G324 MEDIA COURSEWORK ASSESSMENT

By Joshua De Meyer

The task

For my G324 Media coursework, I had to produce three separate pieces, a teaser trailer, a teaser poster and a film magazine front cover. We shall begin with my first piece I have produced, being the magazine front cover.

Magazine Cover

I decided to theme my three pieces of coursework with the theme of horror. I managed to conform the general conventions of horror with my magazine cover by using white and red fonts for the sell lines, the masthead and the anchorage text. As the general conventions of a horror usually depict red as blood and white as a ghostly colour. I intended to keep with this general convention as it makes my magazine cover more authentic as a magazine cover that is advertising a horror film.

As this is a film magazine, I decided to name the magazine as ‘Screen’ because a screen is usually associated with something you can view something on, and this can be a film or TV show that could potentially be viewed upon on a screen. I also named my magazine ‘Screen’ as it is somewhat familiar to the word ‘Scream’. Which, in horror conventions, screaming is a sign of fear, a common effect which Horror films can impact on audiences. I feel this goes against normal conventions of my media product as most film magazines usually talk about several genres of film, but from my sell lines, this is strictly a horror themed film magazine directed at advertising horror films.

I decided to portray a rather dark image on my magazine cover as the centre focus of the magazine, the horror hiding behind the tree generally conforms to the convention of a hidden, mysterious figure, which I feel most film magazines that advertise a horror film use to make the audience of the magazine feel intimidated or fearful of the magazine, but also mystified, and I believe my magazine does capture a sense of mystery and uncertainty.

I have also used a barcode, the date and price of the magazine and issue number so to heighten the authenticity of my media product as a film magazine.

Teaser TrailerI have used a close up of the main horror of the proposed trailer of the film as most horror teaser posters usually convey the main antagonist of the film as the centre focus, I feel I have conformed to the general conventions of horror teaser posters.

I have used a ghostly white font for the sell line ‘Coming soon’ as this conforms to the conventions of horror. I have used a whitish hue to accentuate the ghostly white font.

The use of the dark colours in the image also conforms to the conventions of horror, as horrors are intended to be dark films.

I have kept the teaser poster as sparse of sell lines as I don’t want to give too much away, which teaser posters conventionally only hint to a film and what it can be about, and I feel my teaser poster really does create a mysterious feel, which most teaser posters aim to do to the audience. I have used production company logos at the bottom of the teaser poster as It heightens the authenticity of the teaser poster as it gives the audience an idea who have produced the advertised film.

I have included a website for the audience to visit to find out what the film is about, as again, this heightens the authenticity of the teaser poster. I took inspiration off the teaser poster of ‘Friday the 13th’ when creating this teaser poster.

Film Trailer

My film trailer can be viewed via my blog or on my YouTube channel wattaguy008,. To view, please follow the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OgBeBiYUrM.

Analysis

The use of fade in effects from one scene to the next I used to create an uncertain and creepy feel, as when the scenes fade to black, the fade in effect has a rather ghostly feel, which I found would be effective as it would adhere to the conventions of horror.

The movement of the camera at the beginning of the trailer remains calm and slow. As the trailer continues, the movement of the camera becomes more apparent when my protagonist is running away from the camera. I used this to create a sense of panic and confusion, so my audience feels intimidated and somewhat scared for the protagonist. It also creates a sense of mystery for the audience, as Ideally, I want them to wonder what she is running away from.

The choice of music heightens the effectiveness of the trailer, as the low tones at the beginning begin to pick up as the trailer progresses, giving the trailer a heightened sense of tension and uncertainty.

As the music reaches it’s climax towards the end, I used a close up of the antagonist turning away from the tree and looking towards the camera. This was intended as I want my audience to feel intimidated by the antagonist. This effect is further heightened when the music reaches it’s climax.

The music then begins to dim when the release date of the advertised film is displayed, as this signifies the end of the trailer. It is also been intended as I want my audience to feel unsure and intimidated by what the trailer has shown them.

How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary texts?

The combination of the main product, so the teaser trailer and both the ancillary texts I believe are very effective together as they all promote the theme of horror. They also all promote the same proposed film, which heightens the effectiveness of the three media products.

The portrayal of the antagonist in the teaser trailer, the teaser poster and magazine cover make the three media products effective at promoting the proposed film. The use of mise-en-scene which portrays the mask in all three media products allows the audience to recognise the new proposed film that these three media products are advertising and makes them recognise that the film is going to be horror themed, and this I believe is portrayed remarkably well with the three products.

The use of similar fonts also gives the proposed film an identity, so it can be recognised by my audience and if they see the proposed film being advertised via my media products, they will be able to collectively recognise what the trailer, the magazine cover and the teaser poster are advertising, thus making my media products highly effective.

The dark colours I’ve used in my three media products also makes them effective as dark colours are usually in the general conventions of horror, and so therefore make it clear to my audience that what I’m advertising is horror themed. The white ghostly colours I have used in my three products also heighten the effectiveness of my products as the colour white conforms with the conventions of horror, with the ghostly mysterious effect that they create.

From what my audience feedback suggests, my media products effectively create a sinister and dark feel, which suggests that my media products are effective as they have created the dark, sinister feel that I intended for them to create.

How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation

stages?

Research & Planning

I researched into film magazines, so to gather an idea as to the general conventions of film magazines that promoted horror films on the front cover. For this, I mainly used Google Images to look for magazine covers.

When researching for ideas for my film trailer, I looked at several trailers for inspiration via YouTube. I looked at the trailers for the horror films ‘Annabelle’ and ‘Oculus’. I also researched into the conventions of horror films and created a PowerPoint document about the conventions of horror films and displayed it on Slide share to put onto my blog. I looked into the ‘Clover field’ teaser trailer, as it didn’t specify what the name of the film and instead showed the release date at the end of the teaser trailer, and this effect I have used in my teaser poster as it creates a sense of mystery and uncertainty for my audience.

When researching for my teaser poster, I researched into the ‘Friday the 13th’ teaser poster and the teaser poster for ‘Clover field’. Again, I used google images to research into these two teaser posters.

I initially had planned to have more than two characters for my teaser trailer, these ideas are recorded on my blog, and I updated my ideas for my trailer on my blog.

Construction I used several media technologies while creating my media products. For my film

magazine cover and my teaser poster, I used Adobe Photoshop, and for my teaser trailer, I used adobe premiere pro to piece together the various clips I recorded.

For the specialist fonts (Crimes Times Six, I still know, Times New Ariel), I downloaded them onto my adobe premiere pro from Dafont.com. I then applied them to my media products, to heighten their effectiveness as real media products.

I have used YouTube to upload my teaser trailer onto my YouTube channel wattaguy008 for easy access for my audience and this also makes my trailer rather effective as most teaser trailers can be found on YouTube.

Overall, I didn’t use many technologies in creating my media products, as it was predominantly on the computer and to make my media products, they were created on two similar bits of software.

Evaluation

For my evaluation, as it’s clearly obvious, I am using Microsoft PowerPoint to present my evaluation, as this I feel is the most useful way to display my evaluation of my media products. I will be uploading this PowerPoint onto slide share and then onto my blog. I have displayed my audience feedback onto my blog, and so should be viewable on my blog.

I have used social media (e.g. Facebook) to gather feedback for my media products, as I feel I am reaching out to the intended audience of the film I am advertising through my media products.

Improvements

There isn’t a lot of improvements I would make to my media products, as the feedback I’ve received has been predominantly positive, but there are a few things that I believe I could have worked and focused on more.

The Structure of the magazine cover: I believe the skyline stood out a bit too much and that the fonts could have been smaller. I believe this would have made it more effective as a magazine cover as predominantly the masthead and the anchorage text would be the only elements to stand out on the magazine cover.

More effects on the trailer: If I was able to do this on more professional software, I would have put some more distorted camera effects, to heighten the uncertainty, intimidation and effectiveness that I intend for my trailer to have on my audience

Better management of time: If I was to do this again, better management of time to finish off the media products to a desired effect is definitely something to consider, as I feel I have rushed through in producing and evaluating the media products I have created.