Ancillary tasks -
My main task was to create a trailer; my ancillary tasks were to make a poster for my movie and the front page/cover for my own magazine. I chose these tasks because it related very well with my main task. If there was going to be a new movie coming out, a poster and a cover may be exactly the type of advertising that’s used for any production. In order to do these tasks I needed to get ides of how all of this was achieved. I found that for a horror film, the poster needed to be quite minimal but eye catching all the same. Like most posters, I used one of my main characters (the villain). However after completing the task, I needed to make some changes before I could produce an end result. One of the things I needed to change was the title. I had put it off centre, but later realised that the convention was to have it in the centre, top of the poster. The font of the writing at the bottom also needed changing.
The horror genre of posters and magazine covers were very distinguished from others that I had researched. My magazine for instance, had to be one that was well known for advertising independent films, horrors in particular. After researching many, I decided that by making my own but using the same conventions of a independent mag would target the audience that I wanted to instead of advertising to a broader scale of audience.
With these tasks I was hoping to advertise as well as entertain. My poster was to shown to inform as well, answering the questions, what was it about? When did it come out? Who was in it? Who directed? Etc.
If I had the chance to do it all again, I would have probably looked more into the film industry, using that knowledge to improve my magazine cover, as to how an independent movie would have been shown.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
AP in Media: Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product? Part 3
Identity -
In order to make it look like a horror film, I needed people to instantly recognise it as one, to do this I used short clips of scenes in the film that showed things like white eyes and dead bodies. These short clips helped to set the mood. Like most trailers there wasn’t a set beginning, middle and end narrative but scenes from the most entertaining aspects of the film.
My film needed an identity as well as look like a conventional horror film/trailer. I achieved this with a selective use in setting and characters. I made mine very conventional but added my own twist by using something that I call the “Blood Bath scene”. Gore is usually not used much in horror trailers but more the idea that there will be a lot of blood. This is because the trailers that usually feature before a movie are related to the audience that’s watching the movie. If for instance it is a PG film, a trailer marked with a 15s age restriction wouldn’t be appropriate. This is so that the target audience is being shown it directly.
In order to make it look like a horror film, I needed people to instantly recognise it as one, to do this I used short clips of scenes in the film that showed things like white eyes and dead bodies. These short clips helped to set the mood. Like most trailers there wasn’t a set beginning, middle and end narrative but scenes from the most entertaining aspects of the film.
My film needed an identity as well as look like a conventional horror film/trailer. I achieved this with a selective use in setting and characters. I made mine very conventional but added my own twist by using something that I call the “Blood Bath scene”. Gore is usually not used much in horror trailers but more the idea that there will be a lot of blood. This is because the trailers that usually feature before a movie are related to the audience that’s watching the movie. If for instance it is a PG film, a trailer marked with a 15s age restriction wouldn’t be appropriate. This is so that the target audience is being shown it directly.
AP in Media: Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media product? Part 2
Target Audience -
I decided that my film was going to be a possession/teen, so I need to be able to replicate the conventions of this specific genre. To do this I needed to look back on the research I had done into this type of movie. I worked around the research, adding music where needed, using the many camera angles that are required in a teen film. Because I was on a small budget, I wasn’t going to be able to use the smooth tracking that I wanted to but instead had to settle for a steady hand, which to my surprise gave me a smooth enough image but still being shaken when I needed it. I also chose my actors between the ages of 16 – 18 as I wanted to represent my target audience the way many other teen trailers did. I did all this so that the audience would be able to recognise from the trailer what genre of movie it was as well as advertising it to them.
Many trailers like this tended to use modern type music, something that would be recognisable by the teenagers they were trying to attract. However in mine I used a more classical, haunting background, finished off with the sound of heartbeats and sound effects. I did this for two reasons, the first was that in order to make this project I wasn’t allowed to use music that has been copyrighted so it would have meant making my own, which still wouldn’t have been recognisable by my audience. The second and biggest reason I did this was because I found that it associated with the trailer brilliantly adding a mood which was vital to making my trailer look much more professional.
I decided that my film was going to be a possession/teen, so I need to be able to replicate the conventions of this specific genre. To do this I needed to look back on the research I had done into this type of movie. I worked around the research, adding music where needed, using the many camera angles that are required in a teen film. Because I was on a small budget, I wasn’t going to be able to use the smooth tracking that I wanted to but instead had to settle for a steady hand, which to my surprise gave me a smooth enough image but still being shaken when I needed it. I also chose my actors between the ages of 16 – 18 as I wanted to represent my target audience the way many other teen trailers did. I did all this so that the audience would be able to recognise from the trailer what genre of movie it was as well as advertising it to them.
Many trailers like this tended to use modern type music, something that would be recognisable by the teenagers they were trying to attract. However in mine I used a more classical, haunting background, finished off with the sound of heartbeats and sound effects. I did this for two reasons, the first was that in order to make this project I wasn’t allowed to use music that has been copyrighted so it would have meant making my own, which still wouldn’t have been recognisable by my audience. The second and biggest reason I did this was because I found that it associated with the trailer brilliantly adding a mood which was vital to making my trailer look much more professional.
Advanced Media Portfolio : In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Research -
To understand my project (Film trailer for independent horror film), I had to look at ones that already had an impact on audience in order to see what the conventions were, but also to get inspiration. First I started with looking at a wide range of horror/thriller film trailers including:
The Sixth Sense
The Happening
Prom night
Friday the 13th
An American Haunting
The Exorcist
And many more…
After looking at these I found that they differed greatly depending on what type of horror they were. Psychological horrors tended to lack music in their trailers, making it seem more realistic. Teen horrors tended to focus a lot on the story before things went bad, they also tended to have the main characters the same age as the intended audience and use a wide range of music.. Others, like “Slasher horror” used access amount of fake blood in their trailers.
The camera use also differed greatly with teen horrors being more flowing (by using a camera on a track) with smooth movements of the camera, but still cutting greatly. While slashers are less stable but still don’t have as much handheld camera use as the psychological horrors. Many of the Slashers tended to have a narrative, but it was usually short and to the point, using many of the actual actors to tell the story as it happens, this technique was greatly used in all the horror trailers I had watched.
To understand my project (Film trailer for independent horror film), I had to look at ones that already had an impact on audience in order to see what the conventions were, but also to get inspiration. First I started with looking at a wide range of horror/thriller film trailers including:
The Sixth Sense
The Happening
Prom night
Friday the 13th
An American Haunting
The Exorcist
And many more…
After looking at these I found that they differed greatly depending on what type of horror they were. Psychological horrors tended to lack music in their trailers, making it seem more realistic. Teen horrors tended to focus a lot on the story before things went bad, they also tended to have the main characters the same age as the intended audience and use a wide range of music.. Others, like “Slasher horror” used access amount of fake blood in their trailers.
The camera use also differed greatly with teen horrors being more flowing (by using a camera on a track) with smooth movements of the camera, but still cutting greatly. While slashers are less stable but still don’t have as much handheld camera use as the psychological horrors. Many of the Slashers tended to have a narrative, but it was usually short and to the point, using many of the actual actors to tell the story as it happens, this technique was greatly used in all the horror trailers I had watched.
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