Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Sabrina's Q.3

Feedback is needed for any production weather it is professionally done or not as it helps to develop our work. We realize that to develop we have to take constructive criticism as it helps to make our work better which allows use to also give our target audience what they want as we are making it for them to watch. The first step to receiving this feedback was to make our teaser trailer available for the public to see what the response would be. We used various websites like YouTube which allowed us to get a mass response rather than just asking people in college as they are likely to be biases as we know them, but people that we do not know are more likely to be objective and give their honest opinion. We also posted our teaser trailer on Facebook and Twitter so that others can give use there opinion as well. We received a vast amount of comments that were positive and negative this allowed use to analyses what they like and disliked about the teaser trailer.

We also posted our teaser trailer on Facebook and Twitter so that others can give use there opinion as well. We received a vast amount of comments that were positive and negative this allowed use to analyses what they like and disliked about the teaser trailer. We had emailed some of my friends the link of our ‘sinners’ teaser trailer with the tag line ‘confession has a new outcome’ and because some of my friends are Christians it sparked a good debate on weather we should have used a wholly place for our horror teaser trailer. They responded with some suggestions of ‘using a place like a school as that’s the usual place where teen horror films are made not the lords house’. As this was one of the conventions that we wanted to challenge it made me realize that not everyone is so accepting of this and some Christian groups will feel upset with it. As in previous films like ‘stigmata’ which was highly controversial because of the way it expressed different issues within the Catholic Church one of the those themes was holiness.

I sent another email to someone containing the ancillary text which has given me some vital information that I needed. Some of the comments made were that ‘both your magazine cover and poster are good I especially like the lighting on the poster it makes the boy look like he has a soft side’. This made me think that the person commenting thought that the priest could have a split personality which could eventually be developed if we where to be continuing making our teaser trailer into a film.

Another messege that we received was from a media student who understood that we had to challenge some convections and sent me an email saying ‘this is a fairly good trailer however it would have been good if I could here the dialogue I couldn’t make out a thing, the soundtrack is also good but I think it would have been more effective if at 23seconds there where are crescendo of sound and then we see the out come, but I loved the ending’. This comment was very beneficial because it gave me quite a bit of feedback that our group needed. It would have been more effective if we had made sure that the sound was clearer so that the dialogue can be heard as it is a big part of the teaser trailer however there was another email that stated ‘even though you cannot here what the characters are saying the captions help so we no what direction its going in’.

Monique's Q.3

or people to be alerted of buzz around the web and communicating with friends, It made a brilliant gateway for direct responses from users.



As seen above we have comments made by friends from facebook about one of our ancillary texts. The overall response is that it has successfully embraced the conventions of horror and received positive feedback with it being 'eye catching', having a good sense of lighting and the use of shadows which was an added effect of using photoshop to enhance the darkness surrounding the model. Now with what could of been improved if we were to attempt this goal again would be as it is stated from several individuals getting the bloody hands in another layer to get it to stand out more would be a definite factor to think on, although the reason we did not do that was because of not wanting all attention on the hands. We wanted it to have a focus when you first appear to look on the image but not where it will draw eyes from the importance of the shadows embracing the model and darkening one side of the hands. Another thing that could be changed would be the tagline with the front. It is said to seperate it's self from the image but that was definitely something we wanted to achieve, as previously said in an earlier questions it connotes similarities to being looked on from above so the font would be different from others on the poster because of it needing to stand out. This font was also used to have a continuity to the other media products.

The positive feedback from the poster summarises for us that we effectively brought out the important factors that needed to stand in the photo. e.g. For it to be called 'eye catching' we must have used the right amount of blood and manipulated the lighting in photoshop cs3 well for this statement to be said. Another summary of positive feedback is from the use of lighting and how it connoted the horror genre which is what our stimulus was. We successfully got what was needed to come across to the audience with the different proportions of light that casted off/on the subject within the image creating shadows in the right places (on the light side of the model's face)

Our areas of improvement are the tagline and creating another layers for the bloody hand image. Overall we can see from the comments that these are two important factors that the audience decided with the correct alteration would enhance the image making it expand in being more outstanding and within more suitable conventions of how film posters have a good continuity for all ancillary texts. As stated above the tagline in replacement to how it is already presented would be made to stand out more with possibly a different font that is still serif and a different colour being used to contrast with the other continuous colours used.

As twitter.com as become very popular over the last year and fights among facebook to be the top social networking site, we see these opportunities to create promo pages. This would be a very good way of gettin feedback from an achillary text, The same goes with facebook however there is a slight change in last year from fan pages, previously it would of stated how many fans were apart of the group but it now is how many people like it. We decided not to create either pages as it could be done after the film was released to unreveal info on upcoming goodies for our audience enjoy and news on the post production e.g. extra scenes, possible extended versions/directors cut.

Leyla's Q.3

To receive audience feedback for the magazine cover, I made a survey on survey monkey consisting of seven questions. Five being multiple choice and two questions where there is a box for writing in their own words; question 3 and 7.
1. Do you think the colours used connote horror genre?
2. Do you think the information on the magazine cover is clear?
3. What do you think of the photo quality? is there anything you would change/improve on?
4. is it obvious that the film 'Sinners' is a horror?
5. do you think that £3.99 is a reasonable price for this magazine?
6. Do you think this magazine cover follows the conventions well of a film magazine?
7. Anything else you would like to add regarding conventions of a horror magazine?
11 people answered the questions.

From the feed back on question 1, I found that 100% of people who answered said they agree with the colours used connote horror genre so the colour scheme used wouldn't be changed if we had to change anything or redo something.

For question 2, 36.4% of people thought the information on the magazine cover could be clearer. If we re-did anything, I think making each film title in the cover lines a different font would make things clearer for the audience. all other people who answered that question said they thought the information on the magazine cover was clear.

I made question 3 a required question so that I could get the best feedback possible. I had a mix of different opinions on what people thought but they were mostly positive. Making the picture shaper and making it stand out more was said a few times, and the blood on his hands wasn't clear enough, so if we could change anything, we would listen to that criticism.

18.2% of people didn't think it was obvious that 'Sinners' was a horror film. because a majority of the people said it did in fact look like a horror, over looking the small percentage of people who didn't and keep to the original idea would seem like a safe option.

Only 2 people thought that 3.99 was unreasonable for price for the magazine. because of different research into prices for film magazines, we know that this is in fact a in the lower price range of a film magazine so this is also a result we can over look.

For question 6, 36.4% of people didn't think that the magazine cover had covered conventions of a horror magazine in everyway, some but not all. because this is quite a big percentage, this would be something we consider if we were to change anything, we would re-evaluate on conventions just to make sure we cover them all the best we can.

I made questions 7 so that it wasn't required just to see if anyone had anything to add, I only got 2 responses out of 11, One saying that the font wasn't brilliant which is something that has already been considered and the picture could be scarier. I am sure that if the blood in the picture was emphasized, the picture would all in all look more slasher horror which is what we were aiming for, and we would achieve the effect of making it look more scary.

Jide's Q.3

I have learnt that when using youtube or any other file sharing site on the internet it helps to do two crucial things which are less effort and time to promote media created as you will be able to use facebook, email the link to friends and also it helps your friends to promote your film using the internet. also the use of youtube is useful as people of different countries with different beliefs and ideas are able to comment on your videos which in turn would benefit future videos made.

Below shows the feedback we gained from people whom commented on our trailer and the most constructive feedback we received was a feedback regarding someones views about our sound being to low and the person being barely able to hear words due to the volume not being edited properly. Another helpful comment given was one given about an spelling mistake made in one of the clips which could show that maybe when we make trailers we should check our mistakes.

Below shows a video made which asks 3 different pupils 5 questions which would be used to give us an idea of whether we followed conventions which are of a horror film genre or we drifted off to a more different genre all which would be of useful knowledge to us.

Overall we thought that there are many more way that we could have promoted our teaser trailer than to have just used the obvious means of networking like YouTube, twitter and Facebook. All that we have used has given us a well rounded range of comments that we can analyze. The comments we received where very constructive and allowed use to gain vital information on how we could have made our teaser trailer better. There were even some comments that we can potentially be use to make it better. Overall we are satisfied with the feedback that we got even though we would have liked more comments on our Youtube account as it would have allowed use to have a wider range.

Sabrina's Q.3

We used Facebook and Twitter because it is very common in today's society for social networking sites, ranking at the top 2. In 2010 it was said that Twitter had 200 million users and Facebook with 600 million from January 2011. Twitter was used more for promotion towards our achillary texts and Facebook was what was used to gather the feedback which was main source of gathering peoples thoughts and excessive ideas onto what can be improved. Using these sites allowed a better opportunity for our promotion towards our media products we used two worldwide social networking sites.

Evaluation - Question 2

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

Monique's Q.2

When in the planning/research stages of our project, we had a general understanding of how synergy, cross media promotion and continuity works within the media industry as we had studied up on this for our AS media institutions and Audiences. We then knew what needed to be done in making our products to make links to each other. For example, it would be highly inappropriate to promote objects and clothing linked to a sexual references in a movie rated 12A.

Although we were aware of this, producing what we wanted to achieve was not an easy task as we came to realise there are many things that need to be done to not only make a products recognisable with each other however to get the products to blend with the conventions we had in mind to reflect well as horror and getting our demographic audience to be draw to it by just a glance. In doing this we would head of to resembling those of which are already out there in the industry and accelerating to new heights in the box office.
Below will be examples of how we would use these techniques of media to aid our distribution and effectiveness of our main product and ancillary texts.


Before we started filming and were taking ideas we first remembered that when it came down making a film, a magazine and a poster all three projects would need to link together in order for the audience to recognise that our products all belong together. For example it would not make sense for a film trailer to have a light setting, then have a green high key lighting with an arial font and finally have a dark magazine look with new times roman font as this will confuse the audience showing a lack of continuity, show poor planning and understanding and will not show what you are promoting.

Jide's Q.2

Examples of brand identity/ continuity being used can be shown with warner bros dark knight continuity below

If you were to compare the three things such as dvd cover, poster and magazine you can clearly see that they all have a aura of an light blue effect each showing one important aspect which is clearly the city whether it is in turmoil or fine and by clearly looking at each you can clearly tell that they are promoting the exact same thing which would be the film. Also it could also be seen that with the poster and DVDs cover similar font is used which could also be said about the color range being almost identical if not similar which again goes with continuity. Finally it could also be noticed that the poster and dvd have the dark knight logo which could go to show that the warner bros are trying to increase the brand or logo awareness of the dark knight.

























Above is our poster, magazine and film trailer screen shotted showing continuity between our 3 products as you can notice that the title has the same font used through out which was Lycanthrope used from the website ''dafont.com'' which allows you to use a different variety of fonts. We picked the Lycanthrope font as we felt that we did not want to run the risk of using the same font as someone else and we also felt that the default fonts used in Photoshop were to simplistic to give a horror look. notice how the backgrounds are dark, low key lighting and has a dark evil red look to it which is a common convention of horror as dark and red connotes evil, horror and vulnerability. We also made sure to use the same font we used for the poster in the magazine which was ''Trebuchet MS'' as we wanted to keep and maximize the whole continuity effect. The Trebuchet font gives a bold look and at the same time looks different meaning that it is bold to stand out to the audience but at the same time different to make the audience feel intrigued and maybe a little bit uneasy. Also our first ideal picture of the poster was to involve a specific picture shown below but we were unable to as unfortunately enough a other group member Sabrina unintentionally made a mess of the picture and at the same time a important prop we used was unavailable meaning we had to take a completely new picture. However we were able to take a picture which was not on the same level as our ideal choice but never the less extremely useful to us. The only things I feel we could have done to improve continuity would be if we were able to make a logo to improve toward would be to be able to develop a logo and also to be able to handle a high quality camera most effective.
The camera used to both record and take photographs was the Canon Eos 4OOD which was the

best available camera we could use to film at the time. We wanted to use the best camera because we felt that it would give us an advantage or a edge over other groups ensuring we used the camera with the highest quality available

Cross media promotion is indescribably important to the film industry as it could be the difference between having a small amount of consumers and large amount of consumers who know about your film as it promote a media product by a wide range of platforms being a iphone, a computer, a games console and other traditional media platforms. The Dark Knight cost 187million dollars to produce which is an extremely large amount of money to spend producing a film. However it was able to generate 1billion dollars back in return and I feel that was mostly down to the massive cross media promotion of the Dark Knight. The film

was promoted among many media items such as

Sabrina's Q.2

When it come to creating a buzz about a product that has been created for the viewing public there are a variety of components that are made to make sure that the product is being advertised to make sure that the target audience that, that film is aimed at know all about it. Through out pre production and the film making process there are always ways that the film makers can track the progress of the buzz they are creating weather its buy reading comment from the people interested. Even before the film had come out there is a Facebook page, twitter page website and blogs that allow the people to be interactive and express there views. This helps to build the branding of the film as if the images, logos and characters of the films have been seen by some of the people interested when they start to see more from the film they will automatically recognize that this is from the film being that they were interested in or herd about previously. An example of this is the with the dark knight franchise who are in the middle of production of the 3 film in the dark knight franchise which is called ‘the dark knight rises’ it is due to be released in July 2012 and already have a teaser trailer that has over 21000 views.

Evaluation - Question 1

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

Sabrina's Q.1

A teaser trailer is a short advertisement designed to captivate an audience to want to watch an up and coming film. It allows the audience to get a snippet of the film thus not to spoil or give away the plot. As we had to make a Teaser trailer, Magazine cover and a Movie poster we sat down and thought about what makes a good teaser trailer and incorporated those ideas into our media production. Various things we discussed where whether we were going to stick to the conventions of main characters being male as well as the ethnicity of the victims and the connotations that go along with different races in horror films amoungst other issues. There are many different conventions that are present in the horror genre. Those of the different settings used to establish were the characters are, costumes and props which convey the characters personalities and how they are represented, the way the music and sound combine with the editing to build the tension and helps to drive on the plot and storyline. The conventions of a dimly lit settings are also something that we used to meet conventions. The various colour connotations and meanings for example the colour red is a big convention and theme that we have used throughout our production which develops that of those used in real media products. Also the vari

ous different camera shots used in our project for example the use of close up’s and how they will allow used to meet conventions. All these things have been factored into our media production and are going to be explained below.

Monique's Q.1

The conventions within our film poster is relatively what the media industry is familiar with, so it's doesn't pose any challenges or develop what it already put forward in the world. Analysing film posters for our textual analysis' ensured that we had a good understanding of what makes a successful horror poster, we also established that it can vaguely be seen as one of the easier aspects in presenting a film to an audience and is definitely one which is needed to be a vital component for promotion. Film posters are found in many mundane places such as cinemas to spread the word, creating buzz around the film. As we didn't develop or challenge conventions it made it harder for us to create a which would capture viewers eyes and make them intrigued to find out more, so as we came together with drafts of possible posters, it became important for us to portray what a message would be to our audience surrounding this film.

With our caption 'What Will Happen When You Confess' we wanted our theme a never ending possible

events that can occur whilst laying down your confessions. Much like every other film poster, the film notes are located at the bottom as well as the institution name signaturing the product. The bloody hands is what is the main focus in this poster, this being our symbolic way of saying 'What you sow, you shall reap' which leaves a hidden connotation of what can possibly happen within the film making the audience more eager for more. We were also aiming to keep the killers identity more hidden which is why there is a shadows that covers most of the face and doesn't alert viewers to whom the killer specifically is. Below is a similar film poster that holds the same convention of having a

hidden side/identity towards the main character.

Similar colours are used in both of these posters, it carries the attributes of horror; Red, Black and White. Mystery prevails in all our media products which evidently allows it show good firm conventions relating to what is previously been released. Doing this has also highlighted to us that viewers will be connected to what we bring forth because of what they have already been accustomed to however is risks chances of being more unique and individual, not being repetitive in a cycle of media production. We are overall happy with what has been achieved in the poster.

Jide's Q.1

Our media front cover magazine shows understanding of conventions used of most media horror film magazines all around the world as when compared it shows similar conventions such as the use of a dark background which could be used to try and make the audience focus on a particular object or the actor/monster being shown. Our magazine is different from other magazines yet similar at the same time as with most horror magazines it shows bright coloured bold font with maybe blood drippings or something scary our magazine followed that convention the only convention our magazine may have challenged was the convention of how most horror magazines show the monster or bad guy on the front page which the audience can tell straight away that they are the evil killer yet with our film magazine we created a sense of suspense as the audience will be unable to know whether the model on our front cover is evil or is good which could lead to a larger audience being targeted as they may feel that this is not an typically deformed evil person created out of nothing killing people but could be interesting as it is showing a priest praying thus creating something new and at the same time slightly challenging a horror film magazine convention.

Leyla's Q.1

The first thing to mention about the ways in which our horror teaser trailer uses conventions of real teaser trailers is the length, its 32 seconds long and because most teaser trailers are between 30-90 seconds long, this was something we considered highly when cutting and editing. With mise en scene we tried to use, develop and challenge media conventions in different but obvious ways.


Costume and make up for example, fake blood was used as well as a latex wound, this uses conventions as these are frequently used in horror films and trailers, especially ones of the Slasher sub genre. The priest costume adds mystery which is a strong convention of many horror films, mainly ones with only one murderer.

The priest costume is unexpected because a holy man isn’t seen to be bad, so the idea someone respected like that can be a killer makes the storyline more intriguing because the audience wants to know if the priest ever get caught and/or killed, this is a frequently used convention to add suspense in a horror film. The costume we used had a cloche that covered the priest characters face, this technique is used in horror to create mystery: if the murderer isn’t seen, no one knows who it could be. The setting links into the idea of the priest character being unexpected, because its a church/confessionary, people are thought to be safe in such a place, and this being the plot of our trailer is a convention that supports how effective our trailer is as a horror trailer.

With the weapon of choice, we decided to use a weapon that was unexpected to challenge conventions. A priest using a hand drill is surprising and this can be used to intrigue the audience into watching the film because it’s another form of mystery. Although it isn’t actually seen as a weapon, the idea is portrayed with the sound of the drill noise. Props we used linked into the setting, the girl character is holding a bible at the beginning of the trailer and this works in informing the audience that the trailer has a religious storyline. W made a confessionary board that worked well as setting and as props because we were able to use it to add to the lighting. Buy holding it up over the lights with a dark orange filter across it, the idea of the confessionary being lit from behind added mystery as you never saw both the priest character and the girl character at the same time. It also worked well to create low key lighting which is a strong convention of the horror genre. NVC is used twice in very conventionally effective ways during the whole trailer: The slow walking of the girl at the beginning adds tension and the girl dying, because she doesn’t actually speak but it’s obvious she is dying. These are both examples of NVC used heavily in the horror genre.
The captions in the trailer are conventions of nearly every genre of film not just horror. The captions work as not to give away too much of the plot but to intrigue the audience into watching the film. The writing being white on a black background is a convention of horror as it links into the low key lighting and usually the colour scheme in the trailer. The font we used links into the idea of a church because of the medieval like qualities of the font. There is a misspelling of the word ‘you’re’ in the first caption in the trailer; it is spelt ‘your’. If we edited it again, this is something we would correct.

We used a blacking out when the murder took place to add mystery and show conventions of horror as this is used a lot in horror films, because you don’t see the murder taking place, it adds suspense and convinces the audience to watch the film. Non diegetic music used fits in with the setting, the music sounds holy but with a slight twist to the sound to appeal to 21st century cinema. The screaming and drill noise, added during editing, both show convention of horror genre as screaming is more that frequently used in horror films and the drill noise is the hint of the weapon that none one actually sees. The sound quality of the dialog is poor and something we would re-record and add later if we were to edit it again. The name of the film ‘SINNERS’ comes up at the end on a in white writing on a black screen, this shows convention as most films show the title at the end of the trailer and fact the word ‘SINNERS’ is moving forward the word isn’t just still also shows convention.

Sabrina's Q.1

Inclosing there are convention that we have mainly stuck to and developed rather than breaking them which in some cases is good as it will be recognizable from the genre that we are representing with our production which is horror. However we have broken them for example making a priest a killer is not something that people would expect which could cause people to complain as they may say its not reflective of the church, but that’s something that happens in some real productions. Reflecting on the teaser trailers and ancillary text that we used for our textual analysis we had to make sure that we used them effectively enabling use to complete our product to a good standard.