PRODUCTION: OFFICIAL TRAILER

FINAL ANCILLARY TASK 2: POSTER

This is my final poster, I'm happy with the outcome as I've used various parts of my format research as inspirations to create this final piece. I used a similar idea from the 'Legend' poster with the star ratings, which I feel is one of the most successful parts of my poster as its a good promotional selling point. I like how effectively the colour scheme works together despite not using the 3 colour principle because I feel the colours used create a chilling and eerie atmosphere. I used the colours white for the stars to symbolize purity and light blue for my typography because it looked cold and unwelcoming. The light colour of the typography contrasted against the dark background making it stand out, bold and easy to read. I liked the light blue text so used it for the majority of typography as it linked to the colour of the central image, which has a blue tint to make it look cold and unwelcoming. Having the text this tinted blue too made the poster look quite chilling. I also personally associate the blue tint with thriller genres, as reflected from my research so I felt it was really suited to my genre and helped achieve the right balance for a horror/thriller hybrid. 

I edited the central image on Photoshop, merging two images together and reducing the opacity of the model on the left, to make it look as if he was lurking in the dark room the girl sits in, making him appear creepy and showing him in the light of a villian. Nicole on the other hand, is positioned at the front of the frame as it makes her look more vulnerable and helpless were as Adam is placed to the back to make him look more in power. Adam stares at Nicole which we can clearly see however Nicole is using a non-direct gaze and staring at something off the poster; this creates enigma as her facial expressions reflects fear and vulnerability, she looks like she is in an inferior position as her eyes are looking upwards to someone bigger than her suggesting whoever it is, they're more dominating and important.

FINAL ANCILLARY TASK 1: WEBSITE

Here is a link to my website which promotes my film, The Play House:

http://lydiagould.wix.com/theplayhouse

Evaluation of Trailer:

Evaluation of my Trailer: The Play House from lydiag2

What have you learned from audience feedback?
Listen to my response here. 

Audience feedback allowed me to distinguish what they wanted from the genre and what codes and conventions they expected to see in my trailer. I had to be sure to conform and challenge to some of these in order to meet the needs of my audience, even if this meant doing things a bit differently to how i had planned. 

From a variety of verbal feedback and comments online about my first draft trailer, i realised i needed to change the sound track. It got responses expressing how the audience didn't feel like it created the right atmosphere or fitted with the mise-en-scene, and this was really useful because otherwise i don't think i would have realised. After a draft went up of my new sound track it got a lot more positive responses and praise, people particularly liked the sound effect of the heartbeat because it built tension and suspense, therefore i then concentrated on developing this whilst getting continuous feedback from my peers, who are the same age group my target audience and therefore representative. 

I also asked my peers for help on some editing transitions, i found they were similar with me on this one, and thought the dissolve transitions was really good because it was quite eerie and created suspense that the whole image wasn't uncovered straight away.

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

Evaluation of Ancillary Tasks:

What have you learned from audience feedback?

Listen to my response HERE   

I was really happy with this positive feedback, It was useful to hear there opinion, especially Georgia, who commented that i should add some star reviews and bold typography. This was effective and something i ended up doing which shows audience feedback was significant, worthy and taken into account.

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

Evaluation Question from lydiag2

Below i have created a mood board of all the media technologies i have used to research, plan, construct and evaluate my media products during my A2 production:

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

I think my main product and ancillary tasks all tie in together, this has been achieved by running a consistent theme across the 3 products. To achieve this i had to make sure the same atmosphere and mood was established across the panel, through the use of colour schemes, fonts, actors representations, images, audio, text and tag lines.

I tried to create a chilling atmosphere for each product to give a hint towards the thriller genre and creepy narrative but also leave the chance to express it was a horror genre too through the use of different conventions which were easier to attain as add ons. 

My poster was washed with a blue tint, I felt this did its job to achieve the haunting, spine chilling atmosphere as the blue has connotations of coldness and is unwelcoming. My website stuck to a dull colour scheme also, consisting mainly of black and white, this was to give a stripped back effect. The chilling element of this was mainly my background image which was a ‘gif’ of ‘flowing viscous liquid’ which i felt had connotations of trickling blood- which fills typical conventions of the horror genre whilst being chilling and fitting the thriller atmosphere.

Another element that links the products, is the fact the same main actors are used to represent the film. My 2 main characters Nicole Simmonds and Adam Healey appear as the central focus points on the front of all my products. This is used to enhance audiences familiarity with these characters and relate them back to the film, it makes each product alone more identifiable, and furthermore connects them to one another. There names also appear on my products, which associates them to the outcomes.

On my website i have put the same piano soundtrack thats used on the first half of my trailer, this will link to two things together through audio, despite it linking 2 products i was unable to link the third because the poster is only a visual still image. 

My main product; the trailer, also appears on the home page of my website which helps them promote each product to my audiences. My website also has a media section where some images have been taken as snapshots from parts of the trailer which hopefully the audience might recognize or connect to one another. 

I have a common tag line used through my poster and trailer narrative and website, that's ‘Would you like to play?’ its a rhetorical question therefore engages the audience to respond as if its asked directly to them. This spurs curiosity about the upcoming film and creates excitement and a buzz. Using the personal pronoun 'you' makes it more direct and personal to specific people in the audience.

My social media pages all link up too; the consistency is mainly created through the use of the same or similar images. On my Instagram page i continued to use a black and white theme throughout my images to link them to some of the ones used on my website. The information and news posted on all my media sites link up and are consistent, this was to achieve a sense of professionalism and show the information was correct and backed up through different sources. All my colour schemes are dull so this creates a sense of consistency among the social networks.  

I felt the social media aspect of promoting my film was really important because it provides such strong advertising due to the fact it can get out to a wide range of audiences globally. It is an easy way to keep the audience updated at the click of a button, providing them with different medias, whether it be articles, photos or videos. I think its effective because it interactive and you can draw attention to it easily, especially once people get sharing, retweeting and 'liking'. Its a good way to build a relationships with the consumers as they're much more involved and things have a more personal touch to them because everything can be adapted and quoted etc. 

The posters main attraction and dominant feature is the star ratings, these act as a hook and engage the audience by showing the film as high rated movie and building it a good reputation as it seems like a 'must see'. After being engaged by the hook, they're intrigued to look on the website, which provides a lot more information and has interactive tools which helps engage the audience even further. On the home page of the website, the trailer is the central focus and this attracts the audience by filling genre conventions and showing them a teaser of the upcoming film. Hopefully, through the combination on these products the audience will feel excited for the release!

Directors Commentary of Trailer

To kick start my evaluation, I have done a commentary of my trailer, just explaining why i did certain things throughout my trailer. As well as this video, i will write up a much more specific and detailed evaluation of my trailer and ancillary tasks.

Social Networking Pages Links

Twitter: https://twitter.com/The_PlayHouse1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playhousehorror/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Play-House-1485869291721121/

Social Networking Sites

Just some screenshots from my active social Networking sites:

BLOOPERS Video

Here is my Bloopers video created on Imovie, it's very short and has some unsuccessful but hopefully funny takes in, which should be entertaining for the audience. Its bright and has uplifting music as its not related to the horror/thriller genre but instead is being used to introduce the cast and crew and show some behind the scenes filming footage.

Progress Log...

I am currently in the process of designing a website to promote my film, using a programme called Wix. I have used the Revenant website (http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-revenant) as my main guide and it has given me a useful insight of what to include and how to present my content in an appealing way to my audiences. I felt creating something online could be really strong in helping attract and appeal to the age of my target audience due to having been born into the generation of technology; it should be well suited to their lifestyle. It's quick and easy to access and updates can be published at the click of the button; these are just some aspects which make the online promotional method so appealing. Being able to view it though different materials will also help  attract mass audiences (option to view on mobile) as it makes it adaptive to everyones lifestyle. It also allows the chance to build a more personal relationship with the demographic as their are methods of contact, subscriptions and further social media links such as Facebook and Twitter make them feel more involved and give them the opportunity to voice their opinions and converse with other fans about the film. This will help the film gain a buzz as people will be able to get involved no matter where they are. I think this works really well to promote the film on an all round basis. Furthermore, when my trailer is complete, it will be the perfect way to gain peoples attention and show mass audiences all round the world. When my website is complete and online, I will be using an option on the Wix website called 'Promote' which will send out a 'shoutout email', this will be really effective in marketing the film, in addition to the website and social media networks. 

Format Research Website Inspirations...

http://www.sinistermovie.com/
http://www.warnerbros.com/conjuring
http://itfollowsfilm.com/
http://www.paranormalmovie.co.uk/
http://www.theyarenear.com/
http://www.insidiouschapter3.com/
http://lionsgateathome.com/vatican-tapes

Format Research for Website

Format Research for Website from lydiag2

Website Format Research

After deciding to create a website, I decided to do some research to get some inspiration ideas. I looked at a variety of websites before focusing on specifically horror and thriller genre ones. I feel like I now have an understanding of a websites codes and conventions and feel like i'm ready to go ahead and create and design my own one.

Having looked at a range of websites and their content, I have a strong knowledge of common headings, 3 have appeared on almost every website I've looked at and these are:

- Trailer

- Gallery (Photos and Videos)

- Social Networking

These will be the first sections I will look at doing. The trailer is a necessity, it should appear on the home page seeing as its a huge selling point and feature, furthermore it will appeal to a large audience which will result in mass marketing. I have seen on some websites that it starts playing automatically as soon as you visit the page, I will do this with mine too in order to grab the audiences attention and make them watch it.

In a couple of websites, under the gallery > videos section, I have seen outtakes and bloopers video, I really like this idea and think they're effective. It helps the audience feel a more personal relationship as they get to witness the actors in a different, more casual setting. I think this will be unique and help attract people to the website. I also intend to add photos, I have already picked out some successful images I would like to post under this section. I will be editing them to black and white as i feel this will suit the theme of my website.

Social Networking links are also a huge factor, they're a great way to gain publicity and spread news, updates and pictures quickly and to reach a large audience. I have already created a Facebook page and Twitter account for the Playhouse and I will also be creating an instagram for a photo feed (exclusive pictures). 

Website Links:

http://www.krampusthefilm.com/#/

http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-revenant

http://www.crimsonpeakmovie.co.uk/
http://thewomaninblack-movie.com/ 

Progress Log...

I've decided to do a website, because if felt it was a more effective way to promote my film so I will be doing new format research on this and if i have time, complete the magazine.