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

CONVENTIONS OF HORROR

Before deciding which horror genre we wanted our media products to be we researched and analysed closely the conventions of each different genre. As a group we all noted that there were numerous conventions that crossed-over between the different genres, these as shown in the diagram below:

All notable horror films (to date) have used at least one of – if not some of these conventions listed above, examples of these include Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween etc. As a group we saw how using and developing these conventions has worked well for real media products and came to the conclusion that they could possibly have a similar effect on our own products.





 

It was also plain for us to see that the conventions we did choose to use would be very much dependent on what genre we chose our teaser trailer. This is because target audiences of horror movies have become familiarised certain genres with certain conventions.

As we settled on the psychological / supernatural genre we were familiar with the basic conventions that this included but for further guidance we referred to other films from this same genre (i.e Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Exorcist etc.). This was an important part of our drafting process as it helped us to visualise our products with other media products that they are likely to be compared to, through this and the audience research we conducted we were able to predict what conventions our target audience would subconsciously expect from us.

             

The conventions of psychological horror include some from above but cover a less broad range. The main conventions we chose to use and develop were darkness and the use of an antagonist, although these conventions don't seem unique to the psychological / supernatural genre we believe the way we incorporated it into our trailer will make it more clear as we chose not to include other features such as cannibalism, blood or gore which are likely to confuse the audience into thinking our media products belong to another genre.

We also noted that the most films belonging to the psychological sub-genre didn't include much blood and gore in their trailer, poster and movie magazine cover, which presents the target audience with some sort of mystery on their minds over what exactly the film will entail. However, each psychological / supernatural horror film to be released often has an element that makes it somewhat unique to the last of this sub-genre. To go intro more depth, most films from this genre will involve a 'haunting' or 'demonic possession' of some sort but the build-up to how this occurs varies from film to film unlike the majority of slasher films which too often follow cliche story lines. I believe that this is one of the reasons behind why we chose to make a supernatural / psychological teaser trailer as it allowed us more creative freedom than say a zombie or slasher film would have.

One major convention that all of our media products followed was the use of a colour scheme. From my perspective, colour schemes play a big part in the marketing and advertising of the film mainly because they allow the audience to make links in their mind between different media products i.e. poster, trailer and possibly magazine cover as well as showing some sort of consistency.

The colour scheme we chose was red,  white and black which are the three basic colours used in the promotion of horror films as they will automatically allow the audience to associate media products incorporating these colours with the horror genre.

Written by Gabrielle

CONVENTIONS OF MOVIE MAGAZINE COVER

Before coming to a decision on what our magazine front cover should look like, we gathered information on what the conventions of horror magazines were. Firstly we all analysed horror film magazines in detail to uncover the main codes and conventions from them ourselves. This was before we decided to conduct any research to find this out. From the research we did on magazines we saw that there were many horror film magazines in the market targeting a young audience and we found some that influenced us to form ideas on the appearance of the front cover. These were magazines such as, Empire, Scream and Horrorhound.

 By searching on Google and analysing magazine covers, we found various conventions we needed to follow in order to produce a realistic and attractive horror magazine front cover.  Firstly, we saw that in most real horror, film magazines the masthead was positioned at the top of the cover.  So, we decided that we would do the same on our magazine to maintain the style of how these kinds of magazines are supposed to look. This is because, it would be risky to re-position the masthead somewhere else on the page, as there was a chance that it could lose the idea of it being a magazine cover.  Looking back at our initial magazine cover design, we found that the masthead was quite plain and dull and wasn't positioned behind the person displayed on the front cover. This lead to change in our second attempt to create a final piece that looked more interesting to read.

First front cover design (Right) Final front cover (Left)

In comparison to our initial front cover design, we used the same convention we used in the type of image we used on the front cover. The main image is a medium close up of a male. The reason for this is because; usually on the front cover of a horror magazine a male is presented. Also, he is the main character in our film trailer and on the film poster. We had to make him the main image as it was a way of advertising the film, as many horror film magazines do. For example, Horrorhound magazine with the ghost face as the main image and, Empire with wolverine as the main image. They both did this to advertise the films and to get them recognised by their target audience, who are lovers of horror films. So, at the bottom right hand corner of the cover, we put the title of the film to attract readers if they wanted to know of the film and read more into it.

Another convention for Horror film magazines as well as magazines in general, is cover lines. These are usually located at the sides of the front cover, not covering a lot of the main image. We decided to make the main cover line slightly bigger than the rest simply because it highlighted the significance of the person displayed on the front cover and the film that the magazine is promoting.  The cover lines were also displayed in that way so the audience can easily read a bit about what the magazine included. This is also another way of attracting the target audience. Another convention we followed was the positioning of the bar code. 

The bar code on our front cover is located at the bottom right corner of the page. On our first cover design the bar code was too big. We realised this because, we saw that on most covers of horror film magazines, the bar code was small and took up a small portion of the page. This is the reason why we made our bar code (on our final product) into a small rectangular shape so that it would take up as little space as possible, with the website of the production team next to it. Also, we considered the introduction of other types of bar codes formed by new technologies. The growth in new technologies made us realise that we could add a different bar code that would contribute to the modern look of the magazine cover. This bar code is located just above the other bar code. We decided to use a bar code, which could be scanned by mobile phones. This can be done on smart phones such as, Blackberry and iPhones. 

From browsing online and seeing different types of film magazines, we found that the issue number, date and price were all positioned beneath the masthead.  So we decided to put the issue number and price on the left hand side of the page and the date on the right. Also, the reason for putting this information underneath the title is so that the audience can easily see this, because they would most likely want to know this information first before purchasing the magazine.

Generally, in film magazines they all tend to have a full front cover with many cover lines. For example in the front cover of the empire magazine we compared our product to. This is when we realised that our first attempt to creating the magazine was not really good, because it is possible to see that the page does not look full enough. Identifying this problem contributed to our idea of making our front cover as full as possible. Looking at other magazines, we seized the idea of using a tag line to give a brief description about what the magazine will include. This is because it is a popular convention and we didn’t want to go against it because it would help us to make our front cover as realistic as possible.

Diagram to identify the similarities of the conventions used in our front cover in comparison to Empire

Finally, the general idea of how to construct our magazine and what should be included in it was also derived from conventions of horror and horror magazines. We found that most ideas associated with horror were ideas such as: red, darkness, blood, demons etc. We also found this through our audience research as this is what most people expected to see on our magazine cover. So, in keeping with a modern structure and realistic feel to the magazine, we applied some of these ideas to our final piece but, maintaining its simplicity by not overdoing the conventions (e.g. blood and monsters).  

Written by Christina

CONVENTIONS OF MOVIE POSTER


Upon deciding that the subgenres we were going to base our project around was going to be supernatural/thriller, for the construction of our poster we looked at film posters from the supernatural / thriller subgenre to see how if they all used similar methods to construct their own individual poster



Psychological Horror movie posters



Fig 2 Movie credits

We found that many movie posters within the psychological subgenre kept their credits at the bottom of the poster so we decided to use the convention and keep our credits at the bottom of our movie poster so that it  will make our poster easily recognisable as a psychological/thriller film.


Another convention we used to make our poster look more recognisable as a poster to our target audience was that we used a specific font on our movie poster credits to further ensure that our movie poster looked like a real poster.  Modern movie posters tend use to the font ‘steel tongs’ when they are constructing their movie posters, so we used it as well to once make our poster plausible.

Within the psychological subgenre, in terms of movie posters, most posters tend to not make the actor in the

poster the main focus but rather an iconic prop or setting.

Fig 3 Main focus in this poster
is the forest area

However we challenged the convention and instead used a prop which although it was the main focus of the poster, it was not an iconic prop. Instead it is prop that was just placed there to raise the question: “why is the screen black?” This prop was used because it raised question and may have rattled a persons thinking, which is something that is commonly associated with the psychological subgenre.

Written by Michael

CONVENTIONS OF TEASER TRAILER

http://prezi.com/tndxi2az4bkp/present/?auth_key=noksb8j&follow=1ov3tl2nsm38

by Cyprian

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

POSTER & MAGAZINE COMPARISON

When making the ancillary that would be used to promote our film we wanted to create a genuine feel of synergy and cohesion among our products. This was done through numerous different elements. One element that we believe has a big impact on bringing the products together is the font that the title of our main product ('SUBDUED') was written in.


Title on film promotional poster



Title as featured on movie magazine cover

To go into the most detail possible, we even went to the lengths of using the same font and exact same shades of red and white. The use of red and white to promote a film is commonly associated with the horror genre as they often have connotations behind their use. The colour red, for example, usually connotes danger and passion - however in this particular context the target audience are likely to associate it with the first rather than the latter. Below I have included some examples of successful horror films that used the same, if not similar colour schemes.

Another aspect that we believed would allow our poster and magazine to compliment our teaser trailer (thus making all products more effective) was the incorporation of our 'main character' in all three products. Although he is featured differently in all of the products the audience is able to familiarise themselves with him.

When looking at the poster and magazine cover alone the main character is portrayed in ways that the trailer doesn't show him. The image on the magazine cover portrays him as dominant and as a 'hero-like' figure because of the stance he has taken, whereas the image used for the poster presents him as vulnerable - not because of of his position but due to the positioning of the camera. This should be effective as it would hopefully give the target audience the feeling that they are gaining a deeper insight into the main character and what he is about.

From my perspective, the two ancillary texts work in perfect cohesion to promote our main product - the teaser trailer.

Written by Gabrielle


POSTER & TRAILER COMPARISON

In order to create continuity between our poster and trailer, we imported our production company logo into both of the pieces. However due to the lens correction used on our poster, we lightened the background on the original logo to ensure that it fitted well with our movie poster. This helped to enhance brand identity because from the audience's perspective, they would recognise the logo and know immediately firstly who the production company is and what type of film the company is likely to produce.  




The logo on our official trailer









The logo on our poster

To further enhance the continuity between our poster and trailer, we used the same title font. The title being called ‘Subdued’ relates heavily to horror because the title itself connotes a sense of darkness, something associated with the horror genre. The title is also distinctive, thus making it stand out more with an audience because it is not a word which is used in everyday living for most people.  Also the same colour red is used in both titles to great effect because the colour red connotes blood and danger, something else associated with horror.

Title on our trailer

Title on our poster

Furthermore the same props are used in both of the pieces. The use of an Apple Mac appeals to the target audience because of its connotation of something trendy and modern. However the Iphone used, only features in the trailer. However, like the Apple Mac, it too is a Apple product and not only creates a sense of brand identity, but also appeals to the target audience because of the fact it is a easily recognisable product within the young target audience of 15 to 30.

The Mac in our trailer



The mac in our poster
















Iphone in our trailer, another Apple product



The actor remains the same in both the trailer and the poster. The fact that he is a young black male allows the film to stand out more because it suggests that he is one of the main characters in the film itself, which is something that is rare in the horror genre. Also his costume remains the same in both the poster and the trailer. The white shirt worn by the actor conveys smart and tidiness. The rolled up sleeves on the shirt connotes a sense of tiredness and that it has been a long day at work. Furthermore the black tie worn cleverly has a connotation or resemblance of a funeral service in the audience’s minds, which fits perfectly with the fact that the film is a horror film because funerals relate to the theme of death, something else associated with horror. All in all the costume used conveys that the young male actor works in a white collar profession which stands out to the audience because of the fact generally speaking, in society not many people from ethnic minorities are in white collar employment because traditionally that is something that is associated with people from the upper class in society, thus of an Caucasian background.  

Costume in our trailer

Same costume in our poster

Written by Michael


MAGAZINE & TRAILER COMPARISON

Nowadays, media institutions create synergy by exploiting a range of platforms to sell various products related to one film, helping advertise the film and increase sales. We incorporated this method into our work as a way of promoting our main product. We did this by creating 3 different types of media products (Magazine cover, poster & trailer).

Before marketing our final pieces, we took into consideration that we were working in a similar way to how independent film companies worked, therefore we were unable to promote our films in the same way as big companies do. However we did manage to promote our magazine and trailer quite effectively.

Due to the constant introduction of new technologies, consumers are able to have wide access to all forms of media. This will allow our target audience to get hold of our film products on different platforms of media. (Smartphones, Laptops, iPads, iPods etc.) We feel that both our magazine cover and film trailer look very good in quality as it can be clearly seen when looking at them from portable devices (e.g. blackberry/iPad)

How the magazine looks on Blackberry

How the youtube trailer post looks on iPhone

How the YouTube post of our trailer looks on the iPad

In our work we used cross media promotion in order to gain the attention of our target audience. Firstly we uploaded our trailer & magazine onto social networking sites such as, Facebook & Twitter. We also posted our trailer on YouTube. We believe strongly that, online marketing is a massive growth area where there are many unique usages of technology which is partly the reason why we marketed our film online.

 For our production company, the internet was a great platform for advertising our film because; a lot of people use the internet. This was an advantage for us because the audience had easy access to our film products, which meant that the chances of obtaining bigger audiences would be greater.

Another aspect of promotion we thought was very important was the idea of brand identity. To compare our magazine cover and teaser trailer, there are some similarities here which shows that these two products are working together to contribute to the ‘promotional package.’ The film title shown in the middle of the trailer and at the end can be spotted easily on the front cover of the movie magazine. The same font is used here and the colour, shape and size have not been altered in anyway. This is because we want to keep it realistic and recognisable. If any changes were made to the film title for the magazine, this could possibly make it harder for potential consumers to identify the film.

The captions used in the trailer are similar because a normal san serif font is used and it is in a gold colour. This colour is the same as the colour used for the straplines, and part of the main cover line on the magazine cover. This also shows how the trailer and front cover relate because there is consistency in the use of specific colours.

 In addition to this, the main character of the teaser trailer is the featured actor on the magazine cover. This reinforces the fact that the magazine is trying to promote the film by displaying the actor on the front cover. We felt that it was a good idea of doing so because it would help our audiences understand that the magazine is like a reflection of what is being shown in the film trailer.

Generally, our magazine front cover & trailer worked well together because the similarities between these two different media products outweigh the differences between them. As they both consist of the same text style, images and colour scheme, this created two simple pieces that relate to each other for a promotional purpose.

Written by Christina

EVALUATION

Overall, we have tried to promote consistency throughout our three media products. Not only is this aesthetically pleasing, but it also makes our three products more recognisable by the general public, therefore increasing the chance of our marketing campaign being a success.

However, in aiming to make all of our products consistent we did ecounter difficulties in areas such as our movie title.

 

We wanted to add an iconic feature to our movie title, in the way Hollywood blockbusters have, so we decided that the'B'and 'D' in the title would be in a different colour to the other letters. To give our products a sense of authenticity and consistency, we had to make sure that the type of red used in the movie title of our teaser trailer, was the same type of red used in the titles in our film poster and our movie magazine. This was hard to do as we had created each title in different programmes. for example the title in our teaser trailer was created in Motion, whilst the title in our poster was created in Photoshop. This required continual reference to each programme and some rough estimates, which consumed quite abit of time which could have been devoted to other areas.    

In terms of marketing we also thought that it would benifit us to apply inter-texuality in our title. The font of our title is likened to that of Warehouse 13, a hugely succesful 'syfy' series. We done this because our audience research gave us the impression that fans of supernatural horror were also fans of science-fiction, Therefore by using a similar font in our title, we could create connotations of success in audiences who are familiar with Warehouse 13.  

  

Written by Cyprian







Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 Most of the feed back I gained on our magazine front cover were all quite positive. The responses (on the left) showed that our target audience liked what they saw. Altogether I was able to obtain 10 comments and 14 likes on facebook, and some of them agreed on the same criticisms that were made.

Most people commented on the good use of colour scheme and the red 'glow' effect against the background of the featured actor on the magazine.
They collectively agreed that the colours used made the cover stand out and the use of red & white on the film title was very effective.

Judging from the positive comments about the use of colour, i can say that we successfully made the magazine look appealing to our target audience.

"Yeah, the colour and text are appropriate if its a horror magazine"

This is because, in parts of our feedback we saw that some people said they could tell that it was a horror film magazine. Although they liked the colour scheme overall, they added that a bit more red could have been used. A suggestion was made by one of our respondents: "Changing the khaki font to red"

On the other hand, the feedback made me realise that there were some issues with the font. Some explained that although our magazine looks good, it appears to have too much font. They also suggested that the strap lines should have been bold and the cover lines should have been normal. From this we learned that its not just about having a lot on the front cover, but its also about having a range of fonts and more pictures on the front cover to make it appeal to the audience.

We also learnt that familiarity with the layout of the magazine cover was very important. As one person commented, "Followed magazine conventions which makes it look like a real magazine"

this suggests that we did a good job with sticking to the conventions of a magazine cover. Also, this shows that our target audience expected to see a lot of conventions used here which suggests that, they are more likely to read it if it looks more realistic.

We didn't challenge any conventions but we came up with the idea of adding a different bar code which may not be familiar to some people (especially older people). However, we spotted in one of the responses that this was great to put on the front cover. "You kept it modern in terms of the language & neo-code reading"

It was good to see a potential consumer point out what we were trying to do with the bar code; which was to add the use of new technology to engage with our product, in order to attract our target audience.

But there are still a few issues with our magazine front cover. Based on the feedback, we learnt that the main image of the front cover is very important. Its important because it has to correspond to the content of the magazine and the genre. For example, the image used was a bit too simple. No props were used to enhance the fact that it is a horror film poster. Due to the type of picture used, there are chances that some people seeing the magazine for the first time wouldn't know its a horror film magazine until they read the cover lines. "Its edgy but looks more youth, I thought it was like a teen gossip mag and not film until i read the body text"

On the other hand, its possible to say that our masthead is quite good. Many said that it was eye catching. This means that even though the front cover doesn't look horrifying; the kind of font used here, the colour, and the name of the magazine itself could make the audience recognise that its meant to be a horror film magazine.

Since we got some suggestions for improvements on our magazine, we knew that our final piece wasnt perfect. We learned that the appearance of the magazine is important. in addition to that, what is most important are the expectations of the target audience and being able to meet them. So, in our case, if we were to go back and improve the front cover design, we would need to consider what the audience want to see more than what we think looks nice on the

cover.

For the teaser trailer I found it very difficult to gain responses. But in the little responses I saw, I got the impression that the viewers were confused about the concept of our trailer. As a group we agree that we were slightly unsuccessful in delivering a narrative that is easy to understand in the trailer. So, one thing I can say we could have improved on is the story of it.
We learned that it was a bit too simple and lacked a bit of action, which could be one of the reasons why some people didn't understand the trailer.

I did not gain much feed back on the film poster aswell. Although the feedback below shows that a few people like it, we learned that the poster was not really designed effectively. By this I mean that more effects could have been added to the poster to make it look more appealing. Or, the main image used could have been a lot more scarier to show that the film is actually a horror film. Altogether, i was able to obtain 7 likes and one comment which some people agreed on. "Nice font/style, good light effects, nice rhetorical question, picture is not scary"

Written by Christina

Audience Feeback

What I learnt from my audience feedback was that our teaser trailer was very popular with people of the age bracket 13- 34, in terms of views on youtube. This was very positive news because our target audience was the age bracket: 15 to 30. However it was most popular with males then females, with 71.8% of the total views of the teaser trailer relating back to the male gender. This may be due to the fact that the actor in the teaser trailer is black. Furthermore what I also learnt is that many people, who viewed our trailer on youtube, viewed it from a mobile device. This example of technological convergence also was positive in some sense because it showed that our trailer was being or had the potential to be viewed on the go or viewed among friends, thus increasing the buzz and promotion of the trailer. Furthermore something else positive about our trailer feedback was that the trailer was viewed in other parts of the world also.  With it being viewed in America and Australia showed how technological convergence was important to us because it aided in the promotion of our trailer.

The percentage of male to female who
have watched our trailer

Snippet of devices people
used to view our trailer

However in terms of the actual trailer, what I have learnt from audience feedback is that many people who viewed the trailer did not understand the story behind the trailer or the whole concept. Many felt that the cupboard was the iconic prop in the trailer where as in reality, it was actually was not. This has taught me that had we made the story clearer the trailer would have been better.

Example of someone who did
not understand our trailer

The audience feedback for our poster was all in all very positive. Generally people liked the lens correction effect on the image and the Mac computer, which relates back to the target audiences easily recognising apple products. However many who viewed our poster was unable to understand what the title actually said.

To conclude what I have learnt from my audience feedback on the trailer and poster is that it was to extent popular with the target audience but just needed a clearer story. I generally feel that, with that small improvement, everyone who viewed our trailer would have liked it more. 

Written by Michael




WHAT WE LEARNT FROM OUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

Through statistics provided by YouTube, we found out that our teaser trailer had been viewed mainly by Males aged 13-17 in the united Kingdom. 

We also found that when our teaser trailer had been viewed, only a small percentage of people watched it for the whole 42 seconds, with most people switching off six seconds into the teaser trailer. These findings suggest that our teaser fails to keep the audience engaged and as a result leads them to lose interest in the content they are viewing. Perhaps we could have amended this if we had included more exciting events in the teaser, such as a death to satisfy the viewers. 

This representative of our target market believed that the teaser trailer was successful in creating tension. However he did brand it as difficult to understand in terms of what was going on. He also thought favorably of the effects used in the production logo and movie title, which prompts us to think that maybe we may have benefited from adding more effects in the teaser, as it seems to be something that our target market appreciate. The fact that this representative also said he would view this film in the cinema, does lead us to think that we have achieved our goal of promoting our film.

Written by Cyprian

Feedback analysis
Despite using different platforms to market our main procut and ancillary texts, the majority of feedback I recieved was through Blackberry messenger. I would say that all of the feedback I recieved would have aided us in prepartion for another main product (if this was needed) as I view all of the feedback as being constructive. Below I have included screenshots from conversations that took place on Blackberry messenger.

 The feedback that I recieved from this conversation with Funmilolaa was quite simple for me to understand and to see where a member of our target audience was coming from. This response was from viewing our film poster.

My interpretation of these comments is that the choice of image could have related more with the achorage that was used. As it seems as though the two different elements could have been from different products.

The conventions that we did choose to follow also didn't seem to be specific enough to the horror genre alone as this particular person stated that there is nothing within the image that tells the target audience if the poster is promoting a horror film.

This feedback was also on the film poster, when Natalie recieved  the poster and was asked for her feedback she was unsure on what exactly to comment on.

One interpretation of this could be that the poster as a whole followed conventions rather well meaning that it came across as looking rather professional.

Unlike the other feedback I recieved concerning the poster, this one talked a bit about the text used, in this case it was the size and visibility of the fonts we chose to use. This could translate to meaning that we may have underestimated the importance of the date of release which was picked up on by a member of our target audience.

But similarly to what Funmilolaa said, Natalie commented on the relevance of the image and how it could possibly 'stand out more', in my opinion this could be altered by making the image that we used on the poster one which our target audience would have found much easier to associate with a horror film and more specifically, a psychological horror film.

 The feedback and response that I recieved from 'M' was very positive as it reflected that for some members of our target audience it was plain to see that the teaser trailer belonged to the horror genre. This means that despite us not using the most obvious conventions of horror (i.e. blood, and gore) people are still able to recieve the message we are trying to convey.

M's response when asked if there was anything that she would change about the trailer tells me that she did find it scary but believed that it could have been scarier. Yet again, this is a good reflection of how more subtle conventions can be followed and still evoke certain emotions within the audience to a level required.

She also mentioned the sizing of the fonts which leads me to the conlusion that the fonts overall could have been more easily visible.

The reactions I obtained from the two conversations following both referred to the media products as 'cool' and both people seemed to have some sort of disbelief that it had in fact been created as a part of A2 media coursework. The reference to the teaser trailer as 'cool' also tells me that we have been successful in appealing to some members of our target audience and gaining positive responses.

Neither parties had anything negative to say after watching the teaser trailer, which may been an indicator that we used just the correct balance of following and challenging conventions within the production of our main media product.



However, in spite of the above conversations not all of the conversations took this course as here is one that labelled our teaser trailer as 'boring', this was probably down to the lack of variation as far as location was involved or maybe no inclusion of a real antagonist.

To make sense of this feedback as a whole, I think we achieved what we set out to do which was to make a psychological teaser trailer that would entartain and persuade people to go out and watch our film. But there were a few things we could have changed to make it more appealing for example, more appropriate fonts, more engaging photos and a bigger feeling of suspense, all in all the feedback recieved was incredibly useful.

Written by Gabrielle