What the audience thinks
On the 1st of April we arranged a focus group to view our trailer. Due to some people unable to make it, we had a number of 4 girls and 2 boys aged between 15 - 24. From the feedback we recieved, we established that our target audience understood the basic plot of the trailer, as well as identifying key character roles and functions within the trailer. The audience was also able to identify the settings and thought that they all worked well together for the narrative of the film we are promoting. The audience was able to understand how sound creates meaning within the trailer as Keiran, a member of the focus group stated that 'the sound works well with the shots in the trailer to make it very tense for the audience to watch.' Finally every member of the focus group stated that they would want to go and see our film in the cinema and thought the way we constructed the trailer with 3 possible villians worked well and kept them guessing, which was the result we were hoping for. Overall our group was very happy with the audience feedback we recieved.
Friday, 4 May 2012
Representation of characters
Me (Sarah) - The main character seen as the vunerable yet strong character and potential villian. Wants to seek revenge physically, emotionally and intellectually over the loss of her brother.
Millie Edwards - The nice innocent friend, and the victim.
Jess Watkins - The more confident, loud friend. Seen as a much stronger female than Millie.
We asked some people outside of our group to feature in our trailer:
Will Watkins - played Eddie (Sarah's brother) seen as the innocent vicim but also a potential villian.
Paige Crawford - played the Mother of Sarah and Eddie. Seen as a strong female character, potential victim/villian.
Ryan Probert, Nia Gething, Hannah Jones, Liberty Holder and others played the victims.
The representation of our characters conformed to conventions of the psychological thriller/horror genre trailers by the use of 3 potential villians, confusing the audience of who they should really fear. 2 of our potential villians were female, challenging conventions with the villian usually viewed as a strong male character.
Me (Sarah) - The main character seen as the vunerable yet strong character and potential villian. Wants to seek revenge physically, emotionally and intellectually over the loss of her brother.
Millie Edwards - The nice innocent friend, and the victim.
Jess Watkins - The more confident, loud friend. Seen as a much stronger female than Millie.
We asked some people outside of our group to feature in our trailer:
Will Watkins - played Eddie (Sarah's brother) seen as the innocent vicim but also a potential villian.
Paige Crawford - played the Mother of Sarah and Eddie. Seen as a strong female character, potential victim/villian.
Ryan Probert, Nia Gething, Hannah Jones, Liberty Holder and others played the victims.
The representation of our characters conformed to conventions of the psychological thriller/horror genre trailers by the use of 3 potential villians, confusing the audience of who they should really fear. 2 of our potential villians were female, challenging conventions with the villian usually viewed as a strong male character.
Key themes in our trailer
- Death - seen in shots where the boy is strangled to death and shots where the girl is being dragged to the lake shows that death is about to come. The iconic image of the hooded figure can be seen as another image of death as those close by only have a certain amount of time before the villian reaches them. Our film title also leaves a sense of death with 'Asphyxiate' leaving us with an idea of how the victims are killed, as the meaning of Asphyxiate refers to drowning, suffering and strangling. This can be identified from the beginning of the trailer with the long shot of the boy drowning.
- Past/present - seen at the beginning of the trailer in the black and white shots of the boy drowing in the lake. We have then added a fade to white transition with the title 5 years later to show the audience that we are now in the present.
- Revenge - Key theme in our trailer, as the girl (Sarah) is heartbroken and feels a sense of loss over her brothers death so seeks revenge on those who she blames for his death which can be seen as a pyschological element as she still wants to seek revenge 5 years later, she feels she needs to release her emotions and feelings by taking action in order to move on.
- Loss - Makes the girl (Sarah) seek revenge on those around her.
- Isolation - Conventional in horror trailers. Victims are left isolated and alone at the lake whilst their friends are being killed off one by one. A sense of isolation is seen in the close up of Ryan being strangled to death and trying to shout for help but is completely isolated with the villian.
- The unknown - Fear of what is at the lake and what's taking the victims.
- Family relationships - Can be seen with the loss of the girls (Sarahs) brother and the shot of Sarah and her mother showing that she does not want Sarah going to the lake alone.
- Water - Main theme in or trailer. Links to characters death and history of the lake.
Theories
Todorov - he suggested that conventional narratives are structured in 5 stages:
Vladmir Propp identified a theory about characters and actions as narrative functions. Characters, according to Propp, have a narrative function; they provide a structure for the text.
Characters that perform a function:
Levi Strauss believed that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as he called it 'binary opposites'. For example, our understanding of the word "villain" depends on the difference between that word and the opposing word "hero". Within the media field, binary oppositions are used very frequently in films, especially in the horror genre. Many horror films include sets of binary oppositions in their plots. Particularly good and evil, sane and insane, rational and irrational and human and supernatural.
When looking at Levi Strauss's theory of binary opposite we can see past/present, life/death, power/weakness, suffocation/freedom and the 2 sides of split personality.
Todorov - he suggested that conventional narratives are structured in 5 stages:
- 1st stage - A state of equilibrium at the outset.
- 2nd stage - A disruption of the equilbrium by some action.
- 3rd stage - A recognition that there has been some disruption.
- 4th stage - An attempt to repair the disruption.
- 5th stage - A reinstatement of the equilibrium.
Characters that perform a function:
- The Hero - a character that seeks something.
- The Villian - who opposes or actively blocks the Hero's quest.
- The Donor - who provides an object with magical properties.
- The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message.
- The False Hero - who disrupts the Hero's success by making false claims.
- The Helper - who aids the Hero.
- The Princess - acts as the reward for the Hero and the object of the Villian's plots.
- Her Father - who acts to reward the Hero for his effort.
Levi Strauss believed that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as he called it 'binary opposites'. For example, our understanding of the word "villain" depends on the difference between that word and the opposing word "hero". Within the media field, binary oppositions are used very frequently in films, especially in the horror genre. Many horror films include sets of binary oppositions in their plots. Particularly good and evil, sane and insane, rational and irrational and human and supernatural.
When looking at Levi Strauss's theory of binary opposite we can see past/present, life/death, power/weakness, suffocation/freedom and the 2 sides of split personality.
Feminist Mulvey Theory - known as the gaze.The concept of gaze is one that deals with how an audience views the people presented. She believed that in film audiences have to 'view' characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.
In terms of feminism we have chosen to show our female characters as subjects rather than objects in the male glance. 2 of our villians are females, giving women the overall power.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Promotion
The trailer could be seen as the best promotional device as it gives the audience a glimpse of what is yet to come as well as a greater sense of narrative of what to expect in the film. The trailer can be consumed in a number of ways such as; the trailer can be viewed in the cinema before the screening of their chosen film which is efficient in the way it distributes to the right target audience because trailers of the same genre will appear beforehand. It could also be consumed through the internet through sites such as Youtube, where the audience are able to control what they view. The trailer can be consumed by any member of the audience through television, where the trailer may appear in adverts between programmes engaging the audience with it's good sense of narrative, leaving them with enough code of enigma.
The poster visually promotes the film, usually displayed with an iconic image, main character or well known actor/actress, capturing the audience's attention and creating a USP for the film. The film poster would be consumed on billboards, buses, telephone boxes, bus shelters, or in cinemas.
The magazine front cover captures mainly it's target audience and will capture the audience's attention with who or what is viewed on the front cover of the magazine. A good image will make the reader want to purchase the magazine and will then hopefully persuade them to watch the film by the content contained in the magazine.
From producing my 3 promotional devices, I have discovered that a good image is what most commonly captures the audiences attention, it can lead the product. For example the image on a poster is the first thing the audience will look at and this is what will draw them in. In a trailer, a good image will always stand out and give the audience something to remember. We followed these conventions in our trailer, leaving the more tense and memorable shots till the end, leaving the audience stuck with those images. As well as the image, the promotional devices need to be able to engage with the audience, involving them in the story.
The trailer could be seen as the best promotional device as it gives the audience a glimpse of what is yet to come as well as a greater sense of narrative of what to expect in the film. The trailer can be consumed in a number of ways such as; the trailer can be viewed in the cinema before the screening of their chosen film which is efficient in the way it distributes to the right target audience because trailers of the same genre will appear beforehand. It could also be consumed through the internet through sites such as Youtube, where the audience are able to control what they view. The trailer can be consumed by any member of the audience through television, where the trailer may appear in adverts between programmes engaging the audience with it's good sense of narrative, leaving them with enough code of enigma.
The poster visually promotes the film, usually displayed with an iconic image, main character or well known actor/actress, capturing the audience's attention and creating a USP for the film. The film poster would be consumed on billboards, buses, telephone boxes, bus shelters, or in cinemas.
The magazine front cover captures mainly it's target audience and will capture the audience's attention with who or what is viewed on the front cover of the magazine. A good image will make the reader want to purchase the magazine and will then hopefully persuade them to watch the film by the content contained in the magazine.
From producing my 3 promotional devices, I have discovered that a good image is what most commonly captures the audiences attention, it can lead the product. For example the image on a poster is the first thing the audience will look at and this is what will draw them in. In a trailer, a good image will always stand out and give the audience something to remember. We followed these conventions in our trailer, leaving the more tense and memorable shots till the end, leaving the audience stuck with those images. As well as the image, the promotional devices need to be able to engage with the audience, involving them in the story.
Technologies
A number of technologies were used by myself and the group throughout the process of producing our promotional media portfolios. We used the following technologies:
- The internet - Used to research conventions of horror/psychological thriller trailers to give us ideas on how to construct our own trailer. We used search engines such as Google and Youtube to watch other trailers of the same specific genre. We used sites such as Freeplaymusic.com to download soundtracks and sound effects which worked well with the shots in our trailer. Lastly Blogspot was used to to record our research and planning and progression throughout the process of producing our promotional media portfolios.
- Digital Camera - Used for capturing images for our animatic which allowed us to storyboard each individual shot to get a basic outline of the trailer and make room for improvements. The camera was also used to capture images for our film posters and film magazine front covers, which we were then able to edit using softwares called Photoshop and Paintshop Pro where we were able to adjust the quality of the image and apply layering and effects.
- Video Camera - Used to go out and record shots. Using the camera with the tripod allowed us to achieve a good steady shot as well as varying our angles.
- Adobe Premiere Elements - Used to edit our shots, cut footage, add effects and transitions as well as titles and soundtrack.
- Adobe Indesign - Used to create my film poster and magazine front cover. I found this software much quicker and easier to use due to past experience of using the software at AS Level.
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