How my three texts work as a media marketing device

Audience Feedback for Shutdown

We also posted our video onto the social networking website Facebook. From this we got much positive feedback from friends as well as a few criticisms - "My only citicism is that at the very end the swords do not appear to hit properly. apart from that, everything was great. I especially liked the bits where George was blacksmithing and the section where Joe is being stuck, it made it feel more like a real media text."

The equipment, websites and programmes that I have used

BLOGGER

I have used the website 'Blogger' to keep track of my progress throughout GCE Media Studies and to host my coursework and it's related tasks.

PC RUNNING WINDOWS XP

I used a PC that runs windows XP. Many of Adobe's programmes are installed on the computer including Premiere Elements and Photoshop.

CAMERA

We used a Canon DV camcorder to film all of our footage for the teaser trailer. It’s simple interface gave a no-nonsense approach to filming. Although the camera had it’s own effects and adjusters, all adjustments were done later on while editing the scenes in Adobe Premiere Elements.

TRIPOD

The tripod was used in most scenes where the camera shots were either still or panning. This meant that we could film scenes without any unwanted shaking that we would have had we filmed scenes hand held.

MICROPHONE

Although there is not much diagetic sound in our teaser trailer, the audio from every scene was recorded using a hand held boom microphone. This gave us the highest possible sound quality without having to use a recording studio to recreate the diagetic sounds.

STILL CAMERA

We used an Olympus camera to capture images that we used for our ancillary tasks.

PREMIERE ELEMENTS

All of the editing was done in Adobe’s Premiere Elements programme. As well as cutting raw footage together, we also manipulated sound, brightness and contrast and text in each scene.

PHOTOSHOP

We used Adobe’s Photoshop to design our ancillary tasks. The most useful tools in Photoshop allowed us to cut out backgrounds from pictures and replace them with other backgrounds that we wanted to use.

WHEELCHAIR

We used a wheelchair to help us film any moving shots with minimal shaking caused by movement. This is well demonstrated in the scene in the church where the camera moves backwards with the protagonist walking towards the camera.

LOGIC 8

We used Apple’s Logic 8 professional recording programme to create the music to the teaser trailer, using digital instruments to recreate a cinematic orchestra consisting of a choir, a large string ensemble, a solo cello, a brass section and a percussion section.

SIBELIUS 6

We used Avid’s Sibelius 6 digital scoring programme to write and score the music for the teaser trailer.

Evaluation Task 1 - How does you're teaser trailer use, develope and/or challenge the conventions of real teaser trailers?

One way in which my teaser trailer uses conventions of real teaser trailers is by including the moving footage of media company logos that are designed to show which media companies have helped to produce the product. Most teaser trailers feature this with only a few exceptions. I think that including this feature gives my teaser trailer a sense of authenticity and professionalism. A secondary use that I found was useful for these small clips was that I could slow the pace of my teaser trailer towards the beginning by separating my filmed footage with the logos.

A convention that I found in some action film teaser trailers was the use of ambient images at the beginning and ends of the products. These short clips of footage help to create a sense of mystery and ambiguity, causing the audience to want to continue viewing the teaser trailer.

I captured some footage of a gas fire while filming in the iron forge area of the “Fire and Iron Gallery” in Leatherhead and put the footage at the opening of my teaser trailer to create a sense of ambiguity for the audience. In the following scene the mysterious flame is revealed to be the flame used to heat iron in the workshop.

Occasionally in teaser trailers the pulse of the soundtrack will fit the editing of the scenes. I have developed this convention so that at key moments in the trailer there are developments in the music that fit the scene. For instance, when the company logos are on screen, the orchestra play loud chords and a unique combination of tribal drums play in unison. This draws attention to the logos and creates a lot of tension in the trailer. Another example is when the romantic scene introduces the more dynamic half of the trailer, and as this happens the music develops into a tutti section with soaring strings and bold horns that are typical of the scores from trailers such as Batman: The Dark Knight, and from other medias such as game soundtracks.

A feature of our teaser trailer that challenges the conventions of most real teaser trailers is that our narrative does not reveal the identity of the protagonist until later on in the trailer. Instead, footage is separated by ambiguous scenes of the protagonist running through woodland, slowly revealing weapons as he takes off his coat. I think this is the most unique feature of our teaser trailer. Throughout the teaser trailer, this mixture of different scenes slowly develops into a montage that reaches its climactic moment when we see the protagonist and antagonist clash swords.

I decided that as I was going to score the music for my teaser trailer, I was going to develop the conventions of typical teaser trailers and try to change the portrayed emotion of the music to fit some of the key scenes in the trailer. This is not a normal convention of teaser trailers, presumable because it is hard to create a multi-section piece of music in just over a minute that does not feel disjointed and angular. I think that I have managed to achieve this in the trailer without many musical issues.

A feature that seems to be typical of action film teaser trailers is the use of scenes with content that conflicts with the ideas of the action genre. This will often be a romantic scene or a scene that slows the pace and excitement of the trailer. I decided to use a scene of the protagonist and a love interest together in an ambient location that still had elements of action within it, such as the military uniform that the protagonist is seen wearing here. I think that choosing the position in the narrative for this scene was an important decision because putting it in the wrong place could confuse the audience and ruin the pace of the teaser trailer. I decided to put it in the middle of the teaser trailer when it begins to develop from ambiguous to exciting. I think this was a good choice because it finally reveals that the ambiguous character who was seen running though woodland is the protagonist.

Because I wanted to use a variety of different style scenes in my project, it made sense to me to change the costume of the protagonist to suit the location and ambience of each scene. Usually in teaser trailers the characters are seen wearing similar clothing throughout, presumably as to not confuse the audience too much. I have challenged this convention for the previously stated reasons. I have, however, tried to keep some features of the costumes the same throughout my teaser trailer to keep a sense of continuity, whether it is the black trousers, the coat or the jacket.

To ensure that my teaser trailer is obviously designed to be marketing an action film, I have made sure to include action based scenes that suggest this genre. This convention has to be used by teaser trailers to ensure that the target audience for the film is reached, and to ensure that the audience of the teaser trailer is not misled. I have used scenes such as the one shown in the above image, where an unknown villain is interrogating the protagonist, and the final scene where the protagonist and antagonist clash swords. The music is also important in suggesting the action genre. It does so because it is fast paced and uses instrumentation and style that is often associated with the genre.

I have tried to use as many unique and interesting locations as possible to create a sense of authenticity for my teaser trailer. These dynamic locations were chosen so that together they would form an exciting and thrilling montage that would reach a climactic ending. This is a common convention of action teaser trailers – where a diverse selection of scenes with different locations and a wide range of emotions are edited together to create intense and captivating montages. This is a good way of conveying the excitement that people will hope to experience when they watch the film that is being marketed to them. During my montage, the scenes used vary from being shot in a church, woodland and an iron forge workshop.

Final Teaser Trailer

Magazine Cover

Poster