evaluation of G324 media studies A2 horror movie trailer

1. Media Studies Evaluation
Waleed Zaman Khan & Abdul Rafae

2. In what ways does your media product use; develop of
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Research is essential when producing a product; it provides the foundations upon which we work on.
During our research, we exploited many media forums, to eradicate any misconceptions and to thus
confirm the line of work we were out to construct. Before creating our practical projects we undertook
a large amount of research into the horror genre and we learnt many conventions included in horror
posters and trailers. Therefore, when producing our media product we included these conventions and
also challenged a few.
From all the real horror media products the lighting they used was dull and dark which creates the
horror like atmosphere. We used this in our trailer by filming in the dark; it meant that sight is
restricted and therefore induces a fear of the unknown.
Another convention We used in our horror trailer was the typical horror like setting, in all the films we
analyzed that they showed either a large new house like ‘House at the End of the Street’, or a secluded
location with hardly any one around creating a sense of isolation. In our trailer, the setting we used
was a isolated farm house where there is nothing but fields everywhere around. The house appeared to
be surrounded by trees and empty fields which in a sense showed it cut off from the rest of the world,
this is a successful convention as it shows that no one can help the protagonist therefore making them
more vulnerable.

3. The antagonist is usually a male character as it shows his power over the protagonists but we choose to
challenge this convention by using a little girl as the antagonist. We thought this would be effective as
it is unexpected especially as youth connotes innocence, as well as this we dressed her in a plain light
blue dress which also symbolizes innocence. When we first introduced the girl we showed the dark
makeup and messy hair. we researched horror films that have previously used this technique such as
‘The Ring’ and ‘Orphan’ and we learnt that they tend to hang the hair over the face to hide some of
the girls features which induces a fear of the unknown and it helps to create suspense.
The shots that we used could be considered as unconventional as most horror films and trailers use a
range of establishing shot, close – ups, mid shots and other types of shots but instead we used
handheld shots. On the other hand, found footage films such as ‘Rec.’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’ are
getting more recognition and they are now more popular so much so some consider it to be a horror
sub-genre. This is also very common for low budget films as they do not require expensive camera
equipment this factor also influenced our choice to use this style.
Our music was another main feature that we tried to use to reflect typical horror conventions; we
listened to many different trailers and concentrated on the music. In almost all of the trailers, music
was deep and tense and the pace increased with the action as the trailer went on, further more we
found that the music usually has no lyrics so the audience isn’t distracted from the action in the trailer.
Therefore, for the music in our trailer we used YouTube to try and find tense music but it was
extremely difficult to find a track that fit well with our trailer so we used final cut pro to create our
own soundtrack by combining lots of different sound tracks.
I attempted to reflect the typography that I had seen in a trailer I watched called ‘The Pact’ it was
simple and plain but I think it worked affectively, so for my trailer I used a simple white text on a dark
black background. I felt this also added suspense and didn’t give too much of the narrative away whilst
keeping to the horror atmosphere.

4. When creating our magazine front cover we tried to include conventions we had seen in other real
media projects, we added a catchy name to the magazine ‘Movie Mania’, a barcode, the date, added
small pictures of other popular and latest movies, wrote catchy lines to attract the audience, the
colours we used for the magazine were black, red and white as it was featuring a horror movie so these
colours suited the most . By adding all these different features it made our final product look realistic
and professional. We made date very small compared to the rest of the text on the magazine this is
because it may discourage the audience when considering whether to buy the magazine or not
therefore we want it to be the last thing they see.
We noticed that in all the horror magazines they featured someone from the film, so it was between
the antagonist or the protagonist but after doing some research we thought that for a horror magazine
front cover looks much more interesting if it was the antagonist. A convention of horror magazine
front covers is the engaging direct eye contact, so we were sure to include this. we feel that it looks as if
the antagonist is looking at the audience with piercing eyes tempting them to buy the magazine
We added text and pictures around the outside of other upcoming films, the films we chose to include
in our magazine such as ‘The Possession’ and ‘The Last Stand’. We got this idea from The Watchmen
issue and the Bond issue. By adding extra films it encourages people to purchase the magazine even if
they are unsure of the film on the cover.
When it came to producing our poster we kept to many conventions by keeping the background dark
creating a fear of the unknown and the lighting was only highlighting the antagonist’s face. We added
a line under the name of the film, which is basically a sign which is used to show heart beat.

5. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?
For my a2 media project , creating a teaser trailer for a horror film, i have
decided to use a marketing mix which consists of these three, the teaser
trailer, movie poster and magazine front cover. The reason for using the
marketing technique is that it covers a wide coverage to actually sell the
movie. Using the horror theme throughout my project i have made all
the marketing texts look similar. My magazine and poster both use
colours such as red and black to connote horror. My movie poster and
teaser trailer are both linked to above the line marketing as it corresponds
to TV adverts. Meanwhile my magazine front cover is regarded as below
the line marketing as usually magazine companies have chosen a movie to
try help it gain its ‘lucky break’. In regards to my teaser trailer having a
rating of 18 due to it being a horror genre it would more than likely
appear post watershed or in corresponding movies in cinema.

6. What have you learnt from your
audience feedback?
From doing our audience feedback we learnt what our target audience were expecting in our media
product. This meant that we needed to create our media products to meet the expectations of our
audience to satisfy their needs. We learnt that our highest audience that were interested in teaser
trailers were 16-32 year olds which was what made our decision to rate our film at a 16 instead of a 18.
Our audience feedback impacted our production process as we went back and re-edited parts that our
potential consumers weren’t happy with. This meant that the time our production took was
lengthened but also improved our production.
We gained continuous audience feedback throughout our project, this helped us gain new ideas to
develop and better our work. Our audience feedback helped us to target key points that needed
additional work to improve within our work as a whole. Getting audience feedback at every stage of
production was vital as It meant we could improve our work to meet our audience expectations
straight away so that our work was at the best quality for our audience overall.
Audience feedback helped us to meet audience expectations as it allowed us to find out what the
audience wanted and therefore helped us to improve our work to meet their standards that they would
be satisfied with. Overall our work is better because of audience feedback as it is catered to what the
audience wants in a horror teaser trailer, movie poster and movie magazine front cover.

7. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction, research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Throughout the construction of our teaser trailer and its ancillary texts, we used various mediums that
helped us complete our coursework. These included software programs and websites. We first began
our ideas on paper, then we transferred our them onto Microsoft Word – a word processing software
that allows the construction and distribution of printable materials. We used it to keep our work neat
and safe, and to make it easier to distribute the notes we had written, as opposed to hand writing
multiple copies, and in the event of a loss, we would always have a copy backed-up.
Once we had an idea, we took to the internet to find more ideas. We were familiar with a site
named Google, which helped us search for sites that had information on topics such as: the
horror genre, the basics of special effects, make-up, horror films and etc.
Once we completed our research, we then started taking some shots for our poster and
magazine front cover. We used a still digital camera, with the use of some professional lighting
to give it that extra edge. We had to ensure that the characters were standing within shot and
we had to be weary not to capture any props or the outer frames of our back drop. We wanted
focus to remain on the characters and the characters alone. The lighting had to be perfect or
else they pictures wouldn’t have come out clear. We had to ensure that everyone was placed
appropriately in the shot so that they could be seen clearly.

8. Once we took our pictures, we began by first constructing our magazine cover. We used Adobe
Photoshop CS5, a sophisticated software program that allows one the ability to manipulate an image,
thus achieving a feat they cannot without such groundbreaking technology. Photoshop allowed us to
create our magazine. It had many settings that helped us turn an ordinary A4 canvas into a magnificent
A* worthy magazine front cover.
Once we completed the construction of our ancillary texts, we used Photoshop to transform
the document from a from a larger Photoshop document (.psd) format to a (.jpeg) format.
jpeg’s are smaller and it is a format that can be read by Blogger and is also much smaller than a
psd and thus easier to save. You still maintain quality, but you reduce size. We then set about
starting our teaser trailer. We had researched everything we needed with the help of our own
minds and external sources including: Google, Wikipedia and Flickr.
When filming, we had to be aware of many constraints that would hinder the quality of the
video. We had to make sure that we always rolled in and out of shots so that it would be easier
to cut when editing. We had to ensure that our filming was steady when appropriate and one
fundamental factor we failed was to ensure that props were out of sight. Unfortunately, there
was a crucial shot that we couldn’t use because there were tracks in the shot which didn’t make
the teaser look nice as one would easily notice it and you the examiner would mark us down,
so instead we changed it and made the previous shot a blackout.
We made a few errors during our filming, however, we learned many new things as well, and
the end result was very satisfying indeed. Once we completed our shooting, we set about
getting our work edited.
Once we commenced our filming, we used final cut pro to edit our teaser. Firstly we used the
‘log and capture’ feature to get the necessary shots to be edited into the teaser. We then used a
few of them to then create the teaser. We changed the transitions and included some fades
and dissolves instead of just straight cuts throughout. We wanted to give our teaser that edge,
to differentiate it from other common teasers

9. As part of the requirements of our coursework, we were to post all our work on Blogger. Blogger is a
blog sharing site where users can post daily blogs that can be read by others or privately used as a diary.
Blogger was somewhat similar to a website, except that it was quick and easy to post blogs once we
completed pieces of work. We used Blogger as a diary, posting regular updates on work we had done.
We were also able to post some pictures, upload videos and embed a PowerPoint document onto our
blog. It was all quick and easy to understand - It didn’t come with similar complications that are
involved in creating, updating and maintaining websites.
I decided to do a PowerPoint presentation with the aid of a website called slideshare.Slideshare
is a website that allows users to upload PowerPoint slides that can then be viewed by others.

10. As part of the requirements of our coursework, we were to post all our work on Blogger. Blogger is a
blog sharing site where users can post daily blogs that can be read by others or privately used as a diary.
Blogger was somewhat similar to a website, except that it was quick and easy to post blogs once we
completed pieces of work. We used Blogger as a diary, posting regular updates on work we had done.
We were also able to post some pictures, upload videos and embed a PowerPoint document onto our
blog. It was all quick and easy to understand - It didn’t come with similar complications that are
involved in creating, updating and maintaining websites.
I decided to do a PowerPoint presentation with the aid of a website called slideshare.Slideshare
is a website that allows users to upload PowerPoint slides that can then be viewed by others.