Q4 : How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Q4 : How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? from magrethx

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In terms of marketing and target audience recognition, it is important for both my main product and ancillary texts to all link up. This is because - in my opinion - I see my main product and ancillary texts as part of my 'brand', which links to the whole reason as to why they should link up together. When creating a brand, you have an image or 'theme' that is easily recognizable to your audience, so for example, Disney, which is another famous media based brand, have a specific theme and global image that anyone (sometimes people who are not familar with the brand) can easily recognize. Likewise, this is also relevant with food brands such as McDonalds, who have a particular image/theme, so for example McDonald's colours are yellow and red, and they have stuck with them colours since they begun their brand, making them easily recognizable. This theme only becomes recognizable when it is consistent and does not change.

To add on to that, because my main product was a short film, evidently the film review and poster would be part of the overall package and the marketing process, so it simply would not make sense or be effective for the short film to be a horror theme yet the short film and poster to represent a chick flick, thus making them completely juxtopose! Thus, when I was constructing my three products I made sure I kept this mindset, I saw my texts overall as part of my brand and a full package. I made sure that all my texts linked up and the theme was consistent, thus, effective in combining all of them together. The first way I did this was through the use colours, or 'mise-en-scene'. In the images below, I provide screenshots from my short film (and also the actual short film), and my poster and short film review and you can see that I have consistently used the colours red, white (or cream) black and sometimes grey. It is actually hard to find any colour apart from that - apart from the last scene in my short film. The colour scheme of my film review is mainly red, black and white. I did these colours specifically so that my poster, film review and short film could all link up together. 

When doing my main product and ancillary texts I had to make sure they all easily linked up, to firstly do this I had to discover I did the main themes of my work, this being innocence, the supernatural and overall death. Innocence came from the use of the child in my short film and how his appearance in my film completely switched the narrative and at that moment the action really started to occur, thus I represented this through white, so the antagonist wearing white (as they prey on the innocent, this also working as a juxtaposition as they are actually evil). The theme of the supernatural comes from my actual antagonist as they are not human! I represented this through the colour black as black has connotations of many things including the darkness, supernatural and also mystery. I showed the colour black simply through low key lighting, specifically the antagonist only being revealed when in the darkness. Finally, I thought of the theme of death simply because that is the unfortunate result at the very end of the short film. As red has connotations of death I represented this through mainly her costume of a red dressing gown, this in a way being a way to foretell her future.

When constructing my film review and poster, the idea of making them have the same colour scheme only came then and also when doing my research. This is because when doing my horror film poster research (which is shown in my research and planning in my film poster work), I discovered that red, white and black are common colours within the posters. As briefly mentioned before, the colour scheme is common because all three colours represent and signify something that links up with horror themes, for example, red has connotations of danger, black has connotations of death and darkness whilst white has connotations of innocence. Linking up to that, within my short film, the colours red, white and black were mainly used in my mise-en-scene (my main character's dressing gown was red and the antagonist's costume was white), therefore, I wanted to carry on this colour scheme within the actual article so that all three of my media texts linked up and it was an extremely accurate representation of all my work, which links to the purpose of film reviews as they are meant to give an overall representation and summary of the film. 

Another way I made my three texts an effective combination is by including the 'MMD Productions' within all my pieces of work. MMD Productions is the name of fictional brand and was featured in the beginning of my short film and also within both my poster and film review.

Overall, me doing all of this helped me show and demonstrate the highest level of continuity, thus, overall giving my brand a sense of verisimilitude and professionalism!

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Feedback from film poster

Made with Storyboard That

Film Poster Final

Draft number two of poster

Production process of film poster

When creating my film poster, the first thing I made sure I did was to make sure that my actual document was in a portrait format, this being because, conventionally, film posters are portrait and not landscape. You could find this out simply by searching up film posters online and this will be clearly demonstrated. The next thing I did was include my background photo, which would be my first layer. My background photo needed to be my first layer as I would be adding more layers on top of it, thus, worked as a foundation layer.

I then started my first layer which would be my tagline/slogan. Tagline's are used in film posters to market and overall advertise. They do this by having catchy, enticing phrases which overall sum up the plot and give an overall representation of the film. I decided to use the slogan "The next scream you might hear may just be your own". I felt like this was effective as a slogan specifically because of the use of direct address, demonstrated in the personal pronoun 'you'. This not only lures the reader in but also includes them, creating questions in the head such as "Why would I be screaming?", this creating an element of fear before the film is even released. This also playing on the fact that my short film is partly a psychological horror as it plays with the audience's mind. 

After I had finished writing out the slogan, I decided to make the 'own' in my text a blood red colour. I feel this was effective because it created emphasis to the , this creating synthetic personalisation as the audience at that point would really feel that the poster is being directed at them. This is effective as it persuades them to want to go out and watch the film due to the fact they would be curious as to why they are being involved in this text. The colour red has connotations of danger and death which entertains this idea further on.

After that, I did my film reference: "From the director of Child 27". This is because not only would this reflect real life texts in the sense that film poster usually make references to other popular films that the director had directed to give the audience an idea of what the film is going to be like, but also because it would add a high sense of verisimilitude. I mean this in the sense that for my foundation portfolio I created a film opening to a film called 'Child 27', so this would add a sense of realism as Child 27 is a real life production made by me!

Now when it came to the credits, it was something that I definitely wanted to include cause credits are something that are included in almost every single film poster, not specifically horror film poster. However, creating credits were quite a difficult process. This is because I did not want to copy and paste credits from Google as I wanted to make sure my ancillary texts were as original and authentic as possible. So I decided I would firstly do I test, trial and error credits on Microsoft Word and playing with fonts to see if they could work as credits. I had to do a bit of background research of credits beforehand, such as the general order and structure it goes in and also a good font that I could use to create realistic credits. In the following screenshots you will see the process of me creating the credits before copying and pasting it onto my poster in Photoshop.

After this, I copy and pasted the text and put onto Photoshop. So at this point I was nearly done but wanted to make extra tweaks as I wasn't fully satisfied. I decided to change the font of my slogan to make it appear more like internet typewriter text as the concept of my short film was based on the idea of the antagonist and protagonist going back and fourth with each other via messages.

Because in my initial idea for my poster I wanted to have my antagonist luring in the background, I decided to see if I could attempt to do that by editing them into the text. This is because when producing my poster the antagonist simply did not work or turn out right which is why I decided not to include or use the idea anymore. So in a last attempt to include an antagonist, and because my antagonist was inspired by the villain in the 'The Ring', I decided to get a transparent picture of the villain and tried to use the magic eraser to remove the white background!

However, this failed! And I decided to just not include the antagonist at all! And down below was my final product!

Paper draft of film poster

Feedback from a film review

Made with Storyboard That

Analysis of my own film review

The colour scheme of my film review is mainly red, black and white. I did these colours specifically so that my poster, film review and short film could all link up together. This is because when doing my horror film poster research (which is shown in my research and planning in my film poster work), I discovered that red, white and black are common colours within the posters. As stated before, the colour scheme is common because all three colours represent and signify something that links up with horror themes, for example, red has connotations of danger, black has connotations of death and darkness whilst white has connotations of innocence. Linking up to that, within my short film, the colours red, white and black were mainly used in my mise-en-scene (my main character's dressing gown was red and the antagonist's costume was white), therefore, I wanted to carry on this colour scheme within the actual article so that all three of my media texts linked up and it was an extremely accurate representation of all my work, which links to the purpose of film reviews as they are meant to give an overall representation and summary of the film. 

Before doing my short film review, I did a lot of research into the codes and conventions of film reviews, so because of this, I tried to demonstrate and show my research within my short film review, by trying to include as many film review conventions as I could. For example, I included quotations from the article. When doing the quotations, I made sure to specifically pick out parts of the article which I believed were the highlights of the article or something interesting from it. This is because - from research - I knew that when journalists use quotations it is not random, it tends to be something specific and something they want the audience to know, thus, coming from a very important or interesting section of the article. I also implemented more film review conventions such as the information section, overall verdict, screengrabs from the film, tagline and also the rating system. I believe me including all of these features gave my media text a sense of verisimilitude and replicated what a real film review would typically look like.

Although at this point I thought I had achieved creating a film poster with all the conventions and felt content with that, I wanted to make my film review more authentic and different, thus, decided to include small creative features just to give my article a type of theme. This is because, when looking at film reviews, each one have a different theme and layout depending on the brand and company the film review is featured in. Linking up to my foundation portfolio, I created a film company called 'MMD productions' which my film opening was produced under. So I decided to stick to that company and call the magazine that my film review is in 'MMD productions', and the film review section specifically 'La Revue', this being the french wording for 'review'. To add on to that, I created a logo seen in the first place on the top right hand corner and also a fake website to subscribe to on the second page on the bottom right hand corner. 

Final film review

Production process of film review

To start off the production of my film review, I started off by creating a blank, new document on Adobe Photoshop. The original document was portrait, and as I wanted to represent my film review as being a two page review, I had to change the document into a landscape. Because I was referring to to both my paper and computer draft, I knew the first layer on photoshop I had to include was the screengrab from my short film, this is because the main image used in film reviews is always a screengrab and not a proffesional picture. I chose this specific screengrab as it linked up to the code and conventions of short films. This is due to the fact that screengrabs in film review usually come from the most interesting part off the film and it is meant to be an overall representation of the film. I felt this screengrab fit into that because it is a reaction shot from when the victim finally came face to face with the antagonist, which I believe was the most interesting part because that one scene activated the upcoming events, which I believe really set off and started the action in my film. To add on that, the actual image is eye catching due to her facial expressions, this being effective as it lures the reader in. 

After that, I added on including the text to start off my article. I had previously already wrote what I wanted to include in my article on word so I simply copy and pasted the entire text box, and all I had to do was readjust it to make sure it fit symmetrically and was aesthetically pleasing. This actually made the process of creating my short film much more easier and quicker as I did not use the text box feature and write out the text on word, but instead copy and pasted from word. In the image below, you can see a snippet off me readjusting the text box in order to make it symmetrical and in line with the red 'S' on my article.

As my aim for my short film was for it to represent two different pages - so for there to be a page one and a page two. This was also a simple process as Photoshop had a pre-designed feature which allowed my work to be completely uniform due to the page having lines (which would be invisible when the actual review was published), this showing me things such as the exact middle of the page allowing me to do a clear split page.

Target audience of film reviews

Target audience of film reviews from magrethx

Analysis of horror poster two

The main, focal image is off the antagonist/victim child smearing blood against the wall, creating the face of the antagonist. This is extremely effective as it is very eye catching due to its very dramatic and hair rising image. This is because the blood is smeared in a very graphic, messy way, this automatically being eye catching, and to add on to that, the fact that it makes a face creates a very spooky, uncomfortable tone. To add on to that, the mise-en-scene of blood automatically links up to horror as red has connotations of blood, death and danger - these all being horror themes. The character/face made within the smeared blood also gives off hints to the audience on what the film could involve, this meaning that from looking at the face in the poster, it could suggest that the face plays a big part in the film.

The producer of not only the film but also the poster has used a child as their victim, this is effective because children tend to gain much more sympathy from the audience because of their innocence and vulnerability. Because we know that children tend to be more naive and unaware of particular situations, we (as a society) have a bigger desire to protect them. Therefore, including the child within the poster creates this emotion for the audience (the emotion being the desire to protect/empathy), thus, increasing the chances of the audience wanting to watch the film as they want to see if the child get's rescued/protected. This fulfilling the purpose of film posters as it promotes the film and helps it get more coverage.

Linking up to the child and now the colour scheme. Despite the red in the blood, the rest of the colours within the poster is light colours including grey and white. These light colours have connotations of innocence and purity. This is effective because it represents the theme and plot line of the media product. It links in the sense that the white represents the children who are victims to the antagonist represented within the red in the blood and evidently in the face, this meaning that the red within the image juxtoposes with the white in the image. The fact that the blood is smeared can represent the damage caused to these children because of this villian and the fact their innocence was taken away so carelessly and wrecklessly.

The poster also includes typical conventions of posters such as the list of actors/actresses and the title. Just like in my previous analysis, there is also references to other films that the director/producer have done: "From the producer of Paranormal Activity and Insidious", this for the same reason as before. That reason being that because both films are very popular, well known films the audience will not only have an understanding/idea of how the style of the film would be due to having reference to films by the same producer.

Another thing featured within this film poster is a tagline underneath 'Once you see him, there's nothing you can do'. A tagline within this specific example is used in order to give a snippet/teaser of what the film could provide, this creating the emotion of anticapation as it creates enigma codes/questions going through the audience's head such as :"What does that mean?" and "Who is he?". This tagline is memorable and dramatic which summarizes the mood of the film.

The title 'Sinister', has a smudged effect, which makes the text and actual image link up as it has a very sinister feel to it. Likewise, looking at the mise-en-scene, there are cracks in the walls and creepy shadows near the bottom left hand corner, this all symbolizing and suggesting violence or a corrupt household.

Analysis of horror film poster

The lighting and colour choice within this film poster is very lowkey and dark, the main colour being black as the focal image is a shadow. This automatically links up with the horror genre as black has connotations of darkness, evil and mystery - themes which are heavily associated with the horror genre. Likewise, the colour red is also used for the title, this also being associated with the horror genre as red has connotations of blood, death and danger, these also being themes of the horror genre. However, the darkness juxtoposes with the light colour of white within the text stating the names of all the actors and actresses. The reason for including white text can be seen from two different pragmatics. From one perspective, this can be seen as a pragmatic decision of the producer to use white for text as it acts as a false sense of security, as white has connotations of innocence and protection, thus, can form as an act of safety, this playing with the readers emotion and increasing the tension. On the other hand, the use for white can be seen as being used simply because it contrasts with the black and would make the text stand out.

The poster has typical conventions of film posters such as evidently the title of the film, the age certificate, the lists of actors and the date of the first screening. On the top of the film poster, it states :"From the director of the hills have eyes.". The reference to another film would help the audience develop a better understanding of the kind of film they would be watching, especially if they were a fan of the film mentioned. To add on to that, referencing to another film which is popular would help get the film more attention as the audience would want to watch a film that is similar to the popular/likeable one, hence why that text was in large, bold text as the producer wanted the text to stand out.

In half of the title of the film "Mirrors", it is written in the opposite direction, so it resembles the title mirroring each other. This is simply a very effective technique artistically and draws the audience in as it unusual and different to typical ways of writing titles.

The main image is that draws the instant attention of the audience appears to a woman's blurred screaming face with her gasping mouth merging into the black outer image/colour. This draws attention and is effective as her facial expression (including the widened eyes and open gasped mouth), this represented her as being very frightened and vulnerable, linking up to the horror genre and also possibly giving away her identify as within horror films the vulnerable, weak character is usually the antagonist or victim. The fact that she is a female also links to the horror genre as females are usually the victim within this genre and represented as weak and vulnerable.