Cloven - Official Trailer

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Feedback: Focus Group Questionnaire Results

 

Audience Feedback: Focus Group Video

Evaluation - Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation q2 from elliereedx

Evaluation - Question 1- Film Trailer

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

Evaluation - Question 4

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

Evaluation - Question 1 - Film poster

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

Evaluation q1 poster from elliereedx

Evaluation - Question 1 - Film Magazine Front Cover

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

Film Magazine InDesign: Final Draft

Film Magazine InDesign Draft: 3

Film Magazine InDesign Draft: 2

This is my improved draft including the corrections suggested in my feedback. I have also added a variety of further conventional features to my media product at this stage. These aspects allow my media product to be successfully conventional as a result.

Film Magazine InDesign Draft:1

This is my initial draft of my film magazine front cover which advertises our film 'Cloven'. After receiving feedback from my teacher and my media class, I have decided to make a variety of changes in order to create an end product which is effectively conventional. My feedback stated that in order to create a media product which was of a higher quality, I must make the masthead of my magazine more enticing by changing the colour or style, as black is too basic and it isn't eye catching against various other colours present. I have decided to change the colour of my masthead to red and the background colour of my banner and footer line to black, seen as this colour position is more conventional. I was influenced by the Empire masthead when correcting its style and colour.

Film Poster InDesign: Final draft

Film poster InDesign: Draft 2





This is my improved draft including the corrections suggested in my feedback. I have darkened the sky in my image a lot in comparison to my initial draft, I believe that this creates a more sinister feel which therefore relates to the genre effectively. I have also made my billing block much smaller which makes the texts appear less prominent, allowing my poster as a result to be mainly image led. I have added a blood splatter underneath the character's hand/on the tree to represent the disturbance of the film plot. I additionally decided to include my own personal improvements which was to increase the text size of the date release so that it is easily recognised. I did this as I believe that it is crucial for the audience to identify when the film is being released as it entices them to watch the film.

Film Poster InDesign Draft:1

This is my initial draft of my film poster which advertises our film 'Cloven'. After receiving feedback from my teacher and my media class, I have decided to make a variety of changes in order to create an end product which is effectively conventional. My feedback stated that in order to create a media product which was of a higher quality, I must make the sky in my image appear darker with a shadowed effect rather than having a white sky, as this is too pure for an evil scene which evidently doesn't relate to the horror genre. I must also add blood splatters to the character's hand so that it relates to the tag-line, "something was disturbed" this highlights the idea that this character is the cause of the disturbance; she has become physically and mentally insane. Based on my feedback, I have also decided to make the billing block on my film poster a lot smaller as my film poster appears to have too much text. This is a negative aspect to my page seen as posters are conventionally image led, making the billing block smaller will allow my image to be a lot more prominent. Lastly in order to represent the narrative of my groups film plot, I have decided to keep a highlighted border around the character's hair to represent the idea that she isn't completely evil, her soul is still there deep down and is not fully destroyed. The light surrounding her will create almost a halo effect which shows her vulnerability as she battles against this evil entity.

Inspired makeup tutorials

This was the main 'possessed makeup tutorial' that inspired me to create my possessed makeup look the way I did. However I did make various changes and in my opinion improvements to my specific makeup routine such as the fact that I added a lot more red and purple to my eye makeup which appeared more realistic and unhealthy. Although I believe that her over all makeup look was effective as she was able to top of her possessed look by adding black contact lenses, which me and my group were unable to purchase. I decided not to add black colouring to my teeth as I believed it seemed too far fetched for an amateur production, I feared that it would appear laughable.

Makeup of charcters - Cloven

One of my main responsibilities whilst creating our film trailer, was to plan, design and to apply the theatrical media makeup on the characters present within our film trailer 'Cloven.' In order to make sure that this contribution was effective I had to carry out some research. I did this mainly from watching real existing horror films and trailers, so that I could pick up on what types of techniques were used. By carrying out research it also allowed me to identify what types of media makeup was typically used and I also recognised what wounds were often shown within horror films as a result. I also watched YouTube tutorials in order to gain practice and to obtain inspiration.
I tried to make the media makeup present within our trailer as realistic as possible, so that it appeared creepy enough for a horror film trailer. Although I had watched many horror films with far more advanced injuries, I tried to keep the makeup as basic and effective as possible, as I felt that over doing it would look amateur seen as I am not a professional makeup artist in special effects.

Possessed makeup look for the character Sam:

For this possessed look I tried to make myself look paler than I did before Sam channelled her possession within the film trailer. I did this to create the impression of her soul dying as it is taken over by this evil entity which is making her body suffer and start to deteriorate as a result. I wanted to make sure that Sam's eyes appeared to look tired, bruised and evil so that it was clearly identifiable that she was changing drastically as a person, mentally and physically. I also noticed that darkening the eyes was a conventional aspect to most possessed makeup routines as it symbolises the change the individual is going through. It represents the idea that the evil inside them is consuming their body and soul which is destroying their health as a result. I made my nostrils red to represent blood and to make Sam appear very ill. I believe that this would show that her insides are almost poisoned resulting in her bleeding from the inside out. I also made my lips appear pale to represent the idea that Sam no longer has any life left inside her, she looks drained of colour. Me and my group initially imagined this possessed makeup look to include black contact lenses, however we was unable to purchase a set due to costs and time restrictions. Over all I believe that this possessed makeup look is conventionally successful for our horror film trailer.

Beat up makeup look for the character Hayley:

This specific makeup look shows the injuries sustained by the character Hayley when being attacked by Sam, whilst she had reached her strongest stage of her possession. I decided to keep Hayley's injuries basic so that it didn't look fake or ineffective. I decided to add bruising to her eyes seen as this is a sensitive part of the face which would realistically bruise within the time period. However I didn't make the bruising too dark as I wanted to represent fresh injuries rather than ones which had developed over time. I also decided to add blood around Hayley's nostril's because typically when an individual has experienced a strong force to their face they develop a nose bleed. Lastly to finish off Hayley's 'beat up look' I decided to add faint scratches on her neck and a blood splatter on her face to represent a high amount of physical pain and to suggest that maybe she has injuries in various other places on her body, hence the fact she has blood splatters. Also the blood creates a code of enigma as there is no apparent open wounds to suggest that it is her own blood. Over all I believe that this makeup look is effective for our horror film trailer as it evidently shows who the victim is.

Pre-dead makeup look for the character Marcus:

Before Marcus kills himself in our film plot he suffers a lot psychologically which makes him very ill and drives him insane. I attempted to show this through his makeup by making his face very pale so that he looks drained of colour representing the idea that he is unhealthy and weak. I also decided to add red circles, bags and bruising around his eyes to represent the idea that he has had a lack of sleep showing that he has evidently been tormented by something to drive him crazy. I believe that this specific makeup look over all is very successful, as it clearly reflects the psychological state that he is in.

 Dead makeup look for the character Marcus:

Even though as a group we decided to remove the clip of Marcus killing himself on our film trailer, we still tested it out before we made our final decision whilst editing, so that we could see how successful it turned out. To represent Marcus' death I added a gun shot wound to his head as it is a typical form of suicide and matches the ideas within our film plot. I added the blood splatters to the characters face to make this makeup look seem more practical, as typically when an individual shoots themselves in the head the force causes the blood to spray in a particular way which doesn't tend to splatter in any specific direction. Even though in professional works of film this form of suicide would be far more advanced and realistic, I was unable to further my skills within these specific types of special affects seen as this is an amateur production. I also made sure that the character appeared pale so that it was evident that he was lifeless and the blood is therefore drained from his face as a result.

Costume Designs

Costume designs cloven from elliereedx

Analysis of Animatic shots

This image is an establishing shot of the location in which the trailer is going to be filmed. This long shot of the scenery within Wales was included in the animatic in order to set the location and scene. This establishing shot also allows the audience to identify that the narrative of the film plot involves nature, the outdoors and an adventure. The image shows in the foreground a chain of large trees which are shadowed by a enormous mountain that over powers the rest of the images due to its dominance. This specific shot was developed
in order to show progression throughout the trailer e.g by showing where the characters start off, which would be in the foreground and showing where the character would end up as a final destination, which would be further up into the forest beneath the mountains. This establishing shot could possibly also produce a lot of connotations for the genre in which my media group has selected (horror). For example the foreground could represent safety for the characters whereas the background could reflect danger deep into the dark forest. This establishing shot over all may appeal to my target audience seen as a lot of effective horror films which are conventional involve this type of setting.
 


This close up shot of the book is an important image which features in the animatic, it reveals the most significant prop used within the trailer. The prop of the book is involved in the most important scene in our film trailer, which is when the character Sam gets possessed whilst holding the book. The prop allows Sam to channel her possession to its full potential.
The prop of the book is opened to a page which is important and relates to the plot of our film trailer. The pages that the book will land on will reveal information about the satanic cult, the 'Cornovi' which carried out blood sacrifices. I believe that this shot will be very effective within our film trailer as it reveals in-depth information about the core root of our film plot; the Cornovi tribe and the events that took place. Also I believe that the use of a book as a prop will turn out to be very successful seen as many existing horror films include props which are insentient. This shot also as result shows the audience that the characters are in a woodland area, this establishes the exact setting of the scene.

This long shot used within our animatic is a very vital image seen as it shows the setting from Sam's perspective. The image implies the idea that the character faints whilst reading the book, this is the peak in which Sam channels her possession. The fact the that sun is blazing through the trees creates the impression that the character Sam is seeing her vision as if it is blurry.




This medium long shot was included in our animatic in order to create tension and fear. The image shows the character Vinnie being shadowed by Sam, whom by this point has reached the summit of her possession. The location in which the photo was captured creates an eerie and sinister feel to the animatic, this creates an almost negative atmosphere which reflects the state of Sam's psychological condition. The fact that Sam's face is hidden represents the idea that she is no longer humane and it creates mystery hiding her true identity. The character Vinnie's facial expression represents the idea of vulnerability as he is the victim during Sam's transition, from human to a demonic entity.

Audience Research - evaluation of questionnaire results

Audience research evaluation of questionnaire results (cloven) from elliereedx

Horror genre; Mood Board

I have created a mood board that represents the genre of my film trailer. I have included a wide range of films that fit into the horror genre which are; The Conjuring, Annabelle, Insidious, Sinister, Drag me to Hell, Saw, The Ring, Chainsaw Massacre, Evil Dead, The Shinning, As Above so Below and Psycho. From my research into the genre, I have noticed that horror films have modified over the years to produce a form of 'horror' which is darker and more sinister. Horror films have also become a lot more graphic within their 'slashing', horror films are now a lot more bloodthirsty e.g in films such as Psycho which was created in the 1960's, the killing is more implied rather than visual. It leaves the killing to your imagination. However all horrors, regardless of whether they are old or new, follow a variety of themes which are the same.

Film Classification

 

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an independent, non-governmental body, which has exercised responsibilities over cinema for more than eighty years, and over video since 1985. It was established in 1912 by the film industry when local authorities started to impose their own, widely varying, censorship standards on films. The object was to create a body which could make judgements that were acceptable nationally. The BBFC is therefore accountable for the national classification and censorship standards of films, DVD's/video's and other works which have been produced in the UK, that need classification. Classifications range between a 'U' which means that the work is universal and is suitable for audiences aged 4 and over, and '18' meaning only suitable for adults. The BBFC is a self-regulated body that is not run to produce a profit, unlike many other organisations.

The examiners in the BBFC give each work an age rating certificate before they are released, so that they are able to safeguard children from disturbing and harmful content in these works such as, drugs, violence and sex. Placing an age certificate on films, DVD/videos and video games etc means that anyone under the age restriction are prevented from accessing them, which means that the BBFC effectively protects venerable society members. The BBFC claim to have two fundamental objectives which are; to protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable content and to empower consumers, particularly parents and those with responsibility for children, to make informed viewing decisions.

 

The boards decisions are reached by consensus. Each work is seen by a team of two duty examiners, who must write daily reports describing each feature of the work in detail and justifying the decision they have reached. In cases of disagreement the film will be referred to another team, usually with a principal officer present at the screening. In order for the team to reach an appropriate age rating, they must view the work which needs to be classified and mark it according to the BBFC's classification guidelines.

• U - Suitable for all ages
• PG - Parental Guidance 
• 12A - Cinema release suitable for 12 years and over
• 12 - Video release suitable for 12 years and over
• 15 - Suitable only for 15 years and over
• 18 - Suitable only for adults
• R18 - Adult works for licensed premises only 



Poster Analysis -

Props: Book

In our film plot the prop of the book plays a significant role as its existence causes the character Sam to become possessed by the demonic spirit. The book allows Sam to summon the evil entity from within her soul, therefore the book as a result causes the action in the trailer to begin which evidently shows that it plays a huge part within the trailer. The book almost acts a catalyst to the characters problems which represents its power.
The prop of the book was designed and created by our group member Luke. Initially as a group we decided to buy an old book from a charity shop so that it had a worn out effect. Luke then decided to stick printed pages of information into the book which had been stained with a tea bag to give it a ancient look.

 

The symbols present in the book represents the devil. The information given explains the Cornovii Tribe and gives facts about the blood sacrifices that they carried out on their innocent victims.

Storyboard - Cloven

Storyboard animatic from elliereedx

Analysis of the Animatic Process

A Critical Analysis of the Animatic Process of my group’s Film Trailer.

An animatic is the process of producing a preliminary version of a film trailer, which is produced by shooting successive segments of a storyboard. The preliminary version consists of still photographs that represent the moving pictures that will take place in the official trailer. Its function is to allow the film-maker to visually see whether the film trailer will be a success, it allows them to see if the plot works well with the props, location, camera shots etc that have already been decided upon. The animatic also allows the film-maker to plan how long each shot will be shown for and it allows them to see how individual shots will look visually on the moving trailer. They can therefore plan how each shot will be positioned or angled in the final product. The preliminary task generally allows the group to test their initial ideas before creating the final product so that they can identify what aspects of the animatic doesn’t work and needs to be changed before finalising it into a film trailer. Lastly by creating an animatic they can see whether their ideas are realistically achievable and can see if their ideas come across through the images in the way they wanted it to for example they get to see whether their soundtrack is effective along with the moving shots.

The process of an animatic includes various goals which all have to be completed in a specific time frame for example the storyboard, shots, soundtrack, editing etc must all be discussed and created by a specific deadline. An animatic works by first creating a storyboard with your media group this helps to take everyone’s ideas into consideration and helps to show how your ideas will look like put together on paper. The storyboard allowed us to organise the shots that we had imagined to look effective, by adjusting the layout and order of them to create a moving trailer that flows. The next step was to organise our shooting schedule, we achieved this by first looking at all our free time and noting when other members of the group were available when we each were. We noted these dates/times in our time tables and then came up with specific times based on this schedule that we were all able to visit our chosen location and film together. This was usually when we had a production lesson 5^th period so that we could use lunch time for filming and after school also. Alongside this schedule we had to try to make sure that we had all the props needed for these shoots so that we could bunch our shots together and take them in a hand full of shoots. We then had to choose actors, we based our decisions on who was the most flexible and reliable people available to us. We also considered people who would fit our characters best.

However our ‘schedule’ didn’t always turn out to how we planned as it was very hard to shoot with every actor available seen as everyone has a different daily routine and wasn’t always free when needed. Also it was hard to stick to our schedule as most of our shoots consisted of shots outdoors and we couldn’t always rely on the weather being dry, due to the difficulties with weather and availability of actors the time frame we had to take the shots was much shorter than planned originally when we was set this preliminary task. This effected our animatic quite a bit as it was rushed towards the end.

The final stage was to put all these shots together whilst editing the animatic. This stage is crucial as this is the first time that our group had visually seen the shots taken in chronological order. The editing is very important as it allows us to realistically imagine how the final product would look like, this therefore allows us to determine whether the film trailer would be a success. By looking at the edited shots we could see if there was any differences that we needed to make in the official task to make it more effective. At this time we considered how we wanted the soundtrack to sound like, we discussed whilst creating our storyboard that we would like Celtic chanting included in our trailer to fit in with the history of the plot. However due to our slow start this was the stage that we fell back on and didn’t take as seriously as we should have. We ran out of time and as a result it limited that time we had to edit our animatic.

We created and developed the narrative of our animatic by first writing an individual 500 word plot synopsis which had no group input what so ever, we did this so that we could express our own ideas about the plot and suggest how we would like our film trailer to be portrayed e.g type of genre horror, comedy, action etc. We then discussed our individual plots as a group and tried to compromise with each other’s ideas. We then came to an agreement and decided to merge all four individual plots together, taking the strengths of each plot. We moved on from deciding our film plot to making the animatic by creating our story board. The story board was incredibly useful as it gave us a set structure to follow as a result. This structure benefited our group as it allowed us to create a shooting schedule and it also made sure that we stayed on track and didn’t get our ideas confused.

Five Shoots took place in total, at two different main locations. The only props used were the book, the tents and the car. The actors were mainly chosen due to reliability but the characteristics of specific characters were taken into account also. Three of our actors (including myself) were members of our group. We each volunteered for this role as we were prepared to take this responsibility and knew that we were reliable as we would take the roles seriously. We used our storyboard to organise our shots by looking at the camera angles to see what looked most effective with each individual shot, it also helped to bunch all of our shots together that were in the same location which helped us structure our shooting schedule. Several shots were missing from our animatic as we were unable to take these photo in the time scale that we had. The missing shots were those from the montage which are very important as they represent the chosen genre of our film trailer which is horror.

When it came to the construction of our animatic we uploaded all of our photographs onto the software and placed them in the correct order which matched the one created initially with our storyboard. Once we had put the shots in the correct order we then added the intertitles which were already previously created by one of our group members who shows in an interest in ICT. We then added transitions and incorporated our own soundtrack.

We chose the length of our shots and transitions by following the estimated times we had made whilst creating our story board. However the timings sometimes varied whilst taking the shots as we decided to keep to conventional times of shots positioned in film trailers. Also when we edited our animatic and had a more realistic over view we decided to change the length of some of the opening intertitles which reveal the background history of our plot. We decided to shorten these intertitles in our official film trailer so that we keep the audience interested from the start of the trailer to the end; enticing them in with every shot seen as it is used as a promotional device.

As a group we discussed what we initially thought should be incorporated into our intertitles, we all had an input and suggested specific titles that we could use. We based the ideas of our intertitles around existing horror film trailers as we wanted a realistic representation of a moving video with conventional features. We tried not to rush into creating the intertitles as we wanted them to sound perfectly suitable for our film plot. We also decided to reveal to the audience enough background information to keep them in the link but also agreed on not revealing too much of the film plot e.g so that the code of enigma still existed. We then as a group decided to use a font style that reflects the time period in which the film is set. We used the colour scheme of red, black and white seen as this a conventional aspect of a horror film trailer.

Overall the soundtrack we used for our animatic I believe was very effective, it created tension and suspense which are the emotions which are expected to be felt by the audience whilst watching a horror film trailer. The purpose of the soundtrack is to relate to the genre of the film and in this case its purpose is to make the audience feel scared and distressed. The aim of the non-diegetic soundtrack is to make the audience almost experience emotional strain whilst watching the trailer. I believe that the soundtrack that we have used for our animatic is constructive as it achieves what we set out to do e.g the drum beat present which could be seen as symbolising a heartbeat emphasises the idea of death and therefore creates a tense atmosphere. The soundtrack also emphasises the pace of the editing, as the action increases so does the music. However the only negative side to our choice of soundtrack is that I personally feel that our music should reflect the time in which the film is set and should reveal some of the plot e.g Celtic chanting should be included in the soundtrack to emphasise the history of Wales and to create the emotions of distress and confusion.

Our completed animatic appeals to our target audience (ages 17-22 and of mix gender) as the film plot is about five University students that go on a camping trip and this is the age frame that represents students best.

Overall I believe that me and my media group have done a great job within the time we have had to create an animatic. However I also believe that there is quite a lot of room for improvements. I have created a list of improvements that I believe should be made for the real film trailer; firstly make a start with filming sooner to allow us more time to film, edit and create soundtrack, organise time better by creating a more effective schedule that we stick to, designate different roles for each member to allow us to work faster, make sure the trailer is saved and is backed up so that no valuable filming is lost, get group together more often to allow us to perform more shots, divide time specifically for editing and filming allowing us to keep up to date on both techniques, focus on fear aspect of the trailer by completing the montage effectively and lastly to sort out props and costumes as soon as possible before filming.

My role during this process was to organise times that we could meet up by negotiating times with my group, providing my group with a camera and driving us to the locations. I also had an input with a variety of shots whilst creating our story board. In addition to this I expressed my feelings and shared my ideas with my group member who was creating the soundtrack e.g we all agreed on how we would like it to sound. In the official moving trailer I will contribute to its production by; ordering equipment, helping others to create props, styling and applying makeup to the actors, providing transport and by acting in our film trailer.

Animatic: Cloven

Questionnaire -

My group and I have made a questionnaire to help us understand what our target audience would want in a trailer. As our film plot involves five University students we want to know whether the person answering the questionnaire is a student. The idea of this is so that when we collect our results we will see if a student has different ideas and preferences on horror films compared to those who aren't students. Also we felt that our target audience age range would be 17-22, so we have decided to focus on individuals within this age range more in depth.

 

I believe that our questionnaire will help us gain a better understanding of what our target audience want from a film trailer and as result we will be able to create a successful trailer based on their feedback. Here is our questionnaire:

Questionnaire

1.  What is your biological sex?

Male⃝  Female⃝

2.   What age bracket do you fall into?

15-17⃝

18-21⃝

22-30⃝

30+     ⃝

3.   What is your favourite film genre?

Horror⃝

Action⃝

Sci-fi ⃝

Drama⃝

Comedy⃝

 

4.   What Horror film title appeals to you the most?

     Disturbed⃝

         Cloven⃝

         Hell returns⃝

         Evil inside⃝

 

 

5.   Within the Horror genre, what style of Horror do you most enjoy?

     Psychological⃝

         Demonic Possession⃝

         Apocalyptic⃝

 

6.   If you have seen any, which of the following films is your favourite?

The Conjuring⃝

Evil Dead⃝

Blair Witch Project⃝

Paranormal Activity⃝

7.   Would a movie trailer encourage you to watch the film?

     Yes⃝          No⃝

8.   What certificate film do you prefer to watch?

       U⃝

         PG⃝

        12A⃝

         15⃝

         18 ⃝

9.   Where would you normally see a trailer?

Cinema⃝

Youtube ⃝

Tv ⃝

DVD’s⃝

Magazine Website⃝

    Social media⃝


10. What part of the trailer makes you want to watch the film?

Action scenes⃝

Music⃝

Romantic Scenes⃝

Special Effects⃝

11. How often do you watch a Horror film?

Weekly⃝

Monthly⃝

Yearly⃝

12. Which of these symbols do you prefer?



 

Group Trailer - Character Database

Vinnie: (Works at local store)

- Sly, untrustworthy
- Not in University with the others (outcast)
- Slight obsession with Sam


Ben: (Studies Politics and Sociology)

- 'Alpha Male' of the group
- In a relationship with Hayley
- Tolerant of Vinnie
- Reason for Vinnie's association with the group
- 'All rounder' (sporty, friendly, smart etc.)


Marcus: (Studies Sport Science)

- "Jock" - tough, hot-headed
- Takes a dislike to Vinnie
- Plays rugby with Ben
- Irrational
- Socialite and likes to party


Hayley: (Studies Art and has an interest for Photography)

- In a relationship with Ben
- Kind, outgoing
- Only close friend of Sam's
- Tries to give Sam confidence
- "Indie" Festival goer


Sam: (Studies Ancient History and has an interest for Photography)

- Inverted personality, shy, 'typical teenager'
- Unsociable
- Doesn't want to go camping
- Only opens up to Hayley

Trailer Analysis - Insidious

Analysis of film trailer insidious from elliereedx

Trailer Analysis - Sinister

Analysis of film trailer sinister from elliereedx