Evaluation

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

Film Magazine Front Cover

















When researching into film magazines I discovered a number of conventions that most magazines tend to stick to; hierarchy of text, large image, coverlines, Z pattern layout, easily read font to establish brand, bold colours etc. I decided to adhere to most of the conventions as I aimed to create a cover for a conventional film magazine that features big blockbuster films and appeals to the mainstream film audience. I have used a large image of one of the stars to dominate the page. My actor is posing as Kate Winslet and so a large eye catching image of a very famous actor is a useful technique to attract the target audience. I have used bold complementary colours of red white and blue, the colours of the British flag, which connotes a patriotic atmosphere; this would appeal to a British audience but also other countries because British films do appeal to overseas.
I found that some movie magazines use a lot of coverlines and others use minimal amounts, so I decided to use an amount in between the two extremes. I used one key coverline but made it large so that it clearly stood out and went well with the image, then I used a menu strip at the bottom as a way of letting the audience know more about what the magazine contained. I have arranged my coverlines and masthead in the conventional Z pattern with a hierarchy of text; the more important text is largest, getting smaller with the least important text as the smallest. For this reason the masthead is the largest text on the page as the magazine needs to be easily identifiable so it stands out on a shop shelf. The next largest text is the main coverline “Kate Winslet in Nineteen Fifty Four” because this is what needs to entice the reader into buying the magazine so it needs to easily catch the reader’s eye. The menu strip across the bottom is smaller because although it contributes to the selling of the magazine it is not the key selling point so doesn’t need to be as big. The next smallest coverline is “Exclusive Interview”, this does not need to be as large as the other text on the page because the other coverline “Kate Winslet in Nineteen Fifty Four” attracts attention to it because they tie in together and its colour also makes it stand out on the page. The smallest text on the page is the price, because it is informative rather than audience attracting device and the tagline because it cannot be too big so that it looks like a coverline.

Film Poster

















Similarly to my magazine I decided to use the conventions of most film posters that I came across in my research. Firstly I included the names of the most famous actors in the film at the top, because this appeals to the audience that are big fans of certain stars immediately. I also used a large image of one of the main actors in the film for the same effect; however the image also plays an important part in conveying the narrative in one freeze frame. I constructed my image in Photoshop to show one of the main characters looking out a window with a shadow of someone with a knife being cast on the window, this is to convey the idea that she could be a murderer and the shadow shows her true identity or that there is a murderer behind her. This is a theme throughout the film; that there is a murderer and nobody knows who it is, so the general narrative is successfully portrayed in this one still image.
I used a colour scheme of red and black because this relates to the genre of the film, it is conventional of a horror, murder film to use these colours because they connote the theme of blood and dark atmospheres. I used red for the text and black for the background so that the text (including the actor’s names and the title of the film) is eye catching. This is important so that the audience know the title of the film when they want to watch it. I also included a credit block at the bottom of the poster because it is a legal requirement for posters to have these and so it contributes to the authentic look of my own poster.

Teaser Trailer
Our trailer is a murder mystery genre set in the 1950’s, there were certain conventions we used to make sure this came across to the audience. The first convention we decided on was that it would be black and white; this conveys the time period and an eerie atmosphere. The dark and shadowy look is typical of a film noir movie.



The mise-en-scene was imperative to the success of conveying the 1950’s setting as if we had included props from modern times it would ruin the realism of the trailer. We tackled this successfully by filming at a location that existed in the 1950’s and still kept its vintage appearance today, seen in number 6 of my screen grabs. You can see from the screen grabs below that we also controlled the costume, make up and lighting making sure they all kept with the 1950’s style and established the genre, for example, suits for men, dresses for women, low key lighting.
















We used a range of different types of shots; close ups, long shots, tracking etc, demonstrated in the above screen grabs, that were not in chronological order. This is a technique used in trailers to create enigma and a sense of confusion which motivates the audience to watch the film to understand the questions created by the shots on screen, for example in shot 3 of my screen grabs, what are they running from? The range of shots and editing also makes the trailer more eye catching and exciting. We included a rapid montage that sped up in time with the music which included shots 3, 4 and 5 above. The fast editing pace and range of ambiguous shots is effective in emphasising the enigma and thrilling the audience, this makes them more likely to want to watch the film.
From our research into teaser trailers we found that conventional trailers contained titles to portray the USP of the film and to give clues to the storyline. We included titles that showed the names of the famous actors, which were all part of the USP of the film. We also used the title in shot 2, to convey part of the storyline and make it sound more exciting as “Based on True Events” adds another element of mystery. We used a script like font and animated it to look as if it was being written. This was to connote the high class of the setting and the guests which sets an atmosphere in place; it also connotes the writing of the invitations. We included a title with the name of the film “Nineteen Fifty Four” to inform the audience so they know what it is they are watching. It is positioned at the end of the trailer so that it is the last thing to stick in the audiences minds.
The narrative is conveyed through the voiceover, images, dialogue and titles and images on screen. The voice over, sets the scene of the location and the setting, the party in the grand hall. So the audience knows the basis that the story is about guests at a grand hall. The images of people running, people dead, weapons and more, convey the idea of murder, action and a chase which are the key conventions of a thriller murder centred film. The dialogue shots such as “A word to the wise darling…don’t trust anyone” conveys the mysterious aspect of the narrative, so the audience know they will experience clues and confusion as to who the murderer is.

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?












The combination of my teaser trailer, film magazine front cover and film poster works effectively. I have maintained brand identity and consistency across each text by using the same font for the film title throughout so that the audience knows that each of the texts are connected and are advertising the same film. I have also maintained consistency with the colour scheme; the trailer is entirely black and white so I have used black and white images for my film poster and magazine as well. The consistency through all my media products ensure that the audience understands that they are connected so they can act as a package to promote the film, which makes the promotion more effective than if it was just one type of promotion.
I have portrayed the numerous unique selling points of the film across each of the promotional products. These points include the black and white theme, the "Britishness" of the film, and the famous actresses. I kept all of these factors constant, however I have used an image of Kate Winslet on my magazine and an image of Thandie Newton on my poster. I did this because although the actress is not consistent, which would have been one optional way to combine the aniciliary products, I decided that the numerous British actresses emphasises the Britshness of the film. The fact that the film has British actresses and is set in Britain is a unique selling point, as British films are atractive for their stereotypical decadence and drama that they are assumed to contain. Therefore including both these actresses in separate ancilliary texts means that the Britishness of the film is better established. British films also appeal to American audience so this will not narrow the target audience, rather it will broaden it.

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback ?
Throughout the production of my promotion package we have been conducting audience research to ensure that it appeals to the target audience appropriately. During the initial planning of the trailer, film poster and magazine I looked into our target audiences expectations of a promotional package for a film. This helped me during the initial planning stage because it meant I could shape my ideas around what I already knew would entice the audience. Click here to see what I found out from my initial audience research.
When we had created a first draft version of our trailer we conducted a focus group to see if the audience could identify the genre and narrative and see if it interested them. We set our focus group up by choosing people from a range of ages within our target audience (15+) and a mixture of genders. We gave them a sheet of prompt questions for them to answer and expand on. Click here to see the outcome of our first focus group.
We repeated the focus group exercise with our final trailer including people that were in the initial focus group and people that had not seen the trailer before. Click here to see the outcome of our final focus group.
The focus group exercises were extremely useful because they gave us an insight into the audience’s point of view on our trailer and we gained an unbiased view on what we could improve and what was good about it. This meant we could develop our trailer using the feedback to make it even more engaging to the audience. As well as these focus groups we did a peer assessment exercise in our media class. We each took it in turn to critique each other’s trailers and gain some constructive criticism. This was useful in the same way as our focus group; we gained a fresh perspective on our work which offered ideas beyond our own and we could use some of these to entice a broader audience.

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
New media technologies have been imperative to the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages of my A2 coursework. When conducting my research I used the internet to find out about real media products through search engines such as Google which led me to sites including Wikipedia and Internet Movie Database to find out information on statistics and definitions. I also used Google to find images of real film magazines and film posters in order to research into the conventions of these real media products.

Similarly I used YouTube to view some real media trailers and analyse them to gain an understanding of the generic conventions. In the planning stage of my coursework I used Adobe premiere pro to create an animatic out of the storyboard we drew up so we could gain a rough idea of how long we wanted our shots to be.

During the preliminary task and construction of our final media trailer we used the Sony HDV camcorder to film our footage and Adobe premiere pro to edit it into a trailer format. It was useful to get practise with this equipment before we constructed our final media trailer because it meant we could use it to its best possible ability.

We also used Adobe after effects to create the titles for our media trailer, this software made it possible for us to have animated titles that looked as if they were being written. To construct my poster and film magazine I used a digital camera to take my original images and Adobe Photoshop to manipulate these images and add layers in order to turn them into a poster and film magazine design. As part of the evaluation stage I have used www.blogger.com to display my blog so that I could include videos and images. I have used www.slideshare.net to host pdf files that I wanted to include in my evaluation.

Planning

This section contains the planning work I produced with my group, in order for us to be organised and systematic when constructing our work. This is the initial planning document for our teaser trailer we created which we later developed upon:

Planning notes for A2 coursework
Brief: Trailer
Genre: Murder mystery/Drama/Thriller
Storyline: Group of strangers are at an event when mysterious murders start to happen. The film develops to make the audience guess who the murderer is. The murderer is then revealed at the end of the film.
Things to avoid: No dialogue, too many titles, no film title, unconvincing font, filming in school, narrative not clear, bad mise-en-scene
Important: Variety of locations, voice over helpful, good music choice to establish genre, camera shot variety

Next we decided upon a more detailed description of the plot of the film we were going to promote so that we could then start deciding what sort of shots we wanted to include:

Treatment
The story begins when each of the 8 main characters receives an invite to a prestigious charity benefit ball, a great place for them to boost their social status and flaunt their wealth. The characters meet when they are seated around the same table and enjoy their evening, drinking, eating and socialising. Their table is the made up of some of the most wealthy and influential upper class names in Shrigley. Even though they have never met before, they all have one thing that connects them; their killer, and they don’t even know it yet. The evening seems to be a success until one of the female VIPs disappears, to be found dead in the fountain. The panic stricken guests are all desperate to leave the party straight away but they are all now suspects in the middle of a murder investigation, and even if it were possible they wouldn’t be allowed to leave the crime scene. They are trapped in the isolation of the Grand Shrigley Hall, in the middle of nowhere unable to contact the outside world until the crime is solved. Everyone has their own opinions on who the murder is, however whether their suspicions are right or wrong, they all end up finding themselves in the hands on the murder who is still in their midst. The story develops as the characters desperately fight for survival, where anyone around them could be the killer; but as the film continues the characters continue to be killed, one by one. As the guest numbers decrease, the fear and determination of the victims, like sitting ducks, increases. They try to outsmart the mysterious murderer by forming alliances, only to find themselves in deeper peril, as this just angers the murder. The characters continue to be killed, so the inspectors finds he has less and less suspects, the investigation is becoming fatal to anyone in the hall. So the inspector needs to be cunning, smart and quick to find the murder before the murder finds him, or any more guests. This is difficult as there are very few clues. The inspector is not quick enough, all the characters are killed.The most sickening homicide in centuries is yet to be solved, when a twist gives the clue the inspector needs, the character who was shot is still alive, he faked his own death to cover his tracks so he would not be a suspect. The murder denies his involvement, while the inspector struggles to understand any possible motive, but it finally comes together. The killers motive is revealed, each character has affected his life badly in some way.

Storyboarding
The next step in planning the production of our trailer was drawing the storyboard for our teaser trailer; we initially came up with these 20 shots when brainstorming:



The final trailer is different to this initial plan because during the editing stage we continued to make decisions on what we wanted to include once we had tried everything out.

Titles & Voice Over
Once we had decided roughly what kind of shots we wanted to include in our trailer we went on to plan the titles and voice over. Here are the documents in which we planned the script for our, titles and voice over we printed of the document for the voiceover to give to the actor so it was clear what we wanted them to say:
Titles
Names of famous actors to act as USP:
- Kate Winslet
- Thandie Newton
- Nicole Kidman
These will appear either before, after or corresponding with the actor on screen.
To make the trailer more interesting and the film more attractive to the target audience:
- Based on True Events
This will appear towards the start of the trailer to create a mysterious, spooky atmosphere that will carry on throughout the trailer.
To inform the audience of the name of the film, so they remember it and know it is a film available to watch:
- Nineteen Fitfy Four
This title will appear at the end of the trailer so that it is the last thing to stick in the audiences mind. We decided to use a font that connoted the time period and looked as if it was handwritten, in the style of a 1950's invitation, this is a screen grab of the font we used:














Voiceover
We want the voice over to read like an invitation to stay at the hotel that would have been recieved by all of the guests:
- This winter
- You are cordially invited to Shrigley Manor
- You are a select few
- Who have shown extraordinary acheivements this year
- We hope to see you there
- For a night you will never forget
- Nineteen Fifty Four
- Coming soon

List of Actors
After we decided which shots we were going to include we had to decide who was going to appear in our trailer and what their roles would be within the trailer. This is the document we produced when organising the actors:
Actors & Key Roles
Harriet Lamptey: act frightened, the person dead in the fountain, convey the idea that people are getting killed.





Bronte Barbe: create enigma by being the mysterious character who gives away little bits of the storyline. Most of the dialogue shots. Pose as Kate Winslet




Sophie Adshead: Look like a victim throughout, convey the idea that people are trying to escape





Emma Burgess: Convey the idea of guests at hotel, show the terror through scream






Tom Martin: Create the idea of tension between the characters through gossip/argument/fight scenes etc





Ryan Lloyd: Minimal appearance to create enigma but presence known







Planning Location
We decided to set our film trailer at Shrigley Hall Hotel in Cheshire because we had been there before and new it would establish the time period of the 1950's. We went on the website and found this information:
"Shrigley Hall estate dates back over five centuries and was originally home to the Downes family until it was sold to William Turner, high sheriff of Cheshire in 1821. Mr Turner commisioned Thomas Emmet to design the Hall, which was completed in 1925. Since then the house has been painstakingly restored and sympathetically developed into a country house hotel, retaining its character, elegance and grandeur" - http://www.barcelo-hotels.co.uk/hotels/northern-england/barcelo-shrigley-hall-hotel-cheshire/weddings/
We knew that the building was standing in the 1950's and so would help create perfect mise-en-scene as the location for our film trailer. Here are some images we took of the location when researching into it:

Permission
The next thing we had to do was get permission from the hotel manager so that we could film at Shrigley Hall. Leonie Williamson works at Shrigley and so organised with the manager through emails when and where we could film.

Shot List
Before we went each filming shoot, we wrote a list of the shots we aimed to complete on that shoot. Here is the shot list for our first filming shoot:

Shot number/Location/Actors
1.Establishing shot of Shrigley Hall - No actors
2.Interior shot of mystery person holding invite - No actors
3.Interior shot of people entering down the grand staircase - All actors
4.Two people gossiping at the bottom of the staircase - Tom Martin Ryan Lloyd
5.Someone wandering around on their own - Sophie Adshead
6.Shot of fountain with dead person in - Harriet Lamptey
7.We need to get out of here - Bronte and Harriet
8.Exterior shot of grass, with someone getting dragged away - Sophie Adshead
9.Someone running outside - Bronte
10.Exterior shot of fountain - No actors
11.Someone kissing - Tom Martin and Emma Burgess
12.People running-POV shot - Tom Martin and Harriet Lamptey
13.Argument at the lake - Tom Martin and Emma Burgess
14.Shot from outside window of someone getting dragged away - Sophie Adshead
15.Someone all scruffy/messy saying they know who the killer is - Emma Burgess
16.Shot of behind killer meeting someone, and then killing them - Killer
17.Killer dropping pill in a drink - No actors
18.Over the shoulder shot of killer peeking through the door - Tom Martin Ryan Lloyd 19.Someone running through the woods tripping over branches - Sophie Adshead
20.Someone else running through woods - Tom Martin

Risk Assesments
We had to carry out risk assessments at each new site we were filming at. This was fairly straighforward as all we needed to do was keep within the health and safety regulations of the hotel, for example, not setting the camera up where it could be blocking a fire exit etc.

Research

Before planning the construction of our promotion package we underwent some research to understand the conventions of posters, magazine front covers and teaser trailers, so we could understand how to make our promotion package successful. This blog contains our written research.

This is the first piece of research I conducted; I researched the definition of a teaser trailer and the conventions of film magazine front covers and film posters. I sourced my definition from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaser_trailer

Click here to view my analysis.

The marketing of a film is extremely important so I looked at the film distribution process and how websites can be used as marketing tools; here are these two pieces of research I produced:

Websites
District 9:
1. The visual style reflects the action/sci fi hybrid genre and the alternative reality style of the film, through the use of the panoramic image with the sounds gives an insight into the atmosphere of the film. There are realistic landscapes from South Africa which are not “Alien” to us, there are soundbites from various sectors of society which are convincing and so add to the sense of verisimilitude. The MNU links portray it as a realistic controlling organization.
2. The links and language on the site suggest the website is targeted at young adults yet appeals to a wide audience of 15-45, because they would be quite difficult for young people to follow, for example, the links on the panoramic image have to be scrolled over to click on them so you have to look for them. The military style to the website also reflects males as the main target audience.

3. There are a number of interactive features including a trailer, some games, a photo gallery, a virtual tour, a maths quiz, a training simulation. Links to twitter, Myspace, Facebook etc
4. You can submit your email address in order to progress on the game and updates, so it encourages people to keep being involved in the website and marketing of the film.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:
1. Every aspect of the site is visually powerful; there is an image of the main characters as the background in an imposing stance which connotes the theme of action throughout the film. This theme is continued on each page of the website with different characters. The links between pages are animations which further emphasise the action genre; they also suggest the theme of magic in the film as the animated clouds appear to materialise into the next page. The transitions between the pages would in fact be recognised by the audience as the omen of Voldemort, the antagonist in the film, the sinister nature and dark colour of the smoke suggests that the film will be quite dark and sinister.
2. This film is incredibly famous for appealing to a huge mass audience, so this is reflected by the images that depict characters of a variety of ages and gender. The animated transitions between the pages also appeal to the whole audience.
3. Interactive features on the site include:Potion making contest (You Tube)/Trailer/Music/Images gallery/Downloads/Links to sweepstakes websites/Soundtrack available to buy/Merchandise available to buy/Novelty applications/Free Iphone app/Video of world premiere/Link to website of the previous film in the series/Links to sites to buy tickets from.
4. You are not asked to submit your email to any part of the website but there are lots of links that enhance the marketing campaign, by furthering the audience’s involvement in the movie

Marketing a Film

I sourced the following information from Wikipedia -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_distributor so that i could understand how the whole film distribution process works, because this could affect what we can do with our trailer.

Film distributor:
· A film distributor is an independent company
· Final agent between a film production company and a film exhibitor
· The term "distribution" = marketing and circulation of movies

Film distribution process:
1) Convince the exhibitor to rent, or "book", each film - usually arranges industry screenings for exhibitors, and uses other marketing techniques to make the exhibitor believe they will profit form investing in the film.
2) Then secures a written contract
3) The distributor must also ensure that enough film prints are struck to service all contracted exhibitors on the contract-based opening day.
4) Physical production of film prints and their shipping around the world (a process that is beginning to be replaced by digital distribution
5) Creation of posters, newspaper and magazine advertisements, television commercials, trailers, and other types of ads.
6) Ensure a full line of film advertising material is available on each film to help the exhibitor attract the largest possible audience
7) For foreign-language film, may also be responsible for dubbing or subtitling the film, and securing censorship

Film distribution companies:

- Universal
- Walt Disney Studios
- Warner Bros – New line Cinema – Time Warner
- 20th Century Fox
- Paramount
- Columbia pictures

These are some notes I made after watching a documentary by Lee Jury the Marketing Director of “GOAL!” because he is a professional of this topic, so his views could helps us.

Poster:
- Static image tells story/ USP (director, narrative, cast driven) and use it to campaign
- Should have imagery
- Try to appeal to broader audience and target audience

Consider…
- Where is focus? Narrative? Actor?
- Location setting
- Character pose
- Colour scheme
- Signifiers
- Title Style and positioning
- Iconic image
- Tagline

Teaser campaign:
Set up story/cast of the film

Main campaign:
Develops further promotion, press quotes
I analysed this film poster in order to uncover the conventions and reasoning behind its graphology so that I can bear the process it has gone through in mind when creating my own. Click here to view my analysis of the film poster.
It is important that the audience can identify the genre of the film we are promoting instantly so I researched into how genre is portrayed in film posters. Click here to view my identifying genre research.
We needed to understand the structure and conventions of film teaser trailers similar to our genres so that we could learn how to create a similar effect; I conducted research into two teaser trailers.

Film Magazine Analysis

I also did some analysis of another film magazine front cover so that I could further understand the purpose of the conventions and see what makes a front cover look good:

[Semiotic Analysis of a Film Magazine Front Cover]

Teaser Trailer Analysis – Alice in Wonderland
1) At 1:20 the title is revealed but as the story is so well known already, people may figure out what it is advertising before this. Keeping the title till later on means that you reveal the title when people are interested rather than at the beginning, when you have not yet captured their attention, so the audience remember it better.
2) We are told that Johnny Depp is starring in the film because he is a very established actor, and so this broadens the potential audience as it will attract his fan base.
3) Action from the film that we see includes: Alice falling down a hole, then shrinking after drinking something from a bottle. A castle. 2 strange figures walking through a forest. Dark thorny woods with a cat face coming from it. An evil looking knight with an eye patch. A queen with a strange face, bursting through some doors. A furry, dangerous, roaring monster. A massive bird. The “Mad hatter” meeting Alice, walking across the table and throwing his hat in the air, also the mad hatter laughing a mad sounding laugh, throwing some things in the air.
4) The music is very intense and fast paced including chimes and bells, which suggests the film is a racy, action filled fantasy.
5) The voice over is unmistakeably British in accent and seems to be a quite old male, which some would associate with a stereotypical voice of an English professor.
6) The voice emphasises the portrayal of the fantasy genre because people stereotypically associate this type of voice, with a storyteller which creates a sense of magic and wonder.
7) The speed of the trailer is a lot faster than a clip from a film would be, in order to squeeze as much interesting action into the time slot, to make the film seem exciting.
8) The speed alters throughout the trailer. It begins quite slow, and then as she falls down the hole it speeds up, to show this is the point of the film where the storyline takes off and becomes most interesting, it then slows down a bit after this to symbolise the wonder and spectacle of the new world.
9) The last frame contains a credit block, it is left till the end because it does not play big part attracting the audience but needs to be there for legal reasons, if it was at the beginning people would loose interest straight away.
10) I think the trailer is more effective in making people want to see the film than the poster because it shows the action and storyline more than the poster, but the poster is important in seeding curiosity in the audience. Alice in Wonderland is already a worldwide know story so it is not so important in this instance for the film to portray the storyline.
11) You would expect to see this trailer before what films at the cinema such as
Other Disney films, films starring Johnny Depp, children’s films, things like Harry Potter because the people that watch these types of films are the target audience. You would also be likely to see it before TV programmes such as programmes on the Disney channel, because they are the producers of this film so are likely to promote it. Other children’s programmes on TV because the film is for children. Before some teenage and adult programmes because they could be attracted by the inclusion of Jonny Depp and because they may have seen the original Alice in Wonderland and so have some interest in seeing the new one.

Teaser Trailer Analysis – I Know What You Did Last Summer
1) At the very end of the trailer we are told the name of the film, because this means the audience’s attention has been captured, so they will remember it better than if it was at the start when they may not have been paying attention.
2) We are not told who is starring in the film because at the time of the release the main actors were not particularly established, so they are not the USP of the film, therefore so as not to distract from the USP which is the genre.
3) Action from the film that we are shown includes: People telling scary stories on a beach/The characters driving dangerously then hitting a man with a car and dumping the body in a river/characters making a pact never to tell anyone/getting notes saying “I know what you did last summer”/ the characters ignoring the messages and mocking them, having fun/ someone getting chased by a car/lying in a hospital bed/ a woman with a knife/talking about murder and “what if he’s still alive?”/girl finding something in her boot of her car/girl gets her hair chopped off, screaming in mirror/ someone getting chased across the beach/ a fight/ a cloak figure with a hook/ people running away from something & the cloaked figure/girl screaming/a door being pushed through/girl jumping out of a second story window/man under water trying to jump up to a boat/girl turning round and gasping.
4) The music is quite contrasting to what you would expect to hear in an advert for a slasher movie, it is quite upbeat popular music so it has a different effect. It makes the film seem like it can relate to older teens, so therefore is a way of targeting the audience.
5) The voice over is a husky, male, American voice, which is seen in a lot of trailers of this genre.
6) I think this voiceover was was chosen because the sound of the voice instantly identifies the genre, as it is associated with most horror films. Also it sounds quite intense, which makes the person watching it interested in what they are saying.
7) The speed of the trailer is a lot faster than watching a clip from a film because there is only a short space of time so only the most interesting bits from a scene are included, this also means that some things are missing from the trailer so the audience does not know the whole story and this is what makes people want to go and see the film.
8) The trailer gets faster towards the end, as the clips of the characters being chased are included, after a brief idea of the storyline has been portrayed.
9) The credit block containing information about the producers and distributors etc. is in the very last frame of the trailer, as it is a legal requirement and so it is left until the end so that it doesn't distract from the content of the trailer.
10) The trailer is more effective than the poster because it gives a more in-depth idea of what the film is about. It is harder for the poster to convey the storyline because it is one still image. The trailer captures the audience attention easier because it has sound, action and movement.
11) You expect to see this trailer before films at the cinema that are 18 rated movies because that is the rating of this film and other slasher movies because they would be targeted at the same audiences. Also, before TV programmes that are late night programmes, because this is the time it will most likely be seen by the audience, if it was put on before children’s programmes it would not be seen by the target audience. Horror programmes because they are of the similar genre so people watching these programmes would be likely to be interested in slasher movies.

Trailer Analysis

I also did a shorter analysis of Run Fat Boy Run as it had a very defined structure:
1) The music starts after the 6th shot when he starts training
2) 28 shots are used
3) 12 shots include dialogue
4) 9
I did deeper research into the conventions we found present such as voice over and titles so we had a clear understanding of them when we made the decision whether to use them or not.

Voice Over
REASONS:
1) To help the understanding of the storyline
2) To entice the audience
3) To give away the genre
4) Make clear the visual aesthetics
5) To create tension
6) Enhances the atmosphere
7) Introduce characters/showcase the stars
8) Reinforce the title of the film
9) Oral reinforcement

Tokyo Drift:
· Action fast pace is reflected by the use of words (wrong side of the law/underground/the rush/the risk) that suggest danger and excitement
· Simple language that is easy to understand, so we focus on the visual
· Repetition at the beginning and the end of the trailer builds excitement
· Repetition of the word fast
· Racing rules/fast furious = alliteration
· Length of the sentences are short to accompany relevant shots, so matches the frames
· The word Now is emphasised on its own
· Emphasis of superlatives by repetition
· Inclusive language
· Tension and conflict portrayed “life moves fast/anything can happen”

Monster House:
· Aimed at children – over dramatic delivery
· “legend” “story” “secret” choice of words create atmosphere
· Alongside dialogue to reassure audience it’s not too scary
· Length of lines are short
· Invitational lexis is emphasised “come over”
· Helps to establish narrative and genre

Graphics/Titles
Graphics give us further information about a film. They are an important convention of trailers because they…
· Indicate genre
· Indentify target audience
· Emphasise “Star” appeal/status
· Give factual information e.g. release date, production company, name of film
· Help tell narrative
· Good substitute for voice over

Pattern of placement:

- Producers/distributors
- Narrative/genre
- Actors/director
- Title/factual information
- Credit Block

Preliminary Task
We practiced using the equipment we will be using in a preliminary task and analysed other groups work, this was helpful because we found out what we would do differently for the real thing and found out what we should avoid when filming. This is the preliminary trailer me and my group produced:

This is the analysis sheet I produced when analysing other groups, and my own, preliminary trailer: Click here to view my analysis of the preliminary tasks.

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to chart the progress of the research, planning and construction of my A2 media studies coursework. I, Rosemary Barker, am working as part of a group of three with Leonie Williamson and Amy Gerrard to create a promotional package for a new film, including a teaser trailer, a poster for the film and a film magazine front cover feauturing the film. We chose to promote a murder mystery film set at Shrigley Hall.