Question Two

I feel that my three pieces make an effective promotional package. This is mainly due to the professionalism each piece brings. This was my main aim from the start of this project as I knew if my three pieces didn’t look professional enough to be promoting a real film then, in my opinion I would’ve failed. From the outset of the project I had a clear idea in my mind of what the narrative would be and how I wanted to reflect this in the three promotional pieces I was going to create. Each of my three pieces follows a conventional composition of existing film trailers, posters and front covers. For example, my film poster is simple yet effective and features everything a film poster should; a bold eye-catching image, the title of the film, the date of release, a tagline and the institutional information. The placement of these specific features follows that of a real film poster. This ensures that the audience can be drawn in by the image before knowing the important information such as the film name and when the film will be coming out. My trailer will be effective as it follows the typical structure of a trailer; the audience are given a slight insight into Jackson’s background then are presented with the main characters in what would be the equilibrium. They are acting how they would in their day to day life, being reckless and rebellious. This equilibrium is then disrupted when Alex notices Jackson and it all spirals from there ending in a montage of their torment. This is the classic structure for any trailer which ensures that my trailer will be effective. Each of the three pieces are effective and professional in their own right, but recurrent use of specific features and conventions in each piece means that it is clear that each individual product can be clearly linked to the other. This is was makes my promotional package effective.

It is clear that both my film poster and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre poster follows the same layout conventions with everything near enough placed in the same area of the poster.

Main image dominates frame

Masthead positioned in the centre at the bottom half of the poster –largest text in frame

Institutional info features at bottom of poster

Focus is solely Antagonist and his weapon

Release date is last thing audience will read

I wanted to ensure that from seeing my trailer, front cover and film poster that it was clearly evident they were from the same promotional package. In order to create a successful and effective promotional package, my pieces had to compliment each other. I ensured this through symbiosis. There were a number of ways that I created a symbiotic link between each of the three pieces. For example, the most evident symbiotic link is the antagonist, Jackson. I felt that Jackson would be the most effective symbiotic link in promoting Cirque du Slay as in every Slasher horror film, the antagonist is the focus. The antagonist is the one who draws the audience to watch the film and the one who they need to see when the come across the promotion for the film. Because of this, it was a necessity that Jackson was the focus of each of the promotional pieces. Unlike the trailer, which has the platform to introduce all of the characters to the audience, the ancillary pieces, in my opinion, would be most effective if they focused solely on one character and obviously this character was Jackson. In both the film poster and the front cover Jackson dominates the frame. Even though the shots are different, Jackson’s bright and distinct costume makes him obviously recognisable. This allows the audience to instantly associate one with the other. In reference to the trailer, as the main character Jackson features heavily. We get to see the whole of his costume through long shots and a clear view of his mask through close ups. There are even shots of Jackson which are very similar to the shots used in the ancillary pieces. The audience may even recognise these shots and link them to the other pieces. The clear symbiotic link created by Jackson in these three pieces makes the promotional package very effective.

A symbiotic link is also created through the textual information featured across each piece. In each of the three pieces the title of the film features. This is an obvious necessity as once the audience have been drawn and locked in by the other information in the frame, they need to know vital information such as the title of the film. To maintain the symbiotic link and professionalism of the promotional package, the title of the film is presented in the same font in the exact same style; Cirque Du being presented in a black, uppercase serif font with Slay presented in a red, blood style font at an angle underneath. This will allow the audience to confirm their belief that the three pieces are promoting the same film. The title itself is very recognisable as it’s simple yet effective. This, again, further reinforces the symbiotic link. As the front cover requires other conventional features such as sell-lines and puffs, these are the only features that maintain the link between the front cover, the poster and the trailer. Whereas, the trailer and the poster require additional information about the film. For example, both the trailer and the film poster create another symbiotic link through the tagline and release date. Each is presented in the same font, same colour and same way in both pieces. This further cements the symbiotic link.

•Jackson is the focus of all the three pieces

•He is shown in the exact same costume with the same weapon

•Maintains symbiotic link

I feel that all three of my pieces appeal to my target audience. They each give the audience an insight into the narrative and draw them in through different ways. In my trailer, it gives the audience the largest insight as they get a much clearer idea of what the film will be about as moving-media will always provide this more effectively than still media. The audience are made very aware how my film follows the signature Slasher conventions they are all familiar with and love, allowing them to instantly engage with my trailer. They also get a much clearer understanding of the different characters that feature and how each of these characters fit into the specific stereotypes of a Slasher character. This in itself appeals to the audience as it is something they are familiar with, they recognise and will appeal to their desires for a new Slasher that still follows classic Slasher conventions. The trailer also injects the audience with excitement and tension as it progresses, and they get to know Jackson’s character a lot more. As previously mentioned, Jackson is the one who makes the film. Like all Slasher’s, he is the focus and the character that will have the most impact on whether the audience want to watch the film or not. My trailer gives the audience a clearer understanding of Jackson and will draw them in further.

Although the ancillary pieces are more ambiguous than the trailer, it still appeals to the audience. The bright presentation of the two pieces will instantly catch the audience’s attention and inform them that this Slasher is new, conventional but original in its own way. The use of iconography will also appeal to the audience as it instantly informs them that it is from the Slasher sub-genre.

Media technology is a massive part of the research and planning of this project. It features throughout the whole of the research and planning and is required in order to effectively complete this element of the project. Firstly, the internet wasan extremely important tool. It gave me the platform to investigate existing Slasher horror films and their promotional packages which aided my research and understanding of Slasher codes and conventions and to present my work.

I presented all of my research and planning on Blogger.com. This was the same website used for my AS Level project so I had developed a clear understanding of how to use the website and make use of its multi-media elements. The blog didn’t only allow me to present my work all in one place, it allowed to me vary the presentation of my work and make the whole piece more diverse and interesting. I embedded videos and embedded word documents and PowerPoint's through the website Slideshare. It also enabled me to create and embed Prezi documents onto my blog to make it even more interesting. Blogger allowed me to vary the presentation of my work and make use of different media platforms but still keep it professional; something that wouldn’t have been possible by using a scrapbook.

YouTube was a site which I used frequently to watch film trailers. It gave me the platform to watch and analyse as many Slasher film trailers as I needed and also watch the horror trailers made by other students. This gave me a clear aim of whatI was working towards and an idea of the quality of the piece I could create at the end. It also enabled me to get a clear understanding of the conventional structure of any film trailer and also gain inspiration from existing Slasher trailers. I alsoused YouTube to upload my own videos such as my Focus Group and my pitch. This allowed to me embed the videos as evidence onto my blog. YouTube was also useful in the post-production stage as whenever I got stuck with Photoshop or Premier Pro, there were YouTube tutorials to assist me.

Google images was also an important tool in this part of my project. It enabled me to research existing film posters and magazine front covers for the ancillary pieces I would create. In seconds I would have hundreds of posters and front covers to choose from making my research into conventions much easier. I could simply copy and paste the images into a word document for further comparison and analysis. This was very useful in deciding what kind of magazine front cover to create. Empire and Total Film and the horror specific magazine Fangoria were the three film magazines I decided to study. I chose these three as it helped me make the decision of whether to create a professional looking film magazine such as Empire or Total Film or go down the horror specific root, creating a gore filled horror magazine such as Fangoria. From researching these three magazines I knew I wanted to create a film magazine like Empire that focused on horror in the issue I would create, as it would help me put across that element of professionalism but also inject the horror genre into the magazine. Without access to hundreds of front covers for the different magazine, it would have made this decision more difficult.

I felt quite confident at the start of the project about using the camera to take the still images for the ancillary pieces as I took GCSE Media Studies which gave me a basic understanding of camera angles and shots. Also, I have a camera of my own which I use for both Media Studies and in my day to day life.

However, with using the Canon camera, I didn’t feel as confident. Although I knew how to use a camera, I was concerned that the shots would come across as unprofessional due to my lack of experience with using that type of camera. When it came to filming, after getting familiar with the different features of the camera the filming went smoothly. I wanted to ensure that my shots looked professional and with using a high quality camera like the Canon, this enabled me to create professional shots.

For my ancillary pieces, I used my camera phone to take the images. The camera is a good quality camera and combined with bright lighting allowed me to produce high quality images. I then used effects available to emphasise specific parts of the image. This allowed me to use images that drew the audience’s attention to the features I wanted it them to focus on such as Jackson’s mask. The technology available enabled me to make my shots much more effective.

Original Image After filter added

Media technology was a massive part of the editing process as it is what enabled me to take all my raw footage and bring my vision to life. To edit my trailer and my ancillary piece I used different Adobe Software.

Adobe Photoshop was a software I felt very comfortable with as I had been using it since studying Media Studies at GCSE level. I still had my problems with it and knew they was room for my skills to improve but I felt confident in my ability to create two professional looking ancillary pieces. It is clear from comparing my Year 12 and Year 13 pieces created on Photoshop that my skills have developed drastically, despite me originally being confident in the skills I already had. My Year 13 pieces are of a much higher quality and much more effective pieces that what I had created in Year 12. I think this was down to my widening knowledge of the tools available for me to use to make my pieces stand out and overall be more effective media products.

Year 13 Ancillary Pieces

Year 12 Pieces

The editing of the film trailer was definitely the most daunting part of this project. I think this was due to the fact that I have previous experience from the Year 12 project of carrying out research and planning, using a camera and using Adobe Photoshop. Adobe Premier Pro was a software I had never used before and one that I felt looked extremely complicated. However, when I actually started editing my trailer, I felt that Premier Pro was actually quite a simple software to use. It enabled to create shots that I never thought my skills would enable me to do. For example, throughout this project I had been watching horror film trailers. I took inspiration from the trailer for the 2007 remake of classic Slasher horror Halloween. Like the narrative of my film, an important part of the narrative is Michael Myers’ childhood. In this trailer, the audience are given an insight of what Michael did as a child and are presented with him in a police car. As he looks at the camera, his mask flashes on for a split second. I felt that this would be extremely effective in my own trailer as I always wanted to feature a flashback at the beginning of the trailer. I felt that Premier Pro would be so complicated to use that I wouldn’t be able to replicate this effect. However, I produced this easily and was impressed with the result. I really enjoyed the editing process and developing my skills in Premier Pro.

Michael - Halloween Jackson - Cirque Du Slay