1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventional media products:
Lilith is a supernatural horror with a psychological element to it. We initially decided on a supernatural horror and decided that a psychological twist should be added to make the plot a bit more complex and make the audience use their intellect a bit more than the conventional horror film.
Our initial inspirations were the films American horror story and The women in black. We thought that these films have a great mix of supernatural and psychological horror with great miss en scene, especially the costume in american horror story. We thought this costume was especially effective as it catches the audiences eye straight away. The bright white colours portray ghostly spirits and immediately raw the audience towards the screen. Similarly in Lilith we decided to use costumes which were used in the American horror story, This was the nuns dressed in white. We thought that similar to American horror story this costume would portray the Salem witches in the most effective way.
We used a wide variety of shots to do this. This included high angle shots, low angle shots, pans and zooms. A very effective shot that we used in the teaser trailer of our movie was a high angle shot of the Salem witches surrounding Malia the possessed girl. We thought that this shot would have a great effect on the audience as it would give them a sense of the power of Lilith and him looking over the vulnerable and innocent girl. For the opening shot of our teaser trailer we got inspiration from films such as the conjuring and insidious. In these movies the opening shots of the teaser trailers consist of a haunted house. This straight away gives the audience an idea that the film is a horror. We decided that we would do something like this but would challenge the usual conventions of the horror movie. Instead of having a haunted house which is the usual choice in many horror films we decided to have tall trees in the jungle as our opening shot in the teaser trailer. This went against many of the usual conventions of horror films as it did not give the audience an idea that it is a horror straight away, this made our teaser trailer more unique and therefore more favourable. We thought that the use of inter titles in The house at the end of the street were very effective. The titles that they used were very simple yet sophisticated which complimented the trailer extremely well. Looking at this we decided that we would do a similar font which would be simple to read and not too fancy but would have a bit of a religious message behind it. This is because our trailer shows the audience that there are some religious elements to the film. Our title which was called Lilith was a good font and the T was changed from a T to a cross. This would portray the religious elements of the film along with the supernatural and psychological sub genre.
The main character in the film is Malia who is a young and innocent girl possessed by the powers of Lilith. We thought that a young girl around the age of 14-17 would be perfect for this role as it shows how vulnerable young girls are in being possessed as they portrayed as weak by society. This was in conjunction with real media products as we thought that we should have some conventions similar to real world media products. This is because in many horror movies which include possession they usually include Women who are young or old. This is because women are usually seen as weak by society and much more vulnerable to demonic possessions. Lilith is a low budget Hollywood film. This is because most horror movies in the american Hollywood market are low budget, some low budget horror movies include Insidious, The conjuring and haunting in Connecticut. Supernatural horrors are usually low budget, this is because unlike action movie famous Hollywood stars are not needed to attract audiences in large numbers. Horror movies do not need such actors as the element of horror is enough to engage the audience fully in watching the film.
Films like Insidious used relatively unknown actors like Patrick Wilson and Barbara Hershey. This is a very effective way of portraying the horror genre as well known actors acting in horror movies will remove the originality of the genre as the audience will portray that actor as they do in most conventional Hollywood films. Also our film challenged the conventional setting of the USA where most Hollywood films are shot. Instead our film was shot in London where a minority of Hollywood films are usually filmed. Lilith is a very unique film as it has a wide variety of sub genres included in the film. These include the supernatural horror with a psychological and religious element.
Lilith is a supernatural horror with a psychological element to it. We initially decided on a supernatural horror and decided that a psychological twist should be added to make the plot a bit more complex and make the audience use their intellect a bit more than the conventional horror film.
Our initial inspirations were the films American horror story and The women in black. We thought that these films have a great mix of supernatural and psychological horror with great miss en scene, especially the costume in american horror story. We thought this costume was especially effective as it catches the audiences eye straight away. The bright white colours portray ghostly spirits and immediately raw the audience towards the screen. Similarly in Lilith we decided to use costumes which were used in the American horror story, This was the nuns dressed in white. We thought that similar to American horror story this costume would portray the Salem witches in the most effective way.
We used a wide variety of shots to do this. This included high angle shots, low angle shots, pans and zooms. A very effective shot that we used in the teaser trailer of our movie was a high angle shot of the Salem witches surrounding Malia the possessed girl. We thought that this shot would have a great effect on the audience as it would give them a sense of the power of Lilith and him looking over the vulnerable and innocent girl. For the opening shot of our teaser trailer we got inspiration from films such as the conjuring and insidious. In these movies the opening shots of the teaser trailers consist of a haunted house. This straight away gives the audience an idea that the film is a horror. We decided that we would do something like this but would challenge the usual conventions of the horror movie. Instead of having a haunted house which is the usual choice in many horror films we decided to have tall trees in the jungle as our opening shot in the teaser trailer. This went against many of the usual conventions of horror films as it did not give the audience an idea that it is a horror straight away, this made our teaser trailer more unique and therefore more favourable. We thought that the use of inter titles in The house at the end of the street were very effective. The titles that they used were very simple yet sophisticated which complimented the trailer extremely well. Looking at this we decided that we would do a similar font which would be simple to read and not too fancy but would have a bit of a religious message behind it. This is because our trailer shows the audience that there are some religious elements to the film. Our title which was called Lilith was a good font and the T was changed from a T to a cross. This would portray the religious elements of the film along with the supernatural and psychological sub genre.
The main character in the film is Malia who is a young and innocent girl possessed by the powers of Lilith. We thought that a young girl around the age of 14-17 would be perfect for this role as it shows how vulnerable young girls are in being possessed as they portrayed as weak by society. This was in conjunction with real media products as we thought that we should have some conventions similar to real world media products. This is because in many horror movies which include possession they usually include Women who are young or old. This is because women are usually seen as weak by society and much more vulnerable to demonic possessions. Lilith is a low budget Hollywood film. This is because most horror movies in the american Hollywood market are low budget, some low budget horror movies include Insidious, The conjuring and haunting in Connecticut. Supernatural horrors are usually low budget, this is because unlike action movie famous Hollywood stars are not needed to attract audiences in large numbers. Horror movies do not need such actors as the element of horror is enough to engage the audience fully in watching the film.
Films like Insidious used relatively unknown actors like Patrick Wilson and Barbara Hershey. This is a very effective way of portraying the horror genre as well known actors acting in horror movies will remove the originality of the genre as the audience will portray that actor as they do in most conventional Hollywood films. Also our film challenged the conventional setting of the USA where most Hollywood films are shot. Instead our film was shot in London where a minority of Hollywood films are usually filmed. Lilith is a very unique film as it has a wide variety of sub genres included in the film. These include the supernatural horror with a psychological and religious element.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our A2 media coursework required us to produce 3 products- a Teaser trailer, a poster and a magazine cover. The making of these three products we thought it was vital for the three to link together as much as possible to give it an identity. The use of props, costume/make-up, fonts, colour were all similar elements that were shown throughout the three different ancillary texts which achieved an effective combination of all three products.
Within our film we represented the genre as Horror. We created an eerie atmosphere which is represented through out trailer and poster. We kept the consistency of the horror in both trailer and poster to create an easy understanding of the genre for the audience. We achieved an effective combination of our main product and our ancillary texts by keeping the consistency of the colour and lighting in each product. We also used the narrative in the teaser trailer and characters as a way of introducing the genre.
The costume of the two antagonists is consistent throughout the teaser trailer and poster as it is the identity of the two possessed nuns. This is the same with the protagonist, in both the film poster and teaser trailer we kept her pink nightgown persistent. The reason we chose the colour pink is because it represents innocence and inner peace, it is a sweet colour which makes our character look beloved and vulnerable. The use of the small innocent girl is evident in many posters and trailers such as the movie sinister which shows the little girl smearing blood on the wall. The use of the girl is used in many posters and trailer to give a sense of purity and innocence.
The main characters themselves were a massive element that we included in the poster, magazine and trailer. The characters help link these three together as they are portrayed in each, keeping it consistent throughout. However in the magazine we decided to portray the actors in a different light. We decided to create a glamour magazine so that the actors in our trailer are out of character but still keeping the element of horror by incorporating blood into the magazine. Although the characters in the magazine were out of character it still links with the trailer and poster due to the fact that the we used the blood to still include the essence of our trailer. Therefore this will give the ancillary texts and trailer a visual link because the actors are still included but with the exception of the conventions of the film. Although in our magazine cover we decided to make it look more glamorous, dressing the nuns and the young girl in more appealing attire with light subtle make-up as we wanted to show the fun side, the use of blood, just to give a slight insight of what 'Lilith' is about. A drastic change in hair or the make-up would make the poster and magazine look like its from two different movies on first glance, and we want people to immediately link the two when they see them, even though the similarities in the actors and characters appearance.
For our magazine we opted for creating our own magazine cover as we thought that using Entertainment weekly didnt rerally capture the essence of our trailer as creating our own magazine allowed us to be more creative without sticking to elements that follow Entertainment weekly's magazine.Therefore we decided to create our own Horror style magazine as we thought there isn't a main stream magazine dedicated for Horror films. We decided to call the magazine 'Scar entertainment' as it connotes for danger which suited the idea of our teaser trailer. We also wanted to create a more light hearted magazine, making it playful and fun but still including the elements of Horror.
Fonts were also a big part of the trailer as this helped us to keep continuity of the poster, we used the same font in each ancillary text and in the trailer to make sure this continuity progressed, this then helped us make sure that each part linked with each other. We wanted to make the font unique as basic fonts didn't really capture the essence of the trailer. Therefore we found a website called font space and found a font that best suited our trailer. we also used photoshop to create a cross instead of using the basic T in 'Lilith'. This would then mean our audience could associate this font with our film as they would of seen it in our trailer and poster.
Another important element that allowed us to produce an effective trailer, poster and magazine is colors. Our genre is horror therefore we opted for dark colors that represent the genre well. We wanted to keep the lighting dull to add a sense of mystery and to really capture the genre of horror. However the two main colours we used is black and white, as we wanted these colours to be inonic. The nuns outfits are white which play an important part in the effectiveness of our products as we wanted to contrast the black and white. Stereo-typically white usually symbolizes peace and harmony but we wanted to break this elements and connote white for darkness and the sinister which created a more dangerous essence. The black makeup around the eyes of the nuns is also used to highlight the contrast with the white.
Lastly, the main characters themselves were a massive element that we included in the poster, magazine and trailer. These three characters give the ancillary texts and the trailer purpose and understanding . We wanted the 'Salem Witches' to be ionic characters implying darkness. The characters help link these three together as they are portrayed in each, even though the in magazine we decided to portray the actors instead of the actual characters in a more fun and lively way gives a sort of freshness to the products.
Our A2 media coursework required us to produce 3 products- a Teaser trailer, a poster and a magazine cover. The making of these three products we thought it was vital for the three to link together as much as possible to give it an identity. The use of props, costume/make-up, fonts, colour were all similar elements that were shown throughout the three different ancillary texts which achieved an effective combination of all three products.
Within our film we represented the genre as Horror. We created an eerie atmosphere which is represented through out trailer and poster. We kept the consistency of the horror in both trailer and poster to create an easy understanding of the genre for the audience. We achieved an effective combination of our main product and our ancillary texts by keeping the consistency of the colour and lighting in each product. We also used the narrative in the teaser trailer and characters as a way of introducing the genre.
The costume of the two antagonists is consistent throughout the teaser trailer and poster as it is the identity of the two possessed nuns. This is the same with the protagonist, in both the film poster and teaser trailer we kept her pink nightgown persistent. The reason we chose the colour pink is because it represents innocence and inner peace, it is a sweet colour which makes our character look beloved and vulnerable. The use of the small innocent girl is evident in many posters and trailers such as the movie sinister which shows the little girl smearing blood on the wall. The use of the girl is used in many posters and trailer to give a sense of purity and innocence.
The main characters themselves were a massive element that we included in the poster, magazine and trailer. The characters help link these three together as they are portrayed in each, keeping it consistent throughout. However in the magazine we decided to portray the actors in a different light. We decided to create a glamour magazine so that the actors in our trailer are out of character but still keeping the element of horror by incorporating blood into the magazine. Although the characters in the magazine were out of character it still links with the trailer and poster due to the fact that the we used the blood to still include the essence of our trailer. Therefore this will give the ancillary texts and trailer a visual link because the actors are still included but with the exception of the conventions of the film. Although in our magazine cover we decided to make it look more glamorous, dressing the nuns and the young girl in more appealing attire with light subtle make-up as we wanted to show the fun side, the use of blood, just to give a slight insight of what 'Lilith' is about. A drastic change in hair or the make-up would make the poster and magazine look like its from two different movies on first glance, and we want people to immediately link the two when they see them, even though the similarities in the actors and characters appearance.
For our magazine we opted for creating our own magazine cover as we thought that using Entertainment weekly didnt rerally capture the essence of our trailer as creating our own magazine allowed us to be more creative without sticking to elements that follow Entertainment weekly's magazine.Therefore we decided to create our own Horror style magazine as we thought there isn't a main stream magazine dedicated for Horror films. We decided to call the magazine 'Scar entertainment' as it connotes for danger which suited the idea of our teaser trailer. We also wanted to create a more light hearted magazine, making it playful and fun but still including the elements of Horror.
Fonts were also a big part of the trailer as this helped us to keep continuity of the poster, we used the same font in each ancillary text and in the trailer to make sure this continuity progressed, this then helped us make sure that each part linked with each other. We wanted to make the font unique as basic fonts didn't really capture the essence of the trailer. Therefore we found a website called font space and found a font that best suited our trailer. we also used photoshop to create a cross instead of using the basic T in 'Lilith'. This would then mean our audience could associate this font with our film as they would of seen it in our trailer and poster.
Another important element that allowed us to produce an effective trailer, poster and magazine is colors. Our genre is horror therefore we opted for dark colors that represent the genre well. We wanted to keep the lighting dull to add a sense of mystery and to really capture the genre of horror. However the two main colours we used is black and white, as we wanted these colours to be inonic. The nuns outfits are white which play an important part in the effectiveness of our products as we wanted to contrast the black and white. Stereo-typically white usually symbolizes peace and harmony but we wanted to break this elements and connote white for darkness and the sinister which created a more dangerous essence. The black makeup around the eyes of the nuns is also used to highlight the contrast with the white.
Lastly, the main characters themselves were a massive element that we included in the poster, magazine and trailer. These three characters give the ancillary texts and the trailer purpose and understanding . We wanted the 'Salem Witches' to be ionic characters implying darkness. The characters help link these three together as they are portrayed in each, even though the in magazine we decided to portray the actors instead of the actual characters in a more fun and lively way gives a sort of freshness to the products.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback ?
In the process of beginning our planning and research for our teaser trailer it was important for us as a group to establish what our target audience would be and what codes and conventions the audience expect to see in a horror genre. In order for us to gather the required information to proceed with planning and research it was essential for us to carry out a survey. We used survey monkey to achieve a more professional survey that could be easily sent and answered to by many people. An average of 69 participants took part in our survey with a total of 10 questions asked. As a group we were certain we wanted to produce a horror teaser trailer so we focused our survey on what elements the audience expected to see. (Show each question briefly)
One key question we asked was about the setting as we wanted to make sure that the setting grabbed the audience’s attention the question we enquired was 'What setting in a horror genre creeps you out the most?’ the majority of the audience said a haunted house followed by a graveyard setting. This greatly impacted us on the locations we wanted to use. Based on our audience feedback we decided to use a cemetery, haunted house and a forest. We used a total of 3 cemeteries which included Isleworth, Heston & Hounslow cemetery as we thought filming in a cemetery for the for the most part of the teaser trailer would really highlight the genre making it clear to the audience what genre it is without confusing the audience. Furthermore the use of the cemetery helped us to create an eerie atmosphere and truly capture the essence of the horror genre. We used a haunted house and forest so that the audience could get a further understanding of the plot as using a variety of location makes the teaser trailer seem interesting and mysterious.
Another key concern we wanted to find out was about the type of characters that would best fit the Horror genre the data from the audience feedback showed that majority of the participants thought demons/devils was the most effective character however as a group we thought having a demon as the main character in the trailer would be too cliché and that is an issue we greatly wanted to avoid hence, when choosing the characters we decided to still incorporate a demon however we wanted to include only one shot of the demon so that not too much of its appearance is given away to the audience, keeping the suspense of the movie. To again a further understanding of what the audience wanted to see in horror we asked participants to comment on their opinions. ( upload comments here ) After analysing the comments one thing that was common amongst the individuals was the feeling of suspense and making the trailer scary this really helped us in deciding key elements that would install fear.
Survey monkey was a very effective way to gather data from audiences as it was easy to send the links to our fellow friends over social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and Watsapp. However one concern we had when using survey monkey was it wasn't a quick way to receive data as some people took time to watch the trailer and then answer the follow up trailers which was very frustrating for us we needed the audience feedback so that we could go ahead with planning.
In class we got the chance to be given audience feedback from our class mates; this was very helpful as it allowed us to make minor changes and adjustments before the final deadline. (The sheet we used to write down improvements) They complimented us on our Mise en scene and said it was very effective particularly our costumes and makeup but the one thing they didn’t seem to understand was the main plot which was a huge concern therefore we decided to add taglines to be certain the trailer was clear and the audience understood the basic plot.
After weeks of hard work we were finally finished with our teaser trailer we uploaded it on to YouTube, we also uploaded it to our websites and our Facebook accounts. To gain a further understating of audiences reactions to our teaser trailer we created another survey monkey. We asked a total of 5 questions, majority of the audience gave us positive feedback which pleased us very much. However one issue we could have improved on was the clarity of the plot as not everyone who watched our trailer understood it. (take a couple of face to face comments)
One key question we asked was about the setting as we wanted to make sure that the setting grabbed the audience’s attention the question we enquired was 'What setting in a horror genre creeps you out the most?’ the majority of the audience said a haunted house followed by a graveyard setting. This greatly impacted us on the locations we wanted to use. Based on our audience feedback we decided to use a cemetery, haunted house and a forest. We used a total of 3 cemeteries which included Isleworth, Heston & Hounslow cemetery as we thought filming in a cemetery for the for the most part of the teaser trailer would really highlight the genre making it clear to the audience what genre it is without confusing the audience. Furthermore the use of the cemetery helped us to create an eerie atmosphere and truly capture the essence of the horror genre. We used a haunted house and forest so that the audience could get a further understanding of the plot as using a variety of location makes the teaser trailer seem interesting and mysterious.
Another key concern we wanted to find out was about the type of characters that would best fit the Horror genre the data from the audience feedback showed that majority of the participants thought demons/devils was the most effective character however as a group we thought having a demon as the main character in the trailer would be too cliché and that is an issue we greatly wanted to avoid hence, when choosing the characters we decided to still incorporate a demon however we wanted to include only one shot of the demon so that not too much of its appearance is given away to the audience, keeping the suspense of the movie. To again a further understanding of what the audience wanted to see in horror we asked participants to comment on their opinions. ( upload comments here ) After analysing the comments one thing that was common amongst the individuals was the feeling of suspense and making the trailer scary this really helped us in deciding key elements that would install fear.
Survey monkey was a very effective way to gather data from audiences as it was easy to send the links to our fellow friends over social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and Watsapp. However one concern we had when using survey monkey was it wasn't a quick way to receive data as some people took time to watch the trailer and then answer the follow up trailers which was very frustrating for us we needed the audience feedback so that we could go ahead with planning.
In class we got the chance to be given audience feedback from our class mates; this was very helpful as it allowed us to make minor changes and adjustments before the final deadline. (The sheet we used to write down improvements) They complimented us on our Mise en scene and said it was very effective particularly our costumes and makeup but the one thing they didn’t seem to understand was the main plot which was a huge concern therefore we decided to add taglines to be certain the trailer was clear and the audience understood the basic plot.
After weeks of hard work we were finally finished with our teaser trailer we uploaded it on to YouTube, we also uploaded it to our websites and our Facebook accounts. To gain a further understating of audiences reactions to our teaser trailer we created another survey monkey. We asked a total of 5 questions, majority of the audience gave us positive feedback which pleased us very much. However one issue we could have improved on was the clarity of the plot as not everyone who watched our trailer understood it. (take a couple of face to face comments)
4. How did you use new media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?
Over the years technology has transformed the way we view experiences, making them easily consumable and enjoyable to share with the world. The Internet is now the major source of power for all and so during our research and planning stages for film’s teaser trailer, the group would spend hours surfing the Internet whether it was watching teaser trailers on YouTube that were of a similar genre to take inspiration from or search for posters and magazine covers on Google that showcased similar codes and conventions in relation to our ideas. With my planning and research stages I heavily relied on key research methods, which included storyboards, scripts, character sketches etc. At this point I became aware of how important the use of media technology is in terms of gaining knowledge to add to the planning and research stages of the film. As mentioned in my blog, I was not aware of how the script for a teaser trailer is composed, therefore media technologies like YouTube and Google allowed me to explore my creativity and expand my knowledge of pre-production as I came across a website called ScriptSecrets.net that provided me with a follow through process of how the script for specifically a teaser trailer is prepared. I designed the draft script manually and the final script electronically in order for it to be easily transferrable onto my Weebly website.
Weebly was unquestionably the prime resource for accounting all the planning and research development. Not only did it enable my group and I to gather all the information for the teaser to refer back to during the production but it also allowed us to develop a weekly account of the entire production and evaluation process of the coursework in the form of a blog. As a group we ensured that we utilised the social media platform well enough to achieve substantial coverage for our film and make audiences aware of our concept. SurveyMonkey.net is a website that allows to digitally create surveys and questionnaires of various kinds, which we used to our advantage. We generated a survey consisting of 10 questions that inquired random people on what they prefer experiencing digitally when going to watch a horror film, since the genre of our film is horror. Likewise when the final product had been created and uploaded onto YouTube, we conducted a survey using the same website, SurveyMoneky.net and spread the survey across various social media platforms consisting of Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp in order to collect a significant and miscellaneous opinion of our film’s teaser trailer.
In today’s day and age digital media has become so advanced that all technology devices related to it have been conveniently compressed, especially for the filmmaking sector. Most cameras and mobile phones generate HD quality images and videos, which provide independent and creative filmmakers like us with the opportunity to present our media skills to audiences whilst offering guaranteed refined quality. We used the Samsung Galaxy camera to film our entire teaser that provided us with video capture at resolutions up to 1080p at 30 frames per second. Considering the level we were producing at, the camera allowed us to make the teaser appear as professional as possible with the kind of HD resolution it was offering. Once all the footage for the teaser had been filmed to our liking, I had to install a software called Kies specifically designed for Samsung products that allows to covert all images and videos onto your computer directly, a procedure not possible otherwise because the camera does not feature an SD card slot and all the media is only transferrable via a Bluetooth connection to this software. Following this process, we began editing the teaser using Final Cut Pro X, an editing software that allows direct importing, organising, editing, grading and delivering professional high quality videos. The high-quality rendering in Final Cut Pro makes it possible to compute realistic effects with extraordinary precision using floating-point, linear-light colour and space calculations.
As I enjoy editing and consider it to be one of the most imperative aspects of producing a film I devoted most of my time to it in order to achieve a high quality and level for the final product. With the experience I had with Final Cut Pro, there were no issues as such that disrupted the process of editing however sound has always been a department in which I lack precision. When I obtained the sound effects and background scores fit for the trailer through an official royalty free sound website, Incompetech.com I knew that the music had to be mixed and adjusted to create the desired effect, which is precisely why I left it till the end. Cutting and blending the sound was the most time consuming part of editing and it was potentially the most crucial because horror movie trailers or horror movies for that matter rely on sound the most to create the 'horrifying' effect. Along with the edit for the film, we had to produce an evaluation using FCP to display a higher level of creativity and understanding of the software. Through the evaluation we had to explain the process of producing our film and what potential issues we faced like as mentioned above the sound during the editing or collecting audience feedback via digital survey. As per the evaluation we planned as a group on keeping it straightforward yet sustaining an adequate level of creativity, which allowed us to avoid any major issues like sound mixing or adding effects.
Along with the teaser trailer, the course consisted of us producing a poster and a magazine cover, which we could obtain using Photoshop.
Photoshop allows to edit and create digital images in more than 15 popular formats by using the built-in tools or download plug-ins to add special effects to pictures. We used Photoshop to attain the correct professional look we wanted for both the poster and the magazine. Having the built-in tools allowed us to directly import the original image taken with a Nikon DSLR that offered automatic white balance accuracy and in-camera processing of JPEG images onto Photoshop. The imported image can then be modified and adjusted using tools like the background eraser, which enabled to remove the green screen image from behind the subject instantly, the sharpen and blur tool that allowed us to erase any outlines that made the respective texts look unprofessional or the colour adjustment tools to change the appearance of a certain image to ensure it fit in the with the genre and concept of our film. We also used download plug-ins like a smoke effect for the poster obtained from a website-Stock-clip.com that permits the free use of primordial footage. We took a screenshot of the desired density we wanted for the smoke and imported it directly onto the image itself. Likewise for the magazine we downloaded various images of horror film actors and directors from Google and placed them onto the cover to give it a more professional ethos and raise the production value of our film.
Over the years technology has transformed the way we view experiences, making them easily consumable and enjoyable to share with the world. The Internet is now the major source of power for all and so during our research and planning stages for film’s teaser trailer, the group would spend hours surfing the Internet whether it was watching teaser trailers on YouTube that were of a similar genre to take inspiration from or search for posters and magazine covers on Google that showcased similar codes and conventions in relation to our ideas. With my planning and research stages I heavily relied on key research methods, which included storyboards, scripts, character sketches etc. At this point I became aware of how important the use of media technology is in terms of gaining knowledge to add to the planning and research stages of the film. As mentioned in my blog, I was not aware of how the script for a teaser trailer is composed, therefore media technologies like YouTube and Google allowed me to explore my creativity and expand my knowledge of pre-production as I came across a website called ScriptSecrets.net that provided me with a follow through process of how the script for specifically a teaser trailer is prepared. I designed the draft script manually and the final script electronically in order for it to be easily transferrable onto my Weebly website.
Weebly was unquestionably the prime resource for accounting all the planning and research development. Not only did it enable my group and I to gather all the information for the teaser to refer back to during the production but it also allowed us to develop a weekly account of the entire production and evaluation process of the coursework in the form of a blog. As a group we ensured that we utilised the social media platform well enough to achieve substantial coverage for our film and make audiences aware of our concept. SurveyMonkey.net is a website that allows to digitally create surveys and questionnaires of various kinds, which we used to our advantage. We generated a survey consisting of 10 questions that inquired random people on what they prefer experiencing digitally when going to watch a horror film, since the genre of our film is horror. Likewise when the final product had been created and uploaded onto YouTube, we conducted a survey using the same website, SurveyMoneky.net and spread the survey across various social media platforms consisting of Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp in order to collect a significant and miscellaneous opinion of our film’s teaser trailer.
In today’s day and age digital media has become so advanced that all technology devices related to it have been conveniently compressed, especially for the filmmaking sector. Most cameras and mobile phones generate HD quality images and videos, which provide independent and creative filmmakers like us with the opportunity to present our media skills to audiences whilst offering guaranteed refined quality. We used the Samsung Galaxy camera to film our entire teaser that provided us with video capture at resolutions up to 1080p at 30 frames per second. Considering the level we were producing at, the camera allowed us to make the teaser appear as professional as possible with the kind of HD resolution it was offering. Once all the footage for the teaser had been filmed to our liking, I had to install a software called Kies specifically designed for Samsung products that allows to covert all images and videos onto your computer directly, a procedure not possible otherwise because the camera does not feature an SD card slot and all the media is only transferrable via a Bluetooth connection to this software. Following this process, we began editing the teaser using Final Cut Pro X, an editing software that allows direct importing, organising, editing, grading and delivering professional high quality videos. The high-quality rendering in Final Cut Pro makes it possible to compute realistic effects with extraordinary precision using floating-point, linear-light colour and space calculations.
As I enjoy editing and consider it to be one of the most imperative aspects of producing a film I devoted most of my time to it in order to achieve a high quality and level for the final product. With the experience I had with Final Cut Pro, there were no issues as such that disrupted the process of editing however sound has always been a department in which I lack precision. When I obtained the sound effects and background scores fit for the trailer through an official royalty free sound website, Incompetech.com I knew that the music had to be mixed and adjusted to create the desired effect, which is precisely why I left it till the end. Cutting and blending the sound was the most time consuming part of editing and it was potentially the most crucial because horror movie trailers or horror movies for that matter rely on sound the most to create the 'horrifying' effect. Along with the edit for the film, we had to produce an evaluation using FCP to display a higher level of creativity and understanding of the software. Through the evaluation we had to explain the process of producing our film and what potential issues we faced like as mentioned above the sound during the editing or collecting audience feedback via digital survey. As per the evaluation we planned as a group on keeping it straightforward yet sustaining an adequate level of creativity, which allowed us to avoid any major issues like sound mixing or adding effects.
Along with the teaser trailer, the course consisted of us producing a poster and a magazine cover, which we could obtain using Photoshop.
Photoshop allows to edit and create digital images in more than 15 popular formats by using the built-in tools or download plug-ins to add special effects to pictures. We used Photoshop to attain the correct professional look we wanted for both the poster and the magazine. Having the built-in tools allowed us to directly import the original image taken with a Nikon DSLR that offered automatic white balance accuracy and in-camera processing of JPEG images onto Photoshop. The imported image can then be modified and adjusted using tools like the background eraser, which enabled to remove the green screen image from behind the subject instantly, the sharpen and blur tool that allowed us to erase any outlines that made the respective texts look unprofessional or the colour adjustment tools to change the appearance of a certain image to ensure it fit in the with the genre and concept of our film. We also used download plug-ins like a smoke effect for the poster obtained from a website-Stock-clip.com that permits the free use of primordial footage. We took a screenshot of the desired density we wanted for the smoke and imported it directly onto the image itself. Likewise for the magazine we downloaded various images of horror film actors and directors from Google and placed them onto the cover to give it a more professional ethos and raise the production value of our film.