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

What are my ancillary tasks?

Here are my two final ancillary tasks. Both my film poster and magazine review. To create my film poster I was able to use my photography skills, to enhance my work. Researching into existing thriller film posters also enabled me to learn the forms and conventions of these. To create my review, I split my work into the layout/styling of the magazine and the written review itself. This meant I split my research this was also to get an in-depth look into high quality, conventional products. I am very happy with my final products and feel they fulfill their purpose alongside my short film.

What is my main product?

For my main product I created a short film with a duration of 5 minutes. My short film was in the genre 'thriller'. My film is a dual narrative exploring an original and experimental storyline, challenging a conventional linear narrative. My film is called 'PULSE' and was created to look as professional and conventional as possible to build the 'realism' for the audience. I am extremely happy with our final film and feel it shows are skills and ability to the best possible.

How do they link to the film?

My ancillary tasks show many connections to my final film. This is through the genre portrayed, all reflecting that of thriller, to build a strong and united style for a viewer. Using similar fonts establishes a house style for the film, creating a brand image. By using the same character and costume on both products, as in the film creates continuity and a clear link to the film. Also as the poster visually portrays the plot of the film and the review writes about it they both have obvious links to the final film.

What out of the three products is the strongest?

Overall I am very happy with all three of my final pieces. However defiantly believe my short film itself is the strongest feature. Both myself and Abigail feel our film exceeded our visions and truly represents our skills. Yet, all three together create a very strong media campaign, of which contributes to the product as a whole. And without one of them it wouldn't be as effective as it would with all three, and together are vital for the product as a whole.

How do they promote the film?

The ancillary tasks combine with the film to promote it. This enhances the public awareness of the film and within the real industry would essentially mean a larger market, and larger final profit. I have visually created this promotion through my film poster, and written within my magazine film review. The products also don't give too much away, yet ensure it engages the reader enough to make them want and need to know what happens in the film. This images essentially catch the viewers eye to begin with drawing them in, then the persuasive written techniques used on both products ensure the viewer is intrigued by them and has been persuaded enough into watching.

How effective the combination of my ancillary tasks and main product?

Below I have created a Prezi, to display my work. Here I have given an insight into some aspects of my answer towards to specific question.

Final analysis:

Titles

As I have mentioned in m Prezi, the font chosen is a key element into creating successful products and establishing a 'brand' image for the film. This links onto the titles chosen, as not only the font but name also have to build the powerful promotion the film needs to be advertised in the correct way. The title says alot about a film and allows the audience to relate to the story of the film through this.

For the titles on the film and film poster I have used a similar design to portray the genre of the film (thriller). By using dark colours and eere fonts, it reflects the mysterious and sinister tone we wanted to create. By using the similar titles for the two products it emphasizes the synergy between the media texts, and creating the link for the audience.

However for the film review I used a separate font, to be more conventional of magazine film reviews, after discovering this within my magazine review research.

Narrative

As mentioned within my Prezi, the narrative of the film is split into two sections. The equilibrium state of 'normality' and the disruption of the mysterious kidnap scenes. The narrative is one of the most important aspects of our short film, also having no dialogue we really needed to sell and promote the film even more, to ensure the target audience we have an engaging story line.

This is reflected through the photography of my ancillary tasks...

The image on the left (used in my magazine review), is more conventional of a magazine review image. As it is not just a print of a scene within the film but a new photograph, however using the same actress/costume/location for continuity. This therefore establishes initially who is in the film. The angle and type of shot of the photograph links to the 'stalker' plot, by being behind the character giving a sense of following. Also the pose and expression of the model, reveals more to the plot showing her paranoia and anxiousness.

The image on the right (used in my film poster), I believe promotes the film perfectly by being a strong, conventional image linking back to my research within 'thriller' film posters. Straight away engaging the target audience of the thriller genre. This therefore reveals hints of the narrative to the audience, portrayed through the pose of having the hand over the character (yet not revealing there identity, to keep the mystery and element of suspense), and the facial expression of the character (her panic and fear).
The mise-en scene in both images also reflect the style and atmosphere of the film, through the simple and minimal backgrounds, increasing to the mystery.

Above is a section from my magazine film review. By using the rhetorical question it engages the readers attention, and essentially makes the think. They want to know what happens to the girl and why. Also by changing the colour and style of the font reveals hints of the obscurity and eerie plot.

Genre

Throughout my whole work process this year, I have constantly researched into everything before starting any production. This included my short film and ancillary tasks. 

Before making my short film I researched into existing short films to establish initial short film conventions. After then deciding on targeting the thriller genre target audience I began to research into thriller short films. Shown below is a example of this. I then used this within my work and did the same with my final film.

For my film poster I researched again into many thriller existing film posters. Show below, an example of this and again doing the same with my own final product. This allowed me to compare not only existing products with my final task and how they have influenced me and how the use of conventions has made my product more realistic but shows how they all include similar links to on another between the three pieces of work, to show the all contribute to the final package.

 

For my magazine film review, again I did initial research into existing reviews, learning the basic conventions and techniques used to make a successful spread. Below shows how I have, for this evaluation question gone on to analyse and break down my own piece of work.

All show strong conventions of the thriller genre, creating a bond between the three projects, to establish one promotional package.

Studio Ident

Including the studio Ident on the film poster as well as at the beginning of my short film, creates a brand identity and sense of realism for the audience. This therefore compliments the film.

Colours

 The colour scheme used within my film poster is not only conventional of existing thriller posters but conveys the sinister and dark plot of my film through the dark/dull variety. This is to signify the genre in a strong way, allowing the audience to associate it with my chosen 'thriller' target audience. It also becomes lighter around the face of the character to enhance to viewers opinion on them, and draw their eye to the facial expression of the character, to give hints of the plot. The white font colours used allows this to therefore stand out.

The colour scheme on the magazine again links to the thriller conventions and largely conventions of magazine film reviews. Red is an iconic colour for most famous magazines, including EMPIRE a top film magazine. However red is also associated to the thriller genre linking to 'blood' and violence. Therefore using red within my review, allows me to manipulate both associations into the one piece of work. This enhances the synergy between my film review and my other products.

The colours within my film are also conventional of thriller short films. By using low lighting we create the dark dull scenes we wanted. With minimal bright colour especially within the second narrative, to create the sinister, and gloomy atmosphere/setting.

Overall

I believe my ancillary tasks and final film poster work together in creating a successful promotional package, of which conveys a true media product. Whilst creating an overall 'brand' for the film. I am very happy with the final outcome of all three products, and have learnt a lot about advertisements, promotions and conventions of existing media products by creating them.

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

Below I have created a  SlideShare, to display my answer for how I have used media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of my work. 

View more presentations from lucymatthews00.

 Also see my Editing post, for a more indepth look into how I used the editing programme Pemier Elements 5.0.

Link to Editing Post

Evaluation-What have you learnt from your audience feedback?-What I learnt

I carried out a lot of feed back after creating our short film (shown in my 'Evaluation-What have you learnt from your audience feedback?-Audience Feedback' post). This helped me to gain knowledge on many aspects of my film and work. Here I have written about what I have learnt from doing my feedback, in more depth to my initial statements.

What I have learnt, from:

Questionnaires

Firstly our audience feedback revealed that we had succeeded in targeting our target audience/ age group of 15-25 year old. This is because of all the positive feedback we received from this age group. Also this appeared to be the case for both females and males, meaning our target market would be larger if this were professional.

Also most of the people that completed our questionnaire said that their response to the film was both 'scared' and 'interested'. This is something both myself and Abigail were trying to create within our film to fit in the 'thriller' genre, and wanted to engage the audience into the plot. After receiving comments of that we fulfilled this, and that people enjoyed our film and were drawn in by the style and iconic features within our film, teaches me that together both myself and Abigail worked well together in achieving our goals.

We questioned 30 people of a range of ages for our feedback and drew up some diagrams and graphs to display our results. For example for one of the questions 'How would you rate the film?', 17 out of 30 said Excellent, and 13 said Good. No one chose, Ok, poor or terrible. This was really good feedback showing everyone enjoyed our film to some extent.

We also strongly wanted our film to look professional, and asked this within our questionnaire. 93% said 'Yes' (29 people) and 3% said no (one person). Again this is really good feedback, showing that nearly everyone thinks our film looks professional, linking to conventions and forms.

We also asked what aspects worked well within our film. To see where our strengths and weaknesses lye. 24 out of 30 said the plot, 26 said the Camera shots/angles, 26 said the acting, and 20 said the location. These are all high amounts of people, of which overall show all were effective and successful.

 Below were some of our favourite comments:

"Some very professional camera shots - love the rushing trains between scenes."

"looked like it was a big film crew directing it."

"It was intense and engaging, caught my attention straight away."

"It was intense and engaging, caught my attention straight away."

Our feedback from the questionnaires revealed that the public understood our concept and enjoyed watching the film.

Cast Interview

Interviewing the cast I feel was one of the most effective ways in learning about the positives and negatives of how efficiently we worked within our film. It revealed that both myself and Abigail worked together as a great team. As our audience is also the cast, therefore learning about their opinion is a first hand insight into how we work. It also revealed the actors' passion for their characters, this links to other audience feed back we got, showing positivity to the actors and how they made them their own.

This also helps us to learn how we could improve if making another film, and how we work with others and in a team. As if there was not a good relationship between the directors and cast this could effect the quality or efficiency of the film.

Film Directors Reviews 

Myself and Abigail were both lucky enough to get a response from two professional film directors: Craig Ford- Director and founder of Rockwood Pictures and Queer As Film and Cameron King- A short film Director. This also was an effective way of learning how real and conventional our film is. By getting a professional eye to analyse our film, it becomes easier to see where are weaknesses lye, and how we can develop these.
Craig's comments were very encouraging. Saying as our 'first dabble' into short films was 'impressive, encouraged us in that as a first film it is good and can only go on to improve from this point. He also described the film as 'jarring to watch', this was a comment we hadn't yet had and was really exciting for us for him to say it, as with his years of experience, and having watched hundreds of shorts to feel something whilst watching ours is a great success. To have won many awards, and for Craig to only have some small technical glitches within our film was amazing to receive and myself and Abigail are very grateful.

Cameron King also encouraged us by saying for a 'first attempt' it was 'lovely'. Also He commented on our risky dual narrative, of which again has also had positive feedback showing the decision of this was a good one. He says it creates 'an eerie sense of inevitability, but kept the audience guessing'. This is exactly the purpose we wanted from the dual narrative, and this is proof of that it worked. We also wanted our film to be original, and something that people hadn't seen before, to make it more exciting and un-predictable. This was commented on by Cameron, saying 'you've nailed a trademark on this'.

Overall we are very happy and grateful with their comments, and have definitely enabled us to learn our weaknesses, technical errors within our film and anything we can improve on for future work.

Online Feedback

Firstly, after uploading our film onto Youtube, and receiving so many views within such a short space of time was a great learning step to how a film grows and how enjoyment of the film leads to recommendations therefore leading to more views. We also received positive 'likes' and comments on this, again showing us how people are enjoying watching our film. Getting a comment from a fellow 'Youtuber', saying we should enter our film into short film competitions was also a great review for us.
Also, by putting a link onto our Facebook account, and receiving feedback from friends and family, allowed us to see what people liked most about our film.

Below I have created a word board, of all the descriptive feedback we have received through questionnaires, online, and written reviews.

Evaluation-What have you learnt from your audience feedback?-Audience Feedback

There were many ways I wanted to collect audience feedback from our short film and ancillary tasks to get as much feedback on my work as possible. This allows us to learn what was effective in our work and what could be improved upon. Getting audience feedback is vital with any work, as for example if we were a large leading film company and our initial audience feedback of an idea or trailer for a film was negative, it would be an indication of how successful/unsuccessful it would be. Saving time and money.

Our first way of getting audience feedback was through posting our film onto Youtube, and the link of this on Facebook. Allowing people to comment on both giving their opinion.

We got 11 likes from this, and all positive feedback. This shows an initial positive start to our feedback process.

We also put our film on Youtube. Below is an image of our film showing how many hits we received after the film being up for two weeks. Also we received a personal message by a viewer of which we have print screened as shown below:

Again this shows really good feedback for us. We have a large amount of people who have watched are film in such a short space of time and all seem to have enjoyed it.

We also carried out questionnaires. We felt this was the best way to get statistics into public opinion from both our target audience and others. To compare and see if we succeeded in targeting our specific audience. Also if we made the film entertaining and look professional etc.

Firstly we got together a group of 15-16 year olds, played our film for them and handed out are questionaires. We then did the same again but with a group of 17-18 year olds. This was to see how effective we made the film for our wider age range audience ensuring both found the film sucessful. Below shows our questionaire, and some responses.

This questionaire was carried out by an over 40 year old. This again was positive feedback, revealing that our film could have possibly exceeded our target audience and appeal to and even wider age range.

Here a Male within our target audience answered a questionaire. This shows that are film appeals to males from our target audience age range, through positive feedback.

Again someone within our age category for our target audience, however female, showing that our film has been sucessful in appealing to both genders.

This questionaire was carried out by a 15 year old. This just about makes the age certificate we gave our film. They have said that the film made them feel 'scared', therefore showing we chose a good age boundary as it is suitable for the viewer but wouldnt be if they were any younger, as it would become too scary.

Here the person has said that the film 'kept them interest'. This was something both myself and Abigail wanted to fulfil within our film by building tension and suspense constantly, and including the element of surprise through our repetition.

After carrying out our questionaire we decided to create some diagrams to visualise our results, to see how positive or negative they are and in what areas.

We also sent our short film off to a few professionals within the filming industry. Below is the feedback we received:

Overall I am very pleased with this feedback as it shows we made the most of the equipment and funds we had, also showed that the more major desicions of a dual narrative and no dialogue proved succesful.

                                                   

After receiving public feedback from our questionaires, emails and online advertisements, we also wanted to here what the actors of our film had to say. I beleive this is the most effective way of seeing how well we worked together, how effecient our filming production was, and how they feel about the final outcome.

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

There are many ways in which our media product uses, develops and challenges the forms and conventions of real media products. All contributing to give it a realistic and professional style yet being original and unique. For this evaluation question I am going to break down the question into three sections, as follows:

In what ways our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products


Before starting our short film we had to research into existing films. First I researched into a range and variety of existing short films, to establish the main conventions used within all short films. For example, establishing that credits, certificates, and a range of camera shots/angles all become strong elements within conventional shorts. I then went on to research into short films of the 'thriller' genre, to gain even more knowledge on forms and conventions of which we should use, to make our film look more realistic and professional. For example, lighting in thriller genre films would have a clear difference to other genre's as it is more dark and gloomy to add atmosphere and suspense. Also looking at the conventional themes and iconography of thriller shot films, enabled me to learn more forms and conventions whilst starting to develop ideas of what we could do for are own. Again, for example, thrillers usually include a 'victim' or a 'murderer/stalker'. This enabled me to delve into narrative structures and techniques of 'thrillers' also.
The settings we chose for our film, also use conventions of existing thriller short films. As shown in the image below we used a dark, isolated area as the key location for our kidnap scene. Many thriller genres portray settings like this to add the to obscurity and eree-ness of the film.

Camera angles were also something we used a lot of within our short film to follow key conventions. For example our first shot-establishing shot, reflects many establishing shots we had researched in to, by being a conventional 'pan' of the setting, to create a understanding for the audience and insight into the location. Also by using high angles within some of our scenes of the victim links to the portrayal of the vulnerability of her and the high angles of the 'stalker' showing his superiority and power.

(Here I will insert video's of myself talking over video clips of our establishing shot. Explaining how and why we used this-conventions.)

To emphasise our genre we used a typical 'victim'/'stalker' plot. Allowing us to develop around the plot and to increasing build tension and suspense in our film, something our target audience, (of which we established in our thriller research), appeals to. Essentially being 'thrill seekers', this meant the more nail-biting our film the better, to create the 'adrenaline rush' they want from watching a thriller film. The recognition of repetition lead to anticipation and expectation for a viewer, (in our case our cut shot of the train).

 The Sound and music we chose also is a form and convention of existing 'thriller' short films. We used sound to contribute to the build up of tension in our film, something we discovered as an effective technique when researching. The songs we chose also reflect the mood and atmosphere we were trying to create, for example our songs were dramatic and mysterious, whereas if we were creating a children's short, our music would conventionally be happy and up-beat.

Finally, we used major forms and conventions of all shorts films, by including a ratings certificate, ident and credits. All of these contribute to making the film essentially look realistic. This gives the illusion to a viewer that we are an existing film company, by using such iconic features. Below is some clips of how and why we used these:

(Here I will insert video's of myself talking over video clips of our bbfc certificate, our ident and our credits. Explaining how and why we used these-conventions.)

Within my ancillary tasks they also show key uses of forms and conventions. Through my research into existing reviews and film posters, I was able to learn the iconic features and layout styling, of which I manipulated into my work. This essentially made them also look professional and realistic, ensuring as a package the two promote the film very well.

In what ways our media product develops forms and conventions of real media products

There are many ways in which our film develops forms and conventions of real media products. Through my research as I was able to learn the key elements of short films and the iconic features within 'thrillers', it allowed me to reflect on there work and develop it into my own ideas. The use of 'victim' within thriller genre films, allowed me to develop this into a plot, of which I thought up the idea of a conventional 'stalker'/'victim' plot, but developing this to make it original through our decision of no dialogue, and the use of a dual narrative.

Also we were able to develop the characters in our short film, to be suitable to the 'thriller' genre. Establishing characteristics of the victim and stalker in our film enabled us to build the main body of the film. Shown in my 'Planning For Filming post', I established the victim to be a 'typical' teenage girl, who is also vulnerable and intriguing. Whereas I wanted to stalker to be mysterious and spooky, captivating the eree plot. Capturing the audiences attention, and enabling them to create an 'emotional attatchment' to the girl wanting to know what happens to her and why, and a 'dislike/fear' of the stalker, someone people would 'love to hate'. This would therefore engage the audience and keep them watching, ensuring not only our film follows forms and conventions but entertains the viewer.

After researching more into our target audience of the thriller genre, if revealed that they take enjoyment from trying to work out and guess what would happen next for themselves. I therefore used an Enigma Code, developed it into our plot and manipulated it to make our film more appealing to our target audience. An Enigma code is where the film maker controls what the audience sees or knows, setting hints and clues as to what might happen next. This allows them attempt to work it out giving them 'pleasure of the text':

When the 'readers' recognise the codes, they get 'pleasure of the text' and this pleasure is enhanced and emphasised when there is overlap between the fictional narrative (what the audience is watching) and the 'real' narrative of day to day existence. In other words, the closer the makers of the text come to representing recognisable codes from the audience's own lives, the more pleasure of the text the audience gets.-litnotes

Going back to my research post : Thriller Short Film Research, and comparing our film to thriller ones, is clear evidence of how we have developed forms and conventions of them into our own.

In what ways our media product challenges forms and conventions of real media products

Our short film challenges the forms and conventions of real media products in many ways, to make it more original and unique.
The first way in which we challenged existing forms and conventions was through our creating our dual narrative. Disrupting the conventional linear narrative. A dual narrative is where a story is told from two points of view or times. This then highlights different elements of the same situation. Creating a Dual narrative was something we wanted to do to make our film more exciting giving the audience the element of surprise, leaving them at the edge of their seats as to what happens next. Also by ending the film on a cliff hanger, not establishing what happened to the victim, leaving the viewer wanting more. This essentially challenges Todorov's theory, by disrupting it and not following the conventional circle of equilibrium, disruption, resolution, equilibrium. I feel this was the most effective technique we chose, as from our audience feedback it has proved to make our film more exciting and engaging. Also because it made our film more unique and gave the audience the power to make their own ending.
We also challenged forms and conventions by choosing to not include any dialogue within our film. This was something I felt very strongly about as I feel having no dialogue made the film more engaging. It allowed the plot to be more emphasised, to grab the viewers full attention and allow them to be overcome by the tension built. I believe it makes the film more mysterious and captivating. This was something that was also praised within our audience feedback, and was successful.

Below is a short clip of myself and Abigail Stafford, discussing how our short film challenges conventions:

Transcript

Abigail: Hi I'm Abigail Stafford

Lucy: And I'm Lucy Matthews

Abigail: And we're going to talk about how our film PULSE challenges the conventions of real media products. The first way in which our film challenges conventions is the repetition of our cut shot of the train passing by. Usually in short films and features films there are various cuts used and loads of editing techniques are used to implement these cuts, however in our film only the video of a train passing by is used. The repetition of this allows the audience to build up a relationship with footage they're seeing and acknowledge that this is the cut between the two narratives. Also because the train is moving it shows the motion between the two narratives going from the future back to the present.

Lucy: Our film also challenges conventions by having no dialogue. We believe this an effective way of engaging the audience and make them become attached to the character in a more emotional way. It also builds tension and suspense, a main convention of a thriller short film shown through our research. We also wanted the expression of the body language to be portrayed stronger through no dialogue. 

Abigail: Another way in which we challenge the conventions of typical media product is in our ending, in an iconic film where there is a stalker and a victim usually you find out at the end what happens to the victim, so whether they're freed or attacked. However in our film, we've left it quite open ended as you can see by the broken camera shot at the end this is the kind of cliffhanger which allows the audience to be more engaged with the film as they wonder what happens as it unanswered and because they're engaged they are more part of the film themselves as they participate more and they'd like to find out what happens and so intrigues them to watch more.

Lucy: Also our film challenges the linear narrative by having a dual narrative this goes against Todorov's theory, something which was found effective in thriller films. It gives the element of surprise for the audience and allows them to be more engaged with the storyline and also is an effective way of building tension and suspense again.

Abigail: So they're the four main ways in which our short film has challenged the conventions of real media products.

Overall I feel the key elements of which challenge forms and conventions from our film is through the 

narrative, reflective of an iconic girl gets kidnapped fairytale, however isn't portrayed through Todorovs theory, as we leave our plot on a cliff hanger, with no resolution, to link back to equilibrium.

Final Short Film

Below is our final Short film. I am extreemly happy with the outcome of the film and it has actually exceeded my vision of it completely.

Final Poster

I have submitted two options of my promotional film poster will the small difference of the main 'PULSE' font text. This is because I feel both are as strong and conventional as each other.

 

Making the film poster was one of my favourite tasks this year. I love photography and layout styling and was really creative with my ideas for this task. I am very happy with the outcomes and feel it has turned out even better than I imagined. I feel it looks realistic when looking back at ones I had researched (see Film Poster Research post), and also promotes the film very well. The editing is a good balance allowing a viewer to still focus on the message or emotion being portrayed in the image.

Linking back to my film poster research and the references to how myself and Abigail would create complementary film posters to create a strong hard hitting campaign for our film, I feel we have both been successful in capturing the two sides to the narrative, exploring a range of options for film posters and creating our final products that look both professional and conventional. Below is an image of our final film posters together.

Final Film Magazine Review

I am very happy with my final magazine review. I feel with the resources possible it looks realistic and follows conventions of magazine film reviews (see Film Review Research post). I am also pleased with my review itself, and feel it portrays our short film very well, and uses the correct persuasive techniques to engage an audience into watching our film.

Producing The Ancillary Tasks- Film Poster Production

To begin the production of my film poster I need to take a photo. As I study photography outside of school, this is something I am very confident with and feel I could use to make it the center piece of my work. Both myself and Abigail agreed on what sort of 'theme' we wanted to take on for our poster. With myself taking the darker more 'evil' or 'mysterious' side, and Abigail doing the softer more innocent side. We thought this was ideal for us, as not only did it mean we put our skills the the best of our personal ability and style but as our film was a dual narrative it fitted perfectly to the plot.

After learning from my research that most film posters feature the main character in a close up shot as the whole image, I have decided to manipulate this and develop it into my own work. I therefore organised a time I could take my images with main actress Miranda. Before this we had to plan a time that was ok for both of us, establish what equipment I would need for the camera and ensure continuity was kept by making her wear the same outfit that she does in the film. Below are a few of the images I took, of which I would then decide on the best that I can use:

I took the photos on a plain grey background, to reflect the conventional colours, and to keep the focus on the model. I also chose this specific pose as I felt it was an interesting and engaging situation, giving hints to our films plot and also by having it as a close-up from such a direct front angle it really captures our attention as if the model is looking at you for help. During the shoot a problem occurred in that the model I initially got to be the hand in the image, frankly was too big and overpowered the actresses face taking the focus off her expression and emotion. I therefore found another willing volunteer who I was able to use.

Below is the image I have chosen to use within my work. I chose this image as I feel it is the most effective, with the best facial expression for what I wanted to portray. Also the balance between the hand and the models face is a perfect ratio, allowing a viewer to see what is happening but also be drawn in by the victims fear.

Now I have my image I felt it appropriate to edit it to fit my genre and style. The images I researched were all used with dark effects and low lighting, also I want to engage the face and expression as the main feature so framing it will draw a viewers attention straight to it. I therefore inserted my image into Photoshop Elements 0.5 and created a dark black frame (using the burn tool), as shown below:

I also edited the colour of the image, bye going on 'filter', then 'Artistic' and using the 'Difuse Glow' effect. I did experiment with other effects however felt this one was best suited to what I wanted to portray, and gave a good proffetional style. Also it was conventional from my research to edit the image slightly to make it more dramatic and link more into the thriller genre.

I then felt like the image needed more to it, and it needed a more dramatic and bold effect. I therefore played around with a few of the Photoshop Elements 0.5 effects and used the 'Hue and Saturation' technique to make the eyes appear more striking by increasing the colour and contrast, by lassoing around them specifically and adjusting them to make them brighter.

After completing my photo I now need to layer it with text and persuasive/conventional elements. Starting with the name of the film 'PULSE'. As my research revealed that it was more conventional to feature the name at the bottom of the poster, and after moving it around to find the best position was here I could straight away go onto the style and appearance of the title. I used dafont.com to explore a range of different fonts of which I could consider for my final poster.

After looking through a range of different fonts I have decided on two of which I will use within my poster and then later decide which to use. The two I have chosen reflect the 'thriller' genre perfectly, and both are bold and big making 'pulse' stand out. The first choice (top) hints at some sort of twist within the plot or a distorted look through real life. The second is more of an obvious 'spooky' effect, creating an eree atmosphere on the poster.

My research revealed that having the actors names of the film, or director etc as a key feature, and usually at the top of a poster was a main convention for film posters. As advertising the actors of this could engage a instant audience of their fan-base, or people intrigued at how this actor will play this role. I therefore used dafont.com again, found a suiting font and used this for their names. The usual font film posters appeared to use for this was a plain, tall and over-powering one. I chose a font called 'Justus', similar to this to use. I included the two actors within the film, (Miranda Burns and Kieran Forbes), and 'Staring' a conventional persuasive technique. A common convention and technique used from my research into existing posters was to position the first name smaller and above the second, I really like this and feel it gives a fantastic and proffetional look to my poster. However felt there needed to be something else just to make it look more realistic and fuller. I decided to include Court Lane into this, as music artists can also be used for this, and as they feature two of their songs within our film, it would be a strong and appropriate choice.

Within my research, one of the strongest persuasive techniques used was ratings and review quotes. These persuade people and show the success of it so far, as people are influenced by these prestigious reviewers and their opinion. Again I used Dafont.com to use a complimenting font the the cast font. Of which is similar, but in italics (a conventional technique when using quotes). I used The Guardian and Empire, two of the most leading names within the film reviewing world. I had a range of phrases I could use within this, however want to use the two I felt sold the film best, really engaged people and made them want to watch it. Also revealing some of the plot and genre through them. 'The anticipation is truely nail-biting' enages the thriller target market. As they are thrill-seekers, they want to watch something that has alot ot suspence and makes them on edge. 'A thrilling take on an enigmatic storyline', reveals the mystery involved within our plot, and also a more conventional quote of what The Guardian would say. 

All the font for the actors names and reviews are used in white, to make then stand out against the darker image, also a conventional colour for the thriller genre, linking to the use of iconography.

As I was making my film poster in Microsoft Office Publisher It made it more easy to insert and layer all the features to make the poster as a whole.

As I saw my final poster finally start to come together I then started to focus on the smaller details needed. Within my research it showed that small print at the bottom of film posters was a major convention. This meant I therefore wanted to use this on my own film poster to make it look more proffetional. This also helps promote the film companies and any other cast.

I added the bbfc rating of our film (15), something most film posters include, also linking back to the bbfc certificate included at the start of our film. A release date, with the same font to keep continuity, of which stands out, to inform the audience of when it is out in cinemas, something all film posters have. Also our Ident and production company logo we created 'EXPOSED Productions'. Then a 20th Century Fox company logo, to make it look more realistic and linking back to conventions of film posters.

After making my whole poster I have now two options (as mentioned above) of which differ in that I have used two different fonts for the main 'PULSE' title.

In the next poster are my final film options. The iconography of my poster is symbolic to the 'Thiller' genre. I feel it really captures the essence of our film and plot. It makes it easier for an audience to associate the key aspects with a genre, therefore engaging our target audience. The fear in the models physical attributes really sells it to any thrill-seekers interested in 'thriller'. The natural light used in the photo is enhanced through he editing to create a more conventional appearance, linking to the low lighting used in 'thriller' posters within my research. The black framing and juxtaposition of the text brings the audiences eye straight to the emotion expressed through the models, something I wanted to be the main focus on the poster. The close-up straight shot also contributes to this, and links to the angles and types of shot used in existing 'thriller' posters. Both the hand and face are in focus in the shot to emphasise both features, again hinting at our films double narrative.