Ancillary Tasks

Vengeance horror movie poster

Vengeance horror movie magazine front cover 

Final edit of movie trailer

Evaluation of Trailer

Evaluation of movie trailer

Evaluation of movie trailer  

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

During the planning stage of creating my movie trailer a lot of research was needed to be done to ensure that I can gather the appropriate knowledge to create a entertaining trailer; this will include finding out the structure of a horror trailer and the types of scenes that should be included in the trailer.

The traditional horror movie trailer will contain multiple scenes in the movie that’s intended to build up tension and anxiety in the mind on the reader. However, the clips used in the trailer aren't suppose to give to much away about the story of the film but give the viewer a brief idea of the story line of the film but scenes that excite the viewer.   All of these features are the typical things done in horror movie trailer and I am going to follow this structure because it has been successful for a long period of time, which shows that there isn’t many faults with the structure. Also as a fan of horror movies I feel that this structure gives a powerful message to the audience and create fear in the viewers head. A trailer I have taken inspiration from a movie trailer called Tormented and this movie story is similar to my storyline, which helped with the practical side of the trailer. This horror movie is a British horror movie and was very successful when released therefore; this further solidifies my choice of horror type because of the success and feedback from the British public.

Due to the success of this trailer and film I have tried to emulate this trailer however, to ensure that my trailer is unique I have tried to go against the conventions of a typical horror trailer to stand out. One of the convention I went against compared to the tormented trailer is that in my trailer I have used background music across the whole trailer compared to Tormented, which the music start half way through the trailer. I have put background music from the beginning of the trailer, as this will helps my trailer to create tension and anticipation from the start which can help my trailer create fear in the viewers mindset. Both movies I would say are a gory horror movie therefore, I wanted to ensure that this is obvious to the viewer and this is done by the use of front and colour of my titles in the trailer. From inspiration from the Tormented trailer I used a red blood colour with a spooky and bloody font. This was done to further show that this trailer is going to be a gory horror movie that’s going to include many gory and bloody scenes in the film/trailer. 

I have decided to follow Todorov’s theory to which he feels a successful horror movie should be structured but turn that structure into a trailer format

1.    Equilibrium – Normal/positive start

2.    Disruption to the equilibrium start – A bad event occurs

3.    Recognition of the disruption

4.    An attempt to repair the disruption

5.   Restore to a positive ending

My trailer begins with my main character looking upon a group of her so called friends talking without her being a part of the group; this scene is the equilibrium of the trailer. However, because this is a trailer some of the later stages of Todorov’s theory will have to be missed, as it would give too much away about the story line and film. Therefore, the stages I have included are both the equilibrium and disruption to the normal start, which includes the turning point for the victim and couple of the killings of the guilty. This selection of events gives the viewers a little insight to the types of event that’s will occur in the film and create anticipation in the viewers to want to watch the full film.   

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

A vital piece of market research I carried out to find out the types of features that I should include in my trailer is by conducting a focus group, Facebook message with fellow students, teachers and peers feedback.  This feedback was carried out through the planning, creating and evaluating stage as this will give me an idea of what my target demographics expectations are from a gory horror movie. All these activities are conducting to help my trailer be a success and exceed the target audience’s expectation to make a entertaining a scary movie trailer.

During the planning stage I conducted a Facebook group and focus group were the two activities I carried out was they are the most effective and knowledge two pieces of market research. The first piece of research I conducted was a focus group, which is when I held a meeting with fellow student to have face-to-face conversation about my gory horror movie. This gave me a chance to ask the students about my idea and further expand on any answers I feel would help my project.

 Another piece of audience feedback I carried out was the Facebook group as I was able to communicate with the demographic I felt my movie trailer would appeal to. The types of questions I asked in my Facebook group are does a gory horror movie appeal to you? What do you want to see in a gory horror movie? What don’t you want to see in a gory horror trailer? These are the questions I felt were important during the planning stage because of the primary sourcing of information. All the questions I asked to my fellow students gave me a chance to gather some insight into the thinking and expectations of my demographic and try to meet or exceed those expectations. The answers I got given gave me knowledge of the types of scenes I should include in my movie trailer, as the information given is by the demographic who would want to watch this trailer.

Once I created my first draft of my film trailer I presented the film to both teachers and students as this helped me gather further information about my project and get an outside opinion on what they felt went well about the trailer and what improvement should be made. I created a feedback sheet for my fellow class student to fill out with questions about my trailer such as what went well and what improvement are needed to take my trailer to the next level. This also gave me instant feedback and opinions about my movie trailer to get the target demographics point of view about my trailer. Then I also go feedback from a teacher point of view and this is a very good source of information because it gives me the insight to an older individuals opinion. Also gain feedback from a more experienced individual on the types of features that should be included in my movie trailer.  One of the best pieces of feedback I received from the teacher was up make quick cuts towards the end of the trailer to further create tension in the trailer.

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

Throughout the planning, research and evaluation stages of creating my movie trailer I have used social networking to help my trailer to be successful. The social media platform is a quick way for myself to receive feedback and knowledge by my targeted demographic to contribute to the progression and success of my trailer. During the planning stage used a function on Facebook that allows me to create a group message with the chosen individuals that I felt would give myself more reliable information. Also this function is a way of communicating with this demographic quick and effectively because it can be accessed by this student by a laptop or smartphone. Also after I created my movie poster and movie magazine front cover I used social media platforms to gather opinions of the ancillary tasks by the users of that social networking platform.  I used a messaging feature on social media platforms to receive direct feedback from indivduals about my poster and magazine front cover. This was done to receive feedback about the positives and negatives of these advertising materials leading to any changes that I feel should be made to make these documents better.

The software’s used to create my trailer are Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop and IMovie. All these pieces of software have contributes to the creation of my trailer but all have had different functions and effect on the end product of my trailer. At first I was using Adobe Premiere to create my trailer as this software has many features to help me create a successful trailer. As it was the first time I was using this software I had to explore and navigate myself around the features I could use in my trailer. The types of effects I used from this piece of software are the zoom in transition and a changing the light intensity in scenes to fit the genre, which helps create the feeling that my trailer is a horror movie trailer. I also used Adobe Photoshop to help create effective and professional images for both my trailer and ancillary task.  For my trailer Adobe Photoshop was used for creating the titles to help further tell the storyline about my film. The features used in Photoshop are changing the colour the font to help make it clear that my trailer is a horror movie trailer and create a sense of fear in the mindset of the viewer. Then for my poster and magazine front over photoshop gave me a chance to use the feature on this software to help me create a professional poster and magazine front cover.  However, due to technology faults I wasn’t able to use Adobe Premier for the rest of my trailer as the format I was filming on wasn’t able to translate on this software. Therefore, these led to me continuing my movie trailer on IMovie as the footage filmed could be shown on this software. With the scenes already edited for my trailer on Adobe Premier I exported those to a format I was able to manipulate on IMovie then continue finishing my trailer.

Evaluation of Ancillary Task

Evaluation of Ancillary Tasks 

During the production of my ancillary task I had to undertake research to find out the norms of a movie poster and the format of a typical movie magazine. This gave myself the chance to see the norms of these ancillary tasks and also the chance to challenge the norms of these documents to help my movie stand out from other movies in this genre.

The magazine I have brand I have chosen to use is Empire, who are one of the most recongised and reliable movie magazines, which is the reason for my choice of magazine brand. When looking at the magazine I looked at the typical structure of a empire magazine and see which feature of this structure I should use to best advertise my movie. The features I have chosen to use are the use of straplines and a flasher as these features make the front cover stand out and unique. In many of the Empires magazine front covers the main image will normally cover the Empire logo as it gives more importance to the image than the brand. However, due to the image I have chosen this type of format couldn't’t be used as the magazine wouldn’t have the same effet. This has led to my main image not covering the Empire logo and located under the Empire logo with the image have a effet on the reader of the magazine. Also i felt that its important for to show off the Empire brand as this would be an important feature of attracting readers to take notice of my film. 

However, when formatting my front cover i didn’t want to just follow the norms of a coventional front cover as it wouldnt make my front cover look unique or stand out to other magazine front covers. One of these features i have decided not to follow is to use any large fonts or symbols  around the front cover because it would distract the the audience from the main image and take more notice of straplines. This is also the case for not choosing to use a secondary image as this is a bigger distraction for the audience to take more interest in the seconadry image than the main image.

When creating my magazine front cover i wanted to ensure that the colour scheme i used fitted the genre and type of horror movie i am trying to promote. With my horror movie being a gory type of horror i wanted to ensure that the colours used for the front cover suits its purpose to further have a impact on my targetted demographic. The colour scheme used on my front cover are black, yellow and red as these are the conventional coloured associated with a gory horror movie. These colours used in my magazine front cover has also been used when picking costumes for my actresses in my trailer as it shows a house style and fits the type of colours that the demographic would associated with a gory horror movie.

For my movie poster i have decided to use one main image with the main character with the background being the main setting for all the crimes to be accuring at. This is following the norms of most movie poster as they would normally use is one main image  becuase by doing this it would not distract the viewer from the main image. Another norm i have followed is to put the credits on the bottom of the poster. This will normally contain the production company. Editors, music and production names. This will be placed on the bottom right hand side on the poster however, i didnt include many titles because it would of made my poster look a little over crowded and have less of an impact on the message of my poster.