Trailer - Final Cut

Website - Final Design

http://redherringproducti.wix.com/northchamber

Poster - Final Design

Evaluation - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

For this A2 coursework, I had to create a promotional package for a film. The main product of this promotional package was a film trailer, and the two ancillary tasks my group chose to complete were creating a poster and website for the film. These three tasks had to work well together to create a cohesive promotional package which would be effective in its aim of making people aware of the film and its genre, and getting them to pay to see the film in cinemas.

In the creation of these tasks, we researched into the conventions of film trailers, posters, and websites to make sure our audience was aware of what the product was that we were promoting, as the familiar format of trailers, posters, and websites, are recognised by viewers. After researching into conventions, we made plans of how the tasks would look. The plans we produced for the trailer included a script, shot list, and storyboards, using these as guidelines throughout shooting and editing the trailer. Broadly, we followed these plans well but also allowed ourselves some freedom in making our trailer rather than strictly following our plans. For example, the shots in our trailer are sometimes in a different order than in the script, shot list, and storyboards in order to conform more to trailer conventions of shots being out of narrative order.  Contrastingly, we stuck more closely to our plans for our poster and website, which were mind maps of ideas for the site and poster designs and what both would contain. Our website’s pages are the same as those included in our plan, and both have dark designs composed primarily of blacks and greys as those are conventional of posters and websites for horror films.



The main image of our antagonist from the poster and our antagonist in the trailer.

I believe that our main product and ancillary tasks work well together, and clearly look as if they are part of the same promotional package. Our poster’s main image is a close up of our antagonist, and our trailer ends on a close up of this character, strongly establishing a link between the two. This character is probably the most recognisable and eye-catching one featured in the trailer due to her supernatural qualities, and so it made sense to put her, not a different character, on our poster. She is wearing the same costume in the trailer and poster, which links the two together even more. In addition to this, the poster is entirely in black and white apart from the red ribbon in our antagonist’s hair, which is identical to the shot composition of the beginning of our trailer which, by using Pinnacle editing software to make our shots 80% monochrome, is also black and white apart from our antagonist’s distinctive red ribbon. This links our poster to both the beginning and end of our trailer, meaning people will not just associate the poster with one part of the trailer. This is very good as the two halves of our trailer are clearly separated by being set in the past and the future, and being in black and white and colour respectively.

This title is featured in our trailer and on both of our ancillary tasks, anchoring them to the same promotional package.

Our website is also linked strongly to the other parts of our promotional package; for example, it has the film’s trailer on its home page. The colour scheme of the website is conventional to the horror genre and conforms to both our trailer and poster by being primarily black and white, and featuring some red, in the form of our production company logo and the colour of the text in the film’s logo. The background of our website and poster are very similar, as they are both black backgrounds, conforming to genre conventions.

The colour schemes of our website and trailer are made up primarily of black and white, with some red.

Overall, I think that the combination of our main product and ancillary tasks is effective, and I think that people who view the promotional package would know all aspects of it were advertising the same film. It would be possible to sell the film on what we have created, as all aspects of the promotional package adhere to conventions of real life media products. When we showed the trailer to a focus group, everyone asked said they would pay to watch the film, meaning that the trailer alone will be enough to sell the film to most people. With the addition of the two ancillary tasks, our promotional package would definitely attract audiences, especially since horror is a cult genre with a devoted following.

Evaluation - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? What particuar camerawork techniques and editing tools were used and to what effect?

I have used multiple different media technologies in the research and planning, production, and evaluation stages of my coursework. These technologies have enabled my coursework, but some software proved problematic to use.

I used Blogger, a dedicated blog publishing tool, in all stages of my coursework. It enabled me to post all of my coursework onto one blog, allowing for it to be viewed as one and ordered logically. Had I not been working with computer based technologies in order to do this, I would have had to have a written portfolio, which would have been very large and difficult to transport, and could be easily lost or damaged. By putting everything onto the internet by using Blogger, these possible dilemmas have not occurred.

I used Microsoft Word, a word processing software, to write up much of what I posted to Blogger, making use of this software in all stages of my coursework. Writing up these posts on a computer before putting them on the internet allowed me to save my work, meaning it could not be lost. While posts can be saved as drafts on Blogger, editing posts requires access to the internet; had I lost access to the internet whilst editing a post on Blogger I would have lost everything I did since the last time I had saved it, explaining why I used Word, rather than Blogger's inbuilt word processing.

I used Microsoft PowerPoint, a slideshow presentation program, to display research in the research and planning stage of my coursework, and to display an evaluation of audience in the evaluation stage. By using this software, I could collate large amounts of information and present it in an ordered, colourful format to engage its viewer. By presenting information slide-by-slide, I could easily divide my evaluation and research into smaller subheadings, rather than in a blog post, which would contain a large amount of relatively undivided text, which is a less effective way of presenting information.

To upload and display the slideshows I created in PowerPoint on my blog, I used SlideShare, a Web 2.0 based slide hosting service. This technology allowed me to upload and embed slideshows into blog posts without changing the format of my presentation. Without it, I would not have been able to use slideshows in research and planning and evaluation tasks, limiting how effectively I could present information. SlideShare was not without its faults, as it does not support certain file types (e.g. .xls, which Excel spreadsheets save as) I also needed to upload to the internet in order to display them on blogger.

In lieu of SlideShare, I had to use Scribd, an online reading and publishing platform, to upload call sheets created with Microsoft Excel in the production stage of my coursework, and upload scripts created with Celtx in the planning and research stage. It had much the same advantages and disadvantages as SlideShare, in that I could upload and display files on my blog with the correct formatting but it did not allow me to upload certain file types.

I used Excel, a spreadsheet application developed by Windows, to create call sheets in production of my coursework, and put data gained through primary research into graphs for the research and planning and evaluation stages of my coursework. Putting information into tables and graphs was often useful, as it made the information easier to understand and more eye catching.

I used Celtx, a dedicated media pre-production software, to create professional looking scripts in the research and planning stage of my coursework. This software allowed me to create scripts which conformed to industry conventions. Had I used Microsoft Word or Blogger's inbuilt word processing, my scripts would have looked less professional and would not be up to industry standard. However, if our film were really being made, we would probably not use Celtx, opting instead for a professional screenwriting software like Final Draft.

I used YouTube and Vimeo, both video-sharing websites, to upload videos created in all stages of my coursework (the location recce in the research and planning stage, evaluation task one, and the rough and final trailers my group produced). Both these sites allowed the upload of high quality videos onto the internet, to be embedded into my coursework blog. As YouTube, and to a lesser extent Vimeo, became popular, it became standard practice in the film industry to upload trailers to these sites to advertise films.

To edit the trailer in the production stage of my coursework, and add audio commentary to it in the evaluation stage, I used Pinnacle Studio 10, a video editing program. Pinnacle allowed my group to edit our trailer and other videos together, and add transitions, sound effects and other features. Additionally, we used it to correct the colour balance in some of our shots, and to put some of our shots in 80% monochrome. Whilst this software did enough for use in a student production, it did take a lot of time when rendering HD footage, and froze occasionally, meaning we lost unsaved work; this was not too detrimental as we saved our work frequently. If we were creating a real production, we would probably use more advanced software like Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas, instead of Pinnacle, as these programs have more features and are industry standard. This does not mean that Pinnacle did not create an effective, professional trailer, as it offered enough functionality for us to edit according to trailer conventions, and add music, sound, and titles. Camerawork techniques like frequent use of handheld shots, and close ups at particularly scary points in the trailer allowed us to conform to horror trailer conventions, enhancing the effectiveness of the production.

In order to record a voiceover, a common feature of trailers, and edit sound and music for our production, and to record a commentary for my first evaluation task, we used Audacity, a digital audio editor. The audio editing options were much more advanced in Audacity than in Pinnacle, as Audacity is dedicated audio software, meaning that we were able to alter sounds together and create a cohesive score for our trailer which would, through use of dissonant chords and irregular sound, scare viewers.

To create a poster in the production stage of our coursework, we used Adobe Photoshop, a dedicated graphics editor. We used this software, as it allows users to add transparency, blur images, alter colours, and insert text, all of which was necessary in the creation of our poster. Photoshop is very advanced software, so learning to use it was difficult, but did not prove too problematic as the other members of my group had used Photoshop before.

To create a website in the production stage of our coursework, we used Wix, a cloud-based web development tool. Wix allows users to create websites and host them free of charge, and does not require knowledge of website coding using HTML. The process of creating a website is greatly simplified as drag-and-drop tools are used to make sites. One disadvantage of Wix is that our finished website has a bar on the bottom of the webpage advertising Wix, making our site look less professional.

This use of technology, editing, and camerawork allowed us to create an effective promotional package for a film, with minimal issues. The problems we had only impacted us a little and we were able to get around many of them. Our trailer and ancillary tasks look professional and conform to industry conventions, which would not have been possible without the above technologies.

Evaluation - Who are your audience and what have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation - Who are your audience and what have you learned from your audience feedback? from samduxbury18

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

North Chamber Trailer Audio Commentary from Sam Duxbury on Vimeo.


Transcript:
This is the trailer for North Chamber, a period horror film. We chose to use this genre in the initial planning stages, basing our ideas for plot around the horror genre. When we decided that parts of the film would be set in the past, the film took on the period genre as well. We individually researched the conventions of both genres, and surveyed 21 people to find out which demographic of people we should assign as our target market. We found that horror was more or less equally popular with both genders, and most popular with under 21s. 

Genre is very important in terms of marketing films as, in 1978, Ryall suggested that media institutions choose a genre and make a film, as we did, marketing it to their audience based on said genre. Based on the genre of the film, the audience decide to see the film, and the money made by selling tickets is put back into making more films in this genre, showing that genre is essential to supply and demand in the film industry.
 
In our trailer, we used horror conventions to establish that this was a horror film, luring in our prospective audience. These conventions include fast editing style which builds to a scare, female victims, and the paranormal.
 
Our trailer conforms to traditional conventions of horror trailers. For example, our titles are in the conventional order of production companies appearing at the start of the trailer, and the billing block appearing at the end. Also, we used fast paced editing to condense the story line without spoiling any important plot points, gave social media information in the form of a hashtag, and used sound to build tension and shock viewers – sound is a major component of horror films as it is sound, rather than visuals, that scares the audience. A research team led by animal distress call expert Daniel Blumstein found that the irregular sounds like screams and dissonant chords typical of horror films trigger a biological response making people think that their young are threatened, explaining why sound is so scary.
 
In addition to this, our trailer conformed to conventions as it had a unique selling point, in the form of a twist in narrative where the bullied girl becomes a bully, and it incorporated a ‘sting’, which is a convention of horror trailers where a clip from the film is put after the title to shock viewers who thought that the trailer was over. This sting was an example of Roland Barthes’ enigma codes, as it would have made viewers wonder why the villain was screaming; this would increase anticipation for the film’s release as people would want to see the film and have this enigma put to rest. By conforming to trailer conventions, we made sure that viewers would recognise that our trailer was for a horror film, meaning those that like horror films would want to see the film that the trailer is advertising. We did this intentionally, individually researching into trailer conventions in order to understand and use them, but initial scripts were in more narrative order, so we amended our script ideas whilst filming and editing to conform more to trailer editing styles.
 
Our trailer featured a conventional Proppian character, in the form of our villain, but even she was not totally conventional as she was originally a bullied, innocent schoolgirl who only became ‘evil’ as a ghost. This makes her a ‘binary opposition’, something that Claude Levi-Strauss said occur frequently in media, especially in the horror genre. Our protagonist was more of a victim than a Proppian hero, as Propp studied fairy tales in which characters have to be heroic to triumph over their foe, whereas in horror films the protagonist has to overcome their own fears in order to survive.
 
Our actors broadly fulfilled their intended roles after encouragement and direction from our production team and we were mostly happy with their performances, however some were better than others. When re-watching our footage during editing we found that one of the bully characters was  too loud and used some phrases which would not have been used when the film was set. Whilst we held auditions for actors, we did not audition them for specific roles; so to reduce the likelihood of actors not fulfilling their roles next time, we would hold auditions for roles.
 
When we screened our trailer to a focus group of 21 people, they were all able to identify it as a horror trailer, and the vast majority were scared at the intended points. Every one of the people in the screening understood the narrative and said they would pay to see the film if it released in cinemas, making it a successful film trailer, as it fits in with Ryall's genre triangle; audiences pay to see genre films, giving institutions the money to make more films in the same genre, keeping up with audience demand.

Ancillary Tasks - Making of our Website

When designing our website, we first planned out the website in the form of a spider diagram detailing the pages that we wanted on the site and what they would include, as well as the design of the website. This meant we could start creating the site on Wix with a clear idea of what we wanted the website to be like. I was put in charge of creating the "Behind the Scenes" and "Competition" pages of the website, and initially setting up the site which involved changing the background, fonts and colour scheme of the site, as well as adding all the desired pages to the site. These were gradually tweaked over time by the other members of my group.

Editing the page headings

To make the "Gallery" page of the website, I uploaded images to Wix, including behind the scenes photos of props and shoots, as well as stills from our film, which I obtained by taking screen shots of our trailer. When all the images were uploaded they had to be organised in the slideshow of pictures on the "Gallery" page given titles so that anyone viewing the slideshow would know what the pictures were of. Underneath the slideshow I provided a brief description of the gallery contains.

Uploading images to Wix.

Organising images in the gallery.

The finished order of images in the gallery, with titles.

What the "Gallery" page looks like.

To encourage people to promote our film via social media, we decided to have a competition on our website to win tickets to the premiere by using the hashtag "#NorthChamber" on Facebook or Twitter. When creating this webpage, Wix allowed me to add buttons to the site which let people share the site directly to Facebook and Twitter.

Editing the text for  our competition page

Ancillary Tasks - Making of our Poster

Production - Fonts for Titles and Poster

Originally, as seen in our rough cut, we used one of the default fonts in Pinnacle for the titles in our trailer, but we decided that it would look more professional if we used a different font, and Pinnacle only gave us a narrow selection of fonts which we could use. Also, the title in our trailer and on our poster should be in the same font which we could not do if we used fonts from Pinnacle as we made our poster in Photoshop. After looking online, we found a website called www.dafont.com, which provides a large archive of fonts which are freely available. 

We chose to use this font on our poster, in our trailer, and on our website, as it fits in with the horror genre as it is not very over the top or showy, which would make a font more suitable for a film in another genre, like comedy. It is also easily readable, so people viewing any aspect of our promotional package will know what the film is called.

We used this font for the tagline on our poster, as it looks like it was written by a typewriter, a technology people would have used in the era when part of our film was set (the 1940's), meaning it fits in with the themes of the trailer, closely adhering our poster and trailer together, creating an effective promotional package.

Ancillary Tasks - Initial Plans for Poster

This is the initial paper plan for the North Chamber poster. We planned our poster in the form of a mind map, each branch of the mind map being something we needed to include (Main Image, Tagline Ideas, Ratings, Billing Block, Release Date), or an aspect of the poster's design (Font, Background), apart from "Research into Similar Film Posters" which lists the horror film posters which we used as inspiration for our poster. We have included rough sketches of two possible poster designs, one showing our antagonist's face with a shadow cast over it, inspired primarily by the poster for the film Dark Touch, and one showing a noose hanging from a tree, alluding to the fact that our antagonist hangs herself from a tree, but not explicitly showing this as that would spoil the film. This poster was chiefly inspired by the poster for The Conjuring.

Ancillary Tasks - Initial Plans for Website

This is the initial paper plan for North Chamber's website. Firstly, we decided which pages we should have on our site on the "Pages" branch. Following this, we looked at these pages in more depth on other branches of the mind map (Cast, Behind the Scenes, Synopsis, Home, Gallery, Audience Review Page, Competitions) and then wrote down ideas for the site's design, in the form of "Colour Scheme", and "Music". We aim to create a website with all the aforementioned pages and features.

Production - Shoot Diary 16th January 2015

Call Sheet 16.01.15

Before this shoot we arranged for Rebecca to pick up one of our actors after school had finished and for them to arrive on set at 15:45. When they arrived, they changed into their costumes and make up. Kaitlyn Knight's costume proved difficult as it included a contact lens, and Kaitlyn had not worn contact lenses before, so it took a lot of time to put the lens in.

We did not film the first scene on the call sheet, as it was too dark outside by the time our actors were ready. We decided that, with the footage we had already filmed on previous shoots, we had enough footage for our trailer without filming that scene, and it would not be worth bringing our actors back to our location just to film one scene.

The first scene we filmed, second on the call sheet, was problematic as it featured a part where we had to drop a ribbon into shot to show that the ghost character was behind our protagonist. We had to get one of our crew, Hannah, to stand on a chair off camera and drop the ribbon into shot, but we could not get a shot where the ribbon fell naturally, so we had to make do without this shot. We decided that showing our antagonist walk behind the protagonist was enough for our trailer, but if we were shooting for a real feature length film we would have had to have found a way to get a good shot with the ribbon.

The next scene on the call sheet also posed a challenge, as our actor Kaitlyn had to walk down the corridor as someone turned the lights on and off from outside the corridor, meaning she had to move in time with the lights, so this required several takes to get right.

Overall, this shoot went well and we are confident that we now have all the footage we need to complete our trailer.

Ancillary Tasks - Website Conventions

Like posters, websites have their own conventions, which include showing the film's trailer, showing images of the film, giving background information about the cast and crew, having a similar design and colours to the film's poster and trailer, having a film title masthead similar to that of a poster, linking to social networking sites and encouraging audience interaction, showing the film's slogan, and providing a brief synopsis of the film.
The website for the film Interstellar, opens by showing the film's trailer via YouTube, which can be viewed and then closed to get to the full site.

 

The website's Home page:

The website's "Story" page:

The website's "Videos" page:

The website's "Gallery" page:

The website's "Downloads" page:

All of the above pages feature "Credits" and "Share" buttons, which show the following when clicked:

The website also features interactive games, which allow people to become more engaged in the film and its universe:
Our website should adhere to conventions which people are familiar with. The flat plan of our site is as follows: