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

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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