EVALUATION

PART 1

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

My media uses the forms and conventions of real media products as I made the killer in my teaser horror trailer to resemble the girl in the Amityville Horror which was directed by a man called Andrew Douglas and even though I researched into the old version 1979, the girl that I was inspired by was from the modern version. I was 

particularly inspired by this actress as I felt as if her make up was

very effective and frightened its audience especially with particular 

scenes such as the picture on the right which shows the actress

showing the hole in her head from where she got shot. I decided

when I was brain storming for what make up I was going to use on 

my actress (the killer) I was going to use the same kind of effect

so I used fake blood and made a circle on the killers head in the same

position as the actress from the Amityville Horror. But as I didn't

want this to be exactly the same as the actress I was inspired by

I wanted to make my own actress more unique so I trickled some

of the blood down beside her eye and then added more fake blood

to the rest of her face to make it more obvious when I was doing

my filming.

As during my research I found that many popular and successful

horror films included a little girl, which extremely scares the

target audiences I chose to do the same effect which challenged real media products as I made sure that my killer was smaller than my victim so it showed the difference between them and my target audience could make out that my killer was a lot younger than the victim. I also researched and learnt that there was a huge number of people that would be more scared of younger killers such as children more than adults, and the main reason for this is because children are more vulnerable. 

When it came to clothing I challenged real media products as from the film 'The Grudge' as I used the same colour outfit as what the girl killer in The Grudge wears which is a white dress so I used an old nightie for my actress to wear. The reason I chose to use the outfit from this film instead of The Amityville horror is because I thought it made a better contrast between the dark hair colour of my actress. However, I combined both these films and challenged them as for the hair style I put my actress' hair straight down and put gel in the front of it to make it look greasy, with a middle parting. 


I also put fake blood on my actress' legs and ripped parts of her clothing. When I ripped my actress' clothing I made it look like there were a few knife slits in it as well and added fake blood onto the outfit. I made her go barefoot as when I researched into horror films most of the young killers were not wearing shoes. 

I also used shots which I witnessed in 'The Grudge' like the shot in the mirror where the killer can be seen behind the victim and I used shots like this because I noticed that it is in many more films and this challenged real media products as I knew that this was a very popular shot however attracted people to watch the film and also frightened the audiences. 

During my teaser trailer I challenged real media products as I used different shots which I had seen in the trailers that I had researched before the making and editing of my horror teaser trailer such as The Grudge and Amityville Horror as I used a shot of my killer doing and 'shhh' action with her finger over her mouth and this is also included in the Amityville Horror in the girls bedroom. From The Grudge I used the action of my own actress tilting her head to the side which is particularly shown in The Grudge. 

PART 2

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

I was pleased with the outcome of both my poster and my magazine front cover for my as I feel as if I have really combined my ancillary tasks and to make sure they were recognisable to my target audience I displayed both of the photographs that I was going to use to members of my target audience to make sure that they thought the two photographs combined and were easily recognised. Luckily, my target audience agreed with my personal opinion of these photographs.

However, my first design of my magazine included the photograph on the left (the killer at the door) but then I was very unsatisfied with the finished magazine cover so I thought the best idea was to change the main image on the front cover as this was the main element that was going to attract the attention of my target audience and my audience would be able to recognise the image more easily this way.

So I decided to display to members of my target audience four different pictures and got them to individually vote, without any other influences, which photograph they wanted to see on the front of the new edit of my magazine cover and I also asked them to make sure they would recognise this image for the teaser trailer. The main image below shown on the magazine was the chosen one by my target audience:

I used the same person in both of my ancillary tasks which was the killer so that my target audience would easily be able to recognise this film when they see a photograph of this girl who is the killer and the same kind of photograph combines both of my tasks together. I kept the title of the film 'POSSESSED' in the same font, capitals and similar sizes so that it was very similar to one another so that this combined by of my ancillary tasks. I also put a '15' certificate on both of my poster and magazine covers and used the words 'Chilling, Moving, Shocking' on both as these were words that described the film. I made sure that the release date was written on both of my ancillary tasks and I combined these by putting them both in the colour red. 

PART 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When it came to asking my target audience (ages 16-25) for their feedback, I found this time consuming, however it was extremely helpful and I believe that my final products of my teaser trailer, magazine cover and poster for the film would not be as effective as they are now if I did not consider asking for feedback constantly.

This made me learn throughout my experience of creating my teaser trailer what my target audience were looking for and even though I done alot of research into horror teaser trailers I still did not receive the complete information I needed in order to target my specific audience so I learnt that it was best for my media product to collect primary data so that I could make sure I matched what my target audience wanted. 

 I displayed to my target audience on a questionnaire four different photographs that I took when I was filming and asked which one was the most effective in their eyes, caught their attention the most and that they wanted to see on the poster for this specific film.

The photograph on the left hand side was the most popular and voted for. Even though I decided to go with the majority vote for the photograph that I was going to use, I thought I was very lucky as there was only a couple of my target audience that chose another photograph. I also wanted this particular photograph to be voted for as it was my personal favourite and I wanted this to be the poster's main photograph.

Final Poster:

This was the final poster for my horror teaser trailer. During the process of making and editing this I decided that I needed audience feedback when I had potentially finished my poster, however, the poster looked like this at this certain stage:

 From my audience feedback I learnt that the two words 'SHOCKING' and 'CHILLING' were not very effective and my target audience found that it was hard to read them so I made sure that I changed this, because I still wanted to include these words on my poster I just wrote them landscape so that it was easier for my audience feedback to read them. I also included the certificate as my target audience feedback allowed me to realise that they did not know whether they were legal to watch this film. So I made it obvious that it was directly aimed at them, I then added the unanswered question 'but when will she arrive?' which I planned to write in my teaser trailer, the reason I decided to write this on the left hand side of the poster is because my target audience said they wanted more persuasion to watch the film and to scare them more. I moved a couple of other things around to make the poster look more presentable with the changes that my target audience wanted to see. I was pleased that I decided to ask my audience for feedback on my poster as it allowed me to learn what they wanted to see and I changed my poster in order to aim it more directly at them.

Final Magazine Cover:

When I had changed the main image on my magazine cover this was the final magazine cover for my horror teaser trailer. During the process of making and editing this I decided that I needed audience feedback when I had potentially finished my magazine cover, however, the magazine cover looked like this at this certain stage:

From my audience feedback I learnt that the main photograph that I used was not as effective as I needed it to be in order to attract the attention of my target audience. So I decided that I needed to change the main image. I made a questionnaire and asked my audience out of a variety of four photographs that I had taken which one that they wanted to see on the front cover of my magazine cover, the image present was the more popular image and the one that I chose to use. However, to make this more effective I edited this image to make it more frightening and darker.

^^^This is the original image.

NEW FINAL MAGAZINE COVER:

 Filming feedback:

FINISHED HORROR TEASER TRAILER:

What I changed/cut out and used.
 Their were a few shots that I was unsure of so in order to prevent my target audience from being disappointed with my teaser trailer I made sure that I asked for their opinion.

From this particular shot I learnt that it was much too long to be included in the teaser trailer. However, as I needed this clip to be included in the trailer I asked my target audience what I could do to improve this clip.
To build up suspense and tension but also keep my target audience attracted I decided that I needed to take out the girl talking during this clip and to just have her opening the door and seeing the killer outside. This way the clip would be frightening to my target audience but appropiate for the genre that I have used as it would be short, quick and build up tension for my target audience. After I had made these changes I showed it to my target audience to make sure that I had made the right decision and done it in the way that they expected me to. I learnt that I had made the correct decision in asking my target audience and also to double check with them that it was what they expected, this is because my target audience told me that I needed to make the clip even shorter. So I started this clip when the victims hand touches the door handle to open the door, and when this was played back to my target audience they were much happier with this and said it was effective as it looked like she had been chased and made the film have a much quicker rhythm.

I chose to not include this particular clip in my teaser trailer as I decided to change the storyboard so this particular clip did not fit in with my new storyboard. Also, I felt as if this clip was too long to include especially after having feedback from other clips that my target audience told me that was too long. In order to make sure that I was making the right decision I asked members of my target audience whether they thought that I should include this, and if they answered 'yes' and gave a reason why I would then make sure I changed my storyboard again in order to target my audience. However, the members of my target audience also told me that they believed it did not fit in with the other clips and they did not want to see it.

The clips shown above are all shots of the killer which I chose to keep in my horror teaser trailer. I personally decided that I wanted to keep these in because I thought they would have a huge effect on my chosen target audience. The clips seem to build tension and make the teaser trailer seem more frightening and this is the effect that I thought they would have on my target audience. I had to make sure I was making the right decision so in order to make sure I was, I asked members of my target audience if they wanted these clips to be shown in my teaser trailer. I also asked them how they felt after they watched these clips of the killer and to write down one word. A few words in my feedback  that I received was:
- Frightened
- Tense
- Shocked
- Surprised
- Shaken

This helped me and I learnt that I made the right decision and even though it was my own work I tried to look at it from a different perspective so that I could understand what my target audience would want to see. 

PART 4

  

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

There were many programmes that I used throughout my media project which were:

-Blogger

- Windows live movie maker

- imovie

- Picmonkey

- Photoshop

 - Youtube
- Scanner

I used blogger throughout my media project to publish the work that I had done. This included all the planning, editing, production and the evaluating of my work. Even though I used this programme for my AS coursework I also learnt more skills this year like how to upload a youtube video onto my blog and I done this instead of just pasting a link. I found this website extremely basic and easy to use which made it alot easier when it came to uploading my work onto this website. It was also quick and allowed me to view my own work with the tool of 'view blog' which was obvious to see and simple as it opened up a new page so I was still able to view my separate posts and edit them.

However, throughout making my teaser trailer I encountered many problems as I wasn't able to upload my clips onto certain programmes. I began to edit my film onto Windows Live movie maker, however, it was unlucky that as soon as I had nearly finished my film (expect sound and effects) the programme came up with many yellow triangles by my clips telling me that there were errors. So I decided to use another programme called'imovie' but I encountered problems on this aswell due to the type of clip I had and it would not work on this programme, I tried to change the clip type but it was not working so I made the decision that I could not use this programme. The technicians managed to sort out the problems which the media students were having with this particular programme so I was able to view my film and carry on editing it.

I used the programmes Picmonkey and photoshop to edit some of my pictures, for example the photograph which is used on the front of my magazine is edited using Picmonkey, I learnt new skills on this but I found it very easy to use and it was extremely useful as it had a number of different effects and different things that you can do with different pictures. I had no problems with this programme.

I used Youtube to upload my videos so I could upload them onto my blog and access the progress of my editing. I found this quite easy as I already had a Youtube account so I didnt have to take the time to make an account which could have had been time consuming.

EVALUATION FOR THE CHANGES MADE TO MY 

TASKS AND PRODUCTS:

My two tasks are shown above after I decided to change them, I asked members of my target audience for help during this decision as I knew that their feedback was going to be beneficial to my changes I made to them.

This was the original image and then the edited version of the photograph that I made for my magazine front cover:

This was the original image and then the edited version of the photograph that I made for my magazine front cover:

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

Comparing my new design with the old design of my poster product I believe that my media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products as the pose that my model is doing resembles many of real media horror products such as the films that I used to help me throughout all of my research and designing process. These films consist of 'The Grudge' and 'The Amityville Horror' and these two films helped with the makeup and appearance of my killer. So my new product still resembles this and challenges the use of real media products due to the fact that I made my overall picture darker so I developed the challenge of the films that I used in my research and planning by making my poster more darker, frightening and more like a horror poster. 

 Comparing my magazine front cover design I have use and developed conventions of real media products as my research consisted of comparing many different horror magazines and I got a feel for what they contained and what their different target audiences wanted to see from that certain magazine. I also challenged real media conventions as I decided to change my main image to an effect of black and white which gave it a different look and a completely different approach to my horror magazine. 

How effective is the combination of your main 

product and ancillary texts?

I believe that my poster and my magazine designs fit in better now that I have re done them due to them combining together to fit in with my horror teaser trailer. This is because during my teaser trailer I have many scenes that are extremely dark, which comparing to my new poster fits in well as they look similar and from this my target audience will be able to recognise this more and associate it with my horror teaser trailer due to the scenes being similar. Also, as I changed my magazine front cover main photograph to a black and white effect which represents a couple of the scenes in my trailer when the girl is getting closer and closer to the camera but it different positions. So I believe that my main product of my horror teaser trailer and my poster and magazine designs very well since they have been changed. 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Overall, from doing this coursework and also from re submitting my coursework designs I have realised how important it is to receive audience feedback and this is because it is extremely helpful and gives new ideas. However, I really feel that it is important as when aiming my products at a specific audience it is important to learn what they want to see in order to ensure my product is what they are looking for. 
I learnt that my audience of teenagers were looking for colour, boldness and life in the products that they wanted to purchase, so in order to make sure that I done this I had to make sure my new products were even more scarier than before and this is why I chose to use the black and white effect for my magazine front cover as this would allow my product to be different and stand out to attract my target audience. 

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

When I was redoing parts of my designs for my coursework I used the same programmes for my work as I uploaded my work onto blogger which gave me no difficulties at all due to my knowledge of this programme because of how long I have been using the programme. I also used programmes such as google to receive images for my magazine and poster and for basic research for more ideas. I used Pic Monkey for editing my photographs due to my knowledge of this programme and also relying on this programme to get good results from it. 

MUSIC USED FOR MY HORROR TEASER TRAILER:

This is the music that I chose to use for my horror teaser trailer. The main reasons why I chose to use this is because I have watched this film and thought when this music was played it was scary and it built tension which made the atmosphere seem uneasy. I also thought it was very appropriate as when I was choosing my actress and her hair/makeup I was inspired by the main character known as 'The Grudge' in this film and I thought that it would be a good idea to use this films theme song. 

However, before choosing this particular song I made a small questionnaire which I thought was very important for my target audience as they could tell me which one they thought would fit best in my teaser trailer. This is the reason why I did not add music straight away, so that it would give me the opportunity to ask my target audience their ideas.

The songs I asked them to listen to were:

The most popular voted for was 'The Grudge' theme song which I was very pleased about as I used this film as inspiration to create my own horror teaser trailer so I personally thought it fitted in well.

I researched into more theme songs than these above however I felt like these were the most effective on me so I decided to use these as the four options to ask my target audience.