Evaluation 2 - How effective is the combination of my Main and Ancillary products?

I consistently included stereotypical conventions of the psychological thriller genre, as well as stereotypical conventions of the media product on its own. I purposely used synergy all throughout my trailer, magazine cover and film poster. I used this by using the same title and by including the same fonts and colours. This makes the brand recognisable as a whole as many key, standout areas of my products of my media appear in all of the works. This creates the effect of reminding the audience - for example - the concurrent use of "coming soon" actively reminds them about the film.

In all three of my texts, I implemented carefully thought about, and specific conventions which makes my products fit into the psychological thriller genre. This would attract audiences that watch films by genre and also, our target market which were both males and females, ages 15 - 35. The age gap is quite wide and this is because the storyline is complex and twisted, meaning that it is suitable for a wide range of people. Having a wider age group as the target audience is also useful as my media products can reach out to more people.

On my film poster, the main image is of my character almost as a silhouette, facing away from the camera, walking through an industrial-like environment. The shot type, and dark lighting was inspired by the poster for Alex Cross. This is also a thriller with one character as the focal point of the film and it is also aimed at a very similar target audience. The fact that my main image is almost a silhouette and is looking away from the camera adds a lot to the mystery elements to the poster and mystery is very important in thriller films. The long shot is also significant as you can see the dangerous environment around the character.

In our trailer, many visual effects are used, such as filters to make the video darker, or contrasts of very high key and very low key lighting used in the same shot which creates a different perception of what is being shown and emphasises focal points. For example, when Brad is holding the knife - the high key lighting is useful here as the knife reflects the light, making it the focal point of the shot as it is the brightest object in the scene, The very low key lighting casts shadows in certain areas which adds to the sense of mystery as the whole shot is not shown, even though it is all the same shot. This shows that the mise-en-scene that has been used in all three products is also synergised as low key lighting is used in the poster and magazine cover and large portions of the trailer are filmed in low-key lighting.

In all three texts, very little is shown or given away about our character. This creates ambiguity for the audience and leaves many aspects on a cliffhanger, or the aspects are open for interpretation (not a clear meaning). This further highlights the psychological thriller genre as a lot of what is going on is a mystery and is unclear.

Institutional information is included on the film poster, as seen in many other posters however it is not conventionally present in magazine covers or trailers. Institutional information is significant and needs to be included somewhere as it provides the audience with extra information, such as the people involved in making the film, cast/crew, and the production company. I also included a five and a four and a half star rating on my poster as well as a quote and these were from well-known media platforms within the film industry, (Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Empire). This further widens the possible audience that will watch the film.

Brad is wearing all black clothing - this connotes fear, death and the unknown, all of which are conventions of the psychological thriller genre. This outfit has been synergised throughout the whole of my advanced portfolio, as he wears it in every appearance. In all three media products, including the trailer, either an indirect mode of address is used or little to no facial expressions are shown. This again adds to the mystery and unpredictability elements that are commonly seen within psychological thrillers.

Another way in which I have shown synergy between my texts is through the use of the title and fonts. In all three of my products, the same title is used, meaning it is easily recognisable for audiences. Inter-titles/straplines that have been presented in the trailer, also appear in both my film poster and magazine cover, which further expresses the synergy and adds to the memorability and recognisability through the use of repetition. I feel like these have been strong factors in terms of how much my products look like actual media texts, and therefore has increased its usefulness as a marketing technique.

To conclude, I strongly believe that the combination of my main and acillary products is very successful. I believe this because I have effectively used synergy is multiple different contexts (mise en scene - lighting, costumes, and titles). I have used stereotypical psychological thriller conventions in all three products. By doing this, I can appeal to the target audience as well as maybe bringing new people in such as the older generation due to the complexity of the storyline. The target audience may also be interested in getting more information about the products and interacting with them, through the social media links shown in the poster.

Magazine Cover

Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media use, develop, or challenge forms of conventions from real media?

Frame 1: The title

The first frame of my analysis is our choice of title. We chose "Edge" as is has multiple connotations. We put a knife around the word and this explicitly shows the word "edge"as the edge of a knife or blade. There are also implicit meanings of the word, such as the main character being on the edge of his life. I used a big, bold, Serif font. This connotes seriousness which is a theme that runs throughout our film

The markings in our text is similar to the title of Split. The one that we used makes the text uneven and has slashes in it. The uneven texts resembles our main character - Brad's, unstable life. The slashes resemble the knife shown in our trailer, and in the title. 

In the actual trailer, we have implemented animations where our text flickers and glitches. This adds to the instability of our protagonist. It looks similar to that of Se7en and Split however the text actually moves around.

Frame 2: Storyline/Plot

Frame 2 is of our character passed out from drinking too much alcohol, and in the shots leading up to this, drug use is also shown. Nothing too specific is given away about the plot however it is clear to see that Brad is a deranged individual who needs drugs and alcohol to cope with his everyday life. It also leaves the audience wondering what is going on in his life for him to be resort to drugs and alcohol to cope with his daily struggles.

 This conforms with the convention of having a cliffhanger as the audience do not know what is happening after. The fact that he is deranged and unpredictable further emphasises this.

Frame 3: Settings

We used a variety of different settings which effectively portray the environment that he is living in. For example, areas with graffiti and vandalism, small, dark alleys and pylons. This clearly shows that he is living in a run-down, working class area which adds to his insanity. The pylon with a sharp fence around the area also connotes that his environment is dangerous and the fact that Brad is an unpredictable character, may make the audience think that he will get himself hurt or killed because of his surroundings. 

A house is also used. This is an environment that most people (especially middle-class cinema goers) associate with comfort and peace. Our film juxtaposes this idea as drug and alcohol abuse is carried out in the house as well as acts of self harm and other controversial acts. A house environment is also stereotypical as it is seen in other thriller films such as Panic Room or The Strangers.  

Frame 4: Props and costume

For frame 4 , I have used a close up of one of our main props which is a knife. Other use of props such as tablets (infers drug use) and alcohol bottles are also shown in other shots with a close up. These show the character's way of life just through the use of props. The knife is a key prop as it conveys that he is slowly getting worse as he is converting from drugs to physically harming himself and other people. The gun at the end definitely emphasises the fact that he is getting worse and worse because it can be argued a gun is the easiest way to kill someone. A crescendo is used in our trailer to show Brad's ever increasing insanity.

All of these props are very stereotypical in the thriller genre - Traffic shows a lot of drug use and, Elephant shows the use of weapons such as guns.

Brad's outfit is all black. The colour black connotes mystery, fear and death which are all key themes throughout our film, and other thriller films I have watched during research.
The clothes that he is wearing just consists of a hoodie and jeans which shows the audience that he is just like a normal teenager at a first glimpse.

Frame 5: Camera and Editing

Before we started filming, we had very carefully planned out our camera shots, angles, and the basis on what our editing would consist of. For Frame 5, I have chosen an extremely low angle of a pylon, shot directly in the middle of it. As well as being a unique, creative and symmetrical shot, it shows the scale of the pylon that no other shot can show. In the shots leading up to this, it shows Brad walking up to it as well as clothing on the barbed wire. These shots combined implies that Brad is going to climb it which may intrigue the audience. We got the idea of using a pylon from the scene at the end of the thriller film "Seven" where they are driving through a power grid. The idea of using a low angle came from the film "Inception". There is a scene where all of the buildings change position and a low angle is used in that scene. I thought it was very effective at showing the scale of a structure and decided to implement it into my own trailer.

In terms of editing, as you can also see with the pylon shot is that it is very dark. Our trailer was mostly filmed in the day in fact, but many shots look like they were at night time. This is because we used a filter to change the lighting during editing. Dark lighting (low-key) connotes danger as well as creating tension, which are key themes seen throughout many thriller films. This is especially clear to see in films that come under the "thriller noir" genre. 

Another technique that was used regarding the shots is the harsh use of lighting. This was simply done by using a very bright torch and turning the lights off. Harsh lighting is very effective at emphasising certain focal points of shots, for example, the shots of Brad holding a knife. The sharp contrast between high key and low key lighting in the same shot portrays our character's dual personalities due to his mental illnesses. It can also make silhouettes. By using silhouettes, the audience can still make out what is happening, but not properly, which makes the audience want to carry on watching. We used a silhouette right at the end to make a cliffhanger ending, something which is also very stereotypical. Our use of lighting and silhouettes is something that I did not see at all in my research, which makes these parts of the trailer countertypical of the thriller genre.

Frame 6: Character

In our film, we decided to only use one character. This is countertypical because many thriller films contain multiple characters which usually complicates the story and means that the film can lead in many different directions. We felt like only one character was enough as Brad is very intricate, unpredictable and sophisticated. With this level of depth for one character, it would be very confusing for the audience if this film had multiple characters. Brad is Edge's protagonist, antagonist, and everything in-between.

One psychological thriller film that does use a single character is The Machinist. In this film, the character suffers from severe insomnia and in turn, this heavily affects his life and mental health. Similar to Edge, Brad also suffers from mental health which drastically affects his life.

Frame 7: Music & Sound

 The music that we used had a huge impact on the trailer. We made it on a software called Fruity Loops Studio 10 and this allowed us to make any type of music we wanted as it is a professional software used by many musical artists. We timed every single heavy beat to each time a shot was changed. This is quite stereotypical to see in trailers for thrillers however this is prominent throughout our whole trailer, whereas in other trailers, it only does it for parts of it. Other instruments such as pianos and strings are used. These are used at a slow tempo used to build tension and add an eerie atmosphere to the whole trailer. As the trailer progresses, the scenes get more intense. In turn, the music gets louder, more instruments are added in and the tempo increases to end off in a crescendo.

Another effect we used regarding sound was amplification of certain sounds and the quietening of others. At the end of our trailer, as seen in the shot above, a click of a gun is heard. Amplification was used here to emphasise the main focal point of that shot which is Brad holding a gun. Amplification of sounds is very typical to see in thriller trailers. In 7 Minutes, the click of a gun is also amplified.

Frame 8: Magazine Cover

For frame 8, I used a screenshot from my magazine cover. I used this because I felt like it was a section of my magazine that complies with the typical conventions of real media products.

It includes what is inside the magazine as well as an eye catching, intriguing heading which may entice audiences. 

My magazine also shows the title of our film. This shows synergy between my media products. Other conventions I have used that are consistently seen throughout other magazine covers are things such as including other films of the same genre - The Raptus. I have also used other typical conventions such as an issue number, bar code, and awards that Edge has won. The colour scheme is mainly black,white and red. Black and white to show that our character has two different sides to him, the red, which connotes danger. Many other film magazine covers that have a focus on thriller films also use this same colour scheme. Total Films Inception magazine uses this and so does Empire's Shutter Island magazine. A variety of different fonts and font sizes were also used to make my media product look as close to the real magazine covers as possible. 

The main picture is of our character. He is looking to the side, meaning that the mode of address is indirect. This creates ambiguity as it is unclear on what he is thinking. His plain facial expression and neutral body language further emphasises this. This reflects Brad's personality in our film of him being an unpredictable and in depth character through the use of a single picture. The Inception magazine cover from Total Film also uses a main picture where the character's mode of address is indirect however this was not seen in any other magazine covers, so on the whole, this was not a typical aspect of real media products.

Frame 9: Film Poster

For my film poster, I used a screenshot of the top of the poster - which is how the critiques rate the film. This conforms to one of the standard conventions of this type of media. I felt like how film critiques view the film is important to include in the poster as many audiences actually watch films because of reading good reviews about them.

The main picture is our character facing away from the camera, walking towards a pylon. The fact that he is facing away again shows an indirect mode of address. You also cannot see his face, which allows his mood or feelings to be open for interpretation. This challenges the conventions shown in other media products regarding thriller film posters. No other posters have the character in their main image facing away. We used this as it adds to the mystery.

For many of the film posters that I looked at during research, for example, Shutter Island or The Box, the posters have different layers of image. I decided to implement this into my own poster by using a blood splatter on the forefront of the poster. Blood splatters are an instant indication of danger which is exactly what I wanted to be portrayed. I edited this splatter in photoshop by decreasing the opacity of the blood. By doing this, it allows the audience to still see the main image even though the blood is also directly in the centre of the image. Because of this, it adds more depth to the main picture rather than obstructing it. Shutter Island and The Box also both used a white, black and red colour scheme. I decided to use this as these colours imply/connote stereotypical themes seen throughout thriller films (as explained in frame 8) This colour scheme is also used in my magazine cover, as well as the title of the film. This creates synergy throughout my media products.

Evaluation 4 - How Did You Use New Media Technologies in the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages

Adobe Photoshop CS5- This was the main new technology/software that we used for our ancillary texts. It is very useful because of the high level of detail that you can put into the making of our posters and magazine front covers. It is also not too difficult to use however some tools may take a bit of practise or need to be played around with in order to understand how to use it fully. Photoshop allows the user to edit and refine certain aspects of our poster/magazine cover down to the point of 1 pixel. This is helpful as we can really get into detail with some of the parts and make it look like a real magazine cover or poster.

The main things I used in Photoshop for the making of my ancillary texts were the magnetic lasso, transformation and text.
 - The lasso was useful for cutting out the main image and implementing it into my ancillary texts.






 - Transformation simply allowed me to resize any part of anything and move it around to my liking. This was extremely useful when deciding how to lay everything out.

 - I used the text tool quite a lot as there is a lot of writing on both my poster and magazine cover. The access to many different fonts meant that I could make it look like a real poster or magazine cover which is key in this task. This tool also allowed me to resize the text fully to how I wanted it (height and width) and allowed me to have a neater layout.

We also used Photoshop to make our title and production company logo. The simple to use tools such as background eraser and transformation made it quick and easy to make both of these.

Fruity Loops Studio 10 (FL) - The music for our trailer was made with this software. It is a music software where you can make any type of music, as long as you know how to do it. We felt like this software is quite difficult to use so we had to watch many YouTube videos to get the hang of it.

An advantage of making our own music in oppose to getting it from somewhere is that we can make it exactly how we would like to and we timed it to our trailer. For example, every time there is a beat played, the shot changes. This would be very difficult to do with a pre-made sample of music.

We also let the music create the pace and dictate the tension in our trailer - The music starts off very slow and gradually builds up into a crescendo. We decided to make our trailer follow the same pattern - it starts off slow and the shots get faster and more intense as the music builds and speeds up.

Social media - Facebook, Snapchat - Social media is a great way to communicate with others and played a key role in terms of the planning of everything and also acted as a platform where people can suggest constructive criticism to see what needed changing.

Facebook - It is the social media platform with the most members out of any other social media. We took advantage of this and uploaded our trailer onto Facebook, and asked people if they could deliver feedback.  Having uploaded this on a very popular site, it allowed more people to view it, which lead to more constructive criticism in order to perfect our trailer.

Snapchat - This played a key role in terms of our communication. There were many times where we were not together when making certain things such as the music or specific edits within the trailer. Using Snapchat effectively allowed me to communicate with the person in my group in these situations. The app has heavy emphasis on sending pictures and videos, which was exactly what we needed to see the progression of editing and music and if anything needed to be changed when we were not together.

YouTube - We used this to upload things such as our pitch, different methods of planning and our first drafts, as well as evaluations. This played a key role in our research as we could find thriller trailers to analyse. There is also a very wide collection of trailers to watch so we could get an idea of a wide range of films.

Email - This was used to send things such as files, drafts and ideas to do with our trailer.

Evaluation 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback

Trailer

After having the class and teachers watch our first draft for our film trailer, we received many different comments about it. The main thing that wasn't very good about our trailer was the pacing. The shots were too long and we needed to split them up.

To fix this, we ended up chopping the shots up to make them significantly shorter. Also, with the shots we had, it was not enough because the second half of the split shot kept coming up too frequently so we needed to film a few more shots to make the trailer flow better.

Another comment we received was to put "coming soon" where our title shows up at the end. This was to simply make it seem more like a real trailer and was also very easy to implement into our trailer.

Film poster

For my film poster, the feedback was for minor things such as the positioning of certain parts. The position of the billing block and social media were altered to make the poster look neater. For the title, slogan and "coming soon", it was originally much higher and covered the main picture. The feedback I received was to lower it down in order to make the main picture clear. Another minor thing that I changed was to increase the opacity of the blood splatter so it is still able to be seen, but not covering the main picture too much.

I also removed the age certificate in order to make some space at the bottom of my poster.

Magazine front cover

The feedback from classmates and the teachers was that what I included was good however the layout had to be changed in order for it to look like an actual magazine cover. I spent a good amount of time resizing, reshaping and detailing minor things such as the text in the circle look like it had been put on with a stamp, or simply, the position of certain things.

My magazine is also called "Silver Screen". There was a big "S" and both the words were written smaller next to the big "S". This covered up about a fifth of the page which meant that there would not be enough space for everything else. I wanted to move it down so I could put a slogan/tagline at the top.
 - In order to change this I had to design the title differently so I could fit more on my front cover.

My research on magazine covers has shown that a slogan/tagline is consistently used by many different magazine companies.

Research & Planning - Film titles

From my research on thriller film titles, I found that many thriller films have 1 word titles. This is clearly not always the case but the majority of them do. The single word title films have very 'serious' words such as 'Taken', 'Inception', or 'Identity'. These words also have multiple connotations and can be looked at and interpreted in many different ways. This is why we used a 1 word title.

Before we came up with the title 'Edge', we had other ideas for the title of our film.

-Verge
-Limits
-Duality
-Daydreamer

 - We thought that all of these were good and could not decide between them. Verge and Limits is the connotation of how he takes everything to the edge, including his life and his relationships.

 - Duality is similar to Split, as he has a mental disorder where he has dual personalities.

 - The title Daydreamer also came about as he is on drugs which makes him see and hear stuff which is not there, hence is daydreaming.

We ended up with Edge as we felt like this has multiple connotations and can be interpreted in a lot of different ways in comparison to the other titles. For example, the edge of his life and the edge of a blade - This can be interpreted by just the word 'edge' alone and key themes in our film include suicide and weapons.

Research - Shutter Island Trailer Analysis

Shutter Island (2010)

107 shots

Length - 2:22

As the trailer progressed, the shots got faster and faster. There were also many shots which was all 1 shot but flashed many times. This fast pacing is key in creating tension.

Audience:

The audience for this film is 15+ as it contains violent and frightening scenes, however is targeted to both genders, of any class or nationality.

Star power is also used as Leonardo DiCaprio is a very well-known actor and people who may not be fans of thriller films, may still want to watch the film as it has an actor that the audience may like.

Right at the start of the trailer there is an establishing shot of a large island in the middle of the sea. This straight away shows the audience where the film is set. As it is in the middle of nowhere, it may make the audience question what is on the island, where it is and why it's so significant in the film.






This next shot is of another location. Even though at this point of the trailer, the shots are slow, it is the start of the building up of tension. There is a large building with big, black gates with security there. This may make the audience wonder why there is security there. An extreme long shot is used here in order to show the property. The positioning of the security is a lot closer to the camera as it makes it more apparent on what the main focal points of the shot are.





A long shot is shown of a man dragging another man away. It is a very brief shot, which is not very apparent but is still noticeable. This also creates a suspenseful atmosphere.








A long shot of a prisoner in a cell is used here. It gives clues to the narrative and implications are made that it s not just a regular prison. This is given away from the larger than normal cell and that the prisoner is half-naked.

This close up shows a woman in her late 50s in low-key lighting with bright, harsh light coming from the flame which could connote the harsh world they're living in. It is a very short shot and you can just about see the woman's face, so therefore it is difficult for the audience to guess who she is. She also says "you haven't taken any pills have you?". This adds mystery for the audience as it makes them question what sort of pills they are and what do they do and why this person must take them, further adding to the mystery and tension without giving anything away.

This long shot shows 3 elderly men. In this shot, they are represented to be very important to society. This is shown by the clothing they are wearing (suit and uniform) which is black, as is the car and this connotes seriousness. It also shows star power as they are very well known actors, which may draw the audience into watching it.



A low-angle shot is used here which shows the lead character run up a set of spiral stairs. The low-angle is used here to make the stairs seem much bigger than they are, which may make the audience question what is at the top of the steps. It can also give clues to the narrative - There are implications throughout the trailer that the film is set in a mental asylum and is set before the era we currently live in. People may know that the treatment to mental illnesses used to just be a lobotomy which was done in an area separate to the asylum, which is what is shown here, and is what happens in the film.