Evaluation planning: Question 4

Basic construction of our pieces.

Sound construction screencap:

When I made the sound, I used sound editing software Wave Pad and also used the inside of a music box device. The sound was developed by Fenetta and was chopped and screwed by Fenetta also. We then came to college and adjusted the sound to suit our trailer and then it was changed by Lucy and Ben.

Using blogger the group kept track of each stage of the project, featuring updates in which a group member explained where we all were in the process of filming, production ect. This also kept the teachers informed of what work the group was producing and we would often get feedback which helped the groups work become a better standard.

Using search engines we carried out research to find out idea for conventional horror teasers, magazines and posters, this helped extend our production process and give the group a brainstorm of ideas for the whole project.

Before filming the group took place in a class filming lesson, in which we learnt the basics in filming, also we learnt about where to place the lights to make sure the lighting was correct, this mean for example the shots would be for example high key lighting, meaning that this could connote the whole shot as being peaceful, happy etc. This mean also that we understood what connotations each shot would produce.

For producing the teaser we used final cut pro version fc.p.5.0.4 , a digital SLR camera and photoshop to produce the poster and teaser.

Lauren Lawlor

Evaluation planning: Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We used different sources of media to get feedback from people and here are some examples of tyhe feedback that we got:

The image above is the feedback that we got from Youtube.

 The image above is the feeback that we got from Mark, another Media student.

 This feedback above and below is from my Facebook friends that have left feedback on the magazine front cover.

This is when I had posted the trailer link on my Facebook wall for my friends to see. Although,this may seem to lead to a bias judgement, I told my friends to be truthful and say what they really feel about it as just positive feedback can prove good for the ego, but will not help us know how to ammend things.

Evaluation planning: Question 2

How effectively is the commbination of your main product and ancillary texts?

For our products, we used the internet as our main source of promotion and audience feedback. We used popualr social netowrking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. We also sent our tariler in a mass-email allowing it to be easier for people from our college to watch it and to send us feeback via e-mail.
We made a Facebook Fanpage which allowed people to find out more about our film.

Facebook page for PsychomaniaPictures.

Using my persoanl Twitter account to promote the trailer.

The group's Youtube account.

Evaluation planning: Question 1

1. In what ways does your media production use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We created (from stratch) an original tearser trailer, magazine front cover and poster.
The poster consists of our main character, an innocent looking asian girl with her back turnt to the audience, showing isolation and segregation. The fact that she is facing a different directiona nd is not facing front is a key aspect to the fact that we have not used the typical convention of the actress facing frontwards, because we didn't want the audience to know what she looks like. The only way to know is to watch the film, or read the magazine which is usually realeased some time after the poster and the trailer. We made her face another direction mainly because we didn't want the audience to get an idea or anything that the piece may be about making them suspicious and giving them more of a reason to want to watch the movie.
We used my mothers old dress that she gave birth to me in for the costume. We tea-stained it and then made it dry. After it dried, we put artificial blood on it to give it a scarier look.
This is what it looked like before the tea and blood:
And evidently, the poster and the magazine is what is looked liked after the tea and blood had stained it. (Picture of Lucy)
In terms of the make-up and clothing, there's not much make-up that can be seen from the back, but the clothing connotes an idea of innocence with the pretty flowers embroided and printed on it. The floral print shows nature, but also, the colour of the dress and the blood stains on it connotes something more sinister and scary than just a girl in a oversized gown.
Magazine:
We used the convention of a horror magazine and made the writing different fonts and used the colour read to connote blood.
We included different films on the front, again using the convention of a typical magazine. The dark colours are also a convention.



Fenetta




Teaser trailer:
Follwoing normal conventions of teaser trailers, therefore the lenght of time and the quick cut of shots is normal fore teaser trailer conventions. Also using good timing to scare the audience and keep them on the edge of there seats, the idea of this is to create a buzz. in terms of costume, make up and props, the group used a old gown covered in tea stains to make it look old and blood stains to add a horror type feeling to the image of the character. The makeup used was simplisitc, using dark foundation, black, brown and purple eyeshadow to produce bruises on the characters face, and finally lots of eyeliner to make the characters eyes look evil and scary. Using this look for the character meant that the group wanted to get across a small dose of the film and what they have to look foward to.

using normal horror conventions made the teaser interesting because it is against many teasers of it's kind, but we had to produce something that makes it stand out from the rest.

Lauren Lawlor.

Evaluation Notes and planning

Evaluation planning:

Question 1:
In what ways does your media productions use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

• Determine and understand conventions of horror films

Usually Caucasian actors and protagonist or “damsel in distress” is a helpless female. She usually survives. Usually isolated in a large space and very darkly lit with tinge of green or blue to express more isolation.

• Identify what sub-genre our media pieces will be

J-horror and looking back at older films that are popular within the J-horror sub-genre and identifying trends within them.

• Research that sub-genre’s conventions for all 3 forms of media.

The popular use of the yurei, which is a young girl with dark hair. The innocence linked with the yurei and the typical distorted body and face.

• Find out whether our pieces go against any conventions are explain how and why and also identify the typical conventions of the horror genre and say whether we have gone against those or have decided to use them.

 Dark tints of green, dark, yurei but with modern features and more modern characteristics

 Question 2:
How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?

• Explain use of different pictures for different products
• Explain how they worked together and all linked in particular places.

Question 3: 
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

• Show collected feedback using survey monkey and face to face feedback, street marketing.
• Record feedback from Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, forums, whatever else.
• Asked a variety of people not family or close friends because they'll say anything not to hurt feelings, so bias judgements can't be passed.

Question 4:

Research:

• Internet usage: Youtube, Twitter, Facebook. Various media netowrking sites used to distribute our surveys and to research what the audiences are interested in.
• Google for examplar posters, teasers and magazines.
• Excel for extra graphs and pie charts to add up research
• Survey monkey was used to gather information and feeback.

Fenetta

Promotion

PRE PROMOTION

Before a film gets released in the cinema, it is usually advertised on television or you would see it on bus stop shelters or on the buses themselves, this makes it seen by the general public and they may find an interest with the film and decide to watch it. It is very important a film to get as much pre-promotion as possible as pre-promotion is what makes the public want to go and watch the film.

Most the time before a film is released into the cinema it is usually advertised on bus stop shelters where people can visible see it. By

placing it on a bus stop people will automatically look at it whilst waiting for thebus and by putting the date on the image, it lets the public know when the film is released in the cinema for them to be able to watch it.

Here i have created my own bus stop shelter advert by producing it on Adobe Photoshop, i did this by finding a image on Google of a bus stop shelter and put our 'Lullabye' poster on it by warping it into shape to make it look as though it belongs on the image of the bus stop shelter. Although on the teaser trailer for 'Lullabye' we did not reveal the release date, I put the date of release for the film on the bus stop shelter because the public need to know when the film is out to be able to watch it in the cinema.

When you enter a cinema you will always notice the variety of different film posters either

hanging on the wall, promotional cut outs or

above the till and this is to catch the attention of people who have entered the cinema buying

tickets to watch a movie.

A first impression of a movie is really important as this will catch the publics eye when they pass by in the cinema. Here i have saved an image of a cinema i found on google and warped our 'Lullabye' film poster on it to make it look how it would if it were a real film to be promoted.

Film promotion on buses are very common for any genre of film. It manages to catch the eye of passers by, people in their cars or people on

other buses which really promotes the film. The film promotion on the

buses usually consist of a image(s),

the title of the movie which is usually the largest to catch the most attention, the slogan (She dares YOU to sing a Lullaby), a rating from a popular magazine (Best horror of the year ***** - Empire) and the date of when it's showing in cinemas. Here i have promoted our film 'Lullabye' on a London bus by using Adobe Photoshop.

POST PROMOTION

Usually after films are released in the cinema, they are released on DVD (Digital Versatile Disc).
This way people can purchase their favourite movie which they watched in the cinema or a movie they wanted to watch but have not yet seen and re-watch it as many times as they like in the comfort of their own home. DVDs are sold in most grocery stores and there are also stores which specialize in selling a wide range of DVDs of different genres, languages and age ratings. An example of a store which specializes in selling a wide range of DVD's is HMV. A few months after the film gets released in the cinema is gets released on DVD, for post-promotion i have put our 'Lullabye' film poster onto a blank DVD case to make it look like it has been released on DVD. For our original film poster the 'Lullabye' title goes at the bottom but when we looked at conventions of DVDs we noticed that the title is usually at the top of the DVD although the title is at the bottom of the film poster so we decided to follow this convention. We also included a review from the popular magazine Empire to put a label of how good the film is so it'll catch the audience's eye when they come across it in the cinema. By saying it is the "best horror of the year" with 5 stars, it puts it right at the top of the list for every horror movie fan to watch the movie seeing as it's reviewed the "best horror of the year". To make it look more like a DVD we also put the BBFC age certificate on it and in our case it's a 18 certificate film due to it being a horror movie. Other logos include the HD DVD logo which most DVDs have on them and our BLFL logo.

Another option of viewing a movie at home is Blu-ray which allows information to be stored at a higher density than is possible with the lasers used for DVDs. This allows the image of the movie to be in a high definition. Blu-ray Discs are usually priced at a higher price than DVDs due to the amount of high definition featured in the movie for the best experience whilst watching the movie.

When films are released on DVD they are also usually released on blu-ray disc which means that the film can be viewed in a more higher definition than DVD. The

images appear to be more 'clearer' and 'real' which would make watching a horror film twice as scary as it'll look like it's actually there.

I have used the same image i used for the DVD but instead i found a blank blu-ray disc case to insert the image into. By releasing our film on the blu-ray disc it allows the public to watch our film in the best way possible and really keep them on the edge of their seat.

HMV is a British global entertainment retail chain and is the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland. The company also operates in Hong Kong and Singapore. HMV is a great place to advertise and sell our film as the company operates 379 HMV stores in the United Kingdom which shows that it is a successful and popular retail chain. With HMV selling a wide range of DVDs with different genres, Lullabye will fit into the horror section wonderfully. HMV also offer online shopping which is helpful for people who for whatever reason want to purchase online and have it delivered to them, this makes sure no one is missing out in terms of watching every great movie out there.

This is how our film 'Lullabye' would look if it's being promoted on the HMV website. If our film was on the HMV website it would allow people to be able to order it online or pre-order it so they can get it before anyone else. To make it look like HMV is advertising our film I used Adobe Photoshop and made sure everything

looked as realistic as the real HMV website.

I print screened the HMV website and opened it up in Adobe Photoshop where i erased the Harry Potter DVD which was where Lullabye currently is. I didn't erase everything, but just the name, the 'pre-order now' logo and the synopsis of the DVD. I then opened up our 'Lullabye' DVD onto the page and scaled it down to the

correct size and wrote the synopsis making sure the font looks the same as the font used on the other DVDs. And lastly i wrote the 'pre-order now' and put a white stroke on it to give it that white border.

There are also websites which only operate online and sell items through the internet and do not have a walk-in store. Examples of these websites where purchase is avaliable online include Play.com, Amazon and Ebay.

Play.com is a Jersey-based online retailer of DVDs, CDs, books, gadgets, video games, DRM-free mp3 downloads, and other electronic products, as well as clothes and accessories. Play.com is an alternative to HMV where shoppers have access to shop online for the item they want, with a simple search bar it makes life more simple. Play.com offer free shipping which allows the item to be shipped and delivered to the customer without an extra costing charge. By offering free shipping it invites customers to purchase on their store as they can purchase at the comfort of their own home and not need to spend an extra £3 on getting it delivered to them.

Here is a image of our blu-ray disc Lullabye and how it would look if it were on the play.com website where it can be purchased.

I have done the same process as i did with the HMV image and by making it look really realistic

it makes it look believable that our Lullabye film

is on the play.com website and can be purchased by the public.

Here i have done the same process with our magazine 'The Big Screen' on the WH Smith website. Popular magazines such as Empire make it onto the WH Smith website where they can be purchased and the public can also subscribe to a subscription which means every new issue of the magazine will be sent to their home for a price. If our magazine were to be popular it would also

have a subscription so our viewers can enjoy every issue of our magazine.

Here i can show our 'Lullabye' teaser trailer being promoted on the popular iPhone which is one of the most popular phones available these days. As the iPhone is so popular it is highly recognizable by a wide range of people and if our teaser trailer is promoted on the iPhone then more people may be more interested in it.

The iPhone is not just a phone, it also allows the viewer to be able to surf the internet, listen to music,

download apps, watch YouTube videos and even read books! So with the many different ways, when people are watching 'Lullabye' on the iPhone they can also leave their feedback on it and 'like' it so it can do everything that you can do on a laptop or a computer, this is why iPhone promoting our teaser trailer is a good way of promotion.

MEDIA PROMOTION

This is our teaser trailer 'Lullabye' on the NME website (I did not create this on Photoshop), our group is unaware as to how our teaser trailer got onto the NME website but it happens to be there, hopefully helping us promote it for more views. NME is a popular music magazine and although our video has nothing to do with music, it was put under the 'movie trailers' section which is great as our teaser trailer can be classed as 'movie trailers' and we hope that it being put on the NME website can allow a wider audience.

Lucy Luu

Our production companies: Psychomania Pictures, Zombie house Pictures, BLFL Pictures explained...

We decided that during the edting and production of our trailer, that we should add some production names at the beginning of the trailer to give it a more professional feel to. We created 3 of our own and put them one after the other at the beginning of our trailer.

We chose to use this effect of a red spiral going around the words, because we realised (by watching model trailers) that some one the productions logo's move, so we made one move in this way to make it our "signiture" logo, something that we can be recognised by.

 We used one called 'ZombieHouse Pictures' because again, by watching other trailers, we saw that multiple production teams were used, not only one. We got the name from brainstorming names that are usually affllicted with the horror genre and we decided to go with the sub-genre of Zombies.

And lastly, we used our actually names as Ben, Lucy, Fenetta and Lauren to make our final production name. This was pretty much our signature on the beginning of our work showing our originality, trademark and copyright.

Fenetta

Merchandising: 'Lullabye'

During our production, I decided to go beyond just making the trailers and the posters and the magazine, and considered merchandising.

In the past, films such as the Harry Potter franchise and the Dark Knight have had some of their films characters made into merchanise such as key rings and character figurines.

In order for us to make merchandise, it would be essential for our film to be popular and to get a niche amount of followers like those of the followers of 'The Big Lebowski".

Lebowski Fest is a celebration of all things related to the 1998 Coen brothers cult comedy, "The Big Lebowski." Fans of the film (aka "Achievers") come from far and wide to drink white Russians, throw some rocks and party with an array of Dudes, Walters and Maudes (not to mention a nihilist or two). It's a two-day party that typically opens with live performances and screening of the film the first night and concludes with a raucous bowling party the following night. The First Annual Lebowski Fest was in 2002 in Louisville, but subsequent fests have been held in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Austin, Seattle, London and Edinburgh. While the Coen brothers continue to maintain a safe distance from the madness they created, the fest has earned the blessing of the Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, who attended the fest in L.A. and even stuck around to sing a few songs. Check out photos from past fests, and click here find out when Lebowski Fest might be coming to a city near you." - LebowskiFest Online

The Big Lebowski was known for holding 'Lebowski-fests' and also have national 'Dude' days.
I realised that we would need a small group of devoted followers that have enjoyed the film to buy any sort of merchandise from us. First we would need a fan club and then afterwards we would be able to develop merchandise such as mugs, t-shirts and key rings:

Adaptations of forms of merchandising done by Lucy.
Information about merchandising done by Fenetta