Friday 30 April 2010

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used http://www.youtube.co.uk/ to help collect ideas for my film and ideas of how to put a teaser trailer together. I watched the Saw teaser trailers to help with the whole torture scene and how to film that, and watched a few gangster teasers to get the way the gangsters should act. I also used http://www.empireonline.com/ to find teaser posters and magazine front covers to annotate for the research and get ideas for my teaser poster and magazine front cover. The use of blogger helped for feedback on ideas and help for ways i could edit and film my teaser trailer. I used adobe photoshop to put together my poster and magazine front cover, it was more complicated to use but gives a better look to the poster and magazine front cover.





For the filming stages i used a camera on a tripod for the final scene for the stability i found using the tripod meant that the shot was steady. using the camera handheld also gave the film a different feel and look to it meaning the trasition between handheld and on a tripod gives the film a better look.





For the editing stages i used adobe premeier elements a more advansed editing software than the editing software in year 12 coursework. the adobe editing software gave ther teaser trailer a better look as the more advansed elements e.g effects, transitions and cutting, meant it would be a more professtional look to it.





the ancillary texts e.g the poster and the magazine front cover, i used adobe photoshop which has alot more elements to it meaning the finished product looks alot better than it would on publisher which is less advansed than adobe photoshop.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Feedback

-I liked the different camera angles and sepia to portray the anxiety of the flashback juxtaposed to suspense of the present.The trailer gives a good portrayal of a fantastic movie to come.The narrative was a bit faulty however this can be improved immediatly with some strong backing musicThe blocking of the final scene gave a dramatic sense of hierachy whilst at the same time focusing the audiences attention into the suspending dialogue
-Great teaser - nice effect of sepia in the opening shot, and clever idea to use a dentists chair; it makes you feel really uneasy - not a nice place to be! Definitely want to see what happens next! P.S. If this trailer is a work in progress, I think some kind of background music would enhance the suspense.
-A great trailer with just the right amount of intrigue to draw you into the storyline without giving too much away. I like the use of sepia to depict the flashback  both for its subtle contrast with the black and white of the present as well as the sense of foreboding it instils in the viewer. The narrative is well-written but a bit jumpy, a smoother delivery might create a greater sense of fear. That said, the final image of the helpless victim builds the suspense and makes me want to see more
-A trailer that made me want to know how they would meet their fate! The opening filmwork in sepia conveyed well that it was historical and the narration gave just enough plot away. This was very well supported with the taster of how one was to meet death in the dentist's chair. What will happen to the rest? I will have to go and see it - exactly the mission of any trailer
-its really good! the handheld camera at the beginning adds realism to the trailer and makes the audience feel involved also the lack of soundtrack creates an on edge feel as we do not know what will happen next. The dialogue gives away genre and narrative indicators but still leaves unanswered questions - enigma!!!!I really liked the different coloured shots at the beginning - shows that it is not in the same time frame as the rest of the trailer, a flash back?

I have learn't from my audience feedback that the a backtrack could help the teaser trailer as many have commented on the lack of one, however i still stick by not using a backing track as it gives a new convention to my teaser trailer. I have also lean't that the i have used all the aspects of editing quite well and that the teaser trailer is good. Also i have learn't that the narrative of the teaser trailer could do with so work to make it flow better than it does now. Overall the audience feedback has give me alot to think about and change but also showed good aspects of the teaser trailer.

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


The titles of the teaser trailer is used in a common conventional manner as most other teaser trailers. the titles are at the start and the beginning of the teaser trailer and the end. this does not disrupted the flow of the teaser and allows the script to explain rather than putting in title to explain it.
The settings/locations of the teaser trailer are conventional of the genre of gangster horror, however the final scene is in a dentist surgery which for a location is quite unusal for a gangster horror genre but still works quite well in the teaser trailer.
The costumes and props also follow the conventional gangster and horror genre's with the gangsters wearing suits and holding weaponds in the first scenes. However in the middle section with the scripted part the characters are wearing normal cloths which challenges the conventional costumes of the gangster genre. I did this as they were in a homely setting and wanted the costumes to match that. In the final scenes the use of the needle goes against conventional weaponds the killers would use. however the saw movies also goes against the conventional weaponds used which i got my idea from.
The camera work is quite similar to most teaser trailers with short shots and giving away little in the scenes filmed. The editing however is less conventional to the normal teaser trailers out at the moment with none using the old style filming and black and white effects which gave the teaser trailer a different look than other teaser. The lack of a soundtrack also goes against the conventional teaser trailer but gives the teaser more suspense like it does in the coen brother film "No Country For Old Men" which uses no soundtrack in the film for suspense.
The teaser sets up the storyline by firstly giving a back story with the flashback scene and the scripted part giving away what the plot might be like. However the it still holds back on alot fo the story which doesnt spoil the film and means the audience will want to go see it without knowing the entire storyline already.
The genre is suggest by the costumes of the charcters as a gangster genre , with the suits and the weaponds. however in other parts of the teaser it doesnt give away the genre as much by costumes. The killer character also gives away the genre of horror as most horror films have a killer.

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

The teaser trailer starts off with a black screen with the name of the company that are putting out the film "Shme Productions Presents", i choose to make up one so that it looks more like a small budget film than if i used a universal or warner brothers title which would imply that there would be quite a big budget for the film, which there is not. It then follows into the next scene which is the name of the director/producer of the film which as i filmed and edited the teaser trailer i put my name "A Josh De Almeida Film".





The teaser then goes from the titles and fades in to the first scene which has had an old film effect which gives it a flashback look to it which worked well with the rest of the film. I t also has been air brushed so that it looks more like a flashback with no solid edges and its kind of blurry in a way which also adds to the flashback concept. The scene shows a gang style fight with them standing off with the camera being the rival gang which gets the audience involved as they are seeing it through the eyes of the rival gang. Being filmed handheld, it gives the scene a more realistic feel and makes the audience feel like they are the rival gang. Then a trasition of additive dissovle is used to add to the flow of the teaser trailer and also adds to the flashback look of the first two scenes. The second scene also done in handheld and from the point of view of the rival gang shows the leader of the gang running at the camera and then fleaing in the scene before this, being shot after being captured by the rival gang which is implied rather than shown in the first scene. the scene is filmed at a high angle shot looking down on the gang leader being shot in the head, showing that it is a point of view shot. The use of the high angle shot shows the power differnce between the gang leader and the rival gang as he's on the floor and they are standing over him. This scene has also had the same effects put on it as the scene before this as it is still apart of the same flashback scene. It then uses the same trasition as the first scene to the second scene of a additive dissovle which flashs back to reality.





The third scene shows the gang a year later with a new leader who is talking to the gang about what happened a year ago which you see in the first two scenes (the fashback scenes). The camera pans across the gang around the table showing the reactions of the gang members to the speech of the new leader. The shot used is a medium shot as it shows the reactions but shows the location, which a close up would only show the reactions. Showing the location shows the difference between the gang a year ago and the gang now getting the audience more interested as they don't know where the location is but they know what it looks like so it gives away enough to keep the audience watching but holds back enough to get them interested and generating questions (enigma's) generating more interest in the film which a teaser trailer is there to do. The use of the black and white effects on this scene and the rest of the scenes also generates more enigma's like "will the film be in black and white? is it only black and white in the teaser trailer? will the film feature black and white scenes?" the more enigma's the more interest developes with the teaser trailer doing what it was made to do. The trasition used to link the third scene and the forth was a dip to white which keeps the flow of the teaser trailer going.





The forth scene is a carry on from the third one, talking about his encounter with a gypsee who told him information that he is telling the gang. The trasition from this scene to the fifth scene (the kill scene) is an additive dissolve showing the difference in time between the scene, but instead of a flashback its a whats to come scene. The gang leaders talking laps over in to the fifth scene as he talks about the ways in which the thing will kill them. Which keeps the flow of the trailer going and gives a voiceover effect to the scene which is seen in most teaser trailers. The camera is on a tripod for the fifth scene as it isnt a point of view shot and doesnt disrupted the scene with movements from the camera, the scene just flows. The shot used is a low angle medium shot showing the reactions of the character being chained to this operation chair. The killer never showing his face also creates enigma's as you wounder "who is the killer?". If the teaser showed the killers face it would spoil the entire film. The scene being filmed in a surgery gives a erray effect to the scene showing the genre of a horror, but never gives away "why the surgery?". The trasition to a title between the kill scene and the final scence means that the trailer doesn't give away what the injection does to him, meaning that the audience will want to see what happeneds. Also the continued screams and groans through the title scene adds to it as it give sthe effect of it still going on but you can't see it. The title between it says "coming to a cinema near you" the use of the YOU involves the audience getting them to go to the cinema to watch this film, so the teaser is doing what it wa made to do, to get audience's interested and to get the to go see the film. The final scene showing the character who was injected from the scene before covered up, also creating enigma's as you want to see whats happened to him, the scene wouldnt acctuly be in the film its just in the teaser trailer to get audience's interested in the film. The final title on which it ends on only shows the year 2011 which gives away enough so that the audience will look out for it, but holds back enough that the audience will be more interested and searching for the film and generating interest in the film. The lacking of a soundtrack to the teaser trailer is a new convention not normally seen in teaser trailers, but the coen brothers lack of a soundtrack to the film "No Country For Old Men" gave the film a new dimetion which built up suspence better as you can't tell whats going to happen, as the soundtrack usally indicateds what might happen. This gave me the idea not to use a soundtrack which gives the teaser added suspence.





The three texts of a teaser trailer, teaser poster and magazine front cover all promote the film by giving away as little as possible but enough to get the audience interested in the film. The poster only shows three characters from the film which gives away some but not alot of information and the tagline " It's Coming For And It Wants It's Revenge!" gives away that its a horror with there being a killer or something that kills. The magazine front cover also doesn't give away alot as it doesn't show the name of the film which the poster and the teaser trailer also doesn't do, which generates more enigma's for the film. Also only shows two of the characters which feature in the poster so that it doesn't give away much but enough to create enigma's and interest in the film.

Here is the final completed teaser film poster.

Well this is my finished magazine front cover.

Wednesday 28 April 2010

link to teaser trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QemgfHLkpto

well here is the teaser trailer in all its glory enjoy!