FINAL MAGAZINE COVER

FINAL POSTER

TRAILER FINAL CUT with Changes from feedback

I've finished my trailer! I had a few adjustments to make after I showed it to James and Sophie, the lead actors, I recorded their response below..

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 I changed the keyboard scene to one where you could see what she was typing as it made more sense and gave a clue. I also made the title at the end pop a bit more by adding a black screen before it which switched to the title on the beat of the music.

Facebook

I put both of my ancillary products at their current stages on Facebook to see what people thought- I asked for feedback.

I got lots of positive feedback but some people also gave me constructive criticism...

and so I changed the eyes to make them look more professional and polished. 

Now

Before

A few people said that the title could have been brighter and popped more so I added a white outline,

Evaluation notes

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

·         My media product, a horror trailer, uses and conforms to typical conventions of existing products- this was my initial intention as I wanted to appeal to my target audience who are comfortable with the media they receive perhaps on a daily basis. When beginning the process I likened my plot ideas to the existing horror films- the Possession, Insidious and Paranormal Activity which in my opinion also conform to genre conventions.

·         The title of my film is ‘Melody’ which is a simplistic title and is a clear relation to the plot of the film- once the victim turned villain opens the music box, consequently hearing the melody, he becomes possessed. From my research I did find that horror trailers stylistically are simple and immediately reveal the key plot points to the audience – Paranormal Activity, the Possession. CHALLENGE I somewhat challenged the title conventions however when you consider the pleasant tone associated with the word melody in contrast to the straightforwardly ominous ‘the Possession’ or ‘Sinister’, but in terms of binary oppositions, which I have seen elsewhere in horror titles like ‘the visit’, my trailer develops this title convention with a sense of ambiguity which is almost more unpleasant.                                                                                                                                                              

·         The primary location of my trailer challenges the typical isolated image associated with horror films as I chose to film all of my scenes within the characters’ home which I think has an eerie feel to it as it creates fear within the audience as the typical sense of security that you feel in your own home is challenged in contrast to isolated forests or dark alleys which although commonly associated with horror, are relatable to less people as you can chose whether or not to put yourself in those situations. I chose to go down this route, in a similar to Paranormal Activity in that the scenes where films entirely in the home as it still manages to create a sense of isolation due to no one else being around, without filming in a forest which would have not only have not fitted my plot but also would have been difficult for me to film as my equipment may have gotten damaged.                                                                

·         In terms of costume I had an idea consistently throughout, I wanted my characters to look like typical teenagers and so when planning for filming and photoshoots I asked them to wear their typical clothes, ultimately this had the desired effect and I think it makes the film, it’s events and the characters seem more relatable to the target audience, who are of a similar age, as the characters look like them or their friends.  This is not unusual of horror films but instead of portraying Lauren, the lead female protagonist, as a typical teenage girl I could have used one of the typical horror character conventions and sexualised her appearance in order to comply to the male gaze theory as then, some of the male audience would have been watching to see an attractive girl in provocative clothing.                   – USES AND GRATIFICATIONS                                                                                                                                          

·         The names of my characters develop conventions of certain existing horror films in the sense that they pay homage to popular horror films like Freddie Kreugar- the villain in nightmare on elm street and Laurie Strode the strong female protagonist in Halloween. This is a convention which some creators chose to use for intertextuality between horror films which is appealing to the target audience or horror movie fans.                                                                                                                                 

·         The music I chose is Intractable Demons by Matt Gates which is a high tension piece of music, intense music is typically used in horror trailers to increase the heartbeat of the audience thus putting them on edge as they are aware something is about to happen. I chose to go with a piece of music rather than a song as I felt that lyrics would distract the audience from the action on screen, this uses a common convention but also challenges a more recent one wherein horror trailers use binary oppositions, creating a pleasant image and tone at the start in contrast to the end. To do this they use happy, cheery songs at the start of the trailer – The Visit.

·         Propp- used conventions

·         I used low lighting throughout the trailer to create a similar ambiance to that of existing trailers, I was unable to use low lighting in some of the scenes at the filming stage and so I created this in the editing process by reducing the brightness by over half.

·         In terms of structural conventions for the trailer I added a BBFC slide at the start to show that my trailer was only suitable to appropriate audiences, and a production company logo which I created myself using Photoshop. The title is at the end and I added a scary scene after the music loses its intensity and volume to make the audience jump, this is something that I’ve seen in other trailers such as The Boy. After this I added a slide which incorporates new media- twitter and Facebook so that the audience can connect with and learn more about the film.

·         Throughout the trailer I incorporated typical conventions and clichés of plot points within existing horror films and trailers, such as the found footage style of filming which I developed and chose to do only at the start of the trailer to give more of a variety- Paranormal activity, screaming which is a typical motif associated with horror and also blood.

·         Horror films almost always incorporate the fight of a protagonist against an antagonist, by making this fight between siblings, and even more so between twins, it intensifies the horror aspect as it makes the audience challenge their security within their own family. Twins are an image often seen in horror films such as the shining and the tale of two sisters but I chose to develop this convention by making the twins fight against each other to give the sense that the sister knows there is something wrong with her brother even when no one else does.

·         Todorov’s narrative theory of disequilibrium vs. equilibrium is one I tried to incorporate into my plot as it keeps the audience engaged while giving them a break from the intensity, in films like The Blair Witch Project this theory was not followed and in my opinion this had a negative effect on the film and so I was eager to follow the theory.

·         Enigma- use

·         Camera shots- Close ups, Found footage handheld – PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, Perspective shot , Mirror shot – PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, BCU – PSYCHO, Wide – SINISTER, LOW ANGLE.

·         Posted on YouTube

2.      How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

·         An effective element which is carried through all three of my products is the sense of enigma. In the poster the audience see Freddie becoming possessed, whereas with the magazine cover they can see him as the antagonist due to the comparison against Lauren who is screaming. This makes them want to watch the trailer, and ultimately the film, to learn more about what actually happens.

·         An image consistently used throughout the three products is the music box which is the pivotal object for the plot, thus the products give the audience some information about the plot, but not too much that it gives anything away. The music box also makes each of the products identifiable to my film.

·         Barthes enigma codes

·         Uses and gratifications

·         A.I.D.A – black eyes

·         Both images on magazine and cover were black and white but I chose not to carry this through to my trailer as I feel it looks a lot better in print products.

·         Synergy in mise-en-scene – dark and gloomy, representations of characters – both victims to a greater force.

3.      Audience feedback

·         Put poster and magazine on facebook to get feedback- insert feedback

·         Changed poster- colour

·         Changed magazine- eyes

·         Importance of facebook for feedback- widespread audience, variety of answers, 2^nd and 3^rd audiences

·         Old posters and magazine – show my development because of audience feedback, last time w/ posters

·         Questionnaires to drive my plot

·         Survey monkey to finalise my title

·         Small focus groups- help me to know what they mean, sophie and james video – what they said and how I worked on it – changed title bit of trailer and also filmed a different scene.

·         Audience feedback= so important in knowing what your TA want to receive

Trailer...

Almost Done!

I have been editing my trailer all weekend and also filming scenes that I had left to do.

I've recorded the entire making process on my laptop and I'll upload that along with the almost-finished trailer later on.

Final Storyboard

I've made a final storyboard of everything to include in the final cut...

BBFC Slide and Production Company - How I Made

Music Update

I decided against the last piece of music I chose because it didn't sound scary enough and so I typed 'horror trailer music' into YouTube and found a piece of music called 'Intractable Demons' which I really like.

As I was watching I was already thinking about how I'd edit the trailer to fit to the music and I think it's going to work really well.

Final Magazine?

Sinister Trailer

This weekend I have been continuing to edit my trailer together and I have been watching horror trailers to get some ideas for the text inbetween clips.
One of the trailers I looked at was Sinister which contained something that I really liked; at the start it has flashes of pictures to do with the victims and the plot. I thought I could do this- pictures of Lauren and Freddie laughing and being happy instead of the footage that I had planned to do as I am not going to have enough space in my trailer for extra footage. I could also then flash images of the music box in between to foreshadow what's going to happen.

I also liked how they had alternating clips of the video tapes playing and the bad things happening as it shows they are an effect of the video tapes. - I could do this with my music box too.

Magazine Making 1

Trailer 10th March

Again this is just for structural purposes ...

Final Title

I finally have my title! After my second survey Melody is definitely the title.

Narrowing Down a Title

This was the data I received from my survey. The 'other' answers were Music Box, Within, The Dust, Just Breathe and Airborn.

After my title survey I am still unsure of what to name my film. The preferred title, with 4 votes was Melody which was my favourite as it seems ambiguous with the genre but still unsettling. I did a post about this kind of title which you can view using this QR Code



I really like Within as well so I am unsure of which one to pick. Because of this I created another survey with just those 2 titles and hopefully this will help me decide...

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NRHM6J8

Title For My Magazine : FRIGHT

Filming Plans: 7th of March

Planning of My Film Magazine

I've sketched what I'd like my film magazine cover to look like

I am going to use this image

Theories in my Horror Trailer

Billing Block

Here's what I put in my billing block

*PRODUCTION COMPANY* PRSENTS “THE MUSIC BOX” LAUREN JONES SOPHIE ROSE FREDDIE JONES JAMES SULLIVAN SUPPORT BY NATASHA PRETOT WRITTEN BY EMILY ROSE CINEMATOGRAPHY BY EMILY ROSE DESIGN EMILY ROSE MUSIC BY KEVIN MACLEOD AND THE BLAKE ROBINSON SYNTHETIC ORCHESTRA DIRECTED BY EMILY ROSE EDITED BY EMILY ROSE FILMED ON LOCATION IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

Final Poster? + how I did it (with Working Title)

Title Survey

I created a survey to try and find a title...

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ZZQN2FK

and asked some of my friends to fill it out. Hopefully I will get lots of replies..

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Decision on My Type of Magazine

After doing my research on different types of horror magazine- general magazine horror issus and specifically targeting horror magazines, I've decided that I'm going to do the latter - a horror magazine.

So now I can start making...

Editing Software: Adobe Premiere Pro

I got the program Adobe Premiere Pro to edit my trailer in a more professional and sophisticated way than I thought I would be able to do on Windows Movie Maker.

I found the program difficult to use at first but after watching various YouTube tutorials I felt like I could figure out what to do. However the program had a glitch which made it near impossible for me to edit the trailer as it was jump past things and it had lag which made the audio out-of-sync with the visuals.


I searched google to find how to fix this problem and found that it was common amongst users of the version of the program which I had, a friend told me to 'render' the video and that would work but unfortunately it didn't and so I decided I would just continue using Windows Movie Maker.