The student analyzed various horror film trailers and posters to inform their own horror film project. They created a teaser trailer, poster, and magazine cover to promote their film. Various software like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, and Slideshare were used to design and edit the promotional materials. Feedback was gathered from focus groups and classmates which helped improve the project. Research was conducted online to find inspiration, sounds, and learn filmmaking techniques. All work was documented on a group blog for their portfolio. Promotional materials were identified as important for film institutions to advertise and attract audiences.

2. As the genre of my film was horror I had to look back at other films within the horror
genre. So I decided to look back at other trailers such as Shaun of the dead and the
grudge. While watching these trailers I have noticed they have many things in
common and the main things are the way they use mise-en-scene, codes and
conventions, characters and settings. With the Grudge trailer I noticed they used
really dark lighting such as low key lighting and the reason they have done this was
to create tension and make the trailer scarier. Also in the Grudge trailer I have
noticed that they have used a character which is the villain in just white night robe
which is what we have used in our film as our villain wears the white robe. They have
used many props in the film Shaun of the dead such as the bat and the other
weapons which shows that they are fighting something which is the zombies and this
just outlines the horror genre. The way the audience can tell our trailer is horror is by
the way we have used mise-en-scene such as the setting we have used as we used
a house which is one of the typical settings for an horror film, the camera shots we
have done such as the close ups where we could show the audience a little view of
the villain and we have used other shots such as establishing shots to show the
setting, we also chose to shoot the trailer at night because again this would outline
horror and this would make the film much more scary as no one is out at night and
no one can save the victim. Also the costume we have used was the long white
robe on the villain as we took this idea from The Grudge and The Exorcist.

3. On our teaser trailer we decided not to reveal the villains face to much as
this would tease the audience to watch the film as they would want to see
how the villain looks like. In the trailer we added an black and white effect
to the villains face as this would hide her emotions and this would make her
look more scary. We use technical codes and conventions and we made
the trailer fast paced as it is a teaser trailer so it is short and we have to try
giving quite a lot of information as we can.
Within both trailer I have chosen to keep the trailer fast paced. The reason
we chose to make it fast paced in our teaser trailer is because we wanted
to get the audience more engaged and we had to do this by flashing short
scenes at them and some images. In the teaser trailer we decided to add
sound effects such as the bang sound effect which we got from YouTube,
the reason we did this is because we wanted to make the audience jump
and be scared and when we showed a little clip at the end of the teaser
trailer of the villain we decided to make the bang sound a bit louder which
makes the audience jump and scare them that this is the killer. We also took
the idea in the teaser trailer of the villain picking up the camera from the
film Paranormal Activity because while watching this trailer I found it really
scary the way the ghost just picks up the camera and you just look eye to
eye with the ghost. It almost gives that feeling that the ghost is really looking
at you.

4. Me and my group decided to add text and we did this to grab the audience attention
more and this would make them think more when reading the text and leave enigmas in
their heads that what does this mean. In the teaser trailer I chose to add a text at the end
which said the secret will be revealed this October. The reason I did this was because in the
teaser trailer the victim is trying to find out the secret and the audience is thinking what is the
secret so I decided to add this text to tease the audience that in October they would be
able to come see the film and find out the truth.
When editing the teaser trailer I used the blade tool to cut out the scenes which we filmed, I
decided to make them shorter as I wanted to teaser trailer to run at a fast pace and switch
from different scenes so I had to cut out the filming I did not need and then I decided to just
put short clips.

5. The way me and my group have challenged the codes and
conventions in real media products is the way we have
made the female character the villain and we are making
her kill the people. Normally in horror films and other films you
would see the women as the innocent one and they are
trying to escape or in most horror films the female is the one
which survives such as Sidney from Scream. But we have
decided to take out the male role and go against the
stereotype that men are the strong and the harsh ones, we
chose to make the villain a female and make her look as the
strong one and she is doing the haunting. We have also stuck
the fact that women always survive as the victim is also a girl
and she is being haunted but in our trailer we do not reveal if
she has been caught, killed or survives because we want to
leave enigmas in our audience mind.

6. When I made my teaser trailer I did a focus group which I asked some girls and boys
some questions on my teaser trailer. When I asked them my first question about
what they liked I found out that most of them liked the way I used my sound effects
such as the person breathing as this gave them a ghost feeling that someone was
in the room with them, they also liked the way I used the bangs effect which I
edited into the teaser trailer as this made them scared, especially when I used it at
the end and showed an image of the villain this was done good because it made
them jump as I raised the volume of the bang.
Another thing I found out they liked about my teaser trailer is the edits I used such
as the blur and the black and white effect. They think the way I used this on my
villain was really good because it did not reveal the villain too much and also
made her look scary. They said it was not good to reveal the villain as this would
tease them to go watch the film.
Some things I found out they did not like about the trailer is they length, some
answers I got back told me I should make the teaser trailer a bi long. One person
told me that I need to add more scenes as he did not hardly know what was
happening in the trailer and this would not persuade him to go watch the film. So I
would need to in the future when producing a film trailer add more scenes and
maybe some text so it could give the audience a clue about what is happening.

7. I also got some audience feedback from the video I took from my class mate mojo
who is also studying media. I asked him to talk about my poster and my front cover
magazine. Some good things he said about the poster was the way I used the red text
and the e red blood spills as these were good codes and conventions for horror. Also
in my poster he liked the way I used the font when writing the name of my film. For my
front cover magazine he liked the way I used the blur effect on the masthead as this
was different to other Empire magazine as this would tell the audience this is an horror
edition. He said he likes the way I put the horror films on the side of the magazine as
this told him straight away this was a horror magazine. He liked the key image as this
was the main villain and she looked really scary and he likes the back ground of the
magazine as this was the setting of the film. So overall I used mise-en-scene well
through the costume of the villain and the way I used the setting at the back of the
magazine.
I also did a podcast of a girl this time who was another student from my media class
and she also spoke about the poster and front cover magazine. The things she liked in
my poster was the red text and the blood spills and the red text. She also liked the way
I used my villain in three images as she looked scary. In my front cover magazine she
liked the masthead effect which I used the blur. She liked the background as well and
she also liked the key image as it covered up most of the page. The way I used dark
colours is another thing she liked as this represented horror.

8. Some things they did not like about the front cover magazine is the way I put the iron
man 3 bubble there as it did not go with the rest of the genre of the magazine. They
did not like the fact I showed my villain too much in the magazine and the poster
because this did not tease them enough to go watch it in the film as this spoilt it.
Overall I learnt that I should of made my teaser trailer a bit longer as this would give
them a better idea of what is going on. I need to add more scenes and maybe
expose some of the other characters in the trailer. In my magazine I should not have
put the iron man 3 poster as this did not fit in with the trailer but I tried to do this
because I wanted to make it cross genre so this would attract a wider audience but
this not work out well.
But I did many things they liked such as in my trailer they loved the sound effects I used
as this made them jump and it went along with the trailer, they like the way I used the
edits and this was the way I hid the image of the villain. In my magazine they loved
the way I used low key lighting and made the background the setting of my trailer, the
like the way I did my masthead as the blur effect I used made it more spooky and
gave that ghost feeling. The way I put other horror films also made the magazine the
horror genre. In my poster they liked the way I used the red text and the red blood
spills as this represented horror and danger so this was good, they liked the way I used
the key image many times as this told them the villain was the main character.

9. Slideshare and Final Cut Pro
This allowed us to share our PowerPoint presentations online. Slideshare. The reason we
needed this was because we had to put up our PowerPoint presentations on our blog and
the best way to do this was by using slideshare.
Another software we have used which has helped us a lot was final cut pro. This software
has allowed us to put our video together. This software let u upload everything from our
images, our filming and sound effects. We were allowed to put the whole trailer together
and put it in whatever order we wanted. We could add images wherever we wanted and
make sound effects play for long periods. And the best tool on this was the blade tool
because this allowed us to cut out whatever we did not want. In our filming we shot some
scenes but did not need all of it especially in our teaser trailer as we needed the scenes to
go quick so the blade tool allows you to cut what you don’t need then you just go to the
select tool and click on the part which you did not want and then delete it.

10. The way we have used our laptops to help is by using them to
access software’s such as Microsoft word and PowerPoint which
we have used to create our work and do some of our work. We
used word documents when we were analysing the trailers,
posters and magazine front covers and we used the PowerPoint
when making mood boards and while making the evaluation.
After a few months the school installed the new Apple macs
which were really good and had the main software which we
have used to make our film trailers and that software is Final Cut
Pro which is a software to make and edit videos.

11. We have used Photoshop in our coursework to help us create
something really important which is my magazine front cover and
my poster. The first time I used this was when I did my preliminary
task back in AS media but I struggled to use this. But I am more
comfortable now and know how to add affects such as the motion
blur affect which came out really well because it gave that spooky
ghost effect. The software is overall really good because it allows
you to upload images from your camera which you have taken and
the software allows you to edit the images and make effects to
them such as black and white, low key lighting or high key lighting.
The best features of this was the motion blur because it allowed me
to edit the title and make it look attractive as this is one of the main
things the audience would read first, other things like the magic
wand tool was amazing as if I wanted just the image of just our
villain but I took the picture in her sitting room, I could use the magic
wand tool and the rubber tool to get rid of the sitting room at the
back and take away and crop out all the parts I did not need until I
have a perfect picture of our villain

12. We used a Nikon camera to do shoot most of our filming. We first started shooting
around the school area where we used a classroom to shoot some of our trailer and
then we decided to use some of the grass area at the back of the school to try and
make it look like a forest. When we was shooting all these clips we decided to make
the male character the main victim but we then decided to change this and decided
the female role should be the victim. So then they decided to go and get some props
such as the white contact lenses and do make up so that's when they took the Nikon
camera and went home and started shooting at the house. This is where the main
trailer was filmed. They used the camera to shoot some scenes on the road where one
of my group lived. Then they did some filming in the house where they used the
kitchen, sitting room and other rooms in the house.
They also took some shots such as close ups to show the ghost picking up the camera,
they used establishing shots on the street at night so people can see where the
location is. We also shot some over shoulder shot where you see the girl talking on the
phone and then you see the ghost from behind. We decided to shoot many scenes
like this where you could see the ghost stalking the victim and chasing the victim.
Some scenes such as when she runs into the room and closes the door. Another scene
which is like this is when she is talking on the phone in the sitting room and you can see
the ghost watching her from the door.

13.  we used the internet a lot especially when doing our
research. We used websites such as Wikipedia to find out
information about institutions such as twisted pictures and
Lionsgate. The reason we wanted to find out information
on them is because these are the institutions which would
be distributing our film. We also used the internet to find
information on different directors. The reason we wanted
to see different directors is because we wanted to see
how they produce their films and how they use their
budget. I used Google to find images of existing posters
and film magazines so that when it came to producing my
poster and magazine I could use their ideas and set myself
a template. I also used Google to search other things I
needed for my research such as statistics for teenagers as
they we're our main target audience.

14.  When it came to analysing my trailers I had to find some
trailers from YouTube. I searched for horror film trailers and
this is where I found Saw 2, Shaun Of The Dead and The
Grudge. I also used YouTube to find sound effects such as
the bang which I used when making my teaser trailer. I
had to look up different sounds which I could use. And I
also found the girl singing ring around the roses from there.
We also used the sound track from Mama when we made
our main trailer and the teaser trailer. So YouTube helped
us when finding sounds especially the non-diegetic sounds
we used. The girls in my group also used YouTube to look
at clips of how to do make-up so they searched how to
make their skin pale and have the ghost image then they
used one video which we have put on the group blog.

15. We used this as a portfolio for our work. Everything we have
done from producing our trailers to research has gone onto
the blog. As there are three of us in our group we each
produced our own blogs which we put our own work into but
then we created a group blog where we put some work
which involved us all as a team. Things like the actual trailer,
the storyboard, analysis of settings, analysis of sounds, analysis
of our props and costume have all gone onto the group
blog. But things like our own analysis of trailers, posters and
magazine front covers. Our poster and magazine front cover
have also been put in our own blog.

16. When every film institutions makes a film they have always put
promotion as one of the main things as this is the way they would
attract the audience and they would have to advertise in many ways
so that many people do find out about the product. So they would
create a trailer, poster and maybe promote on an magazine. So I have
decided to do all them as well with my group. We decided to create
an trailer which is one of the best ways of advertising as this gives the
audience a better view of what is going to happen in the film whereas
a poster is just a frozen image but the trailer has scenes from the film,
has sounds which would create an dramatic effect, has all the
characters, has text so that the audience can have a hint about what is
going to happen in the film and also the institution’s because the
audience know what specific institutions produce. So we decided to
create this and this would be the best way of promoting as this would
be played on internet such as YouTube as people watch trailers on
them, social websites such as Facebook and Twitter as people share
the links but most of all trailers are mostly seen when people go cinema
as before the film starts there is around 25mins of adverts and trailers so
if we was o ply our trailer before a big film then we would be likely to
attract more customers.

17. As well as the trailer I then decided to go and make a teaser trailer
as some people prefer trailers which are fast faced and some
trailers which don’t tell them too much about the film so they
decide to watch the teaser trailer as this would not spoil the film for
them and also because it is fast paced.
Then my group decided to individually create our own poster, the
reason we did this was because posters are also a big way to
advertise. This is known as guerrilla marketing as institutions put up
posters in really busy places where people would walk past and
notice. So I have created a poster where I will put underground
stations such as the big stations at Kings Cross where 1000’s of
people go past everyday and this would make it much more likely
to be seen. Also after creating a poster I could put it up in other
places like on billboards which are seen by nearly every person
walking on streets and who drive a car as the billboards are massive
and can be seen. Things like bus stops and shops could even put up
the poster.

18. Finally I decided to create a magazine front cover as this is something people
buy in their every day life. Magazines are sold in many different shops and some
times shops like hairdressers buy magazines just to leave in their shop for their
customers to read. I chose to advertise my magazine front cover in an magazine
called Empire which is one of the biggest film magazines. The reason to this is
because of the other big movies they have advertised such as SAW, The Batman,
The Avengers and Ironman. They promote films in every genre which is good
because this means many people buy this magazine as the magazine target
market would be for people who love films overall because they put films from
every genre so this means they would attract many customers. So I have also
designed a magazine front cover to attract many customers.
In my magazine I have put the name of our film as this would allow audience to
research and know more about our film, I have included other horror films so that
the audience know clearly the genre of our film is horror. I have put a scary
picture of our villain so that the audience can have a better view of the villain
and see how scary she looks. I have used dark colours to stick to the typical
codes and conventions of horror which is low key lighting as this creates that
dramatic tension and also as the villain in my magazine front cover is wearing
white she would stand out if the rest of the magazine is black and dark colours. I
have also included a bubble with information on the Ironman