Magazine Front Cover + Film Poster Final

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This is the audience reaction to my trailer. Production companies usually film the audience reaction to their trailers of their horror films, using cross media synergy of their horror film and fan sites or social networking to market my film to the mainstreamer psychographic of horror fans. A common example of this is the audience reactions to the Human Centipede Part 2 trailer, which increased publicity massively due to the depiction of the frightened fans watching the trailer, creating intrigue towards the film. I filmed a focus group of a student group e demographic because these were my target audience, the input of mainstreamer horror psychographic providing effective quality on my horror trailer and ancillary tasks.
 This is my audience response to my trailer. I filmed two school students because they represented my key target audience student demographic, one aged 16, another aged 18.


 This is my personal response to my audience feedback. i filmed myself in an interview style form
to make my video response to my feedback more creative, stylistic and imaginative. Usually, to market a film, the director will be featured in an interview talking about their films and their products. By uploading this video on YouTube, I have employed cross media convergence into the evaluation of my horror film 'The Unexpected' which can also increase advertisements of my film in a viral campaign for my horror film, a below the line form of advertising especially effective in the WEB 2.0 stage of the film industry today.

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

Through the course of my project i used a variety of media technologies including Adobe Photoshop, Piktochart and Windows Live Movie Maker to produce and present my research, production and evaluation. By combining the qualities of these digital applications,(i.e. using my informed research from my SurveyMonkey created survey for horror audience appeal to climatic trailers, to apply to my filming and editing of my trailer on Windows Live Movie Maker with close ups and jump cuts to reinforce suspense) i was able to construct a successful production by interpreting my informed research. Throughout my project i also depended on digital technologies even for simple laborious tasks such as importing my converted window media files of film footage onto my Sandisk Cruzer USB, footage which i would beforehand had to import from my Sony HD camcorder, then convert using the download/converter application aTube Catcher. The large time consumption that came with the regular use of these technologies in my research and construction stages meant that i had to create a film time availability schedule before commencing filming on the website application Doodle, sent to my actors of my trailer to fill in so i could then create a film schedule every week/fortnight to film footage that i planned with the use of a shot list and storyboard.

As a result of my developed proficiency skills in importing/exporting data consistently, i was able to learn how to learn how to upload images in minutes onto my laptop after capturing shots of my actors for my film poster and magazine front cover later on in my project. In the process of my evaluation lastly in my project i was able to use technological convergence, using a Flip camcorder to film a focus group of my student demographic target audience watching my trailer and commenting individually on my poster and magazine, and later film myself in an interview style interpreting my audience feedback. Both recorded videos on my flip camera were then uploaded to Youtube, using synergy to both advertise my film through the audience reaction to my trailer(inspired by my informed research into audience reactions to horror trailers used by real media production companies, i.e. Human Centipede 2 trailer), and also embedding the video link onto my Blogger account for my interpreting my informed research and evaluation of my main product and ancillary tasks. Web 2.0 will mean my target student demographic audience to watch my audience reaction to my trailer using Youtube or my Blogger link to the video, then also comment on the trailer both in the comment section of Youtube and Blogger, a sign of my developed proficiency in using media technologies to synergise on the user-generated content from my Blogger link of my audience reaction to my trailer, which will intrigue them and encourage them through this form of below the line viral campaigning to watch my main product trailer on Youtube itself as the link will also be on my Blog page.

Websites like Prezi, Youtube and Blogger allow me to virally interact with other viewers on the internet through the presentation of my production, research and evaluation of my project. In doing so, i have developed my use of media technologies to present my informed research, production and evaluation in visually colourful ways to interpret my project creatively.

The Unexpected (third trailer draft)

2nd draft The Unexpected trailer

First Draft 'The Unexpected' Horror Trailer

Magazine front cover & Film Poster 2nd draft

My 2nd draft of my film poster was generally praised for the use of  typical horror features. The main close up image of a masked figure in a tight frame of darkness in the mise en scene brandishing a knife is an obvious generic feature of a horror slasher film, which the target audience can identify and be familiar with, encouraging them to watch said film. the slogan/tagline 'Being bullied can scar you for life' projects sinister connotations into an onlookers mind, the emphasis of the word 'scar' in red font colour supporting the genre representation of a conventional slasher film. The slogan in addition points out the unique selling point (USP) film of my film- bullying. This social realist genre aspect of bullying generates an appeal to a young target audience of teenagers 15-18 years, whom according to the Users and Gratification Audience subsection theory of personal relationships and identity, will relate strongly to the concept of a horror built around a school or experiences of bullying at their age.
However, their are many essential aspects of the film poster which this draft lacks or doesn't have. Firstly, the general font and typography of the poster(excluding the credit blocks at the bottom) have the same kind of font. Additionally, there is a lot of dead space on the page, which doesn't make the poster really appealing. Furthermore, there is no release date on the page, so any onlooker whom were interested in the poster would not have any further information than the title. slogan and credit blocks. A particular grievance was the mask on the poster. This mask is iconic for being the mask of the protagonist in the 2005 thriller film V for Vendetta, so any association for the target audience would be with this film, not anyone from my poster. I need to particularly change the mask of the poster so my target audience won't associate with another film and demote any appeal to my trailer, magazine or poster.

My magazine front cover second draft was praised by my teacher for the overlapping effect of the masthead, as well as the blur effect of the blade in the main image- which supports the generic representation of a slasher horror genre. An issue that I need to build on is my font. Similarly to my poster draft, my font type was the same all over the page, and a generic magazine covers have at least two or three font types. Similarly, the main image of the masked figure holding a knife is blurred- which has a good effect on the knife motioned like it will cut the page- however the quality of the general image is decreased.