Sunday, 6 May 2012
EVALUATION Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? (Nhung Pham)
Our main products and ancillary texts are cross promoted through a wide range of media contents and are easily accessible. We tried to maintain continuity between our products so it could be identified as being part of the same campaign. This would mean that our products, such as the poster, magazine and trailer have to somehow to link visually.
We created mock ups of ways to promote our product and visualize how they would link together if it was real. The idea of creating a continual buzz through cross media convergence such as technology e.g. IPhone and Blackberry applications, posters and trailers all joint as a whole product so that the audience are able to distinguish our product as a brand. Due to the success of The Dark Knight (2008), it became well known highly due to its viral campaign utilizing the films ‘Why So Serious?’ tagline aiming to interest fans by having them try to earn what they wanted to see end.
Technological convergence is a trend of technologies to merge into new technologies that bring together a myriad of media. Through technological convergence, devices are now able to present and interact with a wide range of media. We made a mock up of what it would look like to promote our trailer through phones such as Blackberry and Iphone. Technology has been growing rapidly during the recent years and these phones are the perfect example of how it has been evolved. Both of these phones are known for being ‘leaders’ in the smart phone industry. They have the functionality to navigate websites and watch videos to a greater extent. Furthermore to feel the full functionality of the device, it contains different application ‘apps’ to get hold off to therefore they would be able to download an app of our movie and get the whole trailer and website link that goes with it. Besides that, we are able to access the internet onto Facebook, Twitter and Messengers such as BBM and Whatsapp to promote our trailer to get more hits on our YouTube page.
Through these technologies, the audience would be able to access through the internet to go onto our site or download apps such as games, by doing so it persuades the audience to go and see our film in the cinema. It contributes different aspect of the film before going to watch it, as the audience would want to do their research and find out what the movie is about because they are spending money on it. They would also be able to access cinema sites such as odeon and vue to read reviews and ratings given by the public furthermore checking out the time they would be able to watch it.
There are various ways to advertise our product. This can be seen around London through billboards, bus shelters, double decker buses etc which are hard to miss. I did a mock up of a poster on the London underground billboard as transport is essential in our everyday life, it is compulsory, therefore it will be effective to advertise our product where it is used by the public everyday.
Our film could also be advertised on sociol networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace but also YouTube where videos are viewed by millions of people across the world. YouTube provide development kits for the creation of several variations of these adverts therefore it would not be difficult to create and organise.
During the process, we have tried to keep our identity of our film continuous. We have kept the same font throughout the trailer, poster and magazine for '3:15'.
Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?(kieron)
The main product is the trailer we produced. Conceptually the trailer is the main marketing piece for a film. The trailer then is in the same medium (moving TV and film) as the film it is marketing. The trailer’s marketing strength comes from putting all the best bits of the film in to the trailer, so when a viewer see’s it on a TV break or in the adverts before another film they will want to see it.
Ancillary to the Trailer but also marketing support to the film is the poster. The poster and trailer are clearly different mediums (moving film image and still printed image) but have to be linked to sell the film.
The poster and trailer are selling the same thing but just in a different way. The Trailer is the lead product because it is the closest to the film that everyone will go to see and it will be easier for the trailer to sell the film as it’s already being shown to film and TV watchers. The poster on the other hand will have to persuade the viewer to go and watch it, this is why it will be placed everywhere so it is drilled into people so they think about it enough times to go and see it.
As the main product (the trailer) and the ancillary text (poster and magazine promotion) are combined very well; I’m going to be reviewing the combination of the poster and the trailer.
From a design point of view the two are very similar in terms of colour scheme. In the poster the whole feel is dark and edgy (the colour scheme is black, blue and red), I placed a dark blue filter over the poster in Photoshop and this is very similar to the trailer (mostly at the start) as it has a very dark moody feel to it. At the start of the trailer there is an actor running away from the killer, I have included the same actor (the girl holding the camera) in the poster. The image in the poster is set in a dead-end, I did this because all the victims in the trailer are chased in to dead-ends. All the text is in the same font (liquid crystal), that is very important for franchising our products and making sure the consumer can link together all the products.
In conclusion I believe that the combination of the trailer and poster is very effective from a selling point and an aesthetic point of view, the similarity between the trailer and poster make it very easy to franchise and aesthetically they both look scary enough to draw in horror fans.
Ancillary to the Trailer but also marketing support to the film is the poster. The poster and trailer are clearly different mediums (moving film image and still printed image) but have to be linked to sell the film.
The poster and trailer are selling the same thing but just in a different way. The Trailer is the lead product because it is the closest to the film that everyone will go to see and it will be easier for the trailer to sell the film as it’s already being shown to film and TV watchers. The poster on the other hand will have to persuade the viewer to go and watch it, this is why it will be placed everywhere so it is drilled into people so they think about it enough times to go and see it.
As the main product (the trailer) and the ancillary text (poster and magazine promotion) are combined very well; I’m going to be reviewing the combination of the poster and the trailer.
From a design point of view the two are very similar in terms of colour scheme. In the poster the whole feel is dark and edgy (the colour scheme is black, blue and red), I placed a dark blue filter over the poster in Photoshop and this is very similar to the trailer (mostly at the start) as it has a very dark moody feel to it. At the start of the trailer there is an actor running away from the killer, I have included the same actor (the girl holding the camera) in the poster. The image in the poster is set in a dead-end, I did this because all the victims in the trailer are chased in to dead-ends. All the text is in the same font (liquid crystal), that is very important for franchising our products and making sure the consumer can link together all the products.
The trailer gives away some of the killers face and to follow suit the poster has the killers face revealed as well. Another big theme to this trailer is that some of it is filmed through a hand held camera so there is a lot of point of view shots; this is why the main prop (the camera) is in the poster.
Saturday, 5 May 2012
EVALUATION Q1: In what ways does your media production use, develop or challenge forms & conventions of real media products? (Nhung Pham)
As a group, we explored different genres and conventions in horror. Each of us did a textual analysis for our planning and research where we analysed real media products such as posters, trailers and magazines in depth to gain a factual understanding of them. By doing so, it inspires us to take different aspects of horror ideas forward and incorporate these ideas as our own. We thought of lighting, mise-en-scene, techniques and costume for our trailer and how it could be interpreted in terms of conventions and forms of horror.
There are a wide range of Sub-Genres in horror and the forms and conventions that are attached to it. Conventions are used to help our audience recognise what type of horror genre our film would belong to and whether they are interested and would want to watch it or not. Conventions come in a format that we recognise like a list of ingredients which are almost as seen as a set of rules in the industry which should be followed by. Therefore when releasing our products these form and conventions should be taken into consideration as it generate a buzz before its release giving the audience a little taste of what is about to head their way.
As we began planning towards our products in September we had to work as a group to figure and understand what type of horror we were going to do. We started researching and analysing horror trailers such as Scream, Halloween and others which all shares the typical conventions of Slasher horror. We wanted our trailer to be unique so we also try to find ways to challenge the conventions. By doing so, we took inspiration from the ‘Grave Encounter (2011)’ trailer where we intend to use a handheld camera as the characters are filming their project. This challenges the convention as we usually see the killer approaching the victims whereas the victims are now seen through the eyes of the killer, who is holding the camera.
The antagonist wears a mask or has a mutated face to protect their identity. We wanted our antagonist to have that gory, realistic effect as the antagonist is usually a person who has suffered or is traumatised by some sort of abuse. An example is Freddie Cougar in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ who is a disfigured dream stalker and wears a glove armed with razors which the audience will be able to identify him as the Slasher in Nightmare on Elm Street. Therefore we searched through Halloween makeup tutorials via YouTube and found what we thought most intrigued us and gave off a sinister feeling.
A convention we also included was a red herring where there is a clue or piece of information which is intended to be misleading. We included this in the final scene, where there are four students in a group but however only three is seen being captured in the end with one person still filming. Red herring are seen in teaser trailers such as Scream to create tension and provoke the audience to want to find out.
Q1 In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge, forms and conventions of real media products? Tyler Mason
The magazine follows the conventions of most horror trailer magazines how ever I have broken a few conventions to make the magazine unique and separate it from competition.
The title of the magazine is located at the top of the page in the middle, this is a convention of all magazines with the exception of music magazine Q who locate their title on the top left of the magazine. The title is very large in comparison to the other subheadings this is to make it stand out and dominate the page.
Horror magazines generally have san serif fonts with sharp edges. I have used a gothic font which suits the genre of the magazine, the sharp edges represent knives and other sharp objects that are used in horror films.
The title is red for two reasons. First of all the colour red portrays blood and violence and they are features you will often see in the horror genre. I made the red very dark so it complimented the dark background in order to create tension and suspense.
Secondly the colour red was used to match the colour scheme.For the magazine we used a very simple colours,red and white.The white stands out amongst the dark back ground and makes the most important subheadings on the page stand out. To make sure the white subheadings fitted the colour scheme I put a red stroke around the text. The red stroke gives the text a 3D affect and makes it seem as if it is coming out of the page.
I used a wide range of fonts for the magazine cover, this is a convention used by all magazines as the different fonts represent a different section to the magazine or story. I used the font liquid crystal for one of the subheadings.The font is that of are magazine cover and teaser trailer and is the font we have used to represent our film. As the film focuses around time, the liquid crystal font is similar to that of a digital clock.
I have followed a convention by incorporating the films font and title onto the magazine cover. When a film is the main focus of the magazine they tend to use the films font when displaying it on the magazine. This is an example of synergy,which is used by every magazine in order to help promote a film.
The subheading 3:15 is the largest subheading on the page it is the largest to show it is the main focus of the magazine which is a convention of all horror magazines.
At the bottom of the page I created a montage of clips into a visual picture show reel, they show behind the scene footage of how the film which is the center of attention is being created.I got this idea from various magazine from Fangoria they use this feature quite a lot so I decided to incorporate it into our horror magazine.
From my research I have noticed that majority of horror magazines base there theme around there main image and hardly have any other images on the page,so the main image appears dominant along side the use of sub headings.I have followed this convention as I think this is what makes a horror magazine a horror magazine and if we did not do so then we would be going against a convention of horror magazines.
Despite following the majority of horror conventions we did break a few, for example the bar code is often located in the bottom left of the page. However in ours we placed it at the top right by the title.We broke this convention simply because it looked better structure wise and we did not want to much stuff going on at the bottom of the page as it would take the attention away from the show-reel.
If you take a look at most magazines you will notice that the the sub headings are usually located in the left hand of the page how ever I broke this convention and place them on the right.Again this decision was made due to the structure of the magazine and simply because it looked better on the right and did not obstruct the image like it would if i located it on the left.
Overall we have followed all majority of the conventions used in horror magazines and the only conventions we have broken were due to the structure and layout of the magazine how ever they are not that visible and our magazine still looks like a its part of the horror genre so overall I am very satisfied with the finished product.
The title of the magazine is located at the top of the page in the middle, this is a convention of all magazines with the exception of music magazine Q who locate their title on the top left of the magazine. The title is very large in comparison to the other subheadings this is to make it stand out and dominate the page.Horror magazines generally have san serif fonts with sharp edges. I have used a gothic font which suits the genre of the magazine, the sharp edges represent knives and other sharp objects that are used in horror films.
The title is red for two reasons. First of all the colour red portrays blood and violence and they are features you will often see in the horror genre. I made the red very dark so it complimented the dark background in order to create tension and suspense.
I used a wide range of fonts for the magazine cover, this is a convention used by all magazines as the different fonts represent a different section to the magazine or story. I used the font liquid crystal for one of the subheadings.The font is that of are magazine cover and teaser trailer and is the font we have used to represent our film. As the film focuses around time, the liquid crystal font is similar to that of a digital clock.
I have followed a convention by incorporating the films font and title onto the magazine cover. When a film is the main focus of the magazine they tend to use the films font when displaying it on the magazine. This is an example of synergy,which is used by every magazine in order to help promote a film.
The subheading 3:15 is the largest subheading on the page it is the largest to show it is the main focus of the magazine which is a convention of all horror magazines.
At the bottom of the page I created a montage of clips into a visual picture show reel, they show behind the scene footage of how the film which is the center of attention is being created.I got this idea from various magazine from Fangoria they use this feature quite a lot so I decided to incorporate it into our horror magazine.
Despite following the majority of horror conventions we did break a few, for example the bar code is often located in the bottom left of the page. However in ours we placed it at the top right by the title.We broke this convention simply because it looked better structure wise and we did not want to much stuff going on at the bottom of the page as it would take the attention away from the show-reel.If you take a look at most magazines you will notice that the the sub headings are usually located in the left hand of the page how ever I broke this convention and place them on the right.Again this decision was made due to the structure of the magazine and simply because it looked better on the right and did not obstruct the image like it would if i located it on the left.
Overall we have followed all majority of the conventions used in horror magazines and the only conventions we have broken were due to the structure and layout of the magazine how ever they are not that visible and our magazine still looks like a its part of the horror genre so overall I am very satisfied with the finished product.
Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (kieron)
Having researched the conventions of horror posters design I have learnt that they mostly follow a specific style. They are normally portrait in layout with a very dark or black background, with the subject coming out of the dark. The title and film information is usually white and or red and placed at the bottom of the page. Some of these conventions I decided to use because I think they are effective and some I decided to change and develop to make my poster different.
Image
In my research of horror poster design I discovered the killer is not usually included in the poster but it is normally a scared looking person/character (mainly female) from the film and looking directly at the viewer either asking for help or trying to frighten them. The subject is frequently placed in the middle of the poster but not all is shown of them.
In my poster I decided to include the killers face because I wanted to present to the audience a vision of who they would encounter in the film, and also have the killer viewing the audience in a menacing way instead of a victim calling to the viewers for help. The idea is that the character is looking through the lens and seeing the killer; this image also gives the viewer an idea of the themes and content of the film.
The traditional lighting in horror posters is very dark, it will usually show a bit of the subject e.g. if it’s a person it will show half of their face to not reveal much. Professional movie posters will often have their subject lit from one direction so as to create a dramatic shadow effect, highlighting the evilness of the killer or the desperation of the victim. I decided to follow the convention of lighting my subject from the top right to create the dramatic effect and make the killer look even more sinister.
I took the role as photographer and with my group we decided we wanted a landscape photo with the subject offset from the centre so that I could use the out of focus space to place the text. I decided to make the focal point the lens with the background being out of focus so I could mirror the killers face into the lens. I chose a female model to follow the convention of most horror posters and I placed her in a dead end like she is about to be killed.
I had to find a setting that would give the impression of an enclosed space so I looked through the college building to find an appropriate setting and came across a cupboard which fitted the criteria of being dark and creepy looking. The only props I needed was an SLR camera, the first problem I encountered was that the camera I had, had a small lens which wouldn’t of worked for my image, so I had to get a new one with a wide angle lens so there was enough space to Photoshop the killer in to it.
As I only needed a close up head shot of the camera and my model, she didn’t need to wear a particular costume
The conventional layout of a horror movie poster would be dark image with the subject in the middle and the text at the bottom, the tagline is generally placed with the title at the bottom but can be placed at the top.
Most of the posters that I researched had a portrait format for their layout but we decided not to follow that convention but challenge it by making ours a landscape format, making it useful for billboards and posters outside the cinema.
I placed the main body of the text to the lower left hand corner and the title of the film in the upper left hand corner, because although most of the text is at the bottom of the poster, I still wanted it offset from the centre, to be unconventional like the poster for the film ‘The Crazies’.
Typography/font
The conventional font used in the credits on the horror poster is ‘Steel Tong’, this is used for all movie posters; I kept to this convention and used ‘Steel Tong’. The title and tagline is normally in a font that relates to the movie e.g. in the poster for the film ‘Mirrors’ one of the R’s is mirrored the same also goes for the film ‘Rec’, here the designer has used the recording symbol used on video recording equipment. I took this convention and choose a text that related to my film, the title is ‘3:15’ so the most obvious font to use was a digital clock style font called ‘Liquid Crystal’. I was able to find this easily on ‘Dafont.com’. 
Colour
In the professional horror posters that I researched the majority of them consisted of the same colour scheme. They would have a dark or black background with usually red text. The colours that are most common are blood red and toxic bright green, and sometimes a night vision effect will be used as well.
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