Evaluation 2- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Within media technology is essential; it is used in all corners of the industry through the entire media production process, from production companies to audiences. We used technology throughout the process of making a trailer, from construction to planning and research but also through these evaluation stages. I plan to evaluate these technologies and their contribution to our final production.

To conduct our planning and research we had to use several different technologies. The first being blogger, an online platform to express my ideas for the production, a way of communicating plans for it and a way of evaluating throughout. Blogger is convenient as everything is stored online therefore we are less at risk of loosing valuable coursework and planning than we would if we had to keep it in a folder. Blogger is also accessible on any device which means you are able to constantly update your blog. However this means we are solely reliable on the internet and if we are unable to access it, we can't update our blog.

Using PowerPoint I analysed the film trailer ‘Black Swan’ in order to gain an insight into trailer conventions and how to effectively use them. I find PowerPoint makes my blog visually more interesting for readers. I believe with PowerPoint you are able to make more clear and concise points without having huge pieces of information to read through. You are also able to visually communicate your ideas and embed photos; a way of thoroughly conveying your ideas to readers through all types of mediums.

Taken from my trailer analysis PowerPoint

When making my PowerPoint I had to conduct research through several related websites. The first being YouTube in which I found my initial trailer to analyse. YouTube has several features that aided my choice of trailer; the first being the like and dislike button which ultimately gives you an indication of how the public see a piece of media.  I could see from this feature alone that Black Swan was hugely successful and therefore a worthy piece to analyse as we could then take inspiration from the dark themes embedded and apply them to our trailer.

Black Swan YouTube summary

Other technologies we used pre-production included websites such as Facebook and twitter which play a huge role in the advertisement of new films, I wanted to see how this was done and how social media platforms essentially advertise and promote a film to the networking world. Production companies flock to these outlets as a means of advertising but often you find, particularly with films, fans freely promote the products themselves. Things such as hash tags and official production accounts allow fans to engage themselves in the advertising process and become engrossed in the buzz of it all by following these accounts and relaying the information the production companies provide which subsequently promotes the film to their followers and so on. The Hunger Games is an example of a film made successful through these networking platforms. Bearing this in mind we decided that considering our target audience (15-25) are prime users of twitter, we should take to twitter as means of advertising. We made a page for our film and using the hash-tag #somniumfilm gained an insight into people’s opinions of the trailer. I believe this was the perfect platform to advertise on as our target audience particularly engage in twitter frequently and therefore are more likely to see the film as we are trying to access audiences that perhaps don’t go to the cinema often. 

Word was used throughout the production stage for a number of things including permission letters and questionnaires. I find word particularly easy to use as it is familiar and using word can help with the professionalism of our production. For example handing out letters that we have hand written lack formalism, whereas using word allows for structure and those we are seeking permission from know that our company is legitimate and therefore will engage in the production. 

This year instead of using word for the script we used ‘Celtx’ which unlike word provided us with a proper structure and allowed us to produce a professional looking script with an automatic format, it also provides us with the script font that professional production companies would use it is a professional version on industry standard script writing software such as final draft. We used Scribd which allows us to upload and embed word documents to our blogs in order to keep the format, again allowing for a more varied and professional appearance. Similarly sliedshare is used to do the same but with PowerPoint presentations 

We used excel to produce our call sheets again it is a more professional and creates a layout using the grid system which is more understandable for cast and crew which then enables us to be more efficient when filming, as it contains information as to where everyone should be and at what time. 

IMDB (an online database especially related to films) played a huge role in our research. It allowed us to sieve through the successful and unsuccessful films and draw inspiration from them as to what genre we should go for. We could see, through IMDB, that horror was a widely popular genre with a lot of its films generating high ratings for audiences. We also looked to IMDB to see if our target audiences were alike to those that favoured horror genre this information we found proved they were and thus allowed us to market our film in similar ways in order to generate a similar interest.

For our titles we were largely reliant on dafont.com, as I personally found they had a huge range of fonts suitable for all genres from sci-fi to horror. We used horror in particular for our fonts and the fonts we decided on looked rather scratchy and distressed which is just as I hoped.

For editing and construction we relied mainly on Pinnacle Studios 10. Which allowed us to edit our film in a way that made it more appealing for viewers such as fast paced editing and special effects such as slow motion. However the editing process had us facing various problems particularly when changing the speed of shots. Ideally we would have used Avid software however I was thoroughly pleased with the standard of editing and although pinnacle bared issues they were easily overcome. Pinnacle had many transitions that added to the overall appeal of the trailer such as fade to blacks which had a mysterious and menacing feel which was extremely suitable for our trailer. 

Using the software Audacity we were able to alter Evelyn’s voice when she screamed 'get the girl' which originally sounded rather high pitched and girly which is simply not appropriate to our genre. As we had this line as a focal point to the trailer it needed to sound menacing and threatening. Experimenting with different pitches and tones we were able to lower Evelyn’s tone to achieve the perfect voice in order to shock audiences and also to tie in with horror conventions.

When filming we used a Panasonic full HD SD camera, the shots were filmed mainly hand held which allowed freedom of movement for example the end shot when Rosie runs down the alleyway we thought that a handheld shot would be suitable here as we wanted the shot to appear panicked and distressed much like Rosie. This was extremely easy to achieve and the camera was small, compact and light, so we could be rather creative when it came to the handheld shots. However the majority of filming was done using a tripod which allowed for more steady and professional shots. Some useful adjustable features of the tripod were that the camera was able to spin around on the tripod; this allowed us to film panning shots. Also, the tripod could be adjusted to allow the camera to tilt.

Post-production we used Adobe Photoshop to create a poster and magazine cover. I thoroughly enjoyed using this software as it allowed me to be creative with tones and fonts etc. I enjoyed altering the colours and blurring images in order to fit in with the horror genre, for example altering the font and background to give a more menacing and gory feel overall and also linked in with our main production to create a sense of continuity. 

Vimeo has been of great use to us throughout our production. Vimeo is extremely convenient as it is so easily accessible at both school thus making it an appealing option as it allows us to be more time efficient. In terms of uploading our production I preferred to use Vimeo as I find it has a cleaner aesthetic than YouTube, as there is less information surrounding the video thus allowing the readers primary focus to be on the video rather than what’s surrounding it.


However I have had some issues with vimeo for example there is a weekly limit as to how much you are able to upload this meant that for some of my videos I had to use fellow group members vimeos account to upload certain clips, like my final edit. Unlike YouTube where you can upload as many videos you like.

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

Directors Commentary from Francesca Roncoli on Vimeo.

Denis McQuail (2010), a theorist, talks of the commercial and industrial significance of genres and suggested that genre helps target an audience for producers to capitalise on the success of previous films as they may choose to see a film based on the genre. Identifying genres means you are then able to target your audience and try to cater to their likes, you are able to understand your market to the full and incorporate aspects the audience will enjoy for example, fans of horror may prefer to see gore and blood.  Ryall proposed the genre triangle which links the institution, text and audience. Genre films like horror are reliant on the success of other horror in which make money to produce more horror films. Bearing this in mind we used the success of other horror films to generate ideas for our own trailer.

Initially our group decided on a thriller, as our initial brain storm revolved heavily around the thriller genre as we had experience of this genre through past productions.  When Gabby joined the group and our ideas were merged we decided on the horror genre. This was convenient for us as a group as both group’s primary research indicated that horror was one of  the preferred genres people would choose to watch. Our primary research allowed us to not only identify the most popular genre, thus using Ryall’s idea of the genre triangle, but also what themes and conventions audiences would like to see. We particularly focused on the role of the antagonist and protagonist and found the majority of our target audience would prefer a female hero. This is often seen in horror films and in particular oriental horror where a lot of our inspiration was taken. This meant we were then able to cast a female protagonist whom in return would attract a particular audience. Our secondary research allowed us to identify the conventions of a horror and fully focus in on how they are used. I identified a number of conventions such as isolated locations often places such as mental asylums or lonely mansions, chiaroscuro lighting, and binary oppositions. We continued to plan the production ensuring we followed the conventions of the horror genre.

In many ways our production conformed to genre conventions; when looking at horror trailers I found ours to be extremely similar in terms of themes. We chose to focus ours around a paranormal entity who was trying to attack our hero through her dreams. Paranormal activity is often a recurrent theme in many horror films especially oriental horrors. The idea of the ghost is quite a symbol of Far East horror films such as ‘The Grudge’ and ‘Ring’ lending themselves to their eerie nature and the theme of the unknown. This is something we have adopted in our own trailer with the Propian villain character of Evelyn. In terms of lighting ours adhered massively to the horror convention of low key lighting which employed a theme of mystery and again that theme of the unknown. With regards to editing we varied the pace in order to intensify the scarier parts and create an air of complacency in the calmer parts to make the frightening parts more shocking. The music and sound effects used adhered to the conventions; the soundtrack used was slow and extremely eerie and this allows the audience to feel on edge throughout ensuring they become interested in the advertised film. Sound is extremely important in the horror genre as Daniel Blumstein found out as it is the sound that actually scares the audience. He stated that the use of loud bands and irregular chords ‘triggers a biologically ingrained response by making us think our young are threatened’. We included these kinds of sounds in our trailer to intensify certain parts to scare the audience for example the loud bangs used within the titles. The greys and black as a colour scheme follow horror conventions also as they connote mystery and create an atmosphere of fear and death.  On set we decided that using reflection as a theme could be extremely powerful. Reflections are symbolic of a distant past which is representative of Evelyn haunting Rosie’s life.

Vladimir Propp’s theory stated that each narrative will have certain character types. Our trailer employs these types our antagonist, Evylyn and our protagonist, Rosie. In many ways we challenge gender conventions by having a female antagonist as women are usually seen to be submissive and the weaker sex whereas Evelyn apposes these conventions by being dominating and threatening, however a female antagonist is rather common in horror films with films like, the grudge, woman in black and Alien. We used enigma codes throughout the trailer, these codes were proposed by Barthe we particularly focused on the symbolic code with the reflection. We also employed Strauss’ binary oppositions the main of which was good vs evil, which is seen in all horror films but also the oppositions of dream and reality and the alive and the supernatural.

Unfortunately we were unable to thoroughly audition actors although in a sense we did have a selection method in which we chose the most suitable actors. Overall I was extremely pleased with how professional and competent the actors were. They fit the roles perfectly and put in their upmost effort. They adapted well to the hair and make up process and this enabled them to really take on the role. Although we didn’t hold auditions we ensured that all our actors had a background in acting which then made them more apt for the role, in the future I would consider auditions however it is a question of time and I was thoroughly pleased with their performance.

I believe our trailer was extremely successful in adapting the conventions and making them evident. 100% of our audience recognised it was a horror which meant the conventions were clear. The majority said they would see the film in full if it were to be released and the minority who didn’t wouldn’t see it due to their dislike for the genre. Overall I believe our trailer follows the conventions of a horror and in return attracts a certain audience.

Audience Feedback

To find out if our trailer was successful in meeting it's aim, we conducted a focus group and asked them some questions in order to find out.

The main purpose of our audience feedback research is to draw upon respondents attitudes, feelings, beliefs, experiences and reactions in a way in which serves our purpose. We can draw on their reaction in a way that makes a positive contribution to the success of our film, for example from our audience feedback we can see that the part with Evelyn screaming 'GET THE GIRL' was popular with the audience therefore we can use this to help market our product for example, we now may make the primary focus to be Evelyn and her haunting face.  

Once we have gathered all the necessary information of what worked well and what didn't we will be able to use it accordingly. 

audience feedback (1) from Francesca Roncoli on Vimeo.

Here is a summary of the questions asked and answers given

Creating a Poster

For the background we wanted it to be dark but not fully black. We found an image that looked distressed with creases that made it look worn and decrepit, all of which is heavily symbolic of Evelyn's character. For the font we stuck to the font used in the title of the trailer. This is so that audiences create links between the two pieces of media and we subsequently create for ourselves, a stronger brand image. 

We wanted to make Rosie again seem vulnerable, so we decided to turn the brightness down on her which made her seem rather washed out and fragile. Whereas the original image was rather bright and didn't fit in with horror genre as it may have looked rather cheerful.

We then had to make the image fit seamlessly into the background we didn't want an obvious point where the background starts and the image ends this meant we had to use a blur effect to merge the two together to give an overall more professional look. The fact we photographed Rosie on a black background was imperative for the editing process as if we had used perhaps a white background we wouldn't have been able to merge the image to the background seamlessly and it wouldn't have looked as professional. 

From the poster I really wanted the horror genre to be made evident and having Rosie alone is rather ambiguous and could be linked more to a thriller genre. So keeping in mind the theme of binary oppositions (something prevalent in all horror films) we went with good and evil to connote the genre. We made Evelyn look faded with a shadow effect as if she was lurking in her thoughts and nightmares. 

We believed it was imperative for our poster to follow poster conventions, and for me personally I believe the credits on a poster are what make it most recognisable, keeping this in mind we looked at the poster housebound to decide how or fonts should look and drew inspiration from that.

For the final product we added some poster conventions, such as reviews from critically acclaimed magazines or critics, we also included information on the production company along with the actors names in the hope audiences will recognise them and encourage them to watch our production. We also included our production company logo again it creates continuity so audiences link our film to our company. We also included the blumhouse productions logo as again it creates a link for audiences as they will relate the logo to many of their successful horror films.  

Creating a Magazine

We wanted the magazine to be as professional looking as possible so this meant using an 'EMPIRE' magazine as a guideline.

We selected this one as we enjoyed the way the fonts varied, we found it made it more visually appealing for audiences. I liked the bold font EMPIRE uses I believe its instantly recognisable and helps give them a strong brand image, bearing that in mind we wanted a title that would have a similar impact. Empire means an exclusive group of states/countries being ruled over by a single monarch. This connotes dominance subconsciously when reading the title we as an audience believe it is the best and most powerful.

We also wanted our title to have a similar impact, we decided we wanted something that connoted power and dominance. We eventually came up with the idea of it meaning big, we decided on the name grande films grande in Spanish translates to big, large and great. This is exactly the kind of message we wanted our title to convey. 

After messing about with the fonts we decided to go on dafont.com to gain a more professional feel to our title. We wanted it to be bold and attention grabbing. The colour red connotes power and stands out well against the black background. It is imperative to remember that the colours should compliment each other otherwise they may distract from the text/focal image. When working with colours we decided we would only use red white and black, as black and white compliment each other and work to not distract from the red title which also contains flickers of white.

The skyline at the top is in a bold writing and usually contains information as to what will be in the magazine. We have used words such as 'greatest' again to add to the allure of our magazine, and give it an appearance of the biggest and best. The Jessabelle font we wanted to look rather old fashioned and ghostly using a serif font I believe achieved this look. Varying the fonts help to make each bit of text stand out. 

For the button, we had it in a bold red to tie in with the title we put the PLUS! in larger writing in a bold font in order to grab the readers attention. For the Jupiter Ascending font we really wanted it to fit in with the theme of space and again we believed would add to the posters appeal.We wanted it to look almost like a planet so using dafont we went with a sci fi font that was suitable.

For the final image we felt the the lighting was a little too bright and didn't fit properly with the magazines overall look, this however was easily sorted with the adjustment of the brightness and contrast. Turning the brightness down allowed for a more dulled down version of the image, making it appear more ghost like.