Part 3

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

To find information out about the

horror film industry and about particular horror films, and

sub genres we had to use a variety of different new media technologies. To find specific information about films we initially used sites such as IMDB. I also looked at blogs on sites such as Blogger which helped enlighten me about Horror and the history of horror films. But the

new media site that I feel I used the most with the most success would be YouTube as this enabled me to watch a wide variety of trailers so that I was able to take elements of them and use in my own trailer.

The three trailers that I feel where the most useful when I was researching horror trailers where: 30 Days of Night(2010), The Crazies (2010) and Friday the 13th.

(2009) I found that 30 days of night helped me understand the use of pacing within a trailer with having a slow start and a climax at the end of the trailer. The crazies

Helped me understand more subtle uses of body horror with the facial effects on the infected characters, and the way that this can add to the horror of the trailer making it more dynamic. Finally Friday 13th trailer made me understand how

important it is to have a effective soundtrack that enhances the emotions of the shots for the viewer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxC0Um9zSqY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7w9uWFIMBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKfE5NrE7K8

I also found that YouTube had many

people who made Vlogs about horror films and these where

helpful to watch to see what real fans of the genre wanted. A vlogger that I found particularly useful when researching horror was 'HorrorMovieReviewGuy' as he gives his personal reviews on many horror films, these where particularly useful because it gave me clear idea of what horror fans were looking for in horror films. His Evi l Dead 2013 review was one of the most useful as his thoughts on this iconic remake really

helped me understand the Uses and gratifications of the horror fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdInJqfzwb8

In constructing my trailer I have used applications such as Adobe Photoshop for my ancillary products and Premiere Pro

and After Effects for my trailer.

When I was making my poster I used

the blending options tool I used this to create a

higher contrast within the

image and the overlay option I felt bought out the contrast and detail within the image. This makes the image seem higher

quality and more likely to attract the attention of the mainstream audience that I was aiming this product at.

I also used the Gaussian Blur tool to create the wind like

effect on the tagline’s typography. I copied the layer then blurred the back copy

to about 10 pixels to make it look as though someone was blowing the words like a whisper. This creates an unsettling effect to the audience.

When I was making my

poster I used a Drop Shadow via the

“fx” effect on the

key signifying image to make it more prominent within the cover, I also adjusted the angle of

the shadow to match the lighting within the image.

When making our trailer

we used the trim tool to cut out shots to the length that we needed them, this came in handy especially when we had to

increase the pace of the trailer with quicker/ shorter shots at the end.

We also used the

Brightness and Contrast adjusters within our trailer on Premiere

Pro to correct the colour and make the trailer look more filmic on a large screen. This filter was

also useful in creating low key lighting within shots and dramatic scenery.

When we made the trailer we used the

Opacity effect to create a

disorientated effect on Nicole in the sequence of shots as she stumbles over the

heath. This expressionist sequence to create confusion was created by multi- trimming and layering the shots over each other before reducing the top layers opacity

To finish my blog,

media technologies were also important when I

evaluated my products. To do so, I have used a selection of

both online and desktop applications. I have dominantly used my blog as the focus of most of my written work for this project.

I have analysed and annotated my ancillary

products on Flickr before making links on my blog to this work. Flickr allowed me to focus on certain aspects of my

products, giving visual notes of different aspects of

the magazine cover and poster that were important.

I also used YouTube to

analyse my final trailer using notes. Once I had all of this on

my blog I used social networking sites such as Facebook to raise awareness of my products to my friends by putting links to my blog and to our YouTube video. On my blog I have

also asked people to rate our trailer out of 10 so far

100% of people have rated our

trailer between 8-10.