1) In what ways does your media product

use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

SYNOPSISLux miller, a young award winning

photographer has her life turned upside down when suffering a bicycle accident that left her self doubting her every move. after a series of developed photographs she cant remember taking, Lux is led to believe there is someone out there watching her every move. Looking for answers, she is forced on a scary journey finding this mysterious stalker. who is he? Is he real or is it just Lux's mind playing dark tricks on her?

ART… PSYCHOLOGY...

photography…

GENRE/NARRATIVE

ICONOGRAPHY

Title - Sans serif grunge font all in caps, hidden by brush work done in Adobe Photoshop

Reviews and reviewers name - Audience will trust reviewers and ergo be persuaded to watch the film

Strap line – “The camera never lies” used in a lot of horror film posters to leave the audience intrigued

Cast name – Audience may be persuaded to watch the film because of who is in it

Billing box/production logos/BBFC rating

Inspiration derived from film posters that uses images which reflect their film title – For example, “The Last House on The Left” shows a house, “The Eye” shows an eye. We used this in ours, since our film is called “The Dark Room” and our main image is set in a dark room

GenericConventionUsed

GenericConventionUsed

Challenge

FILM POSTERSRESEARCH

Like other film websites, we created something called ANTICIPATORY SAVOURING – We enhanced the film anticipation for the audience in the future, building excitement and drawing more people into the enthusiasm through:

 Matches style of poster and includes same features (for example, the same picture, reviews and reviewers, cast list, date line “Coming soon”)Billing box and production logos included Trailer is embedded in the body of website Social bookmarking (media convergence, enables audience to find out more about the feature)Navigational bar (again, relates to anticipatory savouring)Terms and conditions/copyright notice at the bottom to make it look more professional

Part 1 - introduces the idea of the movie

Part 2 -- will give hints to the plot and possibly some sort of climax.

Part 3-- may hint the cast or provide a montage of quick clips, possibly other hints to the movie itself

STRUCTURE

• Part 1 – In our trailer we use an establishing shot of London, and of Lux, our main character. Audience can perceive she is a photographer

• Part 2 – Audience get a sense that the character is paranoid, and is being chased.. They also see clips of the bike accident which may suggest the narrative

• Part 3 – Audience get a tone of horror/thriller through the music that changes near the end, and dark room quick shots

STRUCTURE

GENRE/NARRATIVEWe succeeded in creating something that was the right balance between a psychological thriller and horror feature, albeit finding the middle ground was difficult.

Narrative – Character is mentally disturbed which means the ‘villain’ is in her head and not real. Usually in horror there is an actual ‘evil villain’ usually male and more dominant than vulnerable female. In this case, she serves as both protagonists. (Vladmir Propp)

We challenged the status quo by having a genre that is less clearcut. Blur of common fears – trailer demands audience to make a judgement on what is fantasy and reality

Location

• Very conventional – We use underground places (e.g. the tube inspired by the film ‘Creep’) closed places where there is no escape (cable car, inspired by the film ‘Frozen’) and also a Dark Room (scary isolated setting, like in the Human Centipede, Saw franchise, evil dead)

• London landmarks – because it is a BRITISH production audiences will be able to identify places

Location

LocationINSPIRATION

Fast cuts - create pace and a sense of panic. Viewer needs time to understand and process what is going on in each shot and that makes them apprehensive (realised in my trailer in particularly via all the rapid bike wheel and dark room shots)

CAMERA WORK/EDITING

Lots of low angles to make audience feel vulnerable and dominated by, just like the main character Lux is. Canted (tilted shots) are also present which disorientate the viewer

CAMERA WORK/EDITING

Close ups – makes audience identify with a character and empathise with their emotions, therefore persuading them to watch the film

CAMERA WORK/EDITING

CAMERA WORK INSPIRATION

Close ups

LOW ANGLE SHOTS

SOUND• Non diegetic soundtrack – Sinister, eerie,

slow music used – creates a juxtaposition with action that’s going on therefore creates a sense imbalance

• Creepy/sinister diegetic sounds – heavy breathing, doors creaking, wheels rolling,

• Lack of dialogue – Something isn’t right… worried voice

CHARACTER

• Target audience will feel sympathy for main character Lux because of GROUP IDENTIFICATION – Our chosen demographic can relate to her because of same age/personality/even lifestyle maybe and thus be more persuaded to see the film

• Creepy stalker/guy who will intimidate young, vulnerable, good looking female is a very generic convention in horror/thriller films

CHARACTER

INSPIRATION FOR CHARACTER

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Website

Trailer

Poster

• Red/black colour scheme• Blurred picture• Big emphasis on Dark Room location

Could be improved by:Having same font in trailer as wellStrap line “The camera never lies” in trailer tooAlso including cast name in trailerReviews/reviewers also included in trailer

`Trailer Website Poster

Font Different to website and poster(used “Trajan Pro” for film title)

Used “Skins and Bones” for film title

Used “Skins and Bones” for film title

Tone Sinister from the beginning however there IS a contrast between light and dark which is not present in ancillary tasks

Dark and eerie (black smudges create sense of mess and chaos)

Dark and eerie (black smudges create sense of mess and chaos)

ColourSchemes

Lots of red (dark room) in between light shots

Red/black/white/Colours presented in trailer and poster will adjust mood of viewer. Dark colours = intense/action packed situations

Red/black/white/grey

Language Direct address:“What would you do?”

Words associated with horror“Thrilling”“Haunting”

Declamatory:The camera never lies.

Imagery Distressed female, a few shots of the dark room, many London locations, audience get a sense she is being chased etc

Emphasis on main character (Lux) Clearly a dark room location

INSPIRATION FOR WEBSITE & POSTER

BRANDING

3) What have you

learned from

your audience

feedback?

• Different audiences want different things - Eg a male dominated demographic would opt to watch horror films with blood and gore, whereas a more female driven audience prefer something more intellectually stimulating with frightening and unpredictable moments

• Audiences like predictability• Sound effects especially add

to scary aspects of trailer

After finishing our first draft trailer we came up with various questions to ask our TARGET AUDIENCE, that would help us identify the strengths and limitations with our production, and how to improve our first draft trailer overall.

1) What do you think the genre of the film is? How can you tell?2) What do you think the plot is? How can you tell?3) What could be added to the trailer to make the plot and narrative clearer?4) The target audience for this film is females from the ages 18-25. Do you think the film would appeal to this demographic? Why?5) Could you tell through the trailer the main character has psychological issues? If so, how?6) What issues do you think were raised and what themes do you think were represented?7) Do you think this trailer holds typical conventions of a psychological thriller or a horror film? If yes, give examples.8) Would you go see this film? If so, why?9) Overall, what questions does this trailer leave you asking?10) How would you improve this trailer?

First draft trailer viewing – Target Audience Questions

• Everyone could identify the film as a horror/thriller because of the soundtrack, quick shots, name of film, tone of paranoia evoked, disoriented main character and location shots (dark room) which they all found quite frightening.

• Narrative possibilities were grasped. All understood the concept that she was being chased/stalked without having to know the full plot-line

•Age group of target audience (Females from around 18-25) is represented in the trailer

- Many questions were raised

- Good footage: including of Lux in the dark room being chased/scared

• More slow motion shots• Change the font in the titles, seems to much like comic sans• Too much bike footage going backwards • Cut out the shot where she drops the picture – looks like she doesn’t like what she sees or

is just really clumsy• Make it less repetitive so there is space to include some more unused footage• Make more fast cuts into slow cuts• Explore with other possibilities for the establishing shot, play with the idea of contrast • Add a green screen at the beginning • Use even shorter clips (a couple of seconds for each clip) and cut between different images

to build pace. For example, just a flash of Olivia on the ground, or looking at her reflection, spread through the trailer. Watch some more professional trailers to remind yourself of how short each shot can be. Images in a trailer need suggest events, not explain them.

• Consider beginning the trailer with the shot into the camera lens. Also, this is one of many moments that will be fantastic when you have spent a bit more time on more ruthless editing: don’t let the camera zoom out of the lens again at the end of the clip!

• Avoid putting clips in chronological order,

• Make clips shorter so more pace and climax is built

• Make it less repetitive• Change establishing shots

MAIN IMPROVEMENTS THAT WE TOOK ON BOARD AND

APPLIED

4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and

research, planning and evaluation stages?

Windows Movie Maker

Picasa

BloggerSlidesharePowerPoint

Adobe

PhotoshopDreamweaver

Instagram

After Effects MPEG Streamclip

Final Cut Pro

iTunes

iPhoto

Facebook Twitter Word

Research bibliographyhttp://www.fastcompany.com/1815812/psychology-behind-movie-poster-designs

http://www.filmbuy.com/the-psychology-behind-movie-trailers/

http://www.youthedesigner.com/2011/10/21/35-horror-movie-posters-that-will-give-you-the-creeps/