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.

Double Page Spread - DRAFT #5

Having a rough edit of my main task done I added a rounded up duration/running time to my double page spread and after some feedback I changed the first image on the first page to a more exciting one as there is now now image basically introduction the characters to the reader and then two other giving an impression of the storyline. I believe that this is is my final draft as I am very happy with how it looks and happy that it meets a majority of the conventions of a double page spread for a film review but also I'm just overall happy with the process and the feedback I've had with this task.

- MAIN TASK DRAFT #2

I have added/editing in the ending credits, I put the same names that I used for my ancillary task credits (poster) to stick with the brand identity and even though they aren't actually part of the team or real people in this sense, it fits the conventional and professional look as thought it was the real official product. I also put music over it that's calming but still intense which helps to draw it to an end but still keeping the audience's attention. I also added one more thing which was a knife impact sound effect when the possessed Claire stabs her best friend because even though it's evident what has occurred I received some advice/audience feedback suggesting that adding it could be a good idea and when I tried it out I found that it helped to emphasis the impact so I have kept it.

Poster Ancillary | DRAFT #5

Θάνατος - MAIN TASK DRAFT #1

This is the first full draft of my main task (Short Horror Film), overall I am moderately pleased with it's outcome so far. I still need to tweak parts however, nothing major, I still need to add ending crediting to my short film but that is the last thing I shall do. There's some areas I feel are still a bit choppy but it doesn't effect the flow too much, when editing I tried to keep some shots almost like a one take as I found through my real-media text research that, that is something effective and conventional to do.

Double Page Spread | DRAFT #4

During some feedback on my review page so far some individuals said that the dominant image seemed too empty but that it was a good image and to maybe see if there was a way to remove some of the space so, I went into Adobe PhotoShop CS6 and try different methods, one where I simply cropped it however, that was only effective in making it smaller, the issue was the space right in the middle of the image so with a bit of trail and error I ended up actually cutting out Sasha (left)  and then placing her more forward then the raw image to give the impression that the two were standing closer and thankfully the eye line of each character still lined up and it did actually help the image to look less empty but this also meant that I was able to making it bigger on my double page spread going with the code and conventions of the dominant image being the biggest but also it helped to fill up any background space making it fuller without the need for anything else.

Also after some feedback I added newspaper company names to the two quotes I had made such as 'Daily Mail' and 'The Sun' as they're very common and mainstream companies that do both mainstream and niche news/reports/articles on everything. Also, by involving these the reader would see them and instantly make an impression based on these companies opinions as though 'they think it's good, surely it must be then.'

Main Task Ending - Very Rough Draft

So I did a rough draft for the ending as I haven't yet filmed the bathroom scene. Right now it's extremely rough with no extra audio put it or effects or anything, some of the audio has even been removed due to unwanted talking over it however, that can be fixed by adding external audio. It's very choppy right now and I ran into a few issues with the positioning of myself and Sasha as you were able to see my facial expressions and not the knife which is the exact opposite of what I'd wanted so that is something I'm going to work around. Hopefully, everything will turn out alright.

Adding My Main Character To My Poster | DRAFT #4

After trying a few of the images on the poster I finally went with one of the last that I tried which was where Sasha had her head tilted to the slide ever so slightly but almost her eyebrows were the most narrowed in this photo which helps with the sinister and dark atmosphere I am trying to create with this poster whereas, the others just didn't seem to be as effective.

I had to actually edit the photo before hand to get it to fade into black around the edges by using the gradient tool within Photoshop CS6 which is something I have become very skilled in since this production. I also used this technique to darken Sasha's face to help remove any parts that remained of the orange, warm colour from the original JPEG, something that I found worked to highlight the darkness under her eyes which actually makes the whites of her eyes stand out more which would actually draw the audiences attention as they look at her eyes to see she is starring back.

I have also made the colour of the slogan, production logos and 'in cinemas' section a brighter red to make it stand out slightly more, but also so that it matches the colour scheme with more other ancillary a bit more giving it some consistency which could even be associated with the brand. This colour also closely matched the colour of my production company logo at the beginning of my main task, reinforcing the idea of bran image.

Lastly, I changed the font of the 'In cinemas' section because it got lost within the credits and didn't stand out like it conventionally should so as a result I make it the same font as the slog and the title as I didn't want too many different fonts on the poster which could make it look too busy or less aestehtic. As a result, I think it looks much better and I am very happy with my decision.

I still have a few things to add on but I very close to being done, I think I am going to add more scratched into the background as I feel they got lost as I edited my image in and I really like the effect they had on the image but also, looking at real-media texts of horror film posters I think I need to make the credits slightly smaller as they're very close to the edge of the poster which isn't the usual look.

Taking Pictures For My Poster!

During one of my filming days I took photos of my actor Sasha Webb whom is portraying Claire. I took these photos so that I would later on, be able to edit them onto my already existing template/draft of my film poster. When taking them I had in mind the stock imaging I had used initially, so I had Sasha positioned her head down while look up and directly into the camera to make it seem as though she is looking at the audience and her eyes will follow them. I did a couple of shots at different distances, some getting all of Sasha's hair in while in others I cut it off but also in a couple I had her have her hair up to see what impact that would have and I came to the conclusion that it made the image itself look less sinister.

The lighting of the images do look slightly orange giving it a warm tone to it which is the opposite of what I want however, I can easily change the settings for this in the editing software therefore it's not a problem.

The Blood Drip

While doing my storyboarding I had come up with the idea of not actually showing a character being stabbed by the Antagonist but rather you see the blood fall/splatter connoting the injury or event. I wasn't 100% sure on how I would film this so when it came down to it I decided to pick out the most popular and well know symbol and tip fake blood onto it from a high angle to connote the blood from the injury and thankfully it worked perfectly! The impact sound on the blood also works well and the way that it's highlighted on the white paper really helps to connote it's importantance of the scene and what has just happened.

DoublePage Spread Film Review | DRAFT #3

A big issue was filling in the gap below and next to the images I has chosen on the second page of the double page spread however, after looking at some real-media texts I did think about include a scare-o-meter but then felt as though it wouldn't go with the atmosphere that my review page was trying to create so instead I decided to only include the percentage of which it would be scary, I also decided to make this a separate font which I downloaded from DaFonts, I went for a more pixels font re still represent how the scare-o-meter would of appeared, another reason I did this was the make it stand out yet I kept it a dark, pastel red so that it didn't draw to much of the readers attention away from things such as the title and images as that isn't very conventional however, it would grab enough of their attention to help them make an impression for the film without reading it. I also overlaid this on top of a blood splatter to help to connote the conventional use of blood of the genre.

MEDIA EVALUATION Question 4 - How Did You Use Media Technologies In The Construction, Research, Planning And Evalaution stages?

θάνατος So Far! DRAFT #1

This is my Main Task so far, there is a small shot at the beginning that I haven't filmed yet due to changing my storyline which is just what is on the note and a shot of it beginning taken off the bag. I still have music to add etc. And the next scene is the bathroom one where you get the first glimpse of the real antagonist which is the last thing to film.

Edited First Part Of Dialogue

So due to my slight change in the storyline to limit the amount of dialogue I finally got to edit the first section which I think worked really well and looks really good! Also, I feel as though not having dialogue a the beginning means that the audience have no speech pattern to compare 'Claire' to before and after the 'possession' happens so it will seem as though nothing it wrong.