Final products

The Trailer

The Film Magazine Front Cover

The Poster

Evaluation question 4

Question 4: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Research:
1. Google – Google is a search engine which was founded in 1998. You are able to search anything you wish and get the results in less than a second. I used Google to research practically everything; genre, teaser trailers, images, posters and film magazines. If I needed to search anything I used Google because it is the best and most user friendly search engine around and other ones, like Bing, are confusing to use.

2. YouTube – YouTube is a place you are able to view videos of virtually anything and you are able to upload your own. I used YouTube to search for teaser trailers so I was able to see their conventions, e.g. short clips, fast moving, hardly any dialog, non-linear narrative. I looked at a wide variety of teaser trailers on YouTube and when I had settled on a specific genre I then focused my search on horror teaser trailers. This help me considerably when I was putting my own teaser trailer together because I knew, from the horror teaser trailers I had seen, what was good to do and what was not good to do.

Blog:
3. Blogger – Blogger has allowed me to document all my work on the internet and I have been able to document any changes I have made or any troubles I have encountered. I am able to upload videos and pictures to my work as well. This means I can show examples of my work as I am talking about them. On Blogger you are able to edit your work easily and cut things out that you don’t want. If the work had to be written then this would be a problem as it would mean re-writing all of it again as well as not being able to put videos into my work to show examples. Using Blogger has many benefits, some include; you are able to embed videos from YouTube, edit posts whenever you want, add pictures, add videos.

Equipment:
4. Panasonic SDR-S50 – I used this camera to shoot all the clips that I used in my teaser trailer. The camera has a built in microphone, which wasn’t the best quality but it did the job sufficiently, there was also auto focus for the lens as well as manual focus. I didn’t have to use manual focus as I used auto focus. The digital camera was very user friendly and even if you haven’t used one before it was very easy to get used to. While filming you were able to review that you had filmed via the playback button and select different clips. This meant I was able to look through the clips and see what worked well and what I needed to shoot again. This was a big help because I had already had to film on two separate occasions and I didn’t have to time to film for a third time.

5 & 6. Pentax K-m and Pentax flash – I used a Pentax K-m and a Pentax flash to take all the pictures with. The image of the clown on the poster was taken by the Pentax camera and flash. Harry was in the clown suit and was standing in a mirror and I pointed the flash towards the mirror and took a picture in the reflection, (picture right). The flash in the mirror created a complete over exposure of the picture and therefore created the darkness around the clown and highlighted the clown. The picture on the front cover of the film magazine was also taken by this camera and it was these two pictures that were at the beginning of the teaser trailer where the image of Grant has a cross-fade and it turns into the image of the clown. The use of a digital SLR made the process of taking pictures very simple, it would have been much more difficult if I had to used a film camera and get the pictures developed –this would have take a lot longer to do and the effect would have been different.

7. HP Pavilion dm3 – This is my laptop I use for all my work, apart from the editing of the trailer. I have Adobe PhotoShop on my laptop, which is fairly new technology and not a vast amount of people have the full edition as it is still very expensive. Over the years laptops have been getting smaller and smaller, as well as being able to store more memory and it is because my laptop is small and has over 300GB of memory, I am able to use it virtually anywhere and I am able to store all my work onto it. The editing of the trailer was done at school in the Media department because those were the only computers to have Corel video studio on them. Although I used the school computers to edit my trailer on I backed up everything on several USB sticks and on my laptop as well, just in case something crashed.

8. Tripod – Although using a handheld camera without a tripod has worked in some films, Blair Witch Project and Clover field, it wasn’t the same sort of effect I wanted for my film. The Blair Witch Project is filmed in a documentary style horror film and mine is not in the style of a documentary. The tripod was used to steady the camera and stop there being any camera shake. This was the most effective way of stopping camera shake and I think it helped a lot.

Software:
9. PhotoShop CS4 and CS5– I used PhotoShop to create the poster and the film magazine front cover. I have been using PhotoShop for a number of years so it was very simple for me to use and getting the right effects I wanted. I used the PhotoShop to enhance and improve images using not only brightness and contrast but also by using other effects like colour balance. It was very useful when I had the picture of Grant and the picture of the clown and I had to move Grant to the left so that the clown’s eyes and Grant’s eyes were in line. On PhotoShop there is a ruler tool so I used this to line up the clown’s eyes and then with the exact measurements I put the rulers on Grant’s picture, used the select tool to highlight Grant and moved him to the place he needed to be. PhotoShop was practical and I would not have been able to do this project to the best of my ability if I did not use PhotoShop.

10. Corel video studio Pro X2 – This is the program the Media department has on their computers and it is only in the Media room where my school has it, as it is very expensive. It is on this program I was able to edit my teaser trailer. It was difficult to get used to at first but after having a play with the program for a bit I was able to edit my teaser trailer with ease. I had a mental image of what exactly I wanted my finished teaser trailer to look like and the end product is virtually it. On Corel I was able to cut clip down so they didn’t have my voice saying “action” and “cut” and any talking that was happening while the clips were going on (stage directions or giving some advice to actors) I was able to mute all the sound of the clip on the program by right clicking the clip and selecting mute. A few other things I did on Corel were: the speeding up of clips, the slowing down of clips, the deepening of Harry’s voice (“Freddy, are you alright?”), cross-fades, fade to black, short edits of clips (0.4 seconds long) – the flashing of Grant and then the clown. Corel is a digital program and if this had to be done manually I would have had to get the reel of film and literally cut the bits I wanted and glue them together.

Feedback help:
11. Facebook – I uploaded images onto Facebook of the first filming evening I did. They were mostly pictures of the clown and some people commented on the pictures saying how scary they were. This gave me an indication of which images to use for my poster. It was an easy way of getting feedback from friends, people’s opinions I could trust.

All of these technologies are digital and if they weren’t then the production of this coursework would be very different. For one I would not be posting blogs on the internet, I would be hand writing them and if they needed editing I would have to write it all out again. The digital era has only just touched upon the things we are able to do now and in ten or twenty year’s time we will be able to do a lot more. For example, VCRs were only able to fast forward, rewind, play, pause and record. DVD players can now skip entire scenes, record, some are able to get internet on them, some have USB ports as well as all the conventional things a DVD player does. I am able to put my teaser trailer on my TV via the DVD USB port and watch it in 3D, something which some people would never have thought possible a few years ago.

Evaluation question 3

Question 3: What have you learned from you audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I have learned vital things about all my pieces of coursework. It was useful because I knew what didn't quite work and needed to be changed and what worked well and I should maybe use more of. Getting feedback from my class mates really helped me to focus on the things that needed to be changed.

Here are three video interviews that I did with Billy Ford, a former Media Studies student. The first one is about my poster. Below is a picture of the final poster and below that will be the video interview.

The second video interview is about my film magazine. Below you will find the finished film magazine and below that will be the video interview.

Lastly is the video interview about the trailer. Below you will find the finished trailer and then below that will be the video interview.

In a previous post I had selected a number of people to answer a questionnaire about my trailer. This was a very effective way of getting further feedback about my trailer because the questionnaire was anonymous and therefore might feel more at ease and tell the truth. Here are the quesions I asked and the results I got from them.

Questionnaire results

1. The title of the film is “Split”. What are your impressions of the trailer from the title?
 Emotional, to the point
 Horror
 Simple yet good, implies a split personality/mental problem
 Split personality/mental problem
 Split personality
 High energy trailer
 Emotional turmoil
 Something will break down e.g. a friendship, relationship or people might die
 Horror
 Something cutting someone in half
 Short, simple title

2. What are your immediate reactions to the trailer? (Please write down any words that pop into your head, you don’t need to write fully structured sentences).
 Full of emotion
 Scary
 Doesn’t give much away, flashing, dark.
 Fear, makes me want to see it
 Disturbing, chilling
 Scary but alluring!
 Dramatic, emotional
 Interesting, I want to know how a boy turn into a killer
 Kept in suspense from the lighting effects, atmosphere has a gloomy feel to it
 Spooky, mysterious
 Leaves much to the imagination, abrupt nature allows for much more character development

3. Could you rank the following in the order 1-5 which stood out the most and then rate the following five categories out of 10 (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest). I have averaged these results.

Lighting - 3

7/10

Camera shots - 2

8/10

Music - 4

8/10

Acting - 5

7/10

Costumes - 1

9/10

4. On a scale of 1 – 10 (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest) how well did you think the trailer was put together?
I have averaged this result. The average was 8. People also wrote down some comments:
 Jumpy
 Flowed well, music was perfectly timed
 The music complimented the trailer in a way that made it flow well
 The editing was smoothly done
 The shortness of the trailer added to the tension
 Very good
 Interesting nature of the film
 Important scenes were focused on without giving too much away

5. Did the music fit the genre of the trailer? (Tick the box below and add comments if you so wish)
Yes – 11
No – 0
Comments:
 Children singing was scary
 It fit very well
 Chilling
 Dramatic
 Did fit the scary nature of the film but could be a little better
 The heartbeats and child singing complimented the genre, very frightening
 I liked the music when the scenes changed
 Dark, sing-song beginning belies innocence, abrupt noises were good

6. Do you think the actors played their parts well?
Yes - 11
No – 0
Comments:
 Madness definitely portrayed
 The clown was scary!
 The clown part was played well, very disturbing
 Little opportunity for stage time
 They didn’t say much, however, I am not complaining!!
 Altogether they played their roles well
 They expressed their emotions and motives well
 Grant (who played Freddy) played his part really well, partly because he looked the part

7. What was your favourite part in the trailer?
 Flashy clown bit in the doorway, excellently done and with appropriate sound effects
 When Joey (played by Harry) walked into the house and Freddy (played by Grant) was behind him
 Flashing Freddy and the clown
 Flashing, very effective and scary
 The shot with Freddy changing into the clown in the doorway, where the shot shows the boy becoming his alter ego. It was chokingly disturbing!
 The boy turning into the clown repeatedly with the scary music
 The beginning where Freddy turns into the clown with the scary child singing in the background
 The flashing of the torchlight with the clown behind the girl

8. Is there anything else you would like to add?
 I would definitely watch this film, pretty much professional
 Really scary
 Very exciting
 Fantastic job
 Good
 Change the font at the beginning if possible