2. 1. Conventions
The location for filming was carefully chosen to
ensure that it would give the trailer an organic look
which could be related to. Horror films nearly always
take place in secluded environments so that help is far
away, and so that the incident is relatively confined.
The lighting was also a key factor. It was bright
enough to be able to provide clear film, but dark
enough so that it could be made to appear scarier and
that the overall impression given was not of a bright
sunny day, which would not be suitable for the horror
genre theme.
This location was considered but ultimately
rejected as it had to much natural light and not
enough space to run around, neither of which
would be suitable to match the conventions of the
horror film genre.
This shot has been adjusted so it is much whiter
and over exposed. This is used to signify violence
in the trailer, and make it appear more stark
compared to the other shots. This is a convention
of horror film trailers as violence isn’t allowed to
be shown on public TV. It also makes the film
more appealing as it can make it harder to discern
what is actually happening during the moment of
violence. Trailers such as Sorority Row and Saw
implement this method. In hindsight, a black and
white extreme high contrast should have been
implemented to make the violence appear more
shocking, which would be more enticing for a
potential viewer. It is also very clear from this
snapshot what it going on, something which
would degrade the overall effectiveness of the
trailer as it defeats the concept of horror and
doesn’t necessarily follow the conventions of a
horror film trailer to show violence.
3. There are several edited in
screens with text to give a better
idea of what is happening and/or
what the film is about. This is a
conventional theme in film
trailers of all kinds in place or
with an audio narrative. This
gives a better understanding of
what the film will be about. This
is more appropriate for a teaser
trailer and horror film than an
audio narrative, which would
remove the scary aspect of it.
Colour correction was used
in every shot of the trailer as Fade to white, and fade to black were
the stock colour of the film both used in the trailer. This is a
wasn’t suitable for the theme conventional way of cutting to new
of the trailer(horror film) as scenes in a film trailer, and almost acts
it contained to much colour, like a time lapse to give a wider scope of
and the colour was to dense. what the film will be about, rather than
The above shot is the showing 30 seconds of the opening
original, and the below one is scene, which wouldn’t exactly entice
the edited one. Colour people. Above you can see two
correction is conventional in consecutive snapshots showing a scene
nearly all films and in horror which faded to white. For that particular
films it is often used to scene white was used as it matched the
create a scarier, more surreal colour of the scene better than black.
location or one which lacks
the brighter colours
associated with security and
happiness.
4. In my magazine I used several conventions which are
common in magazines. For example, I made sure that the
text was behind the head of the main image. This was done
to create a professional looking cover, which is obviously
conventional and required for any successful media. The
main cover story is situated in the centre-bottom of the
cover and uses larger text than the rest of the page. This is
conventional as it follows the root of the eye and attracts the
reader to the main story of the magazine. Symmetrical
composition is used for the main image as it suggests that
the person is key to the issue. The cover lines are arranged
on each side of the central image to ensure symmetry and to
fit into the root of the eye path. They are also arranged to as
to cover as little of the actors face as possible.
5. The poster uses a large title situated at the top of the poster,
which is relatively conventional for a film poster. It also has a
large main image which more or less covers the entire poster. The
picture is a black and white one, as this gives some idea of the
film but leaves a lot in mystery, as many of the details are hidden
in the darkness. The darkness itself is conventional of horror
films and posters as it connotes fear and the unknown. The
slogan is in red with a white backing as red connotes violence,
which helps connote what the film is about. It is typical of the
horror film genre to feature red in some form on a poster to
subtlety suggest violence. The image is of a person wearing a
hooded top standing in front of some light in the trees. This
suggests the person in the image is the main bad character of the
film, but subtlety. There are woods surrounding the person which
gives an idea of the location and connotes mystery and fear as
secluded locations are typical in the horror genre. As is
conventional, the cinema release date is below the production text
which is common with all genre of films.
6. 4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research:
During my research I used Wall Wisher to do Audience Research on the trailer I was reviewing, which made it much easier
and faster to get accurate opinions and views on the trailer compared to doing it by hand. It also made it possible to share
the page to get more results and embed the YouTube clip. Using this website allowed my target audience to give me on
going feedback during the production of my trailer, which allowed me to better shape it based on a general consensus as
to what looked good, and what did not. This outside opinion allowed a better perspective of my trailer, and therefore
helped to produce a better product.
I also used YouTube to find appropriate film trailers to review for my genre.
Planning:
During my planning I constructed an animatic, which was scanned in and edited into a sequence with music in iMovie.
This allowed me to produce a relatively accurate representation of what the scenes would be like, compared to a large
poster of the animatic drawings, which would not provide and sense of flow. I also used a still camera to obtain shots of
potential locations for the filming during the planning process. This allowed me to show them and discuss the locations
with other members of the team. This gave me a better idea of where I would be able to shoot from, and the space that
was available. The animatic was also used to show outside viewers roughly what the trailer would be like, which allowed
me to get back some useful feedback, such as the arrangement of characters in a shot to show which characters were more
important and dominant.
Production:
During the production of my trailer I used a digital film camera to capture the scenes. I then edited the scenes in iMovie.
iMovie was useful as it allowed to me to perfectly cut the scenes together and add effective transitions to the trailer. On all
of my shots I added a filter which adjusted the Exposure, Contrast, Brightness and Saturation levels as the original colours
didn’t connote the genre well. The new colour-filter better connotes the darkness and fear typical of the genre and I
believe played a fundamental role in making the trailer more effective. I used fade to black and fade to white transitions
on nearly every shot to create the sense of fluidity in the trailer and to only show parts of the film to give a better sense of
the whole film, which is conventional for a film trailer. Fade to white was used on several occasions because it matched
the visual effects that were in place, such as whiting out the screen, rather than fade to black which contrasted badly and
would ruin the overall effect of the trailers professional look. Fade to black was used as this allowed me to transition from
a scene to a black background where I could put text on.
On screen text was used as this gave the viewer a much better idea of what the storyline was about, while keeping the
overall trailer relatively short, and without revealing too much of the film. It was more effective than a narrator, as this
would have removed the fear and mystery from the trailer , and it would have messed up with the sequence of the music.
Evaluation:
I used websites like Survey Monkey to help me collect audience feedback for my teaser trailer as they can collect data and
easily turn it into a graph. It was also a much more time effective method of collecting audience feedback, and made sense
as my trailer was uploaded to the internet and not shown by me to the audience personally.
