Evaluation Of Film Trailer - DEADUCATION

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

Our trailer follows many conventions that are typical of a horror trailer. Firstly, the opening scene is conventional as it establishes equilibrium, as everything is normal and Joe (Main Character) gets up and leaves for school like a normal school day. This is the followed by disruption, when the News Report is playing on the television and Joe is oblivious to it as he's talking to his girlfriend (who's reading a magazine) whilst putting his headphones on to listen to music. The equilibrium is then fully disrupted when the shot of Joe walking to school and being oblivious to the zombies on the field. An attempt to solve the problem is then carried out by Joe who tries to fight off the zombies and escape home. These stages follow Toderoffs idea of the conventional narrative structure.

As Charles Derry suggests, there are different types of conventional horror films. Our trailer uses 'The horror of armageddon'.

Our trailer has many similarities with "Shaun Of The Dead" and "28 Days Later", mainly being the nature of the main character. Some of these similarities include -
> Escapism
> A Companion Becomes infected
> Pursuit
> Isolation
> Binary Opposites - Human Vs. Infected



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


Having studied film posters in my own time, it is apparent that certain forms and conventions are applied. My film poster does not challenge conventions of a film poster. After analysing horror film posters, I found the major forms and conventions of film posters could include:

A large title which attracts the eye, bold colours which stand out from the background, intriguing picture which would attract viewers to the film, persuasive language which might persuade the viewers to go and see the film and the certification will either to ensure that the right type of people are watching the film. An example of how a horror film poster could use these forms and conventions to attract a certain type of person their audience (teenagers, horror fans), would be a really scary horror film, which will use eerie images in order to appeal to horror fans. A successful film poster will accomplish attracting the target audience and persuade them view the film. I have made sure that my three products used to promote our film are all symbiotic. I have used a zombie as my images for both ancilary tasks. Also, the setting is the same as the trailer begins and ends (at Joe's house).


What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Questionnaire

1.Is the Genre of the trailer identifiable?
2. What is the plot of the trailer?
3. What is the most memorable scene in your opinion?
4. Did the titles help you understand the plot?
5. What are your impressions of the main character?
6. Did the soundtrack complement the footage and genre of the trailer?
7. What certificate do you think the trailer is?
8. Would this short trailer make you want to see the whole film?
9. Is the name of the film effective?
10. What would have made the trailer better?

We gave 10 different people this questionnaire and from their answers, it helped us to see where we could have improved on our trailer and what they liked about it:

>> The 10 members of the audience agreed that the genre of the film was easily identifiable and that it was Horror.

>> The whole audience could identify the plot of the trailer because it had zombies and was based in a school.

>> 5/10 audience agreed on the zombie in the last scene of the trailer is the most memorable part of the trailer because the zombie goes for the camera. The other 5 agreed on the teacher being dragged down by a zombie in the classroom because it made them laugh.

>> 8/10 of the audience said the titles helped them to know what was going on and that Joe was having a bad day.

>> All the audience agreed that the main character was shown to be strong and heroic, being the only human left.

>> The entire audience agreed that the soundtrack complimented the trailer. It was fastpace and the right time and the pace of the music was right in the right places.

>> The age classification varied between 12A and 18. This would have depended on how explicit we would decide to make the film. But the majority said 18 certificate.

>> The majority said they would like to see the film after viewing the trailer because they want to know what happens to the main character. Others said they would not want to view it because they do not like horror films.

>> The audience said that the name 'DEADUCATION' links well with the film. It has zombies in it which are 'dead' and it is based in a school which links with 'education'.

>> 9/10 audience agreed that we could improve our trailer by adding more characters/zombies or even add a female character which would challenge conventions of a zombie film. Also to add more short fast paced edits in the trailer. The other person said they couldn't fault it.


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

To begin the A-level course, we learned how to compose shots and use the digital video camera by doing different tasks. We had a task given to us to begin to get used to using the digital technology. We did a re-take of a scene from Jeepers Creepers and then chose our own film and worked as a group on how to plan/film/edit, so this was the key piece of technology in our learning process. We then got into groups and wrote a 500 word synopsis and drew out a story board We then used a digital camera to take photos of our story board to produce an animatic to see if the trailer would run smoothly, then we could start filming. We then began filming the shots and transferred them onto Adobe Premiere Elements to edit the material. This is the most essential stage of the process. This is where you cut the pace of the footage to the length you want the shots, we were able to add titles, add different types of transitions (fade to blacks, dissolves were the main types of transitions because its a horror trailer), and add music to complete the trailer. I used the Internet for extensive research and I watched many horror trailers on YouTube to give me different ideas of the codes and conventions of horror trailers. I then used a digital camera again to gain effective images for my poster and front cover. We then found a song to use that wasn't copyright on a website, which helped build up tension in the right places of the trailer to match the fast pace scenes.