Evaluation Activity 4.

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

 

The Technologies/software that we used were Youtube/ Photoshop/IMovie and Blogger.

Youtube was very helpful, we used it to analyse film trailers so that we could get an insightful look on how the structure of trailers work and what components make up a good trailer. Youtube also helped me on how i could create the perfect zombie look, after detailed research into tutorials i made my own Youtube tutorial on my self done Zombie make-up, This was very effective because by doing this it gave a real theatrical horror look. Looking back at year 12, the special effects make up has been improved, from just simple blood splatters we improved to full on prosthetic zombie make-up.
Photoshop was a very important piece of software that we used for the developing of the poster and magazine cover, for the poster we were able to manipulate certain photographers to create the poster, we created the poster by cropping a photograph and visually made it horror-like and added the Title font and company ratings on a layer over the top. The magazine that we produced was very effective because we worked into detail by manipulating and photoshopping in different photos together, i.e a normal photograph of a hand into different photographs. using photoshop was very easy for me since i take Photography and i have been using photoshop for a long time so i knew how to work it straight away.

IMovie has been used over the course of our 2 year course,we used it in year 12 to put our opening 2 minutes together and because it worked so well last year we decided to use it for our trailer, We used Imovie because we found it easier than using Adobe Premier because we were not used to the tools and procedure in using that specific software.
Blogger was a main part of my presentation skills, i was able to record my research and planning so that i have something to base my trailer on. by re-designing my blogger page to a relation to my trailer i was able to make the design very Zombie Apocalypse themed.
As a group we decided to use an Apple Mac computer, we did this because two members of the group owned macs, and we felt this would be the best decision.
 

evaluation activity 2

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

The three texts complement each other in advertising well, Firstly the trailer shows the audience what they can expect from this particular film, by showing small clips of semi important parts, showing characters that link to Propp's theory of the 7 characterisations, we show the hero (Emma), the villain (The Zombies), the helper/doner (Shanie) and the princess (Survival and living).

The poster that we created advertised the whole trailer very well, we used  photograph where we had someone with the zombie make-up already produced on their face, this created a good link with the trailer because of the use of the whole zombie franchise look. The way the bold text of "VIRUS" stands out works very well because the viewers eyes direct to the title straight away. The use of having company names and their rating on the side of the poster shows that we took real conventions of horror posters and produced our own, this poster and the trailer are very effective combined to each other due to the fact we kept with the same sort of colour scheme. The enigmas that the poster poses for the audience is that they could ask themselves "who is that zombie?" "where has the virus come from" and "why do these companys like this film so much, and should i go and see it?"

The magazine poster that we created worked very well, the use of a zombie hand links to the trailer and poster very well, seeing as the whole subject of this project is a zombie invasion. i think that the magazine compliments the trailer and poster because this cover is brighter and vivid, i think this works because of how dark and gloomy the trailer and poster seem to be, and with this bright magazine cover it balances the whole project out. My magazine compliments my poster due to the relation between the use of zombie body parts, i.e a zombie hand and the side of a zombie face.
The poster, trailer and magazine cover are all a very effective combination, they all go together, there are some parts that could be improved however i think all 3 ancillary texts compliment each other well.

Evaluation Targets

You have worked so well this year and now, albeit in the busiest part of the calendar, you need to push yourself to achieve as many of the twenty marks available to you before the end of this term. Complete the activities set as well as including director's commentaries and interviews with each other. Comment on your findings from your target audience and evaluate your progress. Analyse every technical aspect of your promotional campaign and set future targets for yourself.

Evaluation Activity 3

Evaluation Activity 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of teaser trailers/poster/magazines).

The title of film.

 By having this Red title for our trailer it relates to real conventions of a trailer, especially old films like Psycho. The way we could develop this title is maybe having the shade white contrasting with the black background. Even though it gives a great horror trailer effect it does challenge us, because the brightness of the red contrasting with the black does give a little strain on the viewers eyes. Overall we feel like this title is very conventional and really fits with the trailer.

Setting location.

 The setting that we used gives a real feel of a horror trailer, we chose a setting that was very gloomy and surrounded by trees. The way that we could develop the setting is by using a place that  doesn't have many man made things, like cars, i feel that if we had less cars it would give more of a 'zombie apocalyptic' feel. The challenges we had with the setting is that whenever we tried to film there would be members of the public walking around, so it would have been more easier if we used a place thats not very open or popular with the public. 

Costumes and props.

 The costumes and props that we used were very dark and gloomy, this being because of the link to a zombie apocolypic world, and having dirty clothing shows that these characters are not living in the luxury style, relating to real conventions of a zombie trailer. By using my makeup skills i was able to create this terrifying zombie look, by doing this it really relates to a real zombie trailer for example, Zombieland. 

Camerawork and editing.

 The Camera work and props that we used were very conventional to a trailer. the connotation of birds shows that this part of the trailer is very peaceful or maybe it suggests that these particular birds carry the virus, which then relates to the title of our trailer. the way that we edited the trailer into black and white shows that we wanted the trailer to be very creepy and conform to old horror trailers, for example the 1960 Psycho trailer which was in black and white. 

title font and style.

The font that we used for when we used it was very clean cut and smooth, this conforms to conventions of a trailer because most trailers have cut scenes to text, however we could have improved on that area. The way we used a red colour shows that we have taken the horror genre really into consideration, relating to themes of horror. The use of the title font of 'VIRUS' shows that we took alot of it into consideration, this being because of the zombie hand effects that were involved in the font, conforming to a real zombie trailer.

Story and how the trailer is set up.
The main story is of how the government has made a virus for over 18 year olds, and that the under 18s have to survive, this trailer sets up this story by showing to young under 18 year old girl fending for their lives trying to survive this 'Zombie Apocalypse', we show various shots of zombies which conform to zombie trailers and it also sets the whole film out making sure that the audience knows that the film is about zombies.

genre and how the trailer suggests it
The genre for the trailer is Zombie horror/horror, the trailer suggests this by showing zombies after the human lone survivors, the panic in the human race, and how we made the whole trailer black and white apart fro the ending which had bright/ vivid red make up that conforms to a slasher trailer. the locations we had suggested that our trailer was aimed at teens, which it is, by using settings like schools and woods shows that it is very conventional. 

How characters are introduced.

The first main character portrayed by Emma is first introduced as a strong survivor, who is then met by Shanies character with very little dialogue, we didn't want to include any dialogue because we wanted the audience to find out as little as possible, so that it wouldn't ruin it. we are introduced to zombies in many ways, weather they are running after the survivors or being killed.

special effects

The special effects that we used were mainly the make-up, we used this because we wanted the trailer to become very realistic. we made the blood very vivid and bright because the colour of red connotes danger and murder, which is what we were going for. i took youtube tutorials and my hand skills so that we could get this effect, and it came out very well.

final

virus trailer draft