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

During the research process, new media helped out in a number of ways. YouTube was helpful because it allowed me to find multiple horror trailers and look at different conventions that particular trailers had. For example the trailer for The Human Centipede (2009) allowed me to see just how the film used expressionist angles to create a sense of power for the 'monster' of the movie. From this we were able to explore different ways of incorporating these types of shots into our horror trailer. Other sources of new media included the database of IMDB which allowed us to find particular horror directors such as Tom Six the director of The Human Centipede. We looked at who as a group we enjoyed and looked at different movies they made, and how they were relevant to our project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkZ4gF329SQ

Our research allowed us to examine traits of auteur directors such as Tobe Hooper who is famous for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). After examining how that film was so successful and seeing how well it did at the box office through IMDB, this allowed us to explore particular moments that were effective in the movie that made it a cult horror movie. A moment that I found through YouTube was the dinner table scene which is horrific to watch, whilst it didn't use any gore, it was the non-diegetic screams that were placed over the top which created a sense of fear in that scene, it was these points of reference that allowed us to draw inspiration for our trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mqOjE9xJ7I

Wikipedia was also another great point of reference during the planning because it helped us to explore the history of horror and what types of horror were popular for large lengths of time, I was able to draw that monster movies were popular in the 1930's and 'slasher' movies were popular in the 1970's and 1980's. This helped me whittle down what type of horror trailer we wanted to create and with what type of character, we combined this with YouTube to review horror characters such as Pennywise the Dancing Clown from IT (1990) and Freddy Kruger from A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPdDdC4go6c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv9VSGvduXo

We also used DVDs and Blu-rays to help our research into different types of horror movies , personally I have a vast collection of horror movies so I was able to source out popular and cult films that did and didn't do great at the box office. Some of these would include Blood Sucking Freaks (1976) and Switchblade Romance (2003). This source of new media also allowed us to see horrors from different countries and look at the incarnations that directors takes on the horror genre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDHF3bH4PtA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCZen48N-e8

During the construction process of my magazine cover and movie poster, Photoshop became a good source of new media to use. For both of these, I was able to take pre-existing horror magazines and analyse what aspects were good about them, and how they grabbed my attention from a consumer perspective. I took SCREAM magazine and set it to a low opacity beneath my magazine so I could get a general idea of a layout whilst adding in my own content over the top.

I was also about to give the masthead text a stroke effect around it, this helped it to stand out a little bit as opposed to just the red text, it made it pop out a little bit more which would grab the audience's attention. The main cover image has been soften around the edges to make it appear more refined. It also helps to make it stand out more, by feathering the edge of the image. After this, I am able to remove any haphazard cutting out of the original photo. During this process I also applied filters to the image and I raised the contrast of the main cover image and added a drop shadow. This allowed me to get a nice contrast in both light and dark on the Priest's face to connote his twisted intentions, similar lighting is applied to Norman Bates in Psycho (1960).

In terms of evaluating my work, because the trailer was uploaded to YouTube and set to public, this meant that I could take the link and post it to friends on Facebook through these different means of synergy. Not only this, but strangers from around the world could see our trailer and comment on it which allowed for us to see what was working and what wasn't. Due of my wide contact list, this meant I was able to send people a direct link and get an international opinion from different age ranges so our feedback wasn't biased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60RP6lK-WR4

The focus group screening was also helpful because it allowed to see what people of our age bracket had in terms of good points and stuff we needed to improve upon. Lastly, the use of Blogger was also a big help because it allowed me to type up thoughts given to me on the trailer and collect it in one place as opposed to separate pieces of paper. I could then access this information almost anywhere and use a point of reference whilst improving the trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FX_IMqdXKI