Evaluation - Question 2

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

Each member of the group focused on one specific text for each evaluation question, however on this question I will be talking about all three texts. I will also be talking in two tenses in order to convey my personal thoughts as well as the group as a whole.

Our trailer, poster and magazine all follow the same conventions in order for the audience to be able to link the three together. We wanted to make sure that, for instance if the audience saw the trailer and then saw the magazine cover at a later date they would be able to identify that they were promoting the same film. We used a variety of different images and text in order to allow the audience to see many different sides of the film and not making it boring. By just using one specific image we felt this would be boring and not really entice the audience into seeing the film because they wouldn't have seen a variety. In the trailer we used a variety of different clips however the 'strongest' clip that we felt clearly conveyed the genre and message of the trailer was the clip of the main character, Isa's hand creeping across a tree in a woodland area. We decided to use this clip for the poster, taking a photograph of the hand in the same position. We decided on this specific image for the poster because we felt it worked well in the trailer conveying the horror and mystery aspect as well linking the poster to the trailer. We hope the audience will be able to identify this image from the trailer and know that the poster is promoting the film. However with the magazine cover we didn't use the same image for the front cover. This could be seen as a downfall as it doesn't stick to the same conventions as the poster and trailer however we wanted to add variety and show the audience the characters personality from a different perspective. The trailer and poster focus on mystery and the plotline more than focusing directly on the character. This applies especially in the poster. However in the magazine cover we used images of the characters face in order to make the audience familiar with the character enabling them to relate to the character. We wanted to use the magazine in order to link the audience with the character. In the magazine and the poster we used the same font, 'Friday13'. We used this font because it was bold, scary and made a statement. We used it in both the magazine and poster in order to show consistency and making it clear that the two are connected. We however did not use this font in the trailer. We didn't use it in the trailer because Imovie, the program that we edited the trailer on only had a limited choice of fonts and it did not have 'Friday13'. Instead we used fonts that were also bold and made a statement in order to still convey the same effect that 'Friday13' has. In each three texts the love theme ran throughout. This is one of the key aspects of our trailer and we wanted to make sure that this theme was evident to the audience throughout.








Conventions we followed in order to convey this theme was a heart shape. In each of the three texts a heart shape has been used. In the trailer, the main character Isa is wearing a heart shaped ring when her hand creeps across the tree. We used the heart in this particular scene because it made it quite subtle although evident at the same time. In the poster the heart shape was used near the bottom of the poster. The heart was the logo for 'The British Heart Foundation'. We used this logo not only to show to the audience that our film benefits 'The British Heart Foundation' but to relate to the love theme of the trailer. Therefore we are converging two different aspects in to one - the charity our film supports and one of the key themes. In the magazine cover we used half a heart at the edge of each cover so that when you pull out the 'good' and 'bad' magazine covers you are able to connect the two hearts together. This symbolizes the love and death theme that was convey throughout. I think it has been effective how we have used hearts in each sepearate texts in quite a different manner in each although they all effectivley connect and link to one another. Other conventions we included in order to link the texts together without making them identical is the death aspect. This is another key aspect we continued throughout the trailer. Ways in which we made is evident to the audience was the sinister text fonts and colours. In each text we used bold fonts in order to show the seriousness of the situation. We used 'Friday13' frequently because we felt as if it conveyed what we were trying to show which is a dark, bold, scary effect. We also used colours such as red and black throughout for reasons I have already stated which is the connations they both apply to. We also used dark lighting and decreased the contrast in all three texts to convey clearly the genre of the film as well as using that to connect the three texts together.

The synergy with the three texts is that they all use different types of fonts and clips although the core of each text stick to the same conventions. They are all quite different but do merge together and do complement each other. We have followed a colour scheme of red and black throughout which enables the texts to connect to eachother. We decided on the colour red because it connotes love and anger and black because it is quite sinister. We have used this throughout on all three texts so that they all connect on this specific feature which is key to the plot and storyline. We have also used dark lighting in all three texts. Dark lighting links to the scariness of the trailer. As well as this following the conventions of horror films in general, it links all three texts together. If one used really bright lighting and the others used dark they would not stick to the same conventions and the audience wouldn't easily be able to link the different texts together. I think it is effective how we have used many different aspects in different forms to convey the same message. This includes the variety of different heart shapes. They are all different and are used at different points however they all link together and show the same message which is love. Also, the different text fonts and sizes also have the same effect. They are different but all do link to the same dark message. The use of different hearts in each text that I have mentioned previously is a great use of synergy in our final pieces because they are all different but make sense and work together. I also think that that the difference of 'good' and 'bad' that we have made evident in the magazine cover and the trailer are a good example of synergy because they are two opposites but we bring them together. With the magazine cover the two separate elements connect together with the heart linking when you put the two together.



Ways in which I think that we could have made the three texts link together more effectivley is using the one particuar image in every single text. For example, the image of the hand creeping across the tree has been used in the trailer and poster but not in the magazine cover. We specifically used the photographs of Isa on the magazine cover in order to relate the character to the audience and to stick to the conventions of existing magazines such as 'Elle' and 'Company' however I think if we had used the hand image this would made it easier for the audience to be able to see the link between each of the texts. I still stick by our decision and do think that it has worked but I can see how this could be seen as a negative aspect and the difference of images could confuse the audience. I also think that using the same fonts throughout would of helped connect the three texts together. I know that with Imovie, we could physically have 'Friday13' font because it did not allow it and we did try to add this font in but couldn't. However on the 'good' magazine cover we could have used 'TX_love' for the title 'ROXY' instead of the font we did use. We should have used 'TX_love' because we used it for the poster and I think it would have connect the poster and magazine cover more than it did.


All blog entries are on the group blog which includes every group member talking about all three final designs ; http://a2media10.blogspot.com/

Evaluation - Question 1

This is my evaluation response to question one. We equally split the responsibility of talking about one specific subject area. In my video I focused on talking about the poster. I wanted to explain how we stuck to conventions of existing posters when creating our film poster. We researched existing posters on websites such as www.empireonline.com, www.lovefilm.com and www.imdb.com to look at the conventions. We followed conventions such as using a bold title and positioning the title at the top and middle of the poster. We also noticed that the text for horror film trailers were quite dark and gave an instantly edgy look. We wanted to keep to the conventions here as we not only think it looks professional but fits in with the genre. Ways in which we challenged the genre would be when our poster image is not as dark as existing ones we have looked at. Existing posters that we looked at seemed to use quite dark lighting and contrast. Our final poster image was taken in daylight however we did decrease the brightness and contrast in order to stick to conventions of popular posters however we used a diffuse glow effect on Photoshop in order to give quite a 'spirtual' look to make it clear to the audience that the character is somehow a spirit. This could be seen as challenging conventions because not many horror trailer posters use bright lighting, they normally stick to being dark.

We however still stuck to the conventions with the posters by adding star ratings from a local paper. We chose to add the star rating from 'The Times' as it is a reliable and trustworthy source. We also decided to use a tag line which is a convention we have seen in not every movie poster but in a variety of them. We decided on 'Love just got scary' because we felt this conveyed the message of our film in a short and snappy form.

We felt as if the the audience would expect the poster to look dark and bold and instantly be drawn to the title and main image. We wanted to use an obviously 'scary' and shocking image in order to make the audience look twice and be interested in watching the film. We chose the image of the hand creeping across the tree because it is quite unusual and we felt as if this would entice the audience and make them interested in the mystery surrounding the image. We felt this developed the conventions of existing posters because it followed what the audience was expect from a horror film which is a mysterious image with piercing text.

We challenged usual conventions of posters as with the text because on the tag line we used a 'colloquial' and 'friendly' font. This is unusual for horror posters because the fonts usually stick to being quite formal and have an 'edge'. We decided to use a 'friendly' font and challenge conventions with the words 'love just got' because we wanted to make the audience aware of the concept of the film. We feel as if the merging of the two binary opposites - love and death work well in this situation. We feel as if this risk paid of and we think it still looks like a horror poster although not all the fonts are instantly 'creepy'.

All blog entries are on the group blog which includes every group member talking about all three final designs ; http://a2media10.blogspot.com/

Evaluation Preperation

In preparation for our evaluation we equally divided the questions up using a variety of different media to answer each question. We want are evaluation to be informative but interesting and engaging at the same time therefore each question will be answered using three different media forms. As a group we decided that for one aspect of answering the questions we will record each of us talking then upload it to either Imovie or windows movie maker adding images and video clips to clearly convey what we are talking about. We will also use the online site Prezi to answer questions because it is a current and attractive way to display information. We will also stick to conventions we have already used which is blog entries. We will each upload our individual evaluation question onto our own blogs as well as posting all three member's of the group's evaluation the group blog. We are each talking about a specific text for each question. By doing this we will have a mixed review of answers. Then when all three answers to each question are put together on the group blog, all three texts will have been spoken about.

Trailer Progress - March 2010

Today we started to complete the editing for our trailer by trimming clips and filling gaps with various clips and captions in order to make the plot make sense and to make sure the audience understand clearly what is going on. We decided it was appropriate to delete the existing captions because they didn't fit in with the clips and didn't make sense. We then decided that we need to add some sort of a caption to the beginning of the clip because it didn't really have an opening and sent mixed messages to the audience because it didn't really give anything away which we thought would confuse the audience. We decided to open the trailer with a clip of two hands together to symbolize the love theme of the trailer as well as to introduce the audience to the plot. We then decided to add the tagline 'they thought nothing - would tear them apart' so that the audience could see that the trailer is about love and a relationship. We want the audience to sympathize with the characters, especially our main character 'Isa' played by Georgia White. By showing a "normal" clip of the characters it allows the audience to identify with the characters straight away. However the initial clip of the hands was too dark so the lighting and contrast had to be adjusted in order for it to be clear. Consequently the clip is now a little pixelated however this works in the favor of the trailer because it adds an 'eery' effect to the clip. We also decided to add the two captions in two separate screens because it symbolises the splitting apart of the two characters.

We then added a clip of 'Isa' dancing which allows the audience to see what she looks like rather than just her face which allows them to see that she is just a normal girl and identifiable. It also shows her being "normal". This clip was too long and we decided to trim the clip in order to keep the audiences focus. This scene is quite dark due to the lighting however we decided to keep this aspect to convey a real and believable party scene.

After this we decided to delete the scene of getting to the car and kept the crash and the driving of the car before this because we just wanted to show audience the key parts of the scene. The crash is a key part of the trailer because it explains how 'Isa' dies and the impact it has on the plot. A cross dissolve effect was used to move from the party scene to the crash crash in order to have a smooth transition and not to make it confusing.

Linzi then added in the captions 'love lasts forever - Nothing lasts forever' to add a twist to the film showing that it is not a "happy" film and has a dark side towards it. It also makes the audience question what is happening which is what we want because we want to add mystery to the trailer and do not want to give too much away otherwise there would not be any point in watching the film.

A grave scene is then included so the audience know that a death has occured. The clip following this is a clip of 'Isa' saying 'I thought you said you loved me'. We included this clip to show the juxtoposition between the love Isa had with her boyfriend at the beginning of the trailer to this particular point. Thiw will also make the reader question what is going on and why Isa contemplating whether her boyfriend loves her or not. In this clip, the character is looking directly at the camera at the beginning. We cut the beginning part out so that the rest of the clip shows her not staring at the camera.

The next section is the valentines card clip. We included this clip because it relates to the love theme as well as the release date which is valentines day - February 14th. We wanted the audience to clearly be able to see the words as they are sinister and shows the change from the love at the beginning to the more twisted situations. This clip was too quick so we made it longer in order for the audience to be able to read it in enough time.

We then added clips of a forest area and the main characters hand 'creeping'. We did this to keep to conventions of existing horror films and also conveying to the audience that someone not quite right has occured. We made the clips extremley short in order to have a 'quick' and 'flashy' effect. These types of effects are often used in horror films in order to keep the audience in suspense. This is key because the aim is to make the audience scared and this effect does that. We also added these clips to make the trailer longer because we felt it was too short and didn't explore the plot well enough as well as making the storyline clear to the audience.

Then, a clip of Isa running was added to show a sense of mystery as well as getting the readers wondering who she is running away room or what she is running away from. This is followed by clips we have already used in the trailer but rewinded them and used the captain 'What would you change if you could reverse time?'. The point of adding these clips was to make the audience question why the characters would want to reverse time.

We added credits in order to keep to the conventions of existing trailers. The caption 'Love just got scary' followed and was added to the end of the trailer because it is the tagline for our film. We decided to have the text on a red background because it is bright and eye catching and will instantly catch the audiences attention. The significance of using the colour red is not only to attract the audience but to symbolize the love and danger that is featured in the film.

The last part of the trailer so far is of Isa with her face right up to the camera. This has been added in order to scare the audience after the initial trailer has been displayed. At the moment this clip is in silence. Originally it had music but we felt as group this didn't work and didn't make the clip shock the audience which is the aim. We discussed what we thought the clip should sound like and didn't think silence would be appropriate because it didn't have the 'shock factor' we want. We decided on a 'growl' noise although this has not been added to the trailer yet. This will be further development as this will be added.

We are happy with the current sound effects in the trailer because the music is quite tense which is the type of music a horror film usually has. We are keeping to the conventions of existing horror films in this respect as well as using this type of music to worry the audience. We also used a car crash sound which I think is really effective because it has an impact on the trailer and changes the mood dramatically. Further developments to the trailer will to be to add the 'growl' sound as well as adding in any additional clips and captions to make the trailer run as smoothly as possible whilst conveying the message and plot of the film without spoiling anything.

Promotion

To promote our film we have created merchandise such as t-shirts. We did this so that we could promote the film to a variety of people in different ways. We hoped that this would appeal to a variety of audiences.



We also used the film's twitter page as promotion www.twitter.com/myvalentinefilm
We decided to create a twitter page because social networking is something that our target audience use regularly. It will allow our target audience to be able to find out about the film in a way that they enjoy as well as making it easy for other people to see even if they didn't intend to.

Magazine Progress

This is our magazine so far. Obviously it is not yet completed but this is the design so far. Linzi and Georgia focused on the magazine whilst I worked on the film poster. We decided to name the magazine 'Roxy' because it is current and 'savvy' and we felt as if this would attract our target audience because it is similar to existing magazines and does not seem out of the ordinary. We had previously decided as a group that we are going to have two front covers that work as a 'pull-out' cover. One side will be 'girly' and 'normal' which represents Georgia's character, 'Isa' at the beginning of the trailer. We based the first cover on existing magazines such as 'Cosmopolitan' and 'Company'. We wanted to keep to the conventions of existing magazines in order to make it look professional and believable. Bright shapes and taglines were added as well as bold text and eye catching colours in order to entice the audience. The 'dark' magazine cover was created to look more 'edgy' and 'dark'. We based this cover on the magazine 'Empire' because 'Empire' magazine seems to have done similar covers. We wanted to make both sides similar but the 'dark' cover more sinister and scary. We decided to have this additional cover as well as the first one in order to attract and wider audience and to not just attract 'girly girls'. We want the trailer to appeal to all types of people and both genders therefore the second cover hopefully appeals to those that the first cover does not.

The first cover's title is 'floaty' and 'friendly' in order to convey the 'good' side of Isa. The second cover uses the font 'Friday13' which is the same font used on the film poster. This keeps to the conventions as we are keeping a constant theme. This will help the audience to easily be able to identify that the poster and the magazine cover are promoting the same film.

We also decided to add a heart at the side of each cover and when you pull out the cover the heart will connect. We decided to add this in to symbolize the love and show that it wasn't always 'connected' in the film. We decided that each half of the heart would be a different colour. The 'good' side is a light pink in order to show that it is the 'good' side. The 'evil' side's heart is a deep red in order to display a more 'sinister' and 'twisted' side.

We have not yet added the photographs that will feature on the front of the covers however I have edited some images that I have posted in a previous blog entry. The first image which will be on the 'good' side is a 'happy' and 'smiley' image of Isa (the main character of the film) to keep to the conventions of being 'good'. The second cover will feature a 'twisted' image of Isa looking scary. I edited an image on Photoshop using a diffuse glow effect in order to change the image from "normal". I also used a diffuse glow effect on the image used on the poster which will keep a constant theme going. I also decreased the lighting in order to make the image appear 'scary'. However, the images did not look right once placed on the cover. Therefore we will have to manipulate them on Photoshop or take new images.

This is currently our cover/s;

This is an existing magazine cover of 'V' that was used for inspiration for our work;

British Heart Foundation

In our group we decided to coincide our film with the British Heart Foundation. We decided to include a charity to show that our film is not all about scaring people, it also benefits a charity. We decided that profits from our film would go towards the British Heart foundation. We picked this specific charity because the 'heat' relates to 'love' which is the main theme of our trailer. We believe that linking the film to a good cause will benefit the film as well as the charity.