EVALUATION

For my A2 media coursework, I was required to create a film trailer and then a poster and film magazine cover as ancillary tasks. As a team we decided to make a horror film trailer. To do our tasks we were required to research into the genre and the products we were making so we had some influences of how we would them to look in the end. We thought it would be best to start the filming process as soon as possible so we had more time at the end for editing or doing our ancillary tasks. Although our trailer is aimed at teenagers and above, we thought we would keep the cast minimal and also relatively young. We went along with the conventions of a horror film as we based the trailer around a cloaked figure, wearing black, a stereotypical colour of the genre. The trailer also includes teenage girls, a common target amongst horror films. We decided for the opening of our trailer we would begin with an establishing shot, to set the scene for the audience, we then proceeded with the production logo. It is followed by a clip of a door opening and then the second production logo is shown on screen. Our logos, were created to fit the genre and trailer specifically. The key features we needed were either put at the beginning or end. We had the logos at the start and all the production credits at the end. When researching film trailers to influence ours, we took note of the conventions that are included as we knew that there were specific features that would be used within a trailer. The main conventions are; the title, production logos, the release date, sound, institutional details and cast members. These are seen in every film trailer so we researched them and later included them in our trailer.

The title, we placed near the end of our trailer as we wanted to include some extra footage right at the end as we had seen this done in many trailers that we researched.We input the cast names with the institutional details on the same page as the film title, we did this as we didn’t not want to oversell the trailer based on the cast members but to concentrate on the narrative and the genre.The release date is shown on the following page, it is situated at the top centre of the page, above the website and social media links for our film.For the production credits, we had the names of the cast members, directors, executive producers and the production companies behind it all.

We used some copy in our trailer, we included the title and production credits towards the end. In between some clips we input text saying, ‘YOU CAN’T RUN’. We placed the white text against a black background and capitalized the text to make it more prominent. At the end of our trailer, we finish with a black screen with the words ‘THEY’RE NOT ALONE IN THIS HOUSE’ this we decided was to be out tagline, we decided this when producing our poster.

For the poster, we followed the conventions of what is included;the main image, we placed that in the centre as it is the main focus. We used a house as the main image, we edited it to black and white and it made it look like a creepy old house- typical of the horror genre.

As it is a horror film poster the colouring was obviously going to be limited, we stuck with black and white as we knew this would work and look simple and not overcrowded with too many colours.

The cast names are featured in the production credits as we thought it is mainly films with well known actors where the names are displayed on the front of a film poster. We knew our film was suited for the teenage/young adult demographic but the trailer isn’t graphic or include anything overly scary. We placed the age rating under the title so it is visible for the audience to see but doesn’t overpower the title. We also included a tagline as we did on the trailer too, we wanted to show continuity between our ancillary tasks and our main task.

At the bottom of the poster we have all the important features such as the release date ‘8.10.15’, the production credits, the social network links and the production company logos. Overall I think the poster has a gothic feel to it that suits the horror genre well and that compliments our film trailer. We did originally want to produce a teaser poster to go with our main poster but we decided we could only do this if we have extra time which we did not. We were planning to use the old photographs we found on the internet with the cloaked figure in the background and just the film title and release date on.

 

When researching film magazine front covers we came across the typical things that feature on them so we knew which ones we needed to include and which we didn’t need to.

We included the name ‘ REEL FILM’ at the top centre, the main image situated in the middle of the cover as it is the main focus and sell point of the magazine.

The main anchorage text is sat towards the left of the cover but partly covering the main image, we wrote about our film and we used one of the actors as a way of advertising the film. ‘Get up close and personal with rising star Dawn Little’, this gives the audience an insight into one of the actor’s lives, persuading them to buy the magazine then they may want to see the film. We include a ‘free poster’ with the magazine, this is also attracting an audience, we noticed that some magazines do this to entice a larger audience. We put that information in a yellow circle known as a puff, this makes it stand out more to the demographic.

We used the word ‘Exclusive!’ in one of our sell lines, to make the text more desirable to read, this is common amongst magazines,it hooks the reader as if they need to read it immediately. We placed images of upcoming movies in the film reel we placed under the title, when an audience see that the magazine features films that they ant to know more about that may make them want to buy the magazine more. We put the barcode and price in the top right corner and the issue number and date in the left top corner. These are necessary for a front cover but we didn’t want them to overcrowd or overshadow all the other important features on the cover.

Overall I think our ancillary tasks compliment our film trailer well, I think they could be used as marketing tools in the film industry to sell our film to the demographic. the film poster uses the house in which we based the majority of the narrative of our trailer in. This links our poster and trailer automatically, we wanted to show continuity between them so we also included the tag line and all the production credits, social network links and release date.

The magazine cover also links with the poster as we advertise that we are giving a free one away when the magazine is purchased. This is realistic as in real magazines free gifts are always popular. When constructing it we knew we wanted to give away something and it made sense for it to bet the poster as the main story is based around one of the actors and it would be more interesting if we were to link our products together.

As seen in a previous post, we carried out a survey to 65 GCSE film and media students to get their honest opinion on our film trailer, we gave them a questionnaire to fill out and below are the results and what they tell us.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

What was the genre of the film?

Luckily for this question, all of the audience knew clearly that we made a horror trailer. This obviously means we portrayed the typical conventions of a horror film trailer well within our work. We were happy with these results and we are glad that every one of our audience chose horror.

What age rating do you think this film would have?

 60% of our audience said that they thought our trailer would be rated a certificate 15, we were impressed by this as it means we portrayed just enough scariness but not too much to make the majority think it would be a 18.

18% said 18, we can see that we did include some scary scenes in the trailer but we also do not think it needs an 18 rating, within the trailer we didn’t show much terror, swearing or violence. We also understand that certificate 12 is very close to the 15 that we decided to make our trailer, 14% said 12 and 8% said 12a, we do think that these ratings are quite low but are understandable just from seeing the trailer as there isn’t any footage overly harming for people that age.

Would this trailer encourage you to view the film in cinemas?

Our trailer clearly made a positive impact on our audience as nearly 3/4 said they would want to view this film in cinemas. This is good for us as we know that our film would be successful amongst our target audience.

If not why?

Of the 26% that said they would not want to see the complete film, we asked them why they didn’t and we had a wide range of results. 35% said that they didn’t like the horror genre so therefore they wouldn’t enjoy the film, this is something as a group could not prevent. You can’t make the audience like a specific genre. 23% said they wouldn’t see the film due to the narrative, due to it being a two minute trailer, there is only so much of the narrative you can give away and that 23% obviously thought that the part of the narrative we did give away wasn’t so interesting and gripping. 12% said acting and another 12% said editing, we realise as a team that there are some parts on our trailer where the acting could have been executed better and improved but as for the editing skills, we think we did as best as we could with the equipment that we were provided. 6% stated that the issue was the music and sound, this is a very important feature to a film trailer and if the music doesn’t build the tension and make the film look interesting then it wont be too popular.

What do you feel worked well in this trailer?

Although from the previous question a lot of the people said that they wouldn’t see the film due to it’s narrative, 37% of people this time said that the narrative was the part that worked best in our trailer. Followed by 26% of the audience that said the music and sound were the part that worked best on the trailer. 15% said editing, we were overall very proud so far as these were the key parts of the trailer and the parts needed to grip an audience. 11% said camera work and 6% said mise en scene worked best, closely following that was the lighting at a total of 5%, this pleased us as our audience seemed to be impressed with all the features that we thought about more and spent more time preparing.

Do you feel the narrative of the film is shown clearly in the trailer?

95% of our audience said they think the narrative is shown clearly within our trailer, so our thoughtful planning and preparing was all worth it in the end. The 5% of our audience that said the narrative was not clear, is only a small percentage, if it were higher then we may consider re shooting some of our trailer. If the audience didn’t feel the narrative was shown clearly then we asked them ‘If not why?’ however those who chose this option did not write where we asked them to so we could not make a pie chart out of our response.

Is there anything you feel could be changed in order to improve it?

25% of the audience said the acting is in need of improving, we knew that the acting in our trailer was not as good as it could have been, but we only think there are a few scenes where this is an issue.But if we had more time to change our trailer we would re shoot these scenes. 18% said there was nothing that they could see needed improvements in the trailer. Closely following this by 17% is both music & sound and editing, both are very important in a trailer, we thought that we had gotten both of them right when editing and reviewing our trailer so we didn’t see the problem. We understand that if you don’t think the music suits the genre or the clip then it makes it less interesting to watch, this is same for the way in which the trailer is edited, if an audience find it’s not up to a certain standard they will not want to watch more. At 11% is narrative, this is also a key point when producing a trailer but with only 11% saying it needs improving, we know that this could be improved if we were to spend more time planning and make a more detailed storyline. Mise en scene has 8% of the audience vote for what needs changing, as our trailer was only set in a few different locations, we didn’t need to change much, we had certain props such as the edited photos with the figure in, we also had a costume for the figure and just casual clothes for the teenage girls. Some of the mise en scene had more thought behind it compared to others but to change it we would definitely plan out our scenes more and make them possibly more interesting yet still not dragging the attention away from the main focus that is the acting and narrative. Camera work and genre follow with 3% and 1% this is a good result for us as we know that the overall look of the trailer was good and the genre is only an issue if the audience doesn’t like horrors.

We used several different pieces of equipment when making our trailer, we used a video camera and tripod provided by the college to shoot everything in our trailer. We also used my Fujifilm finepix s8500 digital camera to take the photo in my house when Georgia is in the living room and we input the ghost figure into the same photo.

We used Serif DrawPlus to make this image, we used the ‘cut out studio’ on the software to get rid of the figure’s white background and increase the transparency and then we placed it so it was hidden behind the draws.

We also used ‘Serif DrawPlus’ to produce the poster and magazine cover, our methods of doing so are shown in the individual posts about them. To make the trailer we used Adobe Premiere elements, which we found quite simple to use. We added footage as we filmed it, we then edited the clips and kept the parts we need and watched them over to see if anything needed re shooting.