evaluation of media product

Media A2 Evaluation Sophie Angus

Evaluation of media product

1.In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?

Our media product has many ways that it conforms to the conventions of horror movie trailers to install fear in our audience. One of these conventions of a dark setting which leave the audience feeling vulnerable to something making them jump and come out of the darkness. Also it connects with the human adaptive fear of the dark and what cannot be seen so the audience remains on edge for anything about to scare them. Additionally there is the use of loud noises every now and again to make the audience jump in surprise. This jump beings adrenaline which would help to keep the watching interested as the adrenaline is a desired feeling. More over there was the usage of victims running away from danger in this product so the victims fear can be seen by the viewers. There is also the fact the victims are running away from the unknown and the unknown is a major aspect of the whole horror movie genre.

Another huge aspect of horror movies is death, which is insinuated throughout the trailer due to the tension building with the slow building music and darkness. Death is suggested also by the use of people running from danger that may lead to fatality. This suggestion is reinforced by the use of the blood prop, which is very common in horror movies to bring curiosity to the viewers about if someone has been hurt or killed. Blood additionally is a sign of murder and killings, a repetitive feature of horror movies.

To challenge forms and conventions of this genre, we were able to change some aspects of the trailer so it would be more original. Firstly there is the lack of positive moods of characters and no happiness except one scene, so there is the lack of contrast of happiness and sadness. Being without this, it goes straight into the horror genre, as there is no time wasted on happiness that would be short lived in the movie.

Furthermore we did not use any scenes where there is horrible weather e.g. raining or hailing which is commonly used in trailers, usually to signify distress. By not using this, we were able to make distress visible by other methods such as facial expressions and quick shot. Lastly there is the use of a male lead in this trailer, which is not a typical convention of horror movies. There is usually the female lead, leaving opportunity for her to seem weak and then show character development. Yet by having a male lead it allows the audience to see this type of genre from a male perspective and how horrors may vary due to the opposite sex being the lead.


2.) How effective is the combination of your main product + artillery task?Linking these things with the trailer is vital, as it would keep with the theme and storyline of the film trailer. They link together in many ways. One of these ways is linking the theme of the death with the darkness of the poster. Additionally there is the object of an Xbox remote controller to link to the secondary character being a young age. These work together to bring across the morbid link between death and young people. This connects to the audience by showing such a harsh reality of death and how it can turn into something sinister.

Another link between the magazine and trailer is the sense of mystery and darkness. On the magazine there is the darkness of shadows, which reflects on the trailer as there is many times when the dark silhouette mimics a shadow. For the audience this creates an atmosphere of the unknown and fear of the unknown. On my poster there is also the color scheme of black and red, which matches with my magazine, which contains these colors. These colors work together as they both have negative connotations, with red standing for blood and black connotating death.

3.) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?


4.) How did you use media technologies in the construction and researching, planning and evaluation stages?

The construction of the product is primarily done by Final Cut pro, leading the improvement of skills of this application. One of the first things I learn was how to upload files onto the application and then select parts of them to drag onto the timeline. After this we were able to position them along the timeline so they fit into the structure of the storyline. This allows us to edit the footage with things such as its transitions the next scene and the color settings of the situation. By being able to do this it means that when it was only convenient to film in the sun, we could adjust it to seem like nighttime.

We also had the ability to add music or sounds to some parts to intense the emotion such as somber music. By adding somber music it allows us to influence the


audiences emotions of sadness and understand the feelings of the protagonist. In addition, we can add sound effects like rain or a loud noise to create the scene and add to the setting of the scene. In the researching stage there was also much look into what software like Final Cut Pro can offer such as sampling many sound effects and looking at different types of title pages could be chosen. During the construction of this piece the media technology of itunes came in useful to download music and add it onto our piece of work. This allowed us to also edit the timing of the music, when it would start and stop so that it could be just right for the trailer. For the research into this media product technology helped us to research things

related to our trailer. This includes watching trailers on the Mac Pc and analyzing them and the types of shots used so that we are more knowledgeable on how to construct out trailer. Additionally the technology of the camera allowed us to research what types of shots would be appropriate and how exactly we would film things from different angles at different lights.

Additionally while doing research for this project we had to get a survey analysis, which was made easier through the use of the Internet. This allowed us to distribute surveys that would contain information that would help us build our trailer based on what our target audience wants. The planning of this trailer was also done