Evaluation- In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms of Conventions from Real Media Products?

Frame 1: Storyline
The storyline for our film perfectly encompasses many themes that are shown in real thriller media products. Topics such as murder and suicide are seen in nearly all of the thriller genre including our product. For example this frame shows a mid shot of a detective board which is owned by the character of Stacey. It is not an uncommon theme in the thriller genre for a person to take the law into their own hands after a tragic event has occurred, and showing this board sums up the fact there is a huge mystery revolving around the death of her best friend. Unknown antagonists are a motif seen in films such as 'The girl on the train', and placing this detective board in the trailer shows the audience that this motif is something that occurs in our film. 


Frame 2: Props
In this frame you can see a mid shot of the character of Stacey holding an empty bottle of vodka, indicating that she has drunk the bottle. Alcohol is known to give connotations of grief, escape and sadness - all common themes of the thriller genre. Showing this prop signifies to the audience that the film will feature an element of addiction or possible violence as alcohol is known to make people engage in erratic behaviour that they may not have if they were sober. Also it symbolises the downfall of the character and the effect that losing her best friend in mysterious circumstances has had on her and will entice the audience to find out the eventual outcome of her insanity.


Frame 3: Lighting
In this frame you can see a mid shot of the character Stacey looking at the detective board in her bedroom with very low-key lighting. It is a typical convention for thriller films to be mainly low-key lit and we decided to use this convention throughout the most of our trailer. Due to the events seen in the trailer, the low key lighting we believed completely set the mood for the themes that arise. Low key lighting immediately signifies to the audience that the events will be of a dark and insidious nature which the thriller genre stereotypically is. Lastly the use of lighting immediately shows that the trailer they are watching is for a thriller film.


Frame 4: Special Effects
A long shot using the effects of black and white saturation and rewind are shown in this frame as the character Stacey walks past the towns police station. This rewind provides a sense of disorientation for the audience as the timeline is shown to be chaotic and out of sync which trailers such as 'black swan' are shown to do in order to build upon the thinning theme of the film. The black and white connotes the dark and lifeless feel of what Stacey's life is becoming as she becomes more and more enthralled in the mystery of her best friends potential murder - all tones obviously apparent in thriller trailers. We achieved these effects through the software Adobe Premier Pro and watched a youtube video on how to rewind scenes while keeping a black and white coloured background. 

Frame 5: Film Title
In this frame you can see a high angle shot of how our film title 'NO MORE' appears on screen. The title itself uses the traditional conventions seen in the thriller genre as it is obscure and short - much as the titles 'the purge' and 'the strangers'.

There is not a lot of information given away about the film in the title which leads to the aura of mystery which is stereotypical to see for a thriller film. Ambiguity was a trend that I found when researching the names of other thriller films on the market so believe 'NO MORE' fit perfectly in the genre when looking at what came before it. The font 'franklin gothic heavy' seemed to be a perfect fit as it was easily reusable for our other products which was key to show synergy. Also it is readable for the audience and bold in order to make it stand out against the background. Lastly the colour scheme of white and red are commonly used in the thriller genre - especially red as it connotes fear, danger, violence and blood.


Frame 6: Setting
In this frame you can see in a mid shot that the setting is in a school. It is fairly counter typical to see a thriller film in a school setting as usually the genre focuses on adult characters rather than teenagers or younger adults. We decided that challenging these conventions would work as we could aim our product at a slightly younger 15-25 age bracket and make it more relateable with those that we are targeting. There are some thriller films revolved around young adults like 'truth or dare' and 'the babadook' however the vast majority of them include middle ages people as seen in films 'se7en' and 'the girl on the train'. The school setting also will shock viewers as a murder has taken place in a setting such as a school which is usually a place of safety and sanctity for teenagers. 


Frame 7: Editing 
In this frame you can see that a close-up has been used when showing Stacey's phone dialling the UK emergency number '999'. Using a zoom close-up in the editing was used to draw empathises to this specific moment because calling an emergency number connotes that something dramatic, violent or intense is going on. Because of this the audience will be enticed to know what is happening in this scene and why she is calling the number, which adds to the mystery that thrillers are conventionally known to build. The police are also a convention that are seen in nearly every single thriller movie ever made which further places our film in the genre especially in the audiences mind. 


Frame 8: Movie Poster
The frame i decided to choose from my movie poster was the lower half as i believed i included a huge amount of traditional conventions that are seen in real posters. I used synergy from the main product and the magazine cover as the title of the film is in the same 'frankin gothic heavy' font and colour seen in both of the texts. The use of colour for the title and all the other visible text fits with the synergy of all of the products and the use of red white and black perfectly solidifies this in the thriller genre. I included a credits scroll which through the use of a photoshop tool i made convincing as the font and letters replicate that of a real credit scroll. I included a tagline which reads 'was it suicide? was it murder?' which immediately connotes an aura of mystery and will entice and intrigue the audience towards the product - also both topics are huge components to many thriller genre productions such as 'gone girl' and '13 reasons why', so my product will be easily identifiable as being apart of that genre. I included a review which is a typical convention of a film poster as the audience will be reassured that the product is of high quality. I included the release date - which is in the stereotypical thriller genre month of october - as every poster includes a release date. And lastly i decided to include secondary sources such as social media links and a website link as due to our audience being in the 15-25 age bracket they would be more likely to find out more about the product on social media if they were interested in seeing the film - and social media links are prominent in nearly all modern day movie posters. 

 










Frame 9: Magazine Cover
In the frame for my magazine front cover i decided to include the top half of my product as there are many conventions of note. Firstly, the main image is that of the main characters of our product - it is stereotypically placed in the middle of the magazine and is the largest image on the whole product. The main image covers the name of the magazine which is once again the conventional placement for the main image, and as this is a film magazine i decided to use the name credits as it connotes film straight away and gives the feeling that this is the magazine you need to find additional information about film just like how credits are used at the end of movies. I included the date, issue and price of the magazine as that is seen in every single front cover that i researched and i wanted to make the product be as convincing and true as possible. I also included cover lines with additional unrelated to the main image as this was a frequent convention seen in magazine covers - especially entertainment weekly. In the cover lines i used buzzwords such as 'first look', 'essential' and 'exclusive!' to convince the audience that they need to buy this magazine - and i also included a traditional offer or prize with purchase, 20% off cinema tickets, which is commonly seen in magazines. Additionally in the cover lines I included a secondary image which is unrelated to the main image and is used on magazines. Tagline were also used when it says 'the season of the thriller is here' which i believed empathised the point that this magazines main topic will be for a thriller movie. Also a tagline was used to say 'the no1 UK film magazine' as this convention of a magazine describing itself as the 'best film magazine' was seen in my research of empire. Lastly, the colour scheme of the magazine including the black background and red, white and grey stuck with the synergy of my two other products and also made the main topic film easily identifiable as belonging in the thriller genre - also the font i used 'Agency FB' was the same font i had used for my credits scroll in my film poster and as the name of my magazine was credits i decided it was the most appropriate main font for the magazine cover.

Evaluation- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Questionnaires:
We decided to create some questionnaires in order to gain some feedback for our main product. We gave them out and asked individuals to write honestly able their thoughts in order to make any changes if there needed to be any. We noticed that a common theme between the questionnaires seems to be in two places: the lighting and the need for more effects. After receiving these criticisms we decided to get back to editing and make some changes. These changes included making a scene with Detective Marshall more clear by using a tool in premier pro as although we wanted to fit with the thriller convention theme of low-key lighting, we still needed to make sure the quality was there. We also added a blur and slow-motion effect in our trailer which we saw when watching the trailer 'before i go to sleep'. 
















































































Verbal Feedback: 
We were able to take feedback from the class at a certain points throughout our experience, and we took this feedback on board as there were people in the class that had developed their own trailers and had been involved in helping others for years. The most common pieces of positive feedback were:

• A nice range of shots used
• A clear storyline followed that relates to the thriller genre
• Editing was seen to be of good quality - no overlapping sound or crackling audio
• A great range of props used 

And the negatives included:

• Additional effects should be used
• Improved sound in the opening
• Reordering of shots and shorter shots to make it more bewildering like many thriller trailers
• Faster pace

We decided from this to re-film the opening of our trailer as there was no way to get around the poor audio and background noises that were in the first draft. After re-filming this we were given verbal feedback that it was much more improves and was of a higher quality. We also adjusted the shots so they were shorter and could be placed at multiple parts of the trailer - most specifically the graveyard scene.

Social Media Feedback:

We created an instagram page to gather audience opinion for our product as we believed it could reach out to many more people than we could usually get. Here are some images from the page:

  

Overall we were pleased with the feedback that was gathered from the instagram page and took some on board and made changes seen above in this post.

Ancillary Product Feedback:

For my movie poster the only negative feedback i received was that the credit scroll did not look authentic enough, and that the original red was too neon and did not give the connotations of blood and fear. Because of this i found a way in which i could place the letters of the text closer together on photoshop which gave it a more authentic feel, and i chose a darker toned red for the final draft seen above.

For my magazine front cover the only piece of negative feedback i received was that there were no secondary images on the cover. Because of this I asked someone in the class to send me a still from their trailer called 'Raptus' so that I could include it in the side of the magazine cover. 

Evaluation- How effective is the combination of my Main and Ancillary products?

In my main and ancillary products i believe i have effectively shown a great deal of synergy and use of the stereotypical conventions that are seen in the thriller genre.

Throughout all three of the products there is low-key lighting which is a stereotypical convention as the subject matter and plot of thrillers are known to be dark and sinister. In the trailer we darkened the majority of shots after the character i played had died so in my ancillary products i included a black background in both. This is an immediate indication that the products are based on a main product that is included in the thriller genre as dark tones symbolise fear and the unknown which relates to the plot as the antagonist is unknown. 

Synergy is used by not including this unknown antagonist in all products as that will build mystery for the audience and will therefore entice them to watch the film. As the plot revolves around the male characters alleged murder or suicide I placed myself as the main focus of the poster but with lowered opacity - which i achieved when using photoshop - and the best friend main protagonist behind. This was to show that even though my male character is not in a great deal of the main product, the essence of the entire plot is based around him and the main protagonist is just the narrator of the tale which is his death. I took inspiration from the 'nocturnal animals' poster to show this. 

Colour schemes and fonts are fluid between the main product and ancillary products with the use of mainly black, white and red 'Franklin heavy gothic' font. You can clearly see that both the font of the products and the font in the trailer are all the same and this built synergy so that for the audience the products are easily identifiable to relate to that of the main product. Many movies regardless of genre are seen to do this in marketing so i believed that this was the best option for me and my products. 

The target audience for our product are those of 15-25 years of age so the clear use of teenagers in the products directly taps into that demographic of young adults as they will be interested and will identify with a storyline that is revolved around their age bracket. I took inspiration for the thriller series '13 reasons why' when thinking about my products as that has a teenage cast and is very successful. 

The two main characters are seen in all three products and are the only ones included in both of my ancillary products which will make the film identifiable to everyone who it comes in contact with. In both ancillary products they are seen to have a sad and ominous facial expression which are stereotypical tones and themes for the thriller genre to revolve around. In the magazine front cover and the movie poster the character of Zach is seen to be in the foreground connoting that he is not as big of a part as Abbie's character which is what i was aiming for as this is the case in the main product - the character of Zach is only included in a very small section but he becomes the signal point of the whole plot which is why i still wanted to include the character in the ancillary products. 

Institutional information is shown at the end of the main product signifying when the film will be released. I included this information on my ancillary products to continue with the synergy between all three of them. The release date of October is also a stereotypical convention of a thriller film as colder darker days in the winter set the tone for the insidious nature of the films plot, and being close to the time of halloween will most likely bring business from the audience as younger people tend to see these kinds of films towards the season of halloween. Also the reviews of 5 stars signify to the audience that the product is going to be successful and of high quality and i included these ratings in the main product and the movie poster. 

In conclusion, I believe I have used many different forms of synergy to effectively create a combination of identifiable aspects throughout all three of my products and in turn have created products of high quality in doing so. 

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

Blogger: blogger was an easy to use and useful website in which all of my work is uploaded to. It is easily accessible so i could use it at school, home and on my mobile and let me see my past posts whenever i wished so that i could look back at my work when writing future posts. Its option to save work as a draft was helpful as going back to work overtime and changing aspects of it suits my style of writing.

Video Camera: The video camera was most definitely the most important media technology we used throughout our whole time on the project. We were able to use a video camera provided by the school which was easily chargeable and was the perfect size for being practical for the sorts of facilities we have and scenes that we wanted to film. We got to use the camera for a large length of time which was perfect as in our trailer we needed to take many shots as that is what trailers tend to be full of. We also were given a tripod along with the camera which was perfect for when we wanted to create stable and smooth professional like shots. The device was not foreign to us as we had actually used the exact same one for our AS media project so there was no learning needing to be done in order to successfully use the camera, and its layout is simple enough to be understood quickly if there was any issues that arose. The camera also had a lead which we could plug into the computer and get our footage straight away without any hassle. 

Adobe Photoshop: The photoshop application was crucial for my group to be able to create the title for the film and we all had a technical input on how we wanted the title to look. I had only had a slight prior knowledge on how to use the software before using it for our work, however whenever i found myself completely stuck i relied on youtube tutorials or help from experts in order to create the content i wanted. I used the software heavily when creating my movie poster and magazine front cover which i am new extremely proud of and happy with. The software included the font 'Franklin Gothic Heavy' that i needed to create the synergy i aimed for between all of my pieces, and it did not forbid me from transferring images from my other components of work on to it so i was able to make clear ties between my products. I also was able to find many other fonts that were perfect for me to create a professional looking movie poster as i decided to include a credit scroll at the bottom of the poster. The application offered a tool in which i could place the letters closer together which i believe gave my credit scroll the look that it needed to be authentic and believable. Blending tools were also offered on the software which meant i was able to perfectly mould my desired poster and take the inspiration from the 'Nocturnal Animals' poster which is what i aimed for. Lastly, photoshop let me convert my product into a JPEG which meant i was easily able to upload it to the internet and share my creation on blogger. Every computer or laptop had this software installed so it was easily accessible wherever you were to complete any work on photoshop.

iPhone: My iPhone was a huge help and a great media technology that i relied on throughout the experience of this course. It was one of the biggest forms of connection between my group besides being together in person. It helped us to plan when and where we were going to meet and was perfect for setting reminders on the facebook messenger app. Also many of the photos i have taken to document myself was through my iPhone camera and with the use of iCloud the photos i took came straight to my laptop which was perfect for posting onto my blog or our instagram page which we created dedicated to our film. I accessed social media through my phone nearly every single time and we used social media in order to garner comments about our film and to talk to each other directly. We used social media many times in the process including watching youtube videos on our phones to gain inspiration whether it be by watching other thriller trailers or tutorials on how to accurately do something if we ever became stuck in the editing process. We even took photos on our phone, printed them out and used them for the murder mystery board we used in the trailer. 


Adobe Premier Pro: The editing software was something that me and my group had experience with in the past as we used it when creating our AS teen angst opening sequence. In our project from last year we had a tutorial and the information we gathered stayed with us - especially that of rewinding and fast-forwarding scenes which was included in both our AS and A2 projects. Whenever editing became an issue in the process, youtube tutorials on our phones became an ideal way of learning something that we didn't know how to do. Thriller trailer conventions were easily mimicked when using the software as it had a large variety of tools to lower the lighting, add text or images, add dramatic music and voiceover and a bounty of useful transitions - which we put to use and included throughout our editing. A downside to this software was that we had to use the same computer in the school every time we wanted to edit so if the computer was not free then you had to wait. 

NO MORE second draft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imuksQQIwlw&feature=youtu.be