Evaluation - Audience theory

From start to end, we always had our audience in mind, which was mainly middle class males, potentially females as there are two young male actors. There are a number of theories regarding audience that I will now look at in this post in regards to our media texts.

The hypodermic needle theory. This insists that media text injects its ideas, values and attitudes straight into a passive audience.
This is why we decided our trailer to be a 15 age certificate. The reason for this is that we felt some of the topics that would have been covered if we were to produce a film would be too explicit for an age group under the age of 15. Obviously, the trailer was quite explicit as a younger audience wouldn't be able to watch it on T.V without getting any traumatic experience.

The reception theory, this being the text not being accepted passively by the audience. But the audience's understanding of the text depends on their own experiences. The stereotype associated with the middle class of being trying to do a project could mean that our trailer feeds curios information to the audience.

A third theory could be the uses and gratifications theory which consists of 5 reasons why audiences consume media texts. These are:

·        To be Informed and Educated

·        In order to identify with characters and situation

·        Entertainment

·        Social interaction with others

·        Escapism from their daily troubles.

People watch movies to be entertained and therefore could be a reason why people would watch our trailer.

Another reason why they would watch our trailer is due to leisure activity. The trailer could be based on anyone else putting themselves in our situation which they could put a story to it, and would see themselves in it with the actors in the film as if its real life.

Evaluation - Narrative theory

James and I decided to restrict our narrative due to it being a trailer and we didn't want to give too much away. We knew that it would make the audience curious and want to watch the whole film. 
We see our trailer as a point of view of two characters, with some shots being other point of view. We knew that either point of view would work for our trailer idea but we felt that having an objective point of view would be overcomplicated to produce and is very much rare to find in modern day media.

Todorov's Narrative theory

Todorov produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He stated that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and again equilibrium.

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

1.      A state of equilibrium - (All is as it should be.)

2.     A disruption of that order by an event - (Me disappearing)

3.     A recognition that the disorder has occurred - (Kidnap? Death? etc...)

4.     An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption - (James trying to find me)

5.     A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium - (All back to normal? I die? etc...)

This was predominantly produced by Todorov for a movie piece of text but still can be applied to a trailer with the exception of the last step as that is giving too much away. We wanted to make our trailer conventional but also wanted to differentiate it by not following all the steps. We felt that this would help the audience ask more questions in which were one of the factors that we had identified to say whether the trailer was a success or not.

We followed steps 1, 2, and 4 but left out 3 and 5. The reason we left out step number 3 was that it would get the audience asking about how I disappeared. This tells the audience that the film includes the answer and they should watch it. We still wanted to keep the trailer fairly conventional as we didn't want the audience to ask too many questions as it could be argued that we didn't include enough information and hence we followed three steps. We don't know much about where I disappeared or how James will find me but we know it’s based around the cemetery which we felt was adequate information but still possess enough unanswered questions consequently building interest in the movie.

Propp's character theory

Vladimir Propp developed a character theory, for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:

1.             The villain (struggles against the hero - we don't come across him/her in the trailer)

2.            The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object - not used)

3.            The helper (helps the hero in the quest - was me at the start until I disappeared)

4.            The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative - not used but can be argued I was, as James was fighting the villain to find and rescue me)

5.            The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil - not used)

6.            The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero of - James as he realised himself he needs to save me)

7.            The hero (AKA victim, reacts to the donor, weds the princess - James)

Barthes’ Enigma Code

Barthes theory suggests that there certain elements of the story that are not explained on purpose. This can be done in three ways. These ways are:

·        Snares- Deliberately avoiding the truth (Used when James didn’t consent to me being kidnapped or killed)

·        Equivocations- partial or incomplete answers (used this at the car scene at the end)

·        Jamming- openly acknowledge that there is no answer to a problem (used this when I disappear)

The purpose of the director doing this is to keep the audience guessing, eye-catching the mystery, until the final scenes when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied off and closure is achieved.

Binary oppositions- Claude Levi-Strauss

Levi Strauss's theory suggests that the relationship between conflict and opposition creates the narrative where the narrative can only end with the resolution of this conflict; whether it is positive or negative, for example - Good vs. Evil, Black vs. White, Boy vs. Girl, and Peace vs. War etc.

Our trailer has an origin opposition as it could be argued that James wants to find me because I am a close friend of his. Whether it is that he wants to find me because I am his friend or because he wants to find answers to his project. The trailer does not give it away so therefore I struggled to link this theory with our trailer.

Overall, these narrative theories have been helpful when looking at how conventional our trailer is. I can conclude that our trailer can be classed as conventional with some deliberate unconventional aspects that differentiate our trailer to any other trailer available. For example, we don’t find the recognition of the disorder but I feel as if it makes our trailer unique.

Evaluation Activity 4 - Media Technology

During the whole media assignment, I mainly learnt about how to upload various media files and be able to conveniently upload them (previously the preliminary task) and share them to a range of online websites like YouTube, twitter, facebook etc. for people to see from around the world. My Blogger gained over 2000 page views; of which were seen from countries like the US to countries across Europe including Germany, UK and to the Middle East like Israel and to the Far East like China etc. I also learnt how to master uploading and producing PowerPoint presentations through slide share to share through my Blogger account (Including Prezi). 

I learnt that the film industry relies on cross media convergence and multi-media platforms to reach out to its audience. For example, the industry relies on websites like YouTube to release its film trailer (part of viral marketing campaigns) to be viewed by millions of its audience. They also create websites to advertise their films. These turn out to be effective in setting high expectations for the audience and big box-office films and lead to usually great success. In terms of quality, the film industry relies on highly developed software and has the benefit of the availability of 3D to raise the quality to the next level of expectation to from the audience’s perspective, therefore showing the industry is fairly dependent on 3D technology to make high levels of profit. Avatar used motion capture that matched every detail of the actor/actresses physical, facial emotions and actions which was the first time this it was ever used in film, this lead to such high expectations and excitement towards Avatar and raised the level of film for the film industry.

To further make it accessible to my preferred audience and examiners, I embedded the video, from YouTube, to Blogger - another site owned by Google. Inevitably, all sites are very popular and it could be believed to be so because of Google's popular brand image. I have done all my work, from Research & Planning all the way to Evaluation on this blogging site, because it's very easy to use and easy to access for examiners and my target audience, who I believe aren't technology inapt.

We used the Sony HDR-HC3 to film our opening two minutes. It was easy and straightforward to get used to the camera as it only took a couple of attempts to get used to and master the handling etc. of the HD camcorder. This contributed to the level of quality of the filming in terms of handling and pixel quality as it’s a HD camcorder.

The film industry relies to the use of high-tech, up-to-date software and equipment in order to keep up with the ever-developing world and expectations. However, they also need to take into account how easy it will be for people to access such outlets and whether they'll make enough profit this way. Camera quality and editing has evolved over time and every film institution uses top-of-the-range equipment in order to film and produce the best quality films possible. Google is a global leader and a good choice of outlet in my opinion.

Evaluation activity 3 - Audience feedback

Here is the video of our audience feedback for our trailer More Than Human. This was done by a number of participants where we got a wide range of responses in which a lot of information can be drawn from this feedback.

We felt as if we got a lot of positives from this audience feedback. Such as the success of the sound and pace combination, furthermore, we have identified what we could have done better such as include a stronger back story that would appeal to more of a female audience, use less of the glitch effect and include more establishing shots to show the location. 

Evaluation Activity 2 - Directors commentary

Here are our 3 pieces of media text along with our directors commentary which was done by me. We understood the importance of all three pieces of text to be able to gain attention of a wider audience. 

Here in the video below, we have a director’s commentary of James and I, explaining our film and how we thought it would affect the audience and also what went well in the film and if we had more time, what would we do next. We also commented on how the texts combine with the main product to give it the horror film.

Trailer  

Magazine front cover 

Poster 

Evaluation Activity 1 - Special effects

We understood how the most successful horror related movies had to have some basic special effects but focused more on making the movie better(i.e. acting) to add to the realism of the film. For example in Grave Encounters, the use of special effects is minimal but they still add effect through the glitch special effect as if something is wrong with the camera and smudges the texts and fades into the video. This is why we didn't want to overcomplicate our trailer with special effects but use the natural camera shots and locations to make it as effective. We knew this would be the best way in which to attract the audience.
One thing that we had done a lot of thanks to our research was the glitch effect. We thought using this would be a simple way to make the trailer look much better and with more quality of the trailer. We also have used some fade shots which were used frequently but due to the constant changes in pace, didn't feel repetitive and helped with the fluidity of the trailer. 

This editing technique was used as a very snappy way to change shots, and video footage. Making it seem as if something is faulty was a very efficient way of reaching to the audience and implying this is a high budget film.

Smudging the writing, again, making it look as if there is a fault, quick and meaningful way of setting a superior image for the film.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Characters

We noticed during our planning phase that the relevance of a character is given by offering as much or as little camera time. We wanted to maximise the amount of characters we include in the trailer to make it have more of a broad feel. We introduced characters at relatively the same time to help the audience identify them but also to tell the audience that there is still a lot of information that they can gain from watching the entire movie and it helps gain more interest of the movie from the trailer. 

Again Propp's narrative theory was vital in this particular aspect. We wanted to show the Hero first, although the audience don't find that out in the trailer, we tried to follow the introduction of characters to the helper and villain. The audience will identify that both James and myself have the same importance level in this trailer as we appear an equal amount of times each but only later in the trailer, they come across only seeing James and not me. 

As horror is a difficult genre to cooperate in character introduction, we decided making a found footage would be easier to produce, meaning, at the beginning I was situating an introductory scene, stating where we are. Though with James, first shot the audience sees is where he was joking around, and I was worried. We both introduced with dialogue where I was speaking to the camera and James was speaking to me. To the audience is may already imply as if I am the victim because I am seen more at the start, so I am potentially the subject.

The last scene with the car, another character is seen, to the audience it’s very hard to judge if it’s James or me. With very bright light shining of the person, this has a cliffhanger effect on the audience as the trailer ends with them not knowing who or what that person was. James and I intended for this to have an influence on the audience to want to watch the film, in order to find out who the person is. 

This is the introductory shot of me, telling the audience where the trailer is based, also introducing my character, Denzel.   

This shot was implemented to have a cliffhanger influence on the audience for them to watch the movie itself. 

Evaluation Activity 1 - Genre

Our trailer is of a horror genre. Our trailer shows basic pieces of text within it which supports this. Firstly, there are a number of locations which suggest that this is a horror genre movie and will attract a typical young adult audience. The most identifiable location for the genre is the graveyard as it connotes creepiness and scare. Furthermore we knew we had to put this location in for the audience to understand what the movie was about, especially as we didn't want to give much away in terms of dialogue. The constant exchanges between James and myself also re-enforces the genre as we actually witness the experiences such as escaping, fear and so on. In addition, the horror can’t be identified through the conversations between James and me, as we are just two ordinary friends trying to find something out. This is the reason why we decided to add the dialogue and make the horror aspect unclear and try to gain the more audience attention through this as they may not like horror but would still want to find out what happens. Movies such as Grace Encounters also have a back story to gain the more audiences which was what we were trying to achieve.
We understand the importance of a genre and how each genre has certain criteria that is expected from the audience. This is why we needed to study similar genres in order to find out what sort of criteria needs to be met. Such criteria that we noticed were intensity build up, a killer or a ghost which is something for the main cast to get away from, and a reason to why the cast want to find out about the killer/ghost. 
The non-diegetic sound aspect was also a very helpful way to suggest the trailer. Complemented with the shots and locations, it dictated the fast pace and made it feel like a horror trailer. Movies such as Paranormal Activity are much known for its soundtrack and this is what we tried to do with our trailer. The sounds we used were created by James, and they were conventional, but very effective. 

To me, this shot out of the whole trailer, looks the most like a horror genre shot, with dark background, in the night, not being able to see much, having a creepy and scary effect. To the audience the person standing is very unclear, and they may think it’s the person who has kidnapped Denzel as Jack loses him, ending the trailer on a cliff hanger and for them to want to watch the film. 

Evaluation Activity 1 - Narrative

I felt as if the research and planning stage was the reason why our story made a lot of sense. Thanks to the detailed storyboard that I had prepared, we had a clear idea and thus we believed our understanding would also give the audience a clear idea of how we wanted the trailer to look and what sort of a storyline it was trying to portray. 

We wanted to convey our horror genre as much as possible and this is why we added so many dark and scary scenes. We also made it fairly conventional as we followed Todorov's narrative structure to an extent. The only bit that couldn't be identified was the initial equilibrium and we done this on purpose to make it less conventional thus different but also I felt that having an initial equilibrium will negatively affect what we are trying to tell the audience as we wanted to show that he is on a mission from the beginning and thus there is no equilibrium that he is happy with. Despite this we follow the middle steps of Todorov's narrative structure but we don't have an ending as it's only a trailer and we are also seen as conventional in that sense.

We aim to be conventional as we understand that these conventions are what the audience expects from genres and thus we must follow them in order for them to be successful and meet the needs of our audience. We decided the way in which we would differentiate ourselves to any other horror movie is by becoming slightly less conventional to surprise the audience and not just make our trailer a typical horror/drama movie. During my research, I noticed that the majority of trailers follow Todorov's narrative structure and so we knew the relevance of this. It also helped us save a bit more time as it gave us an initial idea of how we were going to set up our trailer.

The Narrative of the story is very simple, two students filmmakers, wanted to find out the truth about the haunted cemetery, taking a few torches and cameras with them to capture the evidence. Later finding out the rumours about the cemetery are real, ending up losing each other and disappearing. I believe we got that across quite well, as we have titles in the trailer stating the situations.

Screenshot shows the title from the trailer where we are giving information to the audience about the narrative, this could potentially attract students and young adults as the story is involving people their age and their position (e.g. at school)

Evaluation Activity 1 - Title Fonts and Style

The use of titles and text is vital to the success of a trailer. Not only can it act as a piece of non verbal dialogue but also helps dictate the pace. This is why we spread our text around. I felt we had done this well and we needed to because of the horror genre our film is associated with. I noticed there are constant changes in the pace of the genres and this is why we included so much text.
One problem with putting so much text in a trailer is that the audience may not identify the most important pieces of text. We managed to get over this by putting the title at the end of the trailer. We learnt that people tend to remember the start and end of any piece of information the most and thus this was how we gave it the most prevalence.

Here is an example of some of the text that we included and the purposes of these pieces of texts are to dictate the pace of the trailer which is also accompanied by the sound as well. These titles were used to show a change in location as well. I felt as if these titles were a vital part to the success of the trailer and made it seem much longer than it actually was. This is because the constant changes in pace in such a short period of time makes it feel much longer.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Camerawork and Editing

We understood how important camera work and the editing process would be to the success of our trailer. All conventional movies have smooth editing and use a wide range of camera movements for many different reasons. I believe that different types of camera work along with the editing helps achieve the audiences need of leisure whilst watching a movie as different types of editing keeps the trailer flowing. This could be identified in our scary pace build up where James and me were using the same fear combinations throughout the trailer but the use of fades and cuts and length of shots made it feel different. The use of camera work could really be identified by the different angles in which we used. These different angles added to the intensity of the trailer as it was very fast paced.

I feel our trailer is to an extent conventional in regards to the editing and camera work. We use a number of quick snappy shots along with fades which can be identified in many horror genres but the way in which we constantly changed the camera angles made it less conventional to the genre yet added a lot of effect as shown by the screenshot below.

Here is a screenshot to show the use of our camera work. We closed up on my face and thought of this shot very carefully as there is no movement in the background. It is a Point Of View shot, just in formation with the genre of the film. Furthermore, the camera is at a very low angle which shows hints of the unconventional style.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Costumes & Props

We used a limited amount of costumes and props even though we understood how someone's appearance can offer assumptions to the audience by the nature of our genre, using many costumes would question the suitability of the scenes. We also knew that costume can add to the realism of the trailer as well as complementing the locations. We done this as we used a small range of costumes to show that the movie is filmed over one night. This is something I noticed in the Grave Encounters Movies where it tries to show the film shot over night as the project takes places people gathering in one night and this is something I believe we done well.

We also used other conventional props that may not be noticeable but just adds to the realness and feeling of the movie. One of these props was James’ torch which would be used in dark conditions.

One thing I felt we could have done better was introduce a costume that is completely different to what I was wearing. This is because my costume connoted casual whereas if we had me in jeans or something a bit more formal, it would add to the back story.

Here is a screenshot of the torch light being used, in the dark. The light James’ using is a very important prop that is required to tell the audience the basic idea of the movie and makes the trailer much more understandable. As you can see, the light is the only prop in some shots. This gives it most prevalence and catches the audience's eye in the shot which again helps the audience identify the genre in the movie.

Here is a screenshot of me, again. As you can see here, as I am being filmed, I am also using a camera; this would a prop used to make it seem as if we were filming each other whilst following the narrative. Moreover, it also compliments the genre as it looks very realistic.

Evaluation Activity 1 - Setting/Location

We understood that a trailer requires a number of locations and this was the hardest part in terms of showing a wide range of locations in a manner that will still make the trailer seem not over complicated and should complement the pace as opposed to disrupting it. We introduced different locations throughout the trailer not really giving any prevalence to a specific location but it's rather spread out. We used a number of shots to show these locations which I believe can be seen by the choice of screenshots that I have taken below.

I believe that one thing we had done well was use a wide range of shots to show the audience the different locations that we have and also tells them a bit more about the storyline. One example of how we used a wide range of shots was when we took the establishing shot of cemetery. I felt that this establishing shot was unique in comparison to the other shots we used to introduce the locations. Furthermore, we knew we were going to use this establishing shot, not only shows the importance of research and planning but also tells us that we had planned for this trailer properly.
I also feel as if our choice of locations were perfect in conjunction with the horror genre. These locations consisted of the various graveyards, woods/forest and a drive next to a river. All these also showed off the storyline, plus told the audience that both James and I were from a middle class background which would appeal to out C1, C2 ad D target audience. The working class background could be seen by the clothes being worn as well as James and me using everyday language amongst the public which is what's expected from a typical teenager nowadays. 

Here is the screenshot of the shot of the cemetery. The camera stays onto me but we still continue to see the background. We see almost all of the cemetery which shows that this was a perfect position to take this shot from as it can clearly be identified as an establishing shot.

Here is a screenshot of one of the way we established a location setting in our trailer. We tried doing so by using woods, as it’s associated with running away and scariness. 

Evaluation Activity 1 - Title of the Film

Here are a number of screenshots taken from our trailer. All of these screenshots have some important input to our trailer whether it is setting a location or introducing a new character. This part of the evaluation reinforces why we had put some shots in the trailer.

The title of the film:

We chose our title to be called More Than Human. There was a lot of deliberation of where we should place the title as we were putting it in different positions during the draft process. We noticed that other trailers try to give it as much prevalence as possible and we also followed this convention as we finally decided to put the title at the end of our trailer. 

One reason why I felt this was a good decision for our specific trailer is because we had a lot of dialect in the form of text on the screen and so we had to make this piece of text more important than the rest and thus we put it at the end as it will be the last thing the audience remembers. People tend remember the start and end of any piece of information and that was the reason why we put it right at the end.   

We also knew that we must differentiate the title from the rest of the text dialogue within the trailer. We kept the font the same as all trailers have a conventional "One Font" system to not over complicate it and we also followed this.

The title above, is one of the fonts we used to try and use to help fit our genre, but we felt like that this was a bit too much as we researched many different found footage horror films and they have a plain, computerized, font which has an effect on the audience.

Here is a screenshot of the title right at the end of the trailer. The title above is on a black background and in a plain, computerized font called "Mathematics" which gave the trailer a more of a found footage horror effect. We decided on this as we both felt it would increase the tension and also due to the white writing contrasting the black background, we were going back to the traditional horror conventions.

Progress of Movie Magazine

Recently, we have started to work on my magazine front cover for our trailer "More Than Human", this has taken a couple of lessons and various trial and error things using Photoshop as it is not a program that we are not used to using.
In the next pictures below, it will show the progress of the magazine front cover and some of the things that need to be added to the magazine for it to be complete.

This picture (Above) was the start of the movie poster but only slightly progressed. We used the red Empire magazine title, as it is a well known film magazine, plus the used of red gives the horror effect of blood and contrasts with the black background of darkness, fear and death. I used a well known horror film "You're next" and the picture of the masked antagonist from the film to help draw in the audience and make it feel scarier. The use of the title above the Empire Magazine title, in capitals, "Our Best Horror Issue Ever", gives the effect that there is more inside that will surprise the audience reading this magazine. I have also added in the prices and date of the magazine, to make the magazine feel more realistic.

This second picture (above) has more added into it, including the title of our trailer and another well known, recent horror movie. The Title "More Than Human" is in the conventional horror colours of red and white, this contrasts the black background. The red writing represents blood and the white text represents light, but the white writing is used to stand out on the black background, with the black colour representing darkness, death and fear, which will attract the audience to the magazine, due to the colours standing out. With another added horror film added onto the magazine and the scary doll/puppet picture added as well, gives the magazine a more conventional horror feel, due to the picture blending into the black background, attracting a wider range of audiences to buy the magazine.

In this picture (above), a lot of changes have been made, including the text/font of the writing, the size of the font and also added in a "New and exclusive interview" with the directors, who are James and Myself. I decided to change the font and the size of the text to give it a more eye catching feel, to attract more people to take a look at the magazine cover, still using the conventional red and white colours, to represent blood and still making the text stand out and contract the black background, giving it the horror feel too. I also changed the positioning on where the movie title should be, as it didn't seem right having the text on the top right of the movie magazine, as it is more effecting nearer to the bottom and more central, also filling up the page. To make it more central, I had to adjust the positioning of the bar code to a more horizontal position, due to when the bar code was vertical, the text had to become more cramped and it didn't look as good. The use of capitals in the title, makes it stand out more, also having the word "Than" in a slightly larger font, make the title stand out even more, allowing the audience to get drawn into the magazine. Also adding the "New and Exclusive interviews with the directors" in the red and white colours still follow the conventions of a horror magazine cover, also keeping it simple and making it fit in with everything else on the page. Also, using this text, this gives the audience to have something to look forward to when reading the magazine.

There is more to be added to the magazine front cover, as there is a large black blank area, this is where our main picture is going to go after the film has been produced. The picture will be the antagonist, which will bland into the background to give the audience the question "who is the killer?”

Now, the picture above is the finished product of our magazine cover and our trailer, More Than Human. The last image to be added was the black and white, faded grave stone that is covered by the tree vines. This picture was the ideal photo for our magazine cover; this is due to the fact that the grave gives the audience a feel of death and fear. The name on the grave gives the audience the question "Is that the killer?", "Is that a ghost?". The grave is in black and white to contrast the black background and the red writing, drawing the audience into the magazine.

Overall, I found this to be a fun project to do and I am happy with the end product. I have been able to apply my skills from editing to try and find out how to use the Photoshop program, also looking at tutorials have helped me with the end product, and overall, I am thrilled that my hard work has paid off as I am very pleased with the magazine cover