2. The Brief Kelly and I were given a brief to create a promotion package for a new British film. This had to include an original teaser trailer film poster and magazine front cover featuring our film. In order to do this we first had to decide what genre we wanted our film to be, we did this by researching different genres e.g. comedy, drama and eventually decided on horror.
3. Supernatural Horror ‘Horror films which focus on the supernatural, usually ghosts or the occult’ After researching different genres, we decided on Supernatural Horror, although we like a challenge, we thought that this would be the easiest for us to do with the resources and amount of time we had.
4. Technology Blogger Although some other members of the class found it difficult to use a blog, I found it extremely easy. I thought it was a good way for me to showcase my work, as I could just upload what I’d done straight to the blog as soon as I had done it and have my classmates comment on it if they wanted to tell me what they thought. As well as being a greener way to produce my work, it also made it easier for my teacher to keep updated with my work. I liked that we could design our blog to suit the nature of out project, and could also keep our work organised using the different tools available. Slideshare Any powerpoints I had done, I could upload onto slideshare, and then embed the code straight onto my blog, where everyone could then see it. Youtube When researching existing trailers, we used Youtube to watch them. This was a quick and easy way for us to watch any video we wanted at anytime. We could then put those videos onto our blog, with the deconstructions we had done on them, so that people could read our work knowing what we’re talking about.
8. Research We researched and deconstructed film teaser trailers of Prom Night and Quarantine, looking closely at the recurring conventions in horror trailers. We found that both trailers were slow paced to begin with and then once the background of the film has been told to the audience, the trailer begins to get more fast paced and the scenes only last about 1 second. As Quarantine is in the style of the video camera the sound consists of mainly dialogue, without many sound effects, whereas Prom Night has more music and sound effects, we decided that we wanted the sound in our trailer to be more like the sound in the Prom Night trailer. (Click on films to play)
10. Characters We wrote character biographies using Propp’scharacter theory: Millie would be the victim, as she is the one being haunted by Bella. Rosie would be the hero of the story, as she is the one that notices something is wrong and decides to do something about it. Bella would be the villain and the dispatcher of the story, she is the evil spirit, and she is the one that starts off the haunting, therefore starting the whole narrative.
11. Deciding on the title When deciding on the title we took into account the plot and the characters, and how we would have to incorporate these things into the title itself. We chose ‘Lullaby’ as we decided that the ghost child would have died in the Bubonic Plague and the song that was sung by the children dying of it during that time. This tune can also be heard being hummed in the trailer, as well as some of the lyrics. We also chose the font and colour of the title, these being red and ‘a font with serifs’, we chose these because we think red is a colour associated with the horror genre (again allowing the audience to make that connection), and the font used has a child-like nature to it, which fits in with our plot, and also the title ‘Lullaby’ itself.
12. The storyboard doesn’t match our completed trailer, but this is because we did film it a couple of times before, but due to problems on uploading from the tapes, we had to discard this footage and start again. In a way, this helped us as it gave us the chance to change a few things that we found either didn’t work the first time or we didn’t like as much as we thought we would. This was also the case with the script, we initially wrote a rough draft just to have something to go by, and although we did publish a polished version of it on the blog, it’s still different to the completed trailer’s version, due to the same reason.
15. Feedback Whilst editing, I regularly asked my classmates for feedback on what I could do to make my trailer better. As well as this I created a survey on surveymonkey.com. I found that survey monkey was a quick and easy way for me to ask my audience what they thought. It allowed me to send out a link in an email, and once the survey had been completed, the results would automatically be updated on my surveymonkey page. Surveymonkey would then analyse my results for me.
17. Our poster We took different things from different posters and made them original to create our posters. Although this poser was our main inspiration. Things we used were: Colour scheme Larger-than-title tagline. Similar image
18. Our poster cont. Kelly and I agreed that we both liked the way the tagline was the main text on the ‘Hide & Seek’ poster, so we decided that we would make ours similar to that. However, after showing it to our classmates who said it would be easy for people to mistake the tagline for the title, so we made it red, like the rest of the text on the poster, and changed the title from red to white, so it would be clear that it was the title. They also said that we needed to add more blurb, and change the image, because her hair blended into the background.
19. We changed all the things our classmates suggested, and showed them our updated version. They said that the title looked better white, and that it now stood out more. They also said the image was better, but was out of focus. They thought we still needed more blurb.
20. Final Poster This is our final poster after making all the changes suggested by our classmates. They said that the image was better, and that the use of different clothing, pose and doll, made it stand out more. We added more blurb and also created a logo to go underneath the blurb. We also changed the tagline from capitals to lowercase and changed the position of the text.
22. Research We realised that film magazines stick to some, but not all magazine conventions. This makes them different from other magazines. They are not afraid to rebel against regular conventions, they did this in these ways: Not using the rule of thirds Using more fonts then normal Using more than 3 colours. We liked that because film magazines are able to break the rules a little, we weren’t so restricted when it came to making out own. However we didn’t stray too far from regular conventions, in fear of being too niche.
23. Our magazine front cover We came up with the name ‘Uncut’ whilst brainstorming, we thought it was the perfect name for our magazine, as it connotes that our magazine is edgy, and also tells the audience that it’s a film magazine. However, it soon came to our attention that there was already an existing film magazine by that name, so we had to come up with another one. We used these conventions in our magazine: Large title relating to film Large striking image Rule of thirds Main coverline Selling line We also challenged some of the conventions of magazines, we: Used more than 3 colours Used more fonts than normal
24. Audience feedback We used a new way of getting audience feedback than we had with the poster. Instead of just simply asking classmates what they thought, we branched out to the AS students as well. We all swapped products and deconstructed them, passing them on when we’d finished. This way was a much better way, as it allowed me to get everyone’s opinion in the class, not just a few people’s. It gave me the opportunity to see what people other than my friend’s thought, as they said some things about my product that my friends didn’t.
25. Once we’d got feedback for our first draft, we then changed some things that people didn’t like about them. We first had to decide on a new title, choosing ‘Reel Films’ as it connotes that we tell the truth about films, and also used a pun. Changed the image, adding the doll in to interlink the three products furthermore The colour of the eyes is a brighter blue, to make it seem odd and striking. The colour of ‘Halloween Special edition’, we decided it was too garish, and took attention away from more important factors The positioning of some text, we framed the face with the cover lines and pulled the selling line down.
26. By creating a trailer, a poster and a magazine front cover on the same film, I have ensured that each product is backed up by another. For instance, the trailer is extended by the poster, and the poster and the trailer by the magazine front cover featuring the film. Adding in elements into all of them, the main one being the doll, it tells the audience that they are connected, and helps it to stick into there mind. Also by making all three things I was able to enhance something in one thing that I may not have been able to in another, for example, it may not be clear in the trailer that the doll is an important factor when the audience view it, but they may then see the poster and the magazine, which both feature the doll, and it would surprise the viewer. Thus creating enigmas in the storyline, which would want the viewer to watch the film, to find out exactly why the doll is so important. Even though the trailer was the main task, I thought that it was just as important to make sure the poster and front cover were as good as that, to enable them to compliment each other in a way that would solidify the film and it’s storyline.
