EVALUATION THREE: How alike film posters and magazines are your ancillary texts?

OUR MAGAZINE:

When creating our magazine we wanted to have an image of the clown displayed on the front to advertise the type of film successfully. We used a black and white image to get a more negative effect. We thought it reflected horror more appropriately than if it was in colour. The tones and shadows produced due to the black and white effect create a more tense and eerie atmosphere. We named our magazine 'DIVERSE' as we thought it reflected a range of ideas and didn't make audiences assume one particular genre or film type. For example the magazine 'EMPIRE' makes me think of thriller/action adventure due to the powerful and bold name. We did use bold capital letters to make it look more engaging and exciting. To really stand out as a magazine we used catch lines either side of the image. These include 'Purple Lake Productions brings you a remake of the 1990 hit film!' and 'Insights to the latest news and spoilers inside!'. I feel these help sell the magazine and film as people become more enticed in the magazine and connect with the producers/directors. We used a barcode to make the magazine look as realistic as possible as we want viewers to believe they could actually go out and buy our magazine. Lastly, we placed a blue circle on the front cover explaining there is a poster inside. This is effective as fans will buy the magazine for the poster making profit and advertisement. I feel our magazine is alike real magazines as we have included a original name for the magazine, placed a single image as the front cover, included a barcode and advertised our film effectively. When researching magazines we got inspiration from 'EMPIRE', 'TOTAL FILM', 'ENTERTAINMENT' and 'CONTENTS'. All these magazines advertise popular and globalised films which suggests they are favourites in the media. We wanted our magazine to look as professional as possible, this is why we chose to make our magazine look fairly like these ones mentioned above. To improve our magazine I would change the colour of the circle to either black/white as I feel the blue subverts horror and take attention away from the overall image. Overall, I feel our magazine sells our film effectively looking realistic and successful.

OUR POSTER
When creating our poster we had much inspiration from the film 'INSANE'. We really liked the idea of having half the clowns face in shot and display it in black and white. The black and white is successful in creating a tense and eerie atmosphere due to the harsh tones and shadows created. To make our poster as original as possible we left the nose in red. We also feel the pop of colour stands out taking the viewers attention and luring them into the rest of the poster. We included the name of our film, actors names, distributer etc and a catch phrase. When looking at film posters we saw that many of them included a catchy phrase to keep the viewers interested. Our poster is alike real film posters including 'INSANE', 'IT' and 'THE GRUDGE'. This is because black and white is used to present the genre horror as it is suspicious and creepy. The effect is has on audiences is successful as it makes them feel uneasy and tense. I feel our poster is very much alike real film posters as it uses our own photography, its engaging and it includes all the main aspects to a film poster.

EVALUATION TWO: How does the use of sound compare with trailers of the similar genre?

Sound which we have used in our trailer includes a chime like soundtrack, circus atmosphere sound effects and creepy children whispering thoughts. The main sound we used is non-diegetic as it's not in the scene or made by the characters (dialogue). 

The soundtrack to Woman In Black, is extremely similar to the soundtrack we used when creating our production. It uses a chiming sound, whereby there are ticking noises every so often. They then use a child's voice as the narration. This is also similar to ours as we included whispering sounds as it creates a more tense and suspicious atmosphere. Both are also non-diegetic as they are not created by characters or objects in the scene. The child narrative is effective as the film is based around the death of a child. I also feel its appropriate for our trailer as clowns were ideally made for children entertainment, not murderers. The soundtrack begins to speed up becoming more taut and uneasy. It positions viewers too feel slightly distressed and anxious as you feel like something is going to make you jump or frighten you. In our trailer, the soundtrack also speeds up as we felt it would help keep the audience excited and engaged in our product. 

IT is another trailer which has similar soundtracks and sound effects. It opens with a fast pace chiming noise which reflects the soundtrack to our trailer. The tempo increases and becomes quicker to create a tense atmosphere and keep the audience engaged. The IT trailer also doesn't include any diegetic sound as the soundtrack is so effective in portraying the clown in a frightening and spooky way. By the end of the trailer, the soundtrack begins to become circus themed. This conforms to the idea of the clown and its usual surroundings. Our trailer also includes circus noises as we thought it would reflect the atmosphere well and also make viewers feel uneasy. 

Overall, sound in horror is mainly creepy, chime like, slow to fast pace and mysterious. The producers want to scare viewers and keep them interested. Sound effects used are howling winds, door squeaks, screams and so many more. Sounds used also need to reflect the theme, atmosphere, character and location. If they didn't do this then the trailer wouldn't make sense and audiences wouldn't be focused. 

EVALUATION ONE: Have you subverted or conformed to stereotypes typical of your genre?

When creating our product, we knew we had to conform to the main stereotypes in the horror genre, including an antagonist, protagonist and victim. However, by subverting the usual expectations, audiences become more engrossed in the media text, being persuaded to go and watch the film in cinemas. 

Our antagonist is the clown. We got our main inspiration from the original film 'IT' as it included a evil and mysterious clown. This conforms to the stereotypes of our chosen genre as the clown is eerie, murderous, suspicious and frightening. We wanted to present our clown as peculiar, helping keep audiences interested. We presented our clown in all black clothing with a bold and dauntless mask. The conforms to the conventions and stereotypes of horror as it's used to scare and frighten viewers. 

Our other three characters in our trailer are the three victims. We wanted to show them as innocent, vulnerable and endangered to help conform to the horror genre. We chose outfits that were fairly basic including minimal colours and patterns to help make them look faultless. 

The soundtrack of our product is extremely freaky whereby it sounds like chimes are playing. We also use multiple tracks including creepy children whispering and circus noises. This conforms to the idea of the clown and its surroundings as well as reflecting horror and the intentions to scare viewers. 

When editing we used the transition of 'dip to black' this is effective as when leaving a scene it leaves audiences questioning what will happen next. 

We used a non additive dissolve when editing to show one scene fade onto another. This effect shows the clown in the background fading away. This conforms to the conventions of a horror as it makes it look as if something is watching you, and you don't realise its there until you look deeper into the scene. With the children whispering in the background it creates a completely tense and unnerving atmosphere.
We subverted the stereotypes and conventions of a horror due to the location settings. For example, a park wouldn't usually be used in a horror film as its a place for enjoyment and happiness. However, as our antagonist is a clown we thought it would be effective as clowns lure in children and target them. We managed to subvert expectations but make it work efficiently in our product.
Another area whereby we subverted stereotypes is when we use the record player. Even though we made it black and white to help create a tense atmosphere the diegetic sound is jazz. This reduces the alarming effect of the trailer. Although, it may keep audiences asking questions as it keeps changing from scene to scene. This is an example of enigma codes by Roland Bathes as the trailer isn't fully explained, tantalising the viewers.
We reinforce the idea of binary oppositions as there is a clear divide between good and evil. The clown is the eerie and evil character whereby it targets victims and aims to kill them. The innocent and pure teenagers are good as they are only making their way home from school and not asking for their torture. 

Our Trailer

Our Final Poster

Creating Our Poster:

   Which One?

Here are our two designs for our final poster. We got inspiration from the poster 'INSANE' as we liked how they used half of the clowns face as well as presenting the poster in black and white creating a eerie effect. We used a black background as we thought it created depth to the image whilst conforming to the horror genre. We placed the title vertically, on the side of the poster as it looked original, thereby becoming more creative and imaginative. Underneath the title is our catchy slogan which states "Whats the matter? You look like you just saw a clown!". We used this slogan as we thought it linked to our trailer appropriately. We placed it underneath the title as we wanted people to be drawn to that first. If it was placed above audiences may be less likely to connect with the poster and look further into it. We used the same font and style for our title as we feel the balloon on the first 'O' has a strong effect and makes it look more successful. At the top of the poster we have my groups names, we noticed when exploring other posters that they include the main actors names at the top. This influences audiences to watch the film as if they particularly like that actor they will be more inclined to see the film. Located at the bottom of the poster presents the editor, producer etc. We wanted to show of who did what whilst displaying the usual qualities of a film poster. We used photoshop to create our poster. This enabled us to make a black background, crop the clowns face, add text, change sizes and place the balloon on the font. 

The only problem is...Which one? The first poster on the left shows the clown in colour. This makes the poster appear brighter and more engaging. We moved the scales on the brightness and contrast to help increase the tones and highlights. We really liked it at first, however, we had an idea of seeing what it would look like in complete black and white. We created a new layer on photoshop, whereby we could make the clown black and white without making the balloon in the title loose colour also. We preferred the outcome before changing the levels etc. We edited the levels to increase the tonal variations and highlights. The darker areas are presented far darker which creates depth but also looks more like 'INSANE' the poster which gave us the most inspiration. I feel the black and white looks scarer and more mysterious. The colour compared to the black and white looks fairly amateur and comedic in my opinion. Lastly, we thought we could have the nose in colour as it would complement the red in the balloon. As we created a layer it meant the coloured clown was underneath. We were able to use the eraser tool to bring the colour through. To get a accurate precision we changed the size of the brush and hardness so its completely accurate. I like our final poster as I feel its professional, engaging and frightening. This presents our genre of horror well and in my opinion persuades audiences to go and see the film as the picture is captivating and reflects the slogan effectively. 

Our Magazine:

Film Poster Inspiration:

The inspiration for our film poster has come from 'INSANE' mainly. Firstly, its a horror, includes a clown and is presented in black and white. It's very similar to our trailer whereby it's based around a supernatural being (clown). On our film poster we want to include a image of the clown, the title, the production company and the names of my group. We want to do this effectively without giving away too much of our trailer.

We particularly like the layout of the poster. My group feel the half face shot is extremely successful as it builds suspense and makes the poster more captivating. The dark areas around the mouth and eyes are extremely strong as it creates depth whilst also having an eerie effect. The smile of the clown also looks mysterious and suspicious due to it being a horror film. The black background is appropriate as it connotes death, murder and fear due to its negative perceptions. We would be able to do this using photoshop, as we can crop photographs, change the colour and emphasise on the tones and highlights.
We also like how the title is located near the bottom of the poster in block capitals. The block capitals stand out and look inviting. The colour red is slightly cliche as it connotes blood and murder which gives away too much. This is why our title is in white with only a small red balloon on one of the 'O'. We hope to place the title in around the same place as most successful posters place their title there. This poster includes actors names which helps advertise and sell the film, it influences audiences as they may really like that particular actor. We want to show who stars in our film and hopefully persuade people to see it. Myself and others in my group are lucky as we take A Level photography which enables us to use photoshop effectively and professionally. We will be able to create our poster in a exciting and original way as we will be able to lots of different techniques including levels and the clone stamp. 

Institution-Purple Lake Productions.

Our chosen institution to use for our trailer is Purple Lake Productions. We chose to call it 'Purple Lake' as it's a sophisticated and professional looking name in which helps portray our trailer from a successful and well known distributer. We used a image whereby the lake is presented purple as it connotes power, ambition, mystery and magic which helps reflect our genre which is horror. Many companies use simplistic locations as their image, such as a mountain for Paramount. We then took the image further by opening it up onto photoshop. We edited the brightness and contrast enabling the tonal variations to have a bigger effect as they create shadows and highlights. The image therefore, becomes eerie and tense.  We also moved the scale towards the purple shadows on the hue and saturation as we wanted to emphasise on the purple tones. The overall outcome is successful as it links to the horror genre, and makes the audience feel uneasy and anxious. I feel it works well when opening up our trailer as the colours and image are particularly engaging. 

Once we had finished editing the image, we opened it up onto Adobe Premier Elements 10 and placed it at the beginning of the trailer. To change the width of the image and height we pressed CTRL T enabling us to decrease and enlarge the photograph. We wanted it to be the perfect size so it didn't look unprofessional or amateur. We added a colour effect to the image. This meant as the trailer plays the production credit will change to black and white then go back to normal. This is effective as it becomes engaging, but also used by professional and worldwide distributors. Lastly, we used a dip to white transition to help keep the trailer flowing. The dip to white is successful as it opens up the trailer by making it look interesting and inviting. We didn't use a dip to black as its used throughout our horror trailer and we thought by opening up with one it would look too repetitive.