Our trailer was created to appeal to our target audience through an enticing plot conveyed in a thrilling and dramatic way. The trailer builds suspense by alternating between slow and quick pacing and soft and harsh soundtrack. Special effects like an earthquake effect and echoing scream were added to shots to further disorient and heighten the eerie tone. Dialogue was avoided to maintain suspense, with only a scream used to provide insight into the story while capturing attention.

2. We created our trailer by adapting our research to help create an
enticing trailer for our target audience; the first way we tried to do so,
was creating a plot that would appeal to our audience and conveying it
in a sense that would be thrilling and dramatic enough to receive
attention. By having our trailer change between slow and quick speeds
and softening the soundtrack to contrast with having it become
harsher at other parts we allowed the horror to slowly seep into the
storyline and leave suspense with the audience.

3. The most effective method I added to our trailer was the effects on certain shots to draw
further attention; the earthquake effect on the shot of the dead best friend helps to disorientate
the audience, furthering the suspense that is built through the trailer. Alongside this effect, I
put an effect of ‘echo’ on the scream that’s heard over the shot – this allows the diegetic sound
effect to last longer than the shot and heightens the eerie effect of the trailer, with this being
the only piece of dialogue used in the trailer it also shows a further insight into the story and
captures the audience’s attention. We decided to not use diegetic speech within our trailer as it
would sound out of place against the soundtrack and would take away from the suspense that
progresses through the trailer. The only dialogue given is the scream which creates double the
effect it would normally as it furthers the eerie tone portrayed throughout whilst allowing a
sense of speech in the trailer – further connection the trailer to the audience and reality.

4. Our initial trailer is a lot less developed and mature than the final trailer as it used very basic
transitions of fades and a few cross dissolves. Also, I didn’t use any effects from Final Cut
Pro on the first trailer so the tension caused within it was only due to the actions and events
of the takes. Furthermore, my first trailer had a very simple soundtrack that was created on
Garageband that looped over and over to fill the trailer. In addition to this, the text for the
first trailer was created on iMovie with a simple black background for the white, bold text to
stand out against; the text was also a simple, classic font so it was easily read. The black
background of the text didn’t link very well into the trailer as there was no movement to
show the progression of the trailer whereas in the final trailer the text background has a
slow, simple movement that shows the continuing of the trailer.

5. My initial poster was created on Photoshop and followed a simple format which I
also essentially maintained for the final product; with the image of the best friend
necklace being used on both. The image on my first poster uses a messy outline
but helps it to stand out against the white to black background that stands behind
it. Yet, the image for the final draft had a clean cut and a thorough grey filling to
make it seem plainer and bolder – which furthered contrasted the background.
The text boxes are slightly bigger on my first draft; this was to take up further
space and fill the poster which I decided against on the final draft as it only helped
to take away from the important pieces of text and the image on the poster.
Initial
poster:
Final
poster:

6. The title ‘Best Friends’ used a basic font on the initial poster so it was bold against the
rest of the poster. I placed ‘Best’ in a dark red whilst ‘Friends’ was coloured black;
allowing the two to go against each other and add variety to the colour scheme of the
poster. I also made the font for ‘Best’ in a slightly italic, curly font; to show a sarcastic,
doubting tone to the realistic view of their friendship – to hint at the storyline for the
trailer. I also placed ‘forever?’ of the tagline ‘Friends Forever?’ in an italic, dark red font
to relate to the title whilst furthering the sense of doubt in the character’s friendship.
Whereas, on my final draft I made the title in a completely different font to the rest of
the text on the poster to allow it to stand out; creating a font that looked as if it’s written
in blood.
Whereas, in my final poster I used a more dramatic font for the title in order to make it
stand out. The font demonstrates the idea of it being written in blood or carved, but
placed it in black to make it seem more dramatic and dark.
The tagline was placed in white, to contrast against the
dark grey background, with just the question mark placed
in dark red to draw attention to the question and foreshadow
its answer.

7. The initial magazine cover followed the same colour scheme of black, white and dark
red but the image was hardly edited and didn’t make the actress look very scary. I kept
the idea of the ‘Take’ film strip but made my own film strip for the final poster instead of
finding a stencil of it.
Furthermore, I still used the same coverlines on both covers but used a better font for the
second to make them look more professional and moved the sticker to the left hand side
and let it cross onto the masthead slightly; making the effect better to believe. Instead of
plain dark red lines separating the first two coverlines I used film strips; to add continuity
to the cover. I also got rid of the red diamonds as I thought they took up too much space.
I then added ‘The A-Z of Comedy’ to the coverlines; making the magazine seem fuller.
Initial
poster:
Final
poster:

8. On my first magazine I used a basic font for
the title ‘best friends’ which I put in white to
contrast against the white background. The
font was too simple to stand out amongst the
other coverlines, and made no dramatic
impact. Also, the other text ‘exclusive
interview’ was placed in a dark red next to the
title; to show it’s relevance but not allowing it
to be the most important information.
On my final magazine the title had a narrow,
slim font that gave the text a silver and black
streaked texture – this differed from the rest of
the colour scheme, showing it’s importance. I
then put the rest of the text ‘exclusive
interview with cast’ in a dark red filled triangle
on the right hand side corner, as if it’s a turned
up page. This separated the text and makes it
more interesting for the reader to look at.