During the research, planning, construction, and evaluation stages of creating a horror trailer and magazine cover, the author made extensive use of various media technologies. YouTube was used to analyze horror film techniques and find inspiration. IMDB provided information on directors and box office performance. Wikipedia supplied background on horror genres and trends. Photoshop aided the design and editing of the magazine cover and movie poster. The completed trailer was uploaded to YouTube for public feedback and evaluation through comments, social media sharing, and focus group screenings. A blog collected and organized reviewer feedback.

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

2. During the research process, new media helped out in a number of ways. YouTube
was helpful because it allowed me to find multiple horror trailers and look at
different conventions that particular trailers had. For example the trailer for The
Human Centipede (2009) allowed me to see just how the film used expressionist
angles to create a sense of power for the 'monster' of the movie. From this we
were able to explore different ways of incorporating these types of shots into our
horror trailer. Other sources of new media included the database of IMDB which
allowed us to find particular horror directors such as Tom Six the director of The
Human Centipede. We looked at who as a group we enjoyed and looked at different
movies they made, and how they were relevant to our project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkZ4gF329SQ

3. Our research allowed us to examine traits of auteur directors such as Tobe Hooper
who is famous for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). After examining how that
film was so successful and seeing how well it did at the box office through IMDB,
this allowed us to explore particular moments that were effective in the movie that
made it a cult horror movie. A moment that I found through YouTube was the
dinner table scene which is horrific to watch, whilst it didn't use any gore, it was
the non-diegetic screams that were placed over the top which created a sense of
fear in that scene, it was these points of reference that allowed us to draw
inspiration for our trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mqOj
E9xJ7I

4. Wikipedia was also another great point of reference during the planning because it
helped us to explore the history of horror and what types of horror were popular
for large lengths of time, I was able to draw that monster movies were popular in
the 1930's and 'slasher' movies were popular in the 1970's and 1980's. This helped
me whittle down what type of horror trailer we wanted to create and with what
type of character, we combined this with YouTube to review horror characters such
as Pennywise the Dancing Clown from IT (1990) and Freddy Kruger from A
Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=OPdDdC4go6c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv9VS
GvduXo

5. We also used DVDs and Blu-rays to help our research into different types of horror
movies , personally I have a vast collection of horror movies so I was able to source
out popular and cult films that did and didn't do great at the box office. Some of
these would include Blood Sucking Freaks (1976) and Switchblade Romance (2003).
This source of new media also allowed us to see horrors from different countries
and look at the incarnations that directors takes on the horror genre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDHF3b
H4PtA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCZen48N
-e8

6. During the construction process of my magazine cover and movie poster,
Photoshop became a good source of new media to use. For both of these, I was
able to take pre-existing horror magazines and analyse what aspects were good
about them, and how they grabbed my attention from a consumer perspective. I
took SCREAM magazine and set it to a low opacity beneath my magazine so I could
get a general idea of a layout whilst adding in my own content over the top.

7. I was also about to give the masthead text a stroke effect around it, this helped it
to stand out a little bit as opposed to just the red text, it made it pop out a little bit
more which would grab the audience's attention. The main cover image has been
soften around the edges to make it appear more refined. It also helps to make it
stand out more, by feathering the edge of the image. After this, I am able to
remove any haphazard cutting out of the original photo. During this process I also
applied filters to the image and I raised the contrast of the main cover image and
added a drop shadow. This allowed me to get a nice contrast in both light and dark
on the Priest's face to connote his twisted intentions, similar lighting is applied to
Norman Bates in Psycho (1960).

8. In terms of evaluating my work, because the trailer was uploaded to YouTube and set
to public, this meant that I could take the link and post it to friends on Facebook
through these different means of synergy. Not only this, but strangers from around the
world could see our trailer and comment on it which allowed for us to see what was
working and what wasn't. Due of my wide contact list, this meant I was able to send
people a direct link and get an international opinion from different age ranges so our
feedback wasn't biased.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60RP6lK-
WR4

9. The focus group screening was also helpful because it allowed to see what people of
our age bracket had in terms of good points and stuff we needed to improve upon.
Lastly, the use of Blogger was also a big help because it allowed me to type up
thoughts given to me on the trailer and collect it in one place as opposed to separate
pieces of paper. I could then access this information almost anywhere and use a point
of reference whilst improving the trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FX_IMqd
XKI