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

Before I had even began to create neither my main task nor ancillary task I analysed an advertising campaign of a film from the same genre, I chose the movie ‘The Strangers’. This would enable me to grasp an understanding how existing media products interlink their products in order to then apply this knowledge to my main task of a teaser trailer alongside my two ancillary tasks. http://lewis-tillyer.blogspot.com/2010/09/analysis-of-strangers-advertising.html

Throughout my trailer, website and poster I focussed on creating similarities between them. I believe that I have successfully created continuity between my products as each can easily be identified as advertising the same media production.

Firstly, the title of the film is featured on all three of the products as expected. I believe this is one of the most important features of continuity as it provides an iconic identity of the film itself, instantly intertwining the products and recognised by the public. Originally, the first draft of my poster included the same font although it was a different colour. I did this as I thought it best suited the aesthetics of the poster. However, after close analysis I decided to use the original title as it stood out more from the page and consequently provide the audience with quick recognition. Also, I felt that having a consistency of the title between products was a key feature to a new film as it yet to form some kind of identity or place within the industry.

Other ways in which I feel the contribution of my tasks is effective is by including a slogan, ‘Every village has its secrets’. I feel the slogan itself is very effective as it places questions into the audience’s mind, such as what is the secret? It also has a large impact on the audiences living in smaller communities such as villages as it brings the events closer to reality, putting them in a vulnerable position as it questions whether secrets affect them. As the slogan is also written as a statement I believe that it has more of an impact as it is not only direct but also resembles a fact, there is no escape, the truth is kept hidden. However, although we included a slogan on both the ancillary task we decided not to include it on the teaser trailer. We did this as we wanted to place as much emphasis on the footage and film title itself, adding more text may distract the audience attention from the title.

On both the teaser trailer and the poster I have also included the production company logo which we had created. As this is clearly a new company we needed to make it clear to the audience of the logo in order to create familiarity with the company through exposure. For example, at the beginning of our trailer the logo is shown for a number of seconds, in order to be most effective for the purpose of the trailer we created a flash moving image of the logo, this adds to the professionalism of our products. While the logo is also featured on the poster, the image is very small due to following the conventional layout of existing posters.

The genre of the film is also suggested throughout the three products through methods such as font colour and low key lighting. The main colour scheme between the three is red, black and white. These are all colours typically associate with our desired genre, so were used to identify our product within this industry. Red suggests danger, blood, anger and the black connotes death, mystery, and the unknown, while white may suggest innocent and purity. As you can see throughout my products the main colour use is black and red. This is due to the dark nature of the narrative which the tasks are advertising. Within the trailer, an example with how we used colour is through the prop of the red balloon. As the child is holding the balloon it suggests that is upon her; close to her. We also used low key lighting was used to represent the disruption and tone of the trailer. Also, throughout my products any use of the colour white is surrounded by black. This was done in order to represent the struggle between good and evil, white representing the innocent being surrounded by darkness suggests that there is no escape, darkness has the dominant upper hand, this provides clues for the audience of the narrative of the full length picture which these products advertise.

Another effective feature of my productions is the use of image. Each of my productions features an image of the main villains’ prop of the mask. I did this in attempt to create a sense of iconography; people would instantly associate the mask with the movie itself. I wanted to represent the killer throughout my products. For example, this was the dominant image of my poster and I feel the use of editing and camera is very effective. Showing only a section of the mask implies that the character is well hidden so accordingly will not be easily guessed or identified by the audience. Also, being surrounded by darkness to one side suggests that the masked character is approaching from the darkness itself, implying his evil nature. The position of the shadow also highlights the character’s masks features which are almost distorted, suggesting the character has been through many physical contacts. I also decided to add the red tear onto the prop as this is commonly associated as the symbolic mark of a murderer, suggesting the character behind the mask is capable of killing. The mask itself suggests the character behind its identity is kept hidden from not only his victims but the audience, therefore the audience can not simply distinguish who the villain is, but instead it acts as an incentive to watch the film as well as adding a sense of mystery of the killer; a common feature of a thriller in particular. While images of the mask were used, within my website I also included a number of various images mainly based around victims or potential victims of the villain. This therefore creates the idea that while the villain is evident, consequences of his actions are still occurring, there is one particularly graphical image used on the background of one of my web pages. However, during my research I found that including such emotive images is common of my chosen genre. 

Another way I feel I have made my products effective together is through creating textural links or advertisement of each individual product. For example, in my film poster I have intentionally placed the website address in order to encourage the audience to indulge in further interest and research into the film and overall advertise the full length picture. From my website I have then also provided both my theatrical and teaser trailer in order to furthermore promote my film. I also created a sound link between my products. The soundtrack I used within my trailer I also included on my website.    

Also, throughout the productions I also kept in mind the target audience and certificate of the film. This allowed me to adapt my product in the best interests of the potential audience. Carrying out my research provided me with the information to do so. However, I also had to consider the laws and regulations of the certificate 15. So therefore, all three of my media products together or individually will appeal to the same audience.

In conclusion of the effectiveness of the combination of my poster, website and teaser trailer I truly believe that they fulfil the purpose of adverting the full length picture, I believe iconography and continuity play a major role in the success of such products so it may be questioned of the effectiveness of any media product such as this if looked at individually.

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

y research has provided me with the knowledge of typical conventions throughout existing media products in teaser trailers, posters and websites. Between the three of my media products I have consistently used, developed and challenge these conventions. http://lewis-tillyer.blogspot.com/2010/09/purpose-and-conventions-of-teaser.html

Firstly, the narrative of my teaser trailer follows the conventions of existing media products from the same genre. Although material from the film industry traditionally follows Todorov’s narrative stages, my research identified that this was not the case within all of horrors’. For example, there is more disruption and recognition of the equilibrium is not always evident. However, as I am producing a teaser trailer the narrative structure itself was kept unclear from the audience. This is typical of a teaser trailer as its purpose is to ‘tease’ the audience, by providing only segments of narrative stages the audience is left guessing and questioning what is going to happen. http://lewis-tillyer.blogspot.com/2010/10/our-stages-of-narrative.htmlThe content of existing trailers of our chosen genre mainly involved the disruption stages and the use of enigma codes. We also need to consider the genre of the trailer, for this reason our trailer consisted of a very short sequence of shots in order to establish the equilibrium and then a great deal of time on the disruption. This keeps the audience entertained and enticed to find out the reason behind the disruption or who is next. All these questions put into the audiences mind represent desired emotions of a horror trailer encouraging them to watch the whole length picture. For example, audiences of our trailer are left what happens to the main protagonist? Who the villain is?

As well as the narrative, another major convention of any teaser trailer not only horrors’ is the length. Typically the length of a teaser trailer is between 30 and 90 seconds. Originally we had difficulty reaching this target as we had a lot of footage (144 takes) and we were reluctant to lose footage we favoured. However, after much thought and audience feedback we identified that this was a major issue of our teaser trailer. So what we decided to do is create two versions of our trailer. One, being longer we used as our theatrical trailer and the shorter as our teaser trailer. After a lot of editing we eventually managed to cut the trailer a significant amount. In the end conforming to this convention improved our teaser trailer dramatically, making the whole thing more intense and fast pace.

Another way in which we conformed to conventions of existing products is the use of characters. From my research I identified three main character types according to Propp; the villain, donor, helper and the hero in such genres. In addition, we decided to only really represent the hero and villain within our trailer. However, while we follow typical conventions of the villain character i.e. male, tall and powerful, we have developed or even challenged the hero character type. We decided to make the hero female as this would be more effective based on the narrative of our story. Typically female characters follow stereotypes such as vulnerability and dependency, while our trailer represents the female character as independent and brave. We have conveyed this within our teaser trailer as even though the character is in potential danger she still strives to expose the villain and save her younger sister.

During my research, in particular the analysis of existing teaser trailer I found that horror teaser trailer typically used numerous transitions and visual effects in order to emphasise the featured events. When producing our teaser trailer we took this into account and therefore used a variety of transitions, for example, although we maintained a desired fast paced trailer using wipe cuts we also included transitions such as flash and wipe cuts. This adds to the effectiveness and allows the trailer look more professional. However, some visual effects used in horror trailer we just simply did not have access or the experience of generating due to the editing software used. As well as transitions shot types were also important. Throughout our trailer we use a vast number of shot types. However, one shot type we used which our trailer takes one step further of existing products is the close up of the child victims. We added this to our trailer as we felt it would have more of an emotive impact on our audience. However, one issue this generates is that it limits the time of day that the trailer can be shown, due to the access of age to the audience. 

Typically within a horror/thriller teaser trailer the use of sound use revolves around having one non diegetic sound track playing consistently throughout however increasing in pace as well as volume.  Also, they usually consist of a number of sound effects in order to emphasise key points of disruption within the trailer. Within our trailer we used two separate sound tracks developing typical conventions of existing products. We did this in order to make a clear distinction between the equilibrium and the disruption. We found this effect successful as it made the audience feel a false sense of security as well as demonstrating a strong sense of community central to the film’s narrative. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TGKJ9MgCOQ However, once the disruptive soundtrack began the music became louder and more dramatic increasing with the timing of the edits.  We also used many sound effect, most of which consisted of a heavy bass line and even the use of parallel sound in a power cut. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVRgEi6SooU&playnext=1&list=PLBC26F0701C1D0314

The actual navigation around my website follows a typical map of any website. However, due to my past experiences in the creation of websites the navigation it is quite simplistic. Nevertheless, this has proven to become some what of an advantage. My website is extremely easy to pilot around the pages, making the website effective for all audiences whether they are confident in the ability to use a website or not.

 

From my research I also found that websites typically had a range from four to eight pages. For this reason I decided to include six pages, I felt that this enabled to provide the most important information without adding unnecessary information which are likely to be avoided. The actual content in which each page provides was selected from my past experiences with typical film websites, I also decided to include and index (welcome) page as in my research I found that although independent films often did not include this page, more mainstream websites did. So therefore, by including this page I felt that my production appeared more professional. One way in which the content of my pages has developed typical conventions is by including both my teaser and full length trailer rather then just the one. This gives the audience more control and choices to how they use the website, for example, those who have little time are likely to choose the teaser, while those who wish to gain a more detailed interpretation of the film with the time have the option to do so.

Also, relating to the navigation around my website, I decided to place my navigation bar towards the top of each individual page. From my research I also found that in the horror genre in particular, the navigation bar ran horizontally, I followed this convention as a vertical takes up a large portion of space so would take away the audiences attention from the main image or content of the page itself. Just above the navigation bar I placed the final edited title of my movie, this is an important feature of my website as it creates continuity between the other products. I also noticed from my research that websites often used a number of visual effects and behaviours. However, due to the program I used to create my website many of these option available were quite tacky, for this reason I therefore decided to only use those which did not have an impact on the professionalism of my product. One example of where I used visual effects was in my title; a fast paced light skipping within the letters. I used this behaviour as it represents a struggle between good and evil, the light resembling good is trapped and surrounded by evil.

When I first designed my website I used one image/wallpaper consistently throughout all but the index page of my website. This was due to me using mini pages rather then individual pages. After, looking back at my research I found that mainstream horror websites did not use this format of page; instead each page was independent and included a different picture. Due to the effectiveness of the convention I decided to follow this method, on each page I included a different picture while still representing the same meaning and consistency of genre representation. I achieved this by including typical features of mise en scene sc as expression, props and lighting. As well as this I also made my website interactive, i.e. the audience selects what to view and navigation around the site.  

However, one convention I noticed was typical of horror websites was that between the transitions of pages, a short piece of footage from the movie is played. However, from navigating around the websites myself I would often skip this footage as it became more of an annoyance rather than a positive feature. Other issues I faced including this feature was that I felt we had not gained enough footage to include it on the website as similarities would be evident between the trailers. As well as this, the program I used did not offer the tools in order to do so. If I was to complete the website again, I would consider adding this convention however, due to my technology restrictions this was not possible.

The last of my tasks within my media production I created was my poster. I decided to predominantly follow typical conventions and layouts of existing products due to the limited features on a poster and in order to make it clear to the audience what product it is. Throughout my poster I focussed on suggesting and implying the narrative of our film throughout the media language. I achieved this in many ways, for example, like my previous products mentioned I used features of mise en scene typical of my genre i.e. props (mask), colour (red, white and black), and font. As well as this I include a slogan; ‘every village has its secrets’. I believe this is effective as from my research I found that other posters included a slogan which may get the audience to feel vulnerable, apply the situation to their life. The slogan I have included does exactly this. Firstly, any audience member that reads it and lives in a small town or village can relate to the location the film is it, the idea that secrets are being hidden is a concern or worry to any person, every person has done something they wish to be kept hidden. Therefore, it causes the audience to question the security of themselves.

Evaluation presentation

As a group we decided create a presentation evaluating our final teaser trailer focussing areas in narrative, camera, editing, mise en scene, sound and representations.

Final Poster...

Theatrical trailer. . .

Final teaser trailer...

Final website...

Finally, after a number of drafts and developing countless skills I have produced my final website which I have recently publish on the internet! I am very pleased with the outcome and as I will outline in my evaluation, I believe that both individually and combined with my two other productions are successful in advertising that of a full length picture. These are only screen shots, visit my full website at http://www.wix.com/tillyerl/sundayschild