Munashe's Media blog

Media evaluation part 2

2010-04-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

My evaluation is also on the disk which is a lot clearer so that you can see the texts and images more clearly.

Media eavaluation question 1

2010-04-28T06:39:00.000-07:00

Class feedback

2010-03-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

Today in our media lesson we watched everyones trailers and music videos. This was so that we could get feedback for our trailers.

Here is the feedback for our trailer

Everyone liked the trailer the camera angles (especially the handheld camera shots and the low camera angles) used.
They liked how the narrative gave you a false scare. This was when the boys play the trick on the girls. It gives a sense of building up a suspense as to what is going to happen.
The different colours in the flash back shots made the shots stand out as they showed glimpses of the 'nightmare' to come.
The shot of the killer walking past the camera was good as they thought it was effective by leaving you wanting to know what happens and where the killer is going.
They thought the sound effects were good and fitted in well with the whole trailer, they especially liked the heavy breathing,
and overal our teachers thought it was a huge development being that it looked more professional than our first draft of the trailer.

Some criticisms/suggestions

to put some music over the shot of the cast list as there is currently no music there;
to put some credits at the end because most trailers have theirs there;

We will discuss as a group and decide if we need to make these changes.

Changes to the Trailer

2010-03-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

This is the trailer with the changes made to make it more of a trailer than a short film... We asked some of the class what they thought of our trailer now and felt it was a lot better than before.. We changed the trailer by editing out the killer in order to make more suspense as to what happens next, as well as this we re ordered the clips so that you don't know what happens next and in which order the movie goes in. we found this to appeal more to our audience and draw them in .

After making these changes we thought that changing the colours of some of the shots would make it more effective . When we'd finished our second draft we thought that it was too bright and that it all looked a bit muddled. So we changed the lighting on the some of the shots to show that they happen later in the film. This makes the trailer look scary and intresting instead of having the same colours all the way through. We changed the lighting by changing the brightness and contrast of the colours which made it almost black and white but with some colour still seeping through. We will show this to the class and see if there are any futhur changes that we could add to improve the trailer.

Comments on the first draft of our trailer.

2010-03-17T05:10:00.000-07:00

We got feedback on our trailer

From our media teacher Ms Taylor, she told us that he trailer was more of a short film as it told the whole story of the filmbut in a condensed version.
Other members of our class said that it was too predictable because it clearly shows the teenagers getting killed which gets rid of the thrill and suspense of trailers which draws the audience to watch the movie.
Mrs Taylor told us to mix up the shots, make them shorter as they were too long. we had to cut out any shots showing the murderer as this would create more suspense.
So our group spent two hours playing around with the older version and then we showed it to the rest of our class and our other teacher Mrs Brady to get some more feedback.
They all said that it was a lot better than our first version.
They also said that it is more of a trailer now because it is not put together in chronological order but randomly placed, so it is exciting and leaves you wanting to watch the film.
They all loved how you can't really see the murderer anymore, because this creates the suspense of what is going to happen and leaves you wondering what happens next.
One comment given was that we could put a voiceover in to the trailer as this would make it scarier, so we will think about whether it is possible to put it in our trailer.

My first trailer draft

2010-03-11T09:02:00.000-08:00

We will show this to people and ask for advice on what they think needs to be changed and how we could improve this trailer to make it more intresting;

Editing our Movie

2010-03-10T04:09:00.000-08:00

We started editing our movie on the 8th of March and the 10th of March. We have been able to play around with the laptop, in order to learn how to use it and transform all the shots we had taken into a thrilling horror trailer. We learnt how to upload our movie on to the laptop and then by using the cropping, editing and diferent transitions we put the trailer into a suitable order. Whilst doing this we have been able to try out different sound effects and music to complete the trailer. We have not competly finished the trailer but have shown some of our group who have given us some advice on what to change and how to make it more effective.

We continued to edit our trailer again on the 12th of March working on sound effects and adding in the titles that will appear during our movie trailer.

On the 15th March we added in a voice over of heavy breathing we also took in some advice from our teacher to edit this scene so that it jumps between the group and seeing it from behind the killer, to make the trailer a bit more interesting. we then added in a bang just before the "what was that" to make it more effective and for the audience to wonder what is going to happen . We then completed our trailer and got opinions for our first draft.

Fiming 3

2010-03-03T13:27:00.001-08:00

Today we shot another section of our trailer. We focused mainly on the final chase sequences and the close ups. This time we were better prepared as we finalised our storyboard and therefore knew what shots to take and from what angles we wanted them to be taken from, for example, hand-held or close-up. This meant that filming was easier. We made sure to use different camera angles as this will make the trailer more exciting. When we were there we also took more pictures for our posters and webpages.

We tried to get as much finished as possible so that we can start editing on Monday the 8th March.

Filming 2

2010-02-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

We started our filming at 4 o'clock on the 24th february. We mainly focused on filming our opening sequence and the chase sequences, doing so from different angles and camera angles and movements. We took pictures of the characters for our posters and website. We had to finish early as it started to rain heavily and so our next filming is scheduled for wenesday the 3rd of March.

Filming

2010-02-18T17:00:00.000-08:00

on the 18 th of february our group decided to try and film our movie trailer but due to the weather (heavy rain and the venue being to muddy) we were unable to do so we prospond until the 24th of february.

Story board

2010-02-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

when we have finished making our trailer this could be shown in various places as advertisments for the movie e.g

Cinema- before another movie starts.

DVD- at the beginning of the dvd advertising our movie

Video -at the beginning of the dvd advertising our movie

Satellite/digital TV and Box Office - during the adverts in between programmes

Terrestrial TV- during the adverts in between programmes

Cast list

2010-02-10T03:58:00.000-08:00

Character	Actor	Costume/s needed
Boy 1	Jefferson Kibble	Tracksuit,Hoody,Mask
Boy 2	James Coy	Tracksuit,Hoody,Mask
Girl 1	Sophie Payne	Outgoing outfit
Girl 2	Alex Kelly	Outgoing outfit
Gilr 3	Rosemary Mansfield	Outgoing outfit
Killer/villan	Anthony Harvey	Long coat,Hat,Weapon,Boots

Website designs

2010-02-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

This was my first design i aske people what they thought of it and what i could change..

the background is a bit plain
it looks ordinary could play around with colours and font sizes
could move the text around and make it look different

After making some changes to the background and making the image bigger this is what it looked like i asked people what they thought

they liked the background as it gave an errie feel to the page
they felt that the writing at the side was out of place and the font was not bold enough

There was still something missing from my design so i looked at other of my classmates work and saw that

the production and age and realease date was missing from my web site
there was far to many of the hyperlinks as some of the hyperlinks i used would be repeating information for example cast and crew would be the same as credits because the names would appear again. information about the cast can also be found in behind the scenes.

This is my final design i have changed the writing to make it stand out.. i've added the hyperlinks at the bottom which will link to different pages of the website in order for the audience to get any information needed before and after the movie is released

Website drafts

2010-02-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

Having different ideas for my website i will try to find a sutible website design for my website.

How i made my final poster desgin

2010-02-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

Using these images i made my final poster using photoshop i was able to edit each image to fit what i wanted them to be like i used these tools

Crop
Paint/fill
Changing the graident
using the different layers and making them all join
Transfroming the images
Brightness/contrast
Text/ Shapes/ Fonts sizes
Colours/ Backgrounds

Final poster design

2010-02-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

After doing my first draft of my poster i got some advice from people in my class they said

that i should make the writing at the bottom of my poster smaller
Making the image on the left look darker and more sinister
maybe change the writing at the bottom so it stands out and can be read more easily.
add some stars to show that it is a good movie to go watch

Poster designs

2010-02-05T04:54:00.000-08:00

This are some poster ideas that i had made. After doing research on posters i found that most movie posters have more then one type of poster for their movies. You could change the image, text, font, colours in order to appeal to all different charcteristics of people whithin your target audiece.

Drafts of posters

2010-02-02T09:16:00.000-08:00

These are some draft poster designs that i made for my film trailer they both stand out and would attract the audience.

Questionnaire

2010-02-01T03:46:00.000-08:00

For my questionnaire i asked 20 people from the ages 15+, about horror films, the maority of the people i asked said that they enjoyed the suspense and tension of a horror film as well as all the sense of fear for the characters. Music plays a big part in horror films and therefore i asked a quesion on which music was the most effective, in this case majority of people said that the classical/ orchestral music is what makes a horror movie thrilling. The questionnaire showed how conventions are important in a horror movie and why each part of the conventions plays an important part in making a horror film intresting.

History of horror movies

2010-02-01T03:44:00.000-08:00

Horror films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying way while captivating and entertaining us. Horror films feature a wide range of styles, from the earliest silent Nosferatu classic, to the monsters and deranged humans of today. They are often combined (hybirds) with science fiction. The fantasy and supernatural film genres are not usually synonymous with the horror genre. There are many sub-genres of horror: slasher, teen terror, serial killers, satanic, Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.

What was frightening back in the days of the silent movies and what is frightening now has changed. As society changes so do our fears.

Venue for horror

2010-01-22T03:46:00.000-08:00

We decided on a location that looks isolated. The woods that we have chosen have many pathways,high trees, and dips to make our film location spooky.

Different types of Horror music

2010-01-22T03:45:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of films in general (and horror films in particular), is the soundscape. It is quite easy to forget that the fear factor of almost any horror film would decrease dramatically if the auditory features were removed or altered to something of another genre other than a horror film. This might sound a huge exaggeration, but it is not. All you have to do is turn down the volume during a dramatic scene in a horror film to realize the importance of music and striking sound effects play in creating a complete and truly frightening horror film experience.

Here are some types of horror sounds

Classical/ orchestral music
Up beat/ rock and metal music
Eerie music/ strings and horns
Drums

etc.
Most of the music is soundtrack: this is the music playing in that plays in the background. It can be diegetic or non-diegetic. If the sound is part of the narrative, the action (eg: a radio playing in the shot) it is diegetic. However, more often than not, the soundtrack is non-diegetic. Music playing in the background which is not evident in the action. There can also be sound effects: these are the effects added during post-production. For example, explosions, birdsong…

Why do audiences like the genre horror.

2010-01-21T03:44:00.000-08:00

Audiences enjoy genre for a number of reasons it offers audiences structure and provides knowledge of how the genre works. Audiences like the fell of anticipation for waiting for the predictable features of the genre..

In the case of a horror movie these are a few predictable elements

blood, death,killings, villans, victims,isolated settings.weapons,darkness,chasings,screams.

They have expectations about the content and style of text according to the genre this enables them to take pleasure in the genre. The patterns and structures and similarities can be refered to as paradigms and frames of recognition.

SOME HORROR MOVIES THAT SHOULD BE WATCHED ARE:

Scream
The blaire witch project
The others
The ring
Gothika

Distributor/ institution

2010-01-09T13:14:00.000-08:00

These are the people with money. They are often the large studios: Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers, Lionsgate. They are often part of huge media conglomerates: Vivendi Universal, News Corporation and AOL Time Warner. They are wealthy and own much of the world’s media. Once a film has been produced (made) then the distributors start marketing the film by posters, interviews with stars, merchandise, soundtrack, trailers in order to gain their audience…Seeing as the distributor lent most of the money for the movie then they scoop up the majority of the film’s profit. The distributors are often American, hence this is why the American Film Industry dominates our screens.

We have choosen the insitituiton Lionsgate to distribute our movie as they have produced a number of good movies. Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is an American entertainment company that originated in Vancouver, British Columbia and now has headquarters in Santa Monica. It is the most commercially successful independent film and television distribution company in North America. It has produced a number of films but from its first big hit being American Psycho, to its most famous trilogy, Saw.

The Blair Witch Project Website

2009-12-01T06:19:00.000-08:00

This website was simple but provided the information needed for the audience interested in the movie.

The website is easy to use. On the front page there are four links in which you can click on in order to get more information from. Once clicked on the prefered page will open and you will find out more information about the movie.

Website for the film "THEM"

From looking at these webstes i have been able to find the purpose of having a website. This is to communicate with and convey information to broad audience of your choice. With a website, you can advertise and promote films. Ideas can be shown on a global scale and therefore gain a wider audience. Some sites provide links to information detailing the purpose in creating the web site. The webstes have to be persuasive and therfore include all the information neeeded in order to advocate ideas.

Similarities in websites are:

The ability to view a trailer on a website encourages the audience to watch the film.
Fonts used in order to stand out with the dark backgorunds.
There are different links in or to have the ability to download either music, pictures, screen savers etc which give incentives to the audience.

Analysising wesites of the fims will be usesful, for me when i make my website as i have got an idea of what should be included whitin them to make them affective.

Website analysis

2009-12-01T05:55:00.000-08:00

This is the website for the horror movie the ring. The dark colours is a convention of horrors and so makes the website feel frightening and attracts them to the page.

In this website we can see many links to different pages of the website which will give the audience information on the characters and the story behind the film. There are other links where you can download the trailer, look at different notes and behind the scenes image gallery. This all gives the audience more information on the background of the film and what they can look forward to viewing in the movie.The different images on the page of a tree and the well and syringes gives a feel to what the movie may be about. The point of a website is to provide futhur information for the film being advertised and attract audiences to watch it.

Poster analysis

2009-11-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

Film makers sometimes decided to make a poster that will help to advertise the film that is or will be coming out in cinema in the near future. The posters need to be attractive but at the same time informative about what the film is about, that is going to be out in cinema in the near future.

Posters capture the initial intrest of the audience and is what draws them into the cinema. These are some of the ideas that i found by analysing these posters that will help me make my film poster.

There are some similarities between the film posters:

Dark backgrounds- creates tension, suspense.
Font colours stand out and contrast the background colours e.g white, red.
Main image is large stands out and gives the feel of what happns in the film.
Age rating is shown to give the audience information.
Credits- directors, producers, actors included.

Genre horror

2009-11-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

Genre- horror

Narrative-Beth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon) is terrified by the deaths of four friends, three of which she personally witnessed, after they received chilling phone calls apparently from themselves in the future, showing the exact time of their deaths.

Target audience- (PG)13

Music- The music keeps the audiece in suspence. The music is creepy and eerie and builds tension to what is going to happen next. It draws audience in and gets a lot more dramatic nearer to the end.

shot types- close up of the cellphone and the faces to show peoples emotions. There is also a close up of the candy that falls out of the victims mouths cause it has an importance in the storyline.

Pace- starts slow but as it gets to the climax it speeds up and more action takes place making it more dramatic.

Dialogue- when there is conversation between the characters.

Special effects/ credits and intertiles- The writing that is included in the begining to show a brief description of the story line.

Film trailer analysis

2009-11-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

Film trailers are commercials that purely advertise to gain an audience. With the math being simple: the more people you get to see the trailer, the more likely you are to get people interested in shelling out cash to see the actual film. There is a significant amount of editing that takes place to ensure that a trailer serves it purpose because they aim to show a shorter version of the actual film but only including the most important and interesting shots to attract the relevant audience.

I looked at two different genre trailers: The christmas carol

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3629253145/

Genre- animation (children, family)

Narrative- classic christmas carol about Ebenezer Scrooge and the 3 ghost that visit him.

Unique selling point- 3D film as well as the film being a remaking of the well known christmas story.

Target audience- (PG) children and family

Music-

cheerful music
christmas music
silence when scrooge talks makes it more dramatic
At the climax music gets faster

Shots types/ camera angles- ariel shot/ birds eye view following snow flake and then it lands on scrooge and this introduces the main character we then get a close up of scrooges face and see his emotions and repsone to christmas.

Pace- starts slow setting the scene then speeds up showing more action and drama happening making it more intresting.

Dialogue- scrooge says

"Bah- Humbug"
can i have them all at once (humour)
is someone there (scary)

Voiceover- repeating the main information e.g. 3D and popular actor Jim Carrey

Why we choose our age rating..

2009-11-10T04:35:00.000-08:00

Having asked people wha age rating they would prefer this are some of the comments we got.

12's are not scary enough,are not as interesting,tend to be jumpy in places, but not scary.
15's normally have a better story line as they are not full of gore like 18's
15's tend to have just the right amount of suspense as well as keeping an interesting story line
15's give me just the right amount of thrill and excitment.
18's are normally a bit to scary.
18's seem to be unrealistic and non believable, even when based on true events.
However some people thought that18's more exciting because scarier is better. They like to be scared all the way through, not just to jump every now and then.

The age rating 15 was therefore more prefered and this is why we decidied to use it in our movies.

Conventions of horrors

2009-11-08T07:14:00.001-08:00

This image shows the conventions of a horror. Our group plans to include these conventions into our trailer so that it is effective and attracts viewers.

Our group ideas

2009-11-08T07:08:00.001-08:00

Location- Woods

Time- Nightime

Genre- Horror

Institution- Lionsgate

Age-15+

Research Plan

2009-11-08T06:54:00.000-08:00

There are different sections we are going to look at when doing our coursework

The pre-production planning which includes planning, designs, casting and storyboards...
Production which is the shooting of the trailer and making of the website and poster....
Evaluation

My Media project

2009-11-08T06:12:00.000-08:00

A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailor, together with a website homepage for the film and a poster for the film.

Media Coursework

2009-10-07T02:28:00.000-07:00

i made my blog today x