Advanced portfolio - Evaluation

My trailer is conventional in the way it compares to real media output because I used a variety of shots and sound effects to create it and it is in the conventional time of around three minutes. The use of intertitles to help explain the narrative of the trailer and a billing card and are also conventional. The genre we were aiming to portray in our film trailer was horror/psychological thriller.

An audience could consume the trailer either at the cinema, TV or on the internet . e.g. Youtube or pop ups. People could also see it at the beginning of other DVDs and films that they have purchased.

The audience could consume the trailer either through passive viewing which means that they don’t seek to view the trailer in the first place. This is affective advertising because it pulls people into your niche without them seeking it out. The other way to view the trailer would be to actively seek out the trailer, most likely on the internet.

After receiving feedback from a focus group made up of both males and females that came under our 15-25 target audience range, I feel that the trailer I produced was very successful because we were able to create the illusion of the character of the mother being the protagonist and it also left enough of the plot out so that the people we asked would want to go and see it.

In our trailer we used generic codes and conventions such as, intertitles, billing block, soundtrack, web address and release date.

We identified the target audience by researching similar films in the horror/psychological thriller and this lead us to out 15-25 target age range. We chose 15 as the lower limit because we believe that at that age people have a lot more disposable income and are more lightly to go to the cinema on a regular basis. When we asked the focus group they agreed with our target audience range.

We asked the focus group to give us feedback on what they thought the genre of the film was and they answered with “horror” which is exactly what we were aiming for. They knew this because of our use of narrative, props, mise en scene, and dialogue throughout the trailer.

The audience understood the basic plot of the film from the trailer, and were also successfully mislead into thinking that the mother character was the protagonist.

The audience was able to identify that “Harry” was the main character through the trailer and also that the mother had something to do with the killings, but they weren’t sure what. This was intentional because we wanted the audience to now enough of the plot to want to see the film but not enough that they knew the entire story.

We used mid shots and close ups on the faces of the main character’s so that the audience could identify them as significant and be able to recognise them in another scene. This proved successful because the focus group were able to tell us who the main characters were after only one viewing.

In the trailer we made the character of “Harry” the main character. We chose the actor because he doesn’t fit the persona of someone you would expect to be a killer. This was crucial because we wanted to mislead the audience into believing it want him that was the killer. We used costume and props as well as dialogue to show this.

The representation of “Harry” is unconventional because the audience don’t identify him as the protagonist and the audience feel sympathy for him during the bullying scenes.

The audience agreed that the setting and the mise en scene were appropriate for out trailer because it added to the effect of the horror element. The only comment they had was that the lighting changed from scene to scene.  This was only a problem to us because we don’t have lighting equipment available to us. If we were to make the trailer again and we had a bigger budged then we could alter some of the lighting.

We asked the audience for feedback on the sound throughout the trailer and they said that the backing track was really effective for the trailer and helped promote the genre. They also said that the use of dialogue was good because it allowed snippets of the plot to be reviled.

The key themes we show in the trailer are bullying, mental illness, double life and secrets. These are all shown throughout the trailer.

Our trailer conforms to Todorov’s theory of narrative in that it starts with a state of equilibrium, then a disruption of the equilibrium, leading to a recognition of the disruption, and then to an attempt to repair the disruption which takes you back to equilibrium.

The audience though that the film trailer was extremely effective in showing enough of the plot to entice them to see the whole film, but didn’t give away enough that they would know the entire plot.

The trailers strengths are that it was successful in every area we aimed for it to be, and that it is a strong promotional tool. The trailer entices an audience to want to see more and also give the viewer a hit at the genre of the film. The way the different shots in the trailer are pieced together using static and fades proved o be successful because the focus group commented on the effect it had on creating the “handy cam” affect and feel to the trailer. The plot of the trailer was successfully shown and the characters represented successfully also. The audience commented on the lighting, saying that it could have been a little better and consistent but agreed that due to our budget we had the best product possible.

I feel that the trailer was successful in showing all the elements of a conventional trailer.

The film poster I produced adds to the promotional package and contains information about the release date and had a web address and billing block which are all conventional. It also has the name of the film at the top and a sell line towards the bottom which bith give a hint as to the content of the film, these are both also conventional.

The magazine fornt cover does much the same as the poster to promote the film, but it also boasts interviews with the main character in the film. This would boost interest in the film and get it wider media coverage. If an article is covered by a magazine you could expect it to be rolled out over all or the multi platforms a media company might have. E.g. Bauer.

All three elements I have created work together as a promotional package that is representational of real life media promotional packages. Each is designed to draw the maximum possible viewers form the selected target audience. The trailer is the lynch pin of the package but the poster and magazine cover are designed to complement and work alongside the trailer for maximum audience exposure.

I used the following technologies to create my Promotional package.

The Internet - I used this for research, blogging and to source non copyrighted sound effects.

Digital Camera – this was used during the making of the anemati, film poster, film magazine and the trailer itself.

Adobe InDesign - this was used to create the poster and magazine cover and edit the various images I used.

Paintshop –this was used to create the intertitles we used during the trailer and was also used to edit my images.

Photoshop – I used this to edit the images I took using the digital camera.

Adobe Premier – used for editing the film trailer and the sound that went with it.

Video camera and Tripod – we used these on ever shoot we went on to try and give the trailer a professional finish and also to keep the shots smooth.

Blogspot – use to document my research and to display my final promotional package and designs.