4. How well did you use media tecnhnologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

during the research process, using Wikipedia i was able to research the Japanese Horror genre, finding out about narrative conventions, a range of films to do further research, directors, and production companies within the genre. Wikipedia enabled to me to gain further information than of my own knowledge of the genre in a clear and readable fashion.

YouTube enabled me to research numerous teaser trailers within the Japanese Horror genre, allowing me to depict and analyze them, and find conventions available for my own teaser trailer. YouTube was also the platform in which i uploaded my final trailer and could then broadcast it onto my advanced portfolio blog, as well as onto social networking sites for my audience research.

the majority of my trailer is set in the dream of leading character while she is asleep. to visually represent her dream like state, using IMovie i edited the brightness & contrast of the shots within the dream, as well as adding a 'fog' to add a blur over the top. The shot where the horror character moves quickly towards the camera, i added a 'ghost' effect which left a shadow and trail behind the character as she moved. this helped to create a sense of her presence being an illusion.


While editing, i searched for websites where i could download free sound effects and music for my film. i signed up to the website Freesound which enabled me to do so, i downloaded the non diagetic music to play through out my piece, as well as the diagetic typing sounds. My music was needed to play on a loop in certain parts of my trailer, so using Garage Band, i copied the song onto the software and put the song onto a continuous loop, then cut and pasted it to fit into my trailer.


When shooting stills for my poster and magazine cover, i used a Canon EOS Digital SLR. The camera enabled me to have good quality images in high defination, meaning they would be of a high enough quality to not be ruined when editing. The built in LED screen meant i could delete and closely look at photos, to see if they needed re-taking, rather than having to upload them and re-take them at a later date.

when creating my poster and magazine front, i used Photoshop to do so. From past experience, i was aware of how to use certain tools as well as learn new skills in a Photoshop master class. I learnt how to use new tools such as the gradient tool, enabling me to add a gradient and change the lighting focus on my poster for example. I also learnt about adding layers to add text and imagery on my work, which was particularly helpful for my magazine, as i was adding numerous items of text on top.

During the evaluation process, i learnt about Prezi, an online presentation creator enabling the reader to be interactive with my evaluation. By adding images and text to my Prezi presentation, i was able to chose the order in which the slides were shown in, as well as change the size, speed and angle of the writing or image.

3. What have you learned from your audience feed back?

Web 2.0 allows Internet users to interact with others through social medias, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social networks. the increasing number of users on these sights allows a range of people to access information. for my audience feed back, i thought the most affective way to communicate and gain access to people was through Facebook. by sending a round-Robin group email with a URL link to my trailer on YouTube, as well as my poster and magazine cover on my blog. This interactive approach meant that it was more accessible to the audience, and also a faster way of me receiving feedback.

for me, the importance of the audience feed back questionnaire, was to find out whether the audience could distinguish the genre of the film, and whether it was of a high standard for it to seem realistic.
from the results, I was pleased that the majority of the audience could establish that it was a Japanese Horror, or just a Horror film. this has taught me that i should have made it clearer that it was a Japanese Horror, possibly through the use of Japanese writing, rather than English, and by using a Japanese actor for the horror character.

the other pie chart shows what the audience's response to the lighting, editing, fonts and music & sound in all of my pieces. The least popular option was sound & music, to improve this aspect in my trailer if i were to do it again, would be to improve the quality of the sound in terms of the rhythm, as in the editing process i feel i had poor focus when creating a loop of the music. In terms of lighting, all of the lighting in the trailer, poster and magazine was edited in post production. this indicates to me that the edited lighting looks realistic and effective. If i was to do the process again, i would take more care of the lighting when filming or taking the photographs, so that the final product doesn't loose quality in the image, or add grain and too high a saturation to my trailer.

By posting my trailer on social networking sites and on YouTube, it allowed me to gain a wider audience, therefore my trailer could be advertised and gain opinions from others. YouTube allowed me to gain an unbiased opinion of my trailer, as the views and likes are anonymous and can receive comments from unknown users, enabling me to gain both positive and negative feedback.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Because my film is of the Japanese Horror genre, it was important to keep the genre present through out all of my pieces. I chose to name my production company 'Takeshi Pictures', this is so the audience can establish the Japanese element of the film from the name 'Takeshi'. the title of my production company is also written on the poster with other production information of the film.

it was important to keep a continuity between the main production piece and the ancillary tasks, to give all the pieces a recognizable brand identity. By creating a type font using http://www.dafont.com/, I was able to make a font for the title of my film. The continuity of the title font on both pieces creates a brand identity applicable to further advertisements and endorsements of the film.

For my poster and magazine cover, i used two similar images of Nana to create a continuity for the audience, and so they could acknowledge the character being from the trailer, and poster they'd seen before on the magazine and vice versa. I decided on using two different images for each piece rather than using the same one, as i felt the poster needed to connote horror by the light surrounding her, where as in the magazine, i felt is was more important to show her as being more approachable, as the readers are there to find out more about the film itself compared to the poster in which to draw the audience in.

The title of my magazine is 'Fanatical Film'. I created this title from the slogan of Odeon cinemas- 'Fanatical about film'. i felt that this title implied more of an independent niche audience.

In all 3 pieces, the leading character is wearing her school uniform. This gives a sense of`unity and continuity between the magazine, poster and trailer. It's also iconic in the way that it is recognizable she is a school girl, emphasizing her vulnerability.

To further establish to the audience that my film is apart of the horror genre, i chose to release my film on Halloween to emphasize this. FIlms such as 'Halloween' and 'Zombieland' also did so, recognizing that Halloween is a 'scary' day.

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

When produciing my media products, i knew it was important to keep the the conventions of Japanese Horror films. From my product research, i was able to establish these conventions.

The conventions of a film poster include:

· Image of main character(s)

· Golden triangle/rule of thirds

· Institution info.

· Credits.

· Tag line.

· Release date.

many of the my posters i'd researched followed the 'rule of thirds', and having a character centre of the poster with a fairly plain background. from examples above and from research, many posters use a long shot with the character either central to the poster, or in the background. this creates an aery atmosphere and gives a feeling of loneliness and isolation.

The conventions of a teaser trailer include:

· Fast pace – quick shots

· Short duration time (generally no more 1.30)

· Soundtrack/use of voice over rather than dialogue

· Wide shots to establish setting

· Release date

· Intriguing/hides information

· Title slates

· Intro to character/setting, etc.

· Institution info.

· Tagline

from product research, i discovered the use of red font as a continuous theme through out. Red itself connoting blood, death and murder, all important themes of Japanese Horror. i utilized this convention by inputting a single title slate towards the end of my trailer with the film title written in red.




From product research i noticed a pattern of long shots particularly down corridors. these are used to create a sense of isolation and loneliness of a character. i used the long shot in all 3 tasks, but particularly in my poster to emphasize the remoteness, and give a feel of intimidation towards the audience as the dark lighting surrounds the character, closing in on her almost.

the long of shot of a girl is an inconic image in Japanese Horror, so i felt it was necessary to use some myself. although, i challenged this image slightly, by having the victim in long shots to show her isolation, rather than of the horror character. this was a conscious decision to make the horror character seem closer and more harrowing towards the victim rather than at a distance.

The conventions of a magazine cover include:

· Masthead

· Puff

· Date/Price

· Barcode

· Main cover line

In all magazines, the mast head is placed at the top, occasionally with the main image overlapping. The price and bar code is located in the bottom right of the cover, with the issue number above or underneath the title. The stories within the magazine are located around the outside of the centre image to surround the image, creating a focus and drawing the reader into the magazine. Similar to this Empire magazine, the light around the center image to create a focus on the front.

when first creating our magazine, I'd researched both mainstream and independent film magazines. for the design and layout of the magazine, i wanted to use a very conventional and classic layout. the general appearance of my magazine, i wanted to look mainstream, but due to the nature and genre of my film i knew it was more suited to an independent film magazine. such as Movie Mag. if i was to do this magazine again, i would have a clearly defined in the design whether it was a mainstream magazine or an independent magazine.

Final Teaser Trailer.

this is the final cut of my trailer, uploaded on Youtube and embedded on my blog in size 640x510PX.

Final Poster.

Final Magazine.