Evaluation: Trailer

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

I produced a horror movie trailer as my final media production, in which I challenged some general conventions such as gender stereotypes but I also followed some forms of the zombie horror sub-genre. Following conventions creates a higher quality trailer, which audiences are more used to and challenging forms gives my production a personal touch.

Producing a zombie horror lead to me following supernatural conventions, the main one being zombies as the monster. The use of zombies created a clear divide of good and evil which links to the narrative of the plot. The main characters were the group attempting to survive, which is a common convention in zombie horror movies: to focus on a group rather than a lone protagonist. The survivors represented good so wore lighter or brighter colours to represent this. On the other hand the zombies are reanimation of the dead and represent evil, to highlight this, the zombies wore darker colours and had fake blood on their faces. The fight scenes between zombies and the main group also show a clear conflict between good and evil. If I were to improve the zombie scenes I would cast more zombies to create a large horde to increase the fear factor. I would also had the zombies wear bloody and ripped clothing to show more destruction and change the face paint, making it darker and using more fake blood to make the zombies look more aggressive.

Although I followed the convention of having a group of survivors (including a mixture of genders), I challenged the conventions as typically zombie movies have cliché characters such as ‘the blonde’ or ‘masculine male’. I broke away form the convention of having cliché characters and had female leads. My main character Mia was the strong protagonist and Jane was slightly weaker but I moved away from the idea that the males protect the females in the group. In the group I cast a younger male, highlighting that the girls are older, following the idea that older people carry more power. Having a younger male and strong female leads breaks away from the general gender roles in horror films.

Horror movie tend to be set in isolated location, which I tried to demonstrate however to have made the obvious I would have needed to include an establishing shot of the house.  Zombie movies are often set in urban locations such as dawn of the dead and Cockneys Vs. Zombies, However my production was primarily set in the woods going against the norm of the zombie sub genre. However to film in an urban location was not practical as there would be passers by and I would not be able to film fight scenes and the zombies in general as it could be seen as disturbing to others. Where as in the woods and on private property I could film the zombie scenes and use fake blood. My production was also set in the snow, which connotes cold and death, a parallel to the zombies. Most zombie horror movies are set in apocalyptic location showing destruction but my trailer was set on the first day of the zombie outbreak therefore the location would not immediately be anarchy, the woods masks this as it would not show signs of destruction allowing for the movie to represent any stage of the outbreak.

What have you learned from audience feedback?

After uploading my previous two drafts online, I received feedback from both my peer group and teachers. From this feedback I removed the metal instrumental from the very end of my trailer carried the music that was playing before one which made the audio of my trailer run smoother. Feedbacks from my peers also lead me to fade the music in and out so the sound ran smoothly rather than blunt cuts in audio. From feedback it was also highlighted that the audio in the woods was very quite, to improve this I rerecorded parts of the dialogue and for the other sections in increased the volume of the audio of those clips and decreased the background music, this made my final trailer a better standard. However to improve upon this again I would rerecord all the audio as the scene that includes both the original audio and the rerecorded audio makes the scene’s audio patchy and unprofessional.

From feedback it was suggested that I reshuffle scenes to increase the tension built up before the studio credits. I moved any scene including zombies and the radio report to after the studio credits, which follows the convention of zombie horrors as the trailer creates a sense of foreboding before the studio credits. Moving a few shots to after the studios allowed more tension to be built up. I also moved the image of the young zombie male to later in the trailer to create a greater impact of shock.

I received positive feedback of the young zombie boy in my trailer; he was seen as the creepiest zombie as it plays on the idea of corruption of innocence. To have improved my trailer I show have played on this and included him in the horde of zombies or included other child zombies.

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

Through out the different stages of construction and research I used multiple technologies such as social media like Facebook but I also used presentation software such a Prezi and Emase.

During the research and planning of my media product is used different presentation softwares such as Emase to add interactive features to my blog rather than just blog posts or screen shots, giving me more control on the presentation of my blog, making it easier to use and present my research. I also used slide share as another way of presenting things on my blog. I also used a website called survey monkey to create a survey, with general questions about age but also detailed questions to see what people wanted out a horror movie. I asked about age to see what my target audience wanted primarily from a horror movie. From this I could identify key features I should include in my trailer, the results back up the results from my focus group. The site was easy to use and allowed me to post the survey on my blog as well as giving me a link that I sent out to a group of people.  Survey Monkey then complied the results in the form of graph and charts giving me a visual representation, allowing me to easily apply the results to my own work, the site allowed me to easily complete format research.

Social media added a new of presenting ideas and sharing information about my film. I set up accounts in the name of my production on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. I advertised the trailer on these sites and included shots of production and the official trailer, this gave my trailer a multiple platforms to be presented on, just as real productions do. I also signed up to Youtube as it allowed me to easily share videos, allowing me to receive feedback from my peer group.

When constructing my trailer I used two main pieces of software: Photoshop and abode premiere.  Photoshop allowed me to create an end credit for my production, Photoshop allowed me to type out the text I wanted and use the erase tool to give them a textured effect symbolising the destruction of the zombie threat. I could also make the background gradient rather than a solid background. It also allowed me to change the positioning of icons and text to create and end clip. I could also create the title of the movie on Photoshop where I could add in as a still in adobe premiere where I could add transitional effects onto later. On adobe premiere I could edit my footage, initially cutting it down to usable sizes and then re positioning them in order and cutting them so that the clips flow smoothly together. I could easily drag transitional effects onto sections of my footage as well as quickly adjust the brightness and contrast of my footage allowing me to set the mood with dark footage linking to the genre convention. I could also add audio clips and layer them allowing me to have voice-overs on clips as well as background music. I could also layer audio clips of zombie sound effects to make the zombies more graphic and disturbing.  Adobe premiere also had the option to unlike video and audio clips meaning I could leave the audio to carry onto another scene but cut the actual footage to allow space for multiple shots.  It was important to render the footage for clear playback afterwards otherwise it would take a long time at the end and may have some trouble rendering meaning I loss footage or editing work.

During the evaluation stage of my trailer I used YouTube a lot as it allowed me to post all of my drafts and from this could receive feedback both verbally from my peers but also in the comments and like/dislike option.  I also created a directors commentary, which I created on adobe premiere and posted onto YouTube.