Final Poster

Overall, I am happy with the final outcome of my poster. Since adding the billing block, the certification and the 'Coming Soon,' it feels like a realistic teaser poster. There is a balanced feel of images and text, and the colors although majority are blacks and grays, there is also subtle amounts of bright color, coming from the background in the title, the house, the masked man, and even the certification. It also gives an idea of the genre and also a rough idea as to what is too come in the film.

Final Trailer

Final Website

 http://web.alleyns.org.uk/Alleyns_Media_2010/Olivia_Lee_Ray_Website_The%20Dwelling/index.html

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

When talking about how effective, this relates to my audience, and this is something that think has been effective. My audience are able to see a strong connection between all of my products. This through many aspects of all of my website, poster and main task trailer:

Overall, I think its clear that the font establishes the Horror genre and thereby appeals to the regular horror audience. The location is very iconic of the genre of horror, and the image and appearance of my main character, appeals to my main audience, specifically as she is someone to relate too. Finally, the tag line for both my poster, and website, is ‘How Long Would You Wait?’ this is both describing the plot as well as a question. This is also shown in the narrative of my trailer.

1st Draft of my website

http://web/Media2010/Olivia%20Lee%20Ray%20Website%20-%20The%20Dwelling/index.html

This is the first draft of my website, i have now decided that i will add a short and gripping synopsis to give an idea about what the film is about. Also so that the audience can interact straight away, i have decided to add 3 sound effects that feature in my film to play as soon as the website loads. 

Evaluation Website 1 and 4: Forms and conventions, media technologies

After my first draft of my website, using dream weaver, I decided to add a short synopsis and a navigation bar that lead to other pages.

My website uses media convergence in a number of ways, firstly, I have used the same font in my graphics ident, tagline, title and many more things, in all three of my website, poster and trailer, this shows a convergent campaign across all three medias- film, web and print. The connection makes the campaign coherent and easily recognizable for my intended audience.

To ensure that there are some differences between the poster and website, I decided to make my website portrait, which is multimodal. It also involves hyper textual depth, which is revealed when you role over a link with the mouse. There were three hyperlinks overall, one being a facebook sight, leading to a group that I had created asking for friends’ audience feedback on my project. The other being my space, and finally I imported the trailer from ‘You Tube’ into my website.

When I was coming up with my website plans I decided to keep it simple much like the website the ‘Dark Knight.’ I therefore decided to just keep two central images, so that there weren’t to many images overwhelmed by text. Looking at the main conventions of a website, it is to mainly give a sense that the trailer, website and poster (all parts of the advertising) link together in an obvious way. I did this with my product, by using the same font, ’28 DAYS LATER, in all three types of media. I lifted the title off the site, by underlaying and then adding an extra layer of black, all on dream weaver. The Font I used for ‘Coming soon,’ was different however, I also changed the coloring, this was to make it stand out that much more in comparison to the rest of the text. I then embossed it to give it a feeling of depth.

I placed my title and trailer centrally as these are the main aspects of my whole project, this is very typical in most websites, that the main attractions are the trailer and title. Too attract the audience into a website, mostly what happens, is that the trailer automatically plays, however within my website I decided rather to add certain sound effects when the web page opens. This just gives a sense of the film in a way it is another tag line, which creates atmosphere.

I decided to use the same background as the one within my poster, however I enhanced the effect of something dripping down the back drop at the bottom of the image. This seemed much more effective in my website rather than my poster, as there was a lot less going on, and without the image of the masked man, I felt I need to set the style and tone in a more obvious way, doing this with the sound effects and enhancing the dripping effect. The darkness of the website is classically suggesting a thriller. However the still of the house and the face, I had to adjust, I moved the images to fit portrait rather than landscape, like the poster, this was so that I could keep the Trailer central. Both the title and the trailer were placed centrally as they are the most important aspects of my web page, also the size of the YouTube link depends on the different browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Safari and Firefox.)

Overall in my final draft of my poster, to ensure that it fits to the genre, I added the effect of something going on ‘Beneath the surface.’

Evaluation Website 2: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For my audience feedback for my website, trailer and poster, I created a group on the social networking site 'Facebook.'

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_112366462177578&id=115775551836669
Within the group, I posted my teaser trailer, website and poster, then I invited a range of ages to join and give some general and some more specific feedback. The feedback I received was varied, some were more critical that others. The problem i found with this idea was that fewer people than expected commented on the group.

Here is some of the feedback that I was given on the website:



Overall, with my website, it fits my target audience, the idea of my website was to automatically attract my audience as soon as the website loads. Having gripping sound effects and a very short but transfixing synopsis helps me to achieve this.

Evaluation Poster 2: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This is the poster that was shown too my audience, this was what I thought was my final draft, however after my results I decided too make the changes suggested.





Since receiving my audience feedback, I decided too make the changes suggested. Overall, I was happy with the outcome of the comments, it was apparent that the Genre of my trailer was recognizable within the poster. The tense and suspicious theme I was going for within my poster was also successful. Rather than have the blank black space below the title, I decided too move the whole title, and enlarge it, so its fits the length of the page. I also enhanced the visibility of the mask; too ensure that it was clearer what the image was. To make certain that the poster looked liked a real teaser poster I made the size of the billing block bigger and added ‘Coming Soon’ and finally I added a certification, this all helped me too get the effect of the teaser poster I was hoping for.



Edward Stones:
Aged 16, at Alleyn’s School. Visits the cinema once a month. Prefers big blockbusters, and likes most genres but specifically thrillers and comedies. Favorite new film is ‘The Social Network.’ Last Film seen at the cinema: ‘The Kings Speech.’

Claudia Myers:
Aged 18, at Alleyn’s School. Visits the cinema 2 or 3 times a month, likes British independent films but mostly enjoys Big Blockbusters. Preferred genres are either thriller or comedy. Favorite films;’ Adulthood’ and ‘4,3,2,1.’ Last film seen at the cinema: ‘Paul.’

Evaluation Poster 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research and evaluation stages?

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

1. OPENING SHOT

My establishing shot is a wide location shot, showing the idyllic setting of an old stately home. The setting, which could easily be the opening of a period drama, is so beautiful that it makes what happens all the more disturbing for the viewer. It is a wide shot which establishes where we are, although beautiful, it also suggests a sense of isolation and the possibility of a mysterious interior. It fits the conventions of a trailer, by giving the appearance of something beautiful that will, in the end, go wrong.

2. LOCATION

The location for my trailer is the unique selling point of the film; this is similar to the film, ‘When a Stranger Calls’, where the location is also one of the main attractions. A clear convention of most trailers is to have engaging and alluring scenes and locations.

My trailer only has one setting but, like the title of the film, it serves a double purpose. On one level it is a beautiful stately home; on another it is isolated in its many acres, with the potential for dark spaces and endless corridors. It has a sense of dereliction that serves to emphasize the fact that the girl is all alone; try as she might, there is no escape. The age of the house and the dark woods around it gives off the aura of a gothic and slightly haunted place. The establishing shots at the beginning of the trailer highlight the vast amounts of land surrounding the house, which reinforces the sense of isolation and emptiness. However, Charlotte is not isolated: as the trailer continues we begin to understand that in fact she is not alone. Rather than have Charlotte trapped in the house, I decided to use the fields and woods outside and the stables. There are some similarities with the trailer for ‘The Strangers’, in which there is also an emphasis on the fact that the house is isolated. In that trailer the only way of escaping is in the car, which we then see being destroyed. This is not an uncommon convention: the means of escape are removed. In my trailer, we see the girl’s car keys being taken: she is trapped at the house.

3. USE OF CHARACTERS

There is only one main character in my trailer. The viewer’s expectation at the beginning is that there will be two characters: Abi and Charlotte. However as it develops we begin to question whether Abi will ever arrive. This is a key question in the trailer. Charlotte is the girl that we see in the majority of the shots and hers is the only dialogue we hear in the trailer. Using just one main character was a risk; the central conflict is less obvious than in most conventional trailers. The trailer makes clear that there is another character in the form of the person with the mask. However, it is not clear from the trailer how the conflict in the film will develop. The convention of many trailers is that that the villain only becomes apparent at the end. The trailer for ‘When a Stranger Calls,’ is similar to mine in the way that there is really only one main character.

In my own trailer, the character of Charlotte is portrayed as innocent and unsuspecting. In several parts of the trailer, we can see something or someone that she can’t. This is reversed at the climax of the trailer, with Charlotte seeing something that we cant see. This fits with the conventions and key objective of any trailer: leaving unanswered questions that the audience will want to answer by going to see the film.

4. FINAL SHOT

The end shot shows a hand in a surgical glove turning off an old-fashioned brass light and throwing the house into pitch black. The glove is intended to raise questions in the viewer’s mind: is this person trying to avoid leaving fingerprints? Worse still, perhaps, do they have some kind of medical background? I used a combination of the shot itself with sound effects to heighten the dramatic effect – the mounting sound stops dead as the light is switched and the picture turns to black. Hopefully by now the viewer is scared, but also asking: what happened? The most fundamental convention of all is to leave the audience wanting to pay to go and see the film. The titles are often followed by another sequence of shots which make the audience want too see the film by asking the classic narrative question: what happens next? Mine is perhaps a slightly more unusual ending to a trailer. The final shot does not feature the character of Charlotte, but instead suggests a crisis that she is about to encounter. The convention for most trailers is to end the sequence on a shot of the main characters. Obviously, I only have one main character. But the viewer knows that someone else is there; the end of the trailer hopefully leaves them wanting too know who it is.

5& 6. 2 MASK SHOTS

There are several shots throughout my trailer that involve the man in the mask; each one of these shots plays around with the unknown. Every time the viewer sees the masked man, however, the girl does not. The first time we see him is through a window, when he is watching over the girl who is pacing up and down outside. This shot introduces the character and gives an idea of what is to come in the rest of the trailer. It is not obvious that he is there until we see him walk away. The second time we see him is in the mirror. Again it is not obvious he is there until there is a quick zoom into his ‘face’. The last view we see of him is much more obvious and develops a lot more tension than the previous two. Each shot develops the suspense – another convention in most thriller trailers. Unusually, in my trailer, we see the masked man very early on. In some ways this gives too much of the narrative away. But it seemed that, like many other trailers similar to mine, the outline of the story is relatively obvious. Therefore I decided too show all three of these shots with the sound of different phone call conversations underneath them.

7. OTHER TITLES

For my side titles, I used the same font – ’28 days later’ - as my titles, film poster and website, This font has a military effect. However, I also added the effect called ‘Light Rays,’ giving the effect that a ray of light is shining along the font. With sound effects, this also serves to add tension. I had originally intended to use the background of my film poster, a photograph I took, as the background for the titles, but after testing it, it incongruous with the rest of the scenes, so I decided to just use a simple white writing on black background. The titles in ‘Prom Night,’ also use the effect of something shining through with white lettering on a black background.

Each title adds a new layer to the narrative as the trailer progresses. Another convention with titles is to enable the audience to understand that much more of the storyline, so having too many effects on the title risks confusing the audience. Therefore after having my test screening, I decided to reduce the number of effects and prolong the clip, making the trailer simpler and clearer.

8. TITLE: THE DWELLING

My title is edgy with a double meaning, amplifying the style and the increasingly uncomfortable atmosphere of the trailer. I have used a font called ’28 days later’ - the same typeface I used in my other titles and poster. The font and the effect I have used – ‘Bad TV’ – makes the title shake, adding a sense of tension and flagging the nature of the film. This is similar to the film ‘Control’.

According to conventions, the titles in thriller trailers are often the final shot – the memorable ending, teasing the viewer to go to the cinema to see what happens. Alongside my title I have positioned a clip from my filming of the person in a mask, which for the first time in my trailer, is shot which pauses on the face, rather than quick shows of the villain that aren’t through a window or through a mirror. This is to give the trailer both a memorable ending and also encourages the viewer want too see the film. Technically, I cropped the image of the masked intruder and zoomed in. I then moved the image too the right of the title. The title sequence is not dissimilar to that of ‘The Strangers’. Both show the faint image of a person in the background behind the title, though ‘The Strangers’ is arguably more subtle.

Another convention of thriller films is to have a short and unforgettable title that stands out.

9. THE IDENT

My trailer opens on my ident, ‘Lee Ray Motions.’ The idea for this was developed and produced using Flash. The little amount of detail and special effects tries to achieve the affect of a low budget production company, implying a low budget film, intended to be similar to those of smaller companies like ‘Film London’ and ‘Metrodome.’ However, it was clear from looking at conventional teaser trailers that they are normally used when the audience already has enough of a relationship with either the characters or series, not too need a full explanation. For example, merely using the ‘Batman’ logo, sets up a clear audience expectation of what they are about too see. The same is true of hearing the ‘James Bond’ theme music.

SOUND

Although a main convention for a trailer in terms of sound is Dialogue, within my trailer, we only hear one main voice, that of Charlotte talking on the phone, we are left who is on the other end of the phone. Many thrillers, use dramatic voiceovers, however I decided against this and, in a sense, used titles to the same effect. I used a mixture of music (in the beginning) and sound effects to create a sense of suspense and unease. Rather than using a soundtrack at the end, instead I layered several sound effects over each other.

Evaluation Trailer 2: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from you audience feedback? on Prezi

Evaluation Trailer 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research and evaluation stages?

As well as developing my skills on final cut, I also used many other technologies too help me throughout my construction stages; mainly I have used the internet, to find and record the majority of my research.

Other media technologies I used to help formulate my ideas:

YouTube, this I used a lot in the beginning to help with my research, simply searching different trailers to help me with my ideas. I also used it to upload all my videos, including my recce, storyboard animation and my practice of my fonts using the effect ‘Light Ray’s.’ Finally, to help me with my ident, I used a flash tutorial of YouTube. For my evaluation I also learnt how to tag my own YouTube uploads.

Throughout my whole course, I have posted all my work on Blogger, posting all my work and also embedding links, Prezi images and different You Tube video. As well as using my own blogger, I also used other blogs to help with my creativity, especially using ‘Get ahead OCR.’

Paranormal Activity Website

http://www.paranormalmovie.com/

The lay out of this website is an effect I would like to give off in my website. Everything about the poster tells me about what genre it is, the colors uses, and all the pictures and links. This is an effect that I would like to show within my website as I think it is vital for the audience to understand what they are watching.

Poster Development

I originally started with this image which i too, this was an idea i used from the poster, 'Let the Right One In.' I like the hand print and being able too see the faint outline of the face. However when looking at it in terms of my poster, it needed too be darker, and give a greater understanding as to what happens in the film, and also what genre it is. I wanted a distorted effect for my poster, and the background of this photograph helped me too give this effect. Therefore all the layers, apart from the text, were placed behind the original image. With all images added, i edited 'Opacity' effect and also 'fill.'

I then added the effect, 'watercolor' and i played around with lowering the shadows and the different colors, finally coming with the outcome of this. However as one of the unique selling points of the trailer is its location, I thought it was vital that e get an idea of that in the poster. The effect watercolor and the background of the original image blended together, gave the distorted effect that i was hoping for.

As i filmed in HD, i was able too use grabs from my footage too use in my poster, i simply saved the clip as a still image and saved it a photoshop file, and then added it as an extra layer. I did this with the still of the house in the top left, and also for the mask shot.





The house grab, I enhanced the coloring, especially for the drive way and the green lawn. I decided too keep the ray of sunshine from the top right, which in the final poster, the brightness of the hand, gives the effect that the sunshine is shinging onto the hand. The grab of the mask, I cut out in photoshop and then added effects and edited the coloring.

I finally added, the lettering, however i decided that there was too bigger difference, from the busyness of the top of the trailer, in comparison to the blackout space at the bottom. although, i have not added my billing block, tag line and certification, I still felt that there is a chance that the poster would not be a memorable one.

First Drafts for Film Poster

Another idea i used for my trailer, was an idea similar to the film poster 'Let the Right One In.'

Too get this effect, I started with the original photograph and played around with the shadows, the brightness and also the contrast. Then i went on to use different filters and effects. Then finally, I tested different Colours.

To develop this, I used the crop tool, to remove the face in the glass.

First Drafts for Film Poster

I have used a grab taken from the footage of my actual trailer. I started by using the clone tool, and removing the car in the drive in the right hand corner, i then tried out many different filters and the filter used currently is 'Watercolour.' I also then zoomed in, and have been playing around with different effects and titles, by adding and playing around with different layers.