Research: Horror Magazine Front Cover Research

For my research, I have selected 3 horror magazine and will analyze the front cover of these magazines. By understanding common traits of horror magazine, I am then able to use these techniques when making my own front cover for a horror magazine to make my design fit the trends of a typical horror magazine.

Final Post

Candidate Name - Justin Balagot

Candidate Number - 7018

Centre Number - 17131

Centre Name - John F. Kennedy RC School

Final Drafts

Movie Poster

Magazine Cover:

Trailer:

Evaluation: Question 1 - In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There are many ways my media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media product. During the research and planning process, I analysed typical conventions which currently trend on media products, e.g. mise-en-scene and different types of editing, along with looking at some theories which are applied on films and trailers. I based my research around the horror genre as my products will attempt to develop current conventions. An example of where I have used a current convention is through the use of Todorov’s theory which is often the structure of many films. This theory highlight’s how at the beginning of many films there is a sense of equilibrium which is then disrupted as the film progress. By the end of the film, a new equilibrium is established as the disruption is resolved. This can be seen from my trailer as I use different techniques to present the disruption of the equilibrium during the trailer without revealing the overall plot of the film. Although my trailer doesn’t show the overall structure of Todorov’s theory, I have shown the audience of the equilibrium and disruption of the equilibrium but not of the new equilibrium achieved at the end so that the audience are attracted to find out how the disruption is resolved. This can be a selling point of the film as the audience will want to see how the film ends. This is a typical feature of many trailers which I have watched and I have used these techniques as there are some evidences that it leaves the audience wanting to see more. There are 6 main areas which I will explore to see if I’ve used, developed or challenged forms and conventions:

Mise en scene

The mise en scene of the film portrays the characters to be casual and thus leaving the idea that the plot of the film is realistic. The film revolves around teenagers, which can be seen by the audience through the speech they say, along with their personal clothing. In the screenshot above, it is clear that these two characters portray a short of ‘villian’ or ‘bad’ characters as their hood is up and are hard to identify. This gives the effect that they are looking for a ‘fight’ or trouble.

Another way in which my trailer presents its genre of being a horror is through the use of light and shadow. My trailer begins with a distinctive figure in front of a television. The fact that the natural light of the TV is the only light, the effect this makes is major as it makes the character unidentifiable because none of his features such as his clothing are revealed. In addition, the composition of this shot gives a sense of mystery as the audience are wondering who the character is.

Location

By choosing a location such as an alleyway to present a fighting scene, my trailer uses typical setting in which the audience may expect to see a fight. From the screenshot above, it is clear that the setting suits the scene because it portrays a rural-like setting where fights may often take place. The alleyway also shows how the two victims have nowhere to escape as the alley-way is a confined space. This shot clearly develops fighting scenes within films as the audience may able to relate further with the scene as alleyways are a frequent features of our surroundings.

Intertitles

Another way my trailer uses typical conventions of a horror film is through the use of intertitles. During my research, intertitles were a frequent feature many films had to give the audience some clues of what is happening or what is the film about. In my trailer, the intertitles reveals that the film will be about “a game” and it asks the audience “what happens if a game turns into reality?” By asking the audience this question through the use of intertitles, I am able to present some key aspects of the plot to them as they now know that the film will revolve around a game and it becoming reality. A way in which I have developed this typical convention is that, in typical horror movies, the horror titles are often just one word and did not frequently interrupt the trailer. However, my trailer over flows with intertitles, to bring about that sense of disruption and to break up the trailer itself. This effect presents the disruption of the equilibrium in the film to be quite frequent as it is seen in the trailer.

Speed

The speed of my trailer uses typical trailer conventions. In my research, it was clear that many horror trailer, change the tempo of their trailer through editing. I imitated this feature in my trailer as my trailer begins slowly, but changes tempo and gets faster as intense scenes such as the ‘fight’ and the car scene takes place. I changed the tempo of these scenes to make them look exciting and exhilarating. However, throughout the trailer, I disruption is often created by the TV static which made slowed the speed of my trailer. By doing this, I wanted to create a fragmented trailer to suggest the disruption of the equilibrium. This made my film unpredictable as the static will broke up each scenes.

Characters

A way in which my trailer differs and challenges conventions is through the use of teenager characters. Most film in my research often were based around older characters. However, my trailer may directly attract young adults and teenager into watching the film as they may be able to engage with the character used. Although this may limit my target audience, by using a specific age group to be the characters, my film is different from typical conventions which can act as its own selling point.

Music

The music in my trailer uses and develops current conventions of horror trailer. The background music comes from “John Carpenter’s Halloween” which gives the trailer a feeling of suspense and mystery. The classic reference to a famous horror film can warn the audience who recognise it that the film will be a horror. However, I way in which my trailer develops and differs from other trailer is that there is not only one song which plays throughout. Instead my trailer is broken up by the static sound of a TV, along with halfway through, a ‘heartbeat’  plays until the end. The heartbeat which plays creates dramatic tension for the audience and a sense of waiting. Before the aftermath of the car accident is revealed, a heart monitor places a blank screen which again portrays mystery around the plot. By only having sounds at the end, I am maximising the effects it gives to the audience as they cannot physically see what happened and only imagine by the sounds they hear.

Editing

The pace of my editing is important in my trailer which is shown as I use current conventions as there are clear evidence that they work. Current pace of editing within horror trailers are that they begin slowly and increase their pace as the film progresses. The speed of my editing towards the end began to increase by shorting the clips shown to 1 or 2 seconds and cutting from one shot to another. This effectively increased the tempo of my trailer as each clip are only shown briefly. In addition, to make it look effective, I often cut to a blank, dark screen which is shown for 0.30 seconds which makes the editing seem faster.

However, along with using current techniques, I developed my trailer by constantly fragmenting the trailer. I did this through the use of the TV statics which often broke up each scenes. This created a sort of disrupted trailer which could attract the audience into watching it as they want to see the whole film without any disruption. The idea of using the TV static came from the horror film the “Ring”.

Props

Finally, my trailer uses current conventions of horror movies through the use of props. My trailer uses a car as a prop which is a typical prop used in many films. In addition, the car is used for what looks like a ‘hit and run’ but the outcome is not revealed in the trailer.

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

I created a video to evaluate the effectiveness of the ancillary:

Evaluation: Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I collected some feedbacks each of my work such as the trailer, the movie poster and the magazine cover. For each I asked for some positive feedbacks along with some negatives. I will present some of the words used to describe each work through a screenshot of a wordle which I created. Wordle is an online program which presents words in a unique and fun way. Each of the words used to describe my product can be seen in this screenshot.

Poster:

After showing the movie poster to various different people, the positive comments they gave me encouraged me as it shows that my current poster is able to challenge and fit in with current movie posters. I am pleased that some of the words used to describe the poster were "gory" and "violent" as it shows that my poster is effective as it portrays the film to be in the horror genre. In addition, most people also believed that my poster looked realistic and professional as it contained all features expected within a real/legit poster.

Magazine Cover:

Similarly, here are the feedbacks which I had for my magazine cover. The positive comments suggest my magazine was successful in portraying a movie magazine as most people said it was unique and creative. The fact that it uses similar fonts and styles found in the poster, some people described my products to be consistent. In addition, the horror background is also evident to the public as some people were able to point out that the picture may be evil and dark.

Trailer:

The overflowing positive feedbacks I gained for my trailer suggest how the trailer is successful in presenting a  horror movie to the audience. Most people believed that my trailer looked legit and is outstanding. In addition, I am pleased that the public noticed many features which I included specifically to the trailer such as by consistently disrupting the flow and fragmenting the trailer, as well as increasing the speed of editing. This gave me confidence in my trailer as there are some evidence that these techniques are visible and are appreciated by the audience.

In conclusion, the positive comments/feedbacks which I have received encouraged me that my first drafts are successful. It proves to be a solid foundation in which I can only improve and work on future drafts. I found these feedback very helpful as it shows which aspect of my product is working for the audience and which I should improve. Along with gaining positive feedbacks for my work, I also asked each person for a negative or a critical feedback. I look to work on these negative feedbacks to improve my work further and improve areas which may not be working.

I will also present these negative feedback in similar format as the positive feedback through the use of Wordle.

Poster:

There are some negative feedback which I addressed for future drafts of the poster. These negative or critical feedback have been very important to me as it has given me new ideas on what to work on and how to change things as some people may have  these certain opinions on the poster. I can address the tedious and boring comments by having an alternative background image.

Magazine:

Although the black and white aspect worked on the majority of the public, some people believed it was no colour and was boring. However, there are some negative feedback such as the low content which I can work on and improve. In addition, I can enlarge the font or change it's colour to make it more visible for the public.

Trailer:

The limited negative comment on my trailer suggest how my trailer has been successful. However, there are some improvements which can be made such as by shorting the trailer or by adding a voice over. By doing these improvements, I am also making trailer less confusing.

In conclusion, negative feedback was a major part in making an improvements for each of these products. They are helpful in finding out about what the public likes and dislikes. In addition, these critical comment allowed me to improve and excel from my first drafts.

Overall, feedbacks are an important aspect of producing a creative and unique piece of work. Feedbacks helped me gain insight from members of the public to get a rough and basic idea of what kinds of things they look for in each of the products.

Evaluation: Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation?

To answer the evaluation question, I used 'Prezi' to present my work in a different and fun way. Prezi allows me to present my work as an interactive spider-diagram It is easy to use and I hope you enjoy my presentation.

Here is a screenshot of my finished Prezi:

In addition, here is a link for Prezi:

http://prezi.com/nnszbbztlcdl/media-coursework-evaluation-question-4/

Production of Movie Poster

After taking note of the feedbacks from my 1st draft, I made some necessary changes with my poster. In addition, I will be presenting how I made these changes along with presenting screenshot of how I produced a movie poster. The whole process was completed within the software Microsoft Powerpoint.

Firstly, I decided to tweak the background picture, because it doesn't seem to show a shadow/person in front of a TV. During the photoshoot, because there was no TV available, I had to capture this effect by placing the actor in front of a reflector, which shone a light to give the effect of the person standing infront of a TV.

I cropped the image which I customized in photoshop after changing the colour to a dark red-ish colour to show it's violent aspect.

After cropping an image to make the edges sharper and straighter, I placed an enlarged, cropped  image on top of a similar image.

Here is a finished picture, after all the changes I made were finished:

As you can see, the image on the right is much better compared to the one on the left. The shadow is clearer and the light infront seems more like a TV than before. In addition, by changing the overall colour of the picture, it is giving a better feel of darkness and horror to the audience.

After, I've finished making the changes with the background image, I used tools within Powerpoint to begin creating my movie poster. To create the title, I used Wordart:

Wordart is a tool which provided me with different ways of creating a title. There different styles which I could use and different colours which I could then customise further as I am able to chose them myself.

After the title, I added the production credits which was below the title. The font was an important factor when adding the credits because the credits at most posters seems to be very similar. I decided to use the font "Impact" and made the sizes of each font vary. In addition, a presented the credits to be very tightly close to each other, as seen in typical movie posters.

Here is a completed copy of my movie poster. After completing the title and credits, I added small bits such as release date, website link, age rating, production logo and a slogan. I believed that by adding these small information, my products looks legit and realistic as these are typical conventions which the audience would expect to see on a movie poster.

Production of Magazine Cover

For my Magazine cover, I used Microsoft Powerpoint to create a portrait slide as a canvas for my product. After completing my photoshoot and choosing my background image, I was able to begin to look at how I can make the image effective and eye-catching making it stand out for the public. In addition, I also had to keep in mind that the background image is an important way of presenting my 'films' genre.

I decided to choose this photo as it very eye-catching and engaging towards the viewer as it gives the effects as if he is looking directly at 'you'. In addition, a tool within Microsoft Powerpoint is that I am able to change the colour of the image. In this screenshot, it shows various options of what effects I can do, all of which, are giving different types of feeling.




I decided to choose the colour effect which turned the original image to a black and white picture. I decided to pick this effect because it suggest the dark and scary aspect of the film thus slightly revealing it's genre.

I really liked this image as it provides me with the spaces needed for the title and slogan at the top of the photo. In addition, the picture is mostly central which allows me to surround it with cover-lines that will attract readers.

Another, reason I used Powerpoint is that it contains many features which will allow me to create a realistic magazine cover. As for my main cover line, I will be focusing on the 'film' which I have created. To maximise it's exposure, I used wordart which is a tool in Powerpoint that allows me to create a legit main cover line.

Wordart contains many different ways of presenting a certain text. Each design can be defined further as the font type and size can be changed along with its colour design. For my main cover line, the wordart I have chosen is very simple and the font is clear. I have chosen the font "Bernard MT Condensed" at the size of 96 thus making it clear and bold. Along with making the size of the main cover line big, I also chose the colour specifically to make it stand out. For the outline of the text, I used a white outer layer and the text itself to be read behind a dark black background. The design of the main cover line will be iconic to the audience because I will also use it for the movie poster as the title, thus making it recognizable to the public.




After finishing my main cover line, I used the text box to add in other cover lines to fill the surroundings of my magazine front cover, to make it seems as if it has many contents within it.

When I was creating other cover lines, I had to be careful with the contents I included with the magazine cover because it has to be related to the horror genre as the magazine is a horror movie magazine. This clearly showed the genre which I have chosen as the audience are able to relate with the genre of the films which I have included. For the setting of my magazine, I decided to use only 3 main colours, which is black, white and red. This creates a house style for all of the products as I will make sure that I use a similar house style in those. To maximise the exposure of these keywords, size and colour was an important factor. I decided to have names of films or actors in a bigger font to make them standout along with have words such as "new" or "world exclusive" in a different colour thus making it eye-catching for the audience. This should make audience feel like they are getting the most out of their money as they will be receiving alot within this magazine.

To finalise my magazine cover, I created a masthead which is big, bold and clear for the readers to see. I decided that normal fonts within Powerpoint were too basic and so I went online to find free downloadable titles which I can try out. I found a website "www.dafont.com" which shared free fonts that is easy to download and install.

I found this font very interesting and related to my genre as it gives a 'bloody' effect which can symbolise violence and horror. I decided to download it and install it so that I am able to use it in programs such as Powerpoint.

The installing process of the font is very easy and there are even samples of what it will look like before you install the font itself.

After installing the font, I am able to find it within Powerpoint and use it.

Here is an image of my first draft of magazine cover:

Photos

Movie Poster Photos

As part of my planning, I created many sketches for my movie poster and magazine front cover. This preparation made me decisive on the kind of picture I want and this showed on my photoshoot as most of the photos were fairly similar.

For my poster, I  have chosen 3 pictures to show the problems I came across with before I had attained the picture I was looking for.

This picture was one of the early pictures taken during the photoshoot. I cannot use this for my final piece because the image reveals some information about the character. I adjusted the lighting after this shot so that his clothes or chain is unidentifiable.

Here is another shot after the lighting was darkened. This shows the improvement in the change as viewers aren't able to see his clothing and portrays him as a shadow. 

Although this show is better than the previous photo, a disadvantage with this photo is its composition and frame. I decided that I will take a photo which can fit into a poster structure, so instead of taking a landscape photo, I decided to take a portrait shot, with the image being in the centre. It will also have space at the lower part for the title and production credits and at the top for the 'movie slogan'.

After making various changes, I was able to take my final photo which I will use for my poster. The changes improved both the effects and structure of the photo which made it easier for me to edit it. With the final photo, I am able to just add in the title, production credits and the slogan without editing the photo itself.

Magazine Photos


Similarly, I had a vague idea of what kind of photo I wanted for my movie poster which made the photoshoot process easier. I have selected 3 photos, 2 of which have some faults and the last photo being the one I will use for my final product.

A fault with this photo is the lighting. Although I wanted the photo to disguise the actors face, the lighting in this photo is too dark. The eyes of the actor cannot be seen so the effect of him looking "directly at you" cannot be seen from this photo. This was one of my early photos, so an improvement or a change which I can make is to change the lighting.

After making the changes with the lighting, there is a clear improvement with the picture. This photo shows his face clearly and his eyes can be clearly seen by the audience. I really like this photo as his face is 'half' by the lighting effect. One half of his face is lighter, whereas the other is darker. This can be interpreted to be showing the contrast between good and evil in the film. Although this photo has potential to be the background image for my magazine, I decide to take the same photo but, instead in a landscape format so that it mirrors a photo fitted for a magazine cover.

For my final photo, I made all the changes which I wanted to make so that I had the perfect picture which I would use for my magazine cover. Here is the final image which I would use for my magazine cover:

1st Draft

Here is an early draft of my trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qh8-KNJYKE

I posted my trailer in various social sharing network in order to gain feedbacks on my current work such as Facebook, Twitter, along with showing the video directly to fellow students from my school. Through this exposure, my work can be viewed by what I would define as the target audience (teenagers/young adults) and their feedback can show can allow me to make products which they would like.

In addition, here is a draft of my horror magazine front cover:

Finally, here is a draft of my horror movie poster:

Age Certificate

Choosing an appropriate age certificate for a film is an important aspect/process which I will need to consider. Although I am only creating a trailer, this feature will make my media product seem more legit. The main purpose of an age rating for any films is that it informs viewers of what age is suitable for watching a specific film. This is very important as it restricts children or young people from viewing a film which they may not be ready for (e.g. traumatized at brutal/gory scenes or sexual scenes). In order to help me decide on the age rating for my trailer, I decided to refer to the 'British Board of Film Classification' (www.bbfc.co.uk) and their guidelines on different age certificates:

I have chosen this age certificate for my 'film' and film trailer because the film consists of many violent scenes such as some scenes of a brutal fist fight, along with a dangerous accident involving a car crash and a pedestrian. Although the trailer itself does not consist of any offensive language, I have considered the fact that   the supposed 'film' may contain such language which has only embedded my decision to chose an age rating of 15.

Consent Forms

Having already posted these document forms, I will also post the documents in here. I decided to make consent forms for the actors and the owners of propertys which will be involved in the filming process of my coursework. The consent form states how the actors have agreed to feature in my trailer and have agreed to being part of the trailer and finishing the complete process. In addition, there are some consent forms regarding the property owners and those who may concern regarding the filming of the trailer such as a house and a nearby alley besides there property. Their consent form states that they are willing to allow any disruption caused by the filming process and that they are willing to co-operate. Here are the documents:

Flickr!

As a new way of presenting my work, I created a Flickr account so that I am able to upload photos and documents and present them as slideshow. Flickr allows us to develop a new technique to display our work for our overall coursework project. Flickr is a great way of displaying these documents and this shows how we used Flickr and what documents we have uploaded:

 

 Letter to House/Property Owner - http://www.flickr.com/photos/74987763@N02/6942167174/in/photostream

Actor Consent Form - http://www.flickr.com/photos/74987763@N02/7088237767/in/photostream/

Letter to House Owner - http://www.flickr.com/photos/74987763@N02/6942167108/in/photostream/

Schedule

I have made a timetable to schedule the process of making the trailer. I hope to follow this schedule to ensure that I have managed my time well and aware of when certain things needs to be done as well as being organized to know what scene I am shooting. This timetable should ensure that I am using the time I have well in order to create the trailer.

Trailer Video Draft

Using the pictures I made, I made an animated video which uses these pictures to get an idea of timing and how long each scenes will last. Using this animation video has given me some idea on how to structure my trailer.

Storyboard Rough Idea

Here are some rough drawing of how the storyboard of the trailer will be set out. Me and my partner created these drawing to set a timeline for each scene and so that we know the exact element and the composition of each shot.