Dear Examiner, 
I've tried to create a Blog which guides the reader through the process of creating my main and ancillary tasks. 
Through the course of the project, I believe I have developed dramatically in a number of key areas. These areas are researching into the horror genre, making sure that I am always organised with my work, working as a team and being able to meet my target audience through my trailer and two ancillary tasks. Examples of these skills can be seen in the researching and planning area of the blog and evaluation of my whole project. 


The Blog highlights some of the main tasks I've carried out through the course of the Blog, but could not possibly show all the hard work which went into the filming of our trailer and the editing of our horror trailer. 


I feel that my strengths are into planning my work, being able to follow the teams deadline and the construction of our horror trailer. Theses are evident in some of my favorite posts such as the detailed analysis of horror movie magazines, research, my front cover movie magazine and my horror movie poster. 


Finally, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read through my Blog. I hope that you find my work enjoyable and exciting. 


Yours faithfully, 
Muna Gaunt 

Q4:How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

PLANNING AND RESEARCHING: 
The first stage of the whole project was to make sure that we had researched our chosen project well. We did extensive research into the horror genre to see what kind of horror trailer we wanted to come up with. We used popular search engines such as Google and Wikipedia to research on the history of horror. The research that we had collected from the search engines inspired us with how we wanted our trailer and our ancillary tasks to look like.

The  most useful tool that allowed us to look into horror trailer was YouTube. YouTube was one of the most important factors in our researching, which allowed us to analyse horror trailers thoroughly. YouTube was crucially important in showing us what direction our horror trailer would take. We knew that we wanted to create something unique which had not been created before. We kept watching horror trailers making sure that our ideas would be unique and would have little elements of other professional horror trailers. We were highly inspired by the horror trailer 'The Final' where we found on YouTube.

To research for ideas and inspirations, the internet was the main source in where we would visit magazine sites such as EMPIRE, PREMIERE FILM and horror magazines, FANGORIA and HORRORHOUND.

BLOGGER:

I had used Blogger again this year as I felt that it was successful in my last years foundation portfolio and would again be as successful this year. Blogger allows me to keep my work up-to-date and manage my time effectively, as I was able to priorities my time equally from planning to filming. My teacher was also able to look at my work easily on blogger and help me on making improvements. Throughout this course I think that Blogger has been an excellent place in where I was able to keep my work without knowing that I would lose pieces of work. Overall, it has made it much easier for me to keep looking back on my work and to keep improving without major problems or issues.

SKYDRIVE: 

As a group we created our own Hotmail account and used a fantastic feature called 'Sky-Drive' which allowed us to upload our clips that we had filmed for our horror trailer. It was easy for our group to go online and view the clips then edit segments their selves. This made sure that we did not waste time and used our time effectively.


SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES:

Social Networking sites was another important factor in providing me feedback from my promotional package. It was also used to advertise my products so that audiences were aware of my products and showed me if I had met the conventions of horror throughout the three tasks. Even though there was mainly advantages in using the social network sites, there was some disadvantages too for example a lack of responses from the audience. Even though I was asking for audiences to watch and comment, there was some comments that were not appropriate for my work. However, I would always use social networking sites to promote as its an effective and quick way to get your product out to the audiences eyes. 

PHOTOSHOP:

Photoshop was used mainly to make my two ancillary tasks. As I had used the software last year I was familiar with it and was able to use it quickly to make the movie poster and magazine front cover. I loved using Photoshop as I was comfortable with it and kept going back to make improvements after showing my target audience the drafts poster and magazine front cover. I did have a couple of technical difficulties with Photoshop but was able to use Macromedia Fireworks to sort out the issues.   

MACROMEDIA FIREWORKS:

Macromedia was a software that I had to get used to this year, when I had problems with Photoshop I had to use another software which was similar. Macromedia Fireworks allowed me to edit parts of my two ancillary tasks. For example, the bit in where I have circled red was added on in Macromedia Fireworks after I had saved  it in a wrong area on Photoshop. This again allowed me to add improvements on my poster to make sure that it looked professional and I was keeping the the right conventions of a movie poster. 

MICROSOFT POWERPOINT:

Microsoft Powerpoint was a good software in where we could plan our ideas for our horror trailer and share them with each other and the class. Microsoft Powerpoint was easy to use as I've used it before many times. 

FILMING EQUIPMENT

CAMERAS:

This is the camera that we had used to film our trailer. Even though we were unfortunate to not be able to use professional filming camera we were happy as this camera had a good quality to it and was HD. This gave us a professional look to our trailer. If we did have a budget for our trailer we would of loved to use filming camera's like the one below. 

TRIPOD: 

The tripod was a useful filming equipment as it was used in the majority of the filming of our trailer. It helped us shoot our still scenes and the scenes in where we had to pan, zoom and tilt. 

WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER:

At the beginning of the making of our horror trailer, we played around and tried to use Windows Movie Maker which was the only available software on our school computers. We felt that Windows Movie Maker was a difficult software to use as we was not familiar with it and it had basic features which we found difficult to use to keep our trailer looking as professional as it could. Luckily, we were fortunate to use I-movie which helped us significantly in the editing of our horror trailer. 

I-MOVIE: 

I-movie was used for the editing of the horror trailer. The software which was used on a i-mac laptop allowed us to edit together a professional looking horror trailer. The software was also easy to use and did not waste time for our group. We were able to keep going back to make improvements on the trailer. When editing we were able to keep to the horror conventions easily by cutting the lengths of our video's (if they were too long) to create a fast paced, tensed horror trailer. Overall, I felt that we were fortunate to use the i-movie software, it was easy to use and made our trailer look professional that followed the horror conventions. 

Throughout the process of the making of our ancillary tasks to the making of our trailer, the technology that we used was easy enough to use and gave us a great trailer in the end. 

Q3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

 The Importance of  Audience Feedback:

Audience feedback is essentially crucial in allowing me to target my audience successfully. The feedback that I gain helps me to look back and analyse my promotional package, so that I may have time to make changes as soon as possible after listening to my target audience. Below are the feedback that I had gained from my target audience.:

POSTER:

When asking students in my college what they thought of my horror poster this was the feedback that I had received:  

'The poster looks really professional and would stand out on billboards' 

' The blue door doesn't fit to the horror conventions, but it makes the tag-line 'time to repent' stand out' 

'I love the fact that the smashed windows look as though there eyes and it's staring right at you .. It defiantly scares me' 

' The use of the gold cross in 'SIN' has been cleverly used as you would associate the word 'SIN' with evil things' 

'The poster looks really mysterious and it would make me go to watch the film' 

The comments above were overall great and showed me that I was fitting most of the conventions horror. There were some feedback my target audience gave me to make changes such as the color of the door in the poster. One of the changes to make were that a member of the audience thought that the 'blue door does not fit the horror conventions'. I then went back on Photoshop to edit the door and add the conventional color black. As you can see below I manipulated the color of the door and made it look slightly more sinister. After doing this, I then went back to my target audience and asked them if they now preferred this style to the other poster. Their opinions had changed and they thought that there was 'too much black on the poster, you couldn't see the tagline well, and it didn't fit well with the whole style of the poster'. 

This showed me the importance of feedback from my target audience as I had changed to make improvements and could see if there was a good outcome in keeping the changes or if my original poster was more effective to fit the horror conventions. 

MOVIE MAGAZINE:

When asking students for their views and opinions on my movie magazine, this is what the target audience had said: 

'The magazine looks really professional'

'I love the fact that you can't see the killers face, it makes it more mysterious' 

' The colors suit together and fit the horror conventions' 

'You used the classical black and red to show the genre of the magazine' 

'I think you could have added more pictures on the front cover to make it more interesting' 

The feedback that I  had received showed me that I had met most of the conventions of a horror magazines like other professional magazines.

There was some great comments overall for the horror magazine, however if I was to make improvements I would of tried to add more pictures on the front cover to see if it looked better and then see what the target audience thought. Here are some horror magazine that have more than one picture on their front cover. I could of styled out my magazine to a similar layout to these: 

POSTING MY HORROR MAGAZINE AND POSTER ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES:

I then posted my horror poster and movie magazine on social networking sites to get the general public's opinion and feedback. This is again important as my horror poster will be able to reach a wide range of audience and give me a variety of feedback. I used the two most powerful and popular social sites:

TWITTER FEEDBACK: (change to horror poster) 

Once I uploaded my movie poster on 'Twitter' these were the comments that I had received online: 

'I thought it was a real horror poster, its really good' 

'I like how it's different to other horror magazine as you haven't used the conventional black and red throughout the whole poster' 

'The use of the blue door is quite different, I wouldn't of used that color though' 

As you can see, I had received a comment about the color of the door used again. This clearly showed me that the it does not wholly fit the conventions of a horror poster. However, as we are so used to seeing dark colors throughout horror posters used it may catch audiences attention as it's something that they have not seen before. One member of the audience thought that the color of the door was 'effective in capturing the audiences attention as the tagline stands out'. This was a positive comment on the color of the door and made me look at it in a different perspective. 

Uploading my poster on Facebook:

                                                         

The above image shows me trying to get audience feedback from the public for my movie magazine and movie poster. 

Uploading my magazine on Facebook:

After uploading my movie magazine I received comments such as

VIDEO FEEDBACK:
Here is a video of the feedback that I received from the members of my target audience:


TRAILER:

I had also used 'YouTube' to promote my horror trailer. YouTube acts as an important factor to promoting my horror trailer as its free and allows people to globally give me feedback on the trailer. The pictures below show how many people have viewed the trailer and the comments that I had received from audiences.

YOUTUBE:

The above images shows the number of views increasing over time. This shows that YouTube is a successful software in allowing our trailer to be aired all over the world for our target audience to watch and provide feedback. 

The picture below shows when the audience were viewing our trailer and how frequent. As you can see 2 people have made our trailer one of their favorite video's which shows that our trailer is beginning to become quite successful. 

This picture below shows were the audience are viewing our trailer. As you can see our horror trailer is being watched world-wide from the UK to South America. 

  

Overall, I feel that our audience feedback has been successful. The most significant thing that we have learnt throughout the audience feedback is the changes to meet and if I had met the horror conventions correctly. Collecting audience feedback is crucial as it shows us if we have met the target audiences needs within our horror trailer. This brings in the 'Audience gratification' theory in where we explore why audiences watch particular media texts and what they get from the media text, for example the thrill of being scared from watching a horror film. Media Institutions collect audience feedback through test screening in where audiences go and watch the film before it has been released to see if it meets their needs as an audience. After they will provide feedback on what they liked/enjoyed and the improvements, this then gives the film institutions a chance to adjust parts of the film, for example if the target audience did not like the ending they will then change the ending to meet their needs and gratification. This is why audience feedback is a significant part within the making and releasing of films. 

Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As you can see below these are the two ancillary tasks that I had to complete, a movie poster and magazine front cover to promote my trailer 'House of Sins'. 

To promote my film successfully I would advertise my film on billboards, social networking sites, apple trailers and a website dedicated to the film. All these methods would be effective as it would promote my film to my target audience which will create recognition or 'hype' around the film, and therefore the target audience will go to watch or buy the film.

As our film does not have a budget we had to work with the little resources and equipment we had. However, if we had a budget for the promotion of our film, these are the four stages of campaign I would use from help of Foursquare to promote the theatrical release of my film.

Digital innovation in distribution (UK FILM COUNCIL)

As our film does not have a budget we had to work with the little resources and equipment we had. However, if we had a budget for the promotion of our film, these are the four stages of campaign I would use from help of Foursquare to promote the theatrical release of my film.

Campaign Stage 1:

The teaser press release was sent out to online publications such as social networking sites of the Foursquare initiative. Information around the film remained vague at this stage with fans only being able to access the film website. The website had little information on the film and gave them a date of when the trailer would air on the website. (They audiences were allowed to set a reminder on that day of when the trailer would be released)

Campaign Stage 2:

Once the audience were able to watch the trailer, they were then able to enter their email address and claim for free tickets to watch the film at cinema’s venues like Vue and Cineworld. To reward early entries an exclusive clip was made available through Foursquare in where they could watch a ‘sneak peak’ of the film

Campaign Stage 3:

The press release of the film was forward as audiences were then able to follow a twitter page dedicated to the film. Here they were able to leave their views on the film and have a collective experience with other members. Competitions were also aired on twitter to promote the film and create’hype’ around the film.

Campaign Stage 4:

For the week of release, the campaign released a mobile app that was downloadable on smart phones. Here they were able to use an application that exclusively gave them times and dates of the film shown at Vue and Cineworld. The mobile application had profiles on the actors within the film and allowed audiences to sign up and leave comments on the film.
Below is a picture of the popular smart phone with the 'House of Sins' app downloaded: 

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

A2 COURSEWORK: What did we have to do this year?


We had to create a promotional package for an upcoming horror film this consisted of 3 compulsory tasks, magazine cover,  horror movie poster and a  horror movie trailer which was broadcasted on YouTube.

But before we started making the promotional package we had to research into real media products and how they advertised their products to it's audiences.   

How are audiences informed about a new film?
Billboards:









Social Sites:

Youtube:

Website:

Apple Trailers: 

Interviews:

Film institutions advertise their films in many ways from billboards to interviews. Their main aim is to get consumers and audiences to buy or watch their products. One way of doing this is allowing audiences to access film trailers easily for example, watching film trailers on Youtube.  Advertising is crucial for film institutions as they want audiences to go watch their films.  Promotions are also carried out through TV slots, billboards, social networking sites, websites and interviews.   So for our work to be similar to theirs we had to as a group think of creative ways to catch our target audiences attention. 

HORROR GENRE:Research
When creating my promotional package, I had to research into other professional products such as, magazine front covers, film posters and horror trailers.

HORROR MAGAZINE:

When researching horror magazines we began to look closely into other professional magazines so we could stick to the main conventions such as, a clear masthead, taglines, article features, barcodes and the main image. The magazines below show the typical conventions of a horror magazine which I followed clearly in creating my own magazine. 

PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINES

MY OWN MAGAZINE

ANALYZING MY MAGAZINE: 

MASTHEAD:

 

When picking my mast head I picked out several styles but thought that this was the most suitable font for my magazine as it fitted to the horror genre. I wanted my mast head to stand out and catch the audience's eye which is why I stuck to the use of red, which suggests blood and death. This again fits with the conventions of a horror magazine as all of the above magazines have used that color. Additionally, this will attract my target audience as they will know straight away from the font of the title that the genre is horror.  

MAIN IMAGE:

As you can see I have followed the conventions of having the killer in the middle of the magazine. As my magazine is targeted to a horror audience I made sure that the weapon (spade) was visible to be seen by the audience, like the scream magazine. I edited the picture into black and white and changed the lighting so that the audiences attention would be mainly on the blood, which is centered on the spade. When editing the photo in photoshop I focused on the blood as other horror magazine focus on themes of death and danger. Many magazines have the main character, killer, victim or actor in the middle of the magazine. This is to help promote the film so audiences read the magazine and also go to watch the film(s).  

Here are examples of magazines that have the main character/actor on their front cover:

ARTICLE FEATURES:

After looking at different magazine to pick out a style layout. I was influenced by this horror magazine as it was clear and would be effective for my audience. I had looked at other styles of layouts but didn't think it would compliment my horror film. Here are examples of other horror magazines that I thought were over-the-top and did not fit the appropriate conventions for my horror film.

Overall, I felt that I had followed the correct conventions in making a professional looking front cover magazine.


HORROR TRAILER: 
When researching on horror trailers, YouTube was a great resource for watching and analyzing horror film trailers. I became familiar with horror conventions in trailers and started adapted these conventions into my trailer so that I was clearly following the typical conventions and targeting the existing target audience. I began to watch popular horror trailers such as, Paranormal Activity, The Exorcist, Wrong Turn and SAW. While watching these horror trailer, we started to think of the story line and if we wanted our film to have elements of  slasher, serial killers or zombie film .
Below were the trailers that we began looking at: 

After looking at these trailers we decided to start looking at horror trailers that had young children/teenagers playing the killer. We thought the idea of having a teenage killer would be interesting and would be easier for us to create. We were highly influenced by these horror trailers, The Omen, The Final and The Orphan.
Below are the trailers we were inspired by: 

COMPARING OUR TRAILER WITH 'THE FINAL':

 As you can see we thought about the shot and mise-en-scene well as it fits with the convention of a horror setting. The stairs indicate to the audience that something terrible will happen or is about to happen. The close-up of his legs and the weapon clearly highlights to the audience what character this person is and what he represents within the trailer. The use of his costume also shows that he is the 'killer' as its dark which is stereo-typically known to connote evil.

 The close up shot shows the victim being dragged away which is similar to 'The Final' trailer. Even thought they have used a bird eye views shot, we felt that the close up shot would cause more tension for the audience as it flashes from different images and would create a more 'horror' experience for my target audience.

This long-shot shows that we have again thought about the shot type used as it shows the audience that they are running away from danger or into danger. The audience can see this as the characters are running away from the light and into the dark, this shows that we have thought about the composition of the shot and the idea/contrast of 'light and dark'.






























The above pictures are comparisons of the movie that we were influenced by 'The Final' which follows a similar story line. As you can see we have kept to the conventions of a horror trailer by using dark lighting, the killer's weapon shown clearly and the struggle of the victims.


Conventions of a trailer: David Coultas on making movie trailers.

• Cinema trailers are almost around two minutes long (so you can never tell the whole story)
• Classic formula for a trailer is in 3 parts. The first 25 secs or so set up the characters and the world they live in. The second shows where they are going and in the third you are given a glimpse of how things continue. 
• Right at the start, the trailer needs a line, hook or a sound that will grab the audiences interest so that they watching the rest of the trailer. 
• The use of music in a horror trailer is incredibly important and effective especially if  you have a big budget. 
• The use of narration is important in telling part of the story to the audience. David Coultas explains that an American accent voice-over is effective in trailers to distant the audience instead of having a English accent voice-over. 

I felt that we had followed the correct conventions in making our trailer as professional as possible with help from David Coultas': The rules on making movie trailers. We tried to add all the typical conventions needed to make it a successful trailer however, as we didn't have a budget we had to work with the limited resources that was available to us.

MOVIE POSTER: 
When researching Horror movie posters, I was again looking out for the stereotypical conventions that are found in most movie posters. Here are some examples of horror movie magazines that I took inspiration from:

 I could see from these horror posters that they were quite minimalistic and thought that this would be the best way to attract my target audience.


Here is the list of conventions that I had analysed:

• There is usually a close up of the main character and a location. The mise-en-scene needs to represent the genre, in his case horror. Therefore the stereotypical locations would be a graveyard, basement, church etc. The characters on the poster would either be the killer or the vulnerable victim. The protagonist would be shown as vulnerable and a sense of fear would be shown through their facial expression. The antagonist will create suspense and cause fear for the audience. 
• Narrative –Some of the narrative may be shown in the movie poster, this could be visually with an image or with text. 
• Colours –The colours on a movie posters often represent the genre. Therefore, for a horror movie the colour would consist of black, red and white.
• Layout –The conventional layout for all movie posters is that there is a straplineat the top, a main image, the title of the film, a tagline, and a release date.

HOUSE OF SINS MOVIE POSTER:

As you can see my film poster has all the typical conventions to make it look like a professional movie poster.

Overall, throughout the process of making my promotion package I felt that I have kept to the correct conventions in making my poster, trailer and magazine front cover so that it attracts my target audience effectively. I have consitently analysed proferssional products to make sure that my promotion package is kept to a high standard.