In making our own media product, we used forms and conventions of existing media products so that our movie would fit in to its genre and be recognised as a horror trailer, specifically a teaser trailer. However, we also developed several of these conventions to make our product individual, and produce a unique selling point.
-Binary oppositions: We used opposing pairs to create contrasts, such as good and evil, supernatural and natural, introvert and extrovert, and sane and insane.
- Propp's character theories: As put forth by Vladimir Propp in 1969, we used several stereotypes of character used in most media products today such as: The protagonist, the villain (ghost) , the dispatcher (Counsellor) and the helper (friend).
- Conventions of horror setting: We used dark isolated scenery to show the protagonists seclusion from the rest of the world, portraying a sense of helplesness.
- Mirrors- The idea of having the villain appear extremely rarely at the beginning stages of the film is very conventional of horror films. They tend to appear in unlikely places such as mirrors and doorways when the protagonist leasts expects it. We decided to use this convention of appearing in the mirror for our own film. Shown above is an image taken from the film "The unborn" next to a screenshot from our own movie. Both show a scene in which the protagonist sees the ghost in a mirror.
- Conventions of music: The music we used was dark, ominous, orchestral music to denote horror and familiarize the audience. This is very conventional of trailers within the horror genre.
- Editing: In terms of editing we used varied shots and fast paced editing to heighten the suspense. We also flipped and sped up some of our footage to make it appear supernatural. This is something very stereotypical of the horror genre, as disturbing images have proved to be one of the key features of its success.
- Camera shots: High angle tilts were used to show a power balance. Tracking shot to show running.
- For our magazine we used several conventions of Empire and Fangoria magazine as shown in our research.
As shown here, our magazine cover was based largely on the conventions of Fangoria magazine. We used the idea of images down the side, as well as the large central image, and a pug to increase the success of the magazine. We also enlarged the name of the film the magazine is currently advertising, and what the main image is of. This is shown on the Fangoria cover. This ensures that the audience are aware of this new release and attracts and sustains their interest, making them want to not only read on, but go and see the film.
- Our research has shown that iconography is extremely important within the genre, as well as in terms of synergy. The cemetery was our prime location, and can be seen as very iconic due to its links to the supernatural and the macabre, something very conventional of horror films.
Conventions we developed:
-Theory of equilibrium: We did conform to the conventions of this theory somewhat, however not completely. Instead of beginning with a state of equilibrium, we began with the protagonists childhood trauma that leads us into the main part of the story. It is only then that we see a state of equilibrium as she has began her new life. This is disrupted when she moves back to her home town, and finally restored at the end when she faces her fears and confronts the ghost.
- We identified the fact that the font should be one of the most important features in a horror magazine, so we therefore enlarged it significantly. However we did not make it central. We positioned it at the top left so that attention would not be taken away from the images and the rest of the page, however it would still be noticeable and effective.
How effective is the combination of your main product and its ancillary texts?
From our research, we have learned that synergy and cohesion of media products is extremely important for the success of any film, and we focused on this specifically within the horror genre. In order to create synergy, we had to make sure that we effectively combined our main product and its ancillary texts. I felt that we did this successfully and that each one linked to another. In each product we drew on the existing conventions of the horror genre and developed them in our own way. We created our own specific themes and iconography and made them apparent in each of the products. We felt that it was important to create products that could stand alone as media products, but also compliment and support eachother. In terms of iconograpy and mise en scene, something that we used to link the products was colour. Black, white and red are used in all three of the products therefore the audience can associate them with one another. These can also be seen as subliminal codes for theme. Black reflects the theme of death and darkness, red represents blood and anger, and white represents the innocence and purity of the protagonist, making it seem even more disturbing that they are being punished by the supernatural villain or ghost. As shown here, the colour scheme is red and black in all three products.
We also used very similar fonts in all three of the products, which helped create synergy, and of course the images can also be associated with one another. We wanted to promote the face of the villain and the protagonist so that our audience would be familiar with the actors. Therefore we featured an image of one of them in each of the products. Another example of this synergy would be that for our film poster we used an actual shot from our trailer. This will enable our audience to identify the film we are advertising. If they have not seen the film or trailer, using this image will encourage them to see it, therefore we felt that this was very useful in terms of advertising. In conclusion i feel that our trailer combined very successfully with its ancillary texts, and that each text related to eachother cohesively and effectively.What have you learned from your audience feedback?
One of the most influential things in the construction of our media products was audience feedback. We had to take on board their positive and negative feedback and use it to our advantage. We tried to question our target audience as much as we could to gain feedback during the production process. We asked media students of this age group from our own school, as well as others outside of school in order to gain varied opinion. The majority of the feedback was very positive, however the small amount of constructive criticism we gained was used to our advantage. For example a few members of our target audience felt that the original image we were going to use for our magazine wasn't as effective as simply showing the face of the ghost. Therefore we decided to use that instead, and it proved to be highly successful. We took on board suggestions from our target audience about colour and images. This involved ther ideas for colour scheme and where to position certain images that we had. They suggested reds and blacks which we used for the magazine cover. They also said that they feel it would be good to see the face of the ghost more, so we decided to include a shot of his face as a ghostly image over the beaker of spilt acid shown in the trailer. In all, audience feedback definitley helped the success of our final media products.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages?
In our A2 coursework we had to use several different media technologies to present and create our products. One of the most important media technologies we used was blogspot. I had previously used this website in my AS work, therefore i had no problems with using it and was able to upload posts correctly. It also was extremely convenient in that myself and my teachers could easily track my progress, and they were able to access it online in order to give me any neccesary feedback.
In terms of websites, another important one was Youtube. This was extremely helpful in the research and planning stages of producing our trailer. It allowed me to access a wide range of videos and analyse them, which inspired me for my own trailer. To enable me to post videos from Youtube directly on to my blog i had to use the embed code, which i was already familiar with from my AS coursework.
When we began the filming, we had to use a HD camera to shoot footage for our trailer. I personally was not familiar with these, however another member of my group was. This was very useful as he was able to show me the different functions of it and how to use it properly. I had to learn to use a tripod which was vital to the proffesionalism of our trailer. A particular shot that needed a tripod was the running scene. We used a tracking shot to follow our protagonist down a dark alleyway as she runs away from the villain. Using a tripod made this shot alot steadier, and the audience could clearly see her being followed by the camera in a proffesional way.
When the footage had been shot we had to use Adobe Premier Pro to edit it. I found this fairly difficult to start with as i had not previously used it, however the uploading of footage and cutting and dragging it in the editing bar was fairly easy, it was just the experimentation with effects that took a while to get used to. This programme was vital to the effect of our trailer, and offered us several different tools to get the intended effects that we wanted. An example of this is when we reversed a short shot of our villain walking away from the camera, and made it appear as though he was walking towards the camera in a frightening and unnatural way. This made our trailer seem more proffesional. We were also able to blend shots in to one another smoothly to fit with the eerie feel of our trailer.
For the ancillary products, we used a canon digital camera to take photos, and then used Adobe photoshop to edit them. I was already familiar with both of these technologies from my AS coursework so using them was not difficult. However i had never before created a product within the horror genre, so some experimentation was neccesary.
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