1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In order to produce a successful film trailer, film poster and website, it is very important to establish the different codes and conventions needed to represent its genre. I choose to make mine on horror so therefore, I needed to use dark colours such as red and black to make it seem scary. In order to successfully target my product to my target audience, I looked at previous similar products on the market already. This was to give me a wider understanding of the codes and conventions needed to follow the representations of horror. Previous media products I looked at were horror film trailer, horror film posters and websites.
My horror film trailer uses the same codes and conventions as Jeepers Creepers 3 as I also used a close up of the killers face to create tension with the audience and to give the audience a little tease in to what the killer looks like, not giving too much away. However, i am challenging the codes and conventions of Jeepers Creepers 3 as i have used an extreme close up of Louise's face, creating an active audience making them think and ask what is going on. But at the same time, making it mysterious as only one eye is on show. I used the effect Sci- Fi to make it look more scary and some thing out of the ordinary.
This is an example of a horror film poster that I looked at in order to follow the correct codes and conventions to attract my target audience.
The colours used to follow the codes and conventions of horror are red and black, I used these colours as they are the main colours seen across all horror film posters.
Research suggests that in order to be successful in following the codes and conventions, a certain theme needs to be carrying out throughout all the media products, such as genre typography, colour schemes to represent the genre and images to represent the genre.
2) How affect is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Right at the start, i researched different horror campaigns to enable me to follow the right codes and conventions of horror. The products that i looked at that influenced my idea of the hole evil young child are Children of the corn. In my pitch i talked about how this influenced my ideas.
However, the film poster for Silent Hill influenced my idea to use an image of my killer, which is also a young child.
Through out my hole campaign i have been using the same type of typography, that best suits horror. I have also been using the same colour scheme through out every think, and this is seen way back from when i was doing my pitch. The main colours i have been using are red and black. These colours represent horror as it has connotations of evil, death and darkness and this is what i wanted to put across to my target audience.
These features can be seen in my website, teaser poster and film trailer. So it is obvious to see that all my products are made by the same company. All of this is very effective to my target audience as they will feel that my whole campaign is professional and represents the codes and conventions of horror.
My teaser poster and trailer have both had some editing on pixlr. However, my actual trailer was made on imovie, and i used pixlr to edit the text scenes which i felt made my campaign more successful. However, i had to use moon fruit to make my website on, but i still use the same colour scheme and used similar font as my teaser poster and trailer.
Focus Group.
In order to gain audience feed back in a quick way, i created a focus group of 4 people, 2 females and 2 males, all aged around 16- 25. I had people who are my target audience so that i can get the correct feed back that would be relevant to my products. In the focus group i showed them my teaser poster and asked two questions which were '
when you look at this poster what would make you go to see the film?' and the second question
'what would you change about the poster to make it more appealing to you?
I showed them two posters, one with red splatter effects and one with grey splatter effects.
Below is the feed back i got on both posters.
' i like the one with red splatter effects because it looks more scary'
'if i saw this poster i would go to see the film because the little girl looks spooky and evil'
'to make it more appealing i would make the title bigger to stand out more, and the coming soon....2012 to white font so that there is not to much red'
'i really like the idea of the little girl, she looks really evil and as you cant see her legs, it makes me think that she is evil, so yeah i would go to see this film'
3) What have you learned from your audience feed back?
Through out all my audience feed back i have learnt what to do and what to make better so that my products will reach out and attract to my target audience. At first i created a small focus group, consisting of males and females aged between 16-25. I showed them a picture of a previous teaser poster to find out what codes and conventions of horror would best appeal to them, and this would therefore, give me an advantage when making mine.
When i made my poster, i created a focus group again to see what my target audience thought of it and also, to see what i could improve. I received some constructive criticism how to change it to make it more appealing. I took in what they said and made some last minute changes. I made the title bigger to stand out and be more eye catching, and i also changed some of the font to white, as my focus group said that there is too much red on my teaser poster. Below is my new teaser poster after the changes i made to it.
I feel that these changes were successful and has my campaign better as my teaser poster is now more appealing to my target audience.
After showing the focus group, who are my target audience, my film trailer, they said that they would go to watch the film. They also said that the music went good and that they loved the way i did a close up on the killers eye. They said that that made the trailer tease them and make them want to see the hole film. My target audience are females and males aged between 16-25, and therefore, i fall into my target audience. This made it a little bit more easier to aim to my target audience as i know what kind of things to use, such as quick close ups to scare the audience.
4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Through out my campaign, i used different technologies. The main form of technology i used was the blog. I had to up load all my work to the blog, instead of printing every think out. I felt like this has been very successful as it has been more fun to create my own blog and present it how i like. Also, i have had the chance to go back to work and make changes. It also looks more presentable. Things that were included to use in the blog were, scanning contracts and up loading them to the blog, and saving images as JPEGS and up loading them. This has been interesting as i have learnt how to use a new form of media technology that i never knew how to use before. Up loading everything to the blog was easy and straight forward, and i didn't have any problems with it. It has also gave me the chance to present my work in a organised way, with the planning, research and every thing else all in order.
Not only was the blog new to me, but the moon fruit website was as well. When i first started using this, i didn't like it. I didn't know how to design it. But after a while after i played around with it i soon got the hang of it. I liked how i could changed things such as the colours and font style to how i wanted it. Up loading my film trailer to moon fruit was pretty easy as well. It has clear instructions how to do it and i could move my trailer to where ever i wanted it. I could also make it bigger if i wanted to. This gave me the opportunity to learn new skills in designing and editing a website page and how to design it to target my target audience, and also, according to the genre. I feel that i have had a good out come with the website as i have developed my knowledge and editing skills on website designs.
At first i planned on using photo shop to edit my teaser poster on. But Fiona, who is my teacher found a really good free on line editor called Pixlr. From this i have developed and learnt so much about editing as i was able to add in certain effects that looked really professional on my teaser poster and trailer. I used efftcs such as splatter and veins and made them red to represent horror. This made A positive out come and feed back from the audience as they really like the effects. Even though this technology wasnew to me, i picked it up really quick and enjoyed using it to edit my images on.
I also got to use a mac to edit my trailer on. This created a lot of problems for me as some times there was not any network coverage. But i got on with my teaser poster and website so that i was not that much behind on my editing dates. Other problems came up as well. One lesson the mac was not working and it had to go down to the IT technicians. This put me behind as i was not able to make the last minute changes to my film trailer and had to catch up in spare time i had. Over all this hole experience has been a really positive one as i have learnt how to use new technologies and also, how to use them to appeal to my target audience in a successful way. I loved it that it enabled me to be an independent learner as i have been able to get on with it in my own way.