Evaluation

 How does our trailer compare with real media output?

Our horror film genre followed typical conventions of a horror trailer through the isolated setting and the feeling of 'the unknown' however we challenged certain aspects such as using a female protaginist instead of a stereotypical male character. We watched other examples on sources such as youtube on the internet such as sorority row and friday 13th this then gave us ideas of basic storylines and conventions to follow and build on as we had already chosen our main set location - being the forest/lake. After researching these trailers there shown a common occurance of an added physchological thriller element in which we wanted to bring to our horror trailer as it made it more exciting and interesting to work and build on.

Consuming the trailer

Our trailer would be viewed through a range of digital technologies such as the internet and television aswell as being promoted through radio advertisements. The internet is now increasingly becoming more popular and widespread so this allows the audience to proactivley seek out the trailer through film websites and youtube. The internet can also be accessable through the latest increase of smart phones which can play the internet, this also allows technofiles to communicate and show other friends what they have found and this widens the advertisment of the film massivley.
The cinema also plays trailers before the audience watch the desired the film they went to watch, they then have the chance to watch it even if they dont want too. Trailers of a particular genre are also shown with the same genre film the audience have paid to go to see so there is also more of a chance of them being interested in the film and then wanting to go and actually find out more about the film.
Another way of how our trailer would be consumed would also be through DVD format where they pay to watch the film by buying it or renting it but they get free advertisement of the trailer before hand and get the chance to view other trailers of the same genre to be released also.

Codes and conventions

The film trailer we have produced is successful in the way it follows codes and conventions of other horror/psychological thriller genre trailers but we also made sure we challenged certain aspects to make our trailer unique.
As most horror/psychological thriller trailers like to do, we used a red herring effect to create a code of enigma on who the killer is in our plot line. If this is done effectivley it then leaves the audience wanting to know more allowing the promotion of the film done successfully which i believe our groups trailer fulfilled. As after leading a focus group they all wanted to know more about the film.
We used the codes and conventions set by branston and staffords theory of repetoire of elements within our trailer through the iconography of water as it is shown as a calm place but also a place where deaths take place in relation to the title 'asphyxiate' meaning to 'cut off airways associated with drowning and strangling etc. The water within the trailer gives a false sense of security.
It also conforms to conventions by having most of the scenes set at nightime which gives the eery horror element. We used shots from the murderers point of view as the victims are getting killed for example the shot of the boy getting strangled - it allows the audience to view the trailer as if they are the protaginist eyes and views the vicitims vulnerability. The setting we used also links to the the trailer we researched 'friday 13th' as there is a conventional expectation of a forest at nightime by a lake which gives a scary effect to the trailer and water is also viewed as a fear in many peoples lives and that can play on their fears and emotions. For example i am scared of clowns, therefore a horror film about clowns would effect me but i would still go to see it.
The narrative of the 'return' to an old place full of memories of a young boys death in the water is also conventional as it is a haunting and bad things are expected to happen.
The iconic images we use are The hooded character which represents death and the audience would know something bad is about to happen when they appear.The lake water which represents the danger element and it is the main source of the plot line.The red herring effect also provides confusion within the trailer as no one knows what is to happen next or who is doing the killings.

 

Target Audience

                                                          Our selected target audience was = 15-24 aged males and females.

We identified the target audience in our trailer as we purposefully used 15-20 year old actors within the trailer. The activities taking place such as partying, camping and setting in the school time also identifies the age range of audience it would be aimed at. We decided to go with the classification of 15 as our main film would contain more violence and gore which wouldnt be suitable for any children under the age of 15. We challlenged the target audience slightly by using a complex title 'ASPHYXIATE' because it was argued that maybe young people would not know what it means. However our focus group around 4 of the 6 knew what the title meant and through researching other films such as 'Insidious' i did not know what that word meant but was still interested in watching the film and learnt what it meant by the end of the film. So i dont think it was an disadvantage by using a more adult like and complex title.

It was set in a typical area where a party and camping would take place, the characters were of the same age as the target audience we set it at so the audience could relate to the characters within the trailer and imagine if it was them which i believe is appealing to the audience if they could imagine it happening to them. There is also relationships constructed within the trailer through romantic links with the boy and girl in the tent which could appeal to girls who are into romantic side of things and there is the relationship between mother and daughter. Our trailer is also released in july so that is same time as when schools/colleges break up for summer holidays and when our trailer would be set in real life, there is then more of a chance of our film being a big hit if it was released then as the young people can go and watch it during their summer holidays.

 

Basic Plot

After undertaking our focus group discussion we asked our selected audience what they thought the basic plot of the trailer was. All of the group had a good round about idea of what was going on in our trailer which we were happy about as that was one of my main concerns. They understood the basic plot line of the boy drowning in the lake and understood from the sister's point of view why she was feeling the way she was within our trailer - state of dispair. They could also link the relationships up through mother daughter and son. When asked if it revealed too much 6/6 of them replied no as they were still left guessing and only one audience member guessed the correct protaginist through analysing the trailer thoroughly. So the red herring effect used within our trailer worked efficiently.

Representation of characters

We conformed to a conventional horror trailer by creating a red herring effect with the main characters as the protaginist is non identifiable and could be seen as 3 different characters by confusing the audience by slotting in a shot of the mother at the scene of the killings. We did this to sway away from the audience thinking it was the sister straight away. However it challenges conformity by using a female protaganist as they arent stereotypically seen as strong dominant characters like the male gender does.

• The main character Sarah which is played by a member of our group (Elyse) is seen as a helpless yet strong character the role of her character provides a physcological element with the loss of her brother as she is in a state of dispair and is seeking revenge, leading to her being a potential villain within the trailer.
• The death of the character Eddie played by (Will) who is only seen in a small part of the trailer is the main link to the water element and brings the past and present into the trailer. We used the death of a male as it challenges strength and gives the male vulnerabilty within the trailer giving females the overall strength.
• My role (Millie) in the scene set at the school is the most understandable and caring character of the two girls. She is then later a victim of the wrath of the hooded character further into the trailer.
• The character of the other girl is then played by another member of our group (Jess) she is the more dominant of the two friends she is seen as quite bitchy and talks to elyse quite nastily not taking into account her feelings. She is more stronger female than millie but is not seen in the trailer as a victim, so the audience wont know what happens if anything does happen to her, within the film.
• We used other people within our trailer to take part in some of the other acting scenes, Paige plays the mothers role who is seen as a strong motherly nature and is also a single mother as a father is not seen in the trailer. She stands by her daughter when confronted about going to the lake. We used a shot of her within the murdering scenes so she is also seen as a potential villain.
• There are all other death scenes, and happy scenes played by Ryan, Dan, Nia, Sam, Liberty and Hannah.

One of the main concerns i had when we were representing the characters was wether the audience would be able to establish the relationships between the characters as i didnt know wether we had displayed that effective enough, however after we had the focus group discussion the members of the group understood the key roles and how the relation was made through the brother and sister and the mother. The protaginist was also kept guessing which was what we wanted.

Sound

Me, elyse and jess researched diferent soundtracks to use within our trailer from freeplaymusic.com we chose a few different ones we liked but it didnt completley go with the scenes in our trailer and we needed the music to work well with it so our trailer would be successful. Finally we found one which we thought would work well so we added it to our finished trailer and cut off some bits so the sounds went with the tension in the scenes. Jess also then gave an idea of placing a boom sound at the start of the trailer so it grabs the attention of the audience straight away.
The soundtrack we decided on created tension for the audience and i think it worked well with the scenes. It gave an eery atmosphere and added sounds make the trailer much more effective. We also used deep boom sounds on each of the parts where deaths were about to happen or when the hooded character was present, this added an extra jumpy feel and left the audience uneasy. The boom could also represent a heartbeat within the trailer as the characters are scared when the hooded character appears. From our focus group we overall had positive feedback about our music and one suggested that maybe we could have used violins for an added horrorfying effect as he believed violins associated scary scenes within a trailer. We took this into consideration but i think the background music and effects we used worked fine.

Key Themes

The main themes that take place during our trailer is:

• Death
• Past/Present
• Revenge
• Isolation
• Family relationships
• The unknown
• Water

Theories

Todorov -  5 stages:

• 1st stage - A state of equilibrium at the outset.
• 2nd stage - A disruption of the equilbrium by some action.
• 3rd stage - A recognition that there has been some disruption.
• 4th stage - An attempt to reinstate the disruption.
• 5th stage - A reinstatement of the equilibrium.

In our trailer we applied Todorov's theory of narrative through to both the 2nd and 3rd stage in the storyline. The equilibrium is shown in the shots of the girls talking at school, the disruption then begins with the mystery of the hooded killer. The equilibrium is of the boy and his sister by the lake, this is then disrupted by the boy drowning, the kilings after becomes the attempt to reinstate the equilibrium as it is seen as an act of revenge.

We challenged particular aspects of this by beginning the trailer with a disruption as the boy dies. We did this as it attracts the audience straight away with a shock that they may not have been expecting as in usual trailers.
Vladmir Propp identified a theory about characters and actions as narrative functions. Characters, according to Propp, have a narrative function; they provide a structure for the text. It can be applied to our trailer as

the boy who drowns is the vulnerable victim and also plays a part as one of the 3 potential villains within the trailer. There is no exact hero or heroine.
Levi Strauss uses the concept of binary opposites, we used this concept within our trailer through the themes of see past/present, life/death, power/weakness, suffocation/freedom and the 2 sides of split personality.
Feminist Mulvey Theory  is the view of characters from the 'hetrosexual male' perspective. After looking at this theory it is used in our trailer as we chose to show the female characters as they are displayed as subjects rather than objects in the male glance. The females are given the 'hetrosexual' male power overall in our trailer as the males are the vulnerable characters which goes against the stereotype of a 'strong' male and females are more male like.

Promotion

The trailer is the best promotional device as it gives the audience a sense of what is yet to come and brings the audience in and leave them wanting more as they have had a sense of the narrative.
The poster promotes the film through visual it displays an effective main image which should grab the audiences attention. It should also display a certain element of the unique selling point within the film as an image can only do one thing and the whole narrative can not be totally displayed just through an image but if the image is done well the around about plot should be evident for example with mine - water it is the iconic element.The film poster is promoted on billboards and cinemas and anywhere else where advertisment is present.
The magazine front cover allows film fans to read more about the trailer. They may learn more about the actor/actress or the character they are playing. This also allows promotion of the film as if it is a genre a typical person enjoys they can read more about it.
All 3 of my promotional devices are linked through aspects such as the element of water, the characters are all unidentifiable and effective and the colour theme of red white and black is followed throughout. In my opinion for a promotional device to work to the best of its ability it has to grab the audience's attention and the trailer needs to work to leave the audience wanting more.

Strengths and weaknesses

From our focus group I believe our group consisted of many strengths compared to weaknesses from the feedback we received however in my opinion i think the weaknesses were the quality of the shots that we filmed, they could have been planned out a bit better and made them look a bit more professional. I also think we could made the trailer more effective by experimenting with better transitions and effects however i did like the ones that we used. However to weigh the strengths and weaknesses up i believe our strengths consisted of the way the protaginist was presented as we made sure they appeared 'horrorfying' and creepy looking to make the audience scared and with the feedback from the focus group they were also left scared after seeing the shots of the protaginist hooded killer. We also used a good sense of narrative which left enough code of enigma to keep the audience wanting to see more.
We also recieved constructive critisism from the group which was that we could have left out the shots of the killings so it didnt reveal too much and left the audience wondering wether or how the hooded character kills them.
All in all I believe we successfully produced a good trailer which the audience enjoyed and it was satisfying getting good comments for our good work.

Technologies Used

A range of technologies were used through the process of making and editing our final trailer. We used the following technologies:

1. We used the internet to research the codes and conventions of other horror/psychological thriller trailers to give us ideas and shots used to help on how to construct our own trailer. We searched sites such as Youtube to watch other trailers of the same genre for example friday 13th and sorority row as the themes of revenge and past and present were the themes represented in both. We also used sites such as Freeplaymusic to download the soundtracks and sound effects to use in our trailer. This took quite a few attempts to find suitable background music as there was difficulty linking the shots with the emotion in the scenes that we wanted to create. We also used this site 'Blogspot'  to present our research and display the progression of the process of making our 3 different promotions.
2. Video Camera and tripod was used to shoot the scenes to go into our horror trailer. The tripod allowed us to capture scenes effectivley and it helped to shoot them steadily. Adding different camera angles to make the trailer effective. For example close ups to emphasise the characters vunerabliltity and emotions.
3. Adobe premier elements package was used to collate all our scenes together and edit them to the length of time we wanted and add transitions and effects to make our trailer the best it could be. It allowed us to add or remove any scenes that we may not have needed and allowed us to see the trailer come together.



Film Magazine Cover

I decided to use this as my main image for my poster as i took in all the opinions i had for reasons not to use it on my poster however I believe the main image is still effective and does work well as a magazine front cover. The eyes are spooky and adresses the reader which would attract the audience to the magazine.
I used 'ASPHYXIATE' in the style of font and colour as my poster so they both work together with promotion.
I used the title ACT!ON and used an exclamation mark for the I in the word to make it stand out more, add more emphasis and action has connotations with the word 'act on' for the actors within the film and it also links in with what directors say when filming.
I used the tagline ' All you need to know from the cutting room floor' as it is also film related and i think its quite catchy. As my magazine is not just a film mag for horror I added an extra topic about another film at the bottom but in a pink colour so not all my magazine was a dark black and blood like red.
By using the symbols ">>" i think it grabs the readers attention and shows what else is to offer within the magazine. I also used 'diary of a Hooded Haunt' as it describes a bit about the film by not identifying whether the 'haunt' is female or male, co-insiding with my unidentifable character throughout - poster and trailer. The alliteration of 'H' also adds more emphasis and attention for the reader.

Focus Group Questionnaire

1. What genre do you believe the trailer is?

• Comedy
• Horror
• Psychological Thriller
• Action
• Sci- Fi

2. Which gender does the trailer target at?

• Female
• Male
• Both
  

3. What age group do you believe the target audience is for the trailer?

• 13-19
• 16-23
• 15-24
• 18-53

4. What 3 images stood out the most for you?

 

5. Can you reveal the basic plot of the story?

6. Who do you believe the protagonist is? (Killer/main character)

7. What are your emotions after watching the trailer?

8. Do you think the trailer reveals too much?

9. Would you go to see the film in the cinema?

10. Do you think the soundtrack goes well with the shots in the trailer?

Focus Group Explanation

On Monday 30th April we had a focus group on our trailer. We had an audience of 6 people. 2 males and 4 females age ranged between 15-25. After showing them our horror film trailer we then gave them a questionnaire to complete with a variety of questions and then participated in a open discussion with them to get their feedback.
The feedback from our audience was very positive as they all said what we wanted them to say and how we wanted our trailer to come across as.  We were also happy as the protaginist was not revealed by all and the red herring effect that we included within our trailer worked effectivley as only one member guessed the correct killer. We wanted this to be the case as I believe trailers work best when they keep the audience guessing as it will make them want to go and watch the film more.
We were also given some constructive critisim and good opinions from our members such as the opinion that maybe we should have left some of the death scenes out of the trailer as they believed it would be more effective if the audience werent to know if the victims died or not, which i think is a fair comment and agree with it. Another also commented that maybe we could have used violins in our soundtrack to make it more scary and edgy for the trailer however most of them believed the soundtrack worked well as it built up tension and made them more scared.
Overall our focus group thought that the trailer was successful as it followed conventions of a usual horror genre trailer and when asked how their emotions were after watching it they all commented that they were left uneasy, scared and disturbed - which we were very happy about as thats how we wanted to leave them feeling. 6/6 of our members also said yes to going to see our film if it was released in the cinema as the trailer left them wanting to know more, which makes our trailer successful as that is the main function for a film trailer.

Filming Schedule

We arranged a meeting in which we would each as a group decide on our filming dates. We came across a few difficulties as not all of us had the same free lessons at the same time. So to overcome this we had to decide on certain frees and time out of school that we could make even if people couldn't make it so we would could manage our time management effectivley.

Dates and what we filmed:
21st february = We filmed a scene within the school classroom. Me, elyse and jess acted in it and sophie filmed. The difficulties we came across whilst doing this was getting the shot right, as we werent used to acting so it took time to get round to the idea of acting seriously.
28th february = Shots filmed by the lake took place.
29th february = We filmed a scene at the character who plays the mother's house. The difficulties we faced was how to construct the scene and what should be said. This took a while and needed a few retakes until we felt it was good enough.
3rd March = filming by the lake, this was cut short as the night drew in earlier than we expected.
7th march = more filming done by the lake, by this time most of our shots were done but we still needed to arrange a date where a few more people could attend so we could shoot our party shots.
14th march = Me, jess, elyse and four other characters that we wanted to be involved were filmed in this scene. We filmed a party scene and a killing scene with one of the male members. We managed to get most of the filming done however had to cut it short due to it getting too dark at night.
19 march = Me, jess and elyse aswell as 3 other friends filmed the final scenes we needed which were the scenes set in the past. We had to do a few retakes of this shot as the sun was shining too much at one point and people were getting confused on what actions and lines they had to do.

Finished film poster

This is my final draft of my film poster.
 I changed the main image to a close up of a character under water, this then allows the link between water in the film to the poster. I made the girl's hair more over her face so she looks affected by the water and she isnt very identifiable but there is emotion shown through her eyes. This then lets the audience connect to the poster so it looks as if the character is addressing them and drawing them in.
In the title 'ASPHYXIATE' I emphasised the word 'HATE' and obscured the letter 'Y' so it attracts the eye and asks the audience why?
Through the tagline i put emphasis on the word 'beneath' and obscured it from the rest of the line so it is under (beneath) and I liked to add an extra little detail to the poster.

Draft of film poster

This was the first draft of my film poster.
I then decided after getting opinions of other people and thinking about it more, it could be improved by changing my main image as the image didn't totally represent what i wanted it too and there was no link made to water as the lighting of the image had blanked out the rippling water in the background.