Evaluation Of Film Trailer

1. In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product follows many conventions that are typical of a horror trailer. Firstly the length of the trailer is conventional, we carefully selected scenes not to reveal to much to the audience. The opening scene is extremely conventional it establishes the equilibrium as everything is normal and the characters seem happy. The equilibrium is disrupted in the trailer when the newsreader reports on the death of a young girl, as the female character has already had a dream about the situation. An attempt to fix the problem is then apparent as the female protagonist is then reffered to a psychiatric unit. The layout of our trailer is a conventional narrative structure, drawn up by the theorist Todorov, this showing that our media product is well structured and organised. However in this case a reinstatement of the equilibrium cannot be achieved as it is a trailer and we didnt want to reveal to much detail.
The trailer also meets conventions as most lighting is dark which creates effect and eerieness. It has also been edited very quick, leaving the trailer with a very fast pace this is conventional as it emphisises confusion and also action in the scenes. We also used transitions of fade to black and dissolves which are also conventional, they leave the idea of passing of time and act as an elypsise of things missing. Another convention is the code of enigma in the trailer as the main characters actions are not explained or clear to the audience leaving them to work out what is going on, her role as the victim or monster is neither realised as we do not know the full extent of the story unrevealing, this leaving the audience intrigued and wanting to go and watch the film.
The music too is also conventional, it changes pace and compliments the scenes it plays with and also adds effect and tension to the trailer. We have also used dialogue in our trailer which is conventional.
The use of titles in our trailer is also conventional, it gives the audience an idea of the narrative, however we decided to be slightly different and use a poem instead of just merely statements, I think this works well too. However I do think that the poem's language is quite sophisticated, therefore targeting the middle class, although we have not purposely done this the stereotypical audience for a horror genre is the middle class.
Our trailer challenges forms and conventions in two ways with the target audience and the main female character, these two challenges are linked as stereotypically it is young males who are targeted by horror films as they are seen to be more thrill seeking than women. Therefore usually the main characters are stereotypically male as young males like to see action. In our trailer we have decided to go against conventions and use a female protagonist, targeting young thrill seeking females as they can relate to and empathise with the main character.

2.How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I personally feel that my three products work well with one another. I have ensured that the genre is clearly portrayed throughout my products as well as a consistence of setting. As the trailer is shot largely in the forest I thought that this would be the significant setting in which I would carry through in all of my products, in my poster the picture of the female protagonist is blended with a tree and a noose, in my front cover the the female protagonist is also in a forest setting and the tree is clearly visible. I also feel I have kept a consistent colour scheme throughout my products, as I felt that black,white,grey and red complimented the genre and added effect and eeriness to the products. I also have made sure that the female character has been the main concentration throughout as I feel she symbolises the product as a whole.

3.What have you learned from your audience feedback?
With audience feedback we selected a group of eight people who we thought the film would appeal too, we set up an seated area and handed out a questionnaire containing the following questions below. We showed the audience our trailer and asked them to fill in the questions as honestly as they could:
Is the genre of the film easily identified?
Are you able to follow the narrative of the trailer?
What do you think the target audience would be for this film? (female/male/young/old)
What age classification do you think this film would be?
Does the title of the film appeal to you and relate to the films content?
Does the music compliment the narrative and genre of the film?
Do the titles help your understanding of the narrative?
Is the pace of the trailer conventional and effective?
Does the editing of the shots create fluidity?
Would you go and see this film after viewing the trailer and why?

Our audience feedback was complimentary on the whole, everyone agreeing that the genre of the film was easily identifiable from the trailer,as well as stating that they were able to follow the narrative of our trailer.
When they were asked about the target audience most answered that they thought we were targeting young females and males, most stating that they though we were targeting young females, this was pleasing as this was in fact our chosen target audience.
The age classification question was answered with mostly fifteen certificate but a couple of people put that they thought it would be an eighteen certificate, this shows that the audience were able to see from the horror apparent from our trailer.
Everyone stated that the title appealed to them and it related to the films content too.
When it came to the music question most people thought the music complimented the scenes and the genre of the film however one person disagreed, he thought the music went well with the paces of the scenes but did not go well with the genre of the film, I feel that this is a fair comment as we had to use copy right free music and our resources were limited as we did not have the funds to buy songs we had to make do with the music we could find on the freeplay site. During the filming stages we did find a perfect song which went extremely complimented the trailer, however as it was copyright we were un able to use it.
The last question gave the audience the chance to right their views on the film and give reasons why they like it, most people answered that they wanted to watch the film as it engaged their interest and made them want to find out more.
Some people answered that they didnt like the genre of the film so wouldnt go to see it to due to that fact,this was understandable however as horror films target specific niche audiences and purposely do not appeal to evryone, another person said that they would go and watch the film as they liked the fact that the monster was a person.

Our audience feedback on the whole was very complimentary, giving us confidence that our product was a success.


4.How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
At the start of our Alevel course we started to use the digital video camera to familiarise ourselves with different shots and angles we could create,also we got used to the buttons and settings the camera had. After taking shots with the camera we then used the editing software Adobe Premier Elements, this was a crucial stage for us as we learn how to import footage from the camera on to the computer, we learnt how to add effects and transitions such as dissolves and fade to blacks. We also learnt how to add titles and cut scenes. This stage was crucial as it was giving us key practice for our main tasks which was when we needed to already be familiar with such technology. I also used Photo shop and Photo shop light room to manipulate images and text when constructing my poster and front cover. When it came to research we had to look in to conventions of both front covers, posters and trailers to ensure that what we were planning to do would work and be a success so I used the Internet to familiarise myself with different examples of film front covers and posters. I also used YouTube to watch examples of film trailers as it was key for me to know key conventions of horror film trailers, it would also enable me to see how much was included in a trailer and how the music and pace of the scenes worked together.
We also used the internet to find music, we used youtube to find the copyright music which we decided not to use as we would have lost marks, we used freeplay.com to find music which wasnt copyright, it was hard to find music that would fit in with the genre of our film as we could not pay for music, so had to search thorugh websites which had a large amount of songs to pick from which werent neccessarily the right type, we finally decided on the best songs to fit our film which we could possibley find and we were happy with how the songs linked together in sequence and complimented the genre aswell as running in time with the pace of the trailer scenes.