Final Lacerate Trailer

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Stuart Hall’s reception theory is the idea that all media texts are interpreted by the viewer, there are different types of audience: Dominant (when the audience agree with the intended meaning), Negotiated (when the audience partially agrees with the intended meaning) and Oppositional (when the audience reject the intended meaning). We thought it would be interesting to see how people perceived our trailer, hence we included questions such as ‘has the female protagonist been portrayed in a positive or negative manner?’ We decided to stick to conventions with a female protagonist who was shown as innocent, hence it was intended that she’d be portrayed negatively: weak and vulnerable. Out of the 9 replies, 1 rejected the encoded meaning, while 4 agreed, the other 4 were unsure. This demonstrates how different audiences interpret text in different ways.

The purpose for a film trailer is to make people want to watch the film, so to see how successful it was at achieving this we asked ‘would you see Lacerate at the cinema?’ We also asked ‘How often do you go to the cinema’, as if a person went to the cinema very rarely, it would be a great compliment that they would go to watch the film. 37.5% of people surveyed said they would watch the film at the cinema, considering 55% only go to the cinema yearly, this is a good sign. Furthermore, 44% of people surveyed only watch horror films rarely, meaning people were impressed with the trailer.

Horror films have established conventions and it’s typically very easy to follow the steps to creating a horror: a supernatural villain, a creepy setting, scary music, a vulnerable protagonist, visual effects, jump scares and gore. In our film we used a demon to ‘haunt’ the protagonist, we used a knife to convey violence, while having an eerie soundtrack in the background, the second half was an intense action sequence which is typical of films in the horror and thriller genres. However, some people still mistook the film as a thriller, granted, our film didn’t contain too much gore (as we wanted to make it appropriate for younger teens). 33% saw the film as a thriller, 11% even saw it as a comedy; perhaps they thought it was a spoof of a horror film. We also asked ‘Does the trailer convey the conventions of the horror genre?’ To which only 33% said yes, this was surprising for us, as we felt we did well to stick to conventions, however upon receiving this feedback,  we think we could have done more to do this, for example using a more eerie location for Summer finding the book. Most (77%) of our audience felt that our film was targeting 15-20 year olds; this is good because we purposely made sure the film was appropriate for the 12 certificate. Genre theory is relevant here; Steve Neale said that ‘genres are instances of repetition and difference’ and that ‘difference is essential’ as repetition alone wouldn’t attract an audience. Relating this to our film, we stuck to conventions somewhat, however these differences set us apart from other horrors.

Finally, we asked our audience to look at the film poster and the magazine cover. There were mixed responses towards the poster, as only 44% of our audience liked it enough to see the film, the same amount said ‘maybe’. This is disappointing as the poster contained all elements of a typical horror poster. We then asked them how clear the links between the parts of the media package were, thankfully 77% said the link was ‘clear to see’

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

Here are all of the technologies I used throughout the construction of my media package:

Adobe Photoshop- used for the creation of magazine cover and poster

Serif Movieplus- used for creation of trailer

Microsoft Publisher- used for annotating movie posters for semiotic analyses

Microsoft Word- used for typing up information before putting it on blogger

Blogger- used to present work and progression

Youtube- used to upload trailers to show to others to gather early feedback

DSLR Camera- used for images for magazine cover and poster

HD Camera- used for filming the footage for film

Prezi- used to present work

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

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

Our theatrical trailer was from the genre horror, which is widely known as having a great number of usually unchallenged conventions, such as darkness, blood and the supernatural. For this reason it is fairly easy to create a film which can be easily linked to the genre, attracting an already established audience. We opted to use a villain which is never shown on camera, therefore giving it a psychological edge. Many horror films such as ‘Paranormal Activity’ never actually show the ghost/spirit, leaving the audience free to use their imagination to fill the gap, which will also

allow them to get more engaged with the plot. We opted to use a female as the ‘victim’ to the demon’s plans as stereotypically females are the victims in horror films; examples include ‘The Babadook’, ‘Alien’ and ‘Scream’. In a ‘slasher’ film, which is a sub-genre of horror, the protagonist is almost always female, this is because stereotypically females are weak and in need of protection, this representation follows from films which were directed in a more sexist era. There are many theories for this; one is down to the ‘male gaze’, which claims that films often put the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual male, thus seeing a ‘damsel in distress’ is stereotypically going to resonate with the audience. This convention was adopted in the making of our film as films often play on stereotypes whether they are true or not, we wanted to make it obvious our film was of the horror genre.

Stereotypically horror films are set in small, isolated areas, dark streets and alleyways, yet our film primarily takes place in a house and in a school. This highlights how in this aspect the film strays away from conventions, it is worth noting there is a small section with ‘Professor Culkin’ laid down in the middle of a road, this is sticking to conventions as the scenery is dark and the area appears to be deserted.  There are possible environments which may have improved our film, we considered shooting a scene of Summer being chased through the woods, however we opted for other clips. We used a shed as the setting for the scene where Summer finds the book, when we were planning the film, we hoped to use an abandoned building of some sort so it would create an eerie tone, however during the filming phase we opted to use a shed as it was adequate for the purpose. In general having darkness and ghostly elements is important, and our setting definitely did this so I think it was effective.

The use of technical codes in the trailer also followed conventions; the camera was from high and low angles throughout to connote fear. Furthermore the use of close-ups allowed for the audience to see the fear on the characters’ faces, primarily Summer. Sounds were used like heartbeat which is non-diegetic, but also diegetic sounds like the beating of a drum, this was important in setting the scene and communicating how the characters felt. The editing was also typical, with a high intensity montage scene at the end. A piece of editing we included which was uncommon was the part where the protagonist, Summer, was thinking about the death of her teacher, Professor Culkin, here, we used an overlay to have the picture be semi-opaque so it was clear she was thinking of him. This was used more as a narrative tool than a horror tool though.

The poster for Lacerate generally followed conventions of other Horror posters, after careful research it became evident that a striking or edited central image would be vital. In addition to this some text was required to accompany this, hence “do you dare to decipher” was included, the movie’s tagline, along with endorsements, all of which featured in the trailer. At the bottom was the credits, which is typical of all film posters, not just horror. The use of colours in the in the poster follows conventions, especially as red resembles blood, whereas the white simply stands out on the background. The title being the largest piece of text is also conventional, as this is what you want the audience to remember.

The magazine cover follows the conventions of Empire magazine, with the masthead being written in the same font across the top, the date, issue number and price can be found in the curve of the M. The magazine also has several cover lines which is found in virtually every magazine. Other components I used are puffs, barcode and a central image. The use of colour doesn’t particularly

Lacerate Poster

Magazine Cover

Photoshoot for poster and magazine cover

For my magazine cover and poster, I wanted to feature the protagonist, Summer, as the main image. The image for my magazine cover involved Summer holding a lantern in the dark, with the light shining on a section of her face.

Image 1

This image is very striking. We see only one of her eyes which creates a very sinister tone and creates mystery and suspense. This image is also good as her skin is very pale, which portrays that she is frightened and fits in with the horror theme. Also the picture itself is of high quality, and the facial expression shows that she is frightened of something, and the viewer needs to watch the film to find out what it is.

Image 2

This image is similar to the first expect the facial expression isn't as striking. Also the image in general isn't as impressive. For this reason I will pick image 1 for my magazine cover.

For my poster, I wanted to take a picture to show Summer as being vulnerable, scared and trapped. For this reason I used a torch in a dark room to illuminate her face, this created a shadow behind which acts as an ominous figure and creates an eirry atmosphere to put the audience on the edge. Here is the image:

Research into link between poster, trailer and magazine cover

I've decided to look at the 2008 action thriller, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army as my case study. The character of Hellboy is unique in the fact that despite his resemblance to a typical villain, with his bright red, satan-like body and intimidating build, he is actually the protagonist of the series!

Magazine Cover

Here is the March 2008 Empire cover. The title of the magazine has been modified to complement the theme of Hellboy, playing with the idea of 'hell' and fire. The colour of red and the flames were included to make a direct reference to the firm. The central image is a huge close up of Hellboy himself, he is looking angry and full of spite. This provides a narrative to the film and shows the audience that he has some kind of score to settle. The text "you and whose golden army?" is a play on the phase 'you and what army?', this it to link it to the title of the film, furthermore the text is gold to make another link. Rosary beads are used to further build the narrative of the film, contrasting the idea of religion to link to 'hell'.

Poster

Here is the official Hellboy 2: The Golden Army poster. Here we see a character who is certainly presented as powerful, we see he huge fist hitting the ground with debris rebounding back upwards. In his other hand, we see him holding a gun, a lethal weapon, this indicates that the film is going to be full of action and violence. It is somewhat unusual for a protagonist to use a gun, if you look at other sci-fi protagonists, such as The Doctor, Catniss from The Hunger Games and members of the X-Men, they rely on their other skills to fight. The fact that Hellboy has a gun in the poster shows that he is different to the others, he is unique. On the other hand you see his cape flailing in the wind, which is typical of a 'hero' in a sci-fi film. His facial expression shows anger and frustration, perhaps implying that he has a issue he needs to deal with (As he does in the Empire cover). The poster has some text located at the top, saying "Believe it or not he's the good guy", showing once again that Hellboy is different to other protagonists.

Trailer

The trailer is fast paced, action packed and full of clips typical of the genre. The 'Hellboy II' title is also carried over, making it clear that they are all linked and related, the same font and style is used to create a house style. There are many supernatural creatures shown in the trailer, making the link to the theme of hell clear. For example at 0.27, a mutant vampire-looking character emerges, who then releases a giant ogre. This builds on the sci-fi, supernatural theme that the poster and the magazine cover showed, with a major focus on Hellboy. Hellboy himself is introduced as being a protagonist who doesn't stick to typical conventions, this is emphasised in the trailer, magazine and poster.

Fright Night poster analysis

The Last Exorcism Analysis

Horror Magazine Analysis 2

Horror Magazine Analysis

How and why people enjoy film

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

This film has a even split of male to female viewers, out of the 229 people surveyed, 49% were male and 51% female. This means it is useful to me, as our film isn't particularly aimed at one gender. 32% of the 229 people found out about the film through newspaper reviews, this is a large amount of the group, and it shows that it doesn't always take a multi-million pound marketing scheme to give the film hype, it is often free. The other ways people found out about the film were because of word of mouth, which was at 27%. This shows that if your film is memorable and unique, and you can get people talking about it, then it will be successful. 43% of the audience were convinced to watch the film due to the fact that they'd already read the book. This is building upon an already existing audience, which isn't relevant to our film as Lacerate is a new, original storyline. It is worthy of note that this film had an older audience, with 62% of the audience being over 35. Our film, on the other hand, is aimed at a younger audience. With it being given a 12a rating, young teenagers are allowed to watch the film, but our target audience also stretches to young adults, as they would find interest in the imaginative plot which makes the film stand out.

Let the Right One In

 

This film's genre is horror making it more relevant to our film. Also the age group is fairly similar, with 100 out of the 177 being under 35. There was more males than females watching the film, but there wasn't a substantial divide. The ways in which they found out about the film was similar to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, with many reading reviews or hearing from word of mouth. Once again, this reinforces the fact that it doesn't always take a massive investment to build hype. 18% heard about the film through a trailer shown at a cinema, this would be expensive and for our low-budget, I don't think it would be possible. What is interesting about this film was that what convinced many to watch it was reported as being 'other', this about was a huge 72%. Upon further research, I have  found out that the film was shown at many film festivals, so this 'other' could be because many didn't have a say in whether they saw the film or not. Having the film being shown at a film festival would be a great opportunity to give a large group the chance to review the film, many of which would be influential members of the film community. This leads on to the second most picked reason for the audience watching, 'it received good reviews'. This shows that it is very important that the film itself is good, there is little use in having a film which is marketed heavily, but is poor! Unless it has an already existing audience, bad reviews would put off a lot of people.

 

Conclusion

 

Overall it is interesting to look at these figures, what I found unusual was that despite there being huge investment into trailers, marketing etc. A large group within the audience were convinced to watch the film due to word of mouth and due to them being fans of the series already. This shows that despite working on a low-budget, it is still possible to build hype amongst the audience.

Preliminary Idea for poster

After examining many other horror posters, it became a running theme that the title was positioned at the bottom with a big, unique picture in the centre to stand out. With this in mind I decided to start with my poster by positioning various elements of the poster in their respected sections of the page. Here is the brief plan, nothing here is in any way final, it is simply a starting point.

Trailer Progress after Preliminary Feedback

Upon the feedback we were given, it became an aim to 'mix up' the trailer, making it much more typical of an actual trailer rather than of a short film. To go about this, we removed the opening scene, which we felt was more of a story-telling device than an excitement building tool, removing this would leave more to the imagination of the viewer, the basic plot could be revealed drip by drip rather than in the opening 30 seconds. Other additions included the drum and heartbeat sounds, these create tension and add atmosphere to the film, it is also typical of a horror trailer and it is important to stick to our target audience in order to create the most appeal. Here is our footage, we will take in more feedback and then assess what steps we could take to improve it even more, either way the trailer definitely needs some polishing-off:

Risk Assessment

During the production of our film trailer it was important that we took precautions to maintain a high standard of safety to prevent harm and injury. One of our shots features a road which, on initial inspection seems to be unsafe. However, the road was long enough so that we could safely move away to the side of the road to avoid a collision. We used torches to make sure we could see the path in front of us clearly to avoid potential trip hazards. We needed to acquire a knife as a prop so our teacher made sure all precautions were made with regards to bring it in, when filming we made sure when it wasn't in use, it was kept far away from everyone.

Selection Process