FINAL TRAILER AND ANCILLARY TASKS

My role with regards to the trailer was...I was one of the actresses and I contributed towards the editing along with one other person.

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

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

Our media product which is a horror trailer does use many typical horror conventions. We felt that using typical conventions was equally as important as breaking them. By breaking them, there is always that element of doubt that it is too changed and the target audience won't like it. The Paranormal Activity films were our biggest inspiration and we ended up using most conventions found in these films. Characters that we used were a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Hitchcock used this character a lot as it connotes a higher level of vulnerability than those with a different hair colour. We also used a dark hooded figure which is our villain. The face of the figure is never revealed during the trailer, so that it builds up more tension and suspense for the audience therefore making it far more scarier for them. Vladimir Propp suggested that each narrative includes many characters. This is a convention which we have broken slightly as we only use three. The victim, the villain and the supporter. By using mainly the girl and figure, it almost adds a personal element as you as the audience feel as though you are the main character and can experience her emotions more and doesn't complicate the narrative for the audience.
Tzvetan Todorov's theory that every narrative can be split into five categories is partially applied to our trailer. He believes that it can be split down into EQUILIBRIUM, DISRUPTION, DISEQUILIBRIUM, SOLUTION and finally NEW EQUILIBRIUM. As we have created a teaser trailer we have not included a solution and we only briefly touched on the new equilibrium right at the end. However we do use equilibrium; where the main character is in the park with friends and also where the main character is having a dream which becomes a nightmare. Then there is disequilibrium; where the hooded figure from the dream appears in reality and the main character spots it on several occasions and finally disruption where the main character tries to out run the demon.
Another extremely typical convention used is the lack of lighting. We filmed several parts outdoors at night and those filmed in other locations feature dark, unnerving lighting which adds to the scary aspect. When editing the trailer together it was essential that we made the trailer appear as if it was a Paramount Pictures Production. With Paranormal Activity being one of their productions, we tried to make the text cards and styling similar, therefore keeping continuity. With Paranormal Activity heavily inspiring us, we feel that their audience would be keen on our film.
As a group we felt that it was important that we didn't use a lyrical song for the soundtrack to accompany the footage on the trailer as this isn't something that happens a lot. We felt that this would add an unprofessional feel to it. We used snippets of musical soundtracks and fitted them together to ensure the sound created as much tension as was possible. This non-diegetic music accompanied some diegetic sounds such as bangs and screams which made it more professional looking. One feature we didn't use was the use of dialogue within the script due to the fact that as a group we felt that our accents would promote the film as being less professional, therefore we used the text cards as a way of conveying messages to the audience. Where dialogue wasn't used, reaction shots to portray the characters emotions.
Our genre is horror and we tried to ensure that we used typical horror conventions and Tom Ryall states that genre provides a framework of structuring rules with regards to patterns/styles etc.. This enabled us to use features that would comply with the horror genre we set out to create.
Steve Neale suggests that the pleasure of popular cinema lies in "difference in repetition." We know that if we conform to too many typical conventions that our audience may not be attracted to the film/trailer. By mixing the use of broken and typical conventions our audience should find it interesting.

EVALUATION - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?

Our main character, the blonde female does not feature i  my ancillary tasks. I chose to not include her and use the hooded figure instead as I felt this was more enticing. I feel that by having her on the cover and poster alongside the figure it may have revealed too much, whereas just having the figure on it's own leaves the mind to think about why it is there and what it might have to do with the story.
Naomi Wolf, an American feminist states that images of attractive women are used to sell products suggesting that women aspire to be like one another and also there is that extra chance that the product being sold will attract men if there is an attractive woman part of the advertising. Arguably, our main character could fall into this category which would make this theory suitable for our project. We hope that both gender will want to see the film.
Knowing that my main character features heavily in the trailer, this is another reason why I left her out of the ancillary tasks.

EVALUATION - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

In a way, our trailer exploits Uses and Gratifications, a theory set by McQuail, Blumler and Katz. As a group we hope that our target audience will be able to identify with the lifestyle promoted within the trailer. The characters used in the trailer are of a similar age to our target audience which should ultimately allow the audience to have a better connection with the trailer/film. Due to the fact our trailer is a HORROR trailer, our main focus is that the target audience understand and feel the emotions within the storyline, not for the audience to aspire to be like the characters.Evaluation

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Editing Process

Whilst editing the trailer together, several changes have been made....

- When uploading all the footage onto imovie, as a group we decided to film some extra shots to ensure the narrative made sense.

- Also as a group, we changed the narrative slightly and many parts that we had already filmed got scrapped. We narrowed down our narrative to make it more precise.

- The most significant change made has been the music which accompanies the film. This has changed several times due to many factors
- it wasn't loud enough/it was too loud
- it wasnt fittig with what you could visually see on the screen
- it wasn't fitting with genre too well

After several attempts however we have all reached an outcome which we are happy with

Thoughts so far....

At the beginning of our filming experience, our initial storyboard had no annotations on it and as a group we were pretty set on what we wanted to film. However, as filming progressed it was evident that our storyboard only covered the foundations of our trailer and that actually, a lot more would have to be added. Instead of creating another storyboard, we were spontaneous with our filming. We experimented with a lot more camera angles and developed our narrative. When we now compare our footage and our storyboard, there is a huge difference in the two. Our actual footage is far more developed and succesful than if we had strictly stuck to our storyboard. By annotating the storyboard, it helped us massively when filming.

Email To Paramount

Due to the fact that we are wanting to use parts of Paranormal Activity soundtracks, as a group we have to email Paramount ( the production company) to ask for permission.

Filming Process

Tuesday 31st January - Filmed all bedroom scenes, but when looking at them on the computer, the lighting was all wrong.

Wendesday 15th February - Filmed all bedroom scenes for the second time. Had trouble with lighting as we wanted the scenes to be as if they were in the middle of the night. Satisfied with end result however (:

Sunday 26th February - Good filming session! Got all of the scenes that feature in the dream filmed! Very cold outside but was worth it in the end!

Monday 27th February - Due to film but to unexpected rain showers, filming had to be called off. :(

Thursday 1st March - Originally, we were meant to be filming after school only, but after cacelling Monday's session, we also filmed in the morning. All remaining outdoor shots were filmed including some extra filler shots and some inside shots were also filmed.

Sunday 11th March - After looking at all of the shots filmed on the computer and placing them in the order they are due to feature in the trailer some shots were missing. These were filmed today! Succesful and we think we are all done (:

EDITING HERE WE COME! :D

Film Plan

Roles and Responsibilities

To assure that everyone has an equal role within the group, we decided to allocate different jobs and roles between us as this would give everyone a chance to focus on their individual role/roles and have an equal input into what ideas they've come up. Although roles have been split evenly we have decided to work together in the editing process as we think it would be more effective if everyone in the group shared their opinion on what they think looks best and as it’s a vital part of the project.
- Hazel has taken the role of creating the storyboard and is an actress.
- Amy's roles are to focus on the filming and are also in charge of the make-up and costume.
- My roles are being one of the actresses within the horror trailer and I am overseeing most of the editing aspect.
- Natalie is taking charge of filming and props and making sure the trailer continunity throughtout.

Storyboard - Horror Trailer

Scenario of Plot

P1 has a dream that she is being hunted down by a hooded figure. Throughout the dream there are instances where P1 comes into contact with the figure. She sees herself being killed in the dream and when she wakes up the dream becomes reality. In the rest of the trailer, we see person one in different situations where she and the hooded figure again come into contact with one another.