Evaluation: Transcript

For our A2 media coursework, we were set to create a promotional package of our very own horror film which consisted of us creating a teaser trailer, a front magazine cover and also film poster. During the making of our horror promotional package, we were required to frequently complete research and demonstrate our findings onto our blogs in order to translate our understanding of the horror genre and reflect this knowledge when constructing our own media production. In comparison to AS, I believed that my knowledge and media skills have developed significantly. For example, not only have my theoretical abilities advanced, however, I have become significantly more organised in regards to my presentation and ability skills in comparison to last year.  

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

My media product has developed and conformed to conventions of real media products in some ways. However, it also at times challenges them. 

During pre-production, I had carried out research by analysing a handful of horror trailers in order to grasp a better understanding of what creates an effective horror teaser trailer and also to identify the common codes and conventions closely linked to this specific genre. During this time, I had come to find that it was conventional for a horror film to be based around a narrative which focuses on the arrival of an evil force. This links to Todorov's narrative theory as it suggests that all narratives follow a three-part structure where they begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution when equilibrium is restored. This can be demontrated within the films, ’Insidious 3’, and ‘Hush’ as both films feature some sort of evil force which disrupts the equilibrium, leaving  a chain of bad events to follow, whether it be a serial killer on the loose or a paranormal being attempting to possess the body of an innocent child. I decided to follow in the footsteps of these real media products and conform to the codes and conventions of the horror genre by abiding by Todorov’s narrative theory and incorporating it into my own work. For example, the narrative of my own film focuses on a young teenager who's once normal life, is negatively disrupted by an evil spirit until she finds a way to tackle him once and for all.

The plot of our film, however, challenges the conventional notion displayed in horror films of a female ‘damsel in distress’ who is in need of a strong, masculine man to save her. Instead, within our horror film, the traditional convention of females being weak and subordinate to men is challenged as our protagonist is represented as a strong, independent woman who strives to the end without any help of a powerful man or being depicted in a sexual manner. This is important as by challenging this stereotype, creates intrigue amongst a female audience as a positive portrayal of women is not commonly shown in horrors, therefore, giving a sense of originality to our plot. We could also link this to Blumer and Katz ‘uses and gratification’ theory, in the sense that a  female target audience may feel as if they are able to identify themselves with the main character as the audience may feel the character represent similar values which they hold. This overall attracts them to want to watch our horror film as through the media, the audience will feel as they are able to judge and define themselves in relation to the characters. Similarly, within our horror, although being the final girl, the main protagonist is mostly dressed in dark coloured clothing which overall subverts Clover’s notion of the final girl. This is as Clover states that the final girl within horror films are established to the audience through the use of white clothing as this colour holds connotations to themes such as purity, innocence and victory. An example of a final girl which abides by Clover’s idea is Alice Hardy, a virgin with no interest in smoking, drinking or drugs and is dressed in white throughout the horror film ‘Friday the 13th’. 

Another way we challenged conventions of real life media products is by casting an actress who comes from an ethnical minority background as the main protagonist of our horror. Traditionally, mainstream Hollywood films tend to favour caucasian characters to be the lead of their films however it is extremely uncommon for an ethnic minority to hold the same position. Instead, ethnic minorities within films are seen as either token characters, comedians, or sidekicks. Society is becoming increasingly more diverse however at the same time there are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes about certain racial and cultural groups. Therefore we decided by casting an ethnic minority and presenting them in a positive light will firstly attempt to redeem these false misconceptions and secondly, highlight to the audience that society is changing. 

Lastly, a magazine cover serves the purpose to attract its target audience through its use of language, image and colours in order to advertise the release of a particular film. Through conducting a detailed analysis of four different magazine covers, I have gained an insight of the common codes and conventions which are essential for producing an effective film magazine. This overall allowed me to incorporate similar features into my own work in order to ensure I produced a high-quality cover. For instance, I recognised that magazine covers commonly have a house style of a similar layout or structure which they follow. This can be displayed through either the masthead font, colours, logo, placement of pictures or location of a barcode. Similarly, I also decided to follow a house style as I found that it allowed the audience to become familiar it, allowing them to be able to recognise future issues, which essentially creates brand loyalty. Overall, I believed that it was extremely important to abide by the codes and conventions of a magazine cover as the readers are already familiar with the layout and font types of a magazine, therefore, are instantly able to recognise it as one. 

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

Synergy is the term used to describe a situation where different entities cooperate advantageously for a final outcome. Synergy was an important aspect of my A2 media coursework production, as I was required to create a promotional package which consisted of three different platforms to come together to produce a horror teaser trailer, magazine front cover and a film poster. My ancillary tasks required me to conduct extensive amounts of research such as analysing and evaluating various magazine covers and film posters in order to help me gain more of an understanding of which certain features were required by my distribution market. This was extremely beneficial as it enabled me to create an effective and attractive marketing campaign for my target audience.

In order to allow my target audience to instantly recognise that all three platforms are promoting the release of my horror film, ‘Visions’, I had to ensure that both the main product and ancillary texts held some aspects of similarity such as a common house style. I, therefore, decided that my main product and ancillary texts should all follow a colour scheme of red, white and black as not only would this create a sense of continuity, however, the use of a consistent house style could also help make the promotional package become a more recognisable brand by our target audience. I decided to predominantly use the colour red and black throughout the promotional package as these colours hold connotations to danger, death, and darkness which are all themes closely linked to the horror genre. It was also important that I used the same font throughout the teaser trailer and within each of my ancillary texts as by exposing our audience to the same style of font on three different platforms, would make them automatically associate this particular font type to my film. This is important as it makes it obvious to the audience that the trailer, magazine cover and film poster are all synergised together. Not only does this keep a sense of continuity going and increase recognisability however it ultimately helps to boost sales revenue which will further help to increase the profit of my film.

A unique selling point is defined as a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors. I decided to incorporate a unique selling point into my work in order to allow my horror film to stand out in comparisons to other films of its genre. The unique selling point of my horror film is a reoccurring image of an eye which is featured within both my teaser trailer, ancillary tasks and even within my production title. The image of an eye is a direct representation of the title of my film ‘Visions’. This not only conveyed the narrative of my film to the audience, however, this also conveyed to them that this film is of the horror genre. The use of white eyes was vital in order to portray an unsettling feeling amongst the audience as the uncommon eye colour automatically makes the audience suspicious of the character’s motives and conveys to them that something is not right. Through conducting research during the pre-production stage, I had found that within horror films such as “The Exorcist”, “Drag Me to Hell” and “The Devil Inside”, white contacts are commonly used in order to demonstrate when a character is being possessed by an evil spirit. Therefore, following in the footsteps of such films and incorporating this similar feature within my own work, helped me convey to my target audience that my film is also of the horror genre. Furthermore, the image of the character’s eye is the main feature on both the trailer, magazine cover and film poster which is significant as this enabled the audience to instantly visually link both the ancillary text and film trailer together and immediately make obvious to the audience that it is associated with a certain brand.

I overall believe that the combination of both my main product and ancillary texts were extremely effective as this had allowed me to attract my target audience across two different platforms; visual and text. For example, a teaser trailer will have the ability to reach a young online audience through being exchanged on social media sites such as Facebook and Youtube whereas, a magazine cover or film poster will be able to target an offline audience, which again widens recognisability and promotion which overall allows for a wider distribution. 

3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is an essential factor for increasing sales revenue, forming a credible reputation and overall enlarging the profit of your film. The popularity of a production is based on whether or not it appeals to the target audience. If a product receives a positive reception by its audience, then they will spread the word to their peers, friends and family which overall builds up recognition and a wider distribution.

After conducting research on IMDb’s age ratings, we decided that the target audience for our horror film would be 15 and above. 

In order to gain an idea of what certain factors my target audience required to see a film magazine cover, I carried out an online questionnaire for a total of 30 people- 10 male and 20 female. I set a sum of 10 questions; 3 open and the remaining 7, closed. Through this questionnaire, I attempted to find out which sorts of colours, features and layouts were most intriguing for my target audience and the reasons for these answers. I had come to find that in terms of colour, the participants which took part in the survey, preferred a magazine cover to have a dark colour scheme. The colours favoured by them were mostly- black, red and white which was convenient as these colours are closely linked to the horror genre. This was important as not only did this allow me to meet the needs of my audience, however, it also at the same time allowed me to reinforce the horror genre through the design of the magazine. I also found that the majority of the people that took part in the questionnaire mostly purchased in ‘Empire’ magazine. This was essential for me to know as being aware of which film magazine was favoured most by my audience allowed me to mirror some of the magazine’s features into my own work, such as their house style, layout or style of font.

Once we created a rough cut version of our trailer, it was essential to allow our focus group to be able to view and evaluate what we had produced so far in order for them to provide us with critical yet constructive feedback on ways in which we could improve certain aspects of our work. Our target audience were highly complimentary about the production of our trailer. They collectively stated that it was clear that the film is of the horror genre due to the use of codes and conventions such as low-key lighting and blood. However, they did state that at times it was difficult to fully understand the narrative of the film. In order to redeem this issue, we took our target audience’s views into consideration and decided it would be best to incorporate titles within our trailer in order to drive the narrative and help explain it slightly to the audience.

Overall I believe that it was highly beneficial to gain audience feedback as it allowed us to be made aware of which certain aspects we had missing and needed to improve. This overall enables us to create a very high standard of work. 

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

During the research, planning and evaluation stages of my advanced media portfolio, I have used various types of technologies for the making of my promotional package. The various programmes, equipment, and websites which I used enabled me to carry out sufficient amount of research and planning and without the existence of such websites and equipment, I would have found it immensely difficult to create a high standard of work. 

The blog-publishing service, blogspot.com, had been extremely important during the course of my A2 media coursework production. Through this website, I was able to complete research and frequently demonstrate my findings onto my blog to convey my understanding of the horror genre and at the same time show the progression through my pre -production, production and post-production stages. Blogger was extremely accessible as I was able to post, edit and interact with my followers through the click of a button using my iPad,iPhone, and tablet. This benefited me highly as it allowed me to take pictures from my phone which I then could instantly upload directly onto my blog. Blogger was essentially used as a platform to track my progress and provide evidence of my work through diaries,  visual evidence and daily logs in an organised and professional manner.

During the production process, communication was essential. Through using social networking sites such as WhatsApp and Facebook, my group and I were able to regularly stay in contact on and off school premises which allowed us to organise filming dates, editing session and exchange our availability schedules. This form of instant communication allowed each member of our group to share their independent ideas and actively be a part of crucial decisions in regards to our production. The use of social networking sites were extremely important during the post-production stage as during this time, we used platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, and WhatsApp to share the rough cut of our teaser trailer in order to gain constructive criticism from our target audience to understand what certain aspects of our production they found appealing and which certain aspects they believed should be changed. 

During the research process, I had used online tools such as Prezi, GoConqr, and PowToons in order to communicate my ideas and present my research findings in a creative and alternative manner in comparison to just using traditional slide-based presentation formats such as Microsoft Powerpoint. Prezi is a visual storytelling software, which I used quite regularly during post-production as this software was useful in enabling viewers to pan among topics at will, zoom in on desired details, and pull back to reveal certain context. This overall allowed me to communicate my ideas and concepts in an interactive and imaginative manner which I believed was extremely effective. GoConqr is another example of an online software which I used during the research process. It allowed me to formulate mind maps to help me translate ideas about certain topics in a visual manner. Through this software, I was able to create a colour coded brainstorm making it easier to link certain concepts and ideas clearly. On the other hand, PowToons, unlike both Prezi and GoConqr, is web-based animation software that allowed me to create animated presentations by importing images, manipulating objects and inserting relevant background music.

The filming was done using a professional camera called a ' Nikon D3300 Digital SLR’ which delivers razor-sharp detail even in low-light situations, excellent image quality and has a 24.2-megapixel capability useful to shoot the highest quality footage. Using this specific camera for the making of our trailer was extremely useful as due to its high-resolution sensor, the camera was able to capture the finest detail on camera, which prevented any issues regarding graining from taking place which overall gave the trailer a more professional look. Furthermore, we had also used a compact tripod as it was essential to keep the camera steady for specific scenes and this also effectively was easier than freehand recording. Lastly, during the post-production process, my group and I used Final Cut Pro to edit our teaser trailer as this software focuses on more technical features, which are aimed at a professional market. Prior to this, I did not actually have much experience using this specific editing software therefore due to my inexperienced, within my own time I had to watch beginner tutorials and constantly practice until I felt confident enough using this software on my own. Through practicing, I had learned to import and extract videos simultaneously from different devices, mend any colour correction issues and also how to modify the speed of a certain clip.