Closed Blog Notification

• Centre Name: Norbury Manor BEC
• Centre Number: 14343
• Candidate Name: Priscilla Amponsah 
• Candidate Number: 8016
• Unit: G324

Note for the examiner

For some of the presentations, due to the software I used you may need to refresh the page in order for you to see all the content of it, as it does not always come up when you first click onto my blog.

Evaluation 4

Evaluation 3

Evaluation 2: how effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

Evaluation 1 (part 3): analysing our poster

Evaluation 1

Evaluation 1 (part 2): analyzing magazine front cover

Final trailer 'Insanity'

Final poster 'Insanity'

Final magazine front cover

Analysing final poster and magazine (Insanity)

Feedback overview of our trailer (premiere)

Creating credit/ changes made to poster (Insanity)

Here I have explored and discussed how I created the credits which appears on our horror poster. I have presented by ideas on 'Slid.es'- hope you understand certain decisions I have made in terms of the horror poster.

During the process of creating our horror poster, I wanted to see how it would look like once printed, this comes down to the fact that on the computer the positioning of credits looked far too small, making it extremely difficult to read. After I printed it out, I then annotated the different elements I wanted to change, either to make it more readable or to change the position in which I had originally placed it e.g. in the case of our film review 'You will never see a child in the same way again'. 

This was the whilst I was adding in our poster credits, as you can see here I had not placed the credits in any particualr order making the poster look messy and and hard to read. Additionally the credits came out a lot larger than what I had intended, this is because on the computer it looked too small, when in reality it was vise-versa. By printing out a hard copy enabled me make further changes which were not conventional in horror posters e.g. the rating (15) being too big and stretched out- I later changed this to make it smaller. 

• Here I applied the changed I wanted to make (after first printing out the hard copy- first picture above). By making these changes made our poster looked proffessional due to it now following the convention of a real media product e.g 'Childish Games' which was my inspiration in terms of the mise-en scene and this particular shot. 
• I decided to change the the style of font used for the slogan to 'Gill Sans MT' (present on the final edit of the poster), this is because such font was easier to read (according to my audience research) against the crack. 
• I also chose to move the review of our product from the right hand side to the left hand side due to the feedback I got from our teacher (among our potential audience). Here she stated that 'due to the crack, it's hard to read what the review', this led me to move it to the left hand side (after moving it I then showed it to her, where she confirmed it looked better with it being in that position). 
• Further changes can also be seen with the rearrangement of the credits which I created using 'Dafont'. Here I followed real media text by having shaping the credits- I aligned it in order for it to be easier to read, as well as giving it shape (made it look professional). 

Tickets/ poster used for premiere

This is our audience research that me and Chloe conducted before the premiere (viewing of all three ancillary), from this research we ended up putting the slogan on our ticket which our audience preferred.

Creation our poster of Insanity

Here I have analysed each stages and decisions I made whilst creating our horror poster (Insanity). I have discussed some of the decisions I made and why I have made those particular decision.

Creating horror poster (Insanity) from Princess Priscilla

Who would distribute our products?

Here we have done a detailed analysis as to who would potentially distribute our products (in the case of the magazine where we chose Empire). I personally thought it was a good idea to include who will distribute our magazine due to the fact that it provides a strong foundation for our independent production company ('Young Ambition Production'- created by me and Chloe). We conducted a lot of research into real media products which are distributed by this particular distributors 'Bauer', we thought by staying with this company will enable us to engage with our target audience (aged 15 and upwards) due to them being well known both globally and nationally. Below we have discussed our reasons/ justifications in terms of why we priced it at that particular price (£3.90), our target audience and why we have chosen for 'Bauer' to distribute our product.

• Here are are some of the research we conducted into this company, prior to this we had not heard about them  nor know anything about them (company) hence why we had to conduct our research. We thought it would be interesting to present our findings, as a way of educating others who may be new to this industry and perhaps wanting to know British distributors who could also distribute their products.  
• Upon our research we also found that this particular company 'Bauer' is the distributor for 'Empire' magazine, hence why we chose to stay with this company due to the fact that our audience are already aware of 'Bauer' being 'Empire' distributors, which will enable us to strength our audience base due to us going with 'Empire' magazine company (in the case of our front cover). 
• Although 'Bauer' is a British company by going with this company will enable us to strength our target audience globally as well as nationally due to them also having different chains in 15 different countries (as stated above). We thought that by them having such a strong connection both globally and nationally was beneficial as it will enable us to promote our product (magazine) successfully within these counties, which in effect will make our audience grow in numbers (increase). 

• With us being an independent company, we thought it will also be essential to focus on marketing/ promotion of our products to our audience than if we were do be a dependent company. With this in mind we chose to follow the way in which 'Empire' magazine promote their own production, meaning that we will also be selling hard copy (physical copy) in shops as well as selling it via internet. With the rapid growth of web 2.0 we aim by making our magazine accessible via internet we will be also to gain wider audience especially within our target audience (15+) due to them being a common user of technology (web 2.0). We will also be using web 2.0 in promoting our trailer and poster in engaging with our target audience e.g. we will be uploading our trailer onto 'YouTube'  where over 1 billion audience visiting such site monthly, meaning people are most likely to come across our horror trailer. 

Developing text used in all three ancillary

Why we changed from using 'Twisted pictures'

 This was the original 'Lionsgate' we chose to include in our trailer (through post production- editing using 'Adobe Premiere).

Originally we decided to include the conventional 'Lionsgate' opening which are used in other films besides the horror genre. I came up with the idea of using this particular opening due to the fact that I had previously seen an A grade student who had used 'Lionsgate' theme for their opening of their horror trailer. I felt that it made it look professional and interesting, leading me as an audience straight away to be intrigued to watch that particular trailer due to the strong opening. This is the main reason why I wanted our group to include such theme in our own production due to the real media product which I had previously researched.

My aim here by including such theme was that I wanted our trailer to look professional, as well as using a popular theme which our potential audience may well know, I was hoping to make a good link between our own trailer and existing real media product. However after we added this theme we were given feedback to remove it due to the soundtrack being 'far too cheerful' and thus did not suite the horror theme. I personally thought this was a good feedback due to the fact that I had not considered this when I decided to pitch it to the rest of my team members to include it within our trailer hence why it was a good feedback, as all the elements used within our trailer should reinforce the horror genre. This led us to use 'Saw' (2012) twisted pictures theme opening, as it reflected the horror genre as well as relating it to our narrative through the colour scheme. Here the use of red and black connote the idea of hell, which we also explored in our narrative e.g. the use of religion and the possibility of Flora going to hell due to the sins she has committed (killing James- her father). We then explored the use of this particular colour scheme (red, yellow and black), where we also used these colours for our texts e.g. 'Run because she's coming'. This worked well as it linked all our different shots together, however we then chose to cut out some element out of the theme opening as it was far too long making it boring for our audience.This is the opening theme we finally decided to go with (influence from 'Saw'- stated above).

This the element we chose to cut from our trailer. 

Script used for voice over (Flora)

This is a script me and Chloe wrote for our horror trailer. When we first added this recording (which we used audacity to record the voice over), however after we had recorded it due to the mic being close to her mouth it was too muffled, making it hard to understand what she was actually saying. Following on from this, we received feedback from our audience as well as teacher we were told to re-record due to the unclear narration. We then used 'Serif Movie Plus' to re-record the narration. We found that by using 'Serif Movie Plus' the quality was much better, enabling our audience to hear the narration a lot more clearer. Additionally  by improving the quality of the sound, the words in which Flora was saying had much more of an impact on our audience e.g. 'My doll's name is Luci, short for Lucifer...'. We then played around with the sound level to make this particular part a lot louder as it was previously far too quiet and thus had less of an impact as the audience, as they  could not really hear what was being said. Lastly we decided to include religion due to the fact that we wanted to follow the conventional use of religion where we manipulated as a way of justifying her menacing behavior and the criminal acts she had committed. Also we wanted to include religion as it made it obvious to our audience the idea of her being the villain, whilst giving them a brief background information about her e.g. who she lives with. We aim to split this evenly within our trailer e.g. with her introducing herself would be in the harmonious bit (beginning), as a way of easing our audience into our narrative.

First 40 Seconds (Beginning)

“Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”, as it says in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25. My name is Flora and I live with my mother, father and my older sister (Pause) Megan. People think my families weird but I don’t think so. (Cute Giggle)

Middle of the beginning: “Me and Daddy are real close (pause) super tight. People say we are like two peas in a pod”

“My doll is my only reminder of my father”

1 minute 40/20 seconds (End)

 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all our righteousness”

“My doll Luci short for Lucifer just like Lucifer she is always bad that is why I always PUNISH her ”

Playing around with effects (post production- editing)

Here I have explored the different effects we played around with during our editing stages. I then uploaded it to 'Slideshare'.

Using CCTV in trailer (post production- editing)

Using CCTV in trailer

These are the readable copy in case the video is too fast, making it harder to read

Images used for our magazine front cover

These are a few images I took for our magazine front cover (I will not be uploading all of them- just a taste of some of the images I took and what we ended up using for our final magazine front cover). I and one of my fellow team member (Chloe) wanted our protagonist to be in white contrasting the image I took for our poster. This is because we wanted to show the two different sides to her which our narrative explores, from the feedback from our teacher, she stated that we should make her likable and less of a villain. I personally thought this was a good feedback, due to our target audience (rated 15) as a way of engaging them to our production if we were to portray her as a complete villain, we may distance our audience from our production (they may  feel, they do not have nothing in common with the character- Flora hence why they may not want to see our production). 

 This is the first shot I took, following the real media example I decided to take a mid close up of her. This was because by taking such shot enables the audience to see her facial expression, as well as her body language (which alone could help to reinforce our narrative). I directed her to show no emotion, this was because I felt it gave it a sense of enigma (Roland Barthes theory), leading the audience to try and figure out her character e.g. the meaning behind her eyes (through angle of gaze). When I took this particular shot, I loved the lightening due to the darkness surrounding her which made it atmospheric in reflecting the horror genre. Additionally the lightening was good, in a sense that reinforced our narrative e.g. the idea of her being likable upon first glance, however upon closer inspection has the capability to cause damage, which is similar to Norman Bates from 'Psycho' 1960. Although we  all liked this shot, we needed up not using this for the final front cover due to some element of the mise-en scene not being quite clear e.g. her bow which is symbolic of her character (we used this-bow throughout our production, from the front cover to our trailer).Similarly we did not use this shot due to the fact that I did not frame her quite right, this is because she looks slightly heavier on one side- shoulders leaning more towards the left side. This would have made it more difficult during post production- when adding in texts and plug. 

For future reference:

• I will ensure to carefully plan out the shots before capturing it. Although I had done a rough flat plan, I had not put in as such detail as I could have e.g. her bow being more visible which is an important element. 
• To be careful of the mise-en scene (in this particular shot, you can see the the plugs in the wall- upon close inspection).

This is similar to the above shot, again me and my group loved the lightening in this shot, however she was still too heavy on one side and thus didn't look right nor was it conventional framing for magazine front cover. This meant that we decided not to use this shot, although it was quite powerful, allowing the audience to clearly see her facial expression. However I personally think it was a good idea that we didn't use this shot, due to the fact that it would have been a lot harder to fit in the text during post production stage.  

As you can clearly see, this was not a good shot for magazine front cover and thus we did not even consider using this image as it did nothing to add or reinforce the horror genre. Additionally our model looked too far away and thus making it difficult to see her facial express, as well as it not being conventional to have a further away shot (conventional to use mid shot). 

For me in terms of this shot, our protagonist looked lope sided, however the lighting was good, as well due to the framing there would be enough space, when adding text.  

Although this was a better shot, we did ended up not using this shot due to the framing (I cut off her arms). However the lightning here was good, meaning nothing needed to be done to enhance the atmosphere in terms of post production.  

In terms of this shot, we ended up not using it due to there being too much shadows in the background. Adding on to this, the framing was off, due to the fact that I had cut of some element of her hand.  

This is the image we ended up choosing as a group. We liked the lightning due to the darkness on one side and lighter on the other side. This reflected the characteristics of Flora e.g. likable and sinister. In the same way, the mise-en scene was much better (although I had taken the images on a plain white wall this was hard to see due to the quality of the photograph) e.g. her red ribbon which is symbolic of Flora. Additionally not much editing was done to this image (one of our fellow team mate just slightly darken the background as I thought by having a slightly darker background would make her facial expression a lot clearer due to contrasting colours). Initially me and my fellow team mate (Chloe) was planning to add red lip stick on her as a way of reinforcing our narrative-the idea of her being quite mature for her age. Additionally me and Chloe aimed to make the audience question why a girl of that age was portrayed so seductively (the meaning behind the mise- en scene) , and thus more likely to watch our production in order to find answers (as a way of engaging with audience). One could argue by having her dressed maturely e.g. red lipstick would have enabled us to gain more audience, as it has almost become the norm for children of Flora's age (13) to wear make-up and thus can relate to her character hence why it would encourage them to come and watch our production. 

Following my flatplan we decided to add fake blood on one side of her face. My aim here, was suppose to be symbolic of her dark secrete she keping e.g. the idea of her sinister side (her killing her father). It was also suppose to be symbolic of the evidence left behind after killing her father. Through post production we were going to add a tear to symbolize the pain she's going through since her father's death. This is because she was close to her father and only killed him due to her wanting to protect her mother from domestic violence which our narrative explores. However after I took the shot I didn't think it worked as well as it could have, due to the fact that one side of her face was far too dark, making it harder to see her eyes. Lastly she didn't look as if she was crying blood, which was my aim when I took the image and thus did noting to add nor reinforce our narrative. 

For future reference:

• To ensure carefully plan out the mise-en scene, in this particular shot the audience are able to see the wardrobe malfunction we were having. 
• To play around with the lighting to ensure that all element of her face can be seen. 
• To look at real media example where blood to see how it's done effectively. 

Overall I believe my photography skills has improved from over the course of two ways (from As to A2). This is because I now take risk in terms of shooting from different angles and trying different things (mise-en scene). This has led to the final image I took to look much more professional.  

Why we chose Empire magazine

Here I have presented the reasons as to why we chose to stay with Empire magazine and our views on it.

Post production progress (in terms of text)

Changing the colour and background of our text

Using After Effects by Slidely Slideshow click the camera icon to see a still image of the slides (where you can read what each slide says).

Using Adobe After Effects to develop text used in trailer

These are different texts and effects we explored using 'Adobe After Effects', during our editing process. 

News report for our trailer ( final version of script)

This is a script we and my fellow team mate (Chloe) wrote. Initially I thought it would be a good idea to have a news reading about mental health, which I later pitched to Chloe who also agreed. This led us to write this script (which our teacher would have played the part of the newsreader, this is due to the fact that her earlier career was being a journalist and thus she would have suited the role perfectly). After me and Chloe agreed to use such technique of news reading in revealing our narrative to the audience (so they're aware of the issue we were touching on),upon writing this script we carefully planned out what we were going to say, as a way of engaging our audience. Our main aim whilst writing this script was the idea of raising awareness about children with mental health, and what we as a society could help tackle such  serious illness. Using Cohen's theory (moral panic), we wrote the script in a manner that would grab the audience attention e.g. the use of statistics '1 in a hundred children suffer from Schizophrenia'. Although we did not want to create moral panic, we wanted to raise the issue in a way that our audience would remember. As stated in previous post, we will not be using this particular script due to the feedback we received from our teacher (may be offensive to our audience who may be suffering from schizophrenia, or know someone who may be affected, especially if we portray it in the wrong way).

Since 1980 children have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Since then it has been reported that 1 in hundred children suffer from Schizophrenia and other mental diseases. Should more be done to protect the lives of children and families affected with such serious matters within our nation?Should our politicians be focusing more on this under addressed topic? Surely Michael Gove, our education secretary should be doing more to protect our children by introducing this into our education curriculum. Educating our future generations of such illnesses could potentially lead to corruption in society if such illnesses are left untreated. What will the future of young people in Britain become? Will this lead to further deviant crimes if left unsolved? Will this jeopardise the future of our nation to come?

http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_children_young_people/whats_worrying_you/schizophrenia/what_is

Editing for using Premiere and Adobe After effects

Making of our production

Why we are not releasing our production on father's day (feedback)

Initially we came up with the idea of having our product released on Father's day (15th June). This is because we thought we could relate it to our narrative, where we were planning to reinforce the relationship between Flora and James (father of Flora). We also wanted it to reflect our narrative in a sense that we thought it may be interesting for our audience, due to the fact that none other films-real life media product (which we are aware of) has been released on Father's Day, especially with the phenomena of the father dying being the main plot. However after we pitched it to our teacher she stated that it would not be ideal due to the dark element which our narrative explores contrasting the happiness such day is suppose to symbolize, hence why this particular date will not be suitable for us to release our production on that date.

Taking the feedback on board, me and Chloe done further research into dates which were either viewed to be important or celebrated. From our research we came across the '20th November' which is a 'Universal Children's Day', we were straight away intrigued by this due to the fact that it reflected the character of Flora. A prime example of this can be seen with the idea of the way in which Flora is portrayed e.g. her being likable upon first glance to the audience and thus they are most likely to engage with her until they find the truth about her character. Overall by releasing our product on this particular day in beneficial as this a globally celebrate day and thus we will be able to raise more awareness of sensitive issue which is explored in our narrative e.g. the ways in which children are affected by domestic violence- why Flora became sinister after witnessing such level of violence.

These were some of the research I came across whilst conducting an in depth research on 'Universal Children's Day':

• It's celebrated in different countries globally e.g. in Canada, India, New Zealand and the UK. This is a day is symbolic of the rights children have within society (awareness of their rights). 
• It was first established on 14th December 1954 (to celebrate children) in promoting the welfare of children.
• Universal Children's Day is part of the work carried out by UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. 
• Their logo consist of an an image of a mother and child, a globe, olive branches and the word “UNICEF”. Showing the connection to the United Nation the use the same colour scheme of blue and white, which are also the colours of the United Nation logo.