Evauluation of my final media product.

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

Our trailer follows many conventiones of real horror trailers. For example, the trailer contains the following aspects which would be conventional in most horror films:-

• Entertainment


• Scare/Thrill


• Excitement


• Escapism


• To create a message about society

The opening couple of scenes of the main character (Joe) getting up and leaving for school just like a normal day establishes the equilibrium, this is then followed by the disruption which is then partly disturbed by the news report on the television. The equilibrium is eventually fully disturbed when the zombies are revealed to the audience as Joe is making his way to school. An attempt to solve the problem is then carried out by Joe who is attempting to escape and fend off the zombies at the school to get home to safety. These three stages of the trailer support Toderoffs idea of the conventional narrative structure. However, as it is a trailer, the restoration of the equilibrium and the new equilbrium isn't shown and left for the audience is a code of enigma.

As Charles Derry suggests, there are three types of conventional horror films.

• The horror of personality


• The horror of armageddon


• The horror of the supernatural

With our trailer we have chose the horror of armageddon to follow conventions fully. We have also followed the conventions of horror films which are targeted a young, male audiences. Our sub-genre is a zombie, slasher, supernatural horror film.

Our trailer holds many similarities with "Shaun Of The Dead", mainly being the nature of the main character. Some of these similarities include:-

• Escape (The Winchester and The School)


• 'Shaun' and 'Joe' vs. the rest of society (living dead)


• At the beginning, 'Shaun' and 'Joe' are shown as ignorant (equilibrium similar)


• A companion becomes infected (Shaun's Mother and Joe's girlfriend)


• Pursuit throughout.


• Will to stay alive.


• Bloody violence.
  
• Isolation
  
• Binary opposites- (Human vs. Infected)- Levi Strauss.
  

Our trailer also follows forms and conventions of real media products as it contains a repetoire of elements:-

• Iconography- (Blood, Corpse, Make- Up, Baseball Bat etc..)


• Style- (Low angle shots, Point of view of the Zombie, fake blood)
  
• Setting- (School, Title of film)
  
• Narrative- (Contemporary)


• Characters- ( Zombie/Monsters, Girlfriend (victim), Main Charater (hero), Teacher (Authority)).


• Themes- ( Violence, Isolation, Threat/Danger, Pursuit, Conflict)


• Audience Response- ( Frightened, Excited, Thrilled)


• Target Audience- ( Mode Of Address, Male Dominant)

The length of our trailer is conventional for a theatrical trailer, and we have included all the features that would be expected, (titles, end screen, warning at beginning.) We have used a non-linear sequence with fast pace editing to emphasise action and the thrilling nature of the film.

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

I have made sure that my three products are suitable for promoting our film. I have used the monster as my main image for the front cover and have used an image of the hero of the trailer on my poster to establish the identity of the product and the genre. The settings of the school and the home of the hero is used in all three promotional devices. The photo used for the magazine front cover is set at the home of the hero standing in the open doorway to establish a sense of a breakout. The photo used for the poster is an image of the hero with an iconic prop (the weapon). The background of the poster is of the school and this further emphasises how a place that is supposed to be beneficial for children, has now become the opposite.

· What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We have asked a group of 10 people the following questions about our trailer:-

1. Is the genre of the trailer identifiable? (Please state the genre)


2. What is the trailer about? (What is the plot?)


3. What is the most memorable scene in your opinion?


4. Did the title help you understand the plot?


5. What are your impressions of the main character?


6. Did the soundtrack complement the footage and genre of the trailer?


7. What certificate do you think the trailer is? (I.e. PG, 12, 12a, 15, 18.)


8. Would this short trailer make you want to see the whole film? Is so, why?


9. Is the name of the film effective?


10. What would have made the trailer better? (I.e. scenes/sounds/character etc.)

This feedback helped us to see where we could have improved on our trailer and what they liked about it.

The 10 members of the audience agreed that the genre of the film was easily identifiable and that it was Horror. The whole audience could identify the plot of the trailer because it had zombies and was based in a school. 5/10 audience agreed on the zombie in the last scene of the trailer is the most memorable part of the trailer because the zombie goes for the camera. The other 5 agreed on the teacher being dragged down by a zombie in the classroom because it made them laugh. 8/10 of the audience said the titles helped them to know what was going on and that Joe was having a bad day. All the audience agreed that the main character was shown to be strong and heroic, being the only human left. The entire audience agreed that the soundtrack complimented the trailer. It was fastpace and the right time and the pace of the music was right in the right places. The age classification varied between 12A and 18. This would have depended on how explicit we would decide to make the film. But the majority said 18 certificate. The majority said they would like to see the film after viewing the trailer because they want to know what happens to the main character. Others said they would not want to view it because they do not like horror films. The audience said that the name 'DEADUCATION' links well with the film. It has zombies in it which are 'dead' and it is based in a school which links with 'education'. 9/10 audience agreed that we could improve our trailer by adding more characters/zombies or even add a female character which would challenge conventions of a zombie film. Also to add more short fast paced edits in the trailer. The other person said they couldn't fault it.

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

When we started the A-level course, we learned how to use the digital video camera, which obviously was the key piece of technology used in the process. We then transferred the shots onto Adobe Premiere Elements to edit the material. This is an essential stage of the process, we were able to add titles, fade to blacks, dissolves, to edit the pace of a shot and to add music which effectively changed the mood of the shot. The Internet was also used for research and I watched many horror trailers including Shaun Of The Dead and 28 Days Later on YouTube to grasp an idea of pace and content of conventional horror trailers. We also used the digital camera to create an animatic, gain effective images for my poster and front cover and to capture a crime scene to use for the news broadcast within our trailer. We found a piece of music on www.freeplaymusic.com and this music was fast pased which suited the pace and effectiveness of the trailer.