This is our evaluation question 4. New media technologies have advanced majorly over the years and therefore has been majorly important to us throughout all stages of creating our teaser trailer, poster and magazine. Media technologies have allowed us to experiment and create more advanced and realistic products throughout our A2 year. It has also allowed us to promote our teaser trailer over different social apps throughout the stages of construction, making it more visible for the audience we are targeting. Digital media now plays a lot more of a bigger part in creating products then it has ever done before and creating a teaser trailer has allowed us experience the effects that it has on the end result of a product in a personal aspect. Due to the new media technologies being created, it has allowed people to view media products on a range of different media technologies.
Research & Planning.
Construction.
Final cut Pro- Claudene Alberts
Final cut pro is the software we used to create our final trailer/ our draft trailer and the animatic. As a group we were not familiar with this program as it was new to us, however this program would be used a lot throughout our project so we started drafts using the simple tools to get used to it. For this we also watched various tutorials to advance our knowledge within this program. This software allows us to take our footage, colour correct it, change the pace, use different transitions between shot changes. Final cut Pro also allowed us to edit captions between certain shots of our footage too give it that trailer structure. Colour correcting allowed us to give the same tone to the whole of the trailer showing that all the shots linked, also using this skill, we were able to use the colour correction to make the tone seem like they were the same colours used in our poster and magazine creating a house style. Having a timeline as a structure to follow allowed us to precisely cut and split footage to the correct timing so that this gives it a more successful/ professional/ accurate look. With final cut pro we could also edit the music/ sound to an accurate beat in line with the corresponding shot. Using this program throughout has develop our skills/ knowledge allowing us to complete our final trailer.
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Tutorials was one of they ways which we researched into this software, we did this because this was a new program to all of us and we didn't have the knowledge to how to do simple/ basic steps. After we experimented on Final cut x Pro, we wanted to know how to do certain things to our footage, to do this we mainly looked at YouTube tutorials which was always available to us. We did this for certain effects such as the jump cuts/ colour correcting and also putting text over our footage to create the structure of a teaser trailer. |
Photoshop- Claudene Alberts
Adobe Photoshop was the main editing program that our group used to edit out final horror magazine and film poster. Photoshop allows us to edit in a lot of different ways which as a group we found quite useful. As a group we had also had a fair amount of experience in this media technology as we have used it
we used this program as the software that it contains allows us to go into precise detail. This program was also set up so that we could use it on the school computers and the school macs which were both avalible during and after school hours. This work could also have been done at home on our own computers which allowed us to manage out time easily as a group.
In the research and planning stage, Photoshop was often used to create things such as the team production logo and digital mock ups of the drafting of both the horror magazine and poster. We found that this software allowed us to edit/ undo and replace different conventions used to create a standard layout of what a successful product looks like. The main elements that were edited in our magazine and poster is the colour, this was done throughout both products as we had to colour adjust to make the model used look rough and pale and to make other areas such as the blood wombs stand out. throughout this project our Photoshop skills have developed and improved as Photoshop has allowed us to design layers which has allowed us to work on one part of the product at a time. By using layers it means that we were more able to add new items to the whole image allowed us to experiment to create the final product.
In the research and planning stage, Photoshop was often used to create things such as the team production logo and digital mock ups of the drafting of both the horror magazine and poster. We found that this software allowed us to edit/ undo and replace different conventions used to create a standard layout of what a successful product looks like. The main elements that were edited in our magazine and poster is the colour, this was done throughout both products as we had to colour adjust to make the model used look rough and pale and to make other areas such as the blood wombs stand out. throughout this project our Photoshop skills have developed and improved as Photoshop has allowed us to design layers which has allowed us to work on one part of the product at a time. By using layers it means that we were more able to add new items to the whole image allowed us to experiment to create the final product.
Using Photoshop we could:
*Colour correct
*Add graphical elements
*Cut certain areas of an image out
*Add effects to could also be added.
*Correct certain mistakes using the undo/ redo tool
*Select and hide certain areas
*See history using the layers bar placed on the right hand side of the screen.
*Colour correct
*Add graphical elements
*Cut certain areas of an image out
*Add effects to could also be added.
*Correct certain mistakes using the undo/ redo tool
*Select and hide certain areas
*See history using the layers bar placed on the right hand side of the screen.
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Here we have used a software the records what you do on screen. This has allowed us to record a template that our group had made in practice for the real product, doing this allowed us to play around with some of the tools/ images and experiment with different structures that look aesthetic. We have done this by using shutter stock images as at this point we hadn't done our shoot. In this video it has shown us that we could rub out using different opacity and blend the image into the background so is looks more professional. This had helped us as when we came to create our real poster/magazine we already knew the basic tools/ the basic structure to the product.
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Camera- Claudene Alberts
For us to film our footage we were given the opportunity of using the camera that was available through the college. To do this we had to loan them out whenever we needed them to get footage for certain scenes. Other equipment the school had provided for us was things like the lighting kits and the green screen room. The camera had 10x optical zoom which allowed us to film some scenes from a certain distance which was required in the different locations used. Using the SLR allowed use to shoot the footage/ take photos to a high quality even in some tricky situations such as the location/ surroundings and the lighting. The ISO also allowed us to change the lighting settings on the camera to get the correct level so that the footage could be darker or lighter. This also prevented the blur effect which could’ve made our footage/ photos look out of focus/ in bad quality.
The SLR could also shoot footage as well as take photos for the shoot that was required for the magazine and poster; this enabled us to create the trailer. A tripod also came with the camera when loaned out, this was an advantage as this allowed the camera to stay stable while filming which also stopped any ridged movement when holding with our hands, and this made the footage look more professional.
Using this cannon 600D camera we could:
*Play back the footage we had taken to see if it was any good.
*Take it anywhere to any location as it was small and not very heavy
*The battery life was limited however the extra batteries that were given were light and small and didn’t take up any space.
The SLR could also shoot footage as well as take photos for the shoot that was required for the magazine and poster; this enabled us to create the trailer. A tripod also came with the camera when loaned out, this was an advantage as this allowed the camera to stay stable while filming which also stopped any ridged movement when holding with our hands, and this made the footage look more professional.
Using this cannon 600D camera we could:
*Play back the footage we had taken to see if it was any good.
*Take it anywhere to any location as it was small and not very heavy
*The battery life was limited however the extra batteries that were given were light and small and didn’t take up any space.
The lighting kit was mainly used to correct/ enhance the lighting problems we had come across when filming our footage or shooting for our magazine or poster. This was a very useful bit of equipment as the lighting in certain locations were to dark so therefore using this allowed us to lighten up certain areas. Also using the kit allowed us to create certain effects with the light when shooting for our magazine and poster as this gave us the opportunity to create shadows across the face of the model creating that enigma effect.
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The tripod accessory could be issued from our college and was very effective as this was used as a support for our camera and was also very portable. This allowed us to take footage with no harsh movements which made the main structure of the trailer look more professional. For the photo shoot the tripod was also able to rotate and change height, therefore we used this to the advantage which gave us the opportunity to get a variety of shot angles, for example using high, low and canted angles.
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Evaluation.
Youtube - Olivia Colgate
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YouTube has been a very consistent use throughout all stages of creating our teaser trailer, magazine and poster. It was also used majorly in our evaluation stage once we had finished our final product. For example when comparing our own trailer to real media texts we needed to get examples of the trailers from YouTube which enabled us to do the direct comparison between the two. This showed how real media texts had effected our own trailer in a positive aspect as it made it look more realistic. For example in question one it asked how we developed the convention of having diegetic and non - diegetic sound in our trailer. We developed this convention by watching real horror trailers and analysing the types of sounds they had in their sound design. By doing this we could decide the common sound conventions and create our own sound design from that research.
Be Funky - Olivia Colgate.
Thinglink - Olivia Colgate
Thinglink is another creative website that allows us as group to creatively annotate pictures with connotations and explanations about our work. For example in the thinglink above, we used this in our question number one of our evaluation. It was a clearer way to annotate a magazine cover without it looking so confusing. It allows people to read the connotations we have analysed clearly without any struggle. It is also an active way of looking into why and how we created our final product. Without digital media like this website we would struggle on how to make it more aesthetically pleasing and therefore it is positive that our digital media has developed over time into something more evolved and creative that we can experiment in our own work.
Olivia Prendergast -
Research and planning - online search engines.
Firstly, the research and planning was conducted through methods that varied but all of which were in some type of technological format, the reason for this was because technology is something that allows data to be displayed in specifically formatted fashions that are useful during analysis. In addition to this technology was used for the planning and presenting of the data because the research was collected through technology also. A large majority of the research was collected through second hand research conducted on website platforms that have years of research and data stored at them. Al of which could be accessed at any moment for our own personal use, this includes such sites as YouTube (this is the site that we mostly used for researching things such as secondary hand research, and collecting evidence of the conventions typically used in the media texts that we wanted presented in a text format.) we also used sites such as YouTube (this was used to gather visual evidence and research upon the conventions that are within the real media texts.
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Using sites such as google for images and YouTube for collecting data and contributing it to our research and planning. Which was especially helpful when the data collected was specific to our attempts at creating a media text, i.e. the hostel trailer and it being related to the slasher genre. It allowed us to look at the text in detail because the conventions in it were relevant.
Research and planning -
Questionnaires and surveys.
One of the methods we used for collecting first hand data/ research was surveys and questionnaires. We used them because we knew we could there were variations of creative and experimental methods with them. For example, we used them in a typical way by – using open and closed questions
Another important reason we used surveys and questionnaires was because we knew that we could structure the questions to our advantage. Thus, making sure that they would assist us when having to decide what key conventions to include, how to include them according to the respondents answers and even why we should include them if they provided reasons for their answers. The questions focused on people’s opinions of pre-existing media texts as well as their overall own opinions and views upon what they would want to see. The effect was that we were able to get a balanced view on what should be denoted in our film as the answers influenced most of our ideas. The reason we knew involving the respondents answers in our consideration would be beneficial was because they were part of the age and overall group we wanted to market to, as well as their answers showing how the already existing media texts had structured their preferences. As well as this the respondents where from different demographics that would give us a balanced views and a good range of opinions due to the different types of understandings because of their own personal influence
As shown in various parts of the graph there is a lot of mixed opinions from the respondents, a lot of which are most likely responsible from the respondents being of different backgrounds and having opinionated mind sets as well as preferences. The collection of the different opinions enabled us to make a formulated assessment with which we decided whether or not the opinions were ones that should directly cause us to follow the convention because of how popular it was. Or were the opinions something that made us want to go against the convention because it seemed as though people had become way to accustom to its denotation and perhaps we would benefit from the lack of familiarity intriguing them. This especially became the case when it came to situations where all of the respondents agreed. The differences from the respondents should at least result in one person having a different response, this therefore definitely showed signs of the convention being something that should be considered for being challenged.
In addition to this conducting questionnaires and surveys allowed us to be very organised. It was something that did incorporate the use of technological assistance in the form of social networking. Which in itself was slightly creative and experimental considering most surveys are conducted through formal and simpler methods such as simply handing the person the written questionnaire and then getting them to give it back once they have finished, or even conducting the questionnaire through recording the respondent’s answers face to face. Both methods that would have been good to use but they were not creative.
Both the surveys and questionnaires were put on the blog but they were not put on the website with the full questions and answers. This was because there was a better format to be put in. Screenshots were used in replacement of putting all 4 respondents answers on the page which would have taken a lot of space.
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Here we used our own website to conduct a survey and a survey conducting website called ‘surveymonkey’ both forms were made easily accessible to the respondents.
Nowadays, technology can exist in many different variations. Communication technology has become such a key source of communication that everyone can use it whether it be through emails or text. However, we wanted to show the research and planning had been conducted in a format that would have fit the respondents, the respondents being 17-18 year old teenagers that are avid users of technology. Therefore the questionnaires were conducted formally but also through the inclusion of technology such as the evidence from the respondents in text messages shows. In addition to this we used technology to conduct questionnaires and surveys because of how many ways this can be done, this meant that we could vary the way with which we asked the questions because of how many factors there are. To elaborate, survey monkey was one place the questionnaire was put on, it works through designing formal questionnaires, some of which can be open and others closed, but we went one step further and allowed the respondent to respond via text message meaning that in some questions we could provide visual aids to help them make a better conclusion. Additionally, allowing the respondents to respond on a messaging format instead of just the survey application meant they could ask questions about the questionnaire so that they knew how to answer better. By using or rather utilising the available factors of the platform we were able to conduct this research and planning through an atypical, collaborative and creative method.
We were also able to experiment with the questionnaire and survey method because it allowed us to go one step further in most cases and make judgements from the answers as we were able to analyse the data. For example, when it came to answers where the majority gave their opinion we analysed them and instead of deciding that this is a convention that we needed to include we analysed it informally as a group and decided that perhaps denoting the opposite of this would be atypical but also effective as it isn’t something that is over exposed therefore it could possibly have a better effect upon the audience.Overall, it was very successful as I mentioned there were different ways for the questions to be asked because of the different platforms and what they provided. However, they were simple and formal enough. As well as this they were easily accessible, which was a particularly favourable benefit when it meant the respondents could respond at any time and at any place. Meaning we did not have to wait a long time for their answers, we could send it to them and have answers in less than 20 minutes which easily allowed us to analyse the data. And then formulate the research and planning in a formal and easily understandable way to reference later.
Mood boards.
We used mood boards to have a better, more creative, simpler and more thoroughly collected idea of what real media texts include. The reason this was done was because the collage of images allowed us to have a conclusive idea of what is typically denoted within the slasher genre of horror films. In addition to this it is also heavily creative due to its aesthetic nature, it has very little text in it which meant it was all up to our prior knowledge and abilities to interpret visual denotations of factors. Another reason this was done was because it allowed us to not only integrate and rely on technology to assist us in our research but it also allowed us to conduct our research and planning using a method that didn’t have to involve the audience’s incorporation. Instead we could conduct research that was already available therefore in an overall sense the whole of our research and planning would be a mixture of both secondary and primary research, as well as the opinions, mindsets and views of a smaller group of people that take an interest in the genre. as well as the much larger group of the internet that involved the input of thousands of individuals who also come from different backgrounds. We used mood boards because We knew the included aspects of them would be something that we could analyse on a large scale. As well as further extending our ability to understand the diverse audience that enjoy slasher movies.
To elaborate, in terms of age and the data the mood boards allowed us to creatively explore the genre by visually denoting its progression through the years. It provided an understanding of the expectations the different groups had as well as the expectations of the genre. For example, when looking at data (pictures) from nearer to this year it was clear to see what the expectations were from younger audiences in terms of the slasher genre as well as the genre in total. Using this information we were able to plan our media texts accordingly, most of the information denoted a consistent theme of the younger generations expecting large amounts of blood, gore and a tense atmosphere as well as violence which is expected in the genre it was aspects such as this that we used that helped us be successful when it came to creating a media text that fit with amongst today’s media texts. And so we tried to do this, however we also put the audience research into a logical fashion within our planning. Our media text was a trailer and so we knew that the purpose of a trailer was to entice the audience, to make them want to watch the movie but not to give the whole story. and so we also used YouTube videos to look at other successful slasher genre movies and how they took the approach of being interesting (in a gory, violent and excitingly graphical way) without being too informative. in addition to using the information in this planning fashion we also used it to try and plan out what we wanted to explore further, further than what real media texts are currently showing. for example, through our research we found out that a lot of the slasher movies involved a lot of the 'money shots' which was advantageous when being intriguing but it wasn't new or creative. Thus, we tried to involve some more symbolic imagery within our trailer so that we could possibly be more enticing in a 'intellectual puzzle' way.
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Social Medias -Snapchat
Another technology used for research and planning was conducting an informal interview of the audience’s opinions using snapchat. This is a social media networking app and the reason it was used was because it had certain aspects to it that were advantageous and beneficial in terms of conducting and presenting our research and planning in a technological fashion. To elaborate, some of the key features of Snapchat is that it allows someone to send pictures to another person with text over them and use voice notes as well as texting to have a verbal communication with someone as well as texting someone. The research was conducted through sending pictures of a questionnaire to respondents and then them answering the questions. Most people chose to send their answers in text whilst other chose to voice their answers in voice note form. However, whilst this was creative it was also not very beneficial when it came to actual documentation of the research so instead we decided to keep the verbal responses in mind but document them in text more than anything.
We used this research method because it was experimental. It allowed us to look at how to better conduct our research with the technology that we had and the effect that this would have overall on our planning. For example, when using the voice notes feature of the social media app it allowed us to have an actual conversation with our audience. When receiving their response, it was easier to see their opinion because their expressions gave us a better understanding of what they wanted to see. Such as when asked about the typographies that they wanted featured in the poster a lot of the audience responded with single answers simply stating which one they wanted to see. However, one response gave a reason as to why they wanted a certain style. Justifying it with saying the text looked more like it would feature on a real media text from a slasher genre movie. This was beneficial because the communication with the audience aided us in succeeding in what we perceived to be the audience’s expectations and general wants within the media text. We were able to produce a media text that fit our own creative visions whilst meeting the audience’s expectations shown in their understanding of the genre
the picture on the left is the official documentation of the respondents response, the responses were short and quick one worded answers. whereas the voice note on the right (the question was the typography question, she responded verbally once she could see it) were far more detailed. She gave an almost 30 sec response as to why she wanted one typography style over the others.
- These are the polls that were conducted.
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We also used another type of social media platform and that was Twitter. We used twitter because of how it can so easily be accessed by different people, not just the selected audience that we used for the research. This allowed us to plan our trailer to a larger extent because we had more input and more data from a larger audience. Also, twitter provided us with another method of gaining our research in a creative and experimental way. This was due to it having an easily available feature that not only incorporated access to a wide audience but it also involved summarising the data responses that were given in a formal and easily analysable form.
To elaborate, twitter has a feature called polls it was recently added for people who use the service to give their opinions. We used this feature to our advantage for our researching, we made our own social media account and then posed our own questionnaire and posted this on our twitter page and then asked the members of our research team to take part in the poll, whilst also encouraging others of our target audience to take part also. The result was having the ability to create a media text that had a deeper success in meeting the audience’s expectations and wants. Also it enabled us to evaluate the audience’s preferences when it came to certain aspects. For example, once again when it came to the colour scheme of the audience, they favoured the brighter colours which was informative data considering most real media texts denote a dark coloured colour scheme to better assist the atmosphere of a horror movie. Although, whilst we gathered research from people beyond our immediate available yet helpful audience denoting all of the data in our research would be time consuming and would be something that would make planning difficult therefore we only used the data of the audience members we had. They answered in the polls but to better show our research they also gave us their answers in a direct message on the app. |
- These are examples of the answers given by the audience that we had. Their responses were given in the direct messages in the Twitter app
Vincent Cunningham - Logic Pro (Sound)
Logic pro is a digital audio software programme in which people can compose different style soundtracks, songs etc. We used this software to create elements of the soundtrack for our trailer, along with sound effects. At first we were going to use Garage Band, however I am an experienced mac user and had recommended this software to my group members. This software is more efficient and sophisticated due to its flexible capability which may help enhance our trailer through experimenting which may create a sense of hyper reality. Some of the features we used were cross fading sounds into other sound effects to create a more complex outcome such as combing both the “boom” sound effect along with the rising suspenseful sound effect. This is effective as it may conjure emotional pleasure for the audience, especially with the example I just mentioned. Some of the media texts we looked at to get inspiration for sound was Nightmare On Elm Street and The Conjuring 2. These trailers both use tension to their advantage to build a climax. Some sound effects that reinforced this was a drone. I tried to mirror this climax in my trailer through an increasing tempo boom sound effect whilst in montage. I timed the sound with the clips and have also added cut to blacks to accentuate this tension. At the end of the trailer both the sound and fade to blacks are in sync, helping to create a sense on emotional pleasure for the audience, keeping them at the edge of their seat.
From looking at real media texts we noticed many trailers include echo’s which may conceptually mirror loneliness. We tried to include this in our trailer when the dumb blonde screams. We extended this scream and played around with the frequency and volume to create an echo sound effect which cross faded into other visual clips within the trailer. This was effective as it created a sense of hype-reality as it put some viewers on edge. We have also enhanced this scream as screams
From looking at real media texts we noticed many trailers include echo’s which may conceptually mirror loneliness. We tried to include this in our trailer when the dumb blonde screams. We extended this scream and played around with the frequency and volume to create an echo sound effect which cross faded into other visual clips within the trailer. This was effective as it created a sense of hype-reality as it put some viewers on edge. We have also enhanced this scream as screams
Vincent Cunningham - YouTube
YouTube is a very diverse video-sharing website where anyone can upload/share a video about any topic. In this case we used YouTube to our advantage by searching for horror movie trailers in which we would take inspiration from. We would point out their key conventions and try to apply them to our own. Some examples for our media text inspirations are Nightmare On Elm Street, Friday The 13th and Chainsaw Massacre. All of these films are slashers and we took inspiration from these movies by featuring a lot of explicit gore, wounds and torture porn in my trailer. We also used YouTube to research tutorials to help us with FX make-up with what materials to use. We checked reviews for products then bought them if we thought they were efficient for the trailer. (liquid latex, fake blood, cotton balls, foundation, bruise wheel etc). The final outcome was effective as it helped create hyper-reality/realism in our trailer when wounds were discovered on the victims in our trailer. This helped it look convincing and professional.
YouTube was helpful in this sense as we knew what to include in our trailer to make our trailer classed as a slasher, along with getting the right resources to enhance/accentuate it. We also knew what the audience would want to see from a slasher, which motivated us perfect our make-up skills to help them recognize this is a slasher.
YouTube was helpful in this sense as we knew what to include in our trailer to make our trailer classed as a slasher, along with getting the right resources to enhance/accentuate it. We also knew what the audience would want to see from a slasher, which motivated us perfect our make-up skills to help them recognize this is a slasher.
Vincent Cunningham - DaFont
DaFont is a type face website where millions of typefaces are available for download. We thought this website was effective as it had all of the typeface families (San Serif, Serif, Roman, Gothic, Italic, Bold, Urban etc.) giving us a variety and range to choose from. We decided to go for an Urban due to pointy/jaggedly accents that are featured at the end of each letter. This mirrors the phallic object the killer uses to objectify victims which was an axe. The real media texts we looked at for inspiration of typography were Nightmare On Elm Street and Manic. Both of these trailers use their fonts in the same way we did, which was to symbolize/visually represent both blood dripping blood and a phallic object. Both of these trailers used 1 or two shades of red, however for our typeface we decided to use a range of blood reds to create a sense of realism, along with a light grey/sliver to represent the steel knife/axe. This Grey/sliver was decreased in opacity and was placed behind the red to act as a shadow. However as this symbolizes a knife this could visually and conceptually represent to viewer’s blood on a knife as the red text is also sitting on the grey/silver text. I thought this was effective for our audience as we are combining two of the most iconic factors of a horror (blood and phallic weapon) and have created our own custom typeface for the title of the movie. I also made further enhancements on Photoshop such as adding texture to the typeface by masking a vector layer over the text layer. This helps accentuate the distressed tone, along with looking like a conventional horror movie title.