Evaluation

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

In comparison to the other media products I had looked at; websites, trailers and posters, my media product manages to both conform and subvert the conventions used within each media product one convention which I had decided to use and develop was the use of motifs and themes among each product which was able to link and integrate them. For my product, I had decided to use Ouija boards and glitches throughout my poster, website and film trailer. On my poster, the image was distorted and manipulated in order to make it look like it was experiencing a glitch, which links to the cyber bullying aspect, relating to the antagonist’s death. This effect was achieved by following a tutorial I had found where different layers were inverted, had different hues and saturation, and different effects were used on each layer to give them a grainy and speckled look. In addition to the glitch, I had incorporated my main titles typography, which resembles the font of an Ouija board’s calligraphy. On my website, I was unable to create a glitch effect using Wix, so to compensate, I had used the Ouija motif more heavily throughout the site, with images of the board being used in the background, planchette icons on slides and the same main titles typography. On my trailer, I have used glitches throughout, which was achieved by using a distortion preset and a glitch sound effect was also used. To show the Ouija motif, I had painted a piece of wood to look like an Ouija board to use as a prop, in addition to making the planchette to use with it. This prop was used for the bulk of the trailer as the characters partake in an séance scene. And once again, the Ouija style main titles typography was used and a glitch effect was used with it to link back to the cyber bullying.

After looking at all of the posters, I had followed a similar layout, as they all were relatively alike. Each poster was divided into thirds, where the main image was a central point in the middle third and the title, cast and credits were spread between the top and bottom thirds. I had also used the same font and layout for the production credits at the bottom of the poster as they all used a triple condensed font. In regards to the genre of my film, which was horror, I had followed the codes and conventions for the genre. On my poster there was a lot of darkness used for the background, which is commonly used within horror to create an element of the unknown and to also touch on the fear of the dark. However, although I had a dark background on my poster, I did not keep it consistently dark like most horror posters. On the glitching aspect of the poster, I had a high amount of colour such as greens, pinks and yellows. This was due to the high saturation I had decided to use for the glitch and this brightness helps to subvert the common trope that horror requires dark imagery and lighting. Conventionally, there is usually a lot of blood and gore which is used for horror which I had also refrained to use on my poster, this was due to the fact that it would not link well with the context of the film and the character used on the poster did not die a gory death. The lack of gore on the poster still leaves the suspense and allows it to be presented in the trailer or website. On the poster, I wanted to use a similar idea of the release date, like for Tarantino’s Django: Unchained poster which was made to be released on Christmas Day which seemed unconventional for an action film. I decided to use Valentines Day as my release date for the horror film.

The website was something that I struggled with more when making it, it was difficult to follow and create the desired effects that I wanted to do such as the glitching to create a continuity between my trailer poster and website. After looking at other websites, I wanted to create a simple style link the original American Honey website and the La La Land website, where they had one main homepage and one or two other menu options. As I found difficulties in using Wix to create the site I wanted, as shown in my content draft, I had made one site where it scrolled down to show the different features such as the slideshow and trailer. I did want to add more slides to the slideshow but I could not find a way to add to it, which is also similar with wanting to extend the scroll to add more content such as the reviews, which I had moved to the top of the site.  I had found that I could only add one page to a menu if I wanted to add content but that would create an entire new page as opposed to an extension on the main site.

My trailer is something that follows the conventions most as I used similar shot styles, editing techniques, mise en scene and sound.  My trailer starts with a wide handheld shot moving up a staircase, this shot has been slowed down to try and create more suspense for the audience. This was cross cut with a shot of a phone with abusive messages on and then it goes back to the staircase and shows Lucy stepping off of a chair, committing suicide. Throughout that shot, glitches are used to mask the serious subject of the suicide and to also ensue terror as the glitches are showing a disturbance in the film and for the audience. There are also several shots which have been edited in place with the audio of the main soundtrack which helps with the horror and I had seen in other horror trailers like ‘The Autopsy of Jane Doe” where the shots become more frequent as the music builds. I had tried to keep the colour palette of the trailer dark to add to the terror and candles were used to light the scenes, this dim lighting is another common trope of horror and fire is also used as a way to show chaos and danger. This danger was also shown in my trailer due to the special effects makeup used on the face of one of the characters to make it look like their face had melted which showed the gore that my audience had wanted. In my trailer, I had also tried to use some theories to support my work, such as Propp's Character types, where a victim and villain were clearly established but there was a grey area as to who the hero is in the narrative. In Propp's character theory, there are seven different types of character, which are supposed to be present in every film, but I feel that I have subverted that for my trailer, as there are only the victim and villains, which alternate the roles. I also tried to use the hermeneutic code and equivocations, snares and jammings to provide a lack of answers for the audience to create a narrative hook.

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

I think that the combination of my media products is extremely effective in presenting the genre clearly to the audience due to the aforementioned conventions they feature. I also think that they work well with interacting with each other. For example, my poster has a link to the film website at the bottom of it, just as I have previously seen with posters, this will then generate traffic to my site where they can view the trailer which is embedded onto it.  These products also help to easily establish the characters (i.e. who the protagonists/antagonists are, their age etc.), which will help audiences to determine whether they would want to see the film, or not. To further get them to intertwine better, I could have placed a photo of my poster onto the website, or added the website link onto the end of the trailer. All of my media products have the same themes and colour schemes and I tried to make each product to be able to stand out on its own as just a poster or a trailer or a website, but simultaneously, I wanted them to still have common aspects to link them. For example, they all have the same typography and imagery with the Ouija board and glitching. I also wanted them to share some of the same shots, so the website features shots of some of the scenes that are in the trailer and the poster has Lucy looking out to the camera like in one of the shots on the trailer. I would say that as a way to promote my film, they have all worked extremely effectively.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My audience had said that overall my trailer looked professional and well edited due to the effects that were used, the sound and the shot styles. It also fit the conventions of horror well with the mise en scene, the sound, lighting and the shots. However they had also given critiques that will be extremely useful if I were to do this project again. They had said that to make it fit the horror style more, to darken all of the shots as a whole or put some shots in black and white as there were some bright shots which were a great contrast to the rest of the trailer but wasn’t necessary, such as the staircase shots. There was also a flashback in the trailer, which they said I could have made more defined, which could have been done with a fade to white or sound effects. If I were to do this again, I would need to learn more skills on Premiere Pro in order to create better effects and editing the colour on certain shots. From this feedback, I have learned that it does appeal to my desired target audience and it accurately presents horror.

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

For my research, I utilised Google, YouTube and IMDB predominantly when researching the different film posters, trailer and websites. I had also used Google to look at different theories to support my ideas and research. This allowed me to effectively analyse the conventions used and consider how I may use them in my trailer. I had also created a questionnaire, which helped me with my planning as I was using an audience as my focus when planning the trailer.

When constructing my poster, I had used Adobe Photoshop CC. this was rather complex to use and I had to use several tutorials in order to achieve my desired effect; such as the glitch effect. I had also used Photoshop to create my main titles typography, which was achieved with the paintbrush tool over an already existing font. I had also used it to create my production company logo, which was done with text, and adding a glow to it and creating a circle over a portion of the text and blending the edges, I had also placed transparent ghosts coming out of the circle to create a horror element to it. I had used Adobe Premiere Pro CC to edit my footage for my trailer; this was once again something I had to use several tutorials for to get my desired effects. This version of Premiere Pro had also created some complications, as it would not be opened on any out-dated versions of the program (such as Premiere Pro CS4). Finally, I had used Wix.com to create my own film website. I had found that this was good for creating a simple website layout, but I wanted it to have more complexities such as the glitches, which I could not achieve on this site. This was something which I did not use in my AS project, unlike premiere pro and Photoshop (where my editing skills developed).

I had used blogger in order to document my evaluation of the entire project. This meant that I needed to blog everything in a certain order and frequently, which did not happen and as a result the order is not in a systematic order. I also used blogger in my AS project but I have developed my A2 blog further to have more content and substance.