Evaluation - How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Tasks?

Evalutation - What Have You Learnt From Audience Feedback?

Evaluation - In What Way Does Your Media Product Use, Develop Or Challenge Forms & Conventions Of Real Media Products?

The majority of the aspect on my poster are conventional mainly due to the fact I wanted to achieve created the correct atmosphere and impression of my narrative and the genre with it, particular aspects like this is the layout and positioning of everything of the poster. When looking at what was conventional in this area I looked at many real-media such as Ouija, Friday 13th etc. where I found there were two conventional layouts where you can either have the title at the top of the bottom of just above the credits at the bottom, I decided to go with the first as I felt as though identifying the film should be the first thing they read as people conventional look at something from top to bottom, like a book. Seeming as my title was a Greek word (which I shall discuss in my Main Task section ) I included a subtle translation underneath it, almost like a reflection and this is something I didn't find any other real-media doing making it unconventional so, in this sense I challenged a posters conventional which could actually lead to my audience seeing my poster as unique and that particular aspect catching their eye as they haven't seen it before.

As I said previously, the majority of my layout and positioning such as the image, the image is conventional the most dominant and eye-catching aspect of a poster which is why I decided to use and keep the typical positioning of it right in the middle however, with the image itself it would usually fill the whole poster almost like a background but with my image I had the female seem as though she was emerging from the darkness of the poster or even fading into it, I did this to help me connote my narrative to my audience and how to darkness is taking over this character, something that I believe looks very good on the finished product.



For my colour scheme, it's very conventional for the horror genre to include colours such as red, black, white, grey and in general very dark colours so I decided to limit myself to a few of these colours (black, red and grey) to not only help to connote the genre but also to give the poster a sort of aesthetic which is an audience pleasure and could make the possible seem more professional. Keeping the same colour scheme throughout both of my ancillaries and main task would also help to create a form of brand identity so that the audience are able to make a connection between the three.

An aspect that was not as conventional as most aspect would of still use on a few real-media products I analysed was the use of a catchphrase. I wouldn't say this was challenging the codes and conventional but just using them and developing it slightly, I wanted to include it because i felt that it could help to intrigue my audience into continuing on to watch my short film as it hints at the narrative and events within the short film leaving them with curiosity as to what is meant by the catchphrase.



Just like my other ancillary (poster) the majority of the layout is conventional so that the reader is able to easily identify it as a double-page film review. Certain aspects of the layout that are the most conventional is the column structure of the text (review) as I found that this is the case with any text within magazines therefore, I felt it was crucial to have this aspect within mine as it so widely used within every magazine that if it wasn't to be in that structure it would seem mis-placed and even though I want me double-page spread to stand out I believe that the reader wouldn't find it pleasing to have the conventional and almost rules suddenly broken and would most likely skip past it. It is also conventional for the text to be broken up by things such as pictures, quotes and fact sections, I have used these because I feel as though it helps to grab the readers attention at first look but also, with it breaking up the text it could make it even more interesting which makes them to continue reader from where they left off until they finish, ultimately helping them make a decision on whether or not to wait the short film. Within the layout there is some areas that I challenged, conventionally (especially with EMPIRE magazine) the layout if very organised and almost in boxes, rarely does one section touch or cross over to the other however, I has done this often in some of my sections particularly near the images, overlaying a blood splatter etc. My reasoning for doing this was because the conventional, organised layout didn't fit the atmosphere and narrative or neither the horror genre or my short film, I wanted to make it seem a little bit more chaotic and stand out from the rest in a way that something supernatural does therefore, connoting the narrative but also, helping to make a lasting and eye-catching impression on the reader.

Previously, I mentioned how I broke up the text using things such as quotes which is something rather conventional to do however, typically they would be played in speech bubbles. Within my double-page spread I used this feature however, developed it further to match the rest of my double-page. Instead of having them within speech bubbles I had one simple on it's own, overlaying an image slightly , while another one was overlaid on top of a blood splatter to make it seem more importance and emphasis what the quote contains. Yet, I did still include the convention of saying whom the quote was from which is something I hadn't originally done until I received some audience feedback about it and by using and following this conventional I feel as though it gives the quotes some credibility helping to influence the readers decision towards watching the short film.

Earlier within my ancillary task - poster section I mentioned how my title was a Greek word which is very unconventional of any film to do, the reason I did this was to both challenge the conventional and to challenge my skills. I understood that having the title 'θάνατος' could possibly put my audience off slightly as it doesn't give much clue to what the film is about etc. and it's not self-explanatory which conventional an audience does like because it helps them to make an impression and a decision on whether or not to watch it however, the very feeling it would create within the audience is the feeling I'd want to provoke within the film as they look for the meaning of the word they don't understand or as they wait for more information on it etc. it is mysterious and unknown to some, just like the supernatural.  The title itself is symbolic which links into the way I connote particular things within my narrative almost of though it's the nature to the film, this will help the audience to create a strong like/connection between the title and the film/narrative and to hopefully understand what it means by the end or a theory which would lead to them being engrossed in the film to do so.

The mise-en-scene within my short film is both conventional and unconventional, some aspects where I have enforced some codes and conventions is within the lighting. There is a particular scene where a character is in a bathroom and her nose begins to bleed, due to the lighting being in front of her and directing on her face it made her skins much paler and softer which led to the blood being much more shocking and emphasised against the white of her face and the another shot where I used conventional lighting to do the opposite is where the antagonist lifts her head to look into the camera and with the light place below her face at an angle it was able to create dark shows under her eyes, emphasising the whites of her eyes giving her a sinister look and it was purely down to the lighting, I had found shots and techniques like this in some real-media texts where someone would be around a campfire and they'd do the stereotypical torch under the face to tell a scary story which had a similar look and gave a natural, sinister and scary expression, I felt that it helped to make someone who was ordinary and seem innocent to subtly and natural turn dark and evil without the use of make-up to make them look like an evil spirit as in theory the evil was on the inside of the antagonist.

With the costumes of the the characters I played with the conventions but developed them to lead the audience astray which could be argued is actually unconventional. For the costume of 'Claire' who eventually becomes the antagonist, she wore all light clothing as if to connote her innocence and purity while her best friend wore dark clothing such as a leather jacket, black and white top along with dark jeans as if to connote that she is the antagonist rather then Claire because conventionally dark colours are typically used to connote evil so in theory that would be the logical and stereotypical associated/connection however, it turns out to be the very opposite. I feel that by leading the audience astray by possibly making the incorrect connections and assumptions it creates more of a shock factor  when it is revealed which could even lead to them having to re-watch it to see why they made assumption or what they missed.

While editing I decided to stick with the codes and conventions to help me maintain the correction atmosphere for a horror film, ways that I did this was by having a lot of long duration shots, some were one takes meaning no cuts which was more to do with camerawork because through analysing real-media texts which as 'Don't Move' I saw this was very conventional and effective when wanting to place a jump-scare or something shocking. So when editing I could having this types of shots before I wanted to have a sudden movement or an event occur because the audience would be slightly more relaxed as they focused on the continuous movement of what was in frame until sudden it broke away and was disturbed which would suddenly change the atmosphere that the audience was not prepared for, almost leading them into a false sense of safety. Also, conventionally following something like this is a sequence of much faster paced shots that help to connote distress and panic, this is something that I included in mine, a particular example is when 'Claire' suddenly begins to fidget and twist and her behaviour comes strange and it gets fast and faster until it is suddenly broken off by her fist hitting the table, by doing this it builds the intensity of the sequence and the atmosphere to connote that something is going to occur building the audiences adrenaline and the feeling closely and conventionally associated with the horror genre.Also, within my fast paced sequence I included conventional shots such as handheld ones which help to connote the distress and panic the character could be experiencing, ultimately helping the audience to connect with the character and become worried for them or it could yet again connote that is some bad is going to happen.

Overall, I used and stuck to the majority of the conventional with the horror genre so that my audience were able to easily identify my short film as part of the genre itself, I did challenge some of it's aspects to help connote things specific to my narrative or even to help me develop of their intended connotation but to make it more tailored to mine or even to make it more interesting and intriguing.

Film Poster | FINAL PRODUCT

After some audience feedback and advice I have only made one small change/tweak to my ancillary task of a film poster which was said by a couple of people and that was to make the billing section (title) smaller as it's too close to the edges and just doesn't seem correct. So, I make it smaller but made it longer width ways to make sure it still stood out and overlaid the image slightly like I initially wanted, I also had to alter the upside down letters spelling 'death' under the title so that it still matched up while being subtle, I actually make the opacity to 10% from 13% because I felt like it stood out too much and even though I want people to notice I don't want to have to make it too obvious as that's no the point of subtle.

Double Page Spread | FINAL PRODUCT

θάνατος | FINAL PRODUCT

For ym final product I have changed some small aspect such as removing the fire around the flash-forwards but I also added more flash-forwards and even a subtle flashback, accompanied by more whispers but also specific ones that can actually be heard to be saying words, almost giving the character 'Claire' instructions, I was hoping this would help with some character development.

θάνατος - FULL DRAFT #3

After some feedback I made the beginning idents a bright more blood red as some said that it blended into the black background too much. And then after doing this I made some shots longer to help the switch and motions of the characters between the two flow much better and making it less chopping which was due to my rough editing in the beginning.

I also added a section to help with some character development and that was a section where there's a shot of Claire's eye and then a clip of fire over-lays it followed by a sequence of shots that will be seen further on into the short film as if to foreshadow what might happen without giving too much away, this is then repeated at the end to help the audience make the connection between the two.