Annotation of our trailer:
Thursday, 6 April 2017
Friday, 31 March 2017
Analysis of our magazine front cover:
Analysis of our magazine front cover:
Our magazine front cover worked very successfully. We edited the front cover on the editing program Photoshop. to get inspiration on how to edit the front cover i did a lot of research on what a professional film magazine front cover looked like. I found out that magazine front covers which are promoting a particular film, also include different bits about what the magazine includes, this suggesting that they are not only promoting the film which is on the front of the magazine but also promoting the rest of the magazine so as many people buy it as possible.
The title of our magazine is "Capture" this is a unique name which we made up. This allows our magazine to be our own and is not copyright from a real magazine. The title is in a sophisticated font which allows the audience to see and read the title clearly. I also used the eraser tool and changed the colour to black which misted out the title slightly. This links to the background which is a dark and eerie colour and makes the magazine link to our genre of horror. The word "Capture" also links to our film "snatched" because they mean a similar thing and this also draws in our target audience.
The colour used for the writing is mainly white. This connotes the protagonists innocence and links to the colour of her top. All of the writing is in capital letters, this again makes it stand out and also makes the lettering look very sophisticated. Our slogan "if you go down to the woods today, will you return?" this is in the colour red. This connotes blood and this is conformed by the models face as she is covered in blood and bruises and her white top is also covered in blood. This suggests that the model did not get out of the woods and this will scare the audience and encourage them to want to watch the film because they will be interested to know what happens to her.
There is also a date the magazine was released and how much it costs which is good information to have on a magazine and it makes our magazine look professional. The barcode also has the same effect. The close up shot of the model is center of the magazine. Her eyes are looking straight at the audience and she looks very scared, upset and alone and it looks like she is in need of help.
Thursday, 30 March 2017
influences:
Comment
on your influences. In your planning where
did you take some inspiration from and how did this become realised in your
final productions.
Youtube was a big help when looking at different products, such as other A level students previous work and what we need to include to get a good grade. All of the trailers were all so different and unique which made us want to excel even more and explore different ideas to make our final trailer stand out and be very creative. Youtube was also helpful when looking for different horror trailers. Trailers such as "Saw", this allowed us to get different indications on sound, mise-en-scene, camera shots and editing, meaning we could make our trailer as successful and professional as the real ones.
Another help to make our storyline and original photography was the TV series "The Missing" this was very helpful when watching it on TV and looking at the images they used. This really helped us for our final production because we looked up how to do similar make up and similar clothing which made our final product very realistic. A film that we got inspiration from was the film "Taken" this is because our film has a very similar storyline. Although this is the case the film "taken" is not a horror film and is an action film, it is a very similar storyline and is very effective. This film allowed us to see the reactions the family gave and how the girl react when she was taken and we tries to incorporate this into our film. Our trailer links to this because there is a scene in our trailer, the protagonist looks like she has gone mad as she is sat on a log and she is rocking backwards and forwards and this is a common trait which is shown when people are beginning to go 'crazy'. This suggests she has given up and there is nothing she can do to save herself.
Youtube was also very helpful when looking up different Youtube tutorials for the models make up. The models make up worked very successful because of the research put in before hand and the different horror films also gave us different ideas of what we could do.
Youtube was a big help when looking at different products, such as other A level students previous work and what we need to include to get a good grade. All of the trailers were all so different and unique which made us want to excel even more and explore different ideas to make our final trailer stand out and be very creative. Youtube was also helpful when looking for different horror trailers. Trailers such as "Saw", this allowed us to get different indications on sound, mise-en-scene, camera shots and editing, meaning we could make our trailer as successful and professional as the real ones.
Another help to make our storyline and original photography was the TV series "The Missing" this was very helpful when watching it on TV and looking at the images they used. This really helped us for our final production because we looked up how to do similar make up and similar clothing which made our final product very realistic. A film that we got inspiration from was the film "Taken" this is because our film has a very similar storyline. Although this is the case the film "taken" is not a horror film and is an action film, it is a very similar storyline and is very effective. This film allowed us to see the reactions the family gave and how the girl react when she was taken and we tries to incorporate this into our film. Our trailer links to this because there is a scene in our trailer, the protagonist looks like she has gone mad as she is sat on a log and she is rocking backwards and forwards and this is a common trait which is shown when people are beginning to go 'crazy'. This suggests she has given up and there is nothing she can do to save herself.
Youtube was also very helpful when looking up different Youtube tutorials for the models make up. The models make up worked very successful because of the research put in before hand and the different horror films also gave us different ideas of what we could do.
Representation:
Have
you subverted or conform to stereotypes typical of your genre?
Our trailer conforms to the genre of 'Horror', this is because a lot of mystery and horror is involved.
Our trailer conforms to the genre of 'Horror', this is because a lot of mystery and horror is involved.
The typical conventions of a Horror Genre:
- · Young/teenage characters,
- · Clear binary oppositions e.g. good vs evil,
- · Set in rural settings, e.g. farms, countryside,
- · Old, cheap houses with a basement in the middle of nowhere,
- · Dark rooms and chase scenes between the antagonist and protagonist,
- · Dominant representation of gender: male-villain, female victim,
- · Use of hand held camera: audience identification/realism,
- · Predictable narrative content, follows format,
- · Non diegetic sounds e.g. creepy music that builds up tension and suspense,
- · Extensive use of close up, long shots, point of view shots,
- · Low key lighting, use of CGI and FX,
- · Possessed children or children with possessed imaginary friends,
- · Diegetic sounds e.g. screams.
Location:
When thinking about our location for our
horror trailer, we had quite a limited choice on the types of places we think
it is 'socially' acceptable to film our horror trailer without concerning other
people. Our idea from the start has always been the woods and this is because
it does give off a good atmosphere for a horror trailer.
For our trailer we filmed in the Norbury
Woods, the reason we chose this destination is because it is a very quiet part
of the wood and it has a part in the woods which is very dark and eerie. This
will add a scary effect to the trailer and hopefully make our target audience
become excited and become on edge. This part of the woods is a very good place
for use to film because it is out of the way and we all agreed that it was a
good place for us to stay out of the way of other people. This also worked in
our favour because we do not want people walking around in the background
when something shocking is about to happen and they are not seen doing
anything.
Make up and clothing:
The make up used for the protagonist conforms to expectations of a horror film because it adds violence into the horror trailer. This will stand out to the target audience because they like the idea of gore and violence. It also suggests that the protagonist is going to be really hurt. The clothing used also conforms to the expectations of the horror genre. This is because the protagonist is wearing white when she gets hurt and abused, this makes her seem a lot more vulnerable and innocent because of the colour of her clothing. The antagonist is wearing all black clothing and is also wearing a black mask which makes hides his/her identity which also adds mystery and will encourage the audience to want to see the film to find out who it is.
Sound:
Our sound also conforms to the expectations of a horror trailer, this is because it adds a lot of questions and it gives it a very eerie effect. The singing sounds like a child singing which does not link to any of the characters, this could suggest another character is involved which could scare the target audience and this will engage them into the film. The non diegetic sound at the beginning of the trailer also conforms to the horror genre because it adds sadness and shows how much the horrid event really effected the people around the protagonist.
Sound:
Our sound also conforms to the expectations of a horror trailer, this is because it adds a lot of questions and it gives it a very eerie effect. The singing sounds like a child singing which does not link to any of the characters, this could suggest another character is involved which could scare the target audience and this will engage them into the film. The non diegetic sound at the beginning of the trailer also conforms to the horror genre because it adds sadness and shows how much the horrid event really effected the people around the protagonist.
How like film posters and magazines are your ancillary texts?
How like film posters and magazines are your
ancillary texts?
Both our poster and magazine are very professional, they were both edited using Photoshop which is a very realistic editing programme which allowed us to edit our images and make them look as realistic and eerie as possible. We did do a look of research into different horror posters and magazine front covers to help us achieve the best we could and this was very helpful. The Taken front cover is slightly different to our front cover because it uses red text and the film is not a horror film it is an action genred film, this meaning that a lot of action is involved, focusing on guns, explosions etc. Where as we are focusing on the horror behind the protagonist being 'snatched' and who did it.
our film poster, was edited on Photoshop. I think this is a very successful final because we have included both the protagonist and the antagonist within the main image. This final poster gives an indication to the audience about what the film is about, this is especially shown within the title because it is in big, white font and the word 'snatched' suggests that someone is being taken. This is also suggested because of the photograph, the audience see the protagonist dressed in white which suggests that she is innocent and in danger. The effect on the image also emphasises the whiteness of the model and makes her look as if she is a ghost which could intrigue the audience and make them wonder if the protagonist is alive or dead. When editing the poster we decided to make the actors names red because it is suggesting they are in danger or one of them is the antagonist and they are going to do something bad to the protagonist.
Both our poster and magazine are very professional, they were both edited using Photoshop which is a very realistic editing programme which allowed us to edit our images and make them look as realistic and eerie as possible. We did do a look of research into different horror posters and magazine front covers to help us achieve the best we could and this was very helpful. The Taken front cover is slightly different to our front cover because it uses red text and the film is not a horror film it is an action genred film, this meaning that a lot of action is involved, focusing on guns, explosions etc. Where as we are focusing on the horror behind the protagonist being 'snatched' and who did it.
our film poster, was edited on Photoshop. I think this is a very successful final because we have included both the protagonist and the antagonist within the main image. This final poster gives an indication to the audience about what the film is about, this is especially shown within the title because it is in big, white font and the word 'snatched' suggests that someone is being taken. This is also suggested because of the photograph, the audience see the protagonist dressed in white which suggests that she is innocent and in danger. The effect on the image also emphasises the whiteness of the model and makes her look as if she is a ghost which could intrigue the audience and make them wonder if the protagonist is alive or dead. When editing the poster we decided to make the actors names red because it is suggesting they are in danger or one of them is the antagonist and they are going to do something bad to the protagonist.
The background is also blurred out to make it look like the protagonist is running away from the antagonist who looks as if he/she is going to grab her and 'snatch' her. We also took the photograph in the environment because we want to link our poster to the film as much as we can. The woods is also a very common setting for a horror film to be set because it has the stereotypes of danger happening in the woods, especially when you are alone. The woods is a very eerie place because it is so dark and the trees are big enough to hide people. The slogan is the same song which we used in our trailer. 'If you go down to the woods today, you better not go alone.' This gives an indication to what is happening in the film and that maybe the protagonist went to the woods alone and put herself in danger. So maybe it is her fault? This should stand out to the target audience because they will most likely remember the nursery rhyme 'teddy bear's picnic' which was probably sung to them when they were younger and it might bring back memories. It also will add a scary effect because it is suggesting we are making a happy memory into a horror movie. The small font explains who produced, filmed and wrote the film and also explains the release dates. All of these different things in which we did to our film poster allowed us to make it very professional. I believe that our film poster is very successful. I did have some practise using photoshop as i also do an A level in photography which also gave me experience to create a very successful magazine and poster.
Our magazine front cover is also very successful and looks very realistic because again we did a lot of research on different film magazines and it is not all about our film is includes other bits inside the magazine. This means not only are we advertising our film but we are also advertising the magazine in itself. This is a very professional way to create a magazine front cover because it means you are good at advertising. Also a successful magazine advertising your film on the front cover suggests that your film must be good and gives it a credible name because it suggests the magazine have watched the film and really like it. We also used a close up of the protagonist on the front. This means it leaves the audience guessing to what has happened and why is it called snatched? The protagonist is covered in bruises and blood which gives an indication to what happens but does not give much away and i believe this is very successful.
Overall i believe both of our productions we produced have been very successful and are very realistic and professional.
Institution Analysis:
Institution Analysis: What sort of company would have made your film? How did you create your own production titles and how did you place them conventionally in your trailer?
Research:
Twisted Pictures:
There are millions of big names
within the horror movie industry and many fans who will go out their way to see
the latest horror movie. Horror films have become one of the most highest
grossing film genres to date. "Twisted Pictures" is the most
successful institutions within the horror genre who has grossed more than half
a billion dollars from one of the most popular horror movie series "The
Saw Series".Twisted Pictures aim towards making horror movie.Twisted
Pictures have only been present in the horror industry for the past decade,
since around 2003. Other movie companies such as Hammer productions are far
more well knwon around the world due to their huge success with dozens of
films. This shows that there is a lot of competitions to be the best
institution.
20th
Century Fox:
The 20th
Century Fox film is a very popular and famous institution. It is part of a lot
of amazing films, the company was founded in 1935. 20th century fox is a very
famous and well known institution and has distributes many successful films,
"Star Wars" is one of its most well known Sci-fi trilogies, its
considered to be a "space opra" which is names by its fans. The 20th
century not only focuses on films it also focuses on TV programmes a well known
continuous TV show made in America is "The Simpsons". This is not
only famous in America it is also famous in the UK. The 20th century fox tends
to focus on family films as they believe they are more profitable. The
20th century fox does also support horror films but they do not tend to be as
successful as the family films.
Universal
Pictures:
Universal
Pictures has experimented with Horror Movies also. The famous films they have
produced is films such as the American pie series, The fast and furious series
and films such as Dawn of the Dead and sequels to the living dead series by
Romero. Universal is also a very well known institution which supports many
different genres of films, it is very popular and audiences who see films are
supported by this are a lot more convinced to see the film.
EA games:
EA, is a
well known gaming industry and is known for its amazing history in games. The
Horror genre is shown through many horror games such as the walking dead and
other similar games.
All of the research above was previously done to find out what the logos were like and how successful they had all been and to see if certain institutes link to certain films. If one of these production companies were to make our film it would be 'twisted pictures' this is because they purely focus on horror films and a lot of horror films have been made by them. Films such as the Saw series which is a very popular and successful series and a lot of fans follow this, this meaning that people who are fans of this series will see that our trailer has been made by them and they would be interested to see how successful this film would be. This meaning our fan base and target audience would increase and make our profits very successful. We decided to create two institutions, these involve, hands on productions and sinister pictures. These both link to our trailer really well. I think that our instituations with we have made are very successful and link to our film and also link to the institution 'twisted pictures' this is because it is a very simple design, very similar to our 'sinister pictures' because of the colouring and the images used. This makes our trailer a very credible trailer and would stand out to a wide audience.
Use of titles:
How
did you use titles and how did they advertise your film in your trailer?
Titles are a very important part of both advertising the film and during the film, this meant a lot of different research had to be done before making a final outcome. We also made two different titles for our trailer before we added them in because we wanted them to be as successful as possible. The most common colours used in the titles for successful horror films are black, white or red font. This meant we had three different colours we could choose from so we stood out to our target audience. The colour red connotes blood, meaning a lot of gore is most likely going to be involved, which when we interviewed our target audience they said this is what stood out to them because they like the 'gore factor'. The colour black connotes death, this means that the target audience in which we are aiming for would not be suitable for the film, but black also adds sophistication. Finally, the colour white connects with our protagonist because it links to her innocents and vulnerability and also links to the colour top she is wearing once she has been attacked.
Research of titles:
We researched the titles above to see how they stood out and it is clear that the colour red was a very unoriginal idea. We thought that it was better to be slightly unique and do our titles in the colour white. We also believe that the colour white links more to our trailer because throughout the protagonist is in danger and shows her innocence and the colour white links to this well. The capital font used also makes our titles stand out a lot more meaning the audience look at the title before anything else and makes the name stick in their head. Our poster and Magazine front cover are also very dark meaning the colour white really stands out and is very eye catching which makes our products stand out a lot and advertises it well.
Our titles practised:
FINAL PRODUCT:
All of our titles were created using 'Adobe Premiere Elements'. We also used the snipping tool to cut down the title and this was very helpful when getting the title into its size. We decided as a group to use capital letters in both of the titles to make it stand out and make the tile look dramatic and dynamic and this will hopefully suggest that the trailer is going to be full of horror and drama. The colours used in both titles are white with black backgrounds, this allows the titles to stand out from the black background. The white colouring also shows innocence which suggests our main character is a young girl who is unaware if the danger she is going to be in. As a group we decided that the second title, the font used was 'Adobe Casion Pro' which made a white outline, this adds a creepy effect, suggesting the middle title has been cut out. We decided it was the best title because it is not as innocent as the first title and it links more to our horror trailer.
Brand Identity:
Brand Identity: How have you established a brand
identity?
Creating our own trailer, poster and magazine front cover allows us to add our own individual ideas into them and allows us to make our own decisions on how we want our final products to end out. We wanted our brand identity to be very strong, meaning that our products will turn out successful and unique. The main question we were all asking ourselves was 'what would our target audience enjoy and be drawn into?' this allowed us to excel ourselves and stand out to people who enjoy the horror genre. A lot of research was involved when trying to make our poster and magazine front cover but we also added our own ideas to make sure our products were unique and would stand out for being different and exciting.
Our production titles make our brand identity successful, we created our own individual production title 'Sinister Pictures' this adds a credible effect on our trailer because it makes our trailer look professional and look like it is going to be successful because a unique and sophisticated company has supported our film and wants to make it work. The triangle used is a very unique image also and it makes our trailer also stand out to our target audience because it is not childish in any way. We also created another production credit called 'Hands on productions' this links more to the horror genre because it has an eerie tone. The idea of 'hands on' also links to our title 'snatched' because it suggests the antagonist is not going to give up and is going to get her.
When thinking about our brand identity we also had to think about our target audience, it is a well known that horror films are usually aimed at a younger audience because they stand out to a younger age group and allows the film to be a lot more successful the wider the audience is. The typical target audience age is 15+. We did a lot of thinking about what age group we should pick because we also want our trailer to be very successful, we came to the conclusion that the age of 15+ is a very wide audience and is a good age to set. This meant that we were not allowed to include deaths and a lot of swearing. This did limit us slightly because we did have to watch the type of language we used and the make up we created on the character s but it did work successfully.
The main area where our unique brand would be noticed is in the name of our film 'Snatched'. Our unique title gives the audience an indication of what our film is about but is not clear enough to what is being snatched. The word 'snatched' means something or someone has been quickly seized in a rude or eager way, this would straight away scare our target audience because it is suggesting the person in our film has been snatched in an aggressive and horrid way, meaning that a lot of emotions are already explored before the film has even been released. Our magazine and poster covers were all edited using Photoshop, this was very successful as it made the two pieces a lot darker and eerie, again conforming to the horror genre. Both the magazine and poster make the title a lot clearer because of our original photography. The antagonist in our poster is shown to be grabbing the protagonist and this conforms to the meaning of the lexis 'Snatched'
Creating our own trailer, poster and magazine front cover allows us to add our own individual ideas into them and allows us to make our own decisions on how we want our final products to end out. We wanted our brand identity to be very strong, meaning that our products will turn out successful and unique. The main question we were all asking ourselves was 'what would our target audience enjoy and be drawn into?' this allowed us to excel ourselves and stand out to people who enjoy the horror genre. A lot of research was involved when trying to make our poster and magazine front cover but we also added our own ideas to make sure our products were unique and would stand out for being different and exciting.
When thinking about our brand identity we also had to think about our target audience, it is a well known that horror films are usually aimed at a younger audience because they stand out to a younger age group and allows the film to be a lot more successful the wider the audience is. The typical target audience age is 15+. We did a lot of thinking about what age group we should pick because we also want our trailer to be very successful, we came to the conclusion that the age of 15+ is a very wide audience and is a good age to set. This meant that we were not allowed to include deaths and a lot of swearing. This did limit us slightly because we did have to watch the type of language we used and the make up we created on the character s but it did work successfully.
The main area where our unique brand would be noticed is in the name of our film 'Snatched'. Our unique title gives the audience an indication of what our film is about but is not clear enough to what is being snatched. The word 'snatched' means something or someone has been quickly seized in a rude or eager way, this would straight away scare our target audience because it is suggesting the person in our film has been snatched in an aggressive and horrid way, meaning that a lot of emotions are already explored before the film has even been released. Our magazine and poster covers were all edited using Photoshop, this was very successful as it made the two pieces a lot darker and eerie, again conforming to the horror genre. Both the magazine and poster make the title a lot clearer because of our original photography. The antagonist in our poster is shown to be grabbing the protagonist and this conforms to the meaning of the lexis 'Snatched'
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Use of camera:
Use
of camera:
Long Shot:
Long Shot:
This long shot was very successful as it is introducing other characters in the trailers which are not involved in the trailer a lot. It is clear that they are looking for their friend who has been taken. The audience might think that they are also in danger and make them feel on edge, this conforms to the idea of a horror trailer because our aim is to make the audience feel as if they are also involved in trailer. This also helps because the long shot allows the audience to see where the trailer/film is set meaning they might be able to picture themselves being there. The environment also allows the horror trailer to conform and add a eerie effect because it is the woods it is a very mysterious location and really links to our horror trailer. The location especially links to our film as it is easy for the antagonist to hide and grab the protagonist.
Close up:
We used quite a few close ups in the trailer, especially to show emotion. This close up in-particular is very successful because it is a very personal item and is not something which is dropped only if someone is in trouble, this adds fear to the because it suggests the unknown and why has the phone been dropped, meaning it adds mystery. It is a very private item and the shot shows someone called "Claire" ringing, this adds a sad emotion as is it clear that the phone is the missing girl and someone is trying to look for her. People in the audience, stereotypically mums would feel very sad about this as they might put their children in that position.
Tracking shot:
We used quite a few tracking shots in our trailer to add excitement, this allows the audience to feel excited but also on edge because it will make them feel like the antagonist is going to catch the protagonist and they want her to get away from something bad that could happen. I think the tracking shots were the most successful parts of the trailer because they add thrill and engage the audience.
Sound:
How does your use of sound compare with trailers of similar genres?
Our use of sound in our horror trailer conformed to the horror genre very well, this allows the audience be drawn into the horror trailer and also adds an eerie effect. Our sound involves one of our group members 'Hannah' singing ' Teddy bears picnic ' this is a very well known nursery rhyme which is known by parents and children. Hannah put on a voice which suggested she was a child, this would stand out to the older audience because it would relate to them if they had children and it would make them feel emotional because it could happen to their children. It would also scare a younger audience because it is a very eerie voice and it suggests that the girl is like them and is very innocently walking through the woods and would not expect anything to happen.
At the beginning of our trailer we have one of the protagonists friends explain what has happened to her friend and how it has affected her. This could subvert the start of a horror film because the film starts emotionally and is not scary. Although this is the case the audience will be drawn into the trailer because they will want to know what happens. The non diegetic sound at the beginning could also trick the audience because they think that they should not be scared and then all of a sudden the protagonist gets taken and this could make the audience jump, this then adheres to the genre of horror.
The non-diegetic sound included in our trailer is similar to the horror trailer, "Nightmare on elm street" this has children in the background singing whilst you see clips of children playing games. This has a similar effect to our trailer because it links to the protagonist in our film. The song subtle suggests that the woods is full of evil things and if you go into the woods will you leave again? Our trailer shows the protagonist getting taken and then at the end of the trailer we are shown her in her friends car, this suggests that she does get out which could again confuse the audience.
Narrative:
· Narrative: How do you establish the narrative in
your trailer and what is established in the other two productions?
Narrative is the way the different elements in a story are organised to make a meaningful story. Bordwell & Thompson, defined narrative as “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time”. We decided to create a Horror trailer for our A2 coursework. The reason we decided to created a horror trailer is because all of my group, including myself have had experience creating horror themed work. This is because in AS we all based our coursework on the genre horror and this really helped us in our A2 coursework.
One theorist which really links to our trailer is the theorist which really linked to our trailer was "Vladimir Propp"
suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of action' or
functions.
1.The hero,
usually male, is the agent who restores the narrative equilibrium often by
embarking upon a quest (or search).
The one that links to our trailer the most is 'the false hero' this links to our trailer because the protagonist (Hannah) comes back to haunt her friend at the end of the trailer this will confuse the audience because they will wonder why she is back to haunt her friend and could suggest that her friend was the one who took the protagonist and murdered her. The reason this links to Propps theory of the false hero is because at the beginning Hannah the Protagonist is a very innocent, vulnerable girl who appears good and then at the end she turns into a bad character who haunts her friend who is shown to be supportive when looking for her in the woods when she goes missing. This conforms to the expectations of a trailer because it leaves the audience questioning why this happened and will encourage them to go and see it.
2. Propp distinguishes
between the victim hero, who is the centre of the villain's attentions, and the
seeker hero who aids others who are the villains victims. The hero is
invariably the texts central character.
3. The villain
who usually creates the narrative disruption.
4. The
donor gives the hero something, it may
be an object, information or advice, which helps in resolution of the
narrative.
5. The helper
aids the hero in the task of restoring equilibrium.
6. The
princess (the victim) is usually the character most
threatened by the villain and has to be saved, at the climax, by the hero.
7. The dispatcher
sends the hero on her or his task
8. The
false hero appears to be good but is
revealed, at the narrative's end, to have been bad.
Characters can fulfil more than one sphere
character type, for example; a princess may also be a helper.
The Enigma
Code suggested by Roland Barthes refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence
becomes a mystery to the reader. It teases, tantalises and engages
the audience through puzzles, cliff hangers and unanswered the questions. This links to our trailer because our trailer consists of lots of unanswered questions which conforms to the expectations of a trailer. This is shown when the protagonist 'Hannah' is 'taken' walking through the woods with her dog and it is very unexpected, this also comes to a surprise for the protagonist as she is not expecting it, this would make the audience feel sorry for the protagonist, this could subvert our idea of a horror themed trailer because the audience are suppose to be terrified not feel emotional. This unanswered question would encourage the audience to want to watch the film once it comes out, this is because they will want to find out why she was taken. Another part of our trailer which made it successful and seem like a trailer was the unknown antagonist. This was successful because the audience will be wondering who the person is and why they want to take Hannah. The antagonist is completely covered up with black clothing and props, the colour black links to bad things and conforms to our stereotypes of an antagonist, it also adds another unanswered question to the trailer, linking it to Barthers Enigma code.
The theorist Strauss also links a lot to our trailer. He suggests the idea of 'binary opposites' he suggested this as the world is arranged in terms of
oppositional forces and values. He was not so interested with
exploring the order in which things happen, but more focused on the
arrangement of these oppositional themes in a media text. This links to our trailer because our protagonist is shown to be wearing white meaning she is innocent and vulnerable, whereas the antagonist is wearing black to show he is evil and a bad character. It is also shown when the protagonist hannah is the good, innocent character whereas the antagonist is shown as evil which shows opposites which makes a successful horror trailer.
Post-production:
Post-production:
From the audience feedback we gained for our opening 2 minutes in AS i learnt a lot from one moment in - particular. This was the pink bag which was dropped by the protagonist as she was being chased by the antagonist. The reason i believe this is because we made the pink bag a large aspect but we did not act upon this meaning it could have confused the audience. The idea of the bag falling on the floor is quite a big deal and shows how scared the protagonist would have been because a bag is full of personal items and nobody would ever drop something so important suggesting the protagonist was very scared. However it was suggested that we created the build up of the film very successfully by cutting in-between different shots of the victim and the protagonists feet, this allowed the audience to feel scared and on edge. For our editing the review was overall very good, except for one jump cut. It was useful to know that we made a mistake in the opening two minutes as it showed the opening two minutes to look less successful, this allowed me to understand that when filming for my trailer if i did make a mistake then it would look less professional which allowed me to understand that more time put into the trailer makes it more successful. It was suggested in our audience feedback that it would be must more effective if the music was louder and more upbeat on parts where the audience would feel tense, such as the chasing scene. This was very clear once we watched the trailer in front of our peers. To improve on our sound we looked up different sounds and researched how to make the sound louder. We found out how to make certain areas of the clip louder by using the editing tool volume. This was successful as it made our opening two minutes a lot more tense, conforming to the horror genre. The post production process made the whole production a lot more successful and really helped us to create a successful two minutes.
I have developed these skills at A2 quite easily. For example i realised that leaving things to the last minute makes media studies as a whole very difficult and has allowed me to be aware of the time. For example, in AS we thought that it would only take a day to film our opening two minutes which in reality this was not the case as we looked over the shots we had taken and realised there was room for improvement and we wanted to get the best grade we could. This year we gave ourselves lots of time to film, we started at the beginning of December and it was not due until March, this allowed us to get a lot completed. We also included parts in our trailer which link to the idea of the bag, such as the phone, this is another item which is a big part of someones life and it not a common thing which people drop on the floor without them being in trouble and we made more of a deal of it in our trailer. It was very useful getting feedback on the AS opening two minutes as it made me focus on this in our trailer.
How have you made your trailer seem like a trailer?
How
have you made your trailer seem like a trailer?
To make our trailer seem like a trailer we did a lot of stereotypical things which would encourage and stand out to our target audience. The main quality our trailer had to make it seem as realistic as possible is the idea of 'the unknown' this is shown in a number of things. For example; Hannah is 'taken' walking through the woods with her dog and it is very unexpected, this also comes to a surprise for the protagonist as she is not expecting it. This would encourage the audience to want to watch the film once it comes out, this is because they will want to find out why she was taken. Another part of our trailer which made it successful and seem like a trailer was the unknown antagonist. This was successful because the audience will be wondering who the person is and why they want to take Hannah. The antagonist is completely covered up with black clothing and props, the colour black links to bad things and conforms to our stereotypes of an antagonist. The final part which makes a trailer like a real trailer is the ending of the trailer, this is because the protagonist (Hannah) comes back to haunt her friend, this will confuse the audience because they will wonder why she is back to haunt her friend and could suggest that her friend was the one who took the protagonist and murdered her. This conforms to the expectations of a trailer because it leaves the audience questioning why this happened and will encourage them to go and see it.
This links to a number of theorists, this involves, Propps and Barthes enigma code: Propps suggests the idea of the false hero, this links to the idea of our protagonist beginning taken which shows her vulnerability and then at the end she is back haunting her friend who is shown earlier in the trailer. The idea of the false character suggests a good character at the beginning of the trailer and then the character turns bad at the end. Barthes enigma code suggests the idea of unanswered questions which leaves the audience wondering what has happened which conforms to our idea of a trailer because not too much is given away.
Another reason that our trailer conforms to the idea of a trailer is the non diegetic sound. this is because the sound is very mysterious and scary. The voice suggests that the non diegetic sound is a child which would also confuse the audience because they are wondering why a child would be involve. This would also encourage the audience to go and see the film and find out who is singing.
Analysis from our feedback:
Analysis from our feedback:
As a group we watched our audience feedback together. Overall we all agreed that the feedback that we received from our peers was very useful and allowed us to analyse our trailer in a lot of detail. By showing our trailer to our target audience is allowed us to see different questions and emotions they were thinking once they had watched it. This was very useful because if we were to created another 'horror' trailer we would know what the target audience are really looking for and the emotions they want to feel. It also helped us because if we were to turn our horror trailer into a film we would know what to include. When listening to the feedback we were able to here the bits which need improvement and the bits which were really good which allowed us to work on parts of our trailer to make it stand out more. One particular comment which we found very useful in regards to our non diegetic sound, although we thought it was a good idea to just have a mysterious character singing over our whole trailer to begin with, watching back with our peers and having their feedback suggested that having a backing track and more sounds to shock the audience. This would help it sound a lot more like a horror trailer, meaning it would be a lot scarier. The positive comments allowed us to feel like we had done a successful trailer and make us feel proud of what we created. The whole process was very useful and if we were to make future productions the feedback helped us out a lot.
Monday, 27 March 2017
Questionnaire Answers:
We asked ten people to answer our questionnaire to help us gain audience feedback and this was our outcome:
What did you like about the storyline of our trailer?
·
It didn’t give away too much about the film x4
·
Left a lot of un answered questions about the
film x2
·
Made me want to go and watch it x2
·
The naivety of the protagonist when walking
alone in the woods x1
·
The realistic looking make up x1
What would you of changed about the storyline?
·
Say what the protagonist was like before x2
·
Give an insight into who the antagonist is x2
·
Why the antagonist is snatching the protagonist x4
·
Why did the protagonist change into the antagonist x2
How does our trailer follow the stereotypes of a horror?
·
Scary setting
x1
·
Clothing of the characters x2
·
Choice of characters x2
·
Sound used
x1
·
Editing
x1
·
Camera angles
x1
·
Camera shots
x1
·
Make up
x1
After watching the trailer would you go and watch the film
in the cinema?
·
Yes x8
·
No x2
What was the most memorable part about the trailer?
·
Beginning x1
·
Middle x1
·
End x4
·
Characters
x3
·
Intensity
x1
What was strong about the editing of the trailer?
·
Fast pace
x4
·
Cutting
x5
·
Variation of scenes occurring within the trailer x1
Did the sound within the trailer fit the convention of a
horror?
·
Yes x8
·
No x2
What was strong about the sound used within the trailer?
·
Links to the characters within the trailer x2
·
Adds mystery
x2
·
Makes the trailer eerie x2
·
Intense
x2
·
Follows conventions of a horror x2
What was strong about the characters clothing?
·
The colours used on the character clothing
fitted the connotations of the character
x3
·
They were easily distinguished between x2
·
They were easily identified x2
·
They met the expectations of characters within a
horror movie x3
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