Evaluation

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

We thought it was essential for the magazine, poster and trailer to have similar links between each other in order for it to be a successful package. If we did not do this then it would be confusing to the audience exactly what we wanted to get across to them and this would make it seem seem less appealing.

We kept the colours the same throughout, primarily using dark reds, blacks and white to create an eery atmosphere, which would set up the genre for the film quite nicely. The text used for the titles was the same for the magazine cover to help show that connection between the two. However for the title of the film trailer we just kept the title all in red unlike the other 2 which were in red and white. This was because we wanted to end the trailer with a bold message and we thought that having it all in red would seem quite influencial and dominating. We used the font optima not just for the titles but for all the other pieces of texts on all 3 products to show a distinctive link between the 3.

Simplicity was also an important thing for us to emphasise on the products and I think we did this successfully. The poster is very simplistic with just a bold picture of the manor placed on the front and the magazine cover just has an overpowering image of Chloe on the front. We decided to do this because we didn't want to give too much away about the plot and leave it up to the audiences imagination, which also helps to build up tension and suspense, which is one of our intended overall impacts for the audience.

We mention Chloe's name both on the magazine cover and the poster. This highlights that she is probably the central character in the film and gives the audience something to remember the film by especially if she was a well known actor.

Both images on the magazine cover and poster are very intense and dominating, which suggests that they play key roles in the film. On the poster we just have the image of the manor hidden behind bushes, this gives a mysterious feeling to it as if the audience don't know much about what goes on in the manor and maybe that there's a lot of secrets behind it, which again builds up that horror suspense for the audience.

Our tag line 'Things aren't always what they seem' was used both on our magazine cover and poster, which goes back to my point about not knowing much about the house. The audience may think it looks like a pretty country manor but underneath there's a dark secret about it. It's a simple tag line as well and one for the audience to remember when they come back to think of the film.

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

We used some form of technology for practically all of these aspects. We are very lucky that technology is where its at these days as less than 20 years ago we wouldn't have had half the equipment that we have today. Things like photoshop and imovie would have never existed and so it would have been impossible to create products as professional as the ones we have created. Simple things like using a key board and going back if you have made a mistake wouldn't have been possible as you would have had to hand write everything and if you made a mistake it would of had to be started again.Throughout our planning stages a lot of this was done by hand, as we were drawing out sketches and doing mind maps of ideas we thought would work well for our products. However we did use the scanner so we could scan these ideas onto our blogs. The filming was obviously all done by video camera and even though video camera's have been around for quite a while now, it used to be very hard to transport them from the actual camera to disc. However now the process is very simple thanks to USB cables, where we could just plug the camera into the computer and it would upload it straight onto imovie. Luckily we are a generation that have been born into and grown up with new media technology and experience it in basically every day of our lives. This made it easier for us to access the camera as most of us had already used one and knew what to do, which made the process easier.Once the filming was completed we then imported it onto imovie, where we were able to do a variety of different editing techniques with it in order to create the trailer we intended. The amount of different effects that are on offer is overwhelming and is something that definitely wouldn't have been possible if done 10 years ago. We were able to cut out bits of our film if we decided that we didn't want them anymore or rearrange the clips so that it fitted well with our trailer. There was an amazing diversity of music and sound clips that would suit a variety of different genres and this helped us a lot in creating suspense and building up the general horror atmosphere. Editing techniques, also had an incredibly wide range, from fading in and out to speeding up and slowing down. We were very lucky to have this range of effects as our trailer wouldn't have been half as professional as it is now.

When creating our magazine and poster we used a fairly new piece of technology called Photoshop, which has really only been around for the last decade and even then it didn't have all the features on it as it does today. If you have never used it before it can be a very complicated process as you are overflowed with tools and effects. It took us a bit of practice before we managed to finally get a grip of things.The layering tool was quite tricky to get used to as it was hard to cut out exactly what image you wanted and place it on a new layer. We tested out the tools on other pictures, so that when it came to our final products we were very familiar with them and knew what we were doing. Some of the tools include the layering tool, the colour tool and the blur tool as well as many others. These all contributed in creating a really professional looking poster and magazine cover. For example with the poster we were able to blur out the trees slightly so that the manor seemed more powerful and central.Finally, for our some of our evaluation we used filming again as we thought it would make it more interesting and appealing instead of just having everything written down on paper, which doesn't use much imagination. For some of the evaluation we showed clips and did a voiceover, over the top explaining what we did at some points during the trailer. We also used the voiceover during our trailer as well, over the clip where the little girl is skipping round in a circle. This is effective because the audience are hearing it from the characters perspective and gets them more involved. This is another new piece of technology that wouldn't have been possible to do if done 10 years ago.Its quite scary yet amazing now much people in society now rely on technology in their everyday lives. Whether its making a phone call or sending an email, technology takes up a vast proportion of people's lives and it continues to grow in popularity. We should be thankful that we are living in a time where there is so much technology about and so many different ways for us to communicate because without them our lives would be very different.Overall I really enjoyed using all the different pieces of technology as some of them were very new to me like Photoshop. But now I have got the grasp of them and are aware of how to use them, I can take this information away with me as it may help me later on in life.

Final Products

POSTER

MAGAZINE COVER

Weekly Updates for Magazine Cover

Week 1

We started off by looking at a range of different film magazines that related well to our genre and also the way in which we wanted our audience to perceive our film. We found that EMPIRE magazine had the biggest diversity and we were most likely to find a magazine that we could use as our influence. After looking at some, we found that Iron Man 2 was best suited for the type of cover we wanted to create. Not necessarily because of the genre because Iron Man 2 is an action film whereas ours is a horror one, but because it gives off a similar kind of message that we want the audience to realise from our cover. We then started the design process, where we created the magazine on photoshop, which we were used to now as we had already created the poster on there. We began creating the EMPIRE title and putting colours onto the background. We kept the font and colours very simple with the original empire font 'optima' and red, blacks and whites used as the main colours. This was because it goes well with the genre and overall atmosphere of our trailer but isn't so bright and over powering that it takes the focus away from the main image on the cover.

Week 2

We then started thinking of images from our trailer that we could use for the cover and what type of image would attract the audience the most. We tried out a variety of shots to see which was best suited and came to the conclusion that we wanted just a still shot of the upper half of Chloe's body as the primary image. Just like the Iron Man 2 cover, we wanted the picture to stand out and be quite large in size to suggest that she is probably the main character in the play and is maybe quite dominating. We had her looking very lifeless and sinister, with her eyes fixated on the camera as if she is looking directly at the audience as this gives them the feeling that they are really involved with it. It also asks the audience to question Chloe's character because on the magazine cover she is seen as very creepy, whereas in the trailer she seems very energetic and excited about going on the road trip, which may lead them to think she has a split personality of some sort or maybe has a mysterious background, which she tends to hide around her friends.

Just like the Iron Man 2 cover, we wanted to have a promotion section, where we would advertise other new up and coming films on our cover. However we had problems with this as we weren't actually allowed to put pictures of real films coming out. We decided to overcome this by taking stills from other people's projects in our class and promote these on our magazine. Helpfully they all related to our genre as well and were mainly about horror related issues, which helped in making the cover more relevant and effective. Also like the Iron Man 2 cover, we wanted to keep the tag line quite simple, so we went with 'Things aren't always what they seem', which is short and catchy and something the audience will remember when they come to think of the film. It also helps in keeping the main focus on the image of Chloe.

We saw that the Iron Man 2 cover had an advertisement for something like 'the greatest films of 2009' so we decided to use this as well and create a list of the greatest horror films and also at the very top of the magazine we had a list of actors and new upcoming films that were related to our film in one way or another e.g. the genre or storyline.

Finally we created a barcode and price for the magazine that we thought would be appropriate and also looked at the price given on the Iron Man 2 cover.

Overall we found it quite simple in creating the content for the magazine cover because we had already got the hang of using photoshop and it was just a case of deciding what worked in promoting the film and what didn't.

Influences for Magazine Cover

The colours are very over-powering and dominant on the front of the magazine cover and all the images and text seemed to be placed centrally to highlight that the film is the main focus in the magazine. The shot used is a basic front on shot with the main character looking directly at the camera, to show how the magazine is trying to draw in the readers as if the character is looking at them, which makes it more appealing. The lighting used in the background is quite dull and dim, however the main image itself, the title of the magazine and the title of the film are all made to like bright, bold and 'electrified' almost. This helps to see what the main focus of the cover is and what features the film company is trying to highlight the most. The colours used are predominantly red,blue and white, which shows that maybe the magazine is aimed at attracting young males who have a love for action films. There isn't any props used and the only image is of the iron man to suggest that the whole film is focused around him.

I think the main representation from this image is from the title 'Iron Man 2' suggesting that all men are 'indestructable', as well as with the image, which makes all males look dominating, masculine and almighty. The slightly closed, glowing eyes makes him seem fierce and powerful as if he is looking at his next victim i.e. the audience, which makes it more entrancing. The 'first look' section on the left of the image says' All hail the king of 2010', which adds to the effect of him being over-powering and ruling e.g. like a king. And as a king, many people will look up to him and it shows how he has very high status. Overall it represents a very dominating and powerful side to society, even though it doesn't directly relate to reality, it could be perceived in this way where men almost see him as a role model. 

I think the target audience here would be for boys as the title very clearly hints that it is a male film and the colours used are seen as more male colours, whereas if it were targeted at women it would probably use brighter, softer colours. The image of the iron man himself is very masculine and gives a real sense of power, which may be something that males aspire to. I think the age range would be between young teenage boys of about 12 or 13 to young men in their mid 20's, because I think it would affect this stage of growing up, where all boys want to look their best and be the 'strongest' etc...Also it is predominantly young boys and men who love to watch action films and as we can see from the magazine cover that this is definitely an action film because of the lightning bolt effects used and the glowing images and therefore it is clear that a lot of activity is going to take place during the film. I think the way it aims to attract the audience is done very well with the different elements of misenscene used such as the lighting, colours, image and title. 

The main device used for promoting the film here is the image, as the iron man himself is a well known character from the first installment and so the audience would be well aware of who his character is. If they have enjoyed the first one, then it will make it much more likely that they will want to carry on and see the next installment. The tag line underneath the title is 'New Suit. New Enemies. Same Attitude.', which is very simple but yet catchy and will stick with the audience if they come to think of the film again. And again, with the 'Same Attitude' part of it, this will suggest that the film will have the same overall take as the first film, just with new characters and a new plot, which will make it appealing if the audience have enjoyed the first one. 

The promotion for this film takes up the majority of the magazine cover, which shows that they are very strongly trying to advertise the film and it will probably be a big success that many people will want to see. The other films promoted on the cover are very small in comparison to iron man, suggesting that they won't be as successful when released. Or maybe this is because they aren't well known films yet and it gives the readers a chance to get to know the basic plot of the films, so when they become close to their release date and are being promoted more, the audience will be drawn to buying that magazine because they already know a bit about it. 

The image on the cover definitely fits with the genre of the film as it seems very fierce and powerful, representing the perfect image for an action film. The other films promoted on the cover, also seem to be action films suggesting that the content of the magazine is primarily focusing on action packed films, which will captivate audience members who are particularly interested in this genre. 

Overall I think that all the devices and features used on this magazine cover are excellent in helping to promote this film and also targeting at people who are interested in the genre of action films.

Weekly Updates for our Poster

Week 1
We started off by drawing out several different design ideas about what we could use as our film poster. Some of the ideas we came up with were the picture of the eye with images around it, the picture in the centre of the pupil and one where Holly was in the background and Chloe was in the foreground. However we thought that using Holly and Chloe in the poster would give too much away about the film and in our trailer it doesn't reveal who the actual murderer is and so using them in the poster would defeat the whole purpose of suspense that we wanted to create. We began looking at influences as well such as The Eye and The Last House on the Left to help us come up with ideas we could use.
After the sketches and research into our poster, we decided to eliminate the idea of using the eye as it didn't have much relevance to the film. We then began to think of key images in our film that would be effective for the poster and the most striking one was the image of the house. This was used as our final design and we then had to work out how were going to lay everything out.
Firstly we had to decide where we wanted to place the house, in the foreground or in the background. We thought that having it in the foreground would make the house seem overpowering and dominant, which is how we wanted to portray it. We really liked the idea of splitting the page into two different colours, which would hint that surrealism and things from the past may occur but still doesn't give too much away that the audience are left wondering what is going to happen. So we had one half of the poster in red and one half in black and white to show a time lapse and how things havn't really changed.

Week 2
This was the week when we started putting all our ideas onto Photoshop and seeing how they would look for real. As we wern't that confident with Photoshop it took a lot of trys to get to grips with the different features and functions of it but we finally got the hand of it. We took some location shots of the house and the ones we got were really excellent and portrayed exactly what we wanted which was a spooky, eery atmosphere. The first thing we designed was for our logo, Mack, where we had a lightening bolt going through the middle, which even though wasn't very dominant on the poster, still gave off a shock factor especially in our trailer.
We then began importing the image onto our photoshop, which took up the whole of the poster and then split the screen into half, where we turned one half into a deep, blood red colour and the other half into black and white. Next was to decide how we wanted our title to look but we didn't want to over complicate the poster, so we kept the font consistent for everything, which ended up being Optima. We had the Talbur bit on the red side in a white font and the manor bit on the black and white side in a red font. The rest of the text used was in the same font but kept all in white, so it would be easier to read. We kept the amount of writing to a minimum otherwise it would draw away from the attention of the house, which was the main image that we wanted the audience to concentrate on.
Around the house were a few trees, bushes etc..., which were useful in portraying the right atmosphere but seemed to show the same dominance as the house, which wasn't what we wanted. So we thought it would be a good idea to experiment with the blur tool for the other objects around the house, so you could still see them but they seemed to be in the background compared to the house in order to make the house look more terrifying and to stand out more.
We had Holly Bradshaw and Chloe Redman at the top of the poster, to show the main characters in the film, which if used in a real film poster, would attract the audience if the actors were well known. We kept their names in the same font as everything else in the colour white but with a light glow around it to give off a scary kind of aura.
We were initally going to have Chloe and Holly on either side of the poster holding hands to show the connection between them but we thought that this would have been too big a hint and too obvious about what the film was about, which wasn't what we wanted to do. We wanted to create as much suspense as we could and leave it up to the audience to use their imagination.

Influences for Poster

For our Media project we had to create a poster that would help us to advertise our film and to look at other film posters that fitted in within the same genre as ours, in order for us to use them as influences when creating our own poster. Ours was a horror film, so we looked at films in the same category and recognised the way they structured the content of their poster, how much writing they used, colours, pictures etc...




Initally we were interested in having just Chloe's eye for our poster as we thought it would be very striking and effective and would grab the attention of the audience. The perfect example here was the poster from the film The Eye, where they also just had an eye with a hand reaching out of it. We wanted a similar sort of idea but with either different clips from the film around the eye or just one key moment from the film in the pupil of the eye. We also liked the idea of reddening the eye in order to create a more sinister look. After trying out a few different designs for this we came to the conclusion that the eye didn't have much relevance to the film and therefore wasn't going to promote the film in the correct way. However we did like the simplicity of it, which was something we wanted to do with our own poster to prevent giving much away about the film.

The second film poster that we became interested in was The Last House on the Left, which we used as the main influence for our final design of our poster. Because our film is set in the eery surroundings of Talbur Manor, we thought it would be more relevant to have a picture of the house as our main image, which is what they used with The Last House on the Left poster. It gives an idea about where the happenings take place, but doesn't give a lot away about the plot and leaves it up to the audience to use their own imagination. Also with this poster, there wasn't a lot of writing, which was something we wanted to corperate into our one too as too much writing can drag the attention from the main focus of the poster, which in this case is the image. The colours used in this film poster are very simple, yet work very well in creating a creepy atmosphere and we were interested in using this same sort of idea for our poster.

Initial Ideas for Poster