Evaluation

Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The influential film that I had chosen to use and follow the conventions of was “The Cabin in The Woods”. Although this film is very different in itself to my final product- it has its comparisons like wise. I decided to pick this film trailer because it followed roughly the same base idea as mine, where a group travel to a destination for a little vacation but it all goes wrong. As my trailer and story differentiates to this I found it fairly hard to follow the conventions of the trailer as throughout the extent of my research I could not find any professional likewise products to gain inspiration from. My idea was unique and this meant I had to follow the guidelines of typical horror films and trailers to create something that would be effective.

Pictured below are my two nine frames of both my film and my influential film- The Cabin in The Woods and “The Hunt”. In the top row of my nine frames this shows shots 1-3, middle row shows shots 4-6 and the bottom row shows 7-9.

In frame one of both of my trailers, my influential film "The Cabin in The Woods" and my trailer "The Hunt", they both begin with an MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) green screen. The MPAA is a film rating system association based in the United States that rates the film/content produced in terms of suitability for the audiences viewing, based upon the content within the film. This screen can be seen at the beginning of most film trailers released to the general public, whether that is on the internet or on video sharing websites such as the likes of YouTube. My trailer begins with an MPAA screen simply to follow the conventions of other trailers released of which i noticed through the research that i had conducted when i was looking for inspiration for my film. Although nothing really struck me at the time for an Idea, i noticed the similarities that horror trailers have in common and used these to the best of my ability. With the addition of an MPAA screen it helps give the trailer a more authentic and professional look due to me adapting the conventions of other trailers into my own work and without the addition of this, the trailer would jump straight into the content i filmed which would not make sense to the audience and it would look as if it was a short film so this was vital. 

In 'frame 2' of my trailer, i have included the well known 'Universal' studios logo. Universal studios is an American film studio who are responsible for the production and distribution of some major films- it is also a member of the MPAA. This screen is shown at the very beginning of my film straight after the MPAA screen with a 'boom' sound effect to add a bit of tension. I timed this effect to appear as the production company logo faded in from black and to make it look professional. However in my influential trailer the production company logo 'Lionsgate' (frame 4) is shown roughly halfway through the trailer when things start to 'turn' for the worse. I decided to show mine at the start of the trailer rather than half way through because i feel it made more sense and fitted in better rather than in the middle of the trailer and in some trailers you also see the production company at the start. By including this at the beginning it helped me to follow the conventions of a real media product.

In the third shot of my trailer you are immediately introduced to the main characters of the film- a  group of friends who are embarking on a road trip to go camping. In this shot, we can see that these our the main characters as there is no one else around and it is just them and each play a significant role within the film, however in the trailer we only see one of these 3 get killed. At the very start of my influential trailer- The Cabin In The Woods, we are introduced to a few of the several main characters within the film, of which we as an audience establish from the amount of times we see them appear consistently throughout the duration of the trailer. To follow the conventions of my influential trailer, I wanted to begin my trailer in the same way and include the travelling of the group to the destination as I felt it made more sense and was relevant to the story- although nothing was striking and immediately gained an interest within the film to the audience, this works quite well as the scenes build up and tensions rises, which leads to the final climax of which I end my trailer on. This is an effective way to create suspense and tension and I felt as though by leaving the trailer on the ultimate ‘climax’ this would make the audience remember the film and interest them enough to go and view the film itself when it was released. The locations and settings are also much different to one another, we see at the beginning of Cabin in the Woods that the characters are in an a suburban town in America. The trailer begins with a citizen skating down the street right before the main characters are introduced, however as the film progresses there is a similarity in location- the woods. I decided to base my film in the woods to follow the conventions of my influential trailer and also make the audience feel insecure and feel unease to build tension. In the second part of my trailer, to achieve the horror/thriller genre, i wanted to film in low-light settings where it was dark and gloomy, this is usually seen across most horror films to give off the effect and portray the genre.

In frame 4 of my trailer "The Hunt" we see a shot of the group of friends travelling to the woods. I tried to follow the conventions of my influential trailer as at the beginning we see them travelling through the mids of nowhere and a large forest to reach their cabin. In the editing stages of my trailer, i paid particular attention to the sequence of events and had to crop down multiple clips in order to make the trailers events coordinate with one another and make sense. Camerawork was one of the main things i wanted to follow the conventions of, and in my trailer we see a long- shot of the car driving towards the camera. In my influential film (frame 3) we see the caravan travelling to the woods with the use of a variety of different shots and i tried to include as many shots as i could in my own- following the conventions of a real media product. In the influential trailer we see at the group putting the key into the ignition and starting the car up, i also decided to follow this shot and include this in my own trailer.

In frame 5 of both my trailer and my influential one, we see titles that say "think again" and "brutality". These titles are used half way through the trailers to signify the turning point in which events start to go wrong. The use of these titles uses narrative to assist in building the climax to heighten tension in an area of the film, either to move the story on or to now signal a change in perception. We can see in most horror trailers, or thrillers that this technique is usually used quite a lot, therefore by following the guidelines of other films & including these techniques in my own film allows me to portray the genre of horror/thriller and follows the conventions of other similar products.

In frame 6 on both



In the 8th  shot we see both film titles appear. The Cabin in the Woods titles appear at the very end of the trailer where the soundtrack cuts off and leaves a 'sting' noise, this proves rather effective as in the scenes leading up to the titles, climax is being built with the quick, fast-paced shots and instantly drops into the titles which makes it appear more dramatic and leaves the audience on the edge of their feet with suspense. In the build up to the climax where the titles are shown, it is in this part that we see the most action going on as the speed of the music rises and grows louder and we gain a rough idea of what we will expect to see in the actual product. The title of the film emerges in white text with a red animated background that has a grid type animation on, this reflects and connotates back to the trailer itself as the group are trapped in the 'killing floor' and we see this 'grid' appear in the trailer as the turning point, where things start to go wrong for them. The Hunt's titles appear in a similar to way to my influential film as they are displayed at the very end of the trailer. Although, throughout the building up of climax in trailer, there is not a comparable amount of action scenes compared to The Cabin in the Woods. It came quite a challenge to film enough parts with the time that i had to build up an effective climax, but with the addition of the music that i picked and after me cropping parts down and mixing them, climax was built as the music rose and dropped- on the drop the titles were shown with a black background and red writing as this was shown throughout the course of my trailer and helps emphasise the genre of 'horror' as red often symbolises blood and/or danger- showing that i was trying to stick to the genre and show conventions from other products in my own. Just before the titles appear, one of the characters that went on the camping trip is seen on the floor with the antagonist standing a few feet away from him- as this clip continues, we see the antagonist walking towards the body and the camera pans up his body slowly showing him with his mask on which looks rather creepy and the baseball bat drawn resting on his shoulder- this clip ends with this and the music has reached its climax which is rather effective as it leaves the audience with the feeling of suspense as they may be keen to find out what has happened or what may. I wanted to sync the events in the trailer up with the music to make the finished product seem more realistic and follow the conventions of other trailers as all events occur in time with the music. This all conveys the conventions of a real media product.

Q2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/clPyTx2K0BY/?mode=movie 

This is a PowToon video to show the synergy throughout both my main product (film trailer) and ancillary texts (magazine front cover & teaser poster). I have had to link this due to running into problems uploading to YouTube.

Q3) What have you learned from audience feedback?

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/eKLuTNHkQFL/?mode=movie#/

Above is a link to another PowToon vieo which shows what i have learnt from audience feedback and how it has helped me to improve my overall products. Without any audience feedback i feel as though my products would not be as professional as they could have been.

Q4) How did you use media  technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In the collage that I have created, these were the pieces of hardware and software, which in collaboration helped contribute to my final product- a trailer. There were various different uses for all the pieces of technology/software I used and these were used at different stages within the entire process ranging from the research and planning through to the evaluation.

Picture one is of the computer I primarily used to complete my work on. This piece of technology played a vital part in the process of this whole coursework from assisting with the research and planning through to editing my video and completing all computer-based tasks- such as updating or uploading posts to blogger. The computer was used through all stages of my media coursework and without it, greater potential could not be achieved, as it would have not been possible without it. I used the computer originally to set up my blog on blogger, carry out research and planning and gain inspiration from other students/users and to edit the video in Sony Vegas as I was most familiar with this because I used it for my AS media coursework and in the past for my outside hobbies- however I did learn some new skills throughout the process and the combination of all this created my final product of a trailer.

In the planning and research stages the computer allowed me to access my blog and update it as necessary with the various posts, view other YouTube videos or trailers made by other students or professionals (official trailers) and gain inspiration or ideas to use for my filming as well as learn the various different conventions an effective trailer has. It also helped me to create my ancillary tasks and upload audience feedback onto my blog through providing a YouTube link to my video as well as have research into similar products such as The Cabin in The Woods trailer analysis and other magazines and posters I gained inspiration from to create my ancillary tasks.

Picture Two is a Panasonic HC-V757 camera that I used at various different stages along the line to film the videos I was going to use in my final product through to filming the audience feedback to upload to my blog. Working on my own proved a challenge as I had to think about the various different roles each member would of had to take if I had a group, but had to combine and take on a list of various different roles through the process of making the product. One major role was obviously the cinematography element, and i used this camera upon filming due to the features that camera had on offer- the camera has a 1080p camera which would offer good quality footage upon playback rather than a toned down, fuzzy clip. To create a professional looking trailer, a good camera has to be used otherwise the entire product looks very basic and lacks quality. Having one camera to film with and use at any time was far more convenient for me then have a variety of cameras to film with- although I did bring along back up cameras that offered the same quality image just incase any mishaps happened or a common problem of battery power running out. Within the planning and research I used the camera to film my video pitch and for recording audience feedback upon my rough cuts of my trailer. I had done research both in the previous year and this year into the camera shots that can be used, and how to do them effectively to use within the making of my trailer.

Picture 3 is of my memory stick, which I used throughout various stages of planning and research and for my evaluation, as well as all the other that I had completed for media over the past few terms. The memory stick was a vital piece of technology throughout as it allowed me to store my work somewhere else, where there would be another copy of it incase my computer lost the file or if it had corrupted and no longer worked. My memory stick allowed me to transfer useful and necessary data files between computers or devices and access my work anywhere I need whether that is away from school or away from home- as long as there was USB port on a computer I could access my files and complete my work. Another piece of software I used in conjunction with this was Google Drive which essentially is an online storage system designed by Google themselves, which allows individuals to save and share their work on the 'cloud' if files were simply too big to transfer onto a memory stick and put onto my computer, I could upload it to Google Drive and log in back at home and access the necessary files. This was very helpful throughout the planning and research sections to keep all my work in one organized place, so that I knew where all my work was and can be accessed at any time and I stored various pieces of work upon the device such as my pitch, videos and documents required to be displayed on my blog.

Software

As well as using various different pieces of hardware to make my media product, i also needed to use a variety of different pieces of software to achieve certain tasks and meet quality standards. The computer programs that I primarily used were Photoshop and websites such as the likes of YouTube, Blogger itself and Microsoft Word.

Picture 4 is a picture of a software program I used to create my ancillary tasks called Adobe Photoshop. This proved useful as I had managed to organize and create my ancillary tasks from scratch with the use of Photoshop and the combination of Microsoft word to get the various different shapes and sizes required for my ancillary tasks (i.e. the magazine design). Photoshop was used throughout the process to edit photos that I had captured to make the final image look more professional and intriguing. In the research and planning this was primarily used for ancillary tasks, but in the evaluation it helped me to create the collage shown above of the various different hardware’s and technologies i used throughout the making of my coursework.

Picture 5 is a picture of the ever-growing social networking site- YouTube. I used YouTube throughout all stages and processes of my A2 coursework. In the research and planning stages of my media coursework, i originally used YouTube to look at influential film trailers and look at other past student’s trailers to gain ideas and inspiration for what I could do or include in my trailer. YouTube helped me to find my influential film of which was The Cabin in The Woods and allowed me to annotate and analyze the trailer in detail. I also used YouTube to help me look at tutorials for how to achieve certain things, such as getting an effective moving car shot, or look in further detail into the various roles i had to take on board to make my trailer- through the extent of research I done and looked at this website really helped me to have an insight and vision of what my overall final product could be like and how I could work my way towards my goal- it helped me to achieve of what i seem to think as a professional film trailer. All of the videos I uploaded to my blog, I had uploaded to YouTube rather than to the blog itself to avoid any errors and made sure I made a new Google account to solely display my videos- YouTube opens up my product to a whole new audience and as it is made public, it can be viewed by anyone.

Picture 6 is of Blogger- one of the main parts of my A2 coursework as it is here where i display all the work i have done and completed over the past few weeks and terms into one place, which can be followed by other users who want to see my posts. Blogger was used all the time throughout obviously to upload my work and this was very helpful to me as Blogger is compatible across a range of devices- including mobile so if I was not on a computer I could still check up on my blog and update or create any posts as needed. On my blog itself, I used labels to organize my work into different categories for ease of viewing and make the blog look a bit tidier, and make it understandable and user friendly.

Picture 7 is of Microsoft Word of which I used throughout a range of different stages of my A2 coursework. Before uploading my work to the blog, I would usually write it down in the program first as I found it simpler, and easier to layout and use and then copied and pasted my work onto the blog as it would be formatted the way I wanted it to be. In the research and planning, with some posts on my blog, I had to complete these tasks in Word to achieve the design i was after for certain tasks- for example I had to use Word to do my analysis of a similar trailer/product and added the images and text boxes to a word document and uploaded screenshots of my work after cropping to the blog as when i tried to do it on the blog, the format would not appear the way I wanted it to. I also used Microsoft Word when working on my ancillary tasks to add certain features to my film magazine cover and poster such as the shapes, and text to make them look realistic and eye catching.