Evaluation Question 4

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

I used many different media technologies to create my final media product, one of them being the Internet. In order to create a traditional horror film, I first had to research the already existing horror films that follow the traditional horror conventions so I watched a few horror film trailers using Youtube. From watching these trailers I learned the different conventions, one of them being music.  I found that typical horror music is suspenseful, to help create tension when the audience are watching, leaving a sense of mystery so I used Youtube and Spotify to find different types of music, which other directors have used in their horror films. I then downloaded some suspenseful copyright free music and sound effects to add to my trailer. I used sound effects such as a man screaming because screams have connotations of fear and danger, therefore evoking those feelings in an audience. I also used running sound effects as running insinuates chasing which then triggers the 'fight or flight' feeling our body gives us when we're put in a dangerous situation. This research allowed me to understand the different conventions of a horror film and how to apply them to my trailer.

When starting the filming process, I used excel to plan out our filming days so we had a clear idea of who could film on what days allowing us to predict when we would finish our filming. I also used word to create consent forms which our actors had to sign to show that they were okay with being on camera. I also used powerpoint to create mood board of the seven sisters so I knew exactly what they were going to wear and how to make each sister different from the others in an obvious way. This planning helped to keep my group organised when filming, making sure we knew what props we needed and the costumes our actors should be wearing and made sure we knew what scenes we were filming on certain days, and helped us easily bring each character to life.

After filming the footage and collecting the audio, I used Premier Pro to edit my trailer together and create my final product. I used Premier Pro as I thought it was better than Imovie considering it had more features and more options within those features. An example would be the transitions. I found that Premier Pro had better transitions and there were more options of transitions, specifically more naturalistic transitions. I also feel that Premier Pro allowed me to do things which helped make my trailer look more professional. For example, I found that my male scream was a little higher that I wanted it to be, Premier Pro allowed me to change to pitch and speed of the scream, which helped make it sound more natural and real than it originally did.

After completing my trailer I used survey monkey to gain feedback from the audience. I found that my intended impact was successful.

Evaluation Question 3: Analysing Survey Results

Evaluation Question 3: Audience Feedback Survey

Create your own user feedback survey

Evaluation question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Final poster

Movie Magazine Cover

This is my magazine cover which would usually be used to promote a film. I wanted to make the magazine picture look gloomy and horror-y without making it sinister as that isn't how Kath is portrayed in the film. I added the text with captions like "Killer Kath's Killer interview" which was aimed to catch peoples eye if it was a real magazine.
The red not only adds to the gore in the film but also co-ordinates with the red of the title.

Final Trailer

Trailer update

I finished the trailer off by making the colourful clips longer and also added in the final 'sibling'.

After making sure everything was how I wanted it, I then exported it and re-watched it just to be sure. 

Trailer Editing update

The trailer is almost finished. I added in features to emphasise on specific points, such as a tint over certain clips which corresponds to the colour of their sin, I also added in cards describing parts of the 'film'.

Trailer editing

Once I finished practice editing with the clips, getting to know premier pro, I decided to start working on my real trailer. So far I have changed the clips lighting and added in black screens to give a blinking/flashing effect. I've also added in running sound effects, heavy breathing and a male scream which isn't the type of scream I was looking for so I will have to look for a new scream.

The lighting effect made the scene look darker and as if it was set at night.
The running and breath sound effects makes the scene more intense as there is no music behind it so you can hear the the character is tired but he is still running.
The scream implies that something scary/painful has happened.

Poster editing

After editing before, I decided to try and make a serious poster idea and am please with the outcome. There are changes that still need to be made to this poster, i.e: Adding a release date but I am happy with this poster.

Editing update.

After editing most of the clips, I decided that it needed some audio as that is a common feature in most trailers if not all of them.
I browsed youtube for half an hour before deciding that i didn't really like any of them so I used a copyright free song, I slowed the speed down and lowered the pitch making the song go from sad to horror/creepy.

Poster editing

Whilst filming for the actual trailer, we also had to take pictures for a movie poster/magazine.

To help familiarise myself with photoshop I took a picture I really liked and edited a draft of roughly what I want my poster to look like.

In this draft I added the title, tagline and release date just so I could see the basis of what the poster would look like.

I knew straight away when editing that i didn't want an extremely vibrant and happy picture but I did want the red to be the focus. In order to make the jumper stand out but the rest of the colours to remain quite dull I made the vibrance of the picture really low but the saturation high. By doing this, I dulled the already dull colours of the picture meaning the only bright colour stood out.

Editing Practice update.

After filming more clips and scenes for the trailers, I cut them down to the parts needed and put them in order of the script. This helps me get a basic outlook on the trailer and what all the scenes (almost unedited) look like together and if the order needs to be changed.

Editing Practice

To practise using Premier Pro I edited some of the footage we had filmed and see if it fit together and how it looked. I edited match on action shots and conversation shots. I also cut out the talking and the mistakes of our actors and ourselves as sometimes we laughed or recorded our directing conversations.
Doing this not only helps me practise for the real edit but also allows me to create the base of the clips that are usable and decide which ones will be used in the trailers and how they're going to be used.