The Final Bell Magazine Cover

First Draft of Magazine Cover

 This was my first drafted magazine cover created to advertise my trailer. Since creating a second draft I have made several changes to improve my magazine and make it look more surreal and realistic. The changes I made were I added more text to include more details and I added a description to the puffs so they could be understood easier. Below is my final draft of my movie magazine front cover.

Final Draft of Magazine Cover

Evaluation Task 1- In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms of Conventions from Real Media Products?

9 Frame Analysis Trailer

First Frame: Settings

 Frame one is of the school lockers. We decided to set the scene of a school early on in our trailer so it shows the vulnerability and realism of our trailer and how it is focused on realism and the audience can relate to it. The school setting helps the audience to feel empathy towards our trailer as children are a vulnerable group and every can relate to going to school.

This is a stereotypical setting for a psychological thriller in an empty school, however we did challenge the convention of fast pace editing in many phycological thrillers and we used quite a slow pace to help further build suspense to keep the audience guessing what happens next.

Second Frame: Props

I have chosen a close up of our main prop in our film to include in my 9 frame analysis as it is the most tense part of our film One of our main props within our trailer is the gun that we used. Although it is a fake gun what we used it looks very real which further adds to the realism of our film. It is very stereotypical of an antagonist in a phycological thriller to carry a gun. This helps to connotes death and danger which are stereotypical of this genre. Also school shootings are very current in todays world so therefore the audience would be able to relate to the plot of our film and therefore are more likely to want to go and watch the film after watching our trailer.

Third Frame: Empty Classrooms

Another setting we decided to include in our trailer was a panning shot of empty classrooms, as we felt this was effective in helping to convey the psychological thriller genre. As it connoted emptiness and loneliness which helps the audience understand that something bad is going to happen.

Its also a countertype of a normal school setting as instead of the classrooms being filled with joy they are silent which is abnormal and suggests something is wrong and help further build tension. We also used a slider when filming this shot which helped add to the quality of our filming by keeping it steady which helped to make it look more professional.

Fourth Frame: Film Poster

I decided to use my film poster as my fourth frame as it was one of my additional ancillary tasks that synergized my film trailer for The Final Bell. I believe that the main photo I used for my main image conforms with many stereotypical conventions of real film posters. Using a long shot of the antagonist is very conventional for psychological thrillers. To help further emphasise my main character who is the school shooter in my trailer I decided to duplicate the image and use the gradient tool to fade the image and place it behind the original image.

To also further emphasis the main  images I put them in black and white to help add to the low key lighting effect that I used throughout all my media texts. This helped to synergise and connote the low mood in the school which helps show the eerie atmosphere throughout. I also included institutional information on my poster which helps the audience recognise star characters and previous films the film company have produced. 

Fifth Frame: Antagonist In Balaclava

I decided to use this shot of the antagonist with the balaclava on as it is very effective in conveying the psychological thriller genre. We decided by putting the main character in a balaclava it conveyed to the audience straight away that he is the antagonist and he is about to commit a crime from which he wants to hide his identity from. A balaclava helps to convey danger and crime which are all stereotypically in psychological thrillers.

This shot also shows the school shooter walking gingerly down the empty school corridors with his bag with a gun inside. This is where the suspense in the film increases rapidly and the music greats dramatically faster as the audience are left guessing what happens next

Sixth Frame: Film Magazine

My magazine cover is also stereotypical of a physiological thriller magazine as I fore fronted the antagonist and used a straight on mid shot to emphasis his main role in my trailer. However I challenged the typical conventions of physiological thriller as in our trailer the antagonist was wearing a black balaclava which hid his face. However for my magazine cover I decide to reveal his identity. which can help the audience to realize he is just a school boy who is innocent.

Seventh Frame: Antagonist Chasing School Pupil

The seventh frame is one of the most effective as it is taken from one of the most tense part in our trailer which is where the school shooter finds a pupil in the empty corridors and chases him until he trips. This is a stereotypical scene in a psychological thriller as you often see the protagonist being followed or chases by the antagonist. We also dressed our antagonist in all black with a balaclava on to make him seem more scary which further added to the build up tense scenes towards the end of our trailer.

Eighth Frame: Ratings

We included the ratings of our film from different newspapers which is a stereotypical convention of many pyscological thrillers. As it can help the audience to realise the film is of good quality and that they want to go and watch it. As when the audience recognises that top named newspapers have seen and rated our film highly they will be expecting to see a good quality film.

Ninth frame: Our Title

 The first frame of my analysis is our choice of film title, The Final Bell, and how this is presented in our trailer. We chose this title as it gives a direct insight into our plot, as a bell can signify school and we used the word final to signify the last time the children will hear the bell before the shooting. In my research I discovered that psychological thrillers the topic of school shootings is used as it gives an insight into realism and current affairs. In my research I also discovered many films are set in schools as children are a vulnerable group in society so are the perfect protagonist for a psychological thriller.

Our title does challenge the stereotypical conventions of many phycological thrillers as we only used 3 words in ours. However many trailers and films only use one or two words such as Taken, Gone girl and Severn. However we felt that our title really connoted our trailer and allowed the reader to self consciously realise what our film is about without having to watch it. Therefore we outweighed the disadvantages and decided the 3 word title was effective and worked for us.

As a group deciding on our font was the trickiest element for us all to decide on. However in the end we decided the impact font was the most effective for our trailer. I used the same font across all my media texts to help create synergy across the different elements which further promotes our film. I decided that the impact font fitted perfectly with the physiological horror genre whilst also matching our plot of school shootings. Our font stands out and is bold it can also connote school and lessons.

Evaluation Task 2- How effective is the combination of my main and ancillary products?

How effective is the combination of my Main and Ancillary products?
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APiiIy8uhBY

I have produce a voice over for this evaluation task, which will play over my trailer, including images of my final poster and magazine cover. I will also explain how I used synergy across my 3 media products.

SCRIPT
In all three of my media products I have attempted to include all the stereotypical conventions of the physiological thriller genre. I believe that by including synergy in all three of my media productions it will help to further promote my film as it will allow the correct target audience to identify and recognize elements from my trailer for example the impact font I used throughout all media texts. Using synergy also will help the audience to remember the release date and the plot which will make them want to go and see it making more revenue for the film. Also using the same font throughout my texts not only makes them appear more professional but also makes my products stand out to the audience.

In all of my three media texts I used a variety of different conventions to allow the audience to connote the physiological thriller genre. The main target audience for our film is young adults aged 15-21. As people this age enjoy watching films that feature real life scenario films and complex story lines with a built up suspense.

On my magazine cover I decided to forefront the school shooter as he was the main character in our film also being the antagonist. I duplicated the image and faded it to put behind the main forefront photo. I did this as many psychological thrillers feature a person with multiple personalities for example Multiple Personality Disorder and Schizophrenia. I also used a similar poster from the film 'The Dirties' as this is a similar film involving a gun. I used Photoshop to create my magazine cover and used tools like gradient to make it have more psychological thriller conventions.

I decided to include the antagonist in all 3 of my media texts however when we photographed him he wasn't wearing the balaclava as worn in the film as I wanted to show his true identity and to connote real life situations by showing him as a normal person not hiding behind a mask. However most psychological thriller texts do not include the antagonist as they leave it ambiguous to audiences, however I decided to expose the main character to connote realism. Although we decided to include the antagonist in our film and counter type stereotypical conventions for psychological thriller we did include suspense in our film by not showing the shooting at the end and just using a sound effect.

The main character in our film is the antagonist in the trailer he is shown to be wearing an all black outfit of jeans and a jumper also with a balaclava on. Throughout my main product and ancillary texts he is shown to be wearing the same outfit which has synergised throughout so the audience would be able to recognize him. The black outfit helps to connote danger and the balaclava helps to shield his identity of the antagonist who is a the school shooter and wouldn't want to be known. On my film magazine cover a full length mid shot of the main character is used to expose his identity to the audience to show that he is a young boy who isn't as innocent as he looks

I also included institutional information on my poster, magazine and at the end of my trailer. This institutional information is important due to the fact it gives the audience information such as actors names and the companies involved in creating the film. In our trailer we also included 3 different ratings from different companies which were 5* which helped the audience recognise that the film is of good quality. Throughout the entirety of my trailer mainly low key lighting is used and this helps to connote the psychological thriller genre. Low key lighting is also conveyed in my magazine and poster as I used  dark images along with the gradient tool to make the lighting even darker and help to synergize my media products and relating it further to the thriller genre.

In conclusion I believe that the use of synergy across my three products has been very effective, and as a result the combination of my ancillary tasks have been successful. Incorporating the conventional elements of the thriller genre in all 3 of my ancillary texts should help to further attract the target audience and help engage them to all three of my media products.

Evaluation Task 3- What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Film Changes

Evaluation Task 3

What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?

Our target audience are mainly young adults so we decided that a perfect way to gain feedback of our trailer would be to post our trailer onto social media platforms that our target audience use regularly. We decided to post our trailer onto Facebook so that people could provide both positive and negative feedback by commenting on the video. This also allowed us to reply to comments to know how we can further develop our trailer.

We received a lot of feedback from putting our trailer on social media networking sites for example to speed up some of the shots more to help build up the suspense and we received a lot of positive praise for our gun shots as it helped connote the psychological thriller genre further and allowed the audience to correctly identify this. We were very pleased with the feedback we received from our trailer as it was all positive and people mentioned the words connoted with the psychological thriller genre such as 'tense' and 'spooky' which means we was successful in connoting the correct genre.

Feedback we received:

• Our trailer was too long and suspense didn't build up towards the end
• Fonts were too plain and didnt connote the phycological thriller genre
• We didn't have an age rating on the trailer
• Our range of shots was limited.

Changes we made:

• We added an 18 age rating at the beginning
• Cut it down to become more tense and straight to the point
• Added a wider range of shots and introduced another character

Trailer feedback

Change One:

The first change myself and my group decided to undergo after receiving feedback was that we sped up the pace of the first section of our trailer. We decided to do this so that it didn't seem too much like continuous editing. Instead we decided to speed it up and include flashbacks from different places in the trailer to make it more distorted and leave the audience questioning.

The benefits of us speeding up our trailer are that it now adds a more tense feel and helps to build suspense throughout. However before our music was quite slow pace as we wanted to countertype the stereotypical psychological thriller genre however we felt it wasn't as dramatic as we wanted our trailer to be so decided to go with the stereotypical convention of past face editing and music

Change Two:
In our very first draft we had only put in place temporary inter titles, as at this point we hadn't decided on fonts or colours. So by us putting in temporary titles it allowed us to quickly change them once we had decided on fonts.

We wanted the inter-title to appear nearer the end of our trailer so that it wouldn't disrupt the building of suspense that has previously been built. Therefore I decided to add in my inter-titles towards the end with the release date, which leaves the audience in anticipation and excited to see the full film. We also decided that we wasn't going to reveal the explicit date as it will make the audience have to further research the trailer if they want to go and watch it. This would also mean they would be visiting our different social media platforms such as our Facebook page or through viewing my poster or magazine.

Poster Feedback

Change One:
Initially when I was first creating my poster I had in mind to create a minimalistic theme with dark, plain colour scheme as I felt this was very stereotypical for the psychological thriller genre. However after receiving audience feedback and by carrying out extended research on the genre I discovered that it is more conventional for posters to include a range of colour as it can help to attract attention from audiences. I decided to change the star ratings on my poster from the stereotypical yellow/gold colour to a vibrant red which makes them stand out and attracts audiences eye. It also fits in with our trailer plot of a school shooting as red connotes blood and death which is a key element in our film.

Change Two: On my poster I started out with only having one main image, however I though my poster was looking quite bare. So I decided to duplicate the image and place it behind the main image and decrease the opacity and use the gradient tool to help it blend and look like there was 2 images of the main character. I did this as usually in psychological thrillers there is someone who has multiple personalities and this helps to connote the multiple personalities.

Magazine Cover Changes:

Change One: The first change that I made to my magazine cover was I decided to add puff images of other groups trailers in my media class. As it helps further connote the psychological thriller genre whilst making my poster look more official.

Change Two: I changed the font of my writing on my poster so there was a variety of different texts to make it look more complex and like a real poster. As official magazine covers usually have a wide variety of different fonts as I researched in my planning.

Evaluation task 4- How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During the duration of our filming, planning and research for our trailer we used lots of different means of new media technologies to help us make our media product the best it can be. Below I have listed and explained the different ways we used these:




Video Camera: The most important piece of technology was our camera as we able to film lots of footage, and movement shots. We used a member of our groups professional camera it was a Nikon d5200 with a 35mm fixed lenses and a slider. It had HD quality and allowed us to have amazing, good quality shots in our trailer. A benefit of us using a group members camera allowed us the flexibility to be able to have extended

Adobe Premier Pro: All the editing we did to create our final draft of our trailer was done on Premier Pro, I have knowledge on how to use this programme from AS media when we created a film opening. This programme allowed us to import all the footage from our video camera onto the computer whilst adding music, sound and effects. We used simple transitions such as fades to black and we sped up some of our footage to make it more intense and to help build suspense. Using Premier Pro for a second time has allowed me to overcome problems and find new ways of editing my footage.





iPhone 8: My iPhone 8+ was one of the main new media technologies that I used throughout my planning and research of my trailer. As it played a vital role within the communication of my group when it came to planning and arranging meet up times to film footage and to edit. We used email, iMessage, and snapchat to communicate and discuss ideas. The camera on my iPhone 8 is also very clear so I used it to take the picture for my film poster and magazine. I also used the Youtube app on my phone to research other phycological thriller trailers.






Adobe Photoshop: Photoshop has been a very important programme for me throughout the creation of our film trailer and planning and research. As my ancillary texts which included my film magazine cover and film poster which were both created on this software. I used many different editing tools on this programme when creating my media texts such as the gradient tool to make it look more professional and the cut away tool to deselect the images I didn't need. I also designed our film logo on photoshop so we had a lot of experience of using this programme. I used photoshop to allow both my media texts to both synergise my film.







Blogger: Blogger was very easy and simple to use and to upload my work onto. However I did struggle with importing images onto the site but I overcome these issues due to adapting to the website and getting used to all the different tools. I was able to access blogger via my macbook, school computers and my iPhone which made it simple to upload work wherever I was. The 'save' and 'publish' tool were also very effective for me to use to help me know what work I had unfinished.




Social media Platforms: We used many different social media platforms such as Facebook and snapchat to publish and promote our film which allowed us to receive feedback from a large number of people which allowed us to improve our trailer further. Facebook messenger was also a vital part of our communication of meeting up and discussing ideas as it allowed us to communicate with each other outside of lessons. I also had my notifications on for Facebook which allowed me to see when I had received a like or comment on our post on Facebook allowing me to quickly see feedback.

The Final Bell First Draft

Link to first draft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj2iQUYeASA&feature=youtu.be

Feedback we received:

• To change the font of our titles and 'coming now' in the trailer to connote the genre of phycological thriller more throughly.
• Also we received feedback that our music was too slow on the gun shot scene and to cut our music up more to have more of a trailer feel.
• Add a better gun cocking sound to have a more dramatic effect.
• Speed up some of our shots at the beginning of the trailer to help build up suspense.

Planning- Preparing for the making of our film poster and magazine

As a group we took photos around the school of our main character, we made sure that he was wearing the same outfit as the day of filming so they audience would be able to recognise the character from the trailer. We also used the balaclava to mask his identity and create a more mysterious atmosphere for the poster.

We took lots of shots on the camera in different locations so that we could make sure we all had a perfect shot for each one of our posters and magazines. Below are all the images we shot around the school in preparation for the magazine and poster.