Final Ancillary Tasks

New Magazine Cover

The Evaluation

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our target audience consists of intelligent and professional females, who are aged between 18 and 35. They are creative, bright, and fun to be around, and enjoy being challenged when it comes to TV shows, books and films. In order to conduct post-production research, my group and I collectively decided that we would do this individually, in order to get a variety of responses from different people in different ways; we would be able to obtain the most feedback this way. Therefore, I decided that the two main ways of conducting post-production research would be to use the internet (particularly the social media website, FaceBook) and my peers the trailer, then film their responses. I targeted both the general public and the target audience when doing this, because I was not only curious as to whether the promotional package appealed to the target audience, but also whether it appealed to the public in general – I wanted to hear peoples thoughts and ideas on the promotional package’s effectiveness and weak points.

From conducting this research, I found that, overall, responses were positive. Members of the target audience on FaceBook stated that the trailer was able to entice them, and made them want to find out the narrative by going to watch the film themselves. As well as this, the target audience not only responded positively to the trailer, but also to the film magazine and the poster; they stated that they found the poster’s main image particularly scary, and wanted to know how the protagonist, who features on the poster, got so bloodied and bruised. With regard to my trailer, which I obtained the most feedback on, there were points of weakness which the majority of people I recieved feedback from pointed out. This was particularly the graveyeard scene - people thought it could be improved as it seemed quite unrealistic. I believe this area could hbave been improved if we had used different types of shots when it came to her reaction after meeting Dennis, as she appeared to walk off very hastily, rather than questioning/wondering what he meant by "YOU SHOULD KNOW WHO I AM".

Overall, the audience stated that they were able to have an idea of the film's narrative from watching the trailer; a woman is stalked, and eventually kidnapped and tortured. However,. some audience members stated that it was unclear who dies in the beginning, and why Mary-Anne is so distressed at the bad news. I believe more shots of Mary-Anne and her mother being close together and happy would have made this much more understandable, since Mary-Anne's mother only features in the opening scene where she is taking a picture - the bond between Mary Anne and her mother isn't shown to be as strong as it is meant to be.

When it cane to the ancillary tasks, I interviewed people of the target audience, and members of the general public again, in order to gain feedback on my ancillary tasks, Many people stated that they liked the colour scheme of the film magazine; they were able to tell from the main image and colour of the sell lines that the magazine was a horror special, specifically designed for halloween. However, others felt that the main image for the magazine wasn't as strong as the film poster - they did not understand the grey brick background and it's relevance, and felt that the facial expression of the protagonist, 'Mary-Anne didn't make her appear as scared as she is in the trailer. However, the brick background did have relevance, since it is a wall of the chamber that Mary-Anne is tortured in, although, in the trailer, the audience is unable to see this due to the dark lighting. Therefore if I were to retake images or recreate the magazine front cover, I would change it so that it matched that of the trailer.

Original Brief

My team and I have been set the task of creating a promotional campaign to advertise a new film. There are three pieces of media needed in order for this task to be completed successfully; a promotional trailer, a film poster, and a film magazine front cover. All of these pieces will have a clear relationship with each other, and share a common look and feel. This will create a symbiotic link which will allow our pieces to look professional and be more recognisable to their audience.

The film we will be advertising will be exist within the horror genre. There are a number of different reasons why horror was our first choice. As a group horror is our favourite genre when it comes to film. This is mainly because we enjoy how horror films have the power to completely raise adrenaline and terrify audiences. This is something we hope to achieve whilst creating our promotional package using techniques and practises we have recognised through watching and analysing horror films and trailers ourselves.

A skill we have developed since watching media texts is being able to recognise typical conventions through the horror genre. Through our experience of analysis in existing media texts we will be able to convey these conventions in our promotional package successfully; this will appeal to our target audience and allow them to recognise the genre we are creating.

Charlotte Mitchell, Amber Khamou and I will be working on creating a chilling and effective promotional package. We are very much looking forward to starting as our love for the horror genre will allow to passionately express our previous media skills and talents throughout this project to create the best three pieces we can.

The History of Horror

Film Title Ideas

We had many ideas for the title of our film, our ideas are below with our final decision...

‘The Unearthing’

This title would suit our horror film as it hints towards the narrative (i.e. Mary-Anne unearths a horrible secret.) It also creates a sense of intrigue for the target audience, who will naturally want to know what is actually ‘unearthed’ within the film. The word ‘earth’also connotes natural imagery; since birth is a natural part of life, and since Mary-Anne’s mother, Ethel, put Dennis up for adoption, she is going against human nature. The prefix ‘un’ is used in words which suggests something is not quite right and negative e.g unusual, unknown. Therefore ‘un’ and‘earth’ put together subtly signal further towards the narrative of the film –therefore this title is extremely appropriate. It could also further be argued that ‘earth’ signals specifically towards mud – disgusting, dark and grim, just like the truth Mary-Anne discovers.

‘The Unwanted’

We like this title as, after all, Dennis is the unwanted child within the film. It is also upfront and blunt compared to the other titles. It suggests Dennis never was and never will be wanted in anyone’s life – a fact he is struggling to deal with throughout the movie and throughout his life. It also reflects the fact that Mary-Anne’s life was perfect until Dennis came into the picture – his presence causes unwanted problems and disturbs Mary-Anne’s peaceful, happy life. However, this title does also suggest that the disruption within Mary-Anne’s life is caused by a presence, as opposed to a person, and therefore isn’t very representative of the actual narrative or sub-genre therefore this title could possibly attract the wrong kind of audience.

‘The Forgotten’

This title could be extremely appropriate, as it, again, conventionally hints towards the narrative of our film (a forgotten son comes back to wreak revenge on his sister). ‘The’ also suggests that his presence has a significant impact within Mary-Anne’s life, as, after all, he is the most important role within the narrative. However, this title does also suggest, again, that a force comes to disturb Mary-Anne’s life, as opposed to a person. You can also link this title to 'The Uninvited'

‘If You Sit Quietly’

This is a significant line within our film; Dennis says this throughout the film as he was told to sit quietly by his abusive foster mother and it is stuck in his warped mind. The fact Dennis tells Mary-Anne to ‘sit quietly’ also suggests the narrative and the sub-genre – he is trying to control her, and get into her mind (making it a clear psychological horror). Therefore its eerie-ness will stand out to the audience, making it memorable and an appropriate title for our film.

‘Forgotten’

This title is significant of the fact that Dennis is forever alone and is also forgotten by his family – the single word represents the loneliness which drives Dennis to stalk his sister, Mary-Anne. The fact it is a single word also makes it sound much more dramatic, than say, ‘The Forgotten’ as it is a word which doesn’t seem to make sense on it’s own. This makes the audience much more curious about who/what has been forgotten and why; they need to figure it out by watching the movie, and therefore as it provides food for thought, it will attract the perfect target audience. Therefore this is why we have selected this title as the title for our film; although ‘If You Sit Quietly’and ‘The Unearthing’ are extremely suitable titles for our film, we feel that ‘Forgotten’gives it a much more chilling feel.