Evaluation

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

1.      A main convention of a psychological thriller is having a twist at the end of the film or including an enigma to hint at what it could be. This is a main convention which had to be included which is why I included a slow pan showing pictures of the girls with cut out silhouettes.

2.      A POV (Point-of-View) shot is typical of a thriller which I used for most of the film, making a biography of Hayley’s life. It shows the audience what happens through the eyes of Hannah, the person filming, and creates an alliance with the girl. I also challenged the convention of camera work by shooting it all hand held instead of straight cut using a tripod.

3.      I also chose to challenge the convention of dim lighting by shooting most of the trailer in day time. The natural light is bright, the opposite of what would be expected to foreshadow what happens.

4.      Another convention used in thrillers is focus pulling. I changed this convention by using slow pans and zooms when we see over the stalkers shoulder looking at the girl’s face book pages.

5.      I decided to challenge the narrative of the trailer instead of following conventions. Instead of having the point of view of the main character (Hayley), I used a hypo- diagetic narrative, creating a story within a story. The girls are set an assignment of making a documentary of the others life, the subplot. The main plot is the stalking of the girls, documented on Hannah’s camera.

6.      There is no definitive setting for a film such as mine which is why I chose to use everyday settings including both of the girl’s houses in an urban setting.

7.      As the trailer can be misleading because of the changed conventions such as being shot in broad daylight, I continued with the convention of raising a question. To fit the trailer in to two minutes, I had to cut some of the footage, including the knife scene but finding Hayley’s body covered in blood still raises a question which is what I aimed to do.

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

I think that the ancillary texts and main product all achieve the same objective; to sell the film successfully. I tried to interlink all the tasks together by using the same things such as the film poster is shot at the same table where the stalker sits in the trailer, I only changed the lighting in the room to create shadows and provoke mystery.

The film poster also shows the stalker cutting out silhouette shapes out of pictures of the two girls. These images can be linked to the trailer as well. There is a section of the trailer which I edited to overlap with the slow zoom over the stalkers shoulder while they are sat at the laptop to intertwine the clips of the stalker wall and the face book stalking. Some of the images I used to create the wall also appear on the laptop clips. This enables the main product and ancillary tasks to interlink, creating an obvious combination.

The same images also appear on the magazine cover.

The ancillary tasks juxtapose each other, portraying different images; one showing Hayley, the main character, the other showing a shadowy figure sat at a table. The twist was that Hayley and Hannah had been unkind to one of their best friends because of their shallow nature. Their female friend looked mannish and had a deep voice which freaked them out.

It was clear from the images on the way that this was a conspiracy as it showed pictures of their family and from primary school. This reinforced the idea to the audience that the revenge had been planned to happen when they were making the documentary. It was a message or warning as such to the other girl. We see the girls as the protagonists and victims here when it was in fact the other way around. The stalker was the Byronic hero.

The combination of the magazine cover and poster are effective to intrigue the audience. They can see that both characters are from the same film but cannot link them as such without paying attention to the pictures of the two girls which are in each product.

Although there is a BBFC classification of 15 for the film, I chose not to have a violent image on either ancillary task, instead I opted to evoke and enigma. The horror content is reserved for the film with the only distressing image shown is when Hayley’s body is found.

On my poster and trailer, I chose to use reviews from publications. I specifically used a review from “the big screen”, the name of my magazine, in the trailer because of the publicised interview with Hayley. The intertextual link forms a strong combination between the products, relating to each other. I also used reviews from national publications such as “The Sun”. This would appeal to my target audience as a review as it is well known in the newspaper industry, reaching in to different Medias. This review would help establish the film to the audience along with the review from “The Big Screen”, a film magazine celebrating a Halloween special, linking to the thriller/horror nature of the film.

Because of these reasons, I feel that my main product and ancillary texts are a powerful combination.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

I tried to incorporate audience feedback at every vital stage from initial ideas through to development and finish products. I used polls on my blog, Vox Pop’s, questionnaires and generally asked for feedback and opinions. The promotional package was intended for 15 year olds to 30 year olds, male or female. I specified my target audience from the feedback I received from the questionnaires and when I stood outside the cinema observing.

From the questionnaire, I found that the majority would prefer to watch a horror or thriller, what they looked for in trailers/posters/magazine covers and such which inspired my ideas and decided on the genre for me. Audience feedback was the most important as it was for them. It gave me helpful insight in to developing my marketing products tailored for them which would have made the film a success. From their lead, I could research more in depth in the most important factors such as the release date and colours I would use.

The polls were also added to my social networking page to capture a larger audience. With over 50 people voting, it became difficult to please everyone but I tried to take ideas from all the comments. This also gave me the idea to create Vox Pop’s using people from my class, boys and girls, as well as some of the BTEC students who create trailers and films on a regular basis.

From their thoughts and opinions, I changed the layouts and original concepts of the ancillary tasks because I would want their preferred denotation and it helped me to have feedback from a fresh pair of eyes. Through the editing stages, I also used created a voting system in my class to help decide on some of the sound clips. All of the decisions were based on audience feedback, primarily because the film would be for them but also so it would appeal to them and others who share similar interests.

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

Internet-  Blogger

I used this website as an online diary of my research, planning and development. It was easier to record my findings this way and had many advantages over writing it out. I was able to post polls which allowed followers and anyone with the URL to vote and post comments on my blog posts. It had a more professional look, part of new technology, which could not get lost as it is saved in the internet system. I could also use this online diary to link to my findings and post my development stages allowing me to show photos, videos and podcasts.

You Tube

You Tube gave me the freedom to post my film trailer for the whole world to see and comment. After creating my own account, I also saved certain trailers to refer back to during the development and research process. Over a million people use You Tube and many stars have been found because of it which is why I’m happy that I know my trailer is reaching such a vast variety of people, ideal as a marketing tool.

Face Book

This social networking site was one of the ways I communicated with the audience. By sending messages and posting links to my blog, I got more feedback than I would have if I had just asked people. New Media is really taking over my generation which is why I found that posting links and asking for feedback on Face Book was so successful.

Hand Held Camera

Going against the majority, I used a ten year old hand held camera to shoot my trailer. It did not shoot in HD like many others but I found this easier to work and use different techniques than I would have had I used a Sony HD camera. I was not able to focus pull as well as I may have be able to using a HD camera but my main camera work was tracking, following Hayley around for an entire day which I wouldn’t have been able to do using a HD camera.

Digital camera

I used my personal Kodak digital camera to take the pictures I used in my ancillary tasks. I also used it to record a scene outside which I didn’t use in the end but it had better sound quality. It was also easy to carry around with me during the research and planning stages to document my work and shape some of my ideas.

Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop was my preferred programme to construct my film poster and magazine cover. The layer options were vital when I constructed the products as I could simple add and remove layers instantly and view items without deleting them. It was difficult to learn at the beginning but It became a more technological version of paint. Used in the industry, I felt that this programme would be best to have a professional finish. It also allowed me to include conventions of a thriller such as the disorientated image of Hayley which I blurred and play with the lighting of the images.

Final cut pro

This programme was the one I used to edit the trailer together as well as editing the Vox Pops earlier during the course. I used this because of the tools it provided such as a blade tool to cut and a variety of transitions, even on the sound. The construction process was helped by this programme. Shot in two long clips because of the tape recording camera, I needed to be able to go frame by frame to get accurate editing between clips. It this software had not existed, I would have had to shoot the entire trailer in one long shot and added transitions manually. It shows how simplified new media is now a day compared to twenty years ago.

Soundtrack pro

After completing the editing, I used this programme to add some sound effects to my trailer. I needed to use creepy music to follow the conventions of a thriller which this programme allowed me to do. It also had some foli effects which were very useful in the development stages to see what sounded best. I found the heartbeat sound on this programme and the typewriter sound which I think is just as important as the footage itself.

Without these media technologies, I would not have been able to construct, develop or evaluate the primary and ancillary tasks accurately.