Original images

 

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

Above is an image I created including a collection of the main websites and programs I used in the process of making my trailer,poster and magazine cover. I featured some of the main websites such as 'da font' I also used 1001 free fonts, I used these sites to get the 'bold eagle' font which I used on my magazine cover for the 'total film' cover. Also, I used 'baby blocks' font for the 'Childminder' official logo which is featured on the trailer, magazine and poster. Another website I used is facebook, which is unusual, i posted it in order to get views from my views and further feedback on what people thought of it, similar to this I did the same on Tumblr, my own personal online blogging site. Flickr was a large component to this task as i used it to annotate things such as preexisting magazine covers, movie posters, stills from my own and other film trailers. This is simpler as the viewer simply clicks on the image on a block, the hyperlink takes them directly to flickr where they can hover the mouse over images and see the annotations. Google is a search engine used in almost any computing related project, it was important for research and to find images and trailers that were useful in my production. Youtube was important to look at other trailers online for films and older students work to see the standard I should be aiming for. It's also what the final trailer was uploaded to which allowed it to be shared online to friends for feedback. Blogger was the most important site to use for online blogging my entire project research through development and final productions for my peers to see, my teacher and to have all my work together online where I could easily access it.

One of the main programs used was final cut pro, this was the main editing program to make our trailer, we first shot our footage onto one tape using a camera, one uploaded to the Mac we used final cut pro to upload shots that we easily cut and saved under various names (eg. Matty CU) this made it easier to edit the order in which we wanted the shots to show up in the trailer. We got the shots into some sort of order and then used final cut pro to add effects and transitions (fades to black/white and bad TV for the POV shots) we then added our inter-tittles and credits at the beginning (dark doll productions) and myself and one of the other from my group (James) created the Childminder tittle for the end of the trailer. Final cut pro is an industrial level editing program used by professionals, it was the program with the largest learning curve as it was totally new software for myself. Importing the footage from camera to screen was complicated but soon was easy. I found this program particularly helpful as our shots were recorded onto one tape and final cut pro made it possible to cut the footage to the scenes we need and we could try the trailer in different sequences to see which had the better effect. I developed the skill for techniques such as transitions between shots and discovered the effects which we used on the inter-titles. At first i was almost intimidated by the software but soon came accustom to using the program for editing and have developed the skills to feel comfortable with using it.

We then uploaded the entire project into garage band which allowed up to do sound which we got from http://soundbible.com/, http://freeplaymusic.com/, http://www.freesound.org/searchText.php we also recorded some sound ourselves and added them into the trailer. Using garage band allowed up to easily match up the sounds to the correct shot or screen image (Zanzibar chords corresponded with the inter-tittles) we used this program to edit the sounds and have them louder when it was necessary and quiet if playing at all at others, we could also speed up the tempo of some sounds and the pitch to give eerie effects when they were needed.

Photoshop was largely used in this project as it was used to create the tittle for the childminder piece featured in the trailer, poster and magazine cover. For which we used the font 'baby blocks' and 'blood brushes' to use on different layers so the blood appeared on the letters one at a time rather than all at once, which corresponded with the ending music. I also used photoshop to create the post in which I showed stills from my trailer and other trailers, for the banner of programs and sites above, for screen prints from programs. Most importantly I used it for my poster and magazine cover to edit the images and make them more 'horror' like and used brushes to give the cracked, decaying feeling. I look the images with my own dslr camera I have for photography.

I believe blogging in itself is a much more useful way of presenting work, due to using this technique during my Photography course I was well used to blogs and how they are useful. A blog can easily be linked with other websites for example with the images in this post some have links connected to them which take you to the Flickr website where I have made small annotations on the images to show I understand how to work them and show how they were useful to the production. Online blogging helps to create an online record which is easily accessible as it is saved to the website and can be viewed by myself and overs. My teacher/peers are able to leave feedback on my work which helps myself make improvements to help my grade. Essay format doesn't allow such a vivid demonstration of all the programs and a visual showing helps to explain. I Personally find blogging work more productive and accessible, I find myself more inclined to try harder and the work can be edited at a later date.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The final trailer for 'Childminder was shown in front of my class to provide useful feedback from people who had never seen it and could compare it to others created in the same amount of time and to similar standards.
Cinematography/Editing

• Effects - The audience liked the use of bad tv, from the POV of the doll and the spinning shots of the camera shots as it creates disorientation and confusion, putting the viewer in the film. 
• Inter tittles - The audience enjoyed the ominous inter tittles, the font and the shaking effects.

Mise en Scene/ Filming

• Children - People commented in the use of children and the conventions of innocence in children and dolls. 
• Location -  We used a wooded area for our trailer which worked well for isolation and the feeling of being lost yet still confined. In this area we found and abandoned bathtub to use and people expressed the feeling of mystery they experienced and that it worked well to draw them in. 
• Time - We filmed in various times (mid day, evening and night) to explore all lighting effects and to show that the events had been going on for a period of time. This also highlights the 'horror moments'.
• Shots -  the audience liked the POV shots from the unidentified eye 'doll' as they aren't sure who or what is watching the children and feel on edge. The POV shots on the paths worked well also so they could see the area and the choice of paths to go down. Close ups also worked well to see the expressions of the children and protagonist making it easier to read their expressions.
• Latex/Make up - we used latex, face paints and fake blood to show the 'zombie' like characters  these were flickered on in the ending sequence and the audience liked how this was creating tension with the day time and night shots. 
• Final shot - the final shot of the protagonist made the audience curious and on edge to know why she was alone and what was happening.

Soundtrack

• Radio - the audience liked the 'police radio' effects as they relate directly to whats going on 'We don't wanna do anything to scare your children..."
• Music box - towards the end we had 'music box' type tinkling music and child laughter, they liked the innocent and creepy feel.

These are the positive thoughts on the trailers, however, people felt the doll had no meaning and was slightly too ambiguous, the length of the trailer was too long due to the long beginning where the children spend time playing being too lengthy and getting boring. Also the sound levels were commented on as they were not loud enough in parts. 

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

In order to launch a film successfully the roll of the distributer is important as it is then that the public attention of gained. It is the distributers responsibility to engage the public whilst competing agains other distributors and films, while also battling the appeal of other leisures so people will choose to visit the cinema in order to see the film. It is their role to advertise the film and to gain recognition while convincing people it is a 'must see' film, this is mostly accomplished by promotion such as advertising, publicity and promotional campaigns to gain awareness for the film. The purpose of a campaign is to reach the target audience in the most cost effective way as films loose money in the process of advertising and will likely be in debt, money is only earned back once the film is released. The more publicity and advertising methods the more likely a film is to reach different audiences, different audiences are reached in different ways, for example film posters, teaser trailers, theatrical trailers, film reviews, interviews, viral promotion and word of mouth. All of these methods must attract the audience to see the movie by providing them with a question that will only be answered by seeing the film, eg, What happens? Who is she/he? Why does that happen?. All forms of advertising should give away little about the film but provide enough informations for them to research it, eg. a web address.

Different forms of advertising reach different audiences, my own film is directed at the 15-25 demographic, who are teens/young adults/students which is a large percentage of of the 'cimemagoers' percentage. People in this demographic are likely to be groups of teens or young males. These people are more likely to react to a teaser trailer, viral promotion, a poster or word of mouth. A film poster must relate directly to the film but not too closely as to give anything big away, it can relate to a character, a star, a setting, almost anything ominous. I myself used the image of 'a doll' which relates to the tittle 'childminder' though they are not related in any other way except they bot involve children. The doll could have multiple functions and mean anything in the story line. This creates questions in the views mind 'who's doll is it? what does it have to do with the film? how does it relate to childminding? whys the doll special?' The doll isn't completely in show as some is obscured by the wood in front of it which is a crimson red colour connoting blood, it also creates a sharp line in the image which creates a background for the little. The doll is also not totally in focus, this was achieved by playing with the depth of field on a dslr camera. Specks and cracks are layered over the main image using brushes on photoshop which I downloaded and edited. Also cobwebs are in the image that I also photographed and layered over the image. My poster also features the stars names in a bolder font as is showed when I analysed the cover of Skeleton Key and Kate Hudson, so fans of the actors will see the film. I also used a billing blog to seem more authentic as they are featured on all posters to give more information.

A film poster will be released months before a the actual film and sometimes in great amounts before the trailer, the film informs the audience a new film is going to be released and the interviews and trailers keep them updated and intrigued they will keep the audience interested in one day going to see the film after it's release. Similar to my magazine cover in which i included an exclusive 'Chrissy Clark talks Childminder' I believe my cover works well, it includes something exclusive to the magazine, the latest goings on in the film world, the oscars and on set with the cast of Paul a recently released film. The cover is simplistic and doesn't take much attention away from the highlight feature of the magazine. I used an already established magazine and re created their heading tittle (Total Film) in phototshop using an 'Eagle Bold' font that looked similar. I look the image myself with a DSLR andPublish Post achieved the background with a selection of brushes in photoshop and images i look for textures. The tittle of the film on both the poster and the magazine cover are in the same 'baby blocks' font I downloaded, this gives it an eire feel but more importantly they are the same except one is a darker colour, but they link together in these pieces and the trailer along side the 'star' chrissy clark.

                                                  

in What ways does your media product use, develope or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Childminder a photo by LaurenDarlenePhotography on Flickr.

Above are Examples of 'screen shots' from my own trailer, I have uploaded these images to Flickr to analyse them with notes. By clicking on the link they are visible I also uploaded images (link below)  from actual horror movies that related to my own shots and had similar values and explored when we intended to do in our trailer with the conventions of the horror genre. 

Magazine Cover

Above I have featured my own interpretation of a simplistic magazine cover with inspiration from the Total Film magazine, which I have used due to the magazine being a well established and well selling brand. I created the title and headings in photoshop with a Eagle bold font which looked similar to the font of Total Film. I took the picture of the antagonist using shadows over her face to create an eerie photo and from then used photoshop to create the 'debris' and 'cracked' look using additional brushes in photoshop, I used these to blend into the image of the girl to look as if she was being pulled into the cracked world. I used the protagonist from my trailer 'Childminder' to be on the cover, featuring an interview from the young star 'Chrissy Clark talks Childminder'. To give the cover a more genuine feel I added additional headings and information about the features inside the magazine using real celebrities and movies coming out in the present time. I also used the issue as a March issue so the features inside would feel more genuine. This issue would be intended to be in the build up to the release of the film, in cases with films such as 'Twilight' and 'Saw' as they get a larger amount of press for months before the release. We've scheduled the release for fall 2011 and this would make it more realistic for a larger budget movie.

Total film cover 2

totalfilm-cover a photo by LaurenDarlenePhotography on Flickr.

I chose this cover as I find the minimalistic layout appealing and intriguing, I intend to base my own magazine cover around the covers from total film and will be using this one for inspiration.