Final Film Trailer (Strangers)

15 & 30 Second short Trailers (Strangers)

30 Second Trailer

 

 

 15 Second Trailer

 

Final Ancillary Texts

Film Poster

Film Magazine Cover

Side by Side Comparison of Ancillary texts

Evaluation Question #1

Textual Analysis & Breakdown of Film Trailer

Conventions & LIIAR analysis of Ancillary texts

Film Poster

Existing Film PostersConventionally, films always use photographs of scenes/shots from the actual films so I thought to follow protocol I would do the same by using shots from my film trailer. Of course, official films have much higher quality shots, for me this wasn't the case. I had to use photoshop to adjust the levels and colour correct the images of my characters to match those of existing film posters.

I went back to have a look at existing Sci-Fi film posters to see what type of fonts are used on them. In my findings I notice that designers use spaced-out normal, thin to very thin sized text formats on their posters.

I then looked at fonts that I could possibly use for my Film Poster from www.dafont.com and came across one called 'Florencesans' which seemed very suitable for the title of my film.

                         

Above on the top left is a poster from 2013 film 'Stranded.' I used it as the main source of inspiration for my film poster throughout the project.

Film Magazine Cover

My film magazine cover generally conforms with most, if not all the conventions of existing film magazines. The name of the magazine written 'CiNEMA' features a house style colour of royal blue which is a convention of most film magazines. Below is a picture of my magazine cover in comparison to an existing film magazine cover in which I was heavily influenced by.

Evaluation Question #2 (Effectiveness of the combination of my Media Products)

Audience Feedback 2 (Focus Group)

Evaluation Question #3

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1st Questionnaire/Survey

In order to obtain audience feedback the very first thing I did was to generate a questionnaire which covers certain topics in regards to films, trailers & how they are circulated. 

The aim of the questionnaire/survey was to:  
1. Find out how much people know about Film trailers 
2. The biggest platform/means of circulation for film trailers 
3. What people like and dislike about trailers and  
4. How effective film trailers really are.

  

 

I handed questionnaires to 20 people of various age groups. In an effort to be diverse as possible, I split the questionnaires in half, handing out 10 in College to students and teachers and the other 10 outside of College. 

Participants (Male:Female Ratio) 

Out of a total of 20 people, 11 Males took part in the questionnaire as well as 9 females.

 

Age of Participants

Since it is easier to acquire a teenager's time to fill in questionnaires, especially one of this type, you'll notice that out of 20 people, 10 (A mere 50%) were between ages 13 and 18. Three of the respondents were between ages 19-25, two between ages 25-35, two were in the 36-45 age group, another two in the 46-55 category and just one in the 56-65 age group. This concludes that availability decreases with age, when it comes to researches like this. This is also due to the environment that I'm situated in most of the time as I am usually around people between ages 13 and 30.  

Sample Question 1: Where do you see/watch film trailers most?

Out of a total of 20, 13 people suggest that YouTube & the Internet is the means by which they see film trailers the most. Or the most used source by which they see film trailers. 4 out of the 20 respondents said Movie Theatres and 3 out of 20 said Television.

 

Since the questionnaire was limited to only 20 samples, it makes it difficult to conclude whether or not YouTube and the Internet is the #1 means in the world by which people see film trailers. However, with the significant technological growth & advancement made over time it is safe to say that the internet has had significant impact on the way we communicate - connecting people from different parts of the world through Social Media websites & software like Facebook, Twitter, Skype etc. There are nearly 3 billion users of internet/data in the world today and with all mobile phones & tablets being produced right now having the capability to access the internet, it's fair to say that each user have seen a trailer or video at some point in owning their phones/tablets. 

With with less than 50% of the respondents (Movie Theatres and Television combined) say that these are the means by which they get to see film trailers the most and a whopping 65% of the respondents say that YouTube/Online is the #1 means by which they see film trailers, it really makes me wonder ''are movie threatres and TV getting less popular?'' Yes pretty much, even though I can't fully conclude because you have to consider other parts of the world which don't have access to the internet or TV even. However, it isn't hard to say that the Internet will continue to have a significant impact on the way we communicate. 

Sample Question 2: Have you ever watched a film trailer that has persuaded you to go and watch the film?

I also wanted to find out how effective film trailers really are, in terms of persuading an audience to watch a film. Out of 20 participants, 19 said that they've been persuaded to watch films more than once by film trailers. Only 1 said that they've only been persuaded once by a film trailer to go and watch a film. 

It appears that film trailers are very effective in terms of their purpose, which is to persuade an individual or a target audience to go and watch a film. 

SQ 3: After watching a film trailer which you found interesting, do you? (Share it on Facebook/Twitter OR Tell a friend)

 

Out of 20 Respondents, 19 of them said that they would rather tell a friend about the film. Just 1 said that they'd share it on Facebook/Twitter. Based on the information given back, it's safe to say that people would rather talk to a friend in person about a film which they may have found interest in.  

 

It's automatic that people would do this, it's human instinct, we like to engage in conversation, we like to share and voice our thoughts and opinions on things. This supports the two step flow of communication. 

Sample Question 4: Which of the four do you find the most interesting about trailers?

 

Out of 20 Respondents, 9 (45%) said they find the Narrative/Story most interesting about film trailers. 5 each for both Music/Sound  (25%) and Editing/Video (25%), together they combine for 50% of the votes, this shows that their both as equally as important as they compliment each other, this was one of the debates people had among themselves and found it hard to choose one over the other.    

SQ 5: How long do you think film trailers should be?

 

I wanted to find out from an audience's (consumer) perspective, how long should film trailers be since the conventional length is a standard 2 minutes 30 seconds (3 minutes longest) and because they are the ones who are being targeted anyway it makes it fair to get their point of view. 

 

Out of 20 respondents, 11 people said they think 1-2 mins should be the standard length of film trailers, 5 people think 3-5 minutes, 3 people said 30 seconds and 1 person said 10 seconds. It seems as though people know exactly what a film trailer looks like and how long it should be based on the statistics, 11 out of 20 agreed 1-2 minutes is standard, that's 55% of the votes another 5 agreed that 3-5 minutes should be the standard length. Considering the standard length for trailers are conventionally between 1-3 minutes and 2 mins 30 seconds on average, that's 16 out of 20 people who know what film trailers should look like and how long they should be.

SQ 6: What genre/type of films do you like?

 

Out of 20 participants, 13 said they liked Action/Adventure and Sci-Fi, each. 12 like comedy, Drama was chosen 8 times, Musicals were chosen 6 times, Romance 5, Horror 4 and at the bottom of the list, Western chosen only by 1 participant. 

 2nd Questionnaire/Survey

After producing all three of my Media Products I conducted a survey with a group of 10 students in order to obtain feedback. Using a questionnaire as the means of recording data, I played 2 versions of my film trailer (a draft and the final product) to the students and showed them my finished ancillary texts.

 Sample Questionnaire: 

About the participants:

Out of all 10 participants in this Feedback Exercise only 1 of them study Media as a subject. The rest were from various subject areas like the Sciences (Chemistry, Physics, Biology), Business & Law, Politics, IT & Computing, Music, Social Work as well as Psychology. The reason I've done this is because collectively, I do not want the answers to be similar. Media Students have a totally different way of thinking from students who don't study media. Media students have a more proficient understanding of Media products and how the codes and conventions are used, so they know what to expect.

What I learned from the survey/my findings

• Based on the feedback obtained from this exercise it seems that everyone had a general idea of what the narrative of the film trailer. Many of them responding with very similar answers in question #1.

• Out of the 10 participants, 8 of them think that sound is the most effective of all conventions used in the film trailer.

When asked why they favoured 'sound' I received answers like these:

"The sound is very active and suit the tension of the trailer, heightening the viewer's awareness"
"The sound makes the audience alert, it makes you feel involved"
"Without the sound the tension would not be as great"
"It was gripping and created suspense"

Based on their responses it seems the use of sound is very important as it keeps them engaged and helps to captivate their feelings & emotions.

• When asked who is the target audience for my Media product most of them believe its suitable for age groups ranging from 13 all the way up to adults in their late 50s.  

• When asked what was their favourite part of the film trailer 50% of the respondents suggest that the last part at the end when Julie gets captured is their favourite as it leaves them in suspense, wondering what's going to happen next.

• One of the questions in the survey was imperative to the entire project because I needed to know how effective the combination of my 3 products were. The feedback helped to justify Evaluation question #2 as 9/10 participants agree that 'yes' the ancillary texts do have continuity with the trailer but only 1 person thinks that there's partial continuity between the ancillary texts and the trailer.

3rd Questionnaire/Survey

The main purpose of this Audience feedback survey was to assist me with answering evaluation question #2 "How effective is the combination of your ancillary texts with your main product?" In order to to this, I asked my audience two questions in which I have a transcript of below:

What I've found/conclusion

The narrative of the film seems to be pretty clear based on the responses given back from the participants, a positive indication that I am on the right track. Although the Genre seemed clear across all 3 media products, the film magazine cover on its own wouldn't be as clear because the conventions of a film magazine differ from the conventions of a film poster and trailer. To the audience, the magazine cover is just someone posing (regardless of the use of props which help to make it seem like a Sci-Fi film), which I think is understandable. Nonetheless, my products were received in a positive way and I feel that the feedback has boosted my confidence as I can be assured that my hard-work wasn't in vain.