Friday, 8 May 2015
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
During the
research, construction and planning stages, I used several different ways to
receive my audience feedback.
For my
planning I needed to obtain several responses to get the gist of what would
appeal to my audience. I collected this
information through ‘Question Pro’ which is an online survey application. I
constructed a survey that consisted of ten questions, all being multiple
choice. Once I created this survey, I exported it through different social
media site such as ‘WhatsApp’ and ‘Facebook’ which was a fast and instant way
of getting responses. Our survey got 51 participates which was a large number
of people to help us understand our demographic. The survey entailed from a range
of different questions particularly on the Slasher genre so see what is
preferred and what isn’t, in order to help with the construction.
At first we
asked questions such as the participant’s age and gender. We wanted to know
what age group we are targeting our trailer to and if the feedback was biased
in term of gender, there was an equal amount of participants both male and
females which told us that there was no need to specify with one gender and
that we needed to construct something that appealed to both genders. We asked
what sub-genre of the horror is the most favourable and the response we got was
that the Slasher genre was the most liked and gothic was least liked. Since
learning that the participants of our survey are young adults, we expected the
Slasher genre would be quite popular amongst that particular age group as the Slasher
genre often have a story that consist of teenagers this makes it very
relatable. We then go on to ask particular things about the Slasher genre such
as the favourable Slasher film, the responses of this question helped us
understand what sort of structure out audience would ideally want. It was
interesting to obtain that out of 8 different Slasher films, Final destination
was the most liked and I know what you did last summer was the least. ‘I know
what you did last summer’ follows the conventions of a Slasher yet does not
film however The structure of final destination is different to the formulaic structure
of a general Slasher film as there was no particular killer or final girl. Two
of the most conventional characters seen in a Slasher film are not made clear
as they would in classic Slasher films. This suggests our audience would rather
want to see us challenge the conventions than abiding by it. Due to this response
we decided to challenge Roland Barthes narrative theory on the semiotic code by
filming some of our footage from the killer’s perspective. As in most Slasher
films, the audience tend to witness the actions from the final girl, and
consume her point of view throughout the film however by challenging this and
putting the audience in the shoes of the killer, increases more tension as they
are forced to be in that position creating a dramatic and also chilling effect.
The survey helped encourage what location we would set our trailer as most
being vouched for the best location to be a neighbourhood, and the least
approved was the abandoned house. By having the majority saying neighbourhood
being the best location suggests they would want a location that you would not
suspect a murder to happen and also somewhere that has relevance to the
audience, causing the audience to confide with our characters in comparison to
the ‘abandoned house’ as a neighbourhood could also clearly state the
equilibrium in terms of Propps narrative Theory. Also the fact that
neighbourhoods are often found being the location that the Slasher is normally
set shows the familiarity to this specific location within the codes and
conventions of a Slasher film. Our chosen release date was due to the responses
we received, as we asked when you would see a Slasher film, the participants
had to pick between four seasons and the most picked winter rather than the summer.
Winter is quite a dull season, and gets dark quite early suggesting it fits with
the dreariness of a horror, Slasher film. Also most people go to the cinema
around this certain season as there aren’t any activities to do in contrast to the
summer. It made sense to release our low budget, independent Slasher film
during the winter as most block buster films are released during the summer. If
our film was released in the summer it would face tough competition. The weapon chosen for our film was based on
our responses as the common responses referred to a weapon with a blade, we
also included weapons that are not sharp such as a gun, baseball bat but these
were the least picked, this response demonstrates how most people identify the Slasher
genre with its weapon as it is often seen to be a blade of some sort, with the
villain ‘slashing’ his victims creating a more sharp and gruesome effect.
Another way I received audience feedback was gathering a
group of people, both male and female with ages that ranged from 15-22 years
old and presenting different templates for my horror magazine and film poster
that I have made. Each templates consisted of different ways that I positioned
the text and different ideas on what the main image could be. Most of the
reactions I received preferred the more conventional ways of how the text was
positioned and also favoured a main image that conveyed more narrative and
presented the Slasher genre clearly.
After constructing the final piece of
our trailer, we wanted to collect feedback so we organised a screening where we
hand our surveys straight after our trailer had been watched and uploaded our
trailer on a social media website called ‘YouTube’ and from there we uploaded
our link to the trailer on several other social media sites, including
Facebook, Snapchat and WhatsApp.
Our screening consisted of 9 contributors and they
had to answer 10 questions which evaluate and seize their initial opinion of
our trailer.
The first two questions asked about what they liked and disliked about the trailer.
The responses ranged their likes
about the trailer from camera shots, music, narrative and effects. They principally liked the use of effects and
the fast montage sequence. We animated our titles as it fuzzed on the screen
and the record button, and night vision fit to look like a hand held camera and
a night vision camera. Also the action within our fast pace montage sequence
consisted of one of our characters being dragged, and strangled which appealed
to our audience as the violence within our trailer made a good fit to the Slasher
genre. Music and narrative was also commented on. They stated how the intensity
was well built as the music gradually built up to the fast pace montage.
Additionally the narrative was easy to pick up on through the use of
non-diegetic sound of our killer voicing over his account and a conversation
between two of our characters. This as an overall response was respectable,
because most of these aspects where features we thoroughly tried to fool
proof.
What they disliked about the
trailer was common amongst the participants as they observed on how the non-diegetic
music was overpowering compared to the dialogue that was seen in the trailer,
making it harder to depict the narrative. This was not the response we expected
so it was worrying as most our narrative was displayed through the use of
dialogue. However when we posted our trailer on YouTube and other social
network sites, this ‘problem’ did not occur, since our trailer was being
watched through smaller devices such as smart phones, laptops and more people
used headphones. However for our screening we used an electronic white board
with not the best speakers resulting in completely muzzling the viewing
pleasure of our participants.
We then questioned how we could have
improved, several said our trailer could have consisted of more gore, including
more blood and generally making it scarier which is fair as the only blood that
is seen is when the killer wipes it off his knife. Others mentioned the camera quality
although there are some points of the trailer where footage was purposely
manipulated to look as if it is the quality of a hand held camera than a DSLR
to distinguish the killer’s perspective. What was also stated from one
participant was the editing was too fast though we followed the conventions of
the pace of a Slasher film as the editing was slow to suggest the equilibrium
and as it progressed to the fast montage sequence the pace quickened between
shots to suggest the disruption this opinion could be due to personal
preference.
Following most of the conventions
of the formulaic style of a Slasher trailer and also researching different
trailers to interpret in our own trailer our partakers were quick to notice
several ways our trailer presents the Slasher genre. On the survey we asked
what are the aspects of the trailer make it a Slasher film. The majority of
responses were the choice of weapon is what reinforced the genre as well as
music, violence and who the villain was.
The responses of the fifth question
was positive as we asked if the sound complimented the shots. Not one
participant said no which was reassuring, this was particularly noticeable
during the fast pace montage sequence as the sound raises in pitch as shots are
cute faster creating an unsettling atmosphere.
Out of poor, okay, good and
excellent, we asked our participants to rate our editing. We had a range of
answers, with one response being ‘Okay’, one being ‘Excellent’ and the rest
giving us a reasonable answer of ‘Good’
for the editing. As a group we thought this was a well sensible judgement
as our trailer was merely an amateur piece, despite getting good responses
there was still room for a lot of improvement to get it at a level to be seen
as professional.
Due to the sound quality and the
non-diegetic music overpowering the speech and dialogue in our trailer, our
respondents found it a little difficult to illustrate the narrative since we
asked if they understood the narrative. However through camera shots, and
editing it was made a little clear. For example the way we contrasted shots
from the killer’s perspective and the final girl’s perspective made it easier
to understand the narrative.
By asking if our contributors would
want to go watch our film after seeing the trailer we thought it would be a way
to find out how effective our trailer is. The responses were varied as some
answered ‘no’ and explained that it was due to the lack of interest in the
genre, some people have preferences such as the horror genre in general does
not appeal to them. Those who said ‘yes’, explained that the effects (the camcorder
and night vision effect) made it precisely tantalising.
Not having vast high-tech equipment did not stop us from
trying to make our trailer look a tad professional however when we asked if our
trailer was on a professional level the responses we got was mostly yes as only
two responses were no. This was a fair response as we were not supplied with a
high quality editing software and cameras yet created something that mimics a
little of that level.
We then asked to rate our trailer overall, out of 10, the
average score was 7. As a group we thought this rating was deserving as there
was always room to improve (the gore, adding more blood and reducing the sound
of the non-diegetic sound so the dialogue could be heard).
An alternative way that we earned feedback was through the
use of social media, uploading our trailer through YouTube and exporting it
through other social media applications by uploading the link, these social
media websites include such as Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook. In four days,
we got to 140 views, and 7 likes. Also within the hours of the trailer being
uploaded, we got a comment saying ‘That was a really good trailer J’ , a member of my group posted our
trailer on Facebook receiving 15 likes and comments says ‘well done’ and ‘looks
great’. As we passed our trailer around on WhatsApp and Snapchat, we got
responses that were very positive and resounding.
As a whole, we were pleased at the responses we got
considering the time and effort that was put into our trailer.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Through the use of different elements such as, props, mise en scene, our cast, we wanted to link our main product to our ancillary text as much as possible. The poster and the trailer, go hand in hand in creating quite a strong brand identity. This is due to ownership of the content, we have full rights with what is being put on the poster and seen in the trailer. Creating a strong brand identity can help audiences be able to recognise our film in an instant. So we thought by incorporating the elements that I mentioned before, in both the poster and film trailer it could create recognition and strengthen our brand identity.
The trailer often the one that gives away more narrative than the other two texts as it presents the characters clearly yet not giving so much away still creating some sort of mystery. Though the film poster primarily advertises the overall film as a whole. Intriguing the audience, like the trailer it is a way to promote your film. In order to link with the trailer we used the same characters that is seen in the trailer as my main image to present a sense of iconography. My poster consisted of the final girl face as a reflection. I chose the final girl to feature on my poster since
in the trailer she has a lot of screen time in our trailer in comparison to the other characters. I thought as an important character out of our cast it was an ideal choice for her to also model for my poster, as well as this she is the easiest character to distinguish.
The villain is also featured on my poster however in our trailer his identity is not revealed, there are no close ups, or shots where we see the killers face unlike our final girl. Although we have cutaway shots to establish his hands, the back of his head, and particular props that help the audience identify the killer whenever he is in the shot. The props that are ofte
n seen in the trailer is also used on the poster to convey narrative. For my poster I featured the hands of the killer holding a camera. The camera in our trailer was overall a prime focus as stated in the synopsis the villain in our film records the brutal death of his victims and some sort of sick hobby. Therefore I displayed a camera, which was a usual DSLR that was also featured in our trailer (and on the centre of my film poster). This prop was very significant as to how killer would hide his identity behind his camera, also throughout our trailer there are points where the audience are witnessing his perspective, which forces them to be in a twisted position, to show that some points are seen in the killers perspective we edited on a record button, a night vision effect, and also manipulated the quality of our footage so it could be assumed to be from a different camera that our villain is using. Therefore using this very symbolic prop reinforces the brand identity of the film as the audience can have a sense of familiarity when watching the trailer and looking at the poster.
For the trailer we used a particular typography that fuzzed on the screen, the typography was bold and white, with sharp edges to convey its genre as being Slasher. There were focus lines in the middle of the ‘O’ to reinforce the camera prop that is very symbolic to our film, and there’s a placement of a little red dot in the middle of the ‘O’, to support how we used the red dot for the record button whenever the audience witnessed the killers point of view. For my poster I used the exact same typography, in the exact same colour also including the red dot as this also increases brand identity.
However creating this combination was different when constructing the magazine as we did not have complete ownership over this text. The magazine differs since there is no control with what they publish about your film. As Karl Marx suggests “power resides with those who have ownership and control of the means of production and distribution”. Magazines are distributed through vertical integration, which means the publication is owned by larger companies that have control over the production, distribution, and exhibition therefore furthermost of the profits go to directly to the larger company.
Synergy is used when one platform promotes another, since ‘Rue Morgue’ is featuring and displaying an exclusive interview of ‘Knife, camera, action’ demonstrates the synergy between the two platforms and vice versa as in the trailer of ‘Knife, camera, action’ displays a rating from the magazine to feature their brand.
Although we decided as a group to keep the title of our film that is on the front cover of the magazine, in the same bold white typography we have on the poster and trailer just to help highlight the brand of our film despite being on a different publication. However other feature stories that were presented were in different other typography and other colours.
Yet unlike my poster which conveyed enigma, my magazine cover portrays more of the Slasher genre as it incorporates the knife which is the key weapon in our film and also the camera which is symbolic as I’ve said before. You can see more of an outline figure of our villain than the poster as there’s only the hands of the villain displayed, and you establish the face of our final girl as it takes up half the magazine page whereas the poster you only see her faint reflection. The magazine often displays less of an enigmatic main image and an image that is rather more entertaining/gripping, as magazines often sells the insights of the film. As consumers, audiences obtain the media for three reasons which is for entertainment, information and social interactions, identifying what ‘Rue Morgue’ expresses to their specific target audience (which is horror in entertainment and culture) it helped with what sort of image needed to be used. To reach out to the general audience of ‘Rue Morgue’ I thought it was necessary to make the Slasher genre more apparent on the magazine cover as the magazine is aimed at a niche audience of horror enthusiasts therefore it could appeal to some of the audience of ‘Rue Morgue’.
The chosen magazine I featured my film in was ‘Rue Morgue’, this magazine particularly had a certain way of displaying their main image. Most front covers from ‘Rue Morgue’ are very much illustrated as well as brightly coloured (eg. Bright red, orange, green) despite being a horror publication. Knowing this knowledge and researching about other magazine covers that ‘Rue Morgue’ have produced I decided to use a colour scheme that was seen to be brightly coloured compared to my poster, just to present that I do not have ownership over the magazine. The colour scheme that ran through my publication was light blue, black, white and red. These colours help stick to the slasher genre and the brand identity of my film, such as the black, red and white however adding the hint of light blue highlights the identity of the magazine and their lively front covers. The main image has the villain in black and white and the final girl filtered in light blue to show the contrast between these two characters and imply the binary opposites, of good vs evil, I chose blue to also portray her innocence and the black and white of the villain to create a mystery of the identity of the killer as his face is covered by the camera he is holding. I also altered the image to seem as if it is illustrated to also fit with the conventions of ‘Rue Morgue’ as most their covers are very much illustrated.
In order for my distribution campaign to be successful, combining both magazine and poster, with the trailer helps promote my independent Slasher film. Not combining both magazine and poster with my trailer would not help promote my film as these separate text present different aspects of a successful campaign. For example the trailer presents more of the narrative and there is a glimpse of different characters, whereas the magazine cover and the poster cover consist of just two main characters. The poster presents a lot of enigma, whereas the magazine displays some narrative. Without each other, I don’t think my distribution campaign could be successful.
Most films usually promote through the uses of cross media convergence as larger companies own other platforms of media for example 21st century fox is an American multinational mass media corporation as it owns 20th century fox which is an American film distributor, 21st century fox also owns fox music that could produce a sound track to the film made by the distributing company of 21st century fox. However because my film is a British independent film, it needs to find other, efficient ways to be promoted. Such as the use of internet marketing. As digital technology is becoming advanced, there are more uses for Web 2.0 than ever before. As consumers receive information at an instant, it is easier to create a buzz and promote a low budgeted film. Independent, or not, a film tends to have their own website, as this tool would help get the word around about their film. Also using different social media for internet advising would help reach our target demographic also through Web 2.0 exchange is easier to achieve as reviews are written on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes as well as sharing over Facebook, twitter etc opinions of the film, also parodies done and uploaded by YouTube. There are even some YouTube stars that review films, YouTube stars often have quite a large audience, for a low budget film to get the recognition of a YouTube star can also help promote the film. If a buzz over the internet is then created then the film could potentially have an enormous profit and could even turn into a cult film with its own merchandise. Festivals are also ways in which could increase popularity efficiently, if a film wins an awards or generate critical acclaim, this is positive publicity for the film increasing its chances of gaining more profits despite being low budgeted or not.
Overall combining the two ancillary texts and the main product would help with my distribution campaign.
The trailer often the one that gives away more narrative than the other two texts as it presents the characters clearly yet not giving so much away still creating some sort of mystery. Though the film poster primarily advertises the overall film as a whole. Intriguing the audience, like the trailer it is a way to promote your film. In order to link with the trailer we used the same characters that is seen in the trailer as my main image to present a sense of iconography. My poster consisted of the final girl face as a reflection. I chose the final girl to feature on my poster since
in the trailer she has a lot of screen time in our trailer in comparison to the other characters. I thought as an important character out of our cast it was an ideal choice for her to also model for my poster, as well as this she is the easiest character to distinguish.
The villain is also featured on my poster however in our trailer his identity is not revealed, there are no close ups, or shots where we see the killers face unlike our final girl. Although we have cutaway shots to establish his hands, the back of his head, and particular props that help the audience identify the killer whenever he is in the shot. The props that are often seen in the trailer is also used on the poster to convey narrative. For my poster I featured the hands of the killer holding a camera. The camera in our trailer was overall a prime focus as stated in the synopsis the villain in our film records the brutal death of his victims and some sort of sick hobby. Therefore I displayed a camera, which was a usual DSLR that was also featured in our trailer (and on the centre of my film poster). This prop was very significant as to how killer would hide his identity behind his camera, also throughout our trailer there are points where the audience are witnessing his perspective, which forces them to be in a twisted position, to show that some points are seen in the killers perspective we edited on a record button, a night vision effect, and also manipulated the quality of our footage so it could be assumed to be from a different camera that our villain is using. Therefore using this very symbolic prop reinforces the brand identity of the film as the audience can have a sense of familiarity when watching the trailer and looking at the poster.
For the trailer we used a particular typography that fuzzed on the screen, the typography was bold and white, with sharp edges to convey its genre as being Slasher. There were focus lines in the middle of the ‘O’ to reinforce the camera prop that is very symbolic to our film, and there’s a placement of a little red dot in the middle of the ‘O’, to support how we used the red dot for the record button whenever the audience witnessed the killers point of view. For my poster I used the exact same typography, in the exact same colour also including the red dot as this also increases brand identity.However creating this combination was different when constructing the magazine as we did not have complete ownership over this text. The magazine differs since there is no control with what they publish about your film. As Karl Marx suggests “power resides with those who have ownership and control of the means of production and distribution”. Magazines are distributed through vertical integration, which means the publication is owned by larger companies that have control over the production, distribution, and exhibition therefore furthermost of the profits go to directly to the larger company.
Synergy is used when one platform promotes another, since ‘Rue Morgue’ is featuring and displaying an exclusive interview of ‘Knife, camera, action’ demonstrates the synergy between the two platforms and vice versa as in the trailer of ‘Knife, camera, action’ displays a rating from the magazine to feature their brand.
Although we decided as a group to keep the title of our film that is on the front cover of the magazine, in the same bold white typography we have on the poster and trailer just to help highlight the brand of our film despite being on a different publication. However other feature stories that were presented were in different other typography and other colours.Yet unlike my poster which conveyed enigma, my magazine cover portrays more of the Slasher genre as it incorporates the knife which is the key weapon in our film and also the camera which is symbolic as I’ve said before. You can see more of an outline figure of our villain than the poster as there’s only the hands of the villain displayed, and you establish the face of our final girl as it takes up half the magazine page whereas the poster you only see her faint reflection. The magazine often displays less of an enigmatic main image and an image that is rather more entertaining/gripping, as magazines often sells the insights of the film. As consumers, audiences obtain the media for three reasons which is for entertainment, information and social interactions, identifying what ‘Rue Morgue’ expresses to their specific target audience (which is horror in entertainment and culture) it helped with what sort of image needed to be used. To reach out to the general audience of ‘Rue Morgue’ I thought it was necessary to make the Slasher genre more apparent on the magazine cover as the magazine is aimed at a niche audience of horror enthusiasts therefore it could appeal to some of the audience of ‘Rue Morgue’.
The chosen magazine I featured my film in was ‘Rue Morgue’, this magazine particularly had a certain way of displaying their main image. Most front covers from ‘Rue Morgue’ are very much illustrated as well as brightly coloured (eg. Bright red, orange, green) despite being a horror publication. Knowing this knowledge and researching about other magazine covers that ‘Rue Morgue’ have produced I decided to use a colour scheme that was seen to be brightly coloured compared to my poster, just to present that I do not have ownership over the magazine. The colour scheme that ran through my publication was light blue, black, white and red. These colours help stick to the slasher genre and the brand identity of my film, such as the black, red and white however adding the hint of light blue highlights the identity of the magazine and their lively front covers. The main image has the villain in black and white and the final girl filtered in light blue to show the contrast between these two characters and imply the binary opposites, of good vs evil, I chose blue to also portray her innocence and the black and white of the villain to create a mystery of the identity of the killer as his face is covered by the camera he is holding. I also altered the image to seem as if it is illustrated to also fit with the conventions of ‘Rue Morgue’ as most their covers are very much illustrated.
In order for my distribution campaign to be successful, combining both magazine and poster, with the trailer helps promote my independent Slasher film. Not combining both magazine and poster with my trailer would not help promote my film as these separate text present different aspects of a successful campaign. For example the trailer presents more of the narrative and there is a glimpse of different characters, whereas the magazine cover and the poster cover consist of just two main characters. The poster presents a lot of enigma, whereas the magazine displays some narrative. Without each other, I don’t think my distribution campaign could be successful.
Most films usually promote through the uses of cross media convergence as larger companies own other platforms of media for example 21st century fox is an American multinational mass media corporation as it owns 20th century fox which is an American film distributor, 21st century fox also owns fox music that could produce a sound track to the film made by the distributing company of 21st century fox. However because my film is a British independent film, it needs to find other, efficient ways to be promoted. Such as the use of internet marketing. As digital technology is becoming advanced, there are more uses for Web 2.0 than ever before. As consumers receive information at an instant, it is easier to create a buzz and promote a low budgeted film. Independent, or not, a film tends to have their own website, as this tool would help get the word around about their film. Also using different social media for internet advising would help reach our target demographic also through Web 2.0 exchange is easier to achieve as reviews are written on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes as well as sharing over Facebook, twitter etc opinions of the film, also parodies done and uploaded by YouTube. There are even some YouTube stars that review films, YouTube stars often have quite a large audience, for a low budget film to get the recognition of a YouTube star can also help promote the film. If a buzz over the internet is then created then the film could potentially have an enormous profit and could even turn into a cult film with its own merchandise. Festivals are also ways in which could increase popularity efficiently, if a film wins an awards or generate critical acclaim, this is positive publicity for the film increasing its chances of gaining more profits despite being low budgeted or not.Overall combining the two ancillary texts and the main product would help with my distribution campaign.
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During the process of developing our media product we
considered ways in which we challenge but yet develop from the forms and
conventions of a general Slasher trailer. 
At the very beginning of our trailer, you can see the BBFC
rating card which is conventional within a formulaic trailer. As our film is a British
independent film it was appropriate to use the British Board of film
classification and not the MPAA rating card as the MPAA is an American
association. The production company logos follow after, as this is also
conventional. We featured film 4 productions, as one of the companies that
helped produce our film since Film 4 are associated with low budget British
films such as ‘Slumdog millionaire’. As
the production logos appear on the screen, the quote from a classic slasher
film, peeping tom, runs through as non-diegetic sound saying ‘Do you know what
the most frightening thing in the world is? Its fear.’ This quote was
specifically chosen from the film as it reminds the audience of the horror
genre in general and that our villain is heavy influenced by this classic film.
This over the shoulder shot consisted of a pull focus, at first the killer is
apparent and the scene he is watching is in focus though this changes so the
brutality of the seen is blurred out and the audience can focus on the killer. 
There are no close ups of the killer as we want to keep the enigma of villain
and his mysterious motives.
A way we wanted to challenge the conventions was to shift
Roland Barthes theory of the semantic code, switching up on whose perspective
we are witnessing these death through. In general Slasher films these ghastly
events happen through the point of view of the final girl. However since we
researched how our audience liked films that challenged the codes and
conventions such as 'final destination', we decided to place to audience in the
shoes of our villain. This created an unsettling visual experience. We did this
through several ways. Such as the use of the voice over, our villain was the
one explaining to the audience his plans and presenting his obsession towards
the slasher genre. His voice over occurred right at the start of the trailer
over the shot of our final girl walking down the street, saying ‘Every
equilibrium has to be disturbed, but how it is disturbed is up to me, I am the
director..’ we wanted to portray the equilibrium by having our final girl
walking down unaware of what is going to happen. Additionally we added a filter on the footage at this point to make every thing look softer, to elucidate the equilibrium. 
He then goes on to say ‘death
is on my script’ as he says this there is a close up of the promiscuous girl to
imply her murder is one of the first. This was done so the audience could
understand that our film is a Meta text. Since our killer is describing the
conventions within its own text, however he tells the audience he is going to
break these conventions which was said to intrigue the audience to ponder how
he is planning on shifting the conventions and also strengthening the idea of a
modernised approach to a general Slasher film. Through this voice over the
audience establish the killer which breaks the enigma code, this mystery with
who the killer might be is completely written off as the audience know who it is, and is
also put in the position of the killer. However the villains identity is not as
obvious as there are no close ups so the audience are still required of some
enigma but to an extent.
Through the trailer you see a glimpse of each character
which have been chosen specifically to fit Vladimir Propp’s theory on character
and function.
With the use of several close ups, the female protagonist who
we establish as the ‘hero’ in terms of Propp’s theory, also in fact known as
the final girl, was clearly displayed as she had the most screen time in the
trailer in comparison to the other characters. We objectively wanted the
audience to quickly recognise that she is the sole survivor, so we placed
several close ups and extreme close ups just so the audience can be quick to I
identify her character from the very beginning. We incorporated long shots of our final girl walking past a church.
As in most slasher films, the final girl
is a virginal, respectful character, using Roland Barthes narrative theory of
the referential code we wanted the ideology of her virginal innocence portrayed
with the mise en scene. Her costume also
represented her character as the final girl since she was covered up most of
the time in contrast to our other female character who was displayed as the
promiscuous with displaying cleavage as she wore a tank top.
Also the colours
the final girl wore were usually ‘blue’ and ‘white’ which conveyed her
innocence to strengthen the referential code of her character. We wanted to
portray the binary opposites that were usually seen in slasher films, such as
the experienced vs the not experienced. However is general slasher films it is
often the blonde that dies first as she is portrayed as the stereotypical promiscuous
one. Since our trailer is modernised, as we challenged the semiotic codes to
spark interest to our audience we chose a character for a final girl who is
blonde and the promiscuous girl is brunette, just so the shift in society is
present clearly and the audience do realise that this is a modernised
interpretation of a slasher film, for example 'Prom night', as this film
was quite a modern awakening for slasher films as well as 'Final destination'.
Another binary opposite we wanted to display was good vs evil, the evil being
the killer who was shown through a series of POV shots. Whenever we wanted to
get across the killers point of view, we edited the screen to become a hand
held camera or night vision by editing on filters and a red record button. From
a POV shot of the killer it would juxtaposition to the semiotic code of the
final girl.
Also the killer often wore dark clothes, which connotes mystery and
the final girl work light colours, this was also away to present these clear
binary opposites of good vs evil.
Our promiscuous girl had very little screen time to show her
irrelevance to the plot. She often wore dark colours such as black, and dark
red to reinforce the referential code, as red, and black connotes death, and
danger.
By our character being assigned to wear these colours suggest she does
live as long as the final girl (who wears the complete different colours to
her). During the beginning of the trailer, the second shot is a medium shot of
the ‘promiscuous girl’ running away from the villain, we placed this shot very
early in the trailer as we wanted to portray that her character is the first to
fall to her death. It is often seen in Slasher trailers that the one to be murdered
first is the one is the one to be seen in a position where they are confronted
by the killer first in the trailer. As the trailer progresses we get a glimpse
of the promiscuous girl character. As she is on the phone she accidentally
spills milk, present her ditsy nature emphasising that she is not as smart as
the final girl and is incapable of defeating the villain. As she spills the
milk, her face is not in the shot to depict her insignificance in comparison to
the final girl. As she spills the milk, there is a shot from behind her with a
hand held effect to show the killers perspective, this perspective is shot when
she bends over to clean the spilt milk. In a subtle way we were reinforcing
Laura Mulvey’s Male gaze theory since when she bends over she is put in the
position of submission, especially being in the killers point of view, also her
red bra strap is shown
to present he promiscuous entitlement as a character.
We establish more of the final girl character as she is
involved in a conversation with another character. We wanted this conversation
to be another way that the characters have realised the disruption and convey
the recognition phase. Our final girl is seen to have conversation with a male
character who is in fact in terms of Propps theory on character and functions,
displayed as the false hero. He warns our final girl to stay away from this
particular student (who is suspected to be the killer) calling him ‘dodgy’
demonstrating his awareness and recognition, though like the promiscuous girl
his irrelevance to the plot is displayed through the use of screen time, as his
character is not as
established as the final girl is.
By incorporating a fast pace montage sequence we were
following the conventions of the Slasher genre style trailer, our montage
sequence consisted of our characters in situations close to their deaths. Most
of the montage sequence consisted of close ups and extreme close ups to highlight different characters and the distress across their face, and other shots. From Pam Cooks theory on the institutional mode of representation the montage sequence presents one out of four of the defining features of her theory which is ‘A linear narrative of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution’, though because a trailer is not a linear text the fast pace montage sequence only displays the cause and effects of the narrative. As the pace of the montage sequence increased, our music heightened in pitch to increase the tension, this technique is often seen in Slasher trailers. Out of all our characters, the promiscuous girl was put in situations that were more violent that the other character. For example, there is a medium shot where she is being dragged, and a hand held effect when she is strangled by our villain. This is another way in which we showed her character is the first to entail the deadly murder spree. The last shot after the past pace montage sequence is finished is of the final girl running to a dead end and the killer appears holding a knife. This lets the audience debate whether she will survive.
Most of our cast were teenagers as we researched how the
slasher genre is a genre aimed at young adults. By casting teenagers we wanted
to create relevance to our particular target audience however the oldest member
of our cast was the benefactor. The benefactor in conventional Slasher films
are seen 
to be the oldest out of the characters and the most professional. Our
benefactor was a teacherwho picked up on unusual behaviour from a student through an essay. He is only established through two close up shots to show he is also a minor character. When the benefactor reads the essay, it is shown through a voice over of his character and a close up of the deadly words on the paper. At this point it shows the recognition stage of Tzvetan Todorov’s narrative theory since one character recognises the disruption. His non diegetic voice over, bridges to the killer’s point of view standing in front of a victims garage and fades into the killer’s voice. The audience knows it’s the killer’s voice since he narrated the start of our trailer. As our killer states ‘The lion stalking his prey, ready to take part his victim’, the first shot of our fast pace montage takes place, this non diegetic voice over encouraged the disruption.
From our research we understood that the Slasher genre
incorporates some techniques from German expressionism. We decided to
incorporate a certain technique known to the German expressionism and also the film
noir movement. The last shot of our villain aggressive stabbing a victim.
Though the victim is not in the shot, and the killers face is not seen due to
the lighting. We used harsh lighting to create a shadow of our victim, despite seeing
his body and figure, his true identity is not shown and that is because the
harsh light creates a shadowy atmosphere conveying enigma. 
For my magazine cover, I had to display that I had no ownership
over the publication. The masthead was placed at the top of the magazine with 'Rue Morgues' tag line being ‘Horror in culture and Entertainment’. The colour of
the mast head was light blue, red and black, this particular colour scheme ran
through my magazine cover which is very conventional.
The main image consists of two important characters (the
final girl and the villain) as this could increase brand identity of the film
and also these two character are easily recognisable. The image is of the final
girl looking away and the killer behind her holding two very symbolic props
which are the camera and knife. I presented the knife on the front cover to
appeal to the demographic of 'Rue Morgue' as they are horror fanatics. The
knife is often associated with the slasher genre so I thought making the genre
more apparent on the magazine was ideal to reach out to other audiences. Also
using the camera as a prop was to encourage the films brand identity as the
camera is very symbolic. The main image on a magazine had to be more gripping
than the film poster as it is supposed to reassure a vast audience.
I used the same colour scheme that is consisted through the
front cover on the typography. Other feature stories were coloured with either
baby blue, red, white. This follows the conventions of the general publication
of 'Rue Morgue', however the main feature story being my film, is in the films
typography. I and my group all decided to have the same typography consist in
all our media products, even in our magazine since the magazine is helping the film
promote its identity. The typography is white, bold and had sharp edges, to
present the genre, though we added red dot in the middle of our ‘O’ as the ‘O’
looks like focus lines, and the red dot is very symbolic as it is seen to be on
the screen whenever there is a POV shot of the killer to represent the record
button. Incorporating this dot reinforced our brand identity. The bar code was
placed on the left hand corner, which follows the conventions.
Rue Morgue is known to have publications that are
illustrated and brightly coloured. To demonstrate that I had no rights over the
copy of text I incorporated a brightly coloured light blue filter over my final
girl and manipulated the image to seem as if it is illustrated. I chose the
baby blue as it portrays the final girl’s innocence, the villain behind her is
in black and white due to these colour contrasts it displays a clear binary
opposite in terms of Levi Strauss which is Good vs Evil. Since the final girl
is filtered in blue I added scratch marks only her, and not the killer. These
scratch marks present the disturbance of the equilibrium in terms of Todorovs
narrative theory since it has scratched the colour blue away. Additionally the masthead also has scratches to fit with the main image.
The final girl is also seen to be bruised with a big black eye, this being apparent this also reinforced the disturbance. To present enigma our villains face is covered by the camera, to conceal his identity as if his camera is his mask. He has his arm raised as if he is about to lunge for the final girl and she has no clue due to her facial expression, and her looking up. This main image presents violence, as I’ve said before, the main image of the magazine has to be gripping, or even gruesome, by having a semi violent picture I am following the codes and conventions, intriguing the audience of 'Rue Morgue'.
The Film poster portrayed more enigma than the magazine. The
main image is on a black background to portray the shadows that our killer is hiding
behind. Due to the fact the killer uses the camera as if it’s his mask. The audience only
see the hands of the killer, as Roland Barthes theory states as being the
Enigma code, this image sets up the mystery on the killer’s identity. This shot
is an extreme close up of the killer holding his lens, the final girl is seen
through the reflection with a shocked expression on her face. This displays a certain point
of Todorovs narrative theory of the classic narrative pattern, which is recognition
stage, as we see a glimpse of the final girl and her reaction through her first
encounter with villain. This image also abides by the general semiotic code in
Slasher films, as this is in the point of view of the final girl. The audience
is placed in the position of the final girl due to the reflection of the final
girl in the lens. Placing the main prop for our film, being the camera, in the
centre strengthens the films iconography, and increases recognition. There are
scratches on the hands of the killer, too look as if murder is written on his
hands and to convey the mystery of his motives.
The final girl is also seen to be bruised with a big black eye, this being apparent this also reinforced the disturbance. To present enigma our villains face is covered by the camera, to conceal his identity as if his camera is his mask. He has his arm raised as if he is about to lunge for the final girl and she has no clue due to her facial expression, and her looking up. This main image presents violence, as I’ve said before, the main image of the magazine has to be gripping, or even gruesome, by having a semi violent picture I am following the codes and conventions, intriguing the audience of 'Rue Morgue'.
The title is placed at the bottom of the image along with
the credits and the tag line is placed at the top. This is a conventional way
or organising the text on the poster. The typography of the film have been
consistent through all my media products as it conveys the slasher genre due to
its sharp edges, and the red dot (conveying the record button as it is very symbolic), however the typography for the tagline is completely different
though it also convey the horror genre. The tagline is also ironic as it says 'Smile for the camera' and the image shows the reflection of a shocked looking final girl. The age rating is placed on the right hand
side, at the bottom along with other production logos as well as this at the top there is a film festival nomination to generate acclaim critics. I also included the
website on the poster as the poster promotional tool (like the other two media
products) these are conventional positions to where I
have placed the credits, title, production logos, website and festival nomination.
.
have placed the credits, title, production logos, website and festival nomination.
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