Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Directors Commentary from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

To begin with, me, Frankie and Alexia decided we would create a thriller as we had experience in this genre, however this decision was altered when Gabby joined our group. We put our ideas together to come up with something scarier and more horror-like. With this in mind, we did some secondary research into conventions of thrillers and horrors by looking at various trailers of these genres and analysing them. I identified a variety of conventional techniques such as dark colour schemes and isolated locations. By carrying out this research we were able to apply some of the necessary conventions of a horror trailer to our own production. This benefited us extremely as it allowed us to create a professional looking trailer. Other primary research we did involved us handing out a questionnaire to a number of people asking things regarding horror film. By doing this we could identify who our target audience would be and what things in particular they were looking for in a good and effective horror film, for example we found that the majority of our sample would prefer a female hero. This research made it easier for us to produce something successful and worth watching as we could apply our findings to the trailer allowing us to conform to conventions of real media products.

Ryall put forward the idea of the genre triangle which links together the institution, text and audience. Genre is important to the audience and industry as particular genre films for example horror, are reliant on the success of other horror films which make the money to produce more films of that genre. We used this theory when making our trailer as due to the success of prior horror films, audiences will want to view ours.

When researching into the conventions of a trailer we found that many follow the same pattern. These include; fast paced editing, intense music/sound effects, dark colours and more. I feel we were successful in using and achieving all of these conventions. We applied each of these to our own production as we felt they were the most effective in creating a scary and powerful film trailer. We varied between slow and fast paced editing in order to make the faster parts even more concentrated and frightening.  In terms of colour we used a scheme of black and greys for the titles throughout the trailer. This created a more dark and dangerous quality throughout.  We also used a range of sound effects like loud bangs to emphasise certain parts for example with the titles. We did this in order to conform to typical conventions of horror trailers. Other conventions we conformed to were the use of reflections, which has been seen in many horror films for example ‘Mirrors’. We did this when our villain was walking and her reflection was seen in a puddle. This was a decision we made on set last minute, but could be seen as a representation of the evil character’s problematic spiritual presence in Rosie’s life, a presence that has followed her since childhood.

Vladimir Propp said that all almost all narratives will include a series of character types.  Our trailer involves traditional Proppian character types for example an antagonist who was Evylyn Crick and a protagonist who was Rosie. Although having an villainous character played by a woman challenges the conventions of women in real life, it is something that is often seen in horror films, for example ‘The woman in black’. We used a number of Barthes enigma codes in order to create mystery throughout the trailer by not revealing all the facts of the story. The aim of a trailer is to keep the audience guessing and wanting to find out more. We also included various binary oppositions, an idea put forward by Levi Strauss, for example good, which was represented by Rosie, and Evil represented by Evylyn. These character representations could also be seen as a binary opposition of human and supernatural, or sane and insane, all conventional of horror films.

When choosing people to act in our production we had to be sure that they would fulfil their roles correctly. I believe that all of our performers did an excellent job, particularly Layla who played ‘Evylyn Crick’. Even though she had less experience than the rest of the cast, we found that she settled well into her role and after going through costume, hair and makeup, she did a performance that thoroughly satisfied the whole group. When selecting our actors we took into consideration their acting history and ability before asking them to take part. Although this was an effective method for us this time, it may be more appropriate to hold auditions for our next production to compare a wider range of actors.

Over all we were successful in making our production conventional. According to our audience feedback, 100% could recognise that the trailer was advertising a horror film, showing that we followed genre conventions, and the majority said they would like to see this film if it were to be released. Our trailer is a very conventional horror trailer and will therefore attract and audience that enjoy viewing that kind of film.

Audience Feedback

Now that our trailer is complete, we invited a number of students to come and answer questions about our film in order to get some audience feedback. We felt this was an effective way to gain information as the audience were able to communicate with us verbally. This is better than jut using questionnaires as it allowed for a wider range of answers. Although not all of the audience answered we were still able to get the answers we had hoped for. Here is a video of the focus group and their feedback.



Audience Feedback from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

Here is a summary of the answers we received in the audience feedback focus group interview. The feedback was overall very positive and so we were please with the things they said.

Twitter Account

The Woman In Black 2 - official twitter page

Twitter is a way in which production companies can advertise their film to a wide audience. The audience that uses Twitter can act as marketers for the film as they can like and share the trailer and posts. In order to further promote our trailer, we created a Twitter account which will give followers information and updates about the film and trailer. In doing so, the audience are able to connect with the film and become more involved.

Somnium's twitter page

We have also been able to gather more feedback from twitter users which lets us find out what the wider audience thinks of the trailer. This is great for promotion as when different people reply to the 'Somnium Film' account or use the hashtag #somniumfilm other people who are connected to them will see our page. This again helps to increase advertisement and therefore attract a wider audience.

Comments from the online audience

To view our twitter page click here.

Making the Poster and Magazine

Magazine
After planning we opened Photoshop and started with a plain black background for the magazine. We then inserted a red bold Masthead of 'GRANDE FILMS' that we created with a font we found on www.dafont.com, and added the first cover line. By using this website we were able to view and select from a much wider range of fonts. After researching into other magazine covers we found that they often used a variety of different dramatic fonts for titles. We decided to do something similar as we felt this gave an overall more interesting appearance for the reader. Our masthead is a bold red colour with white edging. This makes the cover more eye catching for readers. For each of the cover lines we used a different font, some bold and some thin, and also using different colours of white and red. This makes for a more interesting appearance and therefore helps to attract people's attention. For each of our cover lines we decided to include current media productions, as this will also attract the readers.  

Inserting text for cover lines.

First cover line completed

We then created and added other conventions of a magazine cover such a the plug, barcode, price, more cover lines and the magazine website. All of these things are designed to give the reader all of the information they need about the contents of the magazine. We made the plug bold red to get the readers attention, with black and white writing inside advertising what can be seen inside the magazine.

Poster

Producing the poster was different as it is more concerned with the imagery than words and writing. When working in Photoshop we used various tools to edit the image. We did this by inserting both images of Rosie and Layla and cutting around them roughly. Then using the blur tool we worked around the images to create closer and more refined edges that blended into the background more effectively. We added the billing block which consists of names of important members of the cast and crew, and also the logos of the production companies involved.

Blurring the edges.

We then added the background of the poster which is a dark grey scratchy image and the positioned the photograph of Layla in costume at the bottom left, appearing behind Rosie. We made it so that the cracks from the background were showing over Rosie's face as this represents the idea that she is 'broken' and struggling. We added the title in the same white font we have used in the trailer and magazine cover. We also put some ratings at the top of the page as this is a convention of film posters, while attracting an audience. If films have higher ratings the audience are more likely to want to watch it.

We also edited the brightness of the images to make them appear both darker and lighter in certain areas and so more mysterious. The high contrast between the dark and light creates a chiaroscuro effect on the poster which is a conventional lighting technique of the horror genre.

Adjusting the lighting.