Evaluation question 2

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary texts?

As you are able to see from the picture, I have colour coded all the screen grabs and drawn lines to show the link between them. I will now explain how and why I have linked them together.

Blue line: Images of the clown. The general plot of the trailer is an average teenage boy developing a mental illness, more specifically a split personality. This split personality makes him believe he turns into a clown. He starts to now trust anyone and becomes obsessed with the clown and eventually the situation become more serious when he turns to a more violent approach. On the poster I have tried to keep the plot hidden by only having the clown on the poster. This, I believe, is more terrifying than having Grant on the poster as well. This is because it is more mysterious and you can’t tell what the plot will be; the only information you have is that the film is called split and there is a clown involved. The clown appears in the trailer and on the magazine and this is one of the main reasons all three are linked together. Throughout the trailer we see Freddy in disturbing situations (watching Abby through the window) and when Joey comes into the house we see Freddy is standing behind him. We then see the ‘split personality’ come through by a few seconds of short, hard cuts of Freddy and then the clown. This is what I have tried to do for the magazine, show the split. I have done this by cutting the clown’s face in half and putting it over Grant’s face. This constant image of the clown in all three products links them together.

Yellow line: This is the credits and appears at the end of the trailer and at the bottom of the poster. This is a convention of film trailers and film posters. This effectively links the trailer and the poster by giving more information about the film.

Pink line: This is the title of the film. The title in all the components is the same font – therefore linking them together, keeping the same feel for all the texts. On the poster and in the film the text is exactly the same. This is because I made the title in the poster a separate image and uploaded it into my trailer. For the magazine, I did try to do this but it was very difficult to see and therefore I just had to use the same font and change it slightly so you’d be able to see it on the magazine.

Green line: The quote on the poster is the same on the magazine. I did this to link the poster and magazine together further. It is a convention of a poster and a magazine to do because they want to advertise the film as much as possible by using the same quote and using it as a “selling line”. It brings in people from other horror films by saying “So terrifying it sends Pennywise back to clown college”. For horror film fans they will know that Pennywise is from Stephen King’s film IT, a horror film from 1990 about a clown called Pennywise that only children can see.

Orange line: To further extend the relationship of the poster and the magazine by putting the title of the magazine as if it was one of the magazines that gave a rating and it was that magazine that commented on the film saying its “So terrifying it sends Pennywise back to clown college”. This links the two well by promoting the film magazine on the poster.

Evaluation question 1

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Frame 1: This is the first shot of the trailer. The shot, along with the music that goes with it, establishes what the trailer is about. In this shot, the character playing Freddy transforms into a clown. First of all I took two pictures, a picture of Grant (who plays Freddy) and a picture of the clown but the subjects in both of these images were at different heights and therefore their eyes were not in line with one another. I went into PhotoShop and selected the two pictures I wanted and firstly I cropped both of the images to the size I was using for the videos (which is 16:9). I then used rulers on PhotoShop to mark out where the eyes on the clown started, finished and where the pupil is. I then put those measurements onto Grant’s picture and saw I had to move them over to the left by two centimetres. I then used the quick select tool to select Grant and I moved him over to where he was supposed to be. This left me with a white background where Grant used to be so I went to select and then inverse so the background was now selected. This meant I could fill in the background using the clown stamp tool without getting the original background colour on Grant. For this opening scene I decided to use images rather than video because images are easy to manipulate on PhotoShop as there is no movement to interfere with the desired effect. This is done with the editing software, Corel Video Studio 12, where I have chosen a cross-fade effect which is spread over a few seconds. This creates the illusion that the Freddy character is literally turning into the clown in front of you. The music in the background is a child singing a rhyme, “One, two, Freddy’s coming for you”. This clearly tells the audience that there is something wrong and something terrible is about to happen. It also makes the audience raises a lot of questions, e.g. why Freddy is turning into a clown? I have noticed that in some trailers the first shot is not of the location, therefore not an establishing shot, but of one of the characters who is either saying something or waiting for something to happen - (“Insidious” trailer). This, I believe, is establishing the horror element instead of the location and this is what I have tried to do with this first shot. I have tried to portray the genre of the trailer in this first shot by using the common fear of a clown. Clowns, or masks, are used in quite a number of films. The most famous film being Stephen King’s IT, other films include: The Strangers and even in Batman Begins. This first shot is the first shot we see Freddy and therefore introduces him as the main character.

Frame 2: This shot is of Harry who plays the part of Joey. This helps to set the scene because it shows Joey walking into a house. This also helps set the uncomfortable nature of the trailer as Joey walks from the light, symbolising safety here, into the dark and possibly the danger that is yet to come. It is a low angled shot which suggests that he is still in control of himself and as the trailer goes on we see that when Joey walks into the house Freddy is standing behind him, the camera angle is slightly high angled, which suggests that Joey now has no control over what happens to him as he walks into the dark. The moving from light into dark is a convention of horror films because it emphasises the fact that the character is moving from safety into the unknown.

Frame 3: This shot shows Freddy with his drawing and the words “kill her” written in blood. This continues the story well because now we know not to trust Freddy for a number of reasons: where did the writing come from? And will he obey what it is tell him to do? We also do not know who she is yet which highlights the trailer’s mysterious narrative. This is, to an extent, a convention in horror films, the writing of important messages in blood, which shows the audience the danger of what is to come.

Frame 4: This shot introduces Abby into the trailer and it is clearly the person that was being referred to in the previous shot, “kill her”. It is typical to have a male character as the villain and a female character as innocent person that the male character is trying to kill examples: The Shining, Silence of the Lambs and Psycho. Some films do not follow this convention and set their own convention, some using Satan as the villain and some just killing people who ‘deserve’ to die. Some of the most famous ones are: Saw, Blair Witch Project, The Omen and The Exorcist. This is a long shot of Freddy and Abby in low key lighting. The main source of light is a desk lamp, one of the props I used, which highlights Abby and shows her to be innocent but surrounded by darkness and furthermore the danger she shall soon be in. This is further emphasised by her relaxed position and the fact that she is oblivious to Freddy standing over her as she reads. The light in effect framing Abby contrasts her with Freddy further as he is framed by the darkness. His position allows him to look down upon her giving him the power in the shot.

Frame 5 and 6: These two frames are linked; the split is shown visually and clearly for the first time by a series of hard cuts between identical shots except for the costume. This emphasises the split personality in Freddy and show him turning into what he believes is his true form. The flashing stresses how unsettling the trailer is and puts emphasis on the genre, horror – the flashing image of the clown, and fear that the audience have at this point.

Frame 7: This shot shows us the title of the film “Split”. It is an exact replica from the poster and therefore the poster and the trailer are linked by the title’s font and appearance. The red grain in the background symbolises blood and danger so this also adds to the story line and terror.

Frame 8: This shot is one of the last ones in the trailer. It shows the clown standing behind Abby. To get the lighting effect I used a strobe light. I got a friend to plug it in, turn it on and move their hand in front of the light to create the illusion that the light is flashing. This flashing reminds you of the previous scene when the images of Freddy and the clown were flashing and it also heights the suspense because you don’t know if Freddy (the clown) kills Abby. It also adds to the story line by creating a loophole because you don’t know if Abby is killed or not so it might escape.

Frame 9: This is the last shot in the trailer. It provides the audience with the important information about the film, for example: who directed it and who the actor where. The website is there so that the audience can get more information on the film if they want to. The white ghost like shadow behind the website is there to repeat the sense of a split personality.

Film magazine

For the design for my magazine I decided to follow a conventional approach. The target market for my film magazine is for horror/action film lovers from fifteen upwards. The age limit from fifteen is a reflection of the genre because the majority of horror and action films are rated at fifteen+. The design of the magazine is aimed at target audience as the cover is a reflection of the advertisement of the film is general. This basic layout involves a large picture for the background and text framing it. I chose to follow the conventions because they have proven to be effective in the media and I also thought this conventional design would be the best way to portray my media film.

First I decided to concentrate on the background image. I use these two pictures:

These are the same picture that I used in the start of my trailer. I decided to use these because I thought it would link the trailer and the magazine nicely and shows continuity between the two media texts, the trailer and the magazine. I combined the images using PhotoShop. I chose to combine these two pictures for a number of reasons. Firstly and most obviously, it was to show the “split” within the character. I used PhotoShop to further emphasis the split. I used the ‘quick select tool’ and selected Grant. I then dragged the image onto a new blank white page. Following that I used the ‘quick select tool’ option on the image of the clown and selected it and then dragged it onto the page that had Grant’s picture on it. Still keeping the clown selected, I lowered the opacity so I could see Grant’s picture in the background. I lined up the picture of the clown so you were able to see Grant’s eyes through the clown’s eye holes. I selected the clown’s eyes and deleted them so you were able to see Grant’s more sinister eyes. To emphasis this further I selected Grant’s eyes and brightened them and gave them a slightly red highlight. I selected the clown again and this time using the ‘lasso tool’ I cut the clown’s face from the top left virtually down the middle. I then put the opacity of the clown’s picture up again to 100%. Using the blending options I selected Grant’s picture and made the following changes:

Satin

Structure: blending mode – colour burn, black

- Opacity, 27% - Angle, -15°

- Distance, 3px - Size, 0px

Colour overlay Blending mode – red

- Opacity 0%

Stroke

Structure: size 250px

- Position: outside

- Blend mode: darken

- Opacity: 100%

Fill type

- Colour, black.

I made these changes because, as mentioned, it emphasises the split and makes the images more sinister which links in with the narrative of the film trailer. I positioned the images in the bottom right to start with however, after consideration and some feedback from my teacher and some peers, I repositioned it more towards the top right so that the clown’s teeth were properly visible. I positioned it here so that the blank spaces are to the left of the image so that the text was not interfering with the striking image. Another reason why I decided to move the image is because of the eyes. The eyes are now closer to the top of the magazine because the eyes would be visible on the magazine shelf and is arguably one of the most striking parts of the image.

All of my text is conventionally positioned and excluding the masthead it is all the same font, Palatino Linotype. The masthead is in Footlight MT Light, I thought it was important to have a different font because it distinguishes the title of the film magazine. I chose this font because it reflects the horror genre of this magazine well because of the white colour of the font and the red framing of the font. I called it “Film Verdict” because it clearly identifies the contents of magazine to the audience and it also suggests you will get a professional judgement and opinion about films. This is valuable to the audience because it helps them to decide which films are worth spending their money on, especially for students. The details of the masthead are as follows:

Blending options:

Inner shadow: blend mode

– black, darken

- Opacity – 100%

- Angle – global light, -151°

- Distance – 7px

- Choke – 34%

- Size – 0px

Outer glow – Structure

- Blend mode – hard light

- Opacity – 59%

- Noise – 0%

- Red

Elements

- Technique – softer

- Spread – 100%

- Size – 10px

Quality

- Range – 32%

Bevel and emboss – structure

- Style – outer bevel

- Technique – smooth

- Depth – 100%

- Direction – down

- Size – 24px

- Soften – 16px

Shading

- Angle – global light, -151°

- Altitude - 30°

- Highlight mode – screen

- Opacity – 50%

- Shadow mode – multiply, black

- Opacity 70%

This helps the masthead to stand out from the rest of the text as well as giving its on connotations. The bevel and shadowing also adds to this effect by helping it stand out further.

The Date Line and Barcode are also found within conventional places on the magazine. I placed the Barcode in the bottom right hand corner, so as not to interfere with the main image, or the magazine front cover as a whole. The Date line is found underneath the masthead, to the left hand side. It includes the full date of the issue release and the issue number. I have included these details in this format because it allows the readers to easily follow the new issues of the magazine whilst it does not interfere with the cover as a whole. I positioned the Date Line and the Barcode using the ruler tool. This allowed me to line up the Barcode and Dateline with the masthead and all the other text so it was all proportional and easier on the eyes.

The Selling line and the Cover line are, again, positioned using the ruler tool so they are in line with the masthead. They are positioned in the conventional places because this is what people are used to and has been proven to be effective and it is another way of grabbing people’s attention to the magazine. This is why they are at the top of the cover as when they are on a magazine shelf, only the top of the magazine is visible to the audience. They are there simply to attract the reader and to make them choose this magazine over others. The yellow text is coloured so it grabs the reader’s attention as it is an unusual and vivid colour.

The Cover lines are, again, positioned to the left hand side in line with the masthead as not to interfere with the main image. These are again to attract the main audience to show other top stories to be found in this issue e.g. new films coming soon and other reviews. The font from them is white with a black rim to help them stand out in their own way but to not be the focus of your attention.

The Main cover line, “Split” is the largest font on the page. This is so it is clear that this is the film is the focus of the magazine. It is, again, positioned using the ruler tool. It is at the bottom of the page but it is not interfering with the main image which is the most striking part. The font is Palatino Linotype and this directly links with the poster because it is the same font. The quote under the Main cover line “So terrifying it sends Pennywise back to clown college” – this is the same quote as the quote on the poster. This links the two together again and shows continuity so that the target audience can easily see the links between the magazine, the trailer and the poster.