2. In our teaser trailer we used a variety of conventions which enabled us to finish our teaser trailer to a professional standard. As we were researching teaser trailers we paid close attention to viral marketing, We looked at how viral marketing was used to promote the ‘District 9’ film. We felt that when viral marketing is done well, It is an effective way to attract viewers to watch the film which is being promoted, Therefore we decided to incorporate viral marketing into our website. Our website takes the form of a news page , displaying details of a young girl called Sarah who has gone missing. The website does not directly mention that it is in fact advertisement for the film which may give viewers the impression that Sarah is really missing, Giving them a much more powerful experience when they watch the film. Viral marketing has also been used on the social networking site Facebook as a page has been made for Sarah along with various friends of hers, each putting their own message of support on her page to show that they are worried about her. This alsogives the audience the opportunity to interact and aid with the discovery of finding out what has happened to Sarah. In turn increasing their interest in the film. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
3. Another convention which we used in the filming of our teaser trailer is the characters we used. All the characters we used are quite stereotypical of what you would expect from a classic ‘Horror’ movie. The stalker is a shady middle aged man and The victim is a 15 year old teenage girl. We adhered to these stereotypes because we felt that if we deferred away from them , then our film may become confusing for our audience. We have challenged the conventional presentation of a teaser trailer by giving our audience the feeling that they are in the position of both Sarah and the ‘Stalker’. To create this effect used a range of camera angles to show what is happening through their eyes ,using a handheld video camera for some of the scenes to help give the audience the feeling that they are in the position of Sarah. An example of this is used in the scene where Sarah is running away from the Stalker. This is something that we had seen done in a similar way in films such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and we felt that it looked effective and would help our audience understand how terrified Sarah would be and it would make them feel sympathy towards her as no one should have to go through that sort of situation.
4. Another convention we used was costumes. The victim, Sarah Basset, was dressed in light clothing which signifies innocence. The stalker was dressed in black clothing signifying evil. We decided that it was important to pay attention to the clothing that each character was wearing because we wanted the audience to be able to instantly recognise who was the good character and who was the bad character. The light clothing choice for Sarah shows that she is innocent and pure. Therefore, the audience will feel strong levels of anger towards the stalker who is trying to take this away from Sarah. Another aspect that we paid close attention to whilst filming our trailer was Laura Mulveys ‘Male Gaze’theory. In her theory Mulvey looked at how mainstream cinema is often portrayed from a heterosexual perspective. This was important for us as we wanted to show certain scenes from the stalkers perspective to present his motives and thoughts to the audience.
5. I think that the combination of our main product and ancillary texts are very effective. I feel that all three of our media pieces link well together and add to the experience the audience get whilst watching the film. All three pieces have meaning behind them and they contribute to the realism which we were trying to create. The poster reflects how the stalker knew every detail about Sarah without her realising. It helps the audience to understand that Sarah is just and innocent teenage girl and she didn’t ask to be followed. The poster alone doesn’t give the audience a very clear idea as to what they can expect from the film , but together with the trailer and the website it is very powerful in adding meaning and emotion to the film. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
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7. I am pleased with how the website has turned out. I feel that it combines well with our teaser trailer and poster. The website is the website for a local newspaper from Sarahs home town, displaying an article about how she has gone missing. This helps to make our trailer more viral. It will increase the experience viewers get whilst watching the film as they may believe that the film is based on a true story. This is something which I had seen being similarly used in the marketing for the ‘ Dark knight’ film . It increases the realism you experience whilst watching the film , this is important for our film because we want the viewers to put themselves in the position of Sarah and understand how she might be feeling and what she is going through.
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9. What have you learned from your audience feedback? Audience feedback has been vital throughout the production process of our teaser trailer and ancillary texts. We used audience feedback in the forms of questionnaires, video responses and through social networking sites such as Facebook. Before we came up with our idea we submitted a questionnaire to our target audience to discover what they expect from a teaser trailer. Alongside this questionnaire we showed them videos of other teaser trailers and they could then tell us which ones they liked and why. Doing this was very helpful as it gave us an idea into which conventions we could use within our teaser trailer .Our target audience told us they liked the effect that using a handheld camera gave in shooting some scenes within a film , examples of how this has been used in films are ‘The blair witch project’ and ‘Cloverfield’. From our pre-production feedback we also found out that internet safety is something which is on the minds of many people within our target audience, this inspired us with the main story of our film.
10. Throughout the production of our teaser trailer we felt that it was important to get feedback throughout to make sure that we were producing something which was of a professional standard and which would appeal o our target audience. We filmed ourselves explaining our idea to a group of people within our target audience and we filmed the responses to our ideas and work so far. About half way through our filming , it was clear from audience feedback that our filming was not of a high enough standard to which you would expect from a teaser trailer and the main idea was confusing for viewers. Therefore we decided the best thing we could do was to scrap our idea and the filming we had already done and start again. We spoke to our target audience about potential new ideas and got their opinions on which one would be most appealing for them. We also filmed them giving us on ideas on what we should include in our teaser trailer. Changing our idea turned out to be a good thing and we have been able to produce something better suited for our target audience and of a much higher quality.
11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbwKIIwaZ9w&feature=player_embedded This is a video of the feedback we received for our second idea, However throughout the completion of our second idea audience feedback showed us that it was still not up to the standard that we desired therefore we decided to change our idea. And we are glad we did. We feel that our piece is much better for it and as a result of our constant audience feedback we have produce something which is professional and to the standard we were striving for.
12. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Throughout the project I have used new technology to help me complete the work to a professional standard. We used YouTube to find examples of existing teaser trailers. YouTube was also used to upload our trailer to the internet. I had not used the uploading side of YouTube before doing this project, but I found it very easy to use. We used ‘Imageshack’ to upload our images to the media departments blogging site.
13. Serif movieplus was used to help us edit the footage we had and to turn it into our teaser trailer. I had not used it before but after a while of using it I soon learnt different ways I could edit my footage and I learnt about the different transitions that I could use to break my footage up and produce a professional looking teaser trailer. I used Macromedia Dreamweaver to create the website. I had used this program before but only on a basic level so I have improved my skills a lot and am now fairly confident on my ability to produce a website to a high standard.
