TRAILER
POSTER
WEBSITE
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Marketing Product.
I have decided to see what my film would look like if it was made an App, i think that getting an App for any product can be a major boost in marketing your product, Apple has the largest customer basis in the world, with Ipad/Ipods growing at an inceasingly rapid rate, with using products like this convergance can be crucial, because times are hard, bouncing from one product to another can be a big help.
Evaluation Question Four
How
did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning, and
evaluation stages?
From the onset of our
project, I have used many different types of media technologies, to try and
reduce the difficulty of the different stages in the project
(Research/Production/Evaluation) using the variety of technologies i did, I
believe it produced a good all round promotional package for a movie trailer.
The first day we began
the planning we used a website called Blogger, this is owned by google, and you
can post anything you like on Blogger which obviously relates to our trailer,
and this is where the examiner can review our progress because it records
everything we do. It has been extremely useful in the whole procress and I
would recommend it to people in the future, one of the best aspects was that
you could create a post, and refer beck to it when you needed too, for example
from planning to production, you need to link things together. My teacher can
also look at my blog whenever me or him feel necercary to do so, by adding
comments, or typing in the address, friends and family can also do the same,
which is a brilliant as when we are in the production stage he can identify
things that should be changed, and offer us guidance.
This was not the only
online media I used to help me throughout the project, Google was a brilliant
help, it was very easy to use, and using Google Chrome with Google and Blogger
maximized internet speed because they are all linked and work well together,
for example loading images was fast. The answers Google gave to me were always
relevant to what I searched (unlike some search engines), it familiarised with
key words, like horror, film, trailer, it links them together so you don’t get
mixed up results, this was great in the planning process, and when creating the
film we needed to know how to create gif’s (a type of image that moves) and we
found it right away.
I have also been looking
at a website throughout the process, which is a magazine also, this has up to
date information on recent horror movies, and constantly has updates, so I can
refer to this when people develop new trailers/poster/websites and apply some
of their ideas to my own. The website is called www.fangoria.com.
YouTube has been one of
the biggest helps in the planning stages because Google suggestions would also
give up YouTube clips because is the biggest online free video viewing website
in the world, and all of the clips in my planning stages of the Trailers are
all from Youtube, I created and account so I could keep refereeing back to the
videos I ‘favoured’. We also used this online media technology to upload our
trailer on at the end so our friends and family could give us feedback (this
was now the only way we gained feedback’
We also used social
networking sites to our advantage, with all of us having facebook, and some
have twitter, we can link our work into our social life, which we had to do
when it comes to audience feedback, these sites were really good, because we
know how they work and the responses are quick.
Media technologies we
used that were not online were things such as Microsoft Office tools, when you
press the PrtSc button, which captures the screen, when you paste it in Power
Point, you can save it as an image, and then put it on your blog, this saves
lots of time and makes like so much easier when your explaining things, it also
provides proof that it’s your own work. PowerPoint also helped us make many
things, like posters, and the texts we added into our trailer. Microsoft Word
was also very useful in the production process, because I made a plan on here,
and a table to help us film.
To capture our video
clips we use our Sony
Handy cam, because it is easy to use with good active electronic
image stabilization and a built-in USB cable for quick uploads. It gives us
nice clear videos and also has very clear results, it’s also nice and
compact which is good for travelling and hand-held shots. The camera we are using to take still images
is called a Nikon D40, this is a brilliant small compact camera, and is very
efficient. It has a 6MP and the images look very good.
Our editing software was called
Windows Live Movie Maker, we had no access to a Apple Mac to use IMovie because
our clips wouldn’t load, which was a real shame, as you can only make one video
on movie maker at a time, so we couldn’t save it and upload the video to make
progress, so to prove we made progress we had to screen shot what we did each
time. The plus to Windows Movie Maker was that is was fast, and it have nice
effects, and you can add sound, which is able to be turned up and down in both
the clip and the sound itself. We could also silence some clips, and change the
colours to make them appear darker than they actually were. I wouldn’t like to
go into major detail about this as I have done so previously on my blog.
Personally the evaluation process was
made more interesting with blogger because you can add images in where you feel
necessary , and make it look visually better and enjoyable.
Even though I felt I utilised many
media technologies in this, I could have perhaps used many more to decrease the
pressure on our team, I now have a phone which I never had a phew weeks ago,
and it would have been good to keep up with my blog and using social networking
sites whilst on the go.
Evaluation Question Three
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We have done our own audience feedback, to do something a
little different, I decided to put our video on YouTube so I can show people
the link and it’s easy to access. So I decided to use the social networking
site Facebook to show my friends the Trailer, Poster and the Website, I asked
to give honest opinions, and they gave good constructive comments.
The way I sent this email was the YouTube Url, and the
Webstie Url, so they open when you click on the blue links, and attached the
Poster as a file.
Here are the images of what was said: (if you click on the images they are more clearer)
Don’t forget that I have certificated my film a 15, that was
the main reason for asking people of my age to look at my work, however I did
show some of the older generation, (grandparent /parents /aunties / uncles)
they were reluctant to video themselves talking about there comments, but they
all shared similar comments to those of my peers.
Overall I feel very pleased with the feedback that our group
received, because the people we asked were perfect candidates to watch the main
feature, which is the movie, and the majority of the comments they gave were
positive and just needed a few changes here and there, so I will be showing you
them at the very end of the blog. The negative feedback we received I
personally feel were neither due to our own efforts lacking, just natural
things like the lighting outside, other than that I think the people who were analysing
our products took into account how much we really tried.
I also feel that throughout the process I was receiving my
feedback on my trailer, I was learning very quickly about how and what I would
change in the future of doing this process if the time aver came up again. The
main thing I would say I have learned is that when planning this process, you
need to let your imagination run wild, because you can never have to many ideas
that you can construct into something amazing, and when you are doing this, it
should come naturally in your head to figure out techniques you will use to
achieve what you want, after you have got these ideas, you need to figure out
how you can translate your ideas to a target audience simply and effectively so
they can get the point of the Trailer, or any other media production you are
making.
A good example of what I mean by the above is the ending of
my Trailer. As you can see that all the more mysterious things begin to appear,
many people may think that because it is rather scattered and confusing, this
was kind of the point because I wanted to leave my audience with a question in
there mind and by adding some text into the video hopefully helped them get a
better understanding.
You are going to see the transformation from what the feedback has given me, and i have made a few final changes.
Evaluation Question Two
How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?
One
of the first things we had to think about at the start of the production of
this whole project, was to think of a trending image I could use throughout the
process of making my Trailer, Poster and Website, as soon as we thought of our
genre then we knew we needed to find a image we all liked, and we found one. I had
to make sure that each stage linked into each other so that the target audience
know they are all related to the same film, so that the combination of all
these marketing products give the film a good image, along with the developers.
The
elements that help construct a good brand image include; Text, colour, using
the main character in most of the stages, film title, and that the designs
remains familiar. I wanted to concentrate on using my main character as my
statement central image, and ensure that the mystery is the centre of attraction;
this is why I included the image of Rosie looking totally
empty both in my poster and webpage background. For the poster and website I
did not want the face of the mystery to be seen because this is what keeps the
audience anticipated and adds uncertainty to the audience e.g. for example in
the film Rosie’s scream the in front of the camera creates this emotion because
she is clearly distressed and we don’t know what is doing this to her, this in
turn entices the audience to go and watch the film in the cinema to find out
who or what it is. I also focused on using the same colour scheme for he poster
and the website, and related this to the Horror trailer which was mainly black
and white and some white for the text featured on each. I decided to do this
because i like the Human Centipede poster which I got my inspiration from,
because if you refer back to my research, its poster is basically the same as
the webpage background, I wanted my poster to be simple but at the same time
use techniques which entice the audience, I believe the image does this for me.
I used the colour white for all of my text in the three stages because I feel
that it gives the audience a clear view of what I am trying to put across and
they can understand everything clearly, if they struggle to read it, they will
get bored, for the website I used the same simply because it looks to dull with
any other colour and websites are meant to be readable and understandable.
I decided to break the convention of having
the exact same image of the poster on my website, however they are still very
similar, the reason for doing this is that we wanted to switch things up by
adding a GIF as the background, however I must stress you can 100% tell that
the website and the poster are very alike and they go well together because I
tried to edit them in a similar way to each other.
The
colour scheme used in all of my products was effective in establishing the
genre of my film; I used the colour white stages of my coursework, I used it
for the Text mostly because it gives a clue to the audience to what my film
will about because the colour white for my products represents the
supernatural, Ghosts, and simplicity. I used the colour black mostly for the
background in some aspects of my poster, the trailer, and the website because
the colour Black represents Dark, Mysterious, isolation and the colour of the
creature unknown is which uncertainty and evil. I was determined on using the
main character (Rosie) in all three stages of my product so that the she can be
seen as an icon like in most horror trailers I analysed they would use the
person as the trademark of the film for example The Human Centipede. Also I gave
the Rosie a ‘look’ which is a lost and isolated person so that the audience can
always identify with her loneliness and emptiness, the same look like ‘The
Devil Inside’ the woman always looks so lost and scary.
Fonts
used in all the products we produced are Tempus Sans Ms, you can see it has a spooky look to
it hence the reason we chose out of all the fonts we tested on the ABANDONED
movie title, as you can see in the production process when we tested about 20
fonts. The font that I used in other stages of my course work is Arial and
Calibri, I used these fonts mainly because of the simplicity that it conveys on
all aspects of my product just like the text you see on many other posters and
websites that’s trying to get a message across that’s important and you need to
be able to read. The writing on my film poster is Times New Roman.
Having
more similarities between each of the ancillary texts, makes for a strong trio
of products that can converge between each other to advertise what is the real
product, that is the actual movie itself, when you look at my audience feedback
you will also see that there is not one comment that suggests they are not
linked, and they don’t work well together.
If there was something I could change in my
product I would have liked to create like a logo or symbol which will make my
film more recognisable to the audience just like what The Blair Witch project
did on their poster by having , lastly I would have also like to construct my
film trailer in a more detailed way.
Evaluation Question One
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The main aim of film trailers is to promote the bigger picture, in trailer terms the bigger picture is the film, trailers create immediate interest of the film, before it come out. The film trailer allows the audience to create brief ideas in their head of what they think the film is about. For example (genre, storyline, actors) all of these things will tell the audience if they will be interested in seeing the film. Usually in the build-up of a film there is more than one trailer, the first being the shortest, and gradually getting longer, this is all part of teasing your target audience and markets your film really well. When the film has made a name for itself and the public keep wanting more, this I when you make a website and a poster like we have done.
The usual conventions of teaser trailers are:
- The length of trailers usually vary between 2 and 3 minutes
- Trailers include key moments from the film which are not placed in the sequence of the film, and do not give away any crucial plot details in order to add to the suspense of the release of the film. The title of the film is usually presented on screen at the end of the trailer along with the release date and any other information.
- Some teaser trailers include the names of directors and producers who were involved in the making of the film being advertised – this helps the audiences to make connections with previously successful and recognised films. Some teaser trailers use on-screen text which gives important information about the film, such text is usually in time with the beat of the background music. Most teaser trailers are accompanied by music which suits the genre.
The usual conventions of the Horror trailers I am studying are things like, questions being left in the audiences mind things like, what happens to the main character,? Examples of trailers that do this are ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Quarantine’ and ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. The text used in horror trailers usually has a creepy edge to it with the use of dark colours such as black or red. A young, vulnerable female is usually used as the main character. Horror films tend to bring out common fears in people, such as the dark.
Teaser trailers which have influenced my media product are:
‘Grave Encounters’ is one of these because I really like the way the trailer insinuates that it is found footage.. The trailer’s genre is horror and is similar to the idea of my trailer in the sense that the main characters are being chased by something; another similarity with my trailer is the way in which the main character is a young female who is reporting the events that are taking place. This is something that influenced my trailer so that the audience have a clear idea of what the trailer is about without giving too much away. Another similarity between the ‘Grave Encounters’ trailer and my media product is that, rather than the main character holding the camera and filming herself, she is being filmed with a hand-held camera by someone else. I think this was a good idea because you get to see her reactions rather clearly, and you can emote from her when she is talking to the camera, also close up shots look really good and effective. Another similarity is how they edited some of the shots to gray-scale.
‘Paranormal Activity’ is a film which influenced me in the production of my trailer the most. The trailer for the film is very similar to mine in the sense that it is filmed using a hand held camera and imitates the idea of something unknown after the main characters. The low quality of the filming supports the idea that the filming is found footage, which is something that I decided to do whilst developing my media product. Similar to ‘Grave Encounters’ the film has more than one main character, it only has two main characters, which means the film each other, but at night they leave the camera on every night to find what is disturbing them. The audience are told at the beginning of the trailer through the use of text that the characters are missing and their footage has been found, which is presumably what the film is based around. I also wanted to create this feeling of questions through my trailer, however I thought that the use of text is very effective as it adds suspense in both mine and ‘Paranormal Activity’.
The final trailer that had a big influence on my trailer id ‘The Devil Inside’. This trailer does tell you a story in its own particular way, you establish relationships and understand the story, however when the trailer is finished, you want more. The beginning is amazing, and shares similarities with my trailer in terms of a female talking, however it is not via a phone call. There is also quite a lot of characters in the film it seems, and we have four in ours, and it might not be necessarily a mystery thing after them, but you can determine there is a mystery to be solved.
The way my trailer utilises conventions; one way is that it starts off with the main character briefly explaining the storyline of the film and giving the audience an idea of what to expect. This starts off as being the narration of the trailer which is then presented as text, and then the young girl is describing her ‘experience’. The text I have included in my trailer is white so as to stand out on a plain black background, but at the same time I try to portray a creepy feeling by making the text slowly grow towards the screen, which I have reinforced through the trailer by having this effect at the beginning and the end. The trailer creates a sense of mystery by the way in which it does not reveal what is after the main character, therefore leaving the audience with questions and wanting to know more. My trailer includes several different clips that are not necessarily in chronological order but give the audience an idea as to what the film is about.
The main character for my product is a young female who I have attempted to portray as being vulnerable through her clothing and make-up. I wanted her to wear something plain like a top with nothing on at all, symbolising the film name ABANDONED. The sound I have used to accompany the trailer is something that I believe suits the genre and fits in well with the rhythm of the trailer and the different shots and text. The loud fuzz at the end is particularly effective as it adds suspense. Additional sounds such as loud bangs have also been included in the trailer to compliment the transitions between shots.
I believe my trailer challenges others in terms of telling the story without giving out to much information, and I love the way we used a voice over mainly through the beginning of the trailer, voice overs normally tend to give lots away, other trailers usually want to tell a story, out voice over indicates how scared the main Female character is.
My poster also shares similar conventions with others, which a main central image, relating the the name of the film, and with information about the producers/actors and other things at the bottom, we also have a slogan which is ‘watch terror unfold’ this continues throughout. I think my poster challenges other posters in terms of how much the central image relates to the title, because her face looks so lost.
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