Evaluation Part 4.

What have you learnt from the Audience feedback?

During the course of the feedback, various points of our trailer were highlighted for both criticism and praise. Some main points that arose for critism was the ending, which the majority of the audience felt was lacking something to make them jump e.g. a sudden zombie appearence or something of that nature. I agreed with this, as up to this point nothing gave the right jumpy effect, and the ending was the perfect place for this to happen.

Another point in which we recieved criticism was the editing speed, some audience members felt that it needed to be sped up, in order to make the trailer flow better and make the action seem "more realistic", which to an extent, we agreed with - as the action was slow to progress during the intial feedback screening. We knew we had to resolve the issue in the final cut and our new end sequence helped to achieve this.

Among the criticisms, however, there were also many points in which we were praised, for example; our use of angles. I was really proud of our close-ups in the film; such as Tom's eyes when he looks surprised, as they helped present the audience with the correct atmosphere and look of a real life and dramatic horror trailer. Another aspect we were praised on was our choice of "Quick" monsters, instead of the Romero style of "slow monsters". As can be seen in my reviews, we were heavily influenced by the quick zombies in modern horrors like "Dawn of the Dead" (2004) that shock a "contemporary" audience. Lots of the audience said they helped add suspense and tension to the situation in the trailer, and these made the trailer much more shocking and shuddering (and horror, after all, is based of the French word "to shudder" which is "horrere").

After the Feedback screening, we made various changes to the trailer, one of them being the ending. We re-filmed and edited it in response to the audience feedback during the focus group, we extended it as well as added a "jumpy" scene when a new zombie attacks. We also changed and re-edited the action sequences before this point in the trailer, so they flowed better and sped up the action using a quick montage of shots of Tom running cut back to the zombies chasing. This again showed we responded to audience feedback and that the feedback was helpful in making our trailer better.

After the final screening, the audience response was even more positive. They responded well to the changes we made, based on their suggestions, and overall they enjoyed the trailer a lot more. I personally think the trailer appealed to the section of horror fans we wanted to attract, with the body horror, music and action all helping to construct a rich horror trailer that would draw in fans of zombie horrors.

Both the audience and ourselves found parts of the trailer that we favoured. This included the music, which helped add suspense to the trailer as well as a sense of panic - it also fitted perfectly with the action scene within the trailer and helped it flow a lot better. I personally liked the pause in the music before "Will You Survive?" as this was like a collision cut that slowed the trailer down before the final exciting scenes.

The audience also found the body horror a favourite aspect, even second time round, it was just enough to make some grimace at the image, especially as it helped with the connotation that the "Zombie Virus" was an infection, as the vomit was black and oozing - this aspect was also a personal favourite.

Evaluation Part 3.

How did you use media technologies in the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation stages?

In order to actively research and plan my main media product and my ancillary texts, I had to use various media technologies. This began early in the production process, during the research and planning stages. I started off using the video sharing website "YouTube" in order to view various trailers of both current and past movies in order to draw inspiration and to see how to correctly assemble and pace a good trailer, as well as seeing what not to do in a trailer.

During this viewing, I came across two or three trailers that really influence my work such as "Shaun of the Dead", "Dawn of the Dead" and"Toxic Avenger". These helped me really how to correctly represent body horror into a perfectly paced trailer. During the Shaun of the Dead trailer, body horror is used, but not excessivly. The scene where the zombie enters the house while Shaun and Ed are on the sofa, the zombie has blood splattered over his torso and face and is missing a limb, but it's only breifly shown and is still just enough to give the audience an idea, this is what I went for durnig my trailer with the fake black vomit. It was only on screen breifly, but still gave that shock factor that I was looking for.A final scene that influence me was from the "Toxic Avenger" trailer. The scene in the trailer where he drops weights onto a man's head, but where the image cuts before the impact shows great restriced narration. This is something I strived to place into my trailer, as it allows the audience to use their imagination as to what happens next, I used this during the attack of the last zombie in my trailer, where the camera cuts just before the impact of the knife on the zombie's neck.

Another site I used was the Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB.com), which was used in order to read into depth about the film, not just the actors who started in them, but about Auteurs such as George A. Romero ("Dawn of the Dead" [1978]), and how they would construct a low-budget film from the ground up. Also, IMDB has high rated films, so by looking at how films were rated and what they did in their trailers, it helped me understand what to do and what not to do during the construction process. There was various things in other trailers I watched that I wanted to avoid for example; during the Shaun of the Dead [2004] trailer humour is used a lot, mainly to help lighten the mood - this is something I wish to avoid as it detracts from the atmosphere and can drive away many of my desired audience.

There were always various new media technologies I used during my construction phase, such as "Final Cut Pro" and "Photoshop". In each I used various techniques in order to alter images, text and the layout and look of my main product and my ancillary pieces.

I used Photoshop to create and edit Magazine Cover. Techniques within "Photoshop" such as Image Overlay to help add my grungy effects to my poster. I took an existing copyright-free grunge effect and Overlayed it on the to poster image, double clicking the layer and setting the blend effect "Overlay" to achieve the desired result. Another similar effect to Overlay was the Clipping Mask. I used this in order to adjust the look of my text for my trailer's title both on my magazine cover and my poster.

In order to do this, I again took the grunge image from earlier, this time slightly altered, and right clicked the layer and selected "Attach Clipping Mask" this enabled the image to conform the borders of the text and adjust the text's look.




A clipping mask example, as it looks on Photoshop "layers"







A final technique I used was in "Final Cut Pro" in order to have the text zoom towards the camera. To do this, I went into the shot with the title sequence and added the start "Key Frame", then as I proceeded to move through the shot, I added more key frames and at each frame I altered the "Scale" of the text, and by the end the text was made to look as it was being zoomed in on.

In order to help evaluate my products, I also other new media technologie, for example; I used "Blogger" in order place my work online so it can be seen and evaluated by other people - via comments etc Another interesting asset that "Blogger" opens up is enabling polls and surveys to be placed on it, so that you can simply the feedback process from potential viewers.

Two other pieces of Web 2.0 technology I used were "YouTube" and the social networking site "Facebook". On these, I could share my products and get feedback quickly and simply, from both friends and strangers. Both however, though enabling positive feedback, can invite "non-helpful" feedback i.e. for “trolls.” Though this was often not constructive, it helped highlight how useful the feedback we got from the class screenings was.

Evaluation Screening

SCORES: 9.5/10, 8/10, 8/10, 7/10, 8/10, 8.5/10, 8/10, 8/10, 7/10, 7/10

AVERAGE SCORE: 8/10

WHAT DID THE AUDIENCE LIKE ABOUT THE TRAILER?: Our finished trailer received particular praise in regards to the music we used as well as the sound effects such as the knife being pulled from the rack, with people commenting on how the music built the tension well throughout the trailer. We also received positive feedback on our choice to change the ending (which was one of the main points the audience thought could be improved). Once again nearly every audience member commented on the use of angles we used such as close-ups and the shots of the main character running from the zombies, this as well as comments about the use of quick editing were the main points we received praise on. Several other audience members pointed out the make-up effects that we used, praising them as well as the use of fake vomit and grenadine for the blood effects. There was also some audience members who liked the introduction of our trailer such as one character being dragged away by a zombie and also the slow build up of the trailer. Again, our research also helped a great deal and our choice of using fast moving monsters instead of the Romero style slow moving zombies went down well with several audience members commenting that it this was a positive of our trailer.

WHAT DID THE AUDIENCE THINK COULD BE IMPROVED?: In regards to what audience members thought could be improved, the main thing was the end title with the name of the film with comments that it didn't fit the professional looking text used within the rest of the trailer. There was also many audience members who pointed out that the editing at the end with the main character stabbing the zombie needed to be a little bit smoother. It was also made apparent to use by some of the comments that we need to lower the sound levels of the music slightly as it is slightly too loud. One last comment was that the make-up on the last zombie from our re-shot ending wasn't as good as the rest of the make-up effects used on the other zombies.

Evaluation Part 2.

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

In order to increase the combined effectiveness of both my main product and ancillary text, I had to intertwine the styles and aspects from one to the other in order to create consistency and make sure each attracted my desired target audience in a coherent marketing strategy.

For my poster, for example, I gave the image a low key “grunge” lighting effect, which I utilised using various techinques within Photoshop, - in order to get across that this film will be dark and gritty. This also helped reflect the stark, low key lighting I used within the trailer itself to add a dark atmosphere. I also chose the location of the posters image carefully in order to further enhance the feel of the trailer, as the image on the poster is taken up against a simple yet degraded wall - further adding to the effect of a very gritty film. The intention was to leave the audience wondering, "where is the film taking place?" so adds a further layer of interest and curiosity.

The image on the poster itself is an expressionist angle, being a close up of one of the zombie’s mouths. The slight low angle creates a sense of power, while the extreme close-up intentionally invades the viewer’s personal space. For example, the Hostel Part III poster uses a similar affect in order to "Invade" the audiences space.The construction of mise-en-scene was equally important, with blood and vomit dripping from the teeth and mouth. This really helps express the feel of the specific type of horror we were aiming for, a more grindhouse feel reminiscent of "Planet Terror" and "Dawn of the Dead" (1978).

For the magazine cover for Empire, I went for the same basic approach as with the poster - which was a dark, slighlty gritty feel. The image for the magazine cover was different from my "Dead Reckoning" poster as it was taken with a location especially in mind, in this case a graveyard - more specifically in front of a gravestone. This was to really to connote that the dead were rising and that this movie will be about the undead and tie into the current success of zombie films such as "The Undead" and TV series like "Dead Set".

A similar cover, although for an entirely different genre, from "Empire" magazine (picture below) has several aspects similar to mine - in terms of a dark, grungy feel to it, as well as the compasition of the image used. With the blood and the lighting effects used in order to darken the atmosphere of the cover.

I edited the image on the magazine cover in order to add dark red blood stains to the stone, this was really to enforce the connotation of evil and death into the audience - as well as to connote that the film will be gory to some extent.

In order to link the styles of all three of my texts, I had to really think about my target audience and other auteurs that had found success. Considering I took a lot of influences from George A. Romero and his type of horrors,and aimed a hardcore –yet mainstream (witness the success of "Shaun of the Dead"). This helped decide that my magazine cover would be using "Empire", as it'd reach a lot of my target audience of teenage horror fans.

Dead Reckoning: Final Cut

Evaluation Part 1.

In what way does your media product (trailer) use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of read like media products?

There are several aspects in which my media text fits the various conventions of a real media product of the same genre. It is important to do this in order to attract and appease the correct audience e.g. the target audience you have marketed a product for. Thomas Schatz makes this clear in his book "Hollywood Genres" - he mentions that genre is the most powerful force in films as it helped sell the film to the appropriate audience.

Through mixing established conventions and adding our own twist on the conventions of the genre, we felt that "Dead Reckoning" could be a successful trailer and film. It allows the audience to set out clear expectations of the film, all based upon genre. Knowing the genre your text is for and its fan, allows you to follow the conventions of it correctly to fulfil this.

Now, my own media text is part of the Horror genre and it contains various conventions that you expect to be within the Horror genre. These were; Body horror, Quick moving monster and creepy location. An example, of a real movie that contains these aspects is Zombieland. It used alot of good body horror e.g. during the opening Bathroom scene with grotesqe amounts of blood and feaces on the floor after a zombie attack. Also Zomebieland uses quick monsters well, again during the opening few minutes, where the main character is chased across the parkinglot at high speed.

In order to make these conventions have any effect, I had to first research how other real life texts had achieved it. Through this, I could analyse the conventions of real life horror films. So, as seen on my blog, I watched various other trailers from movies such as "Martyrs", "Dawn of The Dead" and "Shaun of the Dead". I mainly watched trailers that reflected the style of “grindhouse” horror that I wanted to do, which are ones that includee a lot of body horror and variants of slow/fast zombies, such as "Grapes of Death" and "The Horde".I then took what I learnt from watch these into my own trailer in order to achieve the correct pacing and implementation of certain conventions to ensure they worked correctly.

Of course, just including these conventions is useless without the correct “auteur” (as written about by Andrew Sarris in his essay “Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962”) influences that would enable me to alter and use them in my own unique and original way. For this purpose I chose autuers based around the sub-genre of horror I chose, in this case George A. Romero and Tom Savini were key influences, with their work on "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) and "Day of the Dead" (1985). However, I still wanted my trailer to be distinctive, for example - in my trailer, I took the premise of "vomiting zombies" (briefly present in City of the Dead) but instead of just plain vomit, I altered it so it was a dark blue/dark grey colour, so that it had a sticking point that people would remember.

Through mixing established conventions and adding our own twist on the conventions of the genre, we felt that "Dead Reckoning" could be a successful trailer and film.

Empire Magazine Cover (with Flickr)

Click for Flickr analysis.