Evaluation Questions

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

      Through the stage of research and planning, finding the conventions of Psychological Horror film trailers became a lot easier when we found the trailer that inspired our own. 'The Ward', and after analysing it we found that the expected genre features are dark lighting, blood,thriller,  idiocy    attractive teenagers, killers/villain, torture/death, tension, loud noises/screaming, fast pace editing, build up of tension and enhanced diagetic sound. Seeing as The Ward was a Hollywood film with a high budget, we could only attempt to achieve such conventions. Our main aim was to develop the usual screaming, loud noises and killer plot but twisting each individual scene that would use them and then film a few clips of it in different pitches, angles and location spots- when it was being edited we also challenged the dark lighting convention, with our own colour scheme; where we edited each individual clip using the 3-way colour tool on Final Cut pro, our aim to challenge the ameture, typical, darkness impressed the audience and also challenged The Wards dark theme.
Now, The Ward used a lot of loud noises, throughout the trailer and especially when it progressed to the fast paced editing which we found very interesting so we just used the same method, due to (and us being the audience) it keeping us at the edge of our seat, an element that is vital in a horror trailer and one that we would be deluded not to include. Along with the diagetic sounds, one that followed the guidelines of out story and genre, creating the feeling of realism and connecting with the audience i.e panting while running, hospital sounds, twigs breaking ect.

In no way did we use and abuse The Ward, we altered the conventions to our taste, challenged them and developed to make it better - make the result better for us and the audience.

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

      After researching existing media text to count toward our own ancillary text and coming across Magazine covers and posters, it was easy to combine them with my own image in my mind, an image hopefully for the best - the magazine cover being the Empire magazine with the masthead of the Batman/Hobbit cover which was relevant due to the stance of the model, the spacing around and the text/font used and the dark colour scheme. Seeing as horror magazines and covers are quite hard to come by (most of the covers being non gory, close ups and the typical 'glare') these helped alot, and combining the mentioned covers with the personal touches produced a great outcome.
 The Drag Me To Hell poster is a more similar poster to my preference (due to the forceful grabbing hands and terrified model), i thought of using a much more gory and disturbing image for the cover but seeing as the target audience is 16+ i decided to use a more toned down and 'grabbing' image instead - suitable but still effective and it received positive feedback from the audience.
   
   

 3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
      
       From the Audience feedback we learnt that i had to alter some of the text and title size on the magazine cover as they both drowned out the style model, along with the font being too 'out there' and contrasting to the colour scheme. We also found that some of our clips did not follow some of the camera angle and movement rules, along with the diagetic sound zig zagging from high to low a few times.

   

 4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction & research, planning & evaluation stages?
        
      When it came to constructing the trailer we used the Mac which featured the software we needed, which was FinalCut Pro and GarageBand. The Mac itself was very complex and aggravating to navigate at first yet alone finding the programmes and getting them up! But FinalCut pro was still difficult regardless, but with the help of many YouTube tutorials we built up our knowledge and step by step we cut up our trailer, re arranged, applied the colour scheme and music et voila!
That was the only time we used the Macs, otherwise we researched in books, on out usual computers in class and at home, though we did use the big camera to produce our audience interview of the conventions expected in horror films where we edited on a normal computer.

            

     ((We gathered as much audience research as we could, but due to the limitations of feedback it was quite difficult because in the video we made that counted toward our research (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jMzqwJ-NnY&feature=g-upl ) shows that not all people like horror films due to the typical expectancy of the plot/storyline - though saying that, it made this more of a challenge to hit that ball out of the park and exceed their expectations which, judging by the feedback we received, we did.))

      
   

Audience feedback

1)      Does ‘Sanatorium’ appeal to you as the target audience?
Jess – Yes as the protagonist is a teenage film
Helena – Yes it appeals to me, because of how crazy the girl seems – I am intrigued to watch the film so I know why
Faye – Yes, it creates a good horror atmosphere, and I like horror
Owen – Yes, I am not interested in Horrors but I like the psychological effect and that if it incises you into the story. It feels like there is a lot to see.

2)      What genre do you think the trailer portrays?
Jess – A psychological thriller/horror
Helena – A horror film
Faye – Psychological Horror
Owen – Psychological horror

3)      Do you think the trailer follows the typical codes & conventions of a trailer?Jess – I do indeed- fast editing from scene to scene, typical music soundtrack as well
Helena – Yes, because of the dramatic scenes and music, making you interested and capture your attention
Faye – Definitely – it has all the horror features e.g screaming
Owen – To an extent yes, but it is individual enough to make it stand out from the crowd

4)      Which technique do you think works the best?
Jess – The colour scheme as it adds originality
Helena – The paleness of the girl and the blacking out between each clip of the girl – and the music used
Faye – The colour filter definitely has an effect, making the film seem high quality
Owen – The colour, it creates a theme and feel that fits the genre well – gives it a tone

        5) What element of the trailer can be improved?           Jess – Variation in the camera angles
               Helena – No improvement
               Faye – The actress
               Owen – Occasional jumpy editing – a little more camera movement would make it a bit more  mixed up.

Final Trailer

Here is the finished product - The 'Sanatorium' trailer;
I have posted it on face book and am waiting audience feedback to add to my planning and research
Enjoy;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ--fpx1HP8

Add caption

Editing tutorials

Being dropped into the pool of editing completely inexperienced was like dropping a wounded seal into shark infested waters - big trouble for the seal a.k.a us!
We were stumped for weeks on end trying to work out how to use the Macs and Final Cut pro. However, when we YouTubed what to do we came across this; http://www.youtube.com/user/avs4you?v=MZx1HdgHBro&feature=pyv&ad=6650084434&kw=cut%20video

A lifesaving video which helped us trim and cut unnecessary parts from out trailer, from there we learnt how to render, edit the colour scheme - along with adding the soundtrack we made on GarageBand. It really helped us and i recommend to anyone who needs help like we did to watch this

Final Magazine

Whilst researching Magazine covers i founf the main influence would be from 'Empire' magazine.
As i mentioned in my previous posts, my main style model was the Batman cover of Anne Hathaway simply because of her stance - meshed in with the Drag Me To Hell idea of hands dragging the model down.
However when it came to the photoshoot for my cover i found that, by using the Batman stance, it left out too much bare space around the model and i didn't want to clutter it up with text and ameture font.
So i used a head shot image of the main character screaing with hands dragging her face, still capturing the elements of Drag Me To Hell;



I added 'photo filter; dark blue' to the image but it leant toward the grey tinit. Along with a smooth gradient overlay and a pattern that added a vain ridden face. I then added the featured/main article which is the film name 'Sanatorium';

It is easily noticeable that i amplified the mist effect on this step, due to the title darkening the whole magazine cover. because of the title doing so i thought of a colour sequence that stands out, conrasts the feature and yet, has the 'Empire' tint;

As you can see, i chose to folow the different Gold palet. I saw this colour sequence used in 'The Hobbit' special edition feature and it had a unique feel to it so i wanted to create that approach to the buyers and for how different and 'standing out from the crowd' Sanatorium is.

The features, howeve varied from white and gold because i wanted to mix it up, and most if not ALL o fthe cover examples that i observed had this technique;

Hers is my final cover, i expremented with all my ideas that i had towards this and altered elements throughout the process but i am overall happy with the outcome.

Final Poster

Whilst doing the photoshoot for the magazine i noticed that the planned stance of the main image for the cover would leave too much of empty space around it regardless of all the font i could use to fill it in.
So i changed my idea to a head shot;

This image is inspired by the 'Drag me to hell' poster featured in my previous posts, the way the model is screaming and posing with the hands grabbing her face (each representing her split personality) carries out the concept of the trailer, but not giving away too much.

When observing the images i took i thought how i could fiddle around with them to create a creepy, eerie effect but by not overdoing it. 

So i started with copying these three images and merging down each visable layer so it looks like she is wrything in pain and confusion;

                                                                      

i then altered the brightness and contrast because the image was too bright;

I thought this was too dark, so i contemplated adding a photo philter but i was not aiming for the amture effect so i tinted it with blue and added a 90' gradient effect;

Obviously, the postr then needed a title, production company label and institutional information so i started with the Film title but i made it white so it contrasted the model image;



Gradually building up the poster with the right font size, company rights ect;

Then the additional 'From the director of...' post to create my final poster;