A2 MEDIA STUDIES.: April 2011

The brief for my A2 Media coursework was:
A promotional package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• A website homepage for the film;
• A film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• A poster for the film.

For this particular coursework I chose to do a film trailer. I also had to produce two ancillary texts in which we had three to choose from, these were a poster promoting my trailer, a film magazine front cover and a website. I chose to do the poster and the film magazine front cover. Technologies such as the internet were a huge benefit to me whilst making my coursework. I used many websites to research codes and conventions of horror, film clips and trailers, music, magazine front covers and film posters. I chose not to challenge forms and conventions of real media products as I wanted to create something known well and recognized by audiences. My product was based around the stereotypical conventions of the horror film genre.

I began by choosing the genre for my trailer. I decided to do a horror trailer as I felt I knew the conventions better then other genres such as romance or comedy. I then began to research the conventions and stereotypes for horror genre. Using Google and Wikipedia websites I searched for codes and conventions of horror and the results I found were then posted on my blog 15.11.10 (www.paigedrewry@blogspot.com). I found that darkness, vulnerable characters, open spaces and unfamiliar locations were all conventions of horror films. I made a note of this on Microsoft word and then posted it on my blog so I could use this for my filming. I then chose a target audience for my trailer which I based around my own age, the target audience I chose was people aged 16 – 24. I felt by doing this I would be able to produce a piece of work to suit this audience as I knew what people around that age would find entertaining and scary. After doing this I then began to think of potential storylines for the film. I watched and analyzed trailers such as ‘se7en (David Fincher, 1995)’ and ‘The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1971)’ using the website YouTube. These were also posted on my blog and for further research I looked at other students A2 work also on YouTube. Because of my research I was able to see what good horror films contained and tried to incorporate them into my storyline. In the end I decided on a binary opposed storyline using the theory by Claude Lévi-Strauss and began to decide on the angles, characters, locations and dialogue I would use.

After more research on conventions of Horror I decided I would not use dialogue in my work as after reading the conventions I decided it would create more suspense as without sound the silence would convey as eerie. I used Microsoft word to write down my ideas and then posted these ideas on my blog. Because my trailer was based on religion I used the Bible for quotes. I decided to use conventional horror structure for my trailer and had the antagonist played by a male and the protagonist played by a female. Because of the male and female role in my trailer I used the Adam and Eve biblical story to take my quotes from. The storyline was based on a man blaming women for the temptation of men so to show this I picked the quote; ‘She gave me of the tree and I did not’. I also chose to call my film Temptation as this was what the trailer was based around.

My media product was designed to conform to the stereotypical horror conventions. I wanted the active audience to understand the genre chosen and to enjoy a ‘classic’ horror piece. Because of the unfamiliar locations and storyline chosen I felt my product would reflect a real media product. I chose to cast a male and female who I knew were good actors for my trailer. Both had previously done drama as a course and because there was no dialogue I was confident that it would look as good as it could. The male was 18 and I chose him because I felt his appearance would be easy to create a mysterious look with. The girl was 17 and by making her younger it showed her more vulnerable to the audience. Also the characters age aligned her with the audience as they would be able to relate to her as she was around a similar age. Once the actors were decided on I then went on to finding music for the background of the trailer. To do this I went onto YouTube and searched for ‘Horror movie soundtracks’ I listened to ones I thought would suit with my chosen genre ‘Awesome Classical Music’ and ‘Classic Horror Soundtracks’, when I found one I thought would work I then downloaded it onto my flash drive. Once I had done this I had over 40 minutes of sound to use on my work. Using Microsoft word I began to list different possible locations to shoot my trailer, this was then posted on my blog with a shortlist of a church, graveyard, woodland and a garage.

For Mise En Scene I based the props around the religious theme of the trailer and chose to use a rosary and a bible. Costumes were picked to suit with the horror genre and stereotypically I dressed the antagonist in all black. The victim would be wearing normal clothes for a 17 year old girl for one scene and then would change into a slashed blooded white top for the second scene. I felt as though the stereotypical clothing for teenage girls would show a normal side to the character; using a white slashed t-shirt I thought, would show a pure and vulnerable look. I dressed and styled the antagonist to look mysterious as possible using black trousers, a black coat and a white shirt which connotes a typical look for an antagonist. Black creates mystery and curiosity which is why I chose to dress him this way.

Once the locations, characters, props and clothing were decided on I then began to draw my storyboard. On my storyboard I drew a picture of the scene wrote how long it would last for, the angles I would use and then gave a brief description of the scene. Once I had done this I then scanned the storyboard onto my computer and then posted it on Blogger. Before I started my filming I used Google and Google images to research and analyze film front covers and film posters. This would help me with my ancillary texts. When I was ready to film and had chosen my definite locations (Church, woodland and garage) I rented a handheld digital camera from the college and started off with a blank tape. I decided to use a handheld camera as it was portable and easy to carry around. Also I felt it would be better for the horror film ‘shaky’ effect which connotes realism to the audience. I could easily attach the camera to a tripod so I also had two different ways of filming my trailer.

For Mise en’ Scene I chose a vast church in the middle of the city centre as I knew it had many interesting things I could film and the huge size of it meant I could get more out of my shots. I then decided on which parts of the church I would film and using my storyboard began to film what I had drawn. Things weren’t as easy as I thought and I had to experiment with different camera angles such as medium close up to get the shot I wanted. As well as filming my antagonist I also filmed religious images in the church such as windows, painting and statues to keep with the religious film. That day I shot 20 minutes of footage which I then took back to college and uploaded it up onto the edit suite computers.

Looking back at the footage I had taken I decided that the lighting was too bright to use. I had gone to the church on a sunny day and the light from the windows had caused the shots to look unusual and not typical for a horror film. It was then I decided I needed to reshoot the church scenes and to go on a night time where the light wouldn’t be a problem. Again I rang up the church and organized another shoot for a night time. In the meantime I used to program Adobe Premier and used the ‘capture’ tool to upload my video and enable me to take the parts I needed. I used the blade tool to cut my clips shorter so I could edit them more easily. The non linear editing meant I could arrange clips in which ever way I wanted which enabled me to edit better. I then started to piece together the clips I wanted to keep. I then returned to the church with the antagonist dressed in the same clothes as before, this was for continuity reasons. The lighting was much darker this time and I also used the artificial lighting in the church to create the dark look I wanted. This time I filmed another 15 minutes of footage using different angles and rethinking scenarios. This time I didn’t stick to my original plan on my storyboard and decided to film other scenes which I thought would look good.

After the nighttime shoot I again uploaded my footage onto the Adobe Premier Programme and decided I was happy with the shots. After this I had two more scenes to shoot and decided to do them in one day. These two scenes were to be shot in a garage and in a woodland. It was around 4pm when myself and my two actors went to the woodland to start filming. However things didn’t go to plan as it was too dark to shoot so I couldn’t film outside that night, I then decided to do just the garage shoot instead and film the woodland scene another day. For this scene my antagonist stayed in the same clothing but my victim had different clothes on from which she would have done in the woodland scene. For a horror look I tied the victim to the chair using rope and experimented with different lighting. I tried swinging a light to see how that looked and thought it would really work. The lighting I used in the garage was this particular style and when I looked back at the footage I didn’t need to reshoot it.

I still needed to shoot my last scene and I decided to film on a time where it wouldn’t be too dark or too bright, I wanted the woodland to look dark so I didn’t want it to be too bright when I shot the scene. This was to keep to the convention of typical horror darkness and to keep it as an occurring theme in my work. In the woodland I used mostly close up shots and zoomed in shots to create and intense look, I would speed these shots up on the editing suite to create a more on edge look and uncomfortable feeling when watching. After filming this scene I had 40 minutes footage all together and finally had enough to create my trailer with.

When I’d uploaded all my footage onto the editing suite I picked out and ‘captured’ all the shots I knew would appeal to my target audience and would stick to the stereotypical horror conventions. After selecting the shots I would use I then began to edit and put them together. Using the drag tool I selected the shots I wanted and dragged them onto the timeline on the Adobe software. I used dissolves and edit transitions to make my work look more professional. I also darkened some shots that I thought were to bright using the brightness/contrast tool in the Adobe Programme. After putting the shots together I realized that some parts didn’t look right or didn’t fit in. I then had to rearrange the shots and use some other footage to finally make it look the way I wanted it too.

When I had finished rearranging and creating my trailer I then needed to add sound. This was the most difficult part for me as I had put my clips on first so I needed to match the sound to the movements. Using the music I had downloaded off YouTube I downloaded it onto the editing suite and then began to listen to see which bits I would select for my trailer. After deciding on which sounds to use I then cut down the sound with the cropping tool, this enabled me to put only the sounds I thought would work onto my trailer. After doing this I then started work on my ancillary texts.

I first started by creating the magazine front cover. I chose the colour scheme of red and black as these were typical horror colours. Red signifying blood and danger and black creating dark moods and tones. I didn’t take any new photos for the magazine and picked an image from my trailer which I thought would be the most iconic. The still I used was a close up of my victim with a gag in her mouth. I turned this photo black and white to make it look more frightening and then I started on the text for the magazine. I looked back at my research for magazine front covers which I’d done earlier in the year and used this to help me create my text. Using Google search engine I found different styles of horror fonts I could use for my banners on the magazine. I wanted to keep the poster simple so again I used the same image turning it black and white and just displayed the title including the release date on.

I feel as though my main product and ancillary texts are extremely effective as they both relate to one another. By using a still from the actual trailer in both my ancillary texts creates an image that the audience will remember. By not displaying the antagonist in my ancillary texts it creates more mystery around the trailer making the audience more curious to watch it. By sticking to the typical codes and conventions of horror films in all three pieces of my work I feel that the audience will have a great understanding of the genre of Horror I have used. Although I have not challenged forms and conventions of real media I have tried to use stereotypical horror conventions to create a text that all audiences will find familiar. This is things such as unfamiliar locations, black and dark imagery and a female victim.

Both my main product and ancillary texts work together as they do not differ from one another. My ancillary texts both display a still from the trailer and I tried to do this to make the audience more eager to see the trailer. I carried the dark imagery throughout all texts using black colours, shots and images in each piece of work, I also used the same font throughout. This creates continuity and means the audience can link all three texts together as they relate to one another.

Looking back at my finished products I realised I could have made my trailer a lot better by re thinking a different storyline. Although my work was based around religion I believe a clearer plot would have enabled my video to work a lot better. I asked a group of friends for their feedback using a questionnaire I had made. I used people with a similar age of my target audience (17 – 19) to get a better understanding of what people that age want. Their results said that although they believed my trailer was good it could have been better by creating a clearer storyline. They also said that the sound could have worked better as I used 4 different tracks together to create one. However they believed the shots I used had worked well and that the mise en scene I had used worked for my chosen genre. If I had to do this again I would re think a clearer storyline and use my peers for advice as they were the bases of my target audience. I would also try to find a wider range of tracks to use choosing ones which justified my genre better.

A2 MEDIA STUDIES.

Friday, 15 April 2011

Evaluation

Finished trailer

Finished trailer

Ancillarys

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Conventions of film trailers