Real Life Magazine Analysis

Evaluation Part 4

Evaluation Part 4: What Have You Learnt From Audience Feedback?

What praise and criticism did you receive during the focus group screening?

We had a mix of praise and criticism during the screening here were some of the positive feedback:

 “The blood effects work well, especially onto camera.” “Good shots, like the walking scenes of feet”

“Text was good” “Good soundtrack, it is cut at places really well” “Great sound effects”

“Sets narrative well” “Love the text/font” “Nice sound effects” “Good jump shots”

“Good shots – canted angle through mask” “Good location – creepy”

“Nice blood FX” “Good violent scenes” “The gore and the effects” “I like the inter-titles on the background of the mask”

“Jump scare at the end was sick” “Great gore effects” “Good blood effects, good camera angles”

“The end was really effective, and the sound effect went really well with that part” “Spitting on the screen was cool” “Really good pace” “Good camera angles”

“Nice shots” “Good lighting” “Lots of angles” “Good blood shots” “Good gore effects, jumpy, good titles & text” “Gore & close ups”

And here is some of the negative feedback:

“The audio of speech isn’t very clear and is hard to understand” “Music was louder than speaking sometimes” “Shots could be darker” “Almost exposes too much of storyline – we see all the characters get killed”

 “Hard to hear talking” “Soundtrack wasn’t horror enough” “Very action oriented” “The lighting and the music, music did not go with the dialogue”

“Narrative isn’t too clear” “Music was a bit too loud at the start” “The music didn’t make me feel scared, and it could be more mysterious”

“Not very eerie because the lighting is very high key” “Can’t hear some of the dialogue” “Couldn’t hear the voices – sound too loud”

“Soundtrack didn’t really fit the horror” “Didn’t like the music, was too loud fort speech” “Picture was a bit bright, just didn’t seem scary”

 “Speech wasn’t clear”

Here are my comments on this after talking to my group:

We agreed with the speech being hard to hear so we decided to change it so the voices where louder than before. We also used the ‘pen’ tool to make the soundtrack quieter at certain points, especially when Aaron and me discuss whether the story of the killings are true.

We also changed the lighting of the trailer so it  wasnot so high key. By using the contrast/brightness filter on Premier we made it a lot darker and more eerie.

However we disagreed with the music not being suitable because we thought it suited the action horror style we were going for and reminded of soundtracks that were similar in horror films like ‘Resident Evil’ and ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (2004).

In addition we also disagreed with it exposing too much storyline because we don’t show the order of the deaths as they may be in the full film. It’s clear that two of the teenagers have survived and this would encourage the viewers to watch the film to see what they are like.

What last minute changes did you make because of the focus group screening?

We changed the order of events in the trailer to keep the deaths until further in. This meant we could build the tension more.  We also changed so the shot were low key and lot darker, which also made it more dramatic and similar to the ‘visual mix’ of real horror films and trailers.

We also added a few additional shots after a reshoot. These were mostly of Ryan with the mask on, as we wanted to make him the main selling point of the film just like in ‘Halloween’ and ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ where the creepy killer appeals to audiences.

We also took out shots we felt slowed down the narrative in the trailer and finally added the YOU WILL BE REAPED TEXT which was similar to the text used at the end of the MARTYRS trailer.

Are you have happy with the final trailer?

I am really pleased with the trailer for I feel it is a strong interesting and horror trailer because it has interesting shots, an almost sympathetic but also evil villain, good gore effects, and a good soundtrack with works well with trailer. These pack together to give an eerie but exciting atmosphere with the characters and the stereotypes being set up so the audience can easily understand all the different characters quickly.

I definitely think ‘Harvest on Crepsley Hill’ appeals to our main target audience and our audience research in class showed this idea would appeal to our target audience of teenage action horror fans. It has a good pace and has interesting villain that hasn’t been done as much as other student films. Also it has really great sound track that befits the trailer and the genre and finally the main cast are about the same age as the target audience and so people can relate.

Evaulation Part 3

Evaluation Part 3: How did you use media technology in your construction, research, planning and evaluation?

How did you use media technology for your research and planning?

In the initial research we used many technologies such as YouTube.com for trailers and clips from example for the past and modern examples. Three of the trailers we watched were ‘Evil Dead’ (2013), ‘The Toxic Avenger’ (1984), ‘Cloverfield’ (2008) as well as many more. Also we used DVD/Blu-Ray for the full screening of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1979), ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (2004) and ‘Psycho’ (1960) as well as special features from other DVD to help us understand the horror genre. An excellent example of this were the documentaries ‘Document of the Dead’ and ‘The Dead Will Walk’ on the ‘Dawn of the Dead: Ultimate Collection’ (which really helped us understand horror effects) as well as the documentary ‘The American Nightmare’ on the old ‘Hills Have Eyes’ 2-disc set.

Furthermore with our research we also used IMDB for getting dates, directors and stars. It also helped me find out about more horror films that would be helpful to watch, especially ones made by auteurs I liked such as George Romero and Zak Snyder.

For the planning we used general text editing software such as Microsoft Word and Publisher for our shot list, Prop list, Health and Safety. Finally for our mood board we used the internet to get the images for our mood board and then used Photoshop to arrange the images in a tidy way.

How did you use media technology for your construction phase?

To start my ‘ancillary products’ the internet and Photoshop were very important. In Photoshop I used a couple of techniques such as using layer so I could put certain parts above the other like in my poster with the moon texture on top of the yellow circle. I also hid the text slightly behind the killer’s head to give a professional feel. I also used a text texture through the ‘fx’ button to have the text seem more horror like with the grey/blue colour. Finally I also used personalised paint brushes downloaded copyright free from the internet so I could have an effective spatter on the poster.

The images below are the Photoshop files for my ancillary products. As you can see in the images, there was a total of 18 layers for my poster and 29 layers for my magazine cover. This shows the amount of complex hard work that went into them.

In our construction phase, we mainly used Premiere Pro. We uploaded our shots from the HD camera and then edited them using in and out points (with the “I” and “o” buttons on the keyboard). We also made the contrast higher using the contrast/brightness filter to give a darker look. Then we used ‘After Effects’ and the ‘emerge’ filter to make it seem like the text was growing from the background. Against the textured background like the killer’s mask, it gave a rough but professional feel.

 

To help finish off the trailer we used many different technologies including websites like soundbible.com, freesound.org and Dafont.com for our sounds and text and we made sure they are all copyright free In addition we also used a Digital Still Camera in assisting with ancillary products as well as a HD cam recorder for the actual trailer.

How did you use media technologies on the evaluation?

We used a Camera recorder to record the reactions to both the rough cut, and this led us to change a lot of a product. We added in more text at the end (YOU WILL BE REAPED) and also cut a lot of shots such as the girl and boy being pulled into the woods. Our final trailer was much shorter and more exciting because of this, so filming the reaction to the rough cut (‘focus group’) was very useful.

We also used Blogger to upload our evaluation and this meant we could not lose anything. It was annoying when I didn’t have access to the website when there were internet problems but generally it was very useful.

Focus Group Screening

Trailer (Final Cut)

Evaluation Part 2

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary text?

What key aspects did you include in your poster? 

One thing in my poster I decide to do is to make it a stylised cartoon feel because I wanted my poster to be fresh and unique as opposed to the standard movie poster. The poster that inspired mine was "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) with its cartoon style approach to the movie it was based on. With this style it would appeal to the large fan base of people who like comic books.

Another aspect include in my poster was this mysterious silhouette of the main antagonist of the movie. I used this because it gets people to see the movie just to see who the mysterious figure is.

This was a similar style used in “The Hills Have Eyes” poster which had a hand against a woman’s face but you don’t see the attacker and find out how or what he is.

What key aspects did you include in your magazine cover?

In my magazine however I decide to go for a different approach, to with having one of the star of the trailer appear on the cover as opposed to having the villain because I wanted to keep him a mystery and not have a massive picture of him. As shown in Empire standard magazine with showing actor/director not the character as shown below My magazine I designed is for “Empire” magazine because I felt that they would be the most likely to have an article for this type of mainstream action horror film. This also allowed me to use Empire colourful and eye-catching style to easily construct my magazine cover.

 

One thing I decided to do for the magazine was to make it more horror like so I made it a horror issue of the magazine. This gave me even more freedom, this time to make it more creepy and dark and allowed us to achieve certain effects horror conventions. One of these was the blood drips from the words EMPIRE to make it more horror like for blood and guts. A similar bit of editing was used on the "Hellboy" cover below where they have added flames.

 

My choice of fonts was important because they are generally a big part of gory horror like "Harvest on Crepsley Hill". Secondly I decided to change the text into a purple/blue colour to make the magazine feel horror like for that colour connotes coldness and ice which. In our trailer has for in there are many shots there is of snow on the ground and so the cover really relates to the trailer.

How did the ancillary products and the main product work together?

I wanted to get the gory and slightly cartoonish feel of the "Harvest on Crepsley Hill" trailer across in my ancillary products and I feel I have done this well for the reasons I've already written about. All of my products work together to "sell" the main villain of the film (the Scarecrow) along with the auteurs that made it. Combined together I think all three products would sell the narrative and quality of "Harvest on Crepsley Hill" very well.

Evaluation part 1

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product compare to real life films? 

How did your horror trailer fit the horror genre? 

We had many conventions of horror in our trailer, and the importance of this was written about by Thomas Schatz in his book "Hollywood Genres" (1981) which he says is important in determining films into categories to make them easy to define as one type of film.

 

In our trailer we had many key conventions that we also saw in films we researched. in our trailer One example of this is the villain is feeling outside the CDI because for the Scarecrow (Lenny) seems to have no friends and only knows his Parents or family and this has driven him insane. This is also used in "Psycho" (1960) with the character of Norman Bates, who also lives alone with only his mother which drives him insane. In our trailer Lenny’s parents get killed in a murder and this seems to tip Lenny over the edge and makes him a lunatic. Also, another convention of the trailer is of the isolation which can be seen when one of the characters says they can’t get a signal on their phone. This is used to get the feeling of horror with no hope of rescue and these characters can’t escape the enclosed location. This also seen in comedy/horror film "Cabin in the Woods" (2011), a spoof of the film "The Blair Witch Project" (1999), in which the characters enter the forest with the cabin, knowing there will be no mobile phone signal.

Furthermore, we have point of view shots in the trailer with the attacker looking down on a victim and a reverse shot eye line match of the victim looking up at the attacker. This is a good shot for it makes the audience feel like predator then makes them the prey and a change of emotions between the audiences. This is used in "Psycho" (1960), when Arbogast enters the Bates’ household, the first shot when Arbogast opens the door and looks into the hallway is a POV shot. In addition, we have a low key lighting shot when one of the kills happens in a bush. This is a really interesting shot because it makes the Scarecrow appear in a silhouette which is really effective and adds to the Scarecrow’s menace because darkness connotes evil, death and mystery because we cannot see his facial features with only a splat of red on his mask revealing his location. Finally, Body Horror was extremely important in the trailer for it gives a feel for the film itself. With all the gore included in the trailer including the spit on the camera and the knife to Aaron’s neck gives the feeling of a gore but the quick sequence of shots means it has the pace of an action horror.

How did your horror trailer fit the conventions of trailers? 

Our trailer had a slow build up to explain the story and set the scene and then have faster shots towards the end to build up the action to the trailer. We decided to make a highlights trailer because we didn’t want show a scene of the movie because it would be difficult to find a scene that would be suitable and would be exciting enough to get the audience excited. There were many trailers that inspired us some examples of this where "Evil Dead" (2013) and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (2013) for their style and effects they used and the order of events in those highlight trailers used in ours. Also the fact the trailer was a highlight and not a scene trailer is the pace needs to fast to reflect modern day action horror trailers example of an action horror. An example of this is "REC" (2007) and this trailer has a lot of fast montages similar to ours.

A highlights trailer also gave us the freedom to shoot inserting shots without being shackled with a slow and possibly boring scene with an exciting bit in at the end. It also allowed a lot more creativity with the trailer as we didn’t have to worry about continuity in the trailer just as long as it makes sense. If the character dies early in the trailer, they shouldn’t appear for the rest of the trailer.

What auteur influence did you bring to your trailer? 

Our trailer was to follow the style of the modern horror, a fast action horror with quick shot transitions and action paced music. However we also wanted to have body horror to be a big part of the trailer so we decided to have a little of older gory horrors in our trailer like George Romero did in "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) when the bikers are being killed by the zombies it doesn’t hold back on the gore and shows all the guts and blood.

Also in our trailer we wanted to have silhouettes of the added menace/mystery of the scarecrow and it is used twice in the trailer to good effect. We also wanted a lot of scares with the action so we had a calm scene following a violent death and so forth, creating the effect of collision cutting. This is in new remake of "Dawn of the Dead" (2004) in the scene where they are in the car park and are running away from the zombies and it cut to them in a calm elevator with them just standing still.