Thursday, 13 March 2014

Evaluation

Evaluation  - How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary tasks?
http://prezi.com/0clnup2cxtyc/edit/#62_47252

Here is a prezi demonstration of my evaluation.

Evaluation

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

When choosing to do a film trailer, We wanted to do a genre which we felt we were most confident and interested in. From watching Horrors and especially more lately Psychological horrors we felt this would be the perfect opportunity to incorporate our knowledge and put it into a media text(Film trailer). When noting our ideas for a film trailer we had to research conventions and different memes into this genre. From watching so many we recognise a pattern of conventions featured in many films. These could include isolated areas where the event takes place e.g. In the modern horror normally a big 'family' or couples house with 'no neighbours' around them so when the killer enters this leaves them in danger. Other things like themes containing religion. Religious books, ornaments, letters etc this is becoming increasingly popular in the 21st century as with the rise of some religions e.g. Islam, however religion has mainly declined and most horror films reference Christianity. To my opinion because of this decline, Producers may feel they want to bring back the idea of religion and incorporate this into horror movies giving religion a twist. (Rise of Cult films becoming popular).

When considering whether we would use conventions we immediately thought of course we would. Every genre has a set of conventions which makes it recognisable to an audience therefore they can establish what genre It is. This rule applies to a mass audience as many people like the idea of conventions being in place without being to emphasised, this is when audience start to get bored and class it as 'another horror movie'. Obviously conventions were there to guide producers into being successful therefore we knew we would use typical conventions in my text. We feel because we wanted to appeal to a mass audience then it would be appropriate to use conventions and not go against them or else my audience could think what a bizzare idea, which would probably appeal to a niche audience however we are appealing to a mass audience target age of 15-24 year olds. Most 15-24 year olds do not want anything that challenges conventions because they don't understand and like the idea. When they want to watch a movie, they have a motive e.g. to get scared, or to go to the cinema with a group of friends which makes it an even greater experience.

By deconstructing film trailers and analysing them in depth, even films which use many typical conventions can still be very diverse in their work, e.g. something we wanted to do. James Wann is a very successful director, directing one of the most talked about horror films of 2013 The Conjuring. This film follows many typical conventions,( isolated house) supernatural theme, family calls people to help them yet it is not successful they are warned etc. In my opnion I feel as if this film was very cleverly constructed. The film was so thrilling it build up suspense in such a chilling way, gradually making it worse. Wan really thought of the mise on scene, choice of actors and story line/composition very well while following typical conventions. He added his own imprint or tropes into his films.

We learned that in Psychological horror movies, the killer is always in mystery. The producers need to be savvy with what the audience want and building suspense through camera work, mise on scene, editing etc. Location is a key in horrors as the audience want to know where they are, how the killer got in, why etc. Good camera shots including the Establishing shot and close up are used in horrors to show the suspense on the characters.

For my film trailer we have obeyed with many conventions and not challenged them as much as we are not confident enough to break into that market without doing some thorough research and maybe with more time and resources, I'm definitely not against the idea at all though, it sounds very creative to challenge conventions completely and I am inspired by people who think outside of the box. Conventional aspects I included were the 'handheld' footage which makes the concept of the film seem more 'real' which scares the audience because they feel that if it is real then it is out there and something may actually happen to them, this would be their worst nightmare. I used very isolated locations e.g. behind the stage and in an empty park to make it again seem all so familiar to the audience. Moreover, I wanted to use ambient sounds in my trailer which included a heartbeat, breathing sounds and a baby crying this was very typically conventional and I feel that people could identify that it was a horror genre from conventions like this. In addition we used non diegetic sounds such as 'Bang' which is typical at creeping up on the audience as it has been proven that loud noises in such shock raise heartbeat and make the viewers more scared.

Again as I mentioned earlier, sound is very important in enhancing the surrealness of a movie, especially a horror movie. If you have ever watched a movie without any sound it is not the same at all in some cases it makes the movie completely not scary! One way I have maybe challenged conventions is by using a different soundtrack to what most horrors use. Many horrors use an orchestral type soundtrack or piano. I have gone against typical conventions and I used two soundtracks which some may question not to use for a horror. These two soundtracks are Gary Jules Mad world which is in some ways quite depressing and a song which makes you think about life a lot. However because my film is a psychological horror then this song is suitable as it engages the audience a lot, which will then make them want to watch the film. Also I used Pop goes the weasel which is like a carosuel song so its quite happy which contrasts with the horror genre and made the clown look really eerie and frightening.

When applying my film trailer to theories I think it can be applied to many including the uses and gratifications theory. We think this theory applies to many horror films as the audience take out what they want from the media text. The theory is concerned with mass communication and what people do with the media. We believe in our horror trailer people have a motive to get scared and they get what they want from the film. Especially as we think this will appeal to a mass audience because a lot of people have been following the Northampton clown story, this will attract them even further.
In a way we have also challenged conventions by going against character stereotypes e.g. The cute girl. Our story was more concerned with serious life events e.g. the theme around kidnapping and suggested Paedophilia. Our film trailer makes the audience more aware of this is a more subtle way.

Vladimir Propp proposed a theory on narrative functions. According to Propp characters have a narrative function.  They provide structure for the text. I agree with Propp to some extent. The typical characters he found was the hero, the villain , the donor , the dispatcher, the false hero, the princess. Now in consideration of our film trailer many of these characters do not exist e.g. The princess, we don't have a prize at the end our main theme is concerned with real life events rather than just a story line.

In terms of development, In my ancillary tasks, we kept developing them to ensure my media product was up to tip top condition. we kept developing the font on my magazine cover as we knew in my head what we wanted however, it was hard finding the font, therefore development was key here. Fonts in horror tend to be bold and striking mainly in rich colours such as red and black. Some can be slimline and gothic illustrating the concept of horror.






Evaluation

Evaluation  - What have you learned from your audience feedback?





 
 
 
Here is a video clip of Zahra Sullivan an A2 media student giving some feedback.
 
 
 
 
Here is a soundclip Amber Binder a College student who loves horror films.
 
 
 

Evaluation

Evaluation  - How did you use Media Technologies in the research, planning, construction and Evaluation

http://prezi.com/f4uy6hha1x91/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

In my evaluation, I wanted to make sure it was as multimedia as possible. This then opens the doors to diversity and looks more interesting then just block writing. I loved using Prezi and Youtube because I feel as if these were two different media technologies which caught my evaluation well.

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Film Trailer

REECE - Health and Saftey

REECE

There could potentially be many health and safety hazards when filming. These may include things such as slips and trips, dangerous equipment and safety of the actors. We had to observe whether the filming locations would be appropriate for us to film around. If not they could cause an extreme amount of harm which is unintended. We originally wanted to film at Wicksteed Park on Barton Road. When walking up to Wicksteed park which was near our school we had to take things into consideration such as heavy traffic. Additionally, when we got to Wicksteed Park there were a lot of maintenance issues as the location we wanted to film in was being dug up, and also it posed a big issue in itself in the fact that we wanted to film in the old railway station which would be very dangerous as it was made of wood which was flimsy and falling down( hence why we wanted the creepy location). If I did in an extreme event happen to fall on the actor then this would cause serious harm. Therefore it being under maintenance was good as they were regenerating it.

As we headed back to school, we looked at possible locations to film. One very good location was behind our school stage, which until this point I did not know there was an upstairs with a small corridor full of empty cupboards and a creepy door at the end.  To get up to the corridor there was a very steep set of stairs which could potentially cause an accident. Hannah and I had to make sure Mr. Swain and ourselves got up and down the ladder safely as it was very dark getting up the stairs and it was in an isolated area. We used a Torch on our iPhones to get up the stairs carefully going up one by one with one person observing at all times. When passing the equipment e.g. Camera and Tripod, Hannah and I carefully disabled the tripod to its smallest position and handed it to each other while getting up the stairs. If it was extended in full position it could cause a big stressor. The light upstairs was very dim( which was at an advantage for us making it more eerie) however we needed to make sure that all the crew were away from the stairs as the lighting was low. Moreover as the small corridor was cluttered with things such as a chair empty cupboards etc we needed to make sure Mr. Swain was at safety and when filming he would not trip over anything. We filmed a scene where the light switch was turned on and off done by myself. As all light was directed towards the actor I needed to make sure I was stable and wouldn't accidently fall down the stairs.

We decided to get a clear reaction from an audience therefore we dropped in on a P.E. Lesson unexpectedly! The reaction was great as they all screamed which I thought of as a possible idea to put at the start of the film trailer, however we must take into account that some people may have phobias of clowns, so we hope we didn't scare them too much( Even though it was our intention! )

For the second location of filming, The actors were took to a local park including Hannah's Nephew who is only very young. At such a young age we needed to keep his safety a priority and take it very seriously as he was somebody else's child. Hannah's mum and Sister came to watch Hannah's Nephew Liam so she could focus on getting the filming perfect. She made sure she was not obstructing the public in any way and made sure Liam wasn't under any distress and knew what to do. Overall he was a superstar.

I decided to film at my local park to film the first shots for the film trailer. This was featuring a blue helium balloon being released into the air. I needed to get the Helium so I got it from card factory. When I first trialed the filming it was a windy day and lots of people were around, I used my dad to stand behind a tree and let the balloon go however I needed him not to be insight. We had an issue where he accidently let it go and I wasn't filming! So I had to go back to card factory and get the blue balloon again. On second attempt we were successful and got more than one filled up therefore meaning if it went wrong again we still had spare. I needed to makesure the blue balloon wasn't going to get in the way or infer with anything so I decided to do it at the end of the park. I made sure I was out of the way of the public.



Here is a clip of Mr swain in the location we filmed in which could be perceived as Hazardous.



Progression of Film Trailer

Progress
This is some of my progress using Final cut pro. At first i used iMovie then went onto using final cut pro as i could use it for better editing techniques. Here are some photos showing the development.
Here I am using Apples Program Final Cut Pro. It was very useful for editing my film trailer and composing the shots together. I found that it had a range of editing technqiues, texts and sound features which was very helpful in creating my film trailer. I wasn't very familiar with the macs so using this program gave me great experience on how to upload and edit my film trailer. One great feature Hannah and I used to make it seem more like a psychological horror was the 'REC' feature at the bottom. I feel currently in the modern horror world, audience want a movie that is filmed handheld so it makes it seem more like reality rather than a scripted American slasher film which follows typical conventions. Producers know audience want so much more than this, and therefore we decided to incorporate this into our film trailer.
Here you can see Final cut pro in action. At the bottom you can see a linear bar with split sections of shots in it. The line is where it runs these shots in the order its displayed. You can see final cut pro goes into a lot of depth as it shows each shot in a lot of detail. It was easy to move around and play with simply by dragging the section.
Here I am using a different program by Apple which is iMovie. Hannah and I originally used this and uploaded ALL of our filming onto iMovie. With iMovie I felt it was easier to place the shots in order as you drag it to the top, however on Final cut pro it had much better editing techniques and a lot more variety than iMovie. Still iMovie was our blank slate for uploading all of our footage which then we selected the filming we wanted and placed it into final cut pro.

Filming Stills

Filming Stills 
Here are some filming stills of locations we used. We wanted to orginally go to Wicksteed Park, however when we got there it was under maintainence therfore we couldnt film in the old train track shelter. Alternativley we used behind the stage and it was really eerie and looked really spooky.









Monday, 3 March 2014

Ancillary Final Pieces

Ancillary Tasks - Final Pieces
 
 
 
 
 
Here are my two ancillary tasks. I feel the magazine cover really works as I decided to research existing magazines and found some of the conventions which I could use on my magazine cover. Furthermore here is my Poster which the Date from The magazine is meant to be 'July 2014' not 'March 2014'. It is a simple error Hannah and I will sort out immediately.
 
 
 

Voiceover

Voiceover Possibilities

We wanted to use a Voiceover in our film trailer so we were looking at possibilities online. We came across this particular ones we liked.


 

Filming

Filming Problems

For our film trailer originally we were going to film at Wicksteed Park in the old railway station to make the clown really scary and hidden in an eerie location. On a Friday afternoon we went down to Wicksteed park and tried to go to the railway station however it was blocked because of construction. We had too think of some more locations on where to film so we went back to school and thought of some good alternatives. We went behind the stage and found there was a ladder at the top leading to a small enclosed dark corridor with only a lightbulb and a door at the end with some cupboards tucked at the side. It was really spooky and chilling so we decided to film up there and it was a success, the footage looked really good and I especially liked where the clown walked through the door and closed it with his back to the camera, it looked really horrifying of where he was going or what he was going to do. There was a steep ladder so we had to be especially careful when climbing down it or else we could of slipped. We also went into a P.E lesson and got lots of Year 8s to scream so we could add this on to our film trailer, however it didn't seem as effective.



I thought this picture looked really creepy with the old benches, we were going to film near this area, near the lake.


Storyboard

Storyboard







I created another  storyboard to illustrate my ideas and thoughts so I could organize my thoughts into where I would put the filming into places.


I divided it into 4 sections so I could put the main shots in of our film trailer.
As you cannot see the writing very clearly I will put the dialogue below

Shot 1: Based on true events of autumn 2012 - here we will have a still frame of a descripton of what events occurred.

Shot 2: Blue balloon disappears into background with a zoom shot starts representation

Shot 3: Recording of little boy *Footage of little boy having fun on the swing  Gary Jules - Mad world starts playing

Shot 4: Little boy running with blue balloon through park balloon being a keep prop in mise-en-scene
Camera shots in slow motion

Shot 5: Little boy runs through park away from his mother however to be kidnapped

Shot 6: Empty swing swinging backwards  and forth (dark setting)

Shot 7: Telephone scene: 999 Whats your emergency? Hes taken him my baby hes gone! Please madam calm down can you explained what happened, Hes taken him! phone cuts off

Shot 8: Clown appears in light setting(juxtaposition) Pop goes the weasel starts playing

Shot 9: Clown walks toward camera

Shot 10: Clown from behind tree waves (Close up) Light background contrast with eerie clown (juxtaposition)

Shot 11: Still image of clown and closed door sounds

Shot 12: SPOTTED ( Breathing)