Poster Progress

These images show the progression of my film poster. For the film poster i decided to use a red and black background as this matches the title and the background on my magazine front cover. It also connotes danger and violence as well as fear and the unknown. In the first image you can see this background and that it gets progressively darker which reflects the narrative of the film. The names of the actors and actresses also appear in a medium sized fonts as if they were well known, this would be a USP. The release date is important and so is quite large as if the audience is interested they will want to know when it is out, sometimes needing this information at a quick glance. The billing block is placed at the bottom in small font because it is often looked at if the person viewing it is very interested in details about the film industry. 

The next image includes reviews and ratings from well known institutions that are known for their film reviews. This makes people more likely to go and watch the film as people they trust in reviewing a film have rated it highly. Many people often look at reviews and ratings before deciding to go and watch a film and for this reason, they are placed at the top and take up quite a large space meaning the audience will easily see them. Also added at this point was the tagline "How Will You Escape?" this rhetorical, snappy question may be remembered by the audience as it directly targets them and makes them worried about the characters in the film and that the film is dangerous. 

The final image is where I added the 2 images of the characters and the title of the film. Katie who is pictured, is facing away from Owen and her pose shows that she is innocent and the audience are supposed to support her. Owen on the other hand is looking directly at the audience, breaking the 4th wall which makes the audience feel uncomfortable and builds tension. The title 'Under Control' connotes that someone is in danger and builds suspension. It is white connoting the innocence of Katie and it has a white outer glow which connotes the thriller genre and maybe something paranormal. The images and the title are the largest features on the poster as these are the things you want the audience to see first as they will remember these things and can research them at home.

Magazine Progress

This is the progression of my magazine front cover. I started off deciding i wanted a dark coloured background as this connotes the thriller genre. The title is red as this is another key colour in the thriller genre as it connotes danger and violence. The film strip connotes that this a film magazine and the fact that it is red, again connotes the thriller genre. The tagline "Your Number 1 Place For Films" tells the audience that this magazine is very high quality and there is no other magazine that gives them as much information if they want to read about films. The blood splats are generic conventions of the thriller genre as they connote danger and death which may suggest something about the narrative of the featured films.

This next image is further into the progression and shows that the next thing i did was to add text about the articles that are inside. Using words such as 'Exclusive', 'Win' and 'Sneak Peek' tells the audience that there are exciting things inside and so they will want to buy it. This is highlighted by the red glow around this subheadings. I chose to advertise the competition inside the magazine, on the front of it as this is a USP for film fans. I put on institutional information such as the website and the price as this gives the audience information about the magazine. The website means that they can look in more detail at the magazine and what it includes. I also decided to put 'Limited Edition' at the side as i thought this would make people want to buy the magazine more since it is a special issue.

The next decision i made was to add the photos of other films along the film strips. This adds more variety withing the magazine and so provides more information about films that the audience may be interested in. Also added in at this point was the line at the bottom that says " The best thrillers of the year". This targets people who like thrillers and so will be interested in the magazine and our film which is featured in it. 

The last features i added were the pictures of two of the main characters. The character featured are Katie and Owen. The conflicting poses and emotions of the characters make the audience intrigued as to what the narrative and relationship between them is. Also being teenagers, it targets the teenage audience as they will be able to relate to it.

Evaluation 4- How Did You Use New Media Technologies in the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages

I used many technologies this year during all the stages of involved in creating our film trailer and my 2 ancillary texts. Many of the media technologies I used I had previously used while making my AS teen angst film opening, however this year I have used some new technologies that have enabled me to progress my media skills.

Just like last year we used YouTube to upload both the draft and the final film to YouTube which then allowed us to put these on to our blogs. YouTube is easy to use and because I have used the website before, it was simple for our group to upload the videos and it is also easy to link these videos and put them on to our blogs. YouTube is the most popular video sharing site and used by millions of people everyday and so it is the best way for people to see your videos and pieces of work while being completely free. Also it is very popular with our target audience and so YouTube is an important way of the film trailer being seen by a large audience globally and this way it can also be shared on social media.

Other online services we used included Blogger, Gmail and Facebook, all of which we used last year. I kept all of my notes and ideas together via blogger and it also helped me to monitor my own progress with evaluations and posting ideas and research from other thriller films and their trailers. I also posted my first draft of the film trailer on blogger which allowed me to get feedback from other members of the class and then use these comments to improve the film. I could also post any ideas that I had but decided not to use in the final media product. Gmail was key in sending items that were important in the creation of our products such as pictures, design ideas and planning ideas. It is accessible on phones and laptops so is accessible and always available. Facebook was used to communicate with the rest of the group as we had a group chat that allowed us to plan a schedule to film, where to film and the roles that each of us would take. 


Adobe Photoshop is one piece of software that we used last year and again this year. It was used in order to make our new production company logo and also to create our ancillary tasks which were the film magazine cover and the poster. This software is quite detailed and can be complicated to use, however, having used this before I was able to do many of the basic skills which then allowed me time to practice some more advanced skills to help improve the look of my ancillary texts. It was accessible on any of the computers in the school and so was easily accessible and meant that I could work on the texts whenever I wanted to.

The camera itself was a HD video recorder which allowed us to capture the footage in the best quality possible and this made the film trailer better quality. Making the film trailer quality the best we could would suit the genre as the target audience use modern technologies that have the options to have HD on and so lots of teenagers in today's world use HD whenever they can. Having the film in HD would appeal to the target audience more than if it wasn't in HD. Also the camera was small, light and wireless. This made it much easier to film in places around the school and outside of school. A disadvantage to this was that the camera had quite a short battery life and needed to be charged frequently.

Using my phone allowed me to communicate with others in my group via Facebook during the planning process of creating our film trailer. I also used my phone (YouTube and the internet) for researching about other thriller films and film trailers and the conventions they have. This was helpful as I know how to use my phone quickly and effectively and so it was easy to do the research for my own film trailer. This is also useful as I can access blogger and Gmail via my phone which are key ways of communicating.
 Freeplay music was one website that was particularly useful while making our film opening. It allowed us to search for copyright free music that would be appropriate to use. We could access it form any computer and so looking for the right song did not take long. During our film trailer we use one track that is taken from Freeplay music and it was important that we got this right as music can help to set the genre of the film and the mood. As a group we had used this website before so we knew how to work so once we had found the music we wanted to use, it was quick and easy to put this into our product.

Last year we used Final Cut pro to edit our film opening however this year, due to circumstances, we had to edit on Adobe premier pro. This meant that everyone in our group was a beginner on this software and so we had to get an understanding of the basics first before we could try anything special like effects on titles. There were problems with this software and computer combination as the footage and video would often not completely render or would take a long time to load completely and so slowed the progress of us editing. Once we got used to this software though, it was relatively simple.

Evaluation 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

My film trailer was a psychological thriller and so this influenced many attributes and decisions on my poster and magazine front cover. The target audience is male's between the ages of 15- 26 and in the social categories E-C2. Although the narrative may attract a female audience due to the female characters and problems.
There are many elements that are common in my film trailer, magazine front cover and my film poster. One of the main features is the pictures of the characters in my film, who were then on the magazine front cover and the film poster. The pictures that I took of them were mid shots as this allowed their body language and facial expressions be shown, which displayed the tension and conflict. In the film trailer, mid shots and close ups were the most commonly used for the same reason again as this helped to tell the audience what genre of film this was. Having them on both allows the audience to recognise the characters and associate them with the film especially with them in similar poses on both texts with the character Katie facing away from the character Owen showing the conflict between them in the film as it is a big part of the narrative. We also kept them in same/similar clothes, which were casual clothes that teenagers would be expected to wear, which again allowed the audience to recognise them and link it to the film trailer.  Another feature of all 3 products is the colours that I used, which were predominantly red, white and black. The text, background and lighting were all examples of these colours being used since I had a red and black background with a white title on the poster and a white and black background with red and white titles on the Magazine. The trailer itself had white inter titles with the one red word per title, and a black background. It also had low key lighting which linked to the dark colours on the poster and magazine cover. These are examples of synergy throughout the poster, magazine cover and film trailer. Synergistic features are important as it allows the audience to recognise the film using elements such as the image, colours, names, and titles.

The title we had was 'Under Control'. We decided on this name as it gave the audience an idea of what the film is about so they can begin to formulate ideas of their own about what will happen in the film. The poster had the biggest title and I used a white glow around it to highlight the fact that is a thriller and connote the suspense and tension. I used a simple font that looked innocent but spooky. On the magazine front cover the title was in the same sans serif, white text as the rest of the article descriptions, but it was slightly large than the rest in order to make it stand out. In the trailer the title was the same as the other titles in the trailer in order to keep the same theme running throughout, however it was also white, like the ancillary texts so the audience will recognise it easily.

An example of iconography in all 3 products is the colours that i used, predominantly white and red. Red is used as it connotes danger and this is one of the common themes that we want to get across to the audience. The colour white is also used as it connotes the innocence of the female characters. I used these colours on the titles a lot for the exact reasons mentioned previously and also that it continues the theme of the colours red white and black used throughout. Another example of iconography is the blood splats i used on the magazine front cover. These are often a generic convention of the thriller genre as it agian connotes something bad has happened and someone is hurt quite badly. Another generic convention is that the 'damsel in distress' is a young female. This adds threat to our target audience as they are often around this age and know the dangers to young females. The damsel in distress is shown in our film trailer and also in our ancillary texts as this allowed the audience to get to know the characters before even watching the films. It also allows them to recognise the film.

The narrative that we tried to show on the poster and magazine front cover was that of tension and conflict between Katie and Owen. We did this by showing Katie in an innocent way with her facial expression and that she was facing away from Owen. Owen on both the poster and magazine is looking angry and on the poster is looking directly at the audience breaking the 4th wall. The fact he looks at the camera and that he is wearing black clothing suggests that he is the antagonist and the audience are not supposed to support him. The colours of red and black throughout the film trailer, the magazine and the poster connote that the narrative means someone is in danger and may die. The white colour connotes the purity and innocence of Katie in the film. These attract our audience because if they enjoy thrillers than they will like the threatening narrative of Owen towards Katie as they don't know how far it will continue and this builds tension.

The institutional information such as the certificate and release date are both found on the film poster and just the release date in the film trailer as it keeps the audience informed about the film so they are aware about important information. I put neither the release date nor the certificate on the magazine front cover as conventionally this information is found inside the magazine. The main feature of the magazine front cover is the images of the characters from my film trailer. I did not use the production company logo on the magazine front cover or the film poster as this is not a USP since the company is unknown.

Overall my film magazine front cover, film poster and film trailer were effective as you can see the links between them clearly. Colour images and the title were the most effective visual synergistic features in recognising that all 3 products were linked and these helped the audience to remember and want to see the film.

First Draft- Video