Blogs

Some of my blogs are not in a general order this is because my account would not let me and therefore my blogs are slightly mixed up, i did try and overcome this problem however it was inevitable.

Changes

The only real change we made throughout this whole trailer was the poster, the original poster doesn't look anything like our final piece. This was due to hard thinking and going through step by step of what conventions thrillers had. Our biggest problem was the quality of the pictures, the idea of somebody looking through a window down at Harley was far to complex to add in images from different sources and this was to time consuming. We also changed the title of our film which then helped us figure out a new concept for our poster. As we then called it anonymous we made the main picture of a phone, this phone was an original picture and we edited the picture so that it fitted in with the idea of our poster.

This was our original poster, very different to our final piece.

This was the original phone picture which we then manipulated and edited onto our final piece.

Overall Evaluation

From an overall point of view I think that the group that we worked in as a two worked really hard on this trailer. We both worked on different parts but varied what we did so that we both had the chance to learn new skills and use them to our advantage.

I think using new programmes was the hardest part of our editing and also time management.

Using Photoshop for our magazine was quite difficult as we had never used the programme before, however we learnt new skills and how to edit images and then use two programmes at once. Using Photoshop worked well because it was a high quality programme with lots of tools to use and adapt to our trailer.The programme live type was also quite new to us, however again we overcame the difficulty of learning the programme so fast and made it into a challenge and picked up new editing skills for the future.

I think by creating both a poster and a magazine it helps sell the trailer really well, because you then project more information onto both products. Equally as hard making the film took time and it was quite consuming but using the programme final cut express was a lot easier than using pinnacle. I found the editing software to be a lot more up to date with far more effects and it was a lot easier to use and it gave us the chance to really work as a group and create this trailer.

If I could re do my trailer again I think that I would probably do as much planning as I could. Creating more storyboards and lists and making sure that we had a gant chart that we followed, just in case we fell behind. But I don’t think I would choose a different genre. I thoroughly   enjoyed creating a thriller and found the storylines to be exciting however the difficulty of creating a thriller was making sure that we didn’t spill over into the horror genre.

All of the small things like learning Photoshop and new programmes worked well because not only are you producing a piece of media but you are also then creating products that help to sell the trailer, this helps with marketing and i think that’s what I’ve learnt the most. That you can create the trailer but you need the initial help to push off with and make the sales.

These pictures show our progress with each of the new programmes that we dealt with when we were editing our trailer.

Audience Feedback

I used two social networking sites to receive audience feedback; I used YouTube to upload the film on and then Facebook to establish the audience feedback.

The majority of the feedback was very positive. This is useful to have, because you learn different point of view and not just your own. Audience feedback is important because they are the people watching and wanting to be entertained by the trailer. You can see from any audience feedback what it is you are doing right or wrong and for future reference what you can do to change it so that it benefits audiences.
The best way to get audience feedback is to post as much information as possible over the Internet, this is because there are thousands of people online all the time and can constantly critic anything.

We had a chance to hear other audience feedback from the rest of our class.

Here are some of the negative points;

·      Make title bigger on the magazine

·      Billing Block small on poster

·      Poster could include main character

·      Magazine change the colour of the background

·      Title bigger on the magazine next to Harleys face

·      Sound is too loud in some points

·      Poster may not hit target audience

Here are some of the positive points;

·      Good variety of shots

·      Good title for trailer

·      Shots were clear and laid out well

·      Split screen worked well

·      Really effective when the shots got faster, built up tension well

·      Cliff hanger ending

·      I like how the voiceover was split up and not all in one go

·      Good that they have added facts (132billcalls)

·      The title of the phone montage is very professional

·      Good night vision

·      Build up of music is good

·      Silence at the end followed by ‘the other person has cleared’

·      etc

These are screenshots of how many views our trailer had on YouTube, and the comments that people left on YouTube for our own audience feedback.

Poster Evaluation

Our poster ideas changed quite a lot through the making of our trailer, however we finally settled on the idea of a phone being the main background image. This worked well because our trailer is called anonymous with a small a for additional effect. The name links in with the image because as the narrative explains somebody unknown is ringing off of an anonymous phone number.

We wanted to continue the theme of black red and white to our poster to make it consistent. This consistency allowed for the target audience to feel comfortable when looking at our poster. I also think the colours worked really well for the type of trailer that we have.

We created the billing board quite easily using word and then decided to make it look more effective we added in the white writing every so often so that the words stood out and made the poster look more desirable for the target audience.

We made the names of the main characters in white so they stood out against the black background and made the font size quite big above the main title so that the target audience could tell that they were starring in it. This worked well because as we later found out from extended research having the actors/actresses names on the poster is an important convention.

Magazine Evaluation

Our magazine was created to entice our specific target audience. We made Harley as herself the main image for the front cover. We wanted to do this because we thought as w a group this worked well because it stood out to people and made people look at this attractive young woman, who like on most magazines attract their typical audiences. We used the colour scheme red black and white because we thought it fitted well with the type of genre that our film was and that was a thriller. Also we didn’t want to make the magazine to conventional in terms of fitting it into a specific season so we were careful when we made the decision of what colours we used. This worked well because I think the red is a bold colour and stands out against the black and the white. These colours are typically used in thrillers such as 'the Roomate' and the film 'obsessed'. We made the magazine an average price of £1.99 after researching magazines like 'Empire' and 'Film' magazines.

We used a range of different sizes and fonts for out magazine this was to create the variation and made sure that the magazine cover didn’t look boring. We wanted to make sure it stood out. This worked well because as all the different styles came together it made the magazine look more professional/

We added in at the bottom of the magazine a story line image that showed clips of our trailer on the front cover of the magazine. We did this so that the target audience would read the front page and want to buy it to look inside at what the trailer was all about. This worked well because it gave the audience a sort of tease of the trailer before they watched it and gave great suspense for our trailer beforehand.

 

 

 

Evaluation of shots

This establishing shot that we used at the beginning of the trailer was to let the audience know the whereabouts of the film or at least parts of it. The birds in the shot worked well because it gave it that ominous feeling. The lighting for the shot wasn’t to dark or to bright so this worked well in creating that intense feeling for a thriller. Something that is quite common in most thriller films.

This shot i think worked well because it allowed the narrative to really take place, you can see from this mid shot from behind that the impression the angle is trying to make is that the stalker is watching her and it almost gives the feel that the audience are the stalkers and can see everything that this character can see. Making the audience feel uneasy.

The lighting was very good for this shot it allowed us to see the brightness of the bushes as well as what Harley was wearing to emphasise her vulnerability.

We did this because we wanted to make sure that she as a character stood out because she is a victim and we wanted to make the impression through the camera angles.

This shot from behind her worked well because it gave the tease feeling to it then allowed the target audience to see that she was being watched and was unaware of this because the camera was facing directly in her face.

This next shot of Harley sitting in a living room on the phone is also a long shot because you can see all of her body. We decided to have this shot to distinguish how distressed the character was about having numerous unknown calls. This shot is quite long but it clearly shows the narrative that she is being stalked. The costume she is wearing is simple we didn’t want to go overboard we wanted to make her look as vulnerable as we could but not make it to obvious. This worked well because from our previous research we had seen most victim characters wearing plain and simple clothing. A typical convention of a thriller film. The lighting in this shot isn’t to bright either this was to compliment Harley and what she was doing in this shot. This worked well again because we wanted to highlight the fact she was a vulnerable character in the film.

This split screen shot was something that was the most hardest to accomplish because it took a lot of editing and time to work out how to put both clips onto final cut. We overcame this problem quickly and i think it worked well because you could see both reactions and you could also see the character whilst they were having their phone call.

We used the close up shot because we wanted to reveal the emotion on the characters faces while they were having this phone call. This worked well because this part in the trailer was the plot were the narrative then took off and then the shots started to get quicker, and the music was more intense.

This shot of Harley and bola was used to establish the story line and to make the target audience think that it was bola. The mid shot allowed the target audience to see the sort of relationship they had and we choose to use the field because it was simple and easy to film.

This shot worked well because it created tension and then allowed the audience to think about this new character that had been revealed.

The extreme close up shot of Jacobs feet was an excellent idea to create suspense as the pace of the shots started to begin. The close up shot didn’t reveal whose feet they were and it allowed the option of it being anybody’s feet. It was quite a quick shot but still maintained its purpose to create the thrill. This shot worked well because it didn’t reveal which character it was. The shot was also quite bright so that everything could be seen for the audience and that meant that the shot was good quality and didn't look to much like a horror and we still then maintained the thriller genre convention that we wanted.

This shot had a few problems with it, that being that when we were editing on the Macs the face of the character was not seen however when we switched over to a Windows computer you could then see the characters face. This was unfortunate because of the way the long shot was taken and it was an editing error. We wanted the lighting of the shot quite dark so that the target audience didn’t see whose face it was. This worked well because it again maintained the thriller suspense and along with the music in background and the fast paced shots it all merged really well.

We used this extreme close up shot, because we wanted to capture the emotion on Harley's face, because she was playing the vulnerable victim we thought putting the camera at the angle that it was at as if we as an audience were looking at her created great suspense. It worked well because the lighting wasn’t to dark it then captured all the emotion through the eyes but didn’t give away too much of the narrative at this point in the trailer.

The titles were the easiest parts of the editing I would say. We used a programme called live type something that is used on the Macs. We found it quite easy to use and we learnt how to use it in a day.

The titles were put in at the beginning because we didn’t just want the voice over we wanted facts and figures out down in the titles for the target audience to read. We made the text white and the back ground black. This worked well because it was quite thrilling and it didn’t spill over into the conventions of a horror. That was something we made sure throughout filming and editing.