Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Monday, 12 March 2012
Friday, 9 March 2012
Evaluation Question 3
What have you learnt from audience feedback?
It is important to have audience feedback to help you improve your trailer. After our first draft was completed we did our first focus group screening. Focus groups are a common tool used in Hollywood to see what an audience thinks of a film before it is released to the general public. When we showed our trailer to our audience of classmates for the first time for the focus group screening we had a mixture of valuably positive and negative comments.
The audience seemed to like our body horror effects and many mentioned the sewed up arm: such as 'Gore effects on the arm looked real' and 'Body horror was effective'. Many commented on our good use of creepy location: including 'Good creepy location, effective abandoned spooky place'. The audience also highlighted how well our music went with the trailer to build suspense and quickened with the fast rising pace of action: 'The music worked really well and was well paced and helped to create suspence'. We were pleased with this as we’d taken a long time to create the music for 'Insanitarium' using lots of layers of sound on Final Cut Pro. A lot of the focus group audience also mentioned they liked the range of angles in 'Insanitarium', like the high (on the victims) and low angles (on the killer at the end) on the characters: 'What I liked most about were the angles'.
The most common negative feedback we received was that the text at the start of our trailer was too quick and disappeared before the audience could read it. Two quotes that show this are 'The writing was a bit quick at the start and it was hard to read all of it' and 'The beginning text faded a bit too quick for me'. The end of the trailer seemed to get the second-most amount of negative feedback and the audience said it didn’t really fit the style of the trailer. Two people noticed that one of the actors has their throat slit and then after this we see them throw up. Other comments included how the sound effects of the trailer needed to be more dramatic and well timed, which we hadn’t realised until watching ‘Insanitarium’ on the big screen. Some of the audience also mentioned that our needed to be more dramatic and well timed, which we hadn’t realised until watching ‘Insanitarium’ on the big screen and that ‘Some shots were too long,’ so we needed to create a more exciting montage.
The average score for our trailer was 7. This was a reasonable as our trailer needed improvement in the majority of areas. As this was our first draft we knew all these problems can be corrected and made many last minute changes.
We slowed the text down and added screeching sound effects to fit with the text to make it more dramatic. We also took scenes like the vomit and slowed down the shots of the building at the start of the trailer so the sped up part at the end is more noticeable. We also made the ending more powerful by echoing the scream. We also made the transitions between each fade smoother by using the pen tool to made it more gradual.
After completing the evaluation screening we are very happy with the audiences responce. We noticed from our audience feedback that the vast majority of people where scared or 'shuddered' at the body horror scene, especially the scene where a wound of my arm is sewed up. We think that the horror features in our trailer such as the creepy location were successful and appealed to the horror fans in the audience. We were happy that most people found the text easier to read. They also said that the trailer was sped up slightly and the shots were ordered clearly, and a piece of feeback that supports this is: 'The text was clear to read and the shots flowed together nicely and the trailer was easier to understand'.
My favourite part of the trailer was our body horror scene. It took a long time to make the wound, but it was well worth it. Like in films like 'Maniac' (1980) and it's head explosion, horror fans remember parts of films with good body horror scenes. Quotes from the audience included 'Good use of body horror, looks effective', 'Body horror looks real' and 'My favourite part was the arm being sewn up because it looked really effective'. Overall, I think the trailer for 'Insanitarium' is a success because the evaluation screening audience liked it so much.
It is important to have audience feedback to help you improve your trailer. After our first draft was completed we did our first focus group screening. Focus groups are a common tool used in Hollywood to see what an audience thinks of a film before it is released to the general public. When we showed our trailer to our audience of classmates for the first time for the focus group screening we had a mixture of valuably positive and negative comments.
The audience seemed to like our body horror effects and many mentioned the sewed up arm: such as 'Gore effects on the arm looked real' and 'Body horror was effective'. Many commented on our good use of creepy location: including 'Good creepy location, effective abandoned spooky place'. The audience also highlighted how well our music went with the trailer to build suspense and quickened with the fast rising pace of action: 'The music worked really well and was well paced and helped to create suspence'. We were pleased with this as we’d taken a long time to create the music for 'Insanitarium' using lots of layers of sound on Final Cut Pro. A lot of the focus group audience also mentioned they liked the range of angles in 'Insanitarium', like the high (on the victims) and low angles (on the killer at the end) on the characters: 'What I liked most about were the angles'.
The most common negative feedback we received was that the text at the start of our trailer was too quick and disappeared before the audience could read it. Two quotes that show this are 'The writing was a bit quick at the start and it was hard to read all of it' and 'The beginning text faded a bit too quick for me'. The end of the trailer seemed to get the second-most amount of negative feedback and the audience said it didn’t really fit the style of the trailer. Two people noticed that one of the actors has their throat slit and then after this we see them throw up. Other comments included how the sound effects of the trailer needed to be more dramatic and well timed, which we hadn’t realised until watching ‘Insanitarium’ on the big screen. Some of the audience also mentioned that our needed to be more dramatic and well timed, which we hadn’t realised until watching ‘Insanitarium’ on the big screen and that ‘Some shots were too long,’ so we needed to create a more exciting montage.
The average score for our trailer was 7. This was a reasonable as our trailer needed improvement in the majority of areas. As this was our first draft we knew all these problems can be corrected and made many last minute changes.
We slowed the text down and added screeching sound effects to fit with the text to make it more dramatic. We also took scenes like the vomit and slowed down the shots of the building at the start of the trailer so the sped up part at the end is more noticeable. We also made the ending more powerful by echoing the scream. We also made the transitions between each fade smoother by using the pen tool to made it more gradual.
The final evaluation screening for 'Insanitarium' showed the changes really helped to boost the mark of our trailer. The audience were happy with the changes, as shown by a lot of the quotes on that post.
After completing the evaluation screening we are very happy with the audiences responce. We noticed from our audience feedback that the vast majority of people where scared or 'shuddered' at the body horror scene, especially the scene where a wound of my arm is sewed up. We think that the horror features in our trailer such as the creepy location were successful and appealed to the horror fans in the audience. We were happy that most people found the text easier to read. They also said that the trailer was sped up slightly and the shots were ordered clearly, and a piece of feeback that supports this is: 'The text was clear to read and the shots flowed together nicely and the trailer was easier to understand'.
My favourite part of the trailer was our body horror scene. It took a long time to make the wound, but it was well worth it. Like in films like 'Maniac' (1980) and it's head explosion, horror fans remember parts of films with good body horror scenes. Quotes from the audience included 'Good use of body horror, looks effective', 'Body horror looks real' and 'My favourite part was the arm being sewn up because it looked really effective'. Overall, I think the trailer for 'Insanitarium' is a success because the evaluation screening audience liked it so much.
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
When producing our trailer we had to make sure that the poster and magazine cover related to it and were recognisable as part of the same package/brand. Throughout the making of the poster and magazine cover I used two main colours; dark red and eerie blue with black and white. I also used these colours for the text in the trailer. I chose these colours because not only do they appeal to both genders but neither colour dominates the other so they look effective on the page. The dark red connotes blood, death and danger and really appeals to body horror (gore) horror fans. The blue colour that I chose to use adds a mysterious sci-fi, almost alien feel to my magazine cover that links in with other films that are advertised in my magazine. The contrast of colours and how I have used them attracts a larger range of different horror fan audiences.
During the process of filming the trailer we took stills to use on the cover of the magazine and the film poster, ensuring that the costumes and overall style were recreated ok. For the title of my magazine cover 'Empire' I used the existing empire font so that it was easily recognisable, however I manipulated it by colouring the title blue and adding an eerie glow to connote a horror feel. The title is also the largest font on the page. Sticking to the same colours for my film poster I used the colour red for the title; 'Insanitarium'. I also put it in capital letters to stand out and show that this word is important.
The image used for my film poster is of the psycho killer in a lab coat. This is a dramatic close-up image to show the character's emotions and slight low angle connotes an element of power through the ideas of expressionism. The image was also taken in low key lighting to add a mysterious effect. After researching 'Empire' magazine I discovered that the main image on the majority of covers as large and stood out on the page. The image I used for my magazine was taken in artificial lighting to make it look appealing and fresh on the page. It is also as a mainstream magazine and I wanted an image that would stand out from the magazine racks with its bright appearance. An existing 'Empire' magazine that inspired my image was the January 2011 issue featuring the film 'Tron'.
The film poster has to appeal more to horror genre fans, and therefore my poster has a darker appearance to connote the dark narrative. A horror poster has to be eyecatching and contain enough generic conventions that appeal to horror fans. I selected the best still image and edited it using Adobe Photoshop CS5. I added a dark red tint to the image using color corrector and added an overlay layer with some scratch texture marks to make the image look and edgy, similar to the poster for 'Nightmare on Elm Street 2010'. The mysterious mid-shot of the main character looked edgy and really effective on the poster. This inspired me to create a poster that had an eerie feel to it. I also like the dark background and how it helps to create that feeling of mysteriousness so you don't know what could be hiding in the background.
Red connotes danger and blood and is a very effective colour to use for horror genre. The font I used was simple and wasn't too distracting from the main image, but it’s distorted style helped evoke the unsettling feel of 'Insanitarium'’s story. The background of my film poster is black. I chose black because it connotes death and darkness and uses restricted narration to make the audience feel nervous that something might be hiding in the distance. The still image on my poster was taken in low key lighting to emphasise the characters 'cut out' smile and make the character look even more evil.
A magazine cover also has to be eyecatching but it tells your more about the film and has more writing and behind the scenes features such as interviews with the cast. The image I used was a mid shot of a male character with a pitchfork. The character is pointing the pitchfork towards the camera which represents his power through this phallic symbol.
As with my poster, my magazine cover ties into my trailer and appeals to our target audience of gore/thriller horror fans ages 18-25. For example the magazine cover and film poster have screenshots seemingly taken from the trailer as they are both advertising the film. I chose to advertise my horror trailer in 'Empire' magazine as it is a well known mainstream magazine with the same age group audience. Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) and his auteur influences on the film inspired our trailer to make it appealing to thriller fans. The gore/body horror in our trailer was inspired by Tom Savini's work in Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead' (1978). After watching a documentary on Tom Savini we learnt how powerful and memorable his techniques can be, such as the “head blow-up” scene in ‘Maniac’ (1981) that made a low budget film very popular. We hoped this would have the same effect on ‘Insanitarium.’
When producing our trailer we had to make sure that the poster and magazine cover related to it and were recognisable as part of the same package/brand. Throughout the making of the poster and magazine cover I used two main colours; dark red and eerie blue with black and white. I also used these colours for the text in the trailer. I chose these colours because not only do they appeal to both genders but neither colour dominates the other so they look effective on the page. The dark red connotes blood, death and danger and really appeals to body horror (gore) horror fans. The blue colour that I chose to use adds a mysterious sci-fi, almost alien feel to my magazine cover that links in with other films that are advertised in my magazine. The contrast of colours and how I have used them attracts a larger range of different horror fan audiences.
During the process of filming the trailer we took stills to use on the cover of the magazine and the film poster, ensuring that the costumes and overall style were recreated ok. For the title of my magazine cover 'Empire' I used the existing empire font so that it was easily recognisable, however I manipulated it by colouring the title blue and adding an eerie glow to connote a horror feel. The title is also the largest font on the page. Sticking to the same colours for my film poster I used the colour red for the title; 'Insanitarium'. I also put it in capital letters to stand out and show that this word is important.
The image used for my film poster is of the psycho killer in a lab coat. This is a dramatic close-up image to show the character's emotions and slight low angle connotes an element of power through the ideas of expressionism. The image was also taken in low key lighting to add a mysterious effect. After researching 'Empire' magazine I discovered that the main image on the majority of covers as large and stood out on the page. The image I used for my magazine was taken in artificial lighting to make it look appealing and fresh on the page. It is also as a mainstream magazine and I wanted an image that would stand out from the magazine racks with its bright appearance. An existing 'Empire' magazine that inspired my image was the January 2011 issue featuring the film 'Tron'.
The film poster has to appeal more to horror genre fans, and therefore my poster has a darker appearance to connote the dark narrative. A horror poster has to be eyecatching and contain enough generic conventions that appeal to horror fans. I selected the best still image and edited it using Adobe Photoshop CS5. I added a dark red tint to the image using color corrector and added an overlay layer with some scratch texture marks to make the image look and edgy, similar to the poster for 'Nightmare on Elm Street 2010'. The mysterious mid-shot of the main character looked edgy and really effective on the poster. This inspired me to create a poster that had an eerie feel to it. I also like the dark background and how it helps to create that feeling of mysteriousness so you don't know what could be hiding in the background.
Red connotes danger and blood and is a very effective colour to use for horror genre. The font I used was simple and wasn't too distracting from the main image, but it’s distorted style helped evoke the unsettling feel of 'Insanitarium'’s story. The background of my film poster is black. I chose black because it connotes death and darkness and uses restricted narration to make the audience feel nervous that something might be hiding in the distance. The still image on my poster was taken in low key lighting to emphasise the characters 'cut out' smile and make the character look even more evil.
A magazine cover also has to be eyecatching but it tells your more about the film and has more writing and behind the scenes features such as interviews with the cast. The image I used was a mid shot of a male character with a pitchfork. The character is pointing the pitchfork towards the camera which represents his power through this phallic symbol.
As with my poster, my magazine cover ties into my trailer and appeals to our target audience of gore/thriller horror fans ages 18-25. For example the magazine cover and film poster have screenshots seemingly taken from the trailer as they are both advertising the film. I chose to advertise my horror trailer in 'Empire' magazine as it is a well known mainstream magazine with the same age group audience. Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960) and his auteur influences on the film inspired our trailer to make it appealing to thriller fans. The gore/body horror in our trailer was inspired by Tom Savini's work in Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead' (1978). After watching a documentary on Tom Savini we learnt how powerful and memorable his techniques can be, such as the “head blow-up” scene in ‘Maniac’ (1981) that made a low budget film very popular. We hoped this would have the same effect on ‘Insanitarium.’
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?
Trailers are important to advertise a newly released film and to attract target audience. It is essential to make the trailer suitable for the specific genre of the film. This will make specific audiences easier to target. As Thomas Schatz, the main critic behind Genre Theory writes in his book Hollywood Genres, 'It is important to know exactly what is required to appeal to the target audience of genre fans'. As our trailer is a horror trailer it is important give the a idea of the film plot but also to make you shudder and feel scared as this is the idea of a horror film. This comes from the whole foundation of a genre which is based on the French word 'horrere', meaning 'to shudder.'
When planning and producing our horror trailer we stuck to certain horror conventions and features that are all important in horror films. For example the mise-en-scene of a horror film would include horrorlow-key lighting, unsettling locations and body horror. Successful body horror should make the audience shudder. For example in 'Nightmare On Elm Street' (2010) the body horror is very creative and different such as in the scene where the obvious female victim is laying in bed with a guy and then suddenly sliced in half. This gore scene is very graphic and dramatic. Another convention for a successful horror film is creating characters that fit the forms and conventions of a horror film. In our trailer we decided to have a psycho killer, killer similar to Norman Bates in' Psycho', female survivor,(like Lila in Psycho), male hero (like Peter in 'Dawn of the Dead' (DOTD, 1979) and a female victim who would die first just like Monica from 'DOTD' 2004.
In our horror trailer we filmed establishing shots of the different parts of our creepy location. We also used lots of close up angles and found this an effective technique as it makes the focus in the scene more dramatic. This style can be seen a lot in the low budget 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1953) and 'Evil Dead' (1981) and we tried to model our style on successful low budget films like these. A good example of a close up angle that inspired us was from 'Dawn of the Dead' (1979) when the zombies are ripping the human's guts out.
Our trailer started off quite relaxed introducing the characters in a realistic setting that is familiar to a teenage audience. At the beginning of our trailer there is a scene where the teenage characters are in the car listening to music, messing about and informing their friends about the trip. The more the audience identifies with the characters the more they believe what happens next could happen to them. and we carefully focussed 'Insanitarium' at a young adult audience. The pace of our music and sound effects become more tense and spooky as the setting changes to a creepy location of an abandoned Psychiatric hospital. This idea was influenced by Norman Bates' house in 'Psycho' (1960).
When analysing horror trailers, for example, I was looking at the 'Shutter' horror trailer I noticed that the majority of shots were close up and extreme close ups and this made the trailer very dramatic and portrayed the characters emotions. In our trailer we filmed lots of close up scenes of scared reaction shots of the characters and skewed close up angles of the characters looking lost and confused.
To give the audience more narrative information we opted for text screens instead of a voice-over. After viewing lots of horror trailers we found that text was more suitable as the voice-over made the trailer sound comical. When analysing the 'Toxic Avenger' (1984) trailer we thought the voice over was distracting and too repetitive. We wanted to make the audience feel nervous and tense and make them feel on edge. Several running scenes and breathing noises created drama, and the slamming door near the end of our trailer created a feeling of entrapment.
In making a horror film and trailer bringing 'auteur' influences is important to making the film personal. I have watched a large number of horror trailers with the same 'psycho killer', but I think that what makes a horror film really exiting is having a killer that is different from your average 'mysterious man/woman with a knife'. For my horror trailer I chose to include a creepy surgeon killer as this adds a different exiting edge to the trailer. None of the horror films and trailers I watched on YouTube had a surgeon psycho killer. We were also influenced by existing auteurs and when studying Tom Savini and his body horror influence of the Vietnam war it inspired me to create my own gore for the horror trailer.
Listed to the left are our screenshots from our trailer. I have compared them with shots from existing trailers.
Trailers are important to advertise a newly released film and to attract target audience. It is essential to make the trailer suitable for the specific genre of the film. This will make specific audiences easier to target. As Thomas Schatz, the main critic behind Genre Theory writes in his book Hollywood Genres, 'It is important to know exactly what is required to appeal to the target audience of genre fans'. As our trailer is a horror trailer it is important give the a idea of the film plot but also to make you shudder and feel scared as this is the idea of a horror film. This comes from the whole foundation of a genre which is based on the French word 'horrere', meaning 'to shudder.'
When planning and producing our horror trailer we stuck to certain horror conventions and features that are all important in horror films. For example the mise-en-scene of a horror film would include horrorlow-key lighting, unsettling locations and body horror. Successful body horror should make the audience shudder. For example in 'Nightmare On Elm Street' (2010) the body horror is very creative and different such as in the scene where the obvious female victim is laying in bed with a guy and then suddenly sliced in half. This gore scene is very graphic and dramatic. Another convention for a successful horror film is creating characters that fit the forms and conventions of a horror film. In our trailer we decided to have a psycho killer, killer similar to Norman Bates in' Psycho', female survivor,(like Lila in Psycho), male hero (like Peter in 'Dawn of the Dead' (DOTD, 1979) and a female victim who would die first just like Monica from 'DOTD' 2004.
In our horror trailer we filmed establishing shots of the different parts of our creepy location. We also used lots of close up angles and found this an effective technique as it makes the focus in the scene more dramatic. This style can be seen a lot in the low budget 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1953) and 'Evil Dead' (1981) and we tried to model our style on successful low budget films like these. A good example of a close up angle that inspired us was from 'Dawn of the Dead' (1979) when the zombies are ripping the human's guts out.
Our trailer started off quite relaxed introducing the characters in a realistic setting that is familiar to a teenage audience. At the beginning of our trailer there is a scene where the teenage characters are in the car listening to music, messing about and informing their friends about the trip. The more the audience identifies with the characters the more they believe what happens next could happen to them. and we carefully focussed 'Insanitarium' at a young adult audience. The pace of our music and sound effects become more tense and spooky as the setting changes to a creepy location of an abandoned Psychiatric hospital. This idea was influenced by Norman Bates' house in 'Psycho' (1960).
When analysing horror trailers, for example, I was looking at the 'Shutter' horror trailer I noticed that the majority of shots were close up and extreme close ups and this made the trailer very dramatic and portrayed the characters emotions. In our trailer we filmed lots of close up scenes of scared reaction shots of the characters and skewed close up angles of the characters looking lost and confused.
To give the audience more narrative information we opted for text screens instead of a voice-over. After viewing lots of horror trailers we found that text was more suitable as the voice-over made the trailer sound comical. When analysing the 'Toxic Avenger' (1984) trailer we thought the voice over was distracting and too repetitive. We wanted to make the audience feel nervous and tense and make them feel on edge. Several running scenes and breathing noises created drama, and the slamming door near the end of our trailer created a feeling of entrapment.
In making a horror film and trailer bringing 'auteur' influences is important to making the film personal. I have watched a large number of horror trailers with the same 'psycho killer', but I think that what makes a horror film really exiting is having a killer that is different from your average 'mysterious man/woman with a knife'. For my horror trailer I chose to include a creepy surgeon killer as this adds a different exiting edge to the trailer. None of the horror films and trailers I watched on YouTube had a surgeon psycho killer. We were also influenced by existing auteurs and when studying Tom Savini and his body horror influence of the Vietnam war it inspired me to create my own gore for the horror trailer.
Listed to the left are our screenshots from our trailer. I have compared them with shots from existing trailers.
Saturday, 3 March 2012
Friday, 2 March 2012
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