The Trailer

Love Kills

The Evaluation

.I.

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

The horror genre is a very well known genre which has many conventions, some of which must be followed, for example there must be a protagonist and antagonist. Most of the time the protagonist is human because it helps the audience empathise with the situation they are in, the antagonist can be human which is the most common, animal e.g cujo, the birds or the original King Kong which at the time was considered a horror, or even spiritual in a more psychological horror like Final Destination or One Missed Call. In our film we chose the protagonist and antagonist to both be humans, following conventions and making this film much more realistic. Another convention which we chose to follow is the setting of the film. Stereotypically horror films are dark, mysterious and creepy and we chose to set our film originally in a house which she then leaves, and runs into the forest where she is chased. The scenes in the forest however had to be filmed in the late afternoon; otherwise the scene was not visible as we were unable to light the scene artificially so there is a slight continuity error as she leaves the house in the dark but is running in the daytime. However in a trailer there is no plotline and the story is not usually portrayed in the order of the film so these could be two separate occasions.

When analysing the trailer for ‘The Others’ i noticed that the scene is sometimes framed by a tree branch creating a sense of entrapment so we decided to use this idea in our trailer when the protagonist was running through the forest, the trees wrap around the frame blocking out the sky and framing her in the centre of the scene. Whilst in the planning stages of our trailer we researched Freytag’s Triangle theory. This explains that a common characteristic of trailers is a pattern that the pace of the trailer follows, starting off with slow paced shots to build suspense, the pace quickens and suddenly the action starts. After a few seconds of quick shots there is a turning point and the pace begins to slow down. We have used this pattern in our trailer. It begins with slow shots with captions and faded transitions and the main character’s life develops to the audience. The antagonist enters the house and the pace quickens. Suddenly the chase scenes begin as the protagonist sprints from the house. Several quick shots of a chase follow the sequence and then the pace begins to slow as the name and date of release are shown on captions.

A convention which was challenged in this trailer was the fact that the antagonists face is revealed, usually this remains a secret and you have to watch the film to find out. Here we decided to show him because it is not the antagonist’s identity which is important but the story behind why he is trying to kill her; this is not revealed to the audience in the trailer.

When creating the magazine cover and poster we tried to stick to as many conventions as we could because the public only see these for a couple of seconds as they walk past and we wanted to make it obvious to them what genre the film was and what they might expect when they watch it. Firstly the main photo I used is a typical medium close up of the protagonist. I used similar photos on both the ancillary texts. The hair make-up was done in a way which would suggest she had been panicking and crying. After the photo was taken we used Corel PaintShop Pro X2 to make the images even more stereotypically horror. The skin colour was faded and the facial features made more gaunt and scary. This look is common in a lot of horror films and the general elongated face with dark eyes and pronounced cheekbone slightly resembles that of the famous 'Scream' mask and painting. Other conventions which we used include the dark background which the picture is set on and general dark colour scheme as well as the large magazine title at the top of the page, the images down one side of the page and a pug with a special offer of some description.

.II.

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

The main product is the most useful in terms of giving the audience information however a wider audience is reached by displaying posters of the film in public places like billboards and buses and even on walls in popular places. The magazine cover will be seen in newsagents and shops catching the eye of passers by. People who want to read more will buy the magazine and look online at the website given by the poster. The trailer, poster or magazine cover alone is not enough to reach the vast amount of people which this film is aimed at but together is the most effective way to advertise. All these texts together will create an image and a house style for this film which will be recognisable and make it easier to promote. The more that these images are shown to the public the more they will be talked about and the power of word of mouth will also help endorse the film via groups on social networking sites, reviews on the internet and even friends telling friends about this new release.

.III.

What have you learnt for you audience feedback?

The name of the film was difficult to decide. Originally we had decided Agoraphobia (a phobia of being trapped with no easy means of escape) however Sarah found it difficult to pronounce and thought other people would too. Upon asking our target audience we realised that not many people know the definition of this particular phobia so we decided to opt for a more memorable name. Finally we decided on ‘Love Kills’ which gives the audience a further insight into the plot of the film and lets them know there is a hint of a love story within the dark theme. The phrase is also easier to remember and is a play on the phrase ‘Love Hurts’

Throughout the editing process we gained feedback from other people from our target age group, asking their thoughts and opinions on the trailer so far, were there any problems, continuity errors or just times when the trailer didn’t seem to flow. What could be added to the trailer to improve the overall product and when the trailer was finished we asked if it was understandable and would you go to see it if it was real.

The general response was positive, they enjoyed the exposition as the tension built up and the introduction of an intruder made the trailer more exciting. A few people commented on how they liked the use of the poison pen letter as captions to break up the start and it really helped establish the genre and type of film this would be.

One issue which was raised was in the middle of the trailer. The climax, “was exciting but didn’t last long enough and the ending is a bit abrupt” Me and Sarah both agreed but found it difficult to extend the fast paced sequence and still fit in the time frame given. The ending at the time was the antagonist running towards the camera and the star-rating caption appearing. To create a more ‘wrapped up’ ending yet not giving anything away we filmed extra footage with a knife being disposed of in a bush. This lets the audience know that something exciting definitely happened but they don’t know what and must watch the film to find out.

During the filming stages we took photos which could be used for the magazine and poster. We asked a group of people which ones they considered the best and narrowed them down until we had 3 or 4 which we would use. Me and Sarah spent some time on Corel PaintShop Pro X2 roughly arranging the pictures and title and headings to create a very basic plan of what the magazine and poster would look like and asked the audience similar questions to those which we asked about the film. What’s good or bad what could be changed and what catches your eye first. Again the feedback was good; people liked the similar medium close up on both the magazine and poster and the poison pen which was used in the film which created a strong house style which is used in all the media texts we made. A few people suggested spacing the different components out making it less cramped so after resizing the photos and pug etc I started to create the final by cutting more carefully around the photos and adding details like shadows, blood splatters and hands to hold up the paper on the magazine cover. When the final products were finished we let the target audience view them and see if they fitted the style of the film. We also asked people who hadn’t seen the trailer if they could understand the genre of the film from just the poster and magazine and would they be persuaded to see it.

.IV.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In the research stage of the project we mainly used the internet to look at different trailers to compare and write detailed analysis's about them, we took some ideas from each and developed them in our own trailer. We done the same with posters and magazine covers. We also researched Freytag's Pyramid to give us an insight of the conventions most films follow. We also used DVD's to view film trailers and take notes. An early task involved using a camera to take photos at different angles to gain a better understanding of the different uses of camera angles and their meanings. The grids of 9 were made on Microsoft Word 2007 and uploaded onto the internet using Scribd which allowed them to be embedded onto my blog using a code, the same way which YouTube videos are embedded.

During the planning a lot of the storyboards were drawn by hand and scanned into the computer then described using captions. I used the internet to look at storyboards which had been drawn for other films so I could get an idea of how much detail was needed in ours. Obviously ours would be shorter because we are only making a trailer but the detail would be key to helping us organise our filming schedule and we'd waste no time deciding what to film.

The construction process was the stage in which we used the most media technologies. Firstly we used a HD Camcorder to record the footage for our film. For scenes where we wanted the camera to be static or pan slightly we used a tripod to keep it steady. This made some scenes look more professional as opposed to having a shaky camera where someone is trying to keep still whilst filming it in their hand. This then linked up to the AppleMac computers where we imported the footage into Premier Pro, a program on the Apple which was used to create our trailer. On it we could cut, split and move clips of footage around and add music. For a full explanation of what we done on Premier Pro click here.

The construction of the poster and magazine cover was done on Corel PaintShop Pro X2. We first took many photos of the setting and the characters to make sure that we had enough to chose from. After narrowing the selection down with the help of our target audience I created a quick basic layout of what the magazine should look like and after obtaining audience feedback I made some changes and improved the poster by adding details and neatening everything up. For an explanation on how I photoshopped the photo and background for the poster click here.

I'm happy with the outcome of our project. I think we worked well together and were able to easily divide the work between us so we both had fair amounts. I learnt new skills like using Premier Pro and improved my skills on PaintShop.

The Poster

The Magazine Cover

The Trailer Editing

The first step after filming was to import the footage which we had filmed onto the computer. We used Apple macs for the editing process and the software which we used was called Premier Pro. With only being able to use one computer at a time to edit we both decided Sarah would be more useful operating the computer because she has more experience with this program and knows where everything is which would save time. At times when we worked alone we would take notes on what needed to be done and worked on those.

The footage was taken from the camera and put onto the computer, we copied onto the mac and Adobe premier pro was opened and imported the stream of clips. They were dragged onto the video bar and we started to cut and re-arrange clips, using the razor tool to cut and the selection tool to move them, the zoom in and out made for more precise.

To make clips shorter Sarah used the rate stretch tool to shorten the length of the clip, this can be used to lengthen clips too.

To insert a title.


At the start of most trailers there is an image which tells the audience the trailer is able to be viewed by anyone or a specific age group. We called it the green screen. To capture the green screen, we found a trailer on Youtube and paused it at the right point. For the best image we made the video full screen and made a screen dump by pressing Shift+Apple Key+4. The image saves onto the desktop where Sarah imported it, dragged it to video bar before adjusting the size and rendering it.


A convention found commonly in horror films is a fade to black transition and we used this a lot in the start when introducing the poison pen captions. This was achieved by selecting video transitions > dissolve > dip to black.

To get an audio track for our trailer we used a converter which converts videos on YouTube into mp3 format so it can be used as a music track. This is downloaded as a file which we imported to Premier Pro and added it to the audio bar so it plays whilst the trailer plays. Like the footage we were able to click and drag the audio to determine when it starts. The music enters after the Bruckheimer Films clip. The audio we chose to use was an Evanescense instrumental.

To create the typewriter effect on the 'SCORPION EYE' we had to create 12 different frames each with an added letter until it eventually spelled 'SCORPION EYE' we had to make sure the letters didn't move too much from the frame before but some movement was good because it makes it seem more jumpy.

The Poster Editing

Step 1: Background

Before we started filming, we went out and took

photos of the area which the film would be set in. We thought this would help inspire our plot. After looking through these photos for one which would be suitable for a background we found one. It shows a long path leading into the darkness and is framed by trees and overgrown shrubbery. (This photo can be found on the setting section earlier in this blog)

We decided that the general colour

scheme of our poster should be predominantly blue and white to create an eerie moonlit feel.

To make the photograph more suitable I adjusted the hue and saturation of the photo and tinted it blue. At this stage the photo seemed too light so I made a black background and adjusted the opacity to about 26% then added a dark vignette border which is common in a lot of horror film posters and can give the effect of something emerging from the darkness. This will also help the main image of the protagonist stand out.

Step 2: Protagonist and intruder photos

In the last day of filming

we took photos of the two main people in this film. The main protagonist who is played by Helen Palmer and the intruder portrayed by Joe Phipps. We took a lot of different photos and out of about 20 we decided this one was best for Helen's character. Her face is serious and looks directly into the camera, her hair is messy but is kept out of her face so it stands out more. The eye make-up is smudged and uneven to give the impression she has been crying or panicking. Firstly, I used the magic wand tool to remove as much of the background as possible which was easy because of the contrast of dark hair on a yellow wall. I then cut around more precisely with the lasso tool with a high feather so her hair blends into the dark background and looks as realistic as possible.

These three images show the stages of development from the original cut out of Helen to the one which we used on the poster. In the second image I used the clarify tool and set the maximum number of 20.0 which emphasises the shadows which were already there making her face look slightly more sunken. I then duplicated the layer, added a blue hue then altered the opacity to very low so the skin seems pale and cold. In the final image I have used the warp brush to make her head narrower and a darkening brush under the eyes and on the cheek bones to give a gaunt almost skeletal look. The corners of her mouth have been altered to remove any hint of smile that might have been in the photo and her lips have been made pale and thin.

The Print Section

This is a collage of 8 different posters for different horror films. A very prominent similarity is the picture of a face in the center of the poster. Apart from number 4, 5 and 7 not a lot of action is happening and the effect this gives is eerie and silent. In these exceptions the face is still centred in the poster layout but instead of a calm expression fear is shown which could possibly mean it is less of a psychological and thought provoking film and just a more obviously scary film. Apart from number 4, all 7 of the photos have the subject looking straight into the camera. Even the images without eyes, because of the positioning of the photo we can imagine eyes looking straight at us, it can be unsettling to think of what can be lurking in the darkness of the eye sockets. In number 2 the lack of a mouth and eyes (the main features that portray emotion) create an extremely sinister image with a face that lacks a conscience or emotion.

The title in all of these posters is at the bottom below the image of the face and above the film credits. This is so the face grabs the attention of the reader first and then their eyes are drawn downwards like reading a piece of paper, to the title of the film which uses it's own unique font to stick in the mind of viewers. A unique aspect of the Friday 13th poster (number 2) is the fact that instead of the title of the film, it just says the release date which is in fact Friday February 13th. Strongly linking the audience with the film because the day that most of them will see it will be the day it is set on.