Ben’s Blog

Real teaser trailers usually feature footage from the film that they are promoting, a trailer certificate (or something to say it has been approved for all audiences), film company logos, a release date (or coming soon), and sound (which can be in the form of music, dialogue or sound effects).

The teaser trailer that I edited, involving putting together and editing footage uses these conventions: footage from what would be the film if it was real, a trailer certificate (12A from the BBFC), film company logos (Universal & Dolby Digital), a ‘coming soon’ and sound in the form of a rock song. So this means that the trailer that I edited does use the forms and conventions of a real trailer. The lyrics in the song heard at the start of the song “Let the bodies hit the floor” are relevant to what happens in the footage as the killer attacks the victim, bringing his body to the floor. Plus I worked it so that the whispering vocal at the start, which progresses to a screaming vocal “Floor” and rock instruments come in at exactly the time of the victim attack, and it continues through the dramatic attacking flashes/footage that follow until the end where it cuts off after the coming soon. I think this develops conventions because it is not just putting in rock music because it fits the footage, but has lyrical relevance as well, relating to what is about to happen in the trailer. The trailer does not really challenge conventions/forms of real trailers however since some songs in real films/trailers used would also probably have lyrical relevance to the footage and it uses real trailer features such as ‘coming soon’.

Real teaser posters (HP example above ^) & Wolverine example @ http://newsinfilm.com/images//2009/01/wolverine-teaser-poster.jpg feature some or all of these things: picture(s), text, a release date (or coming soon, 2010, etc…), website, film company logo’s, the title of the film (or the rough title as in the Harry Potter example above the actual film title is “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” but this teaser poster calls it “HP6″) and actor names. My teaser poster uses these features and does not challenge these forms/conventions although it does slightly challenge by having a different background on the title/actor names area so it is deliberately not completely consistent, with the purpose being to make the title stand out (most film posters have a completely consistent background). But apart from that it is using conventions of teaser posters without challenging or developing. Here is an annotated picture of my poster below to show the conventions I have featured in my poster:

Real film magazines always (or at least all I have seen) feature picture(s), a barcode, film magazine title, price, issue number, release date, features and a website (as can be seen above in an example of an Empire magazine front cover featuring Harry Potter above). My music magazine features and therefore uses these conventions as I will show with an annotated picture of my magazine below. My magazine also uses the form/convention of having someone on the front cover, opposed to a location (for example a river).

I annotated my magazine (as you can see above) to show the conventions I have used on it. As well as using I have also developed by making the price on my magazine a special limited price of £2 (cheaper than professional film magazines I have seen). This is because my fictional magazine would be the first issue of “Film Now” and I wanted it to be cheaper than regular to introduce it and make people more likely to buy it (as an established film magazine like Empire for example would have a fanbase that buy the magazine whenever published, and a new magazine would be a risk but some people may take at nearly half the price). I have never seen this limited price thing on a film magazine, so I have developed the pricing system of film magazines.

I have challenged forms/conventions on the magazine through the picture that I chose. Although I have used the form/convention of people opposed to locations or anything else being featured on the magazine, I challenged it by not featuring the full face of the person, creating mystery whereas film magazines I have seen clearly feature the person (eg: Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter). So I have done something different and changelled the normal, but not being extremely different by featuring a tree on the set of a film or something for example which would most likely not be a good method to sell the magazine.

My main product is the teaser trailer for the fictional film “Through The Eyes Of A Killer” (with the film idea created by Conor) and the ancillary texts are the film magazine and poster that accompany the trailer by also promoting the fictional film. The film trailer promotes the film by featuring clips from it, by saying ‘coming soon’ and having the title of the film. It brings awareness to its existence and is intended to sell the film by featuring attractive footage (for example a comedy film would need to show funny parts of the film in the trailer to attract the comedy audience) and showing information (such as when it is released) but since this is a teaser trailer I decided the teaser trailer should not have a release date and its stage so it says coming soon. The aim is to make it look good so it gets interest and to promote that it’s coming out soon, also building up anticipation. This is also the aim of my poster, featuring a ‘coming soon’ and aimed to generate interest and promote the film, but doing it in a different way, featuring a still image/text opposed to the trailer where it features moving images. This gives the poster the opportunity to reach places where film trailers cannot. Teaser trailers are mainly shown on TV and in cinemas, plus the internet and occasionally on radio (although only audio can be shown so it is not the most popular option for film promoters), whereas posters can be put up anywhere with permission, as  no technology is needed for them to be seen. As for film magazines they can also reach where posters and teaser trailers cannot, as they can be put into stores (eg: WHSmith) for sale, with the front page always on display and since my film magazine is designed to promote ”Through The Eyes Of A Killer”, I made the film the main feature on the front cover with the biggest text of the features, the title of the film and a picture from the film.

This means that the combination of the trailer, magazine and poster is very effective, as all 3 allow the film’s promotion to reach all possible places (whereas if there was just a poster for example, it would not be able to reach TV, cinema, etc…) and this is very important to attract all possible different types of audiences and just simply increases the chance of people seeing, knowing and liking the look of the film. So in my opinion the combination of my main product and ancillary texts is very effective.

Through audience feedback I have learned many people’s opinions and most of the time, I have edited my work on their comments/advice to improve my main product and ancillary texts.  When I was first working on my poster I changed the film logo by adding extra black and red bits around the logo by colouring on Windows Paint (trying out both) as can be seen in these work in progress screenshots below (and on my final poster). I started off by using audiences to find out which they thought looked better, the red or the black version (at this time I had not yet completed a consistent background version), of which more people said the black version was better, although there was not a lot more support given to the black as opinions given to me were very mixed and still are. However 1 person commented against having the part around the logo at all, making the background completely consistent which I thought was worth trying out, so I tried doing the poster with the whole background featuring the style of the extra part of the logo and I think it’s looks good but not as effective or eye grabbing, so I ended up going with the black extra version. So from audience feedback I didn’t learn much due to many conflicting opinions, but I learnt that the least popular (and my least favourite of the 3 also) version of my poster was the red background version which was useful, so I did not do that version and although I think that the completed consistent black background version looks good, I am submitting the black/white logo extra version. Apart from this I also got useful feedback from people on the picture and the ‘coming soon’ being too small, so I made them bigger to make them stand out more, however making sure the ‘coming soon’ was not too big to draw all attention away from the title.

Audience feedback relating to my magazine: When my first draft of my magazine was finished (using Diamond as the picture but thinking all the text/conventions were complete) I showed it to people and I got audience feedback saying there was too much text on it (an example of a magazine with short text features is @ http://lilithlotr.ejwsites.net/articles/TotalFilm-Feb03/cover.jpg) , for example I changed my original feature “Reality: An exclusive interview with Halle Berry” to “Reality: Halle Berry Exclusive”. As the task was to make a realistic and good looking magazine, I shortened the text down as in the Halle Berry example I did. I also got feedback about the white background on my ‘Film Now’ logo and while most people didn’t comment on it, a few people said that it would look better if it was black like the background, so I did this using Microsoft Paint and changing the colour around the text so that it fitted in with the black background of the magazine (screenshots below of before & after) and I think that it is an improvement. I also made the “Film Now” logo bigger to stand out more, as it is important to highlight the title of the magazine, although this wasn’t suggested through audience feedback.

Audience feedback relating to the trailer: When I showed people the trailer, a few people said that the logo looked plain, so things were added such as blood dripping to make it more interesting and make it seem more belonging to the trailer and genre of horror. People also commented (at an incomplete stage) that the trailer needed music and this was added in the form of a rock song that Conor sent me, which I timed exactly so it got heavy as soon as the attacks started in the trailer. Before the song gets heavy there is a whispering vocal which I originally repeated until it started but people responded negatively to this saying it was too repetitive, which I completely agreed with and this and thought myself, with feedback confirming the need to change. So instead because the sound from the actual filming did not work (eg: Conor saying “go”) as the sound was always planned to have rock music over it, I created silence by bringing in one of my CD’s, importing the song by Windows Media Player, inserting it into Windows Movie Maker and copying the approx 1 second silence and placing it multiple times until where the rock music comes in. So to summarise, I learnt that the logo needed to look more horror and interesting and the confirmation that my original plan of repeating the whispering vocal was too repetitive.

In the research I used computers to look at and analyse magazine covers, posters and film trailers to learn about and possibly get ideas from these 3 media types, so that my 3 products would end up looking realistic and professional (although still keeping originality as for the group trailer- it is an original idea and my magazine and poster are promoting the original film with an original title, idea, etc…Also my magazine is an original idea, “Film Now” does not really exist unlike some people who chose to do their own versions of an already existing magazine such as Empire so they had to follow their layout and style). My magazine although needing to follow conventions was allowed to be different and not a copy of an existing film magazines layout (eg: Empire) because I had chosen and come up with an original film magazine called “Film Now”. So although originality was put into the 3 tasks, conventions and knowledge was needed (eg: Barcode on magazine, release date (or coming soon/summer, etc…on trailer, title of the film on poster, etc…) and this was done through using computers, the internet (and on it by looking at and annotating pictures, watching and analysing trailers, reading and analysing information/text on posters, magazines, etc…). So to summarise, for research the hardware I used was computers and the software I used was the internet: for research general knowledge and into conventions, which involved looking at and analysing real film posters, magazines and trailers, microsoft word: for pasting in real magazines and posters and annotating them through using text, boxes and arrows to allow myself to annotate the real covers and then print screen, windows paint to use the print screen to allow the saving of my annotations of pictures and putting them on this blog, and my blog to write about and upload my findings and annotations to do with the research into film trailers, posters and magazines.

Here are some links to things I looked at in research:

- A teaser trailer for “Shrek Forever After” @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIlv9OgRnTM & “Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince” @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ngt8tux4k

- Teaser posters for “Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince” @ http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=52593 & teaser poster for “Shrek Forever After” @ http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID9207/images/Shrek_Forever_After_poster.jpg

- Film magazines @ http://www.totalfilm.com/magazine & http://www.empireonline.com/magazine/

In planning, planning for the trailer was mainly discussing with the other group members where, when and how to shoot the trailer- basically organisation through talking/organising without using technology plus the booking of cameras.  I came up with the title “Film Now” very shortly after starting work on it, and before that I had planned to use a temporary picture (as filming was not been done at this time). I used a picture of female rapper Diamond (can be seen below and in my draft screenshot of my magazine (when it was in making) as the temporary picture as I planned the picture for my magazine to be a long to medium shot of the killer (opposed to using a close up shot of the killer’s face for example)). Planning for the poster was just to use the conventions I had learnt and before shooting the trailer I did not know what type of picture to use but while filming I thought that it would be good to use the shot where a victim is looking through the keyhole and sees the killer as it compliments the title of the film well in my opinion.

In the construction of my film poster, magazine and teaser trailer, I used media technologies. For the construction of my poster I used computers and on it a program called Microsoft Publisher to create my poster and I used this and Microsoft Word to create and insert text onto my poster. All text I put on the poster was from Microsoft Publisher (eg: Coming Soon), except for the text above the film title, the names ‘Conor Campbell’ & ‘Danny Millen’ I imported from creation on Microsoft Word. I did this text on Word opposed to Publisher because it has a feature on text called ‘emboss’ which made the text seem more varied (to make it more interesting) but not too much, staying with the red & black colour scheme. On Microsoft Publisher I used the ‘insert- picture- from file’ to import in an 18 certificate, dolby digital logo and universal logo which I had saved on my pictures in my documents, getting the logo’s, using a computer and the internet. I also used the ‘insert- picture- from file’ stages to import the film’s logo and the picture I had chosen to choose for the poster. Which is a view of someone looking through a keyhole and seeing something outside (which is a victim seeing the killer). I also used the dragging feature so that I could move the text (in text boxes), and pictures to where I wanted. For my film magazine, I also used Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word in text, the same way as with my poster, using Microsoft Word for embossed text, and Publisher for other. Apart from on the magazine I used a larger amount of  different fonts (egs: Chiller, Castellar, Arial, Algerian) and used the website www.dafont.com (typing in Film Now, saving as a picture and then inserting it in) for my film magazine logo (Film Now). I then also used the dragging feature on the text and pictures (with the picture & text in picture format- eg: film logo from www.dafont.com, I also did ‘insert- picture- from file’ for these as with the poster) as with the poster, so that I could move things into the place I wanted.

 
For use of media technologies in construction of the teaser trailer: I used a computer to import video from the video cameras onto the computer, so that I could access it and edit the footage. After importing footage onto the computer, I used Windows Movie Maker to put together and then edit the footage to make it into a trailer, choosing better shots, making sure it was the right length, making shots look better, adding trailer conventions, etc…I then after completing the editing saved it using the ’save to my computer’ feature so that it would turn into a Windows Media Player file. Using that to play the trailer, which the purpose is to show to people, burn on DVD, etc…As well as using Windows Movie Maker and features such as importing and dragging pictures, cutting down footage, adding special effects (such as fade to black), etc…I also made pictures using Microsoft Word, print screening, pasting on paint and then saving as a picture so that it would be importable into Windows Movie Maker (an example of what I used this on was creating a ‘12 A trailer’ screen which I did by making a black background, importing the BBFC 12A logo and basic white text saying ‘trailer’). For music I used Windows Media Player to import a Trina song (which features just over a second of silence at the end before it would start the next song if it was imported as an album) which went into My Documents. I then dragged it onto Windows Movie Maker and put the full Trina song “Clear It Out” on the trailer, then I cut the song into 2 pieces, pausing where the song ends and silence starts and splitting the song into 2, deleting the song part, keeping the silence and copying and pasting it as necessary (as the silence is only just above 1 second) to achieve silence until the rock song is ready to come on.       

For use of media technologies in evaluation: I used people to get feedback through talking to them and showing them my products and this has been helpful overall in knowing what people thought could be improved on my main product and ancillary texts, which I paid attention to edited around what people were saying and what I was thinking myself.  I used this blog to put up my findings, conclusions and show the process of my work because it is available to see by all, features text and pictures and is easy to organise through tagging related work for example. I chose the programs Microsoft Publisher and Windows Movie Maker as the main programs, using Windows Movie Maker for my main product and Microsoft Publisher for my ancillary texts (as well as using a little of Microsoft Word & Windows Paint as well for both). I chose Publisher because it is easy to use for me as I know it well plus it has good features for creating/laying out magazines and posters. I chose Windows Movie Maker because it was not too complicated and has all the features needed for creating a trailer. Through doing this work, I have not learnt anything new through using Microsoft Publisher because I had already used this last year in creating a music magazine and in GCSE creating a CD cover/backcover/booklet so I know the program well. But I have learnt how to use Windows Movie Maker, not knowing anything about it or ever using before this coursework. I have learnt how to edit footage, add special effects, text, add sound, etc…and basically everything needed to know about the program that I did not know before. I used this blog to upload and write about findings and also used this blog last year so learnt everything about the blog last year although this year I did learn how to change the order of blogs as I was needing to change the order around of the resubmission of my AS Media Research & Planning, which I did by changing the time of each post as the blog is in time order. As well as Publisher, Movie Maker and this blog, I also used a lot of the internet, which I used for research, pictures, information, etc…and I have known how to use the internet for many years, so not learning anything new about the internet and how to use it but learning from using it to get covers of real magazines, posters, etc…