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

For this question I have taken screenshots of real films and put them alongside shots from our trailer to compare their uses of mise-en-scene, shot size, framing, character use and so on.

Trailers are made to make people want to go and see the film, if the trailer is good then people will go to see the film. They are very important when making a film as they hope to excite and intrigue the audience to want to know more about the film. If made correctly, it will attract the audience that the producers have targeted. All trailers share the same ideals and they also share the same conventions when it comes to structure. Our trailer, which was one for a horror film, had to create a sense of uneasiness and fright whereas one of a more upbeat manor would have to make the viewers laugh and excite them into what happens.

This frame is from The Boy, I chose this shot as it was of text. Although the text is part of the rules for the narrative, I used this example because this part fades in and out much like the text in our trailer.

I decided to use a clip form Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension as it has a hand held camera part. It may not be a running scene but it still has the 'wobbly camera movement that we needed.

For a long shot I decided to use a shot from The Woman in Black as it shows her standing far away from the window looking into the window where Arthur is standing. In our trailer we tried to recreate this scene but obviously with our killer standing outside.

The next example is one that came from Krampus in the scene where they're in the loft and the toy clown comes alive and their torches are shining on it        

For this screenshot I have decided to use Frankensteins Army as an example as it contains a shot that flickers on and off, much like the one in our trailer. This was used to create tension in our trailer.

Although this doesn't show the news report full screen I feel that our report looked similar to the one in the trailer for The Purge. This is because they are both giving information as to what's happening at the time of the trailer.

This shot is from the 2009 Friday the 13th as it shows, as a jumpscare, one of the girls screaming. Again this isn't entirely the same to the shot from our trailer, I feel it gives the same effect.

I chose Cabin in the Woods for the next shot as the music in this shot and the scene surrounding it is very tense, which is what we wanted to create when coming to the music in our trailer.

Again I have used Cabin in the Woods as at the end when the name of the film comes up, it is in the style that we wanted, which is why our trailer ends in the same way this one does.


I feel that the sound in our trailer kept to conventions of real horror films as it built tension throughout and then ended on a more climactic piece.  When trailers are done right, the music and SFX can, and will be the reason as to why people jump. If the trailer and the music don't work well together then the film won't work. This is why we made sure that we took extra care when making the music to go along with our trailer.

Overall I think that our trailer worked well and that it kept fairly close to classic horror conventions. Although there were a few points during it it that I would improve further to make it fit to conventions even more closely, I still think that it work well and am proud of what we have produced.

Magazine and Poster

Final Trailer

Risk Assessment

Story Boards

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

The role of a film distributor is to advertise the product correctly and to the right people. Examples of this are in the cinema if a horror film is shown, then the trailer before the film will be ones that are horror related. Also if the film is say a 15, the trailers for it will mostly be other films with the same classification as the one that is screening at the time. Posters will be placed in places that are easy to see and catch the eye of the target audience. Magazines will advertise these films but obviously you would see a article/poster for the next Saw film in a Knitting magazine so they would have to make sure that they send there piece to companies that would put them in their magazines. One of the biggest way that companies can get advertisement is by using the internet as so many people use it that it is almost impossible for it not to be noticed. Social media and Youtube would be the biggest contributors to this as the distributors can put their trailers on before videos that are appropriate for the target audiences.
Reviews are also a huge part of advertisement as if the film does well then more people are likely to go and see it and if it doesn't do well then it'll do the opposite.

This poster was for the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th. I like this poster as it is very simplistic. It only shows Jason's mask which is one of the most iconic props in the horror genre so when people see the poster they instantly know what film it is. Also the distributors will have to rely on this heavily as it is the only thing on the poster.

I have decided that my film will be classified as a 15 as it involves, swearing and a small amount of violence and blood. The poster that i have created is very much along the lines of the Friday 13th trailer and the Scream poster in which it only shows the mask from a side perspective. This is because the poster consists of the killers mask. I made the poster like this because it gives a sense of mystery about the killer which will raise question asking who he is and why the mask. The poster is black as well as the mask to make it look as dark and sinister as possible.

 The magazine cover features the same picture as I wanted to keep the mystery to keep people in suspense about who the killer is. I went for quite a modern take on a horror magazine as its quite simplistic but keeps the horror aspects in it such as the text is classic horror text. But the rest of the magazine is quite minimalist. The other texts I used were quite gothic type writer ones, again keeping with the genre. I used this Empire cover as inspiration as there is a lot going on but not so much that it's confused.

I decided to then steer well clear of magazines such as Scream they are cluttered, although this fits well with the genre this is not how I wanted my magazine to look.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Audience feedback is incredibly important when making a film. As if you don't know your audience then there is no hope in making a film that will sell/make a profit in the cinema. If you collect audience feedback then you will be able to thin out what you can and can't do for the audience that
you're trying to make a film for. If the audience enjoy the film then they may come and see it in the cinema with other people. So in a way it is a form of advertisment.

I gathered audience feedback by showing our trailer to the rest of our class. They trhen wrote down what was good and what was bad, gave that feedback to us the we went away and made as many of the changes as we could to make it more suited to what the target audience wanted. As our class is that of teenagers we already knew what kind of trailer we needed to make. The feedback just helped us to refine what we had made into a better, more interesting trailer.

All the feedback that we recieved was telling us the same things. Even though people enjoyed the narrative there were problems with it that we already knew about but people obviously wrote these things down. These were the main comments.

1 The music doesn't fit all the way through
2 The order of the shots was predictable and threfore made the story predictable
3 Music wasn't sinister enough
4 There wasn't enough 'suffering'

Using this feedback i was able to make the changes that were needed. we found some more dramatice music and embeded it in our trailer to give it more tension. Also we went out and filmed some more shots that showed/depicted suffering and put those shots in. On top of that we completely messed around with the different shots and made it less linear. We also made all trhe shots look similar in lighting, which was something that I noticed but there were no comments about it.

Pre-Production paperwork

How did you use new Media Technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages.

When making my magazine cover, poster and trailer I had to use multiple different types of program.

Blogger

Everything that I needed to research and plan had to go on my blog which was where it was all marked, I had to upload my magazine, poster and trailer all to my blog. I did encounter some problems to do with uploading and labelling as I hadn't activated the label column.







Premier Pro

This was the software that I used to make the trailer. This was shared between all three people in my group as we all needed to show that we could use it and interact with the group to improve the grades we got. Personally I enjoyed this section the most as I felt most comfortable with the software as I had used it before this course.

Photoshop

This was what I used to make my poster and magazine. As I had used photoshop previously in other courses, again, I felt comfortable with the technology which made the job at hand a bit easier.

Camera

Obviously we had to use cameras to film the footage for our trailers, and again due to another course I have taken it meant that I was very familiar with using these cameras.





Issuu 

 I used this to upload all of my pre production paper work. I did this by scanning in the physical copies and then uploading them to Issuu, I then took the embed code and put it in to a blogger document.








Web 2.0 

This is what the next generation of the internet is called. In this version it gives anyone the chance to do most things on the internet. They can upload to sites such as youtube, and have their own channels and make content for the masses.  Also, the software and the gear that you need for this is really quite cheap and accessible to everyone. This is all very useful for smaller film makers as it means the budget for their actual films etc.

These technologies have been ones that have helped immensely with the making of my trailer and with making all of my blog posts with ease. They are easy to use and don't hinder me in anyway. Although at some points they failed to work they did in the work and helped me with my work 

Magazine and Poster templates

Shot list

establishing shot- front of college
news report from front of college about missing student- mid shot of reporter
newspaper articles- close up
janitors house- janitor sitting on bed, head in hands- close up- voice over still going from news report

classroom- one lacking off, one doing work- close up of date on computer- present day
                                                                      - pan out to show Curtis on computer and other student
                                                                      - close up of each characters
                      - shot of computer with work, computer with online shopping and hands on phone
                                                                 - mid-shot of lacking student 'I'm going to the toilet'
corridor- lacking off student walking to toilets - different shots from different angles of her walking

toilets- student with back to exit door and on phone- behind
                                                                 -over the shoulder now revealing the janitor behind
close up of students phone tweeting 'I'm so bored'
over the shoulder shot- mirror, reflection of janitor looking at student
                                    -janitor grabs student

classroom- good student looking around, checking watch

slacking student being dragged down the cellar- mid shot just showing legs being dragged
  
All computers turn on at the same time- classroom- over the shoulder of student
                                                                                 - different angles of the room
Chairs move by wire
lights swing 
student walking around- down glass corridor, janitor watching from outside
student looking out window at grass, janitor far away in the trees- shot from behind student
                                                                                                        - shot of outside
                                                                                           - close up of students puzzled face
                                                                                                  -shot of outside, janitors gone
corridor- reflection/shadow of blade- close up
close up of students phone- 'no signal'
close up- janitors badge
student running down the corridor, classroom lights turn off as he passes them
student reaches sports hall- doors swing open and the lights are turned off- long shot 
close up- students feet running
library- hiding at the end of isle
skills- 360 degree pan of student stressing out with paranoia
lacking off student- messed up, bloody, crying- darkroom, close up of face
Chairs being pulled by wire
lights swinging 

Prop's

-mask

-rope

-fishing wire

-phone

-computers

-chairs

-smart black clothes

-caretaker badge

-torch

-knife/machete

-newspapers

Costumes

Janitor- smart clothes- black trousers and polo top with a janitor’s badge

Good student- smarter casual clothes

Bad student- crop top and skinny jeans

Ghost- if in trailer (undecided) black clothes or sheet 

These are my groups individual ideas for our horror trailer, we didn't outright like one so we mixed them all together to create our trailer plot.

Tilly: A power cut at college or student's get locked in, Zombies or Vampire attack the college from the inside, plot is following a group of friends.

Charles: Haunted house, young couple move in, strange goings on, their dog dies, a fight for survival.

Me: Cat and mouse chase between a serial killer and his next victim. Our final idea for our trailer is; two students stay after college to do work but things take a turn for the worst, a giant cat and mouse chase between a student and a mysterious figure- one year after a student was found dead at the college. A coincidence or not, this mysterious killer kills one of these students. The killer is being haunted by the ghost of the student he accidently killed and the story follows a fight for survival of the student.

Questionnaire and Target Audience Research

Pre Production Paperwork

Crazies Analysis

The film The Crazies was directed by Breck Eisner in 2010, is a remake of the 1973 film The Crazies. This film begins with a peaceful town enjoying a game of baseball, but just before this scene there is a premonition of their town in chaos. When at the baseball game Sheriff Timothy Olyphant sees a man walking towards the baseball pitch and he's carrying a shotgun. He confronts the man whom Timothy knows the man and tries to reason with him but he does not respond. He also doesn't look very well. He then threatens Timothy with his gun and he has to put him down. Later that day, more people start to show the same symptoms, and become violent. Meanwhile somewhere else some men who have gone out shooting find the crash sit of a military plane which has leaked a chemical. which has got into the water supply for the town. The man who was first infected lived on the outskirts of the town and now that other people are started to get infected, it becomes apparent to the sheriff, after going to the crash site, that this could be very serious and talks to the mayor about shutting the water supply off but the mayor refuse. The sheriff is so fustrated by this that him and the deputy go and turn it off anyway. Eventually the infection gets so overwhelming, the army gets in volved and takes action to find all the infected and all non infected. then start taking people and splitting up the infected and the non-infected. unfortunatelty the deputy is infected but doesnt tell anyone. He eventually sacrifices him self so that the sheriff and his wif can live. Also, a young girl who works with the sheriffs wife is caught and killed by the infected in a car wash. But a military helicopter desroys their only way of escaping, a car. Throughot of this film the male gaze theory is completely no relevant as all of the women are dress respectfully and aren't immature/irresponsible. Not only do these women not act irresponsibly they save people's lives throughout the film which is an act of valour that even some of the men  don't accomplish. Also the sheriffs wife is pregnant, which means she not a virgin but she survives. I think she lives because this happened before the film started and the objective was to start a family not just to have some fun.  But Todorovs theory does come into effect in this film but not exactly as at the beginning there is the foreshadow of the town in ruins and right at the end there is no new equilibrium as they are headed towards a city which has just started to be infected so we assume that when they get there they will most probably die. Overall, I think this was a decent remake of an old film which in today's film industry is rare.

What I have learnt from my Research

From all the research into the horror genre, I feel that i have learnt so much about it's conventions and how the films are marketed targeted towards their specific audience. I have also learnt the different techniques that are used in horror films in terms of camera work and how the actors/actresses have to behave, and also what not to do. I have learnt about the history of horror and it's impacts on the modern day horror films and how women are represented and how they are used/killed off in this genre. I have learnt Todorovs theories and how the also affect horror films.
When it comes to making our trailer I shall be fully aware of everything that needs to be done and exactly how to do it. Specifically, shots, dialogue and the fact that there can only be 4-5 jump scares in the trailer and also that there cannot be much story in the trailer otherwise there would be no point in making the whole film as everyone would know what happens

The Marketing and Distribution of films

When a film is distributed it means that it has been available to the general public ie, is being shown in cinemas. The release of a title will be down to the head of marketing and the lad producer of the title. How well the film is marketed will be down to how it's released ie, how many trailers there were, how good the posters are and how well it captures it's primary audience. Most films will be released in the cinemas so that they can makes loads of money 

that way but smaller films that aren't will loose out on the profit that the larger more expensive films are getting.

Reach in marketing technique that means how well the film reaches out to the  target audience. It can be used to collect data for TV to find out about who watches what and how much of it they watch pay day/week. A lot of these viewing figures are published on the Ofcom website.

 Companies tend to have a plan when it comes to marketing their product and by that I mea they are aware of how to achieve their goal. They will collect data from surveys and other such forms of gathering data to work out the best way to market heir film. They will also work out the best way to distribute it to audiences which applies to where they will show it, how much it will cost and what other ways they will attract people to go an see it for instancethey may have card  board cut outs in the cinema. This is also a kind of publicity that will be part of a larger schemeof billboard posters, banners on websites, news articles and so on. In the case of the film The Woman in Black, they used Harry Potter star Daniel Radcilffe as the 'Banner Boy' so to speak. This would further increase the fan base for this film.

                                                         

         


                                                     



                 

For the posters,you can see a dramatic difference as in the first one, only Cpt Americas shield is present whereas in the second one there is the main cast and at the bottom a release date and credits. But the main reason that i picked this film for this example was that the teaser trailer is twice as long as the final trailer which is supposed to give suspense to the viewer to make them want to go and see it more.

Representation of Women in Horror

I have chosen to analyse how women are portrayed in Halloween, House of Wax and Wrong Turn. When writing about these I shall be addressing both the male gaze theory and the final girl theory. The male gaze theory is one that is how certain women are shown in the hottie genre, for instance in House of Wax, just before Paris Hilton's character is killed she is running about screaming her head off in her underwear and a loosely fasten dressing gown, which will, of course attract male attention, hence the 'male gaze' theory. The final girl theory on the other hand is the polar opposite of that, again, for example Laurie in Halloween, she is dressed functionally and is obviously not out to impress men. They are sensible, don't drink, smoke, have sex etc. They also tend to be fairly academic and quite resourceful and are more interested in finding out what's happening instead of running from it.

Halloween is said to be the first ever slasher film but people argue that psycho is.Halloween is a 1978 slasher film directed by John Carpenter.Throughout this film Laurie's friends are shown to be quite rebellious and go out drink and have sex with guys were as she won't even have a dance with one let alone kiss him. This shows us that she is strong minded and bodied. When Michael attacks, he attacks the weakest first ie, the ones who are rebels because they are easy target and won't put up much of a fight. For example right at the start of the film, when Michael kills his sister she had just had sex and was sitting naked at her dressing table. But when he goes after Laurie she puts up a fight and survives the ordeal in doing so she becomes 'The Final Girl' 

Wrong Turn whoch is he next film on my list makes full use of the male gaze theory as most of the women, including the final girl are wearing tight fitting tops with exposed cleavage and one of the women, before her brutal murder, has sex out in the open showing no real signs of dignity. 

House of Wax is a horror about the twins of a mother who owned a wax house and how they want to make real people in wax models. Paris Hilton is the male gaze in this moving as in her last moments after her boyfriend is killed running around in red lace underwear screaming her head off..

Distribution of The Woman in Black

Who do you think are the primary and secondary audiences for the Woman in Black and why?

I think that the primary audience for this film would be Harry Potter fans as they will most likely have grown up with Daniel Radcliffe and want to see where his career is taking him. The series was a massive hit adaptation of the JK Rowling novels and have touch hearts worldwide. Whereas the Secondary audience would most likely be people who are actually interested in horror films,particularly ones of a supernatural/Gothic nature.

How was the Woman in Black marketed?

It was spread across all different forms of media such as the TV, trailers in the cinema, magazines etc. This all worked very welll but the fact that they had the actor that played Harry Potter in their film made it marketing heaven. The companies life blood for the making of this film was the name Daniel Radcliffe who you can see on the posters, is the main point of interest and it was his name plastered all over it. This did distract from what the film was actually about a bit, but only in the advertisement. This was of course done like this to reach out to all the Potter fans to try and get them to see their favourite charater in a new role. But this can also be a downfall, as people are used to seeing someone in a certain light might mean that they can't see them in a new one.

Do you think the marketing materials for this film were appropriate? why?

i think the were right as they advertised the film he way they wanted it to be seen but i do feel that the whole Daniel Radcliffe deal was a bit over the top as at some points looking at the posters for instance i could see nothing but him. Yes he maybe the main character but it still felt a bit forced

What kind of release did it have?

On it's opening weekend it grossed $20,874,072 in America and £3,153,020 in the UK, which is rather impressive and manage to keep these figures up throughout it's time in the cinema.

How much did the Woman in Black cost to make? and what was the industry impact of it?

It cost £8,018,827 but they exceeded that with their promotional campaign but then went on to make £14,836,286 which made it the highest grossing british horror film of 2012

Why do you think the film was successful?

I feel it was a worth while project as it made a lot of money due to the actor involved and the fact it's a decent film, i also believe that it's marketing scheme was extremely clever using Mr Radcliffe as the main source of attraction

Woman in Black Analysis

Woman in Black is a supernatural thriller that is set during the Edwardian era where a recently widowed Arthur Kipps has been given a house to sell call Eel Marsh. This means that he will have to travel away from home leaving his son on his own with the Nanny. When he arrives at the village at which he will be staying he goes to a pub and finds a room to stay in during his visit. When the townsfolk learn of Arthur's intentions, people become very unnerved and steer well lear of him apart from one man who recently lost his son and wants to help Arthur sell the house. The house itself is obviously by the name out on marsh land that floods every time the tide comes in so once he's there he'll be there for quite a while. When he gets to the house he is given the mans dog to keep him company throughout his stay at the house. Arhur was sent to recover documents that woudl mean that the house could be sold. But when searching the house something doesn't seem right,the house seems alive. When looking through the houses documents, he comes across some letters from the owner of the house to her son. The letter become more and more unreadable as it seems she has succumb to mental illness and her son was fostered. The house begins to make noises, but not creakig more the sounds of a crying woman. So, Arthur goes to investigate the noises and finds nothing. Every day that he comes back after that more and more weird things happen, bodies swing from lamps toys turn on and start to play. Then she appears, the Woman in Black who has remained illusive throughout the whole film until Arthur digs too deep and finds sensitive information. Meanwhile back in the village children are dying, being killed by unusual circumstances that have only start happening since the investigation into selling the house. After finding the information he needs he quickly leaves to meet his son at the train station where they hug, then Arthur begins to thankthe Nanny but quickly realises that his son has fallen on to the train tracks so he jumps down only too late and they are both killed by an oncoming train. And standing in the shadows is the Woman in Black who had this happen. Todorovs theory doesn't really come in to play here as there is no happy beginning or ending it just goes from bad to worse, to good to devestating. Which is the only way i can described the story. Over alll though I enjoyed the film which played with different ideas and accomplished them well

Halloween Analysis

Halloween is a 1978 slasher film directed by John Carpenter. The film is set in 1963 on Halloween an a small town. The film begins with a very short equilibrium (Todorov) of a girl and her boyfriend messing around in the living room. We, as the audience see this through the POV shot of someone watch in. Eventually the couple go upstairs to obviously have sex. The the person we are watching this through, stars to head into the house and starts to go upstairs after them. By the time they get up there the girl is sitting naked at her dressing table combing her hair. She then turns and realises what's happening too late and the person raises their arm with knife in hand and repeatedly stabs the girl to death. After this scene we are quick to learn that the murderer was the girls 6 year old brother Michael Myers who is then sent to a insane asylum.
15 years have passed and Michaels doctor is on the way to the asylum when he sees that lots of patients have escaped, Michael was among the ones to escape and has headed back to his home town. This is where we meet our soon to be Final Girl ( theory on women's portrayal in horror) Laurie who is trying to sell the house as she lives near it and no one has lived there since the murder. Michael sees her go to the house. He then stalks her for the majority of the film and eventually catches up to her. In the mean time Michaels doctor has also come back to the town in search of him as he will try his best to contain the matter. When Laurie and her friend are babysitting her friend goes off with her boyfriend to have sex. This is when Michael finds them and kills them, Laurie is obviously concerned but doesn't want to leave the kids to go searching for her ill fated friend. So she calls her, and there's no answer so she waits. Eventually Michael comes to attack Laurie and one of the most important features of this film is that she fights back and resists death. Eventually the cops get involved and Michael gets killed, until right at the end of the film we see that where his body should be, there is nobody. Obviously this is leading on to the next film of which there were many.
This film supports Todorov's theory, as the is an equilibrium at the start of the film, but at the end there is a new one but also at the same time there isn't as Michael has escaped meaning that he is still at large and not to be tested. This film started a whole new genre of horror which birthed films such as Scream and Friday the 13th that would bring a whole new genre and multiple sub genres to the table.