What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
To make sure that we gathered enough feedback from our products we showed all of our products to ten females and ten males between the age range of 15-18. We chose this age group as not only is our film got an age certificate of 15, but it was easier for us to access people between these ages. To collect feedback we created a questionnaire for people to look at, and also filmed people asking them the questions and giving reasons to support their answers to help support our feedback and make it stronger. In the questionnaire we asked direct questions so that it would always be a yes or no answer; however we also asked for reasons.
To make sure that we gathered enough feedback from our products we showed all of our products to ten females and ten males between the age range of 15-18. We chose this age group as not only is our film got an age certificate of 15, but it was easier for us to access people between these ages. To collect feedback we created a questionnaire for people to look at, and also filmed people asking them the questions and giving reasons to support their answers to help support our feedback and make it stronger. In the questionnaire we asked direct questions so that it would always be a yes or no answer; however we also asked for reasons.
I feel that the questions we have asked on our questionnaire will help us to understand whether or not our aim of creating a horror trailer with matching ancillary products that all linked together was or was not successful. From our feedback, we put the majority of the answers into different forms of graphs and charts to make the results more visual and easier to understand. Below are some of the results that we collected all put into the form of a graph or chart.
What genre do you think that the film is?
One set of the results that we have put into a pie chart is for the question: What genre do you think that the film is? Just fewer than 75% of the people asked agreed that our products were made for a film of the horror genre. This shows that many of the conventions including, locations, shots, mise-en-scene and characters all matched the typical stereotypical view of things that are included in horror products. It also proves that we followed our research well and developed it.On the other hand, at least three people that participated in our questionnaire also thought that the products were for a film of the thriller film, and one also thought that it was for a sci-fi film. The people who answered differently also provided reasons for thinking this.
Do you think that the three products support each other, using fonts, colours, images etc.?
Another set of results that we have put into a chart is for the question, ‘Do you think that the three products support each other, using fonts, colours, images etc?’ Our results show that 75% of the people who participated in the questionnaire felt that the three products all linked together. They gave different reasons for this such as using the same fonts for the title of the film and also for the slogan. Another reason that was given was because the centre image on the poster of the shadow is also featured in the film trailer. Three people in the questionnaire felt that they wasn’t sure whether or not the three products linked together, one of the reasons that were giving for this opinion was because the central image on the magazine and poster were not the same, and they feel that for many other films they are. Only one person who participated in the questionnairee felt that the three products didn’t match at all and felt that the magazine cover was portraying a ‘completely different image that had nothing to do with the film.’ Other feedback from our questionnaire shows that the majority of people agree that the film should have an age certificate of 15; however others felt that there wasn’t too much gore or too much violence and therefore the film could be classed as a 12a. This could be one thing that we would need to take into consideration. Other results show that the majority of the people who have seen the trailer are glad that it is in non-chronological order for reasons such as; builds up suspension and excitement, has hidden messages and it allows room surprises.
19 out of the 20 people that participated in the questionnaire said that they would like to watch the film to see how the storyline is portrayed and if it was what they expected it to be like. Other reasons that they gave for wanting to watch the film is to find out more about the main girl featured in the trailer and why the story is based around her. Therefore this is a very positive thing as we have attracted an audience using our three products. This shows that our previous questionnaire before we began to do any work helped us a lot and that we used our results to follow and help us with our productions. The feedback that we have received from our audiences has taught us a lot about the successful and unsuccessful traits throughout our three products.From the feedback that we received I think that one of the things that we have learnt is an improvement that we could have made or could have focused on to make the film appear more successful and to make it easier to understand is assuring that the magazine cover and film poster have the same central image of something that is also featured in the trailer of the film. This would also help to show a connection between the products and stop any confusion. After showing some members of our class the trailer a few times, we asked if they thought there were any improvements that could be made. One of the things that were noticed was that they felt that the clip of 'Shell' being slapped wasn't clear enough, and people were confused with what was going on.As well as this, they felt like they didn't understand the relationship between the characters.
In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We used other magazine covers to base our magazine cover on using things such as the left side third, skyline, masthead, coverlines, anchorage texts, the puff and the plug to create a magazine cover that looked like a professional product.
The ideas for our magazine cover mainly stemmed from the most successful British magazines such as ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’. We researched a lot of magazine covers from these two brands and found that the Masthead of the magazine was always in the same font but often changed colour according to the genre and style of the film. As we wanted to stand out from the rest of the groups, we decided to create our own brand of magazine called ‘Eminent’ and the colours of the font in the magazine synergies with the colours in the poster and the titles in our trailer.
In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our product uses forms and conventions of real media products in ways such as going along with the narrative of the genre. In the way we have equilibrium at the start, a disruption of the equilibrium attempts to restore the equilibrium and then leaving it on a cliff hanger to encourage audiences to want to watch the film.
Also, we gathered inspiration for our film poster by looking at other film posters within the same genre as ours – apocalypse. We decided to go with a teaser poster to run parallel with the teaser trailer we had created. This meant that we limited the information on our poster to again entice people to want to find out what our film was about.
We used other magazine covers to base our magazine cover on using things such as the left side third, skyline, masthead, coverlines, anchorage texts, the puff and the plug to create a magazine cover that looked like a professional product.We were able to develop forms and conventions of real media products for our trailer by looking at other films of the same genre such as ‘The Road’ which we developed the way there is very little speech, just key bits that are important for the audience to hear. When we hear this speech, the music dies down and we decided to use this technique in our trailer to create an atmosphere and to signify to the audience that it was a key part within the trailer. We also looked at the ‘I Am Legend’ trailer which effectively uses a voice over at the beginning of the trailer which we decided could be an effective way to begin our trailer.
We developed ideas for our film poster mainly from the teaser poster of ‘Paranormal Activity 2’. We decided to use this poster to develop our ideas because it was an extremely popular film that used a teaser poster rather than a theatrical poster and therefore as a group, we decided to continue with the teaser theme and create a teaser poster.
The ideas for our magazine cover mainly stemmed from the most successful British magazines such as ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’. We researched a lot of magazine covers from these two brands and found that the Masthead of the magazine was always in the same font but often changed colour according to the genre and style of the film. As we wanted to stand out from the rest of the groups, we decided to create our own brand of magazine called ‘Eminent’ and the colours of the font in the magazine synergies with the colours in the poster and the titles in our trailer.We have challenged the forms and conventions of the genre that we chose. We created an apocalyptic film which was in the form of a hybrid because the horror comes from the fear of the world being taken over by a water virus, which is a very real issue and therefore appears to be very scary for the viewer. We attempted to base our film around real ideas such as the water virus ‘Sparganosis’ being a real virus that can be a cause of death.
We felt that our products used an effective combination between our main video and out ancillary texts, showing a continuity of brand, and synergy throughout things such as font, color, text etc. Within our main product, the trailer ‘Sparganosis’, the title is in the same font as we have used for the ancillary texts. We also tried to stay with the same colour of font through all of the film titles with the white body and an outer glow created on Photoshop. The font was used throughout all of our products as we felt it looked effective in the way it stood out and the way if a viewer saw this type of text, they would know that it was from our brand. 
To continue with the synergy of our products, the title ‘Sparganosis’ is situated in the same place on the magazine cover and film poster. We also included the same tagline across our three products; this was ‘A Necessity Becomes A Nemesis’. As a group we created this to really emphasize the genre and what our film was about. The necessity represents the water and the nemesis represents the virus, which is sweeping the world.
We made a connection between the poster and the trailer well because the central image being used on the poster to promote our brand has been taken from a shot in the teaser trailer. After carrying out some research into other film, we felt that we should use a different image on the magazine cover, so we used a stock image of a zombie from Photo shop that represented a person that had been ‘Sparged’.
How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?
We felt that our products used an effective combination between our main video and out ancillary texts, showing a continuity of brand, and synergy throughout things such as font, color, text etc. Within our main product, the trailer ‘Sparganosis’, the title is in the same font as we have used for the ancillary texts. We also tried to stay with the same colour of font through all of the film titles with the white body and an outer glow created on Photoshop. The font was used throughout all of our products as we felt it looked effective in the way it stood out and the way if a viewer saw this type of text, they would know that it was from our brand. To continue with the synergy of our products, the title ‘Sparganosis’ is situated in the same place on the magazine cover and film poster. We also included the same tagline across our three products; this was ‘A Necessity Becomes A Nemesis’. As a group we created this to really emphasize the genre and what our film was about. The necessity represents the water and the nemesis represents the virus, which is sweeping the world.We made a connection between the poster and the trailer well because the central image being used on the poster to promote our brand has been taken from a shot in the teaser trailer. After carrying out some research into other film, we felt that we should use a different image on the magazine cover, so we used a stock image of a zombie from Photo shop that represented a person that had been ‘Sparged’.After receiving some audience feedback, we discovered that after watching our film and viewing our products, the audience was able to identify that they were all from the same brand and that they worked effectively with each other.
From our research, we also understood that one of the most important things that you must think about when creating a film trailer, assisted with a magazine cover and theatrical poster, if that they link together and share essential things. Therefore the title ‘Sparganosis’ is written in the same font and displayed clearly on all of them to show a strong connection. By having the same images, fonts and colours on all three of the products it means that the audience will be able to see them in different places such as cinemas, on TV, billboards and buses and automatically know that they are the same product. As well as this they all portray the same thing which stops the audience getting confused on what the genre of the film may be, and means that they will not be questioning things or getting mixed messages about the film.
How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
