Evaluation; Directors Commentary

Evaluation; Extra

Audience-

The Hypodermic needle theory suggests that media texts to inject its ideas, values and attitudes straight into the passive audience. This however is an outdated approach as it is much more widely understood now that audiences do bring their own interpretations and understandings to a media texts and it is no longer believed that media has the absolute power to influence mass audiences.
By having violence in our trailer, the model would suggest that the audience would take the message that violence is power, however in reality audience’s do understand that it is for entertainment purposes and so they don’t take the media ideology too seriously. It was important to display threat and violence in our trailer to conform to horror conventions and trigger the desired reactions from our audience. This questions the models relevance to contemporary media.

 The reception theory suggests that media texts are not simple accepted by the audience but that the viewer interprets the meaning of the text based on their own cultural experiences. The meaning behind the text is created by the relationship it has to the viewer. The theory suggests three ways in which the media text can be viewed:

Dominant reading: the reader fully shares the programmes code and fully accepts the programmes preferred reading.
Negotiated reading: the reader partly shares the programmes code and broadly accepts the preferred reading but modifies it in a way which reflects their positions and interests.
Oppositional reading: the reader does not share the programmes code and rejects the preferred reading, bringing an alternative frame of interpretation.
This is the most modern and developed theory of audience participation in media, based on Stuart Hall’s encoding model, the model states that the producer encodes the media text and the audience decodes it. Their reading is affected by many contextual and personal factors, for example age, gender, social aims, current mood and personal experiences.
We encoded our trailer by using attractive characters that are within the age of our target audience, so the audience are enticed by them. The isolated setting makes the audience believe that escape is not possible, therefore highlighting the fear and panic they experience. The music is designed to create suspense and put the audience on edge, followed by fast paced music with a heavy beat to highlight the action of the characters struggle for survival.
Our audience is most likely to fall into the negotiated reading and the uses and gratifications of watching horror films is very similar across the board and our target audience is at an age where they are quite susceptible to the persuasive intent of media products.

Blumler and Katz declared that there are 5 mains reasons why audiences consume media texts in their uses and gratifications theory. These include: to be informed and educated, to identify with the characters and situations, to be entertained, to enable themselves to socially interact with others and to escape from their daily troubles and woes.
Blumler and Katz state that we consume media in order to satisfy desire. My trailer in particular supplies excitement allowing audiences to be entertained, further allowing them to immerse themselves in the panic of the characters and the struggle forgetting for the time being the predictability of their own lives. Furthermore my target audience are likely to identify with the main characters as they are within the same age group. Furthermore as horror films are often watched in large groups as a social occasion it would make sense for the target audience to want social stimulation from the trailer. Braving the scenes of horror in the trailer allows the audience to show their strength and discuss with their friends.

The male gaze was suggested by Laura Mulvey who argued that in films we view from a heterosexual male point of view. Women maybe objectified for the pleasure of the male viewer and characters and narrative maybe designed to appeal to a male audience. Richard Dyer states that entertainment texts offer audiences a perfect ideal that they can access through media consumption; this is in contrast the imperfections and difficulties audiences face in their own lives.
Our trailer features a ratio of males to females in 1:3 which already complies to the theory of the males gaze, the female characters are attractive and seen as weaker than the male character (with the exception of the antagonist). The female characters dress and present themselves in a way that is preferable to male viewers, conforming With the theory and confirming its relevance.

Genre-

Genre is often used by audiences to make choices and discriminations in the issues of taste, preference, identity and pleasure that are associated with different types of film, hence making genre a concern for the producers who take these issues into account when trying to appeal to their target audience.
Through repetition and variation genres tell familiar stories with familiar character and situations, encouraging expectations and experiences.
Genre produces benefits for the institution: film producers can use the concept of genre in both production and marketing of the filming, in our trailer we were able to use the conventions of horror to give our trailer the identity that will attract our target audience, we chose dark colours contrasted with white and red for our marketing and gave our trailer a contemporary horror feel.
It can be used as an economic strategy, we identified the genre that was doing well within our age group to maximise our likelihood of producing a trailer idea that would be a success within the industry.
It can lastly give producers a set of expectations to diverge from which allowed us to choose elements that would be guaranteed to give pleasure to our audience.
Genre produces benefits for audiences: it is a product of the interaction between institutions, audience and text, which works to our advantage as our target audience is a very social group, so media stimulation is very common among them.
Audiences expect both repetition as well as a degree of novelty, which allows us to conform with conventions as well as deviating from the norms of horror film adding an element of surprise to our trailer and keeping audiences interested.
Genres create a clear idea for audiences about what is possible in the films narrative world, therefore by picking a film that is within a genre to their liking, audiences can be pretty sure that they will enjoy the film.
Genre produces benefits for critics: for critics genre is a taxonomy (the practise of classifying films into groups based on similarities of form and content) allowing us to predict the insight critics may have and make our trailer the best it can be, we chose a Christmas theme as this would be a unique selling point and would stop our films being branded as ‘just another horror film’.

Narrative- 

Propp’s sphere of action suggested that most films have 7 main characters that fit into a criteria based on a fairy tale, these include:
Villain: Antagonist, seeks to stop the hero
Hero: protagonist, who has to fulfil his destiny
Donor: provides a special device to aid the hero
Helper: sidekick of the hero who helps him
Princess: is the reward for the hero
Father: person who rewards the hero for his achievements
Dispatcher: character who sees that something needs to be done
In our trailer we see evidence of all of these characters except the father (who often doesn’t feature in horror films anyway) and the dispatcher as we have also left the recognition of the problem out of our trailer.
Our Villain is Bryony one of our female characters who is set apart from the others in her simplistic dress code and camera prevalence during the first section of the trailer. Her clothing is darker then that of the others and shows no sign of Christmas cheer. This character is the most familiar with the audience and the one they are most likely to remember which is important because the antagonist is often as main selling point of horror films.
Our hero is one of the female characters, Emma, who has prevalence in the second half of the trailer, she becomes the second most familiar as is also presented to be the most vulnerable and innocent, making audience more likely to root for her survival, over that of the other two.
Our Donor is the male character Jordan (me) as he is physically the strongest out of our victims and theoretically the most likely to survive.
Our helper is the other female victim Shanie as she is the best friend of our hero and they are shot together a lot in the second part of the trailer, it is common in horror films that the helper dies and our trailer furthermore conforms to this as at the end we see what looks like Shanie’s character dead in a bath.
Our princess is survival, which again is very common in horror films; we see the characters fight for their survival all through the second part of the trailer.Barthes Enigma code refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained so hence becomes a mystery to the reader. The full truth is often avoided in the following ways:
Snares: deliberately avoiding the truth
Equivocations: partial/incomplete answers
Jammings: Openly acknowledging that there is no truth/answer
In our trailer we use snares such as, whether the hero survives and the villain is defeated, why the villain attempts to kill her friends and the recognition of the disruption.
Our Equivocations include, the fate of the helper, and the relationships between all the characters
We didn’t include any jammings as we believe that for full audience satisfaction their must be an answer to all mysteries pledged in the trailer.
Avoiding the truth is very important in trailers as it is this that encourages the audience to find out more by watching the film. The mysteries created in trailers are what grips their attention and sparks their interest in the film.

Todorov suggested that all films follow five stages of narrative that as a general rule, all films follow. These stages include:
The equilibrium: at the beginning of the film where the status quo is in check
The disruption: were something goes wrong and disrupts the equilibrium
The recognition: where one of the characters recognises that the disruption has occurred and something needs to be done.
The attempts to repair: where characters fight to restore the equilibrium
The reinstatement of the equilibrium: were a new equilibrium is instated
Most trailer tend to show the first four stages and leaving the fifth one out as a way of enticing audiences to watch the film, by showing evidence of the initial stages the audience can get accustomed to the plot and build relationships with the characters making it more memorable. If they were to include evidence of the last stage it would eliminate the point of watching the film.
In our trailer we have only included three of the five stages in an attempt to create more mystery around our plot, we chose to do this to make audience more likely to enquire about the plot and outcome of our film, in this way, it is more likely to be successful.
We have evidence of the Equilibrium at the beginning as the four friends sit together all looking happy and normal. Then we miss at the disruption so the audience are unaware of the cause of the mayhem making the plot more interesting. The recognition comes when we see the fear on the faces of the characters, closely followed by the attempt to repair as they begin to fight back and try to survive.
We effectively created mystery around the plot, however by missing out the disruption we could have caused confusion for the audience.

Levi-Strauss suggested that Binary oppositions should be used to make narrative more exciting. The constant creation of conflict/opposition propels the narrative as it can always end in resolution of conflict. Opposition can be visual or conceptual. The two main themes of our horror are binary oppositions, the idea of Christmas versus horror, all through the trailer the theme of oppositions is reinforced, the black and white of the titles, purity and darkness, the idea that the girl was young and innocent but also the antagonist. Binary oppositions keep the audience on their toes and keep the film interesting.

Evaluation; Activity 4

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

YouTube: we used YouTube to upload our videos onto the internet. This allowed our friends to watch our product and give their opinions, so we could make improvements, as we are all within the target audience, it was really useful to hear what they thought of the different elements we put into our trailer. Using YouTube allowed us to send links to our friends and ask their opinion as we went through the editing process.
YouTube also allows us to easily upload clips onto our blogs, keeping them updated with all vital information regarding our production process.

Adobe Premiere Elements 10: we used this software to edit our piece because it is the best software available to us, and is often used by professionals; this allows us to get a real feel of what editing is like on a professional level. The software allowed us to explore many option and even though we haven’t used a great deal of the special effects, we have gained greater understanding of what works within our genre and how to work such software, which are transferable skills.

Adobe allowed us to be precise when cutting our clips, ensuring the trailer flows well and continuity is maintained. This ensured that match on action matched perfectly and made the trailer appear more real, increasing the sense of horror.
It also allowed us to manipulate the contrast and lighting allowing us to reinforce the idea of horror, keeping audiences on the edge and making the trailer more satisfying, as it meets their needs. We could make some shots darker and others lighter making them all more coherent and so more effective. Editing is really important for horror films as in the past they have been known for their over the top special effects and overly dramatized camera angles and shot transfers. Recently however horror films have used special effects to make clever transitions making the film seem more real and more terrifying, we have gone down this route, as over the top gore is dated and less effective nowadays. We used clip duration tools to slow down some of the scenes to create a feel of blind panic, speeding some up to make the audience’s heart rates increase.
The software also allowed us to add our non-diegetic music easily and time it to fit in with the pace and beat of the clips, we could also edit the sound of each different clip to make sure that it flowed smoothly.
We used it to add our titles as well, which was good because it made it easy for us to fit them in to our trailer where they are most effective. We used fonts that link in with our poster and magazine cover as well.
The software allowed us to faded to black into our titles and between shots making the trailer more effective and helping us slow the pace. The fades to black made our trailer look more professional and allow our shots to have more of an effect on the audience.

Photoshop: we used this to create our film titles, magazine cover and film poster. We chose Photoshop as it has the biggest range of functions, allowing us to play around with designs, so we could find the most effective combination. We used the effects to make it black and white, so it was simple but eerie to match the actual font.

Photoshop’s various layers and functions allowed us to make effective magazine cover and posters, as they were made on the same software we could build links between all three of our products creating a collective identity.
The different tools allowed us to colour, size and edit the different elements so they fitted together and went with the theme of the overall look.

Camera: We used the schools camera to do our filming, this meant that the camera was already set up to match the Adobe software, ensuring the resultant clips are the best they could possibly be. We chose to do this because; having used the schools camera previously in media (our preliminary task) we had good understanding of the ins and outs of the settings. We knew how to play around with the focus and contrasts finding what fit our scenes best.  We have had previous experience of what lighting works best to give us clear shots and slightly pixelated shots to convey the idea of being isolated and cut off from everyone else.
On some of the shots the camera didn’t provide the greatest resolution, however it was the best camera available to us at the time of filming.

Tripod: We used the tripod to stabilize and elevate the camera, ensuring our shots matched in height and angle, to make sure we maintained continuity. Tripods reduce camera shake making sure we achieved maximum sharpness. The tripod allowed us the film shots in which we all featured and also allowed us to film continuously making sure we captured everything.
The mobility of the camera and tripod allowed us to explore a range of different angles and by the end of filming the project we all had in depth knowledge of the camera and tripod functions.

Blogger: We have used blogger to record and evaluate our journey from the initial research to evaluating our final piece. Blogger allows us the reference pictures and videos, by uploading them onto our blogs and analysing them. Viewing our blogs live, shows clearly the journey we have taken and all the elements that have come into play when creating our trailer.

Evaluation; Activity 3

rom our audience feedback we learnt that in order to improve we should reveal more of the background of the characters and their story before things went wrong. We should improve on the clarity of the trailer and make the audience feel like they know the characters more making them more inclined to go and see the film.
We should also clearly define who our antagonist and protagonists are in more detail, so the trailer makes more sense.

Evaluation; Activity 2

The poster and magazine cover have a strong link as they have the same main image and similar font styles and editing patterns, this helps create a collective identity for our product. This is important as it reinforces the audience’s memory of our film, making them more likely to do and see it. The trailer also shares similar fonts and the same mysterious feel, mystery is one of the more prominent themes of all the products branding them together.
In all three the theme of Christmas is present, but in all is only subtly referred to, as we don’t take away from the horror feel too much. The way in which we have presented it in our poster and magazine create a sinister veil around what is usually a solely happy theme, this intrigues audiences and makes our film unique.

Both our poster and magazine focus on the antagonist of our film; they reveal her appearance with a nasty look on her face, making audiences dislike her and fear her. The magazine cover tells audiences that there is an exclusive sneak preview including interviews with the cast, this makes audiences more likely to buy the magazine to cure their interest in the character of the antagonist. By reading about the cast, audiences will be more likely to go and see the film as they will feel they have a personal connection with the film. The magazine cover also displays snippets of the film, linking with the trailer and teasing the audience with information. The antagonist is looking straight out of the poster into the eyes of the audience, making them feel personally connected and like the advertisement is aid solely at them, this makes the audience more likely to take a closer look at the poster making the persuasive message more effective.
All of the products disguise the persuasive intent of the message as when audiences know they are being persuaded advertisements are less effective. The magazine cover included both hard and soft sell advertisement following both central and peripheral routes (elaboration likelihood model) to persuasion; this allows it to reach out to a large audience. The trailer and film poster focus more on the peripheral route, as our target audience will be predominantly this.
However we could have made a clearer link between the two paper products and the trailer to give the whole thing a stronger identity.

Evaluation; Activity 1

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

We decided to stick with the simplistic title of black and white which does connote horror but also encourages the idea of surprise. The wordplay on 'Christmas Presence' lets the audience improvise with the title, creating their own interpretation and making them wonder about the actual events that occur in the film. The title reveals of what time period the film was set (Christmas) and revealing the genre through distorted misplaced letters and the use of black and white connotes the idea of fear. This colour scheme of black and white also conforms to the idea of good verses evil theme, again common in contemporary media. By placing the title at the end of the trailer, this is the last thing the audience would see before deciding whether to go and see the film and we want them to remember the title. The action and horrific scenes are shown before the title to create interest and entice the audience, making them want to go and watch the film. The more likely they are to remember this title, the more likely the film is going to be successful. Most trailers follow this technique of teasers by placing the title at the end as this creates interest. The untidy wording of 'Christmas Presence' connotes mysterious horror, if we were to use red coloured text, this would reveal the idea of violence. Our use of vague black and white doesn't give away too much about the story or genre, and this is why the title is shown at the end of the trailer.

Our film is set in an old house, in which our main characters are home alone; we do not reveal much of the outside setting as we wanted to convey the idea that the house is isolated as it makes all other surroundings unimportant and in existent. This idea of isolation conforms to the genre of horror and would be beneficial in revealing these indications throughout early stages of the trailer. Later on in the trailer we show the view from the back of the house, which leads on to a wooded area, again portraying the idea of seclusion and no escape. The idea of being trapped in isolation is very conventional and gives an element of threat and danger to the trailer, this puts the audience on edge so making it easier to scare this target audience. The inside of the house has a strong green and red theme linking to the Christmas element and reinforcing the happiness that typically comes with this subject, lulling audiences into a false sense of security. Although teaser trailers do typically use contradictions to confuse the audience these are normally smaller, where as in our teaser trailer the two most prominent themes contradict each other completely. The house is very broken up, with all rooms being very separate to each other, this allowed us to use the corners and dark places to create tension and make the audience jump, these scenes make it more conventional and match the horror genre. 

Knives are heavily associated with the genre because of representing violence and blood. They are one of the few props that we reveal in our teaser. The way in which the knife is handled implies threat, and heavily associating with the scream franchise so making the trailer more effective in putting the audience on edge and enticing them, as many of the scream fans may also be drawn to our film. We haven’t shown any other props as not to give too much of what characterizes the antagonist, this creates mystery and tempts audiences to watch the film. This is again a trick that is often used in teaser trailers of the genre.
All the costumes are simplistic and timeless contradicting the themes and making the characters disposable. By not dressing any of them in a particular or bold manner, the characters are seen as mundane, so audiences are unluckily to take particular liking to them, which could cause dissatisfaction in the event of their death. The protagonist’s clothing connotes winter with jumpers, fur, scarves and reds, these characters are wearing slightly more colour and stand out more against the plain black clothing of the antagonist setting her apart and making her seem suspicious. This is conventional as often in horror films the antagonist will be set apart from the others all through the films. Hence audiences become wary of the character making them more formidable when they start to cause trouble.

We used camera work and editing to show the difference between the equilibrium and the disruption. It is conventional for horror film trailers to switch from slow paced mundane camera shots, to fast pace exciting and more abstract shots. Furthermore, in the same way editing also changes to mirror the change in narrative, shots become darker and more edited as it is less important for shots to be realistic, as long as continuity is maintained. We have done both of these in our trailer, on the outset we have used all light shots that consist of medium, long and over the shoulder shots that convey happiness and normality. As we reach the climax we increase the number of close ups showing the extreme emotions on the characters faces, such as fear, making the panic seem more real to the viewers and make them live the emotions as well. The shots become increasingly darker, but some light shots are thrown in to contrast and make the trailer more diverse. The shots are faster paced and begin to move, making the whole feel of the trailer more exciting, the editing is complemented by the music which also quickens in pace, the editing and music more in time together making the end product of our trailer more polished and maintaining the continuity, which again is common for other trailers of the genre.
It is very conventional for the camera work to be quite unnatural, as to make audiences uncomfortable, we used some hand held shots to make the production seem more realistic, as if it was happening right then, giving more of an effect on the audience.

Our trailer uses text to briefly explain the plot of the film, this is conventional of horror as you can’t give too much of the plot away for fear of ruining the ending or revealing too much about the antagonist. The colours and meaning behind the text, of the titles connote the idea of good versus evil and begins to convey the theme of insanity we are going for, as the pure of the white and darkness of the black contradict each other. This is reinforced by the contradiction of horror and Christmas.
The trailer starts slow but then quickens which is common in horror films so implies the genre. The screen shot to the side is the turning point of the trailer as it is the first cold dark shot that contradicts the warmth of the previous, giving the audience the first view of the horror the trailer is setting up for. The trailer only briefly shows equilibrium as it is the action that audiences want to be teased with. Hints of narrative still need to be detailed to show the story has a plot to follow and isn’t just cold blood killing. In our trailer we detailed that the antagonist would be one of the four characters shown in the first section of our product, but not which one. However the clothing, behaviour, editing and absence from the struggle, of one of the characters implies which of the friends it could be. In this way the audience feel like they know enough to understand a bit about the film, however enough is still withheld to spark interest and mystery. This is less conventional as normally in horror trailer we see slightly more of the antagonist, at least detailing a bit of their appearance as the killer and the way in which they pick off their victims. However it is very conventional to withhold the identity of the villain, by doing this the audience have a reason to go and see the film as they are interested in the motives and identity of the killer.

The first images that appear during the trailer do not connote the genre as they reflect happiness and equilibrium, however the eerie slow pace of the foreboding messages imply that something bad is about to happen. The simplistic font furthermore connotes conventional horrors and as the text fades in and out it obscures the audiences view implying that they don’t know everything that’s going on, it is conventional to keep the audience in the dark throughout teaser trailers so audiences have to see the film to find out more. Later on in the trailer the genre becomes very evident as fast paced shots start to show conventions of the genre, such as dark close ups of terrified expressions. The shot displayed shows that the character is under distress as she has makeup dripping down her face, her posture is closed as if trying to protect herself, looking just passed the camera as if something is pursuing her. The heavy beats and differencing in pace is conventional as audiences don’t know what to expect and are easier to scare, the contrast in lighting between the shots of the second part of the trailer adds to this. The tinted red of some of the shots refers back to both, horror and Christmas, however due to the pacing and style of the shots audiences will be more reminded of the horror theme. The flicker of the camera in some shots, gives them a conventional uneven look which again is often a feature of horror films.

  

At first all the friends are introduced together, displaying them all as equal, the text tells us that the four friends are together trying to have a good time and despite the imbalance in clothing and prevalence as our antagonist has her back to the camera. Next we see the antagonist on her own, in the first part of the trailer she is the only one that is shown in a shot completely by herself, which familiarises the audience with her and makes her the most memorable, which is conventionally important as it is vital that the audiences remember who the antagonist is.
After telling audiences that one of the friends has a secret we then show our antagonist (implying she will become the villain), we used shot types and editing to completely disassociate her from the rest of the group, making her seem more sinister and dangerous. The other characters are still portrayed as stereotypical and ignorant; the antagonist is set apart making her seem more intelligent, important and less disposable.
We don’t discover much about the teenagers in the trailer making the content of the film a bigger mystery; it is more conventional for trailers to reveal more about their characters and less about the struggler however we are using the uncertainty that surrounds our characters to entice the audience to watch the film.

Conventionally horror trailers show evidence of all the stages of Todorov’s theory of narrative, with exception to the last. We however have shown very little of our narrative but still show evidence of the first stage which is the equilibrium, the third stage being the recognition of the disruption and the fourth stage the attempts to repair. By withholding information on the actual disruption and the restoration of the equilibrium it makes audiences want to know more so making them more likely to watch the full length film.
It is very unconventional to not show stage two, the disruption as often trailers use this to draw the audience in and stimulate their interest in the characteristics of the killer. This then gives greater interest in the film.
On the other hand we stayed quite true to Propp’s theory and this was evident in our trailer, the 3 normal friends made up the Hero, Helper and Donor, with Jordan’s character also being the Dispatcher. The fourth friend was evidently the Villain, this is all very conventional, furthermore as is normal for horror films the Princess is survival. We didn’t have a farther, but it is rare that horror films do.
Our film also follows the typical horror three act rule; in beginning focuses on the main characters, and shows the setting, which is ultimately threatening (in our case home alone), secondly stumbling across something that unleashes a wave of violence, putting the characters at risk and thirdly the climax which generally involves a dramatic showdown between main protagonist and antagonist, then end of the plot often leaves the possibility of the antagonists return. However in our trailer we only see evidence of the first stage, which is unconventional as normally teaser trailers will hint all three stages. Noel Carrol similarly suggested the ‘onset phase’, ‘discovery phase’ and ‘disruption phase’ which similarly fit our narrative but not aren’t all evident in our trailer.

We chose not to use very many special effects, which is very unconventional as many horror films, especially older ones, are known for their over use of special effects. We chose to go for a more natural look as we knew that it would make our horror film appear more realistic and so scarier. We know how important it is to protect the continuity of horror films, and as the special effects available to us had the potential to harm this, we chose not the use them. On some of our shots the colour contrast has been tinted red to reinforce the idea of horror and the danger the colour connotes. Furthermore on some of our darker shots we changed the contrast to make the shot more visible and coherent. The effect of the camera made some of the shot look like they were hand held shots to make it seem more realistic and like it is happening as the audience watch.

Film Trailer