Wednesday 21 April 2010
Friday 2 April 2010
Evaluation
When it comes to Toderov and Propp’s theories, our film trailer doesn’t seem to follow either of them entirely. Propp’s theory that there are certain types of character that are included in the narrative is loosely followed in our trailer. Although there are main characters that appear more in our trailer than others, it is not clear whether they are a hero, villain etc. This is where our trailer challenges the conventions of Propp’s theory. We did not want to give away in our trailer who was the murderer so we had to include a variety of out main characters to keep the audience guessing.
Toderov’s theory suggests that every narrative follows the pattern of equilibrium, disequilibrium, equilibrium. Our trailer does not follow this theory; our trailer does indeed follow a structure of equilibrium then disequilibrium, but it does not end in equilibrium. Our trailer follows the conventions of a horror trailer; one of these conventions tends to be ending in disequilibrium to excite the audience and draw them in, then leaving them in suspense. Our trailer follows this convention.
Our trailer follows the conventions of other horror trailers; it includes the typical screams, fast pace achieved through editing and shots from the killer’s point of view. Also our music could be seen as conventional to that of a horror trailer, as it creates tension and suspense and keeps in time with the pace of the visual shots.
Our trailer, poster and magazine front covers didn’t really have a house style; we thought it might be more effective to focus on each media product individually and look at what would work best form them as a single piece, rather than try and link them all together and make them similar.
Even though all three products aren’t very similar I think they work together well. While our poster makes the theme of the film very apparent and clear, it also provokes a lot of questions in the audience’s mind; “who is doing this? Why is this happening?” etc. My magazine front cover breaks the conventions of a normal film magazine featuring a horror film. Rather than having an image that is featured in the trailer, or a sinister shot of one of the characters, I decided to do something completely different and have the actors at an award show. I got the inspiration for this idea from the success of Slumdog Millionaire; they won loads of awards before the film was launched in the UK and people were talking about it and anticipating its release because of these award wins.
Our target audience is 15-24; there are a few reasons for this. Firstly this is the age group that tend to go to the cinema the most. Also, our age range could be no younger than 15 because of our age certificate. Finally, we thought this would be the age group most likely to want to see this film because they may either be in full time education or have just left it, making it a more relatable film for them. From our audience feedback (see the blog below) we can conclude that our audience is definitely giving us the reaction we wanted; they are gripped by the trailer and would go to see it if it were in the cinema. Also they understand the plot but are not given away any spoilers as to who they murderer may be. They all liked the trailer the best out of our 3 products and thought they worked well together.
In the research and planning stages of making the three media products, I spent a lot of time looking at real examples of horror trailers, film posters and film magazines. I looked at whether or not the products worked together and why, what made them powerful and whether or not I think the techniques they used would be affective in our three media products.
In the construction stages of our products many different programmes on the computers were used. To construct the poster and the poster and the magazine pictures were taken and we used Photoshop to edit them to how we wanted them to look, for example making the blood on the poster a much deeper red and placing the actors over the ‘backdrop’ on the magazine cover. At first Photoshop was quite hard to figure out, but we got there in the end. Our trailer was edited on Windows Movie Maker, this programme was very easy to use which really helped us get through editing our trailer faster. The music was created and recorded on MAGIXS Music Maker Generation 15, and of course we had to use these blogs to keep track of our progress and present our final products.
Overall I think my trailer, poster and magazine cover were all huge successes which reflects the time, effort and fun that went into making them. If I could do this project again I don’t think there is much I would do differently… maybe have a word with Mother Nature about all the snow putting us behind schedule on our filming :P
Toderov’s theory suggests that every narrative follows the pattern of equilibrium, disequilibrium, equilibrium. Our trailer does not follow this theory; our trailer does indeed follow a structure of equilibrium then disequilibrium, but it does not end in equilibrium. Our trailer follows the conventions of a horror trailer; one of these conventions tends to be ending in disequilibrium to excite the audience and draw them in, then leaving them in suspense. Our trailer follows this convention.
Our trailer follows the conventions of other horror trailers; it includes the typical screams, fast pace achieved through editing and shots from the killer’s point of view. Also our music could be seen as conventional to that of a horror trailer, as it creates tension and suspense and keeps in time with the pace of the visual shots.
Our trailer, poster and magazine front covers didn’t really have a house style; we thought it might be more effective to focus on each media product individually and look at what would work best form them as a single piece, rather than try and link them all together and make them similar.
Even though all three products aren’t very similar I think they work together well. While our poster makes the theme of the film very apparent and clear, it also provokes a lot of questions in the audience’s mind; “who is doing this? Why is this happening?” etc. My magazine front cover breaks the conventions of a normal film magazine featuring a horror film. Rather than having an image that is featured in the trailer, or a sinister shot of one of the characters, I decided to do something completely different and have the actors at an award show. I got the inspiration for this idea from the success of Slumdog Millionaire; they won loads of awards before the film was launched in the UK and people were talking about it and anticipating its release because of these award wins.
Our target audience is 15-24; there are a few reasons for this. Firstly this is the age group that tend to go to the cinema the most. Also, our age range could be no younger than 15 because of our age certificate. Finally, we thought this would be the age group most likely to want to see this film because they may either be in full time education or have just left it, making it a more relatable film for them. From our audience feedback (see the blog below) we can conclude that our audience is definitely giving us the reaction we wanted; they are gripped by the trailer and would go to see it if it were in the cinema. Also they understand the plot but are not given away any spoilers as to who they murderer may be. They all liked the trailer the best out of our 3 products and thought they worked well together.
In the research and planning stages of making the three media products, I spent a lot of time looking at real examples of horror trailers, film posters and film magazines. I looked at whether or not the products worked together and why, what made them powerful and whether or not I think the techniques they used would be affective in our three media products.
In the construction stages of our products many different programmes on the computers were used. To construct the poster and the poster and the magazine pictures were taken and we used Photoshop to edit them to how we wanted them to look, for example making the blood on the poster a much deeper red and placing the actors over the ‘backdrop’ on the magazine cover. At first Photoshop was quite hard to figure out, but we got there in the end. Our trailer was edited on Windows Movie Maker, this programme was very easy to use which really helped us get through editing our trailer faster. The music was created and recorded on MAGIXS Music Maker Generation 15, and of course we had to use these blogs to keep track of our progress and present our final products.
Overall I think my trailer, poster and magazine cover were all huge successes which reflects the time, effort and fun that went into making them. If I could do this project again I don’t think there is much I would do differently… maybe have a word with Mother Nature about all the snow putting us behind schedule on our filming :P
Tuesday 23 March 2010
Audience Response - Interview
Now that our film trailer is finally complete, we're going to look into how our target audience responds to all three of our media types that all advertise the upcoming release of Faces Of Evil. We will record an interview consisting of 14 questions and upload this below. This interview will be given to both men and women in the age range of 15-25; this is because our film is certified as a 15 so no one younger can view this film, and we think that the film is better suited for people below 25 as they're the generation that will have left education more recently.
Note: the magazine cover these four students were shown was the work of Chris Georgiou, so their comments do not apply to my magazine cover. About mine, I got comments such as:
* "it stands out because it's not what you would expect; you would expect to have a sinister image that gives insight to what the film is about."
Note: the magazine cover these four students were shown was the work of Chris Georgiou, so their comments do not apply to my magazine cover. About mine, I got comments such as:
* "it stands out because it's not what you would expect; you would expect to have a sinister image that gives insight to what the film is about."
* "I like the Rising Star Award idea, it shows the success of the film before you've even seen it, and it's a possible award for this film to win."
* "it looks very professional, like you've actually taken the picture infront of that background! Very well put together and a good idea too."
Wednesday 10 February 2010
Final Magazine Front Cover
It's been a mission and a half, but I've finally finished my magazine front cover :D!
This being an awards special issue, it does not follow the conventions of Sight & Sounds usual style of featuring a new film release on the front cover. Apart from this helping my magazine to stand out from the 'regular' issues, this allowed me more freedom to do what I wanted with my front cover.
The front cover features the two main actors in the film, Mel Higgs and Chrisfa Georgiou. They appear to be standing in front of a 'press board', which actors and actresses would be photographed and interviewed infront of at movie premiers and the like. This is infact is a repeated image that I created myself and then photoshopped the two characters onto it, creating the illusion that they were actually pictured infront of this.
The typical Sight & Sound yellow header features on this front cover. The '2009 Awards Special' font is bold and jumps out at you against Chrisfa's black clothing. The font could also be seen to look like the letters are lit up.
The red font on Mel's grey dress matches the red on the 'Film 4' logo in the background. This colour stands out well and helps to emphasise the 'Faces Of Evil' logo. The font used for this logo is the 'official' font used in the trailer and on the film poster; the outline has been made thicker to put an even bigger emphasis on the film title, which should catch the eye of the reader.
Monday 8 February 2010
Sight & Sound Magazine - Research
First off I haven't blogged in ages coz I've had tonnes of other things going on, and the group's main focus has been finishing our filming.
I've almost completed my magazine front cover, and thought a brief insight into Sight & Sound magazine might help me to express why I chose to use this magazine and whether or not my front cover follows or goes against the conventions of Sight & Sound.
* Published by the BFI, Sight & Sound magazine was first published in 1932. It didn't start getting published monthly until 1991 when it started to feature the 'Mothly Film Bulletin'.
* Sight & Sound has a more 'highbrow' reputation than other film magazines. It says it reviews all film releases each month, including those with a narrow art house release, as opposed to the more mainstream focus of its competitors.
* Sight & Sound also currently features a full cast and crew credit list for each reviewed film.
* Sight & Sound has in the past been the subject of criticism, and accused of "elitism, puritanism and upper-middle-class snobbery" by some.
* Every decade, Sight & Sound asks an international group of film professionals to vote for their greatest film of all time. Critics are asked to provide a top ten list; in 1992, directors were invited to participate in a separate poll. The individual results are eclectic; in the most recent poll, 885 different films received at least one mention from one voter.
* The Sight & Sound accolade has come to be regarded as one of the most important of the "greatest ever film" lists. Roger Ebert (American film critic and screen writer) described it as "by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies--the only one most serious movie people take seriously."
* The first poll, in 1952, was topped by Bicycle Thieves (1948 Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica).
I've almost completed my magazine front cover, and thought a brief insight into Sight & Sound magazine might help me to express why I chose to use this magazine and whether or not my front cover follows or goes against the conventions of Sight & Sound.
* Published by the BFI, Sight & Sound magazine was first published in 1932. It didn't start getting published monthly until 1991 when it started to feature the 'Mothly Film Bulletin'.
* Sight & Sound has a more 'highbrow' reputation than other film magazines. It says it reviews all film releases each month, including those with a narrow art house release, as opposed to the more mainstream focus of its competitors.
* Sight & Sound also currently features a full cast and crew credit list for each reviewed film.
* Sight & Sound has in the past been the subject of criticism, and accused of "elitism, puritanism and upper-middle-class snobbery" by some.
* Every decade, Sight & Sound asks an international group of film professionals to vote for their greatest film of all time. Critics are asked to provide a top ten list; in 1992, directors were invited to participate in a separate poll. The individual results are eclectic; in the most recent poll, 885 different films received at least one mention from one voter.
* The Sight & Sound accolade has come to be regarded as one of the most important of the "greatest ever film" lists. Roger Ebert (American film critic and screen writer) described it as "by far the most respected of the countless polls of great movies--the only one most serious movie people take seriously."
* The first poll, in 1952, was topped by Bicycle Thieves (1948 Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica).
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