What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Here are the results to my audience feedback in which I asked people to answer several questions on the effectiveness of them both individually and together as a promotion campaign to promote my film. My target audience was between the ages 15-24 as it was the age that I used for my Audience Research. From the feedback I found that over all the audience was satisfied with my three products however there was a few improvements that could be made.
The audio for the trailer was the main thing that they suggested to improve. This is because my audience said they would have preferred more use of diegetic sound such as a voice over and sounds from the characters screaming as they felt it would help more to develop the narrative.
Another improvement was with the end of the teaser trailer as whilst they, thoroughly enjoyed the climatic tension built on watching the characters run some people had said that a zoom in would of been good in creating more closure for the audience in understanding and seeing the terrified looks on the characters face.
I posted my Teaser trailer on Facbook, Youtube and Tumblr different forms of social networking sites so that I could audience feedback and found it productive in knowing how effective my three products were in representing the horror genre.
I found that many people commented on the dead bodies and found it adhered to the horror genre in making it scary for them in how realistic the bodies looked. I also decided that whilst it was more flexible in getting audience feedback through Web 2.0.
I wanted to also collect different forms of audience feedback and handed out questionnaires with similar open and closed questions which I found was more useful in clearly seeing the criticism given by the participants as well as how effective they all worked together.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I believe that my main product and ancillary text to combine together effectively in working as promotion campaign. The way in which I have done this is through having all three of my main characters on each product. Both my ancillary products work well in representing the concept of my teaser trailer in being " Behind the lens " in creating a documentary at night.
Through my research I found that mainstream production mainly feature there famous actors on the front of their magazine and film poster they are the central image and are utilized as a means of promoting the film. However as my production has more of a documentary narrative and is independent I decided that my ancillary text would represent my characters as film makers rather then as actors which therefore is effective as it creates a visible link between all the products and establishing the characters.
The title is also important when creating a promotional campaign as it has to be effective so that the audience are constantly familiarised with it. I kept the name of my name very short similar to other horror films such as ‘Rec’ and ‘The Shinning.’
I believe the title of my product ‘Behind the Lens’ is effective as there is a link between the narratives of the film things being revealed at night unexpected and the representation and presentation of the images I used for both of my ancillary texts
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Through the development of Web 2.0 I was able to use social networking sites such as Youtube
and Facebook to plan and evaluate my products effectively.
Pre Production :
The Internet was a very effective resource for researching for my production tasks. YouTube as a video sharing website was extremely useful when doing my product research; finding teaser trailers and film clips. This is due to the vast change of development of Web 2.0 technology which enables the audience to become the creators of their own media. Websites such as YouTube are encouraging this widespread of development as it allows the audience to gain easy access to and form of media such as film trailers and upload them to the public.
YouTube allowed me to view a range of different horror teaser trailers and understand the conventions of the genre and develop my ideas.
One of the important forms of media technology which was new to me was the use of Google Calender which helped sufficiently in the construction and planning of my production as I was able to plan ahead of time and change dates when problems occurred.
Production :
The main form of media technology I used during my production was as Sony HDV digital camera. This is because it allowed me too shoot footage in high definition (HD) which would overall make the image look better and more for the audience. However problems did which occurred during whilst using this camera. One of which was trying to create a night time isolated setting I found that the camera's did not have night vision so I had to re schedule filming so I could create this effect . One thing I did find useful was that I twas able to replay the shots after I had film so that I could see if I would have to re shoot the scene if it was out focus.
Post Productions :
One of the great challenges I faced during the construction of my ancillary texts was using Photoshop as it was a new form of media that I had never used before to edit pictures. I found the use of Photoshop to be extremely effective as I was able to use particular tools such as the burning tool to lighten and darken my images. I also was able to use the layering tool to overlap text on to both my film poster and magazine.
I used Imovie to edit my teaser trailer which I found to be effective when editing scenes together. However one of things I decided to do whilst working on my sound for my teaser trailer was to overlap different tracks as I found that one of them was extremely efficient in building up tension. I also looked at the sound effects that was available on Imovie and discovered that they had sounds such as a hear beat which I used to add more my audience.
Web 2.0 allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content.FontSpace allowed people do this as they were able to create different fonts and share them publicly. This was usefull to me in the construction of all three of my products as I was able to use it to search any font. In my case I was able to search fonts that were similar to the fonts used in horror films.
I used Blogger through the planning and research of my three products. I was able to record and update my blog with posts on my audience research and product research. One thing that was really effective in using blogger was that I was able to use 'tags' for each post so that it was easy when going back to find posts to update my progress and edit saved posts. However one thing that was difficult about using Blogger was that it was not the best form of collecting feedback from my audience on the outcome of my products. In comparison to social network sites such as Facebook.
Another media technology I used in the construction of my production was Free Play Music this because the music I had to use had to be copywright free. The content on the site user generated and was flexible to search the type of music that I need as I had to just type in words such as 'horror' to find a range of music and sounds that I could use. It also allowed me to preview the tracks before I was certain that I wanted to use it . However the content was quite limited so I had to additional reaserch to find other sounds and as a result used Imovie to merge them together.
In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Conventions of the horror genre:
When cosideing ideas to produce my teaser trailer I decided once doing my Product Research that I would adhere to the conventions of the horror genre.This is because particuallry in horror films I found that an effective feature is the use of hand held camera. Which can be shown in films such as the Blair Witch Project, Quarantine .
So that I could achieve the same effect I specifically deicded to use this style of film as it correlated with my ideas. This is because it not only creates realism for the audience but allows them to to be the voyeurs as they can imagine being the character holding the camera.
A teaser trailer is used to build awareness of upcoming films and is shorter in length lasting 30seconds to a minute long. They use quick cuts to create intrigue and each shot allows the director to show different scenes of action which aims to build tension and leaves them in a state of confusion. A problem that I encountered was introducing the quick cuts too early, without enough establishing shots. I therefore added in some pan shots of the school and also of my charcters to alsoestablish them to the audience before adding the quick cuts to increasetension.
Challenging conventions :
I did not set out to challenge the conventions as my main aim was to adhere to the conventions of the horror genre and representing it through each product. However I challenged the concept of a mainstream film by choosing to produce a film that would be independent but also would be able to cross over and appeal to mainstream audience.
I wanted my film to have independent qualities, and having a ‘low budget’ and limited resources help me achieve this. I feel I was able to utilize the equipment given to me to create unique style that still conformed to the horror genre but also made my trailer different to horror films that are being released today.
The teaser trailer would be produced by Bad RobotProductions an independent Film and Television Company. They have produced films such as ‘Cloverfield’ a horror film that gain great mainstream success. Bad Robot Productions has distributed many horror films which has utilized classic techniques of the horror genre. For example many of the films use a ‘documentary’ style to convey the narrative to the audience. This was one things that I decided to maintain throughout my teaser trailer to create enigma and realism for the audience.
Development of Conventions
Many horror films use a range of different characters both female and male. I decided to subvert the stereotypical conventions of having a male ‘hero’ through only using female’s characters. Another reason for this was because my teaser trailer was set in a all girl’s school so I found it more easier to represent my female characters as being ordinary a possible to create a sense of enigma for the audience so that when tension is built and the characters are put in danger it is unexpected.
I wanted my characters to represent modern 21st century teenagers. For that reason their sartorial codes is normal casual clothing so that they are portrayed as ordinary and subverts the stereotypical view of today’s youth.
An audience tends to create a particular view of characters whilst watching any type of film. It may well be a negative or positive representation which leads to stereotypes. More specifically within the horror genre there are common stereotypical characters. One of the most familiar stereotypes is the vulnerable blond ‘damsel in distresses as shown in films such as ‘Urban Legends’ and is central to many of the ‘master of suspense’ Alfred Hitchcook’s films such as ‘Psycho.’ I adhered to the convention of screaming victims through a range of running shots which represented them as being innocent and weak.
Through my Audience Research I found that my audience would want through my products fonts and colours that would be constant through each of them I learned that many horror films such as Saw
and several other films had very horrific grim font which I wanted to to aim to adhear to .
Through my research whilst creating my poster in Photoshop I found FontSpace
which allowed me to use and test out different fonts.
For all three I used the same font so that it would create a familiarity for my audience.
However for my title slates I decided to use a different font so would create a divide between my title of my film 'Behind the Lens' and my title slates. This was so that the name of my film would still remain memorable for the audience.
During Synoptic day I aimed to get all my filming done however there was few minor problems whilst using the cameras.
I face many issues with the lighting of the shots. I found I had to reshedule the locations because I needed a dark setting so that it would adhear to the conventions of the horror genres in building tension and enigma for the audience.
I therefore rearranged the Location shots so that I could create the effect I needed for my audience. I was able to get the simple shots done so that I would have time to re shoot any other scenes.
I posted my Teaser trailer on Facbook, Youtube and Tumblr different forms of social networking sites so that I could audience feedback and found it productive in knowing how effective my three products were in representing the horror genre.
I found that many people commented on the dead bodies and found it adhered to the horror genre in making it scary for them in how realistic the bodies looked. I also decided that whilst it was more flexible in getting audience feedback through Web 2.0.
