I also displayed my research into posters using the internet search site google to find posters with conventions in which I wanted to follow. I found it incredibly simple to find the type of poster I was looking for with the hundereds on display in googles picture galleries. Whevever I had made some progress on my trailer I used wordpress to publish it and so it was very easy to track progress in the development of my product. Some teacher comments on my work aided the construction of my trailer. For example, when my raw footage was posted I was given a hint to add some creepy music and titles, in doing so this really helped the development of my final product as I feel the non-diagetic music is a huge part of my trailer.

Using the digital camera, I managed to get some photos of the location of my trailer before filming. This helped me to decide on whether the location suited the genre of my film, which I decided it did. Having previously made a practice video using Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 I felt confident using the software as I began the making of my trailer. However, as I progressed my skills became more sophisticated, I learned how to make use of crawling titles, editing soundtracks and time manipulations; making clips either faster or slower to adjust the pace of the trailer. As my skills progressed I feel the quality of my work did too.

I did have some issues with the video cameras in creating a conventional horror trailer. Horror genre trailers make use of low lighting and dark scenes to add to the fearful atmosphere. However, I was unable to accomplish this due to the equipment made available to me. I was forced to film in the full light of day although this is where my skills using the film editing software increased further. I was able to manipulate the saturation and brightness of certain clips to create a mood and atmosphere closer to what I was looking for. Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 did crash occasionally which sometimes halted my progress, I could overcome this problem by saving my work regularly to make sure none was lost. I was able to easily add in an appropriate music soundtrack using audacity to record and convert the file. I could then simply add the file into Adobe Premiere Elements and place it where appropriate.

I made good use of the programme Photoshop to create my poster and magazine. I was already fairly confident with the use of this software due to much practice in my year 12 media project. The poster was fairly easy to make as I was able to alter the colour scheme of the main photo to create a pleasing effect. I was able to place my film title in the desired position and create some writing at the bottom to make the poster look more realistic. However, there were some extra skills that I needed to master. In the creation of my title I wanted to create a fade effect on the word ‘Burying’ to make my title more relateable to the photo beneath. I achieved this eventually, but photoshop made this simple looking process rather difficult and complicated to do. I further modified my title giving it a more rugged and creepy look by using tools on photoshop with ease. The creation of my magazine cover was fairly simple using photoshop, just a case of inserting text where appropriate and manipulating the main photo to make the mask stand out more.

To obtain audience feedback, I used a video camera and tripod to easily set up a recording situation for me and my peers to discuss my trailer. Powerpoint was a very reliable programme to use when approaching part of the evaluation stage. It was useful to add screenshots from my trailer, poster and magazine to display where my ideas had come from. To publish this on the blog I used a website called ‘scribd’ which I had no problems what so ever with. Publisher was also used in the evaluation of my product, the programme made it easy for me to add the necessary images and text where I wanted. Overall, the use of media technologies in the creation of my product helped me immensely and I came across very little problems.

Here are some of my thoughts on the audience feedback about my trailer:

Does my trailer work as a trailer? Does it make the audience want to see it?

From this question I found that the pace of my trailer works well using music and images, holding the audiences attention and making them want to see the film. However, the beginning of the trailer was identified as quite pleasant with specific reference to the music. This is not what I was aiming for, as I wanted the beginning to be very mysterious and menacing. This mysterious mise-en-scene I wanted to achieve in the starting clips of my trailer was confirmed later in the question which I am pleased about.

Is the genre of the film clearly established by the trailer?

From my feedback, it was identified that I had aspects of the action genre in my trailer. This isn’t necessarily what I had set out to do but my peers seemed to think that it works well to pick up the pace and create a more dramatic trailer. The camera shots were confirmed to be conventional for this genre which was my aim, using low angle shots of the killer to make him look powerful and high angle shots of the victims to make them look vulnerable. The teaser trailer does not start with the conventional establishing shots, but my peers agreed that this works as the trailer kicks in the viewers interest immediately.

What aspects/features/shots are most effective?

The tension built by the pace of the trailer seems to be the most effective aspect. The break in equilibrium was also mentioned as the killer swings the axe and the music changes dramatically into a much faster beat. After this feedback I am quite glad I did not use any dialogue as I believe this would have ruined the atmosphere I had created with the non-diagetic music. Again, the low and high angle shots were deemed to be effective. The establishing shot of the church seemed to work as the location was said to represent the mood well.

What impression of the film lingers in the mind of the audience members?

My peers identified that the trailer was attractive to them and this is a promising sign as my target audience was within this age range, people 15-24 years old.

What narrative sense did audience make of the trailer?

The narrative was perceived to be played by the music of the trailer, with this displaying the emotion of the characters. However, the music was mainly used to display the breaking of equilibrium (Todorov’s theory).  The victims and villain were easily identified and I am pleased with this as I tried to make each characters role very obvious using costumes and cinematography.

Was the trailer too long/short?

The length of my trailer was good according to my audience opinion. It seems to be right for a teaser trailer not to give too much content about the film away, which I think I have achieved.

Did the trailer sustain the interest of the audience?

My audience said the definately felt engaged throughout the tailer with the varied pace, camera angles etc. However, it seems that my audience would have been able to relate better to the victim characters if there were some sort of dialogue.

How did the audience respond to my choices in relation to actors/mise-en-scene/lighting?

The costume of the killer using the black ‘hoodie’, the mask and props such as the axe were deemed to render the killer to have a fearful presence. This was definately what I was looking for in my trailer as that is a key aspect to any horror trailer. It appears I have also represented the stereotypical teenager well using the correct clothing and my peers identified the beer can as representing typical adolescent behaviour, which is what I was aiming for with the use of that prop.

This is the new version of the start of my magazine cover. I changed it as I felt the photo I was using before didnt engage the audience as it the killer was not looking straight ahead. I have not changed the background as I felt that my last attempt looked quite ameteur. I feel the dark background works well here to create an effective horror atmosphere. I have made the mask stand out more using photoshop to make it brighter, and make the audience aware that it is of importance. I plan to add extra text to make the cover more interesting.

Overall I am very pleased with the end result. I decided against editing the footage in an attempt to make it darker using the opacity as I felt that this made many parts of the trailer difficult to see and it didn’t suit the mise-en-scene. I believe that as the weather is quite dreary and cloudy that this makes the mise en scene spooky enough without spoiling the quality of the picture. It was also impossible to film in the dark with the equipment avalaible to us as the footage would turn out in a very poor quality. So I was unable to follow the horror genre convention of darkness. I do feel however that the lighting in my trailer works very well opposed to darkness.

Used photoshop to make my poster more conventional. Added in red text at the top that mentions a very famous film to draw the audience in. I have also followed the convention of adding important names at the bottom of the poster. I did this to get an overall more professional feel to my poster.