. They are very usual to show what's around the protagonist and to see what area they are in.

The chose these two shots as they are both of the antagonist of the production. They're both very dark and dull and which makes the antagonist stick out and makes the audience realise who the antagonist is. I believe (like the protagonist) this is a very important shot and it separates the pondering question of who should have the main focus upon them and for what reasons. This is a very typical flash and distance shot to show the audience what the actually evil in the film will be.

Horror Conventions

It is important to have actually typical horror conventions within a trailer. 'Typical' is a bit general, it includes the setting, clear shots of protagonist and antagonists usually. This is why we used a forest on dim dull days because it made it more mysterious looking like the horrible whether went with the genre. We decided to mix it up a bit by bringing the devil into the modern day society rather than have it in ancient roman times etc. We used the setting of college to first being our trailer. We did this in order to create normality which keeps the audience questioning the possible storylines and keeps them pondering. We used the woods and water tower as the picture of the water tower burnt and ripped up looked well for a horror setting. The picture made the place look scary so the actually scenes were relatively frightening. The begining scene of a character running into the woods is used to suggest it's a place of which you cannot escape as this character is no longer in the trailer apart from in the woods. I believe, due to camera work, even though a wood is very dull because it's typical of a horror movie to be set in. I think as we created a sense of not being able to leave and trapped within it, that it worked very well.

We use plently of 'stereotypical' horror shots with the camera, for instance a point of view chasing shot from the antagonist, or an arching shot around a singled out character in the mysterious setting (woods). We use flash shots of the antagonist and protagonist, although it is a criticism of the trailer that we didn't do this well enough with the protagonist and it was hard to distinguish who it was. We have a very exorcism feel to our film as it's about an evil spirit rather than slashers slicing the characters up, although we do give hints of violence through blood on the tree and the final character getting struck in the face by the camera (eyes of the beast). We had debates whether we should follow the usual 'final girl' stroyline, but we decided it creates more of an enigma to the audience if there was no girl in it. This would leave them pondering whether they escape? if not then who survives if there is no girl to beat the all powerful monster no one else seems to beat.

We did use young 'teens' like most horrors on the basis that these are the most likely people to study into the storys and mystery behind the water tower picture.

The reason we show the audience the water tower and bits of the setting is to get them to understand roughly the basic storyline without spoiling it. We show the 'scary' setting of the forest and interesting shots of different characters, like the protagonist walking to the water tower, from different un-explainable scenes, (without watching the rest of the movie) to interest the audience and make them want to know more. For example they might want to know "what's in the water tower? why is it significant". We tried, excluding the beginning, to make the trailer roughly follow the time line of the actually moive e.g. them in school the boy finding the book then they find the picture and so on. We were fortunate to slow down some of our productions rather lengthy and 'un-neccasary' shots by adding transitions such as dissolve to make it look more like a bluring demon type vision e.g. when the monster is following the boy to the bathroom, the shot was rather long so we put the dissolves to make it still an available shot for that particular moment and yet also look like professional shot and also builds up the anticipation of the audience for what is coming next as we speeded up the shots after every dissolve. 

We have quite a silent movie with no uses of narrative. We did this because we believe it draws the audience in more if they have to take notice of what's infront of them (the inter titles) rather than being told. We didn't really get any diegetic sounds, we rely completely on the audio of our background music to create suspence in the audience. Also when it comes to diegetic sounds it's actually reletively complex to choose what may give away too much of the storyline and sometimes it could be seen as irrelevant to the audience. So we decided to focus more on making a suspence building and anticipation grasping soundtrack.

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

Garage band - we used garage band to create our sound effects and soundtrack for instance when the boy who gets possessed by the book touches the book there is a thunder sound. Garageband was very useful as we were able to add our trailer to it to get a time line of our trailer to make sure the music was more specific. It had some elements of problems as it was very hard to use it terms of finding the actually tracks we wanted, as a result we had to use back-up tracks which we intended not to use.

Video Camera - We used a video camera to record all of our footage for our movie to then upload to Final Cut Pro. Its quality wasn't very good and at time it was rather complicated to use. However it was very useless to get the basic shot requirements for this project. Also for difficult, to shoot, shots it was easy to hold.

Youtube - We used Youtube to upload our teaser trailer to so we could get more audience feedback on our teaser trailer and also it was used to look at existing teaser trailers to get basic and rough ideas for our own. It was very useless because it  made the trailer able to broaden its viewing possibility.

Adobe Photoshop - I used Adobe photoshop to create my magazine cover and poster and also to edit the picture of the water tower in our trailer. We made the water tower picture look more ripped and burnt (for evil and ancient effect). This too like Garageband was very hard to use. However with the minimal tools I did know how to use I was still able to create a realistic poster and magazine cover. So this proves how effective it really can be with minor tools.

Still Camera - I used a still camera in order to get my photos for my magazine and poster. The problem I felt was that the camera wasn't quite good enough for the standard of the photo I wanted it to be. However like the video camera it was very useful for a basic standard picture which was then easily created to look more professional on Adobe PhotoShop.

Facebook - I used this Social Network site in order to broaden the possibility of getting more Audience Feedback for my trailer. It was a great help like Youtube however it also helped more as I was able to send the link to other fellow media student easier.

Final Cut Pro - This was the most useful tool as it helped us put together our trailer. We also used this to create are inter titles which were very well complimented. We used it to create red filters and darken the shots to make it more dark and mysterious. I was because of Final Cut Pro we actually created our inter titles and they were classed as "very professional" from the majority of our audience feedback and they had no criticisms. FCP also allowed us to flip shots, e.g. the one where the boy enters the toilet, this made the actual scene flow as before it looked like he walk in on direction and went into the bathroom in another. So FPC also helped us make shots actually flow better. Not only here but also at moments when the music changed and slowed down is where we slowed down the boy running at the start and zoomed in on his 'frightened' face. So it was also useful to make the trailer imagery flow with the music. We used transitions to shorten down a very long scene but putting dissolves in the middle and other sections. We also increased the speed at this point. FCP also helped us on our montage as these were actually all parts of scenes which we didn't use so we used FCP to speed it up and cut them down and place together in order to create a montage.

Blogger - I have used Blogger to upload all of my ideas and final productions in order for more public viewing and to keep them all in a good order. This was much better to store all my work as the organisation was so much more easier than it is in other subjects which are simply just word documents. In general the organisation was easier than any other evaluation task I have taken part of. I believe it is much easier to use and much more simpler then just note taking on pieces of paper. I also think it's useful for target audiences/any audiences to give critical analysis rather than having to carry a piece of paper around with me people can simply access the internet which the majority of people do everyday, so it's easier to access a wider audience than a piece of paper and notes. I also like it as it is actually more creative, whereas paper and pen our dull and boring. Blogger actually gives you an insentive to create a decent appearance Web page. Not only does this encourage me to stay focussed on the evaluation task, but it also makes the audience more incline to view a page they like the look of. Unlike other lessons I do evaluations work in e.g. English Language, it's easier to upload examples of what you're evaluation, for example writing other the text in English is scruffy and informal, whereas blogger the text simply places next to the image uploaded.

Flickr - Flickr was a very useful site in order to anotate my pictures more specifically. Rather than explain by general directions e.g. 'The red near the title is used for...' I was able to put a note on the actual area I was using and comment on it. It was an excellent way to annotate un-professionally but quickly and understandable for things like my poster and magazine cover. This, like blogger, is also a new and interesting way of annotation of work and it is also open for good critical analysis from internet accessible readers. 

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback

Our target audience is teenages boy mainly, although I think it would be well suited to groups of friends and possibly couples to see rather than the traditional romance genre. I got my audience feedback through several ways. Firstly we had a class discussion, also we advertised our trailer on Facebook and Youtube. I also gathered some feedback by personally showing people I could the video when available and ask for their opinion.

I found out from some audience feedback from multiple people about some aspects of my trailer which could be changed for a better production.
Firstly for my trailer the audience felt as if the protagonist wasn't clearly recognised enough. There was a shared response of confusion about who the focus should be set upon during the time of the teaser trailer. This is a problem as the main protagonist is a key factor to the understanding of where the roles play within the film. As much as we want to excite and confuse the audience we also need to make sure they have some understanding of how the film is set out and what it's about.

Another problem that the audience found was that there wasn't an actually set theme going throughout the trailer. There are slight filters of red every now and then to distinguish the evil however they didn't feel there was enough of a red theme. This is usually very helpful as it creates continuity within the film. Without a continuing theme the audience could get rather confused about the evil and the good and aren't actually able to distinguish the difference between them. For example if there is red fillters and green through a points of view shot they may not know which is good or bad.

The audience didn't like the movie title itself, they liked the inter titles throughout the film but when it came to the actually movie title they said it wasn't very professional and could have used some work. This is very inportant for showing the production value. Although many horrors today are cheap to make, if the audience knew about some of the budjet put into films they may be less or more likely to view it. If a film has a high budjet then they will expect good graphics and props etc and expect a good film, whereas the oppisite with a poor budjeted film. Good designs for your titles in a film will interpret to the audience the money spent on the film.

They said that the music was good although in some places they said it felt out of place and as though it didn't belong in that part of the trailer. The audience said they didn't like how it start either, they didn't like the opening scene of the running legs with the upbeat music. They said it started a bit too quick and the music wasn't very good. A good music set is essential for production. If you've ever watched  a horror trailer or movie in silence you would understand. It creates suspence within the production keeping the audience on the edge of their seat. Effectively without the music it's just people running around. The music also gives a lsight sense to what's about to happen. For example if it builds up when someone is running you know he's about to run into something bad or mysterious. This is the MAIN component we had to sort out it had complete priority as it is the most important factor of any horror to make it effective.

However from after the beginning they said it all came together and was very good. We had a lot of positive feedback about the shot where we zoom into the photo of the water tower and then zoom out and we are in the area of the actually water tower. This is a very important shot in the production as it distinguishes the change in setting and explains why they're suddenly in a forest. We need a way to show why they're suddenly in a forest after being at college. We do this by making him find a picture left over by the antagonist and then he finds the actually water tower. When he is at the water tower mysterious things begin to happen.

The darkness and forest worked well as it created a very dark and evil place and was easy to shoot as it was quiet and empty.  It was good because it allowed us to get our shots quicker and edit them faster so we can prepare for other sorts like music or shots we need to add etc. Rather than waiting around in a place and hoping for it to be empty and quiet every now and then.

Our quick montage was praised as it was very quick and was like an actually teaser trailer. There were some very good shots praised within the montage as it was all linked in with the forest and had quick shots showing both what could possibly be the protagonist and the antagonist. These are very useful in a teaser trailer as they are able to show a lot of clips to keep the audience interested without spoiling the film.

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

I had to use a teaser trailer and poster for Lucifer's final chapter for my advertisment. Whereas the magazine cover is used for publicity. There are very crucial in gaining audience attention and making the production much more exciting.

Advertisment

The teaser trailer is a sample of what the movie is like. A sample is very important to get the target audience facing the direction to whether they like it or not. If they like the trailer they're more likely to view the actually thing. Although, like every production company, we had to be careful it wasn't too obvious what the film was, so to avoid this montarges are useful. Teaser trailers are by far the most important advertisment as it gives the audience an actually taste, and these days technology is so advanced our target audience wouldn't have to wait for a trailer to come on during breaks in whatever they're watching on T.V. they could actually watch it on their PC's or Laptops or phones or any other internet accessible gadjet.
The poster is also a good advertisment as it is also accessible in various places e.g. bus stops, cinemas etc. It is useful for the production value e.g. advertising what actors are in the film and the production company all set out in the billing. Another good factor of a poster is that anyone can interpret it. Rather than being an article which people might not want to read it's a visual content which anyone can access.
Very important factors for advertisment the production.

For my poster I use a single photo of the antagonists face and, as in the film it's the idea of a normal boy who's been possessed and turned evil and controlled by 'Lucifer' himself I made one side of the face normal and innocent but slightly darkened to give the whole poster an evil feel, and the other one I edited using various tools on Adobe Photoshop to make it very dark and increase the size of the eye to look evil and this is meant to be the side of him of which has been taken over by, as the name shows, 'Lucifer'. I went for a different route to the ever so 'typical' horror posters and actually revealed what is the identity of the antagonist. I did this is order to make the audience think there is some other hidden concept within the film that the audience would have to view the film to find. However I tried to make the evil possessed side look much more un-recognisable in order to throw the target audience off a bit. Making them question if they are the same person or not. I focus mainly on making it look like binary oppositions, by putting on one side good and the other evil. the stance of the possesed one links in to the 'starring' stance of the character in the trailer as well. That is why I chose for it to be like that, to link it into the trailer.
I used the colour red for my tagline and main title as from my audience feedback they said that there's a slight theme of red so I used it to link in the poster and trailer. It was also useful for the typical connotations of blood and potentially for my product hell as well as it is about Lucifer. It is a typiucal horror conventional colour to use along with black, however, enivitably I decided that these colours suited perfectly to my productions as they aren't only a good use of horror colours but also they're the slight running themes in our teaser trailer. Black was good because it creates a sense of being alone and trapped and having lose of vision, so it is beneficial for a horror trailer.
I also added the actor's real names at the top of the poster to make it seem more professional and genuine. This would be a production value of the poster in order to get good advertisment to trustworthy followers and fans of the actors. If the fans believe the actor is good and usually appears in a well marketed and high rated film, then when they see they're starring in something they're going to be more likely to view it. So this broadens the possibility of viewing as now fans of total films (the rating critic), the actors and the distribution company will all be more inclined to watch it rather than just our target audience. I also made sure I added things like the billing, which is completely genuine as it has all of my group's names over it and is an ENORF MEDIA production, also to make it more professional. This too is a production value. I added a rating from a well trusted and well known source 'Total Film' as this would attract the audience, and these are a well viewed critic.

Publicity

Publicity, another useful marketing component. In order to get decent publicity the production company will have to set up deals and contracts with other media forms in order to get things like magazine front covers with 'EMPIRE'. The main use of publicity is through a magazine front cover, because big value magazines, such as 'EMPIRE', will be trusted through it's readers. So to get a decent cover for a well respected magazine would get magazine lovers/readers to completely rely on the magazine they trust and be more interested in the movie they're publicising. Also, taking magazines as a good example, they would have exclusive interviews with the main actors or directors etc. of the publicised film. This would give the readers an exclusive right for reading an interview only publicised in the trustworthy magazine e.g. EMPIRE. I did what I thought would create a good promotional value for my production through the magazine cover.

For my magazine I used the main actor who is also the antagonist as the biggest selling point. He is the actor I used as a sort of newcomer actor who this magazine thinks will be big. I believe this would be a selling point as people would be interested to see what the new star of this big film is actually like if he's a newcomer because they would have no evidence of acting capability.
Also I used the magazine 'EMPIRE' as it's a very confident and reliable magazine when it comes to reviews of magazines. Its followers would be very loyal and completely follow it, which is evident as it is still running so it must be a good magazine and give a good critic otherwise in todays society it would crumble. So it must be a good magazine to be complimented by.
I also used it because the man actor is able to go in front of the text and because it's such a well-known and famous magazine it's able to cover up bits of its name and still be recognisable just from a slight glimpse of it. It was also useful because of its high status, when it has 'exclusive' material about a film clearly it itself thinks the film is good enough and also because it's holding a special edition about it so they must themsevles believe their viewers would enjoy it.
On my magazine I used the director 'Danny Boyle' as it allowed me to add in more title lines to make it look more professional e.g. 'after 28 days later what next from Danny?' I did this because Danny Boyle is a part of the production value and makes it more eye catching. Also, though he is a good production value as everyone knows he is a very good horror directer, just like the magazine he would have the target audiences full trust.
Also I took the time to make sure there was significance with the clothing of the actor. He is wearing the same jacket of the antagonist; he's character, in the teaser trailer. I also used the t-shirt as I felt it had representations of Britain in the colours and as it's a British film that worked well, however, this is just a personal idea not something that would appeal or be particularly be even realised.
I worked with a style modal of a real EMPIRE magazine and this is why I have the quotes they use like 'The World's Best Movie Magazine' and the prices. I did this to make the magazine more genuine however I steered clear of stealing any article headlines or any type of plagorism.

The finished teaser trailer

Magazine Cover

Magazine
Originally uploaded by Sonny Haydn Gardiner1

Main Poster

Poster
Originally uploaded by Sonny Haydn Gardiner1

Scream

These are all Flickr annotated.

Our intial idea of a horror trailer.

Horror Movie Concept
When working with Nick Wells and Zach Burden we decided between the three of us our first idea of a trailer and it is as follows.
Set in deep, dense forestation, our horror movie concept includes four teenagers (2 boys and 2 girls), all who venture out to a mythically haunted area of East Anglia, looking to disturb the unknown and have a bit of fun. On their trek into the forest they come across numerous markings on trees and hanging religious symbols all signs of a mass marked perimeter.
Their decision to go on this trip (lead by one powering individual who seems to have a single minority vote) all comes from the discovery of a book, full of myths and legends as they flick through until they come to one page stating ‘the east Anglia terror of 1865’, they giggle yet one member of the group has heard of this myth and says ‘my grandfather is always telling me about it ever since I was a child’. Still not sure whether they believe the myth or not, they plan their weekend away.
All lying to their parents, saying there staying round each other’s; away they go in their two cars towards Thetford forest, following an unregistered map. After hours into the forest, believed to be lost, they ask a dog walker if he/she knows of this myth, he/she replies ‘go home, go away, you shouldn’t be here, nobody should’. Soon later they find the area, spooked out a bit; they go in for a closer look into the dense area.
With a handheld camera ready to capture ‘the haunted’, there now up against something they couldn’t ever imagined. The film is not filmed with a handheld camera; the camera will be from the audiences 3rd person prospective. Although within the footage the teenagers will be seen filming their own ‘homemade footage’.

3 Horror trailers with analysis

Teaser Trailers

The The Saw Trailer clearly indicates its genre. From all settings being black to narrative screen titles saying 'madman' at 1.04. Also at 1.15 it says psychopath'. There is a scene which has been sped up and a character grabs the camera which is a frightening scene on its own to add into a trailer which clearly shows the genre. There are a lot of indications of violence within the film as there are multiply scenes where someone is holding a sharp harmful object like a knife, glass or a saw. The production value it relies on is the creators of the movie as there aren't particularly big actors or neither do there look to be brilliant affects. The company is lion gate which is a well-known company for horror movies. The iconography of the movie is the darkness throughout the trailer it is constantly dark apart from the moment they're in a dirty abandoned bathroom which they are tied up in. The theme binary oppositions is used with a clown which are usually for child’s entertainment, whereas in this movie it is used as a sort of message to the victims. Towards the end it says the name of the movie clearly stated too. The target will be interested in the reason the characters are chain up, why they're being watched and whether the Doctor kills the boy called Adam like the random voice telling is him to.

Eden Lake is a British horror film made in 2008. This particular trailer shows us many signs that indicate the film are a horror. For example, at 1.11 Steve ( The boyfriend ) is shown chained up with barbed wire in distress, and Brett ( The leader of the gang ) says " Now we've got to finish this" which is also going to interest the target audience as the question within the audiences mind would now be "finish what?" and the audience would like this to be solved. When the shot changes a red flash is used which connotes blood and fear. The start of the trailer shows the couple going for a swim in a lake; this shows us that these two were originally going for a romantic getaway and where it will be set. This particular film doesn’t have big film star actors, so they are not mentioned within the trailer. Also the film doesn’t show off extreme special effects, this indicates the budget isn’t very high. Their production value of these could be the reviews it's claim to have had from the 'empire' which claim that it is 'one of the most provocative and terrifying thrillers of the year'. This also shows that it is not a teaser trailer and it has already been released. Setting seems to be in a forest which shows us that they will be in the middle of nowhere or more importantly out of the way of any possible help. There are some familiar faces which are in the movie which could be a production value however they are not mentioned so these characters would have to be specially recognised. The name of the film is clearly shown towards the end of the clip which is making the audience who are watching wait until the end of the clip to see the name.

Scream 4 is a horror movie made in 2011. This horror movie is obvious to Ashley and I as at 1.17 the narrative comes up, as there is no voice over, using the word 'terror'. The name of the film comes to us at the end of the clip which makes us want to watch the trailer more as we would like to know the name of the film which is Scream 4 spelt 'scre4m'. The production value of the movie begins off at 24 seconds in when it says the 'legendary director' Wes Craven, this director is well known for his previous three famous scream horror movies. Another indication of the genre of horror is the last quote of the movie when a girl says "you, are about to die." this is a clear indication of horror. There is music which slowly builds up increases anticipation and builds up emphasis and then finally goes down again. This builds up the intensity which then makes the viewer want a sense of relief which usually only comes after watching the movie. The sentence "2011 terror gets a reboot" is divided up into scenes with bits of dialogue in-between each part of the sentence, which also builds up the intensity by certain characters saying "i know how the story ends." or "he found me." is doesn't give away anything of what they mean which would make the audience want more.

The Shinning Narrative structure

There are four theorists that theorys fit well into the idea of the horror structure of The Shining. These theorists are Levi-Strauss, Vladimer Propp, Tzventan Todorov and Bordwell & Thompson

The main Theorists that have the best view on structure, in terms of horror on for the Shinning, is Levi-Strauss, Levi-Strauss says that horrors have binary opposites, he says that there are Good (Danny/Wendi) and Evil (Jack/Hotel), Past (When Jack is in the ballroom and it goes back in time in the hotel) and Present, Normal (Job, family) Strange (Ghosts, unlocking of the door by Grady who was believed to be a figment of Jacks imagination.), Known (Humanity, Jack, Danny, the family etc.) Unknown (The Ghosts, The 'gift' the shinning, again the 'ghost' unlocking the door.). Most of Levi's ideas seem to fit into the structure of the shinning with the exception of Alien/Humans and Earth/Space.

Propp also makes some useful pointers about the structure which slightly fits into the Shinning, however even though it may not be accurate it does have certain character types e.g. the hero the villain the helper, which then makes you think who actually is the helper? Or even the hero? So even though he's not fitting the whole structure correctly he is making some very useful points.

Todorov's point of the equilibrium and disequilibrium is slightly right in the way that it starts off a normal family, where Jack gets a new job and the family get slightly excited, this is the Equilibrium and then when they get to the house and things start to change and ghosts start to appear and Jack goes insane is the disequilibrium, however, arguably, it doesn't really finish on an equilibrium, you could say it does because Wendi and Danny escape, however at the same time it finishes with Jack in the picture which gives confusion to the audience because it doesn't really explain why he is there so it slightly leaves on a cliff hanger with no actually closure.

Bordwell & Thompson do have a fairly good narrative structure theory applying to the shinning how they talk about films playing around with time, well like Propps idea of past and present we can see that this is correct because when Jack is in the present in his modern clothing he walks into the ballroom to find the past seems to have joined with him with many people in suits etc. and clearly aren't in modern clothing, which is linking past and present with each other rather than only the audience seeing the past the actually character from modern day is in the past. Which also applies to the picture at the end of the movie which has Jack at the front waving but it's a black and white photo which is from years ago and obviously wasn't Jack's era so it does play with time.