Message To The Moderator

Hello Moderator,

My Research and Planning posts start at June 2013 onwards. My Trailer production, Poster production and Magazine Production start from January 2014 onwards, until my Evaluation which starts at April 2014. My final and finished Trailer and Ancillary tasks are located just below this post. I hope  you enjoy looking through my blog!

Bethany Hampson

Finished Poster

Finished Magazine

Finished Trailer

Evaluation: Question Four - How Did You Use Media Technologies In The Construction And Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

Other List of Technologies I Used:

Twitter

I used Twitter to gather audience feedback from my followers. I have around 900 followers so getting my trailer and ancillary tasks on there meant that they were being seen worldwide. Also most Twitter users and my followers are around the age of the demographic that we are targeting which meant we were getting feedback from the audience who would initially go and see our film. 

Slideshare

I used Slideshare early on in this A2 Project to share my powerpoints that I had created. It is easy to use as you just upload your PowerPoints to it and then you can just get an embed code. This was not a new technology for me as I used it often in my As year.

Facebook

I used Facebook quite a lot for my Audience Feedback. I used facebook as our demographic is students around 20, which is all my friends on Facebook are, therefore to get feedback on Facebook was directly targeting my audience. It is also very easy to share things which made it easier to get the feedback in the first place.

iPhone Messaging

I used iPhone messaging a lot also for my audience feedback. It is easy to use as it is just on my phone and I can send it to whoever I want, therefore sending it to our target audience as I am able to choose my friends who are the right demographic age. I got a lot of my feedback from messaging as it is the most simple to use, and I am guaranteed a reply, whereas with Facebook and Twitter I am not always going to get many replies.

Here is an example of me using the different technologies for the project, and giving information on how to use them. To make this video I used iShowU, SnagIt and Movie Maker.

Evaluation: Question Three - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Here is a video of audience interviews.
The questions were:
What is your initial reaction?
Do you think the trailer suits the genre?
What are your thoughts for Mise-En-Scene, Sound, Cinematography and Editing?
What is your favourite part?
Is there any other comments that you have?

Here is a gif that I made with the 5Secs app on my iphone of an example of my Target Audience:

I have chosen this target audience because he is a 18-20 year old male, who is silly and yet able to understand the narrative of a horror. I think males will stereo-typically go and see horror films more because they are represented and stereotyped as the 'stronger' sex and could go and see horror films to add to their masculinity. 

Evaluation: Question Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Glogster about Synergy in my ancillary tasks and trailer.

This is an extra video where I asked some of my audience what they thought about the synergy and effectiveness of all of my products together in the marketing campaign.

Evaluation: Question One - In what ways does your media products use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Use Develop and Challenge for my Magazine using Prezi


Here is a Voice Thread talking about my Poster

Here is a video talking about my Trailer and comparing it to other ones

Finished Poster

Research and Planning: Script for Interview #3

This is the interview that will be the first one in the set of three. This is of a middle-aged man, who doesn't remember what happened and only remembers the good things.

Interviewer: What do you know about Mottram Farm?
Man: That was the Carnival wasn't it? We used to go there as kids, it was great. It was the only one in town so it was so popular. We were all so sad when it shut down.

Research and Planning: Script for Interview #2

This is the script for the second interview that we are adding into our trailer. This will be of a middle aged woman who remembers that her parents were there and that something happened.

Interviewer: Do you remember what happened?
Woman: Yes, my Mum told me all about it. She said they used to love it there. Oh wait, didn't something happen? Yeah I think I remember now, that boy got murdered there. I guess that's why they shut it down.

Research and Planning: Script for Interview #1

Within our trailer we are including three 'interviews' of the public, asking them what they know about the Carnival and what happened. The first one will be of a middle aged woman, the next of a middle aged man, and the final of an older woman who was supposedly there when it happened.

This is the script for the older woman who was there, and will therefore have the most negative reaction. We are putting this one after the other two because it will be the most effective.

Interviewer: What do you know about Mottram Farm?
Woman: Oh I remember, it was awful. I was just a little girl when it happened. That poor boy... No no I can't I don't want to talk about it. [Puts hand over camera lens]

Research and Planning: Script for Montage

We have written a script for the 18 seconds of fast paced montage. This is inspired by the Blair Witch Project's teaser trailer as we felt that this was very effective.

Girl: I'm so so sorry, we shouldn't have come here. Why did we come here?
[heavy breathing] Where are you? Come back i'm scared.. so scared.

Production: Poster Progress #4

I have made a small change to my poster but an important one, I have added the steel tongs along the bottom to show the audience who has made the film etc. All film posters have this on the bottom of them, but it is made barely visible because the audience doesn't want to see that they just want to see the film poster.

Production: Poster Progress #3

Again, I have changed my poster very drastically. I decided that the previous layout that I had wasn't working and I needed to change it. Using the A L'Interieur poster for inspiration, which is a poster that I previously did some research into, I used the same sort of layout. I think this has changed the poster a lot but it has changed it for the better. I also used a red/sepia tone on the clown as I think that it gives off the effect that he is dated, as he is, because he is meant to have died in the 60s. I am yet to take the scared picture of the main protagonist but when I do I will make her colours bright and vibrant to give a modern feel.

Production: Trailer Progress #6

We have noted that a lot of our trailer updates did not include the sound that we created, for this we apologise and we tried to make it work but we had no way around it. However you can still see the video progress.

Production: Trailer Progress #5

Production: Magazine Progress #6

I have changed the magazine a lot the past session. I decided that a few things weren't working and that they needed changing. I have got rid of the gradient at the top and of the translucent white rectangle at the bottom as I just felt that they werent working. I have also changed the font of the title and changed the colour which I think makes it stand out a lot more. I think that having a red background behind the title really makes it stand out and gives it some un-conventional aspects. I have also got rid of the coverlines as I think that they were making the magazine feel too tightly packed and over-loaded and I think without them it looks much more effective.

Production: Magazine Progress #5

I have tried out a different layout for my magazine where the main image is to the right instead of centered. However I don't think that this layout is working as with the image centered it is more eye-catching and the main focus of the first thing that you look at. I also think that the coverlines are too close together and the magazine looks very tightly packed and overloaded.

Production: Magazine Progress #4

I have added all the extras onto my magazine including the taglines and the features of my magazine. I think this has really started making the magazine come together. However, I think that the gradient at the top of the magazine just isn't working and I might have to change this. I have added the dates, issue and a barcode to my magazine which are all necessary.

Production: Trailer Progress #4

Production: Trailer Accessories

I have edited some old newspaper articles on photoshop to make our trailer seem more realistic that the clown had died, we will be adding it into the scene after 'in 1964'.

Research and Planning: Meeting

Production: Trailer Progress #3

I have added the production and distribution company logos at the beginning of the trailer. We created these on photoshop and adobe illustrator and have added a glowing effect to give an eerie aura. We have also added text which is moving the story along. We have used a carnival font which relates to our trailer.

Production: Magazine Progress #3

After some audience feedback from my teacher and my classmates, I have decided to make the colours more vibrant everywhere. This has drastically changed my magazine, but I think that it makes it much better. I also used a different font for my title, and now it looks a lot more noticeable. I have also changed the fonts of the writing at the top of the page and the subheading under the carnival, however they are still the same font as the title which I think just doesn't look right and might have to change.

Production: Trailer Progress #2

We have edited our trailer so that all the shots are in the right order and with the correct time frames. This has already given our trailer such a new outlook. We had filmed the first scenes at the end of the night because they were the easiest scenes to film and we needed to film on the farm quickly because it is owned by Emma's auntie and we had to leave by a certain time.

Production: Magazine Progress #2

I have began to add the taglines and Movie name to the magazine, as my film is the key element of the magazine it needs to be in a big font so that the audience knows. I have used the same font as the title for the subheading under the Carnival, however after looking into this I have found that it is not very conventional as the title is meant to be eye-catching and on it's own and most magazines like Empire do not do this.

Production: Magazine Progress #1

This is the first progress of my Magazine 'Feature'. I have used a very drastic image of the clown, where the lighting is only catching certain parts of his face, this gives off a very dramatic feel to the magazine. I have used quite a thin font for the title, which after some feedback I am going to change as it is not eye-catching enough and the colours that I have used, although contrast nicely with the image, just aren't vibrant enough for the magazine to stand out.

Research and Planning: Audience Feedback

Production: Trailer Progress #1 (non-edited)

This is the unedited version of our trailer "The Carnival". It has got all of the footage on it, with no editing. We filmed it on a DSLR Camera but we used a shaky 'handheld' camera effect which we have seen in many other horror films. We decided to go with this effect because we think that it makes it scarier as if you're actually there, because you're seeing it through the eyes of someone who is 'just like you'. We tried many different shots and angles to make sure that we had a variety. However I think that we need to add something more, maybe with stable camera shot and tripod, to give our trailer that extra diversity.

Production: Poster Progress #2

After having audience feedback, I have decided to change my poster quite drastically. I have got rid of the side profile of the girl as in feedback a few people have said that it does not fit as she does not look 'scared' which wasn't the original purpose of having her there but if my audience says that it doesnt look right then I need to listen and provide. I also changed the font of 'The Carnival' as some people said that it looked too 'Disney-esque', which it was as it was an Alice in Wonderland font that I downloaded. We also used it for our production company logo font so we can not use the same thing.

Production: Poster Progress #1

This is the first progress of my Movie Poster. I have used the clown and the main protagonist as the main features. They are both facing sideways as if they are looking straight at eachother which gives a eerie feel. However after some feedback, I have noted that she doesn't look scared enough and if I were to get another image where she looks scared the poster would be better.

Research and Planning: Audience Feedback

Today in lesson we shared all of our work that we have completed so far including the rough cut of our Trailer, the rough edit of my poster and I could not show my magazine as I had not yet started the process. A lot of the bad feedback that I received was about the incompletion of both of my things, which is a bit obvious if you ask me, although some of the feedback which I received was helpful and will aid in the creation of all of my medias.
The trailer feedback was added to Emma's cards which I read over to make sure that I knew what the audience wanted from our trailer as I am the editor. A lot of the feedback that we got from the trailer was unfortunately people misunderstanding a lot of our trailer. Somebody commented on the 'unstable' camera which we used but that was the effect that we were going for, we are trying to make the trailer look like it is being filmed from the prospective of our main protagonist. However they might not have understood the meaning behind this as we have yet to edit the clips into the right order etc so they might be confused. Somebody also mentioned the fact that you can see the torches which we need to 'edit out', however this was also intentional as it is meant to be part of the narrative that they are going out and looking around this scary looking farm with their torches.
However, we will take into consideration every piece of feedback that we receive and we will work towards having the perfect horror trailer.

Research and Planning: Pictures for Magazine/Poster

Research and Planning: Meeting about Reschedule of Trailer

Today Emma and I had a meeting about when we would be filming our trailer as we are now back in college and we really need to get going in regards to the production of our trailer. We have decided that we are going to film this weekend as we have researched what the weather is going to be like and it looks promising in regard to there being no rain. We have decided to meet at Emma's house which is opposite to where the farm is so it will only be a short walk to get there, we are meeting there first as we need to put Jack's clown makeup on and Elisha's natural makeup, everyone also needs to get into costume and we will make sure that we are set up with the camera etc.

We are going to be meeting at 4:00 so that we have time to put the makeup etc on, and then we will go to the farm at 4:30, therefore the sky will be going dark gradually and it will create a sullen atmosphere and we want it to be dark so that we have the effect of them using torches etc and it will make it scarier as who gets scared in the daytime?

After looking at the forecast we have seen that there is no forecasted rain which is promising as this will mean that the ground will be firm and in tact for our actors and so that the equipment will not get damaged. However the temperature seems to be quite low so we need to make sure that our actors are wearing a few layers of warm clothing underneath the clothes which we will put them in, this will ensure that they are comfortable and do not regret helping us film.

When we have finished filming we will take all of the footage home and put it into a rough copy so that we have some footage to present to our peers when we have the class feedback as we need some audience feedback to ensure that we know what our audience want and if we are doing things correctly.

Research and Planning: Actor Meeting

Emma and I had a meeting with one of our actors, Jake Thompson, who is also a media student, and we decided that it would be best if he did not participate in our trailer. As he is also a media student he also has a lot of work to do and we would not find a good time to film, also he does not feel very confident that he will give us as good as a performance which we want. He is not an actor or drama student so we totally understand where he is coming from and we will have to find someone else to be our main protagonist. We have a few people in mind and we will have to talk to them and ask them if it would be okay and if they would mind.