PatrickTrailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFXHn2-bpGw

Film Poster

Evaluation

In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and codes and conventions of real media products.

 

My media products use the codes and conventions of the genre that I am working in, in order for my target audience to be aware that the products are in fact ‘products’ of the horror genre. As there are three components of my media product; Magazine front cover, Film Poster and a horror film Trailer, they all require different and similar conventions in order to be recognised as a horror media text. For example my magazine, I could have chosen to have it as a horror specific magazine, exclusive for horror films or it could be a general film magazine that would feature horror films as well as other film genres. So in order to meet the conventions of magazines in general I would have to include the standard masthead, sell lines and a main image. Now to fill the conventions of a film magazine I would need to research into them. It is essential for me to meet codes and convention in order to address my target audience and let them recognise what genre my products are and also make it appealing for them. For example ‘Total film’ magazine and ‘Empire’ magazine, gave me insight in to how they developed upon the conventions of magazines. One example was from ‘Total Film’ magazine where they changed the style of the mast head to fit in with the film it was featuring that issue (Inception). Mastheads should stand out in order to catch the target audience’s attention; therefore using a colour such as red would be the best place to start. A quirky font should also be used as it shows its difference from the rest of the magazines and shows its originality, breaking the mould from the rest of the film magazines.

The audience has expected conventions they assume will be applicable when it comes to horror films. An example of this is an isolated location or demonic child being shown in a media product such as a film poster that the audience automatically add meaning to it, and interpret it in their own way. Also through the ‘history of horror’, we are made aware of the development of certain object and actions which give a certain substance to a specific sub-genre. As we know from a supernatural genre which involves a child we assume that this child would be possessed or tormented in some way. We see this through the theorist Charles Sanders Pierce. He explains that nothing is a sign unless we make it a sign. Signs are object, he is saying that objects have meaning because we search for meaning and bring meaning to them.

 

For my Magazine main image I used Photoshop effects to darken Patrick’s eyes to make the antagonist look more evil and disturbed then the average actor which normally portrays on the front over. This meets conventions of both a horror movie front cover and any other genre cover, as all the actors in the main images are in costume sporting a prop or pose to signify the genre that their movie is in. This appeals to the target audience as it grabs their attention as they would be interested in a horror film, then with the antagonist looking evil and disturbed it sticks to conventions and lures the audience in to looking further into the magazine.

 

For my film trailer I spent hours watching existing horror trailers, gathering information, looking for similar features that crop up within them and the type of editing, music and straps that we can see within them. To challenge conventions that we see in horror films, the location for my main house is actually in a cul-de-sac, meaning it is surrounded by other houses, however it is detached. This was done as I wanted a sense of realism to this narrative as it is set in London and is made to look like a normal house with s normal family. This makes the narrative bizarre, as strange happenings and tragedy should not occur within this type of setting, leaving a false sense of security for the audience as well as the characters. We can also see this in the film 'Halloween' where the setting is in a street filled with other houses and families, creating a sense again of normality, a false sense of security. This doesn’t break conventions but it differs from the ‘norm’ of a classic horror film isolated location.

My poster features a shot of the back of the antagonist holding a butchers knife looking onto a house. This is somewhat like the 'The Amityville Horror' poster. However mine has a clearer shot of the house. This sticks to conventions as it has dark lighting and an esque shot of the antagonist to hide his identity.

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

In order to create a sense of a symbolic link throughout the three texts, I had to create a sense of unity between the three. Therefore, I would use the same main image for both the magazine front cover and the film poster, also the same type of font for the title of the film in the poster (along with the taglines) and the same type of font used in the trailer within the straps. In order to do so I researched other types of iconography presented in media texts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuH5FaUpFm4
Here we can see the iconography throughout the poster and trailer for the horror film ‘The Ring’. This is effective as we can how well the iconography works within the same film promoting the same thing in different media texts. Its effective as it works together in order to lure the target audiences attention. It also works as when you see the poster it automatically reminds you of the trailer, therefore reinforcing the effectiveness of a good trailer, making the audience want to go and see it more. The combination of my media texts can be seen throughout the magazine as well as the poster and the trailer. It can be mainly seen through the antagonist appearing in each one also the type of font to reinforce the link between the two ancillary pieces.

 

Here a strap from my trailer and a quote line from my magazine front cover. Although the colours are different, the exact same phrasing is used and it can also be seen in the film poster as well, at the top of the poster (sticking to codes and conventions).

I think this is effective as once you hear a tagline for a movie it sticks with you, and once you see it everywhere and on everything to do with the movie you link it always to the feeling you get with it. ‘Patrick wants to come home now..’ is the symbolic link that holds all three of the media texts together which works with the audience to remind them of what the film is and what it’s about. I feel I make my pieces effective due to the constant reminder of the media text that is placed in front of the target audience.

In order to create an effective media package I would need to create an even more effective symbolic link that stands out to the audience. This can be seen by simple means of the same type of font used in all three products, especially for the title of my horror film; ‘Patrick’. Now this would create a differiation form any other media products that may contain the name Patrick as they all have the same bright ‘blood’ red in the same child-like font that will link all three products together.  

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My audience feedback gave overall positive points. The negative feedback focused on what I could/should have done in order to make my media products more effective in the horror genre, and how to make it more appealing to the target audience in question.

In order to gain feedback I used two completely different devices. One was a broadcasting messing service which allows group conversations to share and comment on images and videos. The other one was a questionnaire that I gave to my target audience as I showed them the trailer after which I presented them the two other ancillary tasks.

Through ‘Whatsapp’ I asked my target audience to comment on what they liked, what they didn’t and what they think I should do in order to improve it and make it more appealing. This allowed me to have an insight on what the audience is thinking and to see whether or not they are effective media products and what I can do in order to stick more to conventions or to even break them to push boundaries. By sending my audience images it allowed them to zoom upon the sell lines and read the production information on the film poster.

 

The comments I received were generally positive, they all said that they would buy the magazine. However they suggested that I make it stand out more due to it being the first issue and that this would attract them more to it. They also said the actor needed to look more like a monster from a horror film; this could be rectified by adding a weapon and adding additional make up upon the actor to make him look slightly different from ‘normal’ people.

From these comments I can see that sizing of the texts is the problem that occurs again and again. The mast head is either too small and doesn’t attract the audience’s attention enough or the text upon the bottom sell lines is too domination that the images are ignored. However, they liked the layout of the front cover and commented on the fact that it looked like a real magazine, supporting the fact that I have stuck to codes and conventions.

For the questionnaires they went into more detail about the trailer, what was right and wrong with it. This helped me understand better as they we open ended questions that covered a wider range of areas that needed to be addressed. Such as which was the best media product and why therefore what could be improved upon to the others to make them just as good.

The questionnaire results gave me a greater insight as to what the audience saw and how specific things could be improved. Also what made the product good and what made it authentic. One of the questions which had the most feedback on was ‘Did you find the trailer effective’, here they said that the narrative was clear as it started with an equbrillam, a happy family with no problems, which then moved on to strange happenings and then we can see the distress in the victims life and a struggle between life and death.

The favourite media product among the target audience was the trailer. This was said due to the realness of the narrative and that it kept in line with the sub-genre. The audience was able to see what sub-genre it belonged to, which is great as this one of the main objectives when producing the media products was to make it clear what sub-genre you film belonged to. They also said that the trailer was interesting and grabbed attention through the use of the eerie music and the fast editing.

A comment on the feedback was that the poster could have been clearer. But the poster worked well with the other products that they could tell it was all from the same film, due to the font and the repetitive of the antagonist.                   

How did you use media technologies in the construction research and planning and

Evaluation stages?

For research and planning it is safe to say I relied heavily on Google, You Tube and Wikipedia. These were online resources that contained examples of existing media texts that I could take notes on style, conventions and to also take ideas from and then expand upon them and turn them into my own style. Google provided me with images to use in my analysis tasks, information for my case studies, such as my criminal case studies and my director case studies. Google allowed me to gather vast and detailed information in my aid of creating these cases studies which helped me in creating my narratives and being able to base my antagonist on a real life murderer, just like the screenwriters for the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' did. You Tube provided me with horror film trailers, of which I could learn the editing of one also how straps are used. I was also able to notice how music is also used to create an even more dramatic effect. It helped a lot with the editing as it allowed me to view which time certain transitions were made also, when to add in dramatic music, also what types of sub-genres have voice overs which allowed me to decide whether it was effective enough to use within my trailer. However, I did not just use YouTube in order to watch trailers. I was able to search for tutorials on how to use certain software I was unable to you or to even master tricks on Photoshop in order to make my media texts look as professional as possible.

Excel was used in order for me to be able to record my research findings from my questionnaires and give a statistical showing of my audience response. In order for me to present my research and planning I was able to use blogger. This allowed my work to be logged and presented on the internet in order for all to view and comment on. My experience with blogger which has started since my coursewrok in year 12 and my skills have developed in ways that I find it easier to upload pieces of work and that I created a design to fall in with my horror theme coursework. Other skills that have developed since year 12 are my skills with Photoshop. At the beginning I was in over my head when trying to figure out what layer goes with what image and text and took me months to create my magazine front cover, but with this task it took me weeks to create my magazine I was able to navigate around Photoshop confidently and quickly.  

 

For construction I used a variety of technology that span from a camera to the computer software Photoshop. The camera both digital and video were used to capture the ideas that I wanted to portray; the camera was used for my ancillary tasks for the main images for the film poster and the front cover of my film magazine. It was also used within my research and planning to show my chosen location and my costume, hair and makeup. Photoshop allowed me to create my poster and front cover by being able to change and design my tasks within the codes and conventions. It allowed me to do this by changing the lighting within my image, by being able to change the colour I could change it to a darker contrast which would make the image more mysterious and would also fit the conventions of a horror poster.

 

For the construction of my trailer I used Adobe Premier Pro. This allowed me to edit my raw footage, let me see the ‘timeline’ of my footage and to be able to put and audio extract over my montage of footage such as eerie music and a voice over (which would explain my narrative alongside my footage). It also allowed me to cut and edit unwanted footage and replace it with re-shoots, it gave me an insight as to what my finished product would look like and I was able to change it if I wasn’t happy. It also allowed me to show it to select people form my target audience and gain feedback. I have also used an unconventional piece of technology in the aid of my trailer being the best it can be, I used my iPhone 4S to record the voice over. It allowed me to trim and take any unwanted background noise away from the main audio piece. Using this allowed flexibility of when and where to do this, which helped immensely as me and my actor had very busy timetables.

In order to produce some of my tasks onto blogger I had to use Slideshare, this sight enables you to convert power point presentations into playback videos so you can post them on your blog. It was a good site as it also allows you to convert word documents which is good for case studies which included images and it can be transferred onto blogger as well.

My Story Boards

Here is one of the many call sheets that was given to my actors. I choose this one as it included all actors within the shoot and it was all filmed on the same day. Here I believe were the most important scenes as well.

Call Sheet: Number 5

Name of Production	Patrick
Date of Shoot	14/12/12
Time of Shoot	16:00
Scenes and Shots	-Ryan being followed by Patrick -Ryan meets Lydia and tries to convince her Patrick is after them. -Establishing shot of  a mansion house – (where Patrick lived for 16 years in a mental institution)
Location	Local Park
Crew Present	Nicolle Broderick (director)
Actors Present	Sarsha Jagdev as Lydia Ryan Short as Ryan Shane Broderick as Patrick
Costume, Hair and Make-Up Required	Hoodie for Patrick to cover his face No additional make up required
Lighting and Sound Equipment Required	Natural lighting – no additional lights needed
Other Equipment and Props Required	Video Camera Camera Skateboard-(to be able to a steady moving pan shot of the mental institution) Tripod Mobile Phones

DATE AND TIME	LOCATION(S)	SCENE(S)
5/12/12 16:00	Lydia’s Bed Room	Discovery Of ‘Patrick’
7/12/12 16:00(due to Lighting)	Lydia’s Bedroom	Argument with Ryan- Lydia leaves Ryan
14/12/12 17:00	Local Park	Ryan being followed by Patrick
14/12/12 17:00	Local Park	Ryan meets Lydia and tries to convince her Patrick is after them.
14/12/12	Local Park	Establishing shot of  a mansion house – (where Patrick lived for 16 years in a mental institution)
18/1/13	Lydia’s living room	To Show how Ryan and Lydia’s relationship was perfect.
18/1/13	Lydia’s living room	Ryan being chased by Patrick
9/2/13	RE-SHOOT	Discovery Of ‘Patrick’

Here is my shooting schedule. There have been a few more due to re-shooting and location changes, but here is the second edition. It shows that some of the shooting was done on the same day, this was due to actor time tables, also due to lighting that was needed in order to film.

Film Magazine