Evaluation Question 4:

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

To film all of my own footage I used the Toshiba Camileo S30 HD Camcorder which turned out to be a very useful and and easy camera to use. Unlike other cameras, this one was easy to manouver and change its settings. As well as having a camera it is also important to have a tripod so that it makes it easier to film a shot and keeps the camera still.

The tripod I used was CAMLINK TP1700, very cheap and easy to use. Luckely the camera had a whole at the bottom which was small enough to screw onto the tripod and from then onwards my filming became easy and exciting. Before I did any filming I looked at the different camera angle shots that film makers use, in horror films, so that I could re-create similar shots from other movies, for example the close-up of the face of the girl from 'The Ring' is one shot that I re-created with my scary character. It is also important to get reaction shots, so I added that into my filming, when we see the reaction shot of 'Joe' scared.

To film this shot I didn't have the tripod standing, instead I corrected the position of the camera, lowered the height of the tripod, to make it easier for me to move, and zoomed in slowly whilst I was moving with the camera at the same time.  





















The edit my clips and put them together, I first used Videopad Editor to put a couple of clips together before moving to, what I believe, the best editing software there is to use, Imovie. Both softwares were very handy for me because on Videopad I was able to remove sound from one clip and put onto another, as well as that I could extend the length of a clip before moving to the next software. Imovie just made so easy to edit my film. At first I found it hard to use because I've never used a software like it before, but after watching to tutorial that comes up when Imovie is open, I knew exactly how to edit my clips and put in the correct order that I wanted them until the last stage of editing where I had to chose a movie theme. There wasn't any themes that suited my trailer apart from one of them which was the one I ended up using. The reason why I like Imvie is because you can turn average videos into proffesional trailers with the sound, shots and film titles at the begining and at the end of the trailer.






To create my poster I used the software Photoshop Elements 8 and I have to say it was a really awsome software to edit images on. If you wanted you could keep adding layers after layers and create something amazing. This was what I did with my poster, after 5 layers I got the effect that I wanted from using some simple images of concrete textures. The comparison between the normal image to the final product is big. The lighting that I toned down is not even visible in the finished product. This also took me a while to get used to because I didn't know what was what and how to edit an image, so thankfully Youtube was there to save my life and the rest was history. To create a good poster from this fantastic software was very pleasing for me and I am very happy with the finished product.

Finally Weebly, just as I mentioned before, was very helpful. It allowed me to add as many images as I wanted or even as many columns to add text if I wanted. Changing the theme colours etc. And finally to publish my official web page online withought any problems was great.

I would like to say thanks to the creators of these great softwares, I don't know what I would have done withought them, and also the the people who upload helpful tutorials, and finally for the people who game me good feedback. This is how I media technologies to contruct my final three products and I am happy with the work I have done.

Evaluation Question 3:

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

to get feedback on my work from my audience, I thought it would be a good idea to upload my work onto Youtube and Facebook to see what the people thought. My poster became my profile picture on Facebook so that I could try and get people's attention to see what my image was all about. I also shared it with all my friends on Facebook. Before all that, I showed my work to other students in my class. Facebook and Youtube are two sites that people visit the most. My trailer is a public video on Youtube so anybody can watch it. I uploaded it on there because its the best place for all video uploads. The only problem uploading a videos on Youtube for the first time is that it is going to be hard to get like 1,000 views and comments in two weeks, because people don't know who you are and what you do but I'm sure that later on in weeks I will have more views.

So far I have had 24 views which means people have seen my trailer, but the only problem is that I have no comments from anyone. On the other hand people who I know (friends, family and teacher) have seen it and have given me positive feedback, they have said that the trailer is good, it works well and they like it. The negative feedback that I got, which I would also agree with, is that the trailer was not as scary as it was suppose to be, considering that I chose the horror genre. Although saying that, the trailer still works.

When I shared my poster on Facebook, a couple of people started commenting on it and once again I was really pleased with the positive feedback that I got, people liked it, they thought it was great work and even my family left a comment, which we could say its a bit biased because their family, they wouldn't say it was bad. I was really happy with the positive feedback that I got from people, someone mentioned about the colour saying "they work well together", so this was very positive from the audience.

                                          Click on images to enlarge:

     

 Because I worked by myself, I get a different picture of my work to what others may, so it was very important to me to get this feedback and I have learned a lot from it. For my trailer everyone that watch it liked it, but after watching it I asked them "was it scary"? They all said no, and I can understand where they were coming from because it was true. This was one thing that I learned. Changes could have been made to the trailer to make it scarier, but that would mean start editing all over again. The second point that I learned was the tagline that I used for my poster, it is not in the comments on facebook but they told me it face-to-face, they said it was so typical of a horror tagline and many horror movies have used them before. I totally agree with this but I also believe that it works well for my poster becuase of the dark colours used and also dark room that the character 'Joe' finds himself trapped in, it is a relevant tagline.

Evaluation Question 2:

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

I believe my main product and my two ancillary texts work well together, they all have a good combination. Each of my media texts are linked together. In the three pieces of work the two main characters are used as a center of attention. For the trailer they are in it at the beginning. For the poster they are both used in the image, and for the web page again. Another combination that is used throughout my three products is the name of the trailer 'The Panic'. This is shows in three different types of fonts but they both have the same meaning when we look at the three products.

I can also say that the three products are different but have the same effect as they are united together in my web page to show the audience what it is all about.

This shows the combination between the three products, the black and white and light amber effect that the three have. The poster which includes the two main characters is dark but has enough lighting to see their faces, obviously the hair covering the face of the girl works as well because I don't want to give away her full face in a poster. For this clip in the trailer, even though the lighting might be slightly bright, we can still this amber effect this room gives, I think it is due to the fact that the walls in that room were old and damp, so this could be why it gives this amber effect. For the web page dark colours are once again used to create a dark effect and also the two main characters are once again used. The red and white in the web page is a combination I used for both that and the poster because I believe the two best colours to use in a poster and a dark web page is red and white but also I had to balance out the colours, so there isn't too much of red or white. For the title on the home page is shown in the same way as in the poster, but the font is slightly different.


Usually for trailers, posters and websites, the two main characters are used, because thats who the  audience want to see, protagonists and characters who would act differently to another person in a confrontation between Joe and Rebecca.

The tagline "don't be affraid of the dark" has been used in both web page and poster which gives a small idea to what the movie might be about; dark rooms and people being surrounded in them. The 'Coming Soon' is also another combination that is used in my three products, it is shown at the of the trailer to suggest that the movie is not out yet but will be out soon. For the poster, it is also shown this way, although people who have watch the trailer will already know this. The font colour for that is red because as well as the title name I wanted the 'Coming Soon' title to stand out so people know. It is once again reapeated in my web page on my trailer page which, once again, is suggesting that the movie is not out yet but the trailer is there to show what the movie is all about. They work well because they stand out, because of the colours used.

Evaluation Question 1:

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

Before a movie comes out or is released, the main attraction that will determin whether the audience want to watch the movie is a trailer. Usually in every trailer it is full of fast clips with titles shown throughout the trailer. The creators always put the best clips from the movie to keep its audience attention and to do this the creators of the trailer add extra lighting effects and sound effects to give the audience an impression that the movie the creators are advertising, through a trailer, is different to other movies. They try and leave clues and even comfuse the audience to make them think what it is all about. If the trailer is succesful and wins the audience over, they often want to see more, this is when a website is created, which sometimes include interesting facts and information about the movie. Obviously the most important information is the dates that the movie is released.

This is what I tried to do for my trailer having the typical protagonist who finds themselve alone and vulnerable in a dark room, nowhere to run, and like always we know what end result would be to that person. Just like other movie trailers, it leaves people questioning on what may have happened to one of the main characters or why is this villain haunting or killing these vulnerable people. All these questions is what grabs the audience, it leaves them wanting more.

A trailer that has influenced my ideas throughout the making of my trailer is 'The Grudge' and 'The Ring', this idea of having a little girl trapped in a cellar works similarly to the woman and child who are haunting this old home, but when someone enters their home, the villains end up haunting them and everywhere the vulnerable person goes, they seem to find themselves lonely with no help and the villains appearing everywhere. 'The Ring' is also similar in the sense that, whenever someone encounters themselve with this strange girl, she will keep re-appearing wherever they go. So these where the elements I used for creating my trailer. A little girl, scary, and whoms face is not clear haunts a vulnerable kid, which is typical in most horror stories, and ends up going for others.

'The Ring' was a film that influenced me the most it was from the film that I got some of my ideas. One of them was this close-up shot that I used of the scary character 'Rebecca', which is similar to the close-up from the movie which is a good shot because we can see the facial expressions of this evil girl, just like the clip from 'The Ring' with one half of the face covered by the hair. Even though the lighting is lighter on my image, the shot still works because all this shot does is fix our attention to the character and nothing else around them, just like 'The Ring'.

This shot is a good reaction shot which shows the vulnerable character's fear in this evil person. Even though these two clips are not very similar, it once again makes the audience concentrate on the character and blocks everything else around them. Like I mentioned before the vulnerable person always seems to find themselves lonely and helpless, here we can see a good example of that where its just the two of them, lonely, so this was why I filmed this reaction shot, to show the audience that this person isn't joking; he's actually really scared. I am happy with my trailer because I havn't given the story away but still kept it intersting with clips that catch the audience eye. The good thing about my trailer is that it shows most of the main parts from the trailer, withought giving the story away, but it finishes with a zoom-up of the other two characters but we don't know what happens to them, so baring that in mind, there is diffinately more to the story of this trailer.

The whole point of this trailer was to scare the audience, because of the genre I chose, in my case I believe is does not do that but it doesn't take anything away from it, I believe it is still interesting because there are parts that can be considered scary, but because of how the trailer runs it doesn't make a scary trailer. But let's not forget that this is a trailer, if this was a trailer for  a movie, the trailer may not be scary, but I can assure the movie would give a different affect. In a way I could say that I'm trying to trick the audience telling them that its a horror trailer but them believing its completely the opposite. This is where I could twist things around when they watch the movie. Its just what many movies do, theres always a twist in them.

My Web Page Part 2:

This is my poster page and I wrote some description on what software I used to create the poster. Notice half of the poster is choped off, thisis because I couldn't get the whole page to fit for the snapshot, but we get a brief idea on how it looks.

This is my trailer page where it has my trailer. When I was creating the website, on the multimedia options it had a youtube logo that you simple drag and drop on the page and lets you upload any youtube video, so this was how I got my video onto my web page. I also added a small piece of description just like my poster page.

The final page is the story of the trailer, for some who didn't know what the trailer was about and wanted to find out what its all about, I thought I would add some description on what the story is all about. This is my favourite page because the two pictures used work very well and it is also nice to demonstrate what the story is about in words and through images, this was why I added these two images on this page.


So that is my web page in images but here is the actual link that will take you right to my web page, feel free to view my web page at any time:

http://edwinrichardson.weebly.com/

My Web Page:

The theme I used for my webpage on Weebly is a dark theme:



But instead of having the rainbow colours at the top of the page I deleted and left it dark.
At the top of the page I used a font style calle 'capture it' and used with the colour red. The writing says 'Don't be afraid of the dark' just like I used at the top of my poster. There are five pages on my website: home page, cast, trailer, poster and story. In these five pages I added a picture just underneath the links to every page, as well as that I used writing with the same font and colour. My home page has the name of the trailer 'The Panic', for the cast I just have 'The Cast', for the trailer I put 'Coming Soon', my poster has 'The Poster and for the story I have 'The making of the trailer'.



So this is my web page here:

To show these images from my web page I simply had to take a snapshot. To take a snapshot you have to hold down the print screen button on the key board (Prt Scrn  Sys Rq) it should say that. press it once on whatever page you want to take a snapshot. After that, go to paint and then hold down Control (Ctrl) and press the letter V on the key board and it should come up, safe as, and it should come up on desktop, then right click it and open with windows photo gallery. Simple as that!

The first page, under the image I wrote a quick sentence just explaining what this website is about. The picture that is used is the character from the film 'Rebecca'.

On the second page it has pictures of the cast, just so that people know what they are and by clicking the images of each person, it enlarges it and it can be displayed as an album. Underneath the five images it has the names of the actors and the creator (me) who were in the making of the trailer. 

Web Page Planning:

Before creating a website I done research on websites from the film 'The Grudge' and 'The Ring'. Usually when someone watches the official trailer they want more, so a webpage is a good way to advertise a movie as well as other products such as merchendise etc. This was what both websites that I looked at did very well, for example, 'The Grudge' had the dvd advertised, as well as that they had other good deals. It also has the video of the trailer. Similarly for 'The Ring' even though the layout is very different compared to the first one, it still sells the movie very well because of the opening it shows to the webpage with some flashing images and small clips from the movie.

To create my webpage I wanted to add, just like the two I studied, images, the trailer and a poster, with some images from the cast. Obviouslt because of the lack of experience on creating a webpage, it would never look as good as 'The Grudge' or 'The Ring'. It was hard to find a programme to create my website, even though I found a couple, it just seemed a little complicated to create my website, until I found the perfect site when I was looking at some of the work from past students. This free website (Weebly) was just what I was looking for, it had many templates to choose from and it was easy to make changes to the background and to add images, basically I could add anything I wanted.

This website was so helpfull, there was also many video tutorials to watch just to learn the basics, but this was one that I prefered watching:

My Film Trailer:

So this is my film trailer 'The Panic' its come out well but there's a slight problem which my teacher and I realised straight away. That problem is that its not scary and it doesn't have that horror effect that it should. On the other hand it still works. If I creating the movie, it would be scary. This is just the trailer, the movie would be something very different.

My Poster

Click on the image to enlarge.

This is my poster that I created on Photoshop Elements 8. To create this poster I had to add different effects and images to have it how I wanted it. The image on the left was the image I used for my poster, notice the lighting from the middle to the bottom of the image is much lighter that the poster. To do this I had to darken the image with the hand tool, I also darkened some areas from the top of the image. I added 5 layers over the image to give it a dark background, but then had to blend the image in with the dark background. Notice on the poster we can slightly see a line shadowing my brother's eye, and if we look closely we can make out another blurry image. this is because I used a picture of concrete texture and blended it in together to get that effect. the tagline "don't be affarid of the dark", in my opinion, works because of the darkness thats used in the poster and also because its part of what my trailer is about; lights switching off and a boy being trapped in a dark room.

The font was one of many fonts that I intended on using, I tried them all out but I thought this worked the best for this image. The colour of the font is something that I took under consideration from the poster examples that I looked at, I tried White but I thought that too much white will make it too bright, so I went with red, as well as the "coming soon" writing.

To create the film credits I had to download a free font from google: "free movie poster fonts" to get an actual font used for posters and I added my name and the cast names. Finally the last two images I used are logos used in many actual movie poster: Dolby Digital and  Restricted, which was not what I wanted to use because my trailer doesn't involve violence or any sexual scenes, also because the other fonts that I was looking for i.e. Universal or Paramount didn't have a white coloured logo, so I had to stick with this one. All in all I am happy with my poster, I believe it works well and theres just enough lighting to see the charecters faces.

with the help of Youtube I was able to create my poster, this was the video I watched that helped me create my poster:

There are 5 parts to this video but I thought I would upload this one to show how I blended that concrete floor with the picture, as shown here.

This is the video that showed me how and what to write for my poster credits: