The document discusses the creation of a trailer, magazine cover, and film poster for a psychological thriller. It notes that while the trailer followed many genre conventions, it broke some by including a character voiceover instead of dialogue. The magazine cover was largely conventional in layout but the film poster took an unconventional approach with an ambiguous close-up image. Feedback was generally positive and led to improvements. A variety of media technologies were used for research, documentation, and construction of the projects.

4.  For the most part, my trailer follows the
codes and conventions of other psychological
thriller trailers.
 There is a clear main character/protagonist.
 There is obviously dramatic conflict.
 There are a variety of appropriate shot types,
chosen to convey meaning to the viewer.
 I based the structure of my trailer loosely on
those I analysed (slow start with building
tension).
 There are dark themes associated with the
thriller genre (death and revenge).
 The soundtrack is appropriate to the genre.
 I included captions.

5.  However, I did break some codes and
conventions.
 I chose to put no dialogue into the trailer,
instead opting for a character voiceover.
Despite this being inspired by the Jacob’s
Ladder teaser trailer (in which there is a
voiceover and very little dialogue) it is rarely
seen in trailers, so is unconventional.
 I also included no idents on the post title
screen shot. This was a conscious stylistic
decision – I didn’t like the way it looked when
I tried, so I decided to omit them – as there is
an ident at the beginning of the trailer, there
is still a company present in the trailer.

6.  I tried to stick closely to conventions with my
magazine cover.
 It features a conventional layout, with a
title, headline, puff, barcode, price, issue
number and date and several coverlines
present.
 There is a single large picture on the
cover, which is conventional.
 I used a palette of black, yellow, light
blue, red, white and grey – although a rather
large palette, it is not out of the ordinary for
movie magazines and is, in fact, quite
conventional.

7.  I broke convention slightly with my film poster.
 The thriller posters I looked at were either
monochrome, showed a person in a clear state of
distress or were minimalistic in approach.
 I chose a different route and created a teaser
poster featuring a close up of a character with an
ambiguous expression. There is a stormy beach
in the background. Although this poster is unlike
any of the ones I looked at, due to it’s colour
scheme and picture layout, I deliberately chose to
make my poster ambiguous in order to add to
the sense of mystery – it could spark discussion
about what sort of film it would be, much like the
film Cloverfield did upon the release of it’

9.  All three of my products share certain traits and
attributes.
 The beach is a running theme, appearing heavily
in the trailer and also in the background of the
poster.
 The main character appears on/in all three of my
products; he is the only character on the poster
and magazine and he has the most individual
screen time in the trailer.
 All products feature some sort of dark imagery;
the dark background on the magazine, the
stormy beach in the background of the poster
and the violent imagery of my trailer. For these
reasons, I believe my trailer and ancillary tasks
work well together and that the combination of
my main product [trailer] and ancillary tasks
[poster and magazine cover] is effective.

11.  I received a couple of forms of audience
feedback; feedback from questionnaires and
feedback from my peers and teachers.
 This feedback often spurred me on to make
necessary changes to my work and also
showed me that it is important to create work
that appeals to a wide audience, not just
myself.
 The type of feedback also differed; I found
that those who answered the anonymous
questionnaire’s were more brutally honest
than my peers.

12.  Feedback towards my final
product was generally positive –
earlier feedback that led me to
change my product improved my
product overall.

14.  I used various media technologies to carry
out and document my research.
 These include:
 Google Search, Microsoft PowerPoint and
YouTube, Mictosoft Word, Microsoft Excel and
Vimeo.

15.  Microsoft PowerPoint has been used
throughout this project to document my work
in an attractive, concise manner.

16.  Microsoft Excel was used in conjunction with
Microsoft Word to construct graphs showing
the results of my questionnaires.

17.  I used Microsoft Word to document my
questionnaires and their results.
 This is the easiest and most advanced word
processing programme I have on my
computer, so it made sense to use it above
anything else.

18.  Vimeo allowed me to watch the work of
previous media students so that I could get
an idea of the quality of work I was to
produce.
 It also allowed me to watch the work of more
professional, independent people, which
enabled me to get some idea of what made a
good trailer.

19.  I used YouTube, a video sharing website, to
view existing, professional movie trailers.
 Viewing trailers was necessary for my
analysis.
 YouTube also allowed me to print screen
shots in order to talk about them more clearly
in PowerPoints.

20.  Google allowed me to quickly locate relevant
information, which was ideal.
 As such, my research was made far
easier, and I could easily reach images that I
could analyse (e.g. Magazine front
covers, move posters) in order to get a better
understanding of codes and conventions.

21.  Media technology was vital for the
construction of my products.
 The programs I used for construction were:
 Photoshop, iMovie, GarageBand and InDesign.

22.  Photoshop was used in the construction of
my poster, magazine cover and trailer.
 Due to the advanced photo editing properties
of Photoshop, I was able to airbrush the
photos I used, as well as adjust the levels,
brightness and contrast and add textures.
 Photoshop also allowed me to add text and
edit it with strokes, glows and shadows.

23.  I used InDesign with my poster and
magazine.
 InDesign was used to make the completed
products look more ‘professional’. Using
InDesign, I added bleed marks and other
printing paraphenalia to my document.

24.  iMovie was used to construct my entire
trailer.
 I chose iMovie for it’s sophisticated but easy
to use software.
 iMovie allowed me to edit my clips
appropriately.
 I used iMovie to add effects, edit clips
together and to add music and voiceovers.