- 1. Evaluation Questions I will be answering four evaluation
questions based upon the research, planning and construction of my
practical coursework assignment, which was to create; a Film
trailer, poster and film magazine front cover. The four questions
are: 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 2. How
effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary
texts? 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback? 4. How
did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
2. Question 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? In the
initial pre-production stage of research and planning, I looked at
plenty of existing trailers, posters and magazines in my chosen
genre (thriller) and then picked three of each product to analyse
in depth. These can be seen at the top of my blog page. My the main
aim of this task was to uncover the forms and conventions of real
thriller film trailers, posters and also film magazine front covers
I have decided to separate my answer to this questions breaking it
down into Trailer Poster Magazine 3. Trailer Storyline/ narrative,
pace, target audience, sound both diegetic and non-diegetic, voice
overs, typography, types of shots and pace are some of the things I
closely considered. I decided to follow most of the conventions of
real media products, as I wanted my audience to be able to easily
recognise what my products were and also the genre they belonged
too. Shots I noticed that close-up shots especially of characters
faces and their expressions at key points were conventional of real
thriller trailers that I analysed such as Se7en. I followed this
convention using close-up shots at crucial parts of the trailer
such as; when Rachels friends are being kidnapped 4. Trailer shots
Sam has been kidnapped in this shot and, her kidnapper (the
eliminator) is opening the door to where she has been locked away.
The close up shot has exaggerated the terror and fear in her facial
expression. Allowing the audience to easily sympathise with the
character (Sam). Furthermore, the angle used in this shot is a
slight high-angle which is used to make the object seem inferior
typically used for the damsel in distress. 5. Trailer shots Also,
when Rebecca, is tied up, I have filmed this scene using a close-up
shot when you see her hands struggling to untie her legs, once
again in order to for the audience to be able to tell this is a key
scene and instantly notice that Rebecca is tied up so they are
aware she is being eliminated. I also slowed this scene down to
create more of an impact This also helped me to realise how the
combination of sound, type of shot, pace and angle can work
together to create a suspense filled atmosphere which evokes
feelings of anxiety in the viewers. 6. Trailer shots Alternatively,
close ups have been used in real thriller trailers in order to
create a sense of mystery such as in se7ens trailer with the
metronome and the feet. The viewer is unaware of the whole context
of the shot (mise-en-scene) therefore, without this information
they are left asking questions such as; who/what is that? What is
happening? I used a close-up shot for to add mystery to my trailer,
this was at the beginning of the trailer; there is a close-up of
gloved hands rubbing together, in hopes of getting the viewer to
ask themselves questions already such as; what is that, (after
realising its hands) then, whos hands are they? Who is this person?
And what is there role/ significance in the film? 7. Narrative
Throughout the A2 course I have been learning media theory, one of
the main theories have been Narrative theory from this I know that
there are two different types of narrative range; unrestricted and
restricted, thrillers are most likely to have restricted narration
which is when only minimal information is offered regarding the
narrative, this is mostly used in thrillers since they are
characteristically mysterious and suspense building this can only
be achieved if parts of the narrative are restricted. Non-diegetic
sound such as sound effects beginning airy and low and with the
occasional loud bang which interrupts scenes with statements and
questions, giving the audience more to question themselves about
hopefully making them want to pay and watch the film, sine the film
is a commodity I am trying to sell. 8. Narrative I have managed to
keep the narrative of my trailer restricted just like the real
trailers through a range of different techniques such as, camera
shots, angles, sound and edits/ transitions. I have achieved this
mainly by using a lot of close- up, meaning that the audiences view
is literally restricted not allowing them to see the whole setting,
which hides clues and information 9. Narrative Todorov believed
that all films follow the same narrative pattern of : 1. State of
Equilibrium at bus stop 2. Disruption of the Equilibrium Sam
screams 3. Recognition there has been a disruption Rachel calls
Sam, Rebecca's mum at door 4. An attempt to repair the damage of
the disruption Missing posters, Rachel walking around 5. A return
of restoration or new equilibrium My trailer has left this as a
mystery so the audience will have to watch the full film to find
out the ending, this is what real trailers do. However, since this
is a trailer only the first three steps are completely evident and
the third partly, if all steps were established in the trailer the
audience would feel no need to watch the film in cinemas. 10.
Typography There is a regular occurrence of Roman styled fonts used
in thriller trailers dark and mysterious tone of the genre. I also
believe that some are semiotics involved in typography giving
deeper meanings/ connotations such as in se7en whereby, the ts in
the typography resemble crucifixes and the Is candles this relates
to the religious basis/ relation of the plot which is based on the
seven deadly sins. 11. Typography Additionally, for the title of
the film Seven there has been a play on the word, using a number 7
for the V, and also added a tally adding up 7. I decided to do
something similar using 1 for all of the three Is in EL1M1NAT1ON as
my tag line for the trailer and poster is one by one and also
winter is Eliminating Rachels friends to get to the ONE he wants.
12. Typography The reason why I followed this convention of the
typography and symbolism was in order to allow the audience to
easily identify the genre of the film trailer and also, so that the
films title becomes more of a brand so its recognisable by just a
glance without having to actually having to read just like what
logos and symbols do. 13. Sound Voice over Once I had previewed my
trailer after my first draft, I received feedback saying that
although the majority of participants understood the storyline, a
few did not so I considered ways to make the plot/ storyline even
clearer to viewers, I went with voice overs, as this was a
convention I often came across in my research when analyzing real
thriller trailers. However, my voice over is slightly different to
that of the real thriller trailers I had seen as it was coming from
the voice of the mysterious Eliminator who is ever fully seen,
rather than a narrators point of view, I felt this made it more
personal and gave the audience more of a connection with the
characters on screen. I however did follow the convention of the
deep tone of voice for the voice over, as I believe this adds to
the overall mystery and dark tone of the trailer. The link below is
the voice over recording before I manipulated it.
https://soundcloud.com/el1m1nat1on-project/raw-voice-over 14.
Camera movement - Handheld camera The use of a hand held camera
whilst filming denotes a kind of realism, and makes the audience
feel as though they are part of a scene, rather than viewing it
from a detached, frozen position. I decided to begin the trailer
with this type of camera movement exactly for the audience to feel
more of a connection to the trailer straight away in hopes of more
successfully grasping their attention. Allowing me to sell the
product being advertised (film views). * On the next slide you can
see a short clip of this scene 15. Camera movement 16. Characters
The age of the characters tend to be in reasonably close proximity
with that of the target audience in real trailers I believe this is
in order for the audience to be able to relate to the actors on
screen and therefore, lead to more enjoyment and understanding and
a greater ability to empathise with the characters. For this reason
my actors/ characters are an average age of 19, as my target
audience ranges from 15- 25 I feel that this is a good age allowing
them to easily relate.