Evaluation Task 4: how did I use new media technologies in the construction, planning and research stages

In my work I used a large variety of new media technologies.
Google was a main one since it's a well known search engine, I used this for a large amount of research from finding thrillers to finding out about more about the proper conventions of a magazine and poster. I used this search engine for inspiration for my own texts since it would show me texts that are made my professional companies, this being a large help because it gave me ideas to make my texts seem more like real media texts. I used this for all of my texts as a form of research because it was a good way to get inspired and be given ideas for my texts

Adobe Photoshop in a lot of ways to both creat my poster and magazine cover. The title was constructed on this programme, it was made by using a large variety of tools that all had different purposes. I used the magic wand tool to help me capture sections of the title was I wanted to be deleted and that I wanted to capture and move about reconstructing its appearance. I also used editing techniques such as a drop shadow this giving the text a white drop shadow that increased the contrast and made it seem a lot more creepy and professional. I already had experience using this programme since we had to use it previously when creating a magazine cover as a practice back at the begging on the year, the first time I used it helped me develop a good hang of the programme and be able to use most of the tools to their full extent. I was able to also test out different styles of background for my poster and magazine cover thanks to this programme this helping me creat a better view in which background I should settle with in my final piece.

Blogger is one of the most used technologies because it let me develop a clear understanding of the thriller genre and make sure that I have a place to keep all of my work and have it checked. I posted all of my research, planning and construction of my 3 texts on this site. Blogger also had a great advantage of being able to post my YouTube uploaded content on it by using an add videos button, this was very helpful and made it easy to keep all of my work safe and organised making sure that I can keep it all neat and readable. One advantage to this site was that it has a spell check on it so it makes sure that your grammar and spelling are correct this helping a lot since some times when rushing some parts can be misspelled.

YouTube is a website that I used to upload my trailer to and my second evaluation this already being a great help. I also used YouTube when it came to the research and of my trailer, I watched other trailers on this site to gain ideas and inspiration for the text that I would end up creating, since YouTube has most trailers for any movie becaus of its large popularity it made it easy to find lots of movie trailers that helped in developing ideas for my trailer. The ideas that I was given by this site are the type of non-diegetic music that should be used, the types of lighting and helped me get a grasp of the key conventions of a thriller. This site generally shower me the conventions of both thrillers and trailers, on an addition to that it also let me post the pitch for our trailer on it which was an important part of out work.

I also used Microsoft PowerPoint, this is a programme that is used to give presentations on slides. I used this to creat the pitch for my movie/trailer, I recorded a lot of information on this programme such as a pie chart that showed the genre of movies that people enjoyed and the age group that enjoyed curtain genres. The pitch would later be recorded and uploaded to YouTube, this programme let me get feedback about my text and helped me fill any holes that I seemed to be missing by answering the questions of the people watching.

A video camera was used, it's a video camera that was able to record in HD this being a great advantage since it made my text better quality and seem more professional because that means that the text would be able to be streamed in 750pp this being HD standard that some independent movies are streamed in. The camera was used to creating a lot of professional shots such as a over the shoulder shot that can be seen when our main character is talking to his therapist, another was an close up on our main characters eyes as he opens them from having a flash back, this showing the demographic the sanity thy he is loosing.

Free play music is a website that allows users to take music that is copyright free if used for educational purposes, this meaning that I would be able to use it for my text. The site was slightly hard to use however it had a lot of potential since it had a couple of tracks that seemed acceptable for a thriller, the only issue with this site is that the search engine would mix up the searches and you would get happy music even if you've typed "horror". After typing in a large amount of searched such as "tense music" and "thriller" we found the right tracks that could fit our work, these tracks eventually became the non-diegetic music that we had in our final finish.

Computer/phone both of those were used for the same kind of purpose and this means to run all of the programmes that I was using. The computer had more since it's has more purposes than a mobile phone. The computer and phone both let me use the websites blogger.com and YouTube.com to do my research and my planning. Since both of them are common day usage in a 21st century young adults life it was easy using them for a purpose of research and planning since they are used for those purposes all the time. Thanks to the computer I was able to find music and creat all of my 3 texts.

Evaluation Task 3: What have I learnt from my Audience feedback?

I have received plenty of audience feedback for all of my texts.
My trailer received a lot of critical feedback:

• Font is too clip-arty
• speed up last scene
• take out some shots
• low key lighting
• edit the texts more
• take out the 3 stages

There are a lot of things that I learnt from my feedback, firstly when talking about the font being "Too clip-arty". I learned that in this genre I need to use fonts that are more edgy and sharp, to make sure they connote fear. I solved this issue by using a font that didn't have as much of a comical look and one that looked more professional and sharp.

I was told that the last fast-paced editing section was too slow and needed to be sped up to make it seem more like a real trailer and so that it creates more tension. I solved this by cutting it down and making it more fast pace by repeating some of the cuts and increasing the tempo of the scenes.

There was a scene that seemed to bright to be seen in a Thriller trailer since the main colour was white this connoted innocents and life, these not being conventions of thriller. This was solved by putting the contrast down and making the brightest a little lower, this made the white seem more like gray and any faint dark colours intensified this following the genre conventions since dark colours and low key lighting are some of the key conventions of the thriller genre.

The titles that showed up on screen were said to be too simple and stationary, there were a couple of moving ones however the movement was repeated and didn't seem professiona and didn't increase the tension in any kind of way. This was solved by using a lot of editing when it came to the titles. One edit that was made to the titles was increase in size and movement in a different direction, the use of this was so that the demographic feel more included in the trailer and so that they are given the tension as the music and the title size increases. Another edit that was used was a blur effect as the tittle came in, the reason for its use was to connote how our main characters head is becoming blury form the mental issues that he has and how it's making his life a misery.

One of our texts mentioned the three stages that can are normally seen in people who are unstable and insane, these stages were insomnia, out burst of anger and depression. We were advised to take this out since it complicated the demographic and seemed a little difficult to understand when it came to a short trailer that, we decided to leave this title out and replace.

I recover feedback regarding my poster since there were a couple of parts that didn't seem right.
The fonts and the top gave the magazine a creepy finish, this suiting the genre since thrillers tend to have some creepy scenes. The font was almost like a blood splatter that seemd like text written in blood. This was hard to read because of the font, I decided to solve this issue by changing the font of in the text and making sure that it's clear and visible and still following genre conventions, I made the  font a edgy block type font and kept the colot red with a white drop shadow. The reason for this was because the font now followed genre conventions along with the colour since red is the colour of danger and thrillers have dangerous scenes in them.

My magazine cover repeated itself a lot thus didn't seem professional. I solved this my using different text and still making them make sense and seem professional. One side of my magazine mentioned movies that it will talk about inside and then on the other side it said the exact same However it has images so I changed the text making sure that it seems believable, I decide to use the same pictures and just give them different captions that still seem like they fit the image. One text that I used was "intense close-ups" this seemed professional since it's a media term and thrillers use them to convey important information.

Evaluation Task 2: How effective is the conbination of your mian product and ancilliary tasks.

My script:

There are a lot of common elements in all three of my texts that are effective for my demographic. Firstly all of my texts use a lot of the colour black since it connotes fear and death this, mystery and suspense suits the genre because thrillers are supposed to make the audience on edge and contain an element of enigma.

All three of my texts also uses the colour red for example unhinged is outlined in red on my poster, mag cover and trailer this being because this colour connotes danger and blood; this also suiting the thriller genre because thrillers normally have dangerous scenes and most contain violence. The colour scheme therefor links the three promotion texts effectively.

The title is used in all three featuring the same type of font. The font is an edgy almost scribbled font this was used because it comes across as creepy and the edginess makes it sharper. The font suits our genre because like a thriller it is very edgy and creepy. The font is used effectively because we used the same one on all three texts this meaning that if they see one text then another they will remember the imagery better since we used repetition of font to make use that it sticks in the demographics mind. This shows synergy between all of the texts when it comes to the title.

All of the texts follow the same kind of font pattern; by this I mean that there is a combination of big bold font and creepier edgy sharp font. This was used in an effective away because the demographic would expect the fonts to be like that this making it appealing to the audience. All three of my texts have the convention of mystery. Thrillers are known for having a mystery that is discovered by watching movie; we decided to follow the same pattern.

A drop-shadow effect is also used on the majority of font on all three texts to give all a very define creepiness to attract our target audience’s attention. This also emphasises important thriller language conventions in each text (e.g. mind twisted) again this creates synergy between the three. On both of my print texts the main character Ryan is featured holding his face this is because it connotes insanity and fear, this giving some of the narrative away since Ryan is going insane and is scared of this. His clothing is black which again suggests death this implies the fact that he may be a killer, or even that he’s dyeing inside.

My poster and magazine cover both have a linking convention which is reviews; I decided to give them a similar rating system so that the audience sees that the movie is rated high making them want to watch it more. I decided to use the known star system since it’s the most suitable one, that’s easily understood.

The major genre conventions that I featured in my texts are low key lighting, black and white shots, the main character wearing black and solitude. Low key lighting can be seen on all of the texts because it is a stereotypical convention appeal to the audience and link the texts together.

Black and white shots can be found in both magazine cover and trailer because they suit the genre convention and give the texts a more mysterious feel. All three of, my texts feature the main character wearing black clothing because this follows the genre convention of connoting death. Solitude is shown in my poster and magazine because the only character that is clearly visible is him, this implying his loneliness and solitude which is a key convention. The reason why those conventions attract my demographic is because it follows the stereotypical conventions of thriller. My demographic would be drawn to this because they would expect it to follow the conventions.

 

Evaluation Task 1: In what ways does my media product use,develop or challange forms of conventions from real media products

1. This high angle close up is of the main character holding a knife to his wrist. A knife is a prop that is used as a murder weapon is lots of thriller movies, this meaning that the actual prop is a conventional prop. A knife can be seen in films such as psycho (A knife is the main weapon seen in this, The character Noram bates), another movie that is seen using a knife is Bourne supremacy (In this thriller the main character Jason Bourne is defending himself against an antagonist who is welding a knife).

2. In our finishing screen we have information about the movie written in white, with a red glow. All of it is on a black background. The black background with contrasting writing is a convention that can be seen in a lot of movies, This being because the text contrasts against the black gives a more clear viewing of the text. This kind of contrast can be seen in movies such as 1408 (In this movie it finishes with a black background and gold writing, this contrasts well because the gold has a faint shine to it) another movie that can be seen using this convention is The Boy ( Uses a very similar final screen to 1408, by this I mean a black background with golden writing).

3. This close up uses low key lighting in a very good way, this can be seen very clearly since our main character in the shot is very dark and the surroundings are very low key light. low key lighting is a very common it can be seen in a lot of  very known thrillers such as the Dark Knight Rises, This can be seen in a sewer. Another movie that uses low key lighting is Vertigo, this can be seen when there is a night scene and the character is standing on the ledge of a window. The reason why low key lighting is used, is to emphasise and play with the fear of the unknown, this being because not everything is clearly visible in the dark.

4. This mid-shot uses a black and white filter to connote a past memory which is a very well known key convention of thrillers. A thriller that uses black and white technique is psycho, this mainly being because it was recorded in a time where they only had black and white cameras however the modern day connotation of black and white is importance, this meaning that black and white is used to give the audience a sense of importance in our shot. A flash back can be seen in the movie 1408 this being a common convention since it gives the audience more background information and a basic view of the narrative.

5. This over the shoulder shot shows the character taking some kind of pills attempting to overdose, overdosing is not a very common convention of thrillers however it can be seen in some drama/thrillers.  A drama/thriller that uses pills as props is Suicide room ( in this movie the Polish teenage main character wants to kill himself by overdosing on pills). The reason for this convention is so that the audience understands that the character is at the lowest point of his life and sees no way out.

6.This high angle shows our main character Ryan laying on his bed having a break down. We used a high angle to make the character seem fragile and weak, this is a very common seen convention in thriller movies. Characters are made to seem weak and fragile so that the audience feels sympathetic. A movie that uses high angles to make the characters seem weak is the Avengers (This is used in one scene to make both Captain America and Thor seem weak and worried)

7.This is the bottom section of my Magazine cover which shows a lot of conventions that follow professional media products. Firstly There are text side polls linking to other movies that will be talked about in the magazine, this can be seen in Total Film (Issue 244 May 2016). The text is always a colour that contrasts with the background this is a key convention because it catches the demographics attention. I used white text and so did Total film. Another convention is that all Magazine covers have a main movie focus as the background, this can be seen done by Empire (2015 May). In this one there is a clear movie focus of Terminator Genisys, The background shows the main characters ( The Terminator and Sarah Connor). I followed this by putting our main character Ryan as the main focus of the magazine and make him also look at the audience, this following the key convention.

8. This is the bottom half of my Movie poster. The first convention that it replicates is the middle text linking to the title, this can be seen in the movie poster for The Martian. In this movie poster the middle texts quotes "BRING HIM HOME", I replicated this my saying "HIS MIND IS". Another convention that my poster shows is the main character used a s background, I used our movies main character Ryan as the background since it follows the key convention. This convention can be seen in lots of movie posters such as The Grey (Ottway's face is the main focus), Avatar ( close up on Naytiri's face) and Man of Steel ( Superman/Clark K is the main focus).

9. This is the top half of my magazine, the first convention here is having a clear and large Master head that stands out and catches the readers eye. these kinds of master heads can be seen in all magazines (Both Empire and Total film). My magazine follows this convention since the master head

Comparison poster draft v poster final

      old                                                                                     new

 

I was given a couple of things to edit to make my poster and magazine cover better and look more professional. Firstly In my mag cover I was suggested to use star power since using my name didn't seem like a proper magazine so I decided to change Alex Mizia to Ryan Reynolds, I used this celebrity since he has been in a recent movie Deadpool which gave him a lot of media attention this meaning that if he said something like that it would make the media and audience interested in our magazine.

 

 

On the poster I was told that the top titles seem to childish and cartoon like, I took this in to consideration and change them to more big bold fonts making them seem more professional. I was also advised to put the words "HIS MIND IS" closer together since its slightly difficult to realise that they are supposed to be one sentence. 

First draft of Poster + Magazine

these are my first attempts at my movie poster and magazine, I was given suggestions for what I should do to improve both of them.

On the magazine I was advised to use star power in my quote because this makes it more realistic and may appeal to my demographic. Most thrilling issue was seem to be too big and almost taking away the attention from the Title of the magazine so I was suggested to make it a little smaller and but it over the top of Absolute movie, this making it more like a real movie magazine.

 

When it comes to my poster I was suggested to edit the colour of the stars to something like red or maroon since it would suit the colour scheme however I didn't approve of this since the gold stars connote professionalism and superiority since awards are normally gold, silver or bronze. The Names at the top were seen to be to comical and hard to read to I decided to change those to a more big bold font.

The Boy

The boy is a recent horror/ Thriller film. The basic narrative of it is that a young woman takes a job
as a nanny, she later comes to know that the 'child' she is supposed to take care of turns out to be a doll of a little boy. The parents of the 'child'  replaced him with a doll to help them cope with the death of their child 20 years ago. Greta (the young woman) is given a list of rules that she has to follow when she is taking care of the 'child', she breaks those rules assuming nothing will happen. The fact she breaks the rules causes strange paranormal things to happen.

(I apologise for German version)

The trailer gives a clear view of the narrative because it goes through the rule braking and how she gets to meet the 'child'. There is a lot of low key lighting used to make the audience fell fear. The end part of the trailer features fast-pace editing this is done so that the trailer reaches a crescendo creating tension in the last  couple of seconds. Fading to black is used very often, this is a convention of horror/thriller movies, the reason for this is because the colour black connotes death and end. There is a focus pull on the doll sitting against the wall with Greta in the background, this shot is used to show the fact that they boy has moved, however it also connotes his importance in this movie because the camera is focused on him.



 

 

 

 

 

Music Research

I decided to look at lot of different thrillers and horrors since they were very known for using tense and upbeat music that makes the audience engage by making them feel fear and excitement.

The saw theme is very tense and jumpy almost giving you the feeling of getting in you bones this meaning that its achieving the objective of making the audience feel engaged. The synchronous beat makes the whole theme seem more tense. 

I was unable to find a clip on YouTube however there is a link here: http://movieweb.com/movie/sadako-vs-kayako/international-trailer/

Sadako Vs Kayako is a movie that is going to be released in 2016 in July. Its a horror movie that has a back in music that fits the trailer because its very fast but uses a low pitch with loud beats and cries in the background this making the audience feel uneasy and scared as the trailer goes on during a section of fast-pase cuts the music comes to a crescendo.

Other movie posters

I decided to look at some other movie posters to see their conventions and other aspects.

This poster of the movie rocky is a great example of a very effective movie poster. Firstly the main character in the centre of the poster is the main view point this being noticeable by the fact that he takes up about 2/5 of the poster and that he is right in the centre. The reason why his character is there is because the audience will be interested as to why how looks like a winner, by this I mean he is standing like a boxing winner at the end of a game when they put the competitors arms up. His pose also gives away some of the narrative since yet again he is standing like a boxing winner connotes that this movie will be about boxing

This is the movie poster for Black Rock. The font here is Red the reason for this is because it connotes danger and blood, this implies that this movie will be full of dangerous situations and blood. The image of a boat in the middle of a sea is used to imply loneliness and isolation this giving away some of the narrative which would seem to be about some people who get stranded on a boat on the sea.

 

This is the poster for Dorian Gray. The main image of the man with a split face implies that he is the main character, however the fact that his face is split and one side looks t almost be like crumpling paper connotes that he's either dead or cursed. 

Other mag covers

I decide to look at other mag covers for inspiration and to find main conventions of posters.

 



This is a cover for the magazine Empire, a well known American movie magazine. The colour red is used to catch the audience's eyes. Red also implies danger connoting that this magazine is full of dangerous information, this would be a selling technique because the audience would rebellious buying it. A convention of Posters is to always make sure that the Master head is at the top large and clearly visible which can be seen on this Empire cover.

The next magazine cover is for Total Film.  They use a image of Megan Fox as star power and eye candy since she's classified to be attractive this meaning that the male audience would be attracted to the magazine. Magazine front covers always over emphasises everything so that they catch the audience's attention,  this can be seen in both magazines for example Total film uses the phrase "OUR BIGGEST PREVIEW EVER!" and Empire uses "MASSIVE PREWVIEW SPECIAL" this is used as a way to grab the audience's attention and make sure that they are intrigued.

Poster's use various fonts and colours this is done so that they show variety and separation between articles. Its a very useful way to make it easier for the audience to use the magazine, this also can be another selling technique since its simplifies the advances usages of the magazine.



Props in our trailer

We decided to use a fair amount of props in our trailer. All props were used to connote meanings oe emphasise the overall mood.

We decided to use a bottle of vodka to connote the fact that Ryan's dad
is an alcoholic, we emphasised this by making him drink it straight out of the bottle since this is commonly seen by alcoholics.

We decided to use a knife in our movie to connote danger and death since that's what a knife represents. We done by using a last shot of Ryan about to cut his wrist this would make our audience  interested if he kills himself or lives.

 

We decided to use pills since they imply a serious issue needing resolving, this being because people normally only take pills in more serious times. Another connotation of pills is addiction, this could mean that when we had a over the shoulder shot of Ryan taken the pill is could imply addiction and that he doesn't only have mental issues but also a drug addiction.

 

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Trailer ideas

We decided to look at a lot of different trailers to get ideas for ours. Taking into mind lighting, shots, angles, colour, titles, fonts, music and characters.

The first trailer as a teaser of the movie The Bourne Supremacy, this movie is an action/thriller that is part of  saga. The tease doesn't give away much and keeps the main detail away this making the audience intrigued. We decided to follow this and also make sure that our trailer doesn't give away much and leave it o a cliff hanger since this will make our demographic more intrigued.

This trailer is from the movie taken. It uses a lot of jump cuts and fast pace editing to create tension and connote the fear of the characters. Another great factor of this trailer is how it changes from very positive and happy to a tense kidnapping, this meaning that the trailer reaches a crescendo. We decided to try to replicate this in our trailer since it makes the audience go from happy to on edge.

10 Cloverfiled lane is a thriller that is supposed to be based in the same world as Cloverfiled. This trailer is based in a very close packet bomb shelter that holds 3 people, however one what's to get out for some reason this isn't given away. We decided to replicate this in our trailer since it gives the whole trailer an enigma and would make the audience wonder what the narrative is all about.

Thriller

These are conventions of a thriller, we decided to get into groups and look over what kind of conventions are stereotypical of a thriller and what are the human fears

The Excorcism Of Emily Rose

Unhinged storyboard

We decided to do a storyboard on sticky notes drawing out scene by scene since it was reasonably easy to set out and put them in order

Our target audiance for Unhinged

Demographic:

• Male
• 18-25
• C2 + D
• disposable income
• £18,000 - £25,000 income
• Cambridgeshire/ London
• Living alone, with partner or friends
• English ethnicity
• Full time work
• full time education ( University level)
• Average, enter level work

Psychographics:

• Empathetic
• caring
• considerate of others
• interested in psychology
• sociable- This can be related to the uses an gratifications theory
• Hedonist
• lively
• engaging

The reason why we decided to go for someone in this demographic is because they are most likely to be free to be able to watch movies. Another reason for choosing this demographic is because they are the ones who would be able top relate to the main characters issues and sympathises for him.

Unhindged Settings

The trailer shows a variety of settings that some people might be able to relate to.

Settings:

1. Bedroom- the bedroom is used to show our character Ryan become insane, this is shown by the fact that he's walking around the room pulling his hair, he's leaning forwards and backwards, eventually you even see him about to cut his wrist. We decided to use a bedroom for this because its a place where people feel safe and calm and we wanted to completely go against that by making it a place where Ryan starts to become insane countering the feeling of safety.
2. Therapist office- We used an office to show the fact that Ryan's issue is serious and that he's unable to take care of it without any kind of help. The therapist office also connotes the fact that the issue is being taken care of and that Ryan is in a helping environment connoting that he's actually going to recover however to shock the audience we decided that we would go against that and make it so that not even therapy helps.
3. Living room- We used a living room to show Ryan's father (Glen) drinking heavily this connoting that Ryan comes from a unstable house.

Unhinged props

There are a large verity of props used in this movie, some of them Are:

A knife - this is seen being used by Ryan, this connotes danger and pain.

A bottle of vodka - Glenn is seen drinking this, it connotes how heavy his alcoholism is.
Clipboard- this seems professional, it's used by Dr.Philips.

Mirror- this is used by Ryan it connotes ones true self the one that only he sees.

These props are all commonly seen to be in thrillers, an example being that psycho uses a knife as the murder weapon.