For our media coursework my group decided to chose brief one as our chosen brief. This involved creating a film trailer targeted at teenagers close to ages of 15-19 and two double page magazine spreads based on our trailer/actors. Our group of three students chose the film genre of thriller/horror, with our intended audience being teenagers which we had already discovered through our research during pre-production that this was the preferred genre of film. We found our pre-production blogs and research very useful, it helped us develop our ideas and discover different paths to go down to come up with more effective plans. It also meant that we were able to create a trailer and articles to our highest quality and as profession as possible. The brief detailed that our film must be designed for a British Institution called ‘Primetime Productions’. We ensured that our production fitted into the institution we were designing it for, by taking into consideration that this small British Institution would have a limited budget so our production would be within these guidelines. The magazine articles were my own interpretations of two magazines called ‘Cosmopolitan’ and ‘Heat’.
We chose to create a linear horror film and based our trailer on a film that truly inspired us called ‘Underground’. It gave us the idea’s for our storyline and we also used the speed of the film helping provide tension and with the gripping clips of footage it already had a thriller effect to it. The clips in the trailer ran through in chronological order to show the plot of the film, but the repetition of these clips and short duration of them is to entice the audience without giving away too much of the plot. The budget reflects on the limitations of the small British institution ‘Primetime Productions’. Mise-en-scene is a big part of any trailer; it determines how the film is going to come across to its audience. In parts of our trailer we intended to create a flashing light effect to portray the delirious state of the character and the madness in her eyes. We shown this throughout the trailer by the fact that the main characters - eye epically - had be shown to give the trailer a creepy persona to it. The entire trailer is in black and white which is a perfect representation of the genre of film. This is because the colour black is associated with power, death, evil, and the unknown (for example black holes), which is all the characteristic’s a horror trailer is aiming for and the main plot of our trailers storyline. Black also usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humour, 'black death') around it so the black and white setting denotes strength and authority but in a negative way.
We used limited props to stick to the codes and conventions of a low budget company; however we were able to get hold of a lab jacket and my father’s medical case which we used for a panning shot of all the medicines. Instead of wearing costumes, we chose to wear everyday clothes. We thought that this represented the characters well and conveys to the low budget of our institution. The setting was in my house and a school classroom, which reflected the low budget, aged and simple appearance. The hostage scenes were filmed in a closet of my house, this was convenient as it allowed us to film for extended periods and had a realistic feel. I believe these scenes were our most successful. We also changed the colour of font towards the end of our trailer, this was to intensify the horror factor and represent ‘blood’ with the gory red colour.
The teen market was our desired target audience; we felt we were qualified to explore this field since the characters were of a similar age to ourselves. We aimed to develop a similar style as ‘Creep’, a film produced by ‘Pathe’ and directed by Tim Ritter. Our film trailer included a range of shots from… which we had to do around the field size and focal length. The long camera shots and the pan shots showed the audience the surroundings in the film and the intimidating setting, filled with medical equipment. The ideologies of our film trailer are that the young girl has been kidnapped and clearly trying to escape, we wanted the audience to feel sympathy and passion to her the main character. We also chose to use a female to be the victim seeming it is stereotypical for women to play this role and is easier for the audience to feel emotion towards her rather if she was male.
The institution we are designing our film for is ‘Primetime Productions’, this is a British institution and we are told its films are not of a high budget so ours has to correctly fit this and be created using the lowest budget possible. To create the effect that the film is of a low budget, we used short fast shots, this also linked in with the conventions of our horror film, as this camera technique is also used in films of the same genre, for example, ‘Creep’.
We decided to put music in the background to create tension and a build up. The song we chose was ‘What I’ve Done’ by Linkin Park, we felt it was very effective for the fact that it has a drop at the enouncing of the title which emphasized the greatness of the film. We made the film appeal to our target audience by using character of similar ages and in settings they’d be able to relate to. We followed a clichéd style of gender characterisation, where the female characters were weak and the men powerful since they were the kidnapper and where unharmed by the ordeal.
For my print work I chose to focus on two popular magazines, Hello! and Cosmopolitan. The Hello! magazine I was imitating was an ‘day in the life of’ with Leighton Meester, I chose to stick to the form and structure of it and write my own version involving actress Matilda Tennent from our film ‘Experimental’. The theme was Matilda Tennent on and off screen relationships and her personal life. The Cosmopolitan double spread read ‘Matilda Tennent is a force to be reckoned with. The chic, style icon actress originally hails from Bristol, has not just made a name for herself as ‘the child of torture’ on one of today’s most talked about thriller films’. The language used here is typical of Cosmo magazine, and is not completely grammatically correct. In articles involving interviews in Cosmo magazine the layout and language is simple; I followed these codes and conventions when creating my own interview styled article following Cosmo magazine. For my second double page spread coursework I used an article from Hello! magazine, this article was a ‘day in the life of Cheryl Cole’ giving a typical day run over. Hello! magazine target maybe an older audience who could relate to the actress’s typical day making her life as average and typical as possible.
The target audience for my interpretation of Hello! magazine are older teenagers to young adults, who are intrigued by celebrity gossip and lives. Matilda Tennent is the main actress in our film and I aim to portray her in the article as the average woman so female readers can feel they can relate and engage with her own life. The simple language used in Hello! enables all readers to engage, regardless of education. Hello! magazine is intended to be an interesting and celebrity gossip filled magazine where the reader can show some concentration and skim read articles, often drawn to the headlines, titles and graphology with images. The target audience of Hello! magazine is quite the similar to Cosmo; the language used is conversation like and requires a more laid back reader. Both articles contain interesting gossipy entertainment and to understand fully it has to be read comprehensively.
Hello! magazine is a large institution and each monthly copy follows a similar format and budget. Celebrities receive much of the circulation budget, in this case Cheryl Cole. Hello! has another media platform, this being e-media, so they are able to reach a wider audience. Again Cosmopolitan magazine is another large institution which an equally high budget. This monthly magazine is around the same price as Cosmo, their appearances suggest good high standard quality, more in-depth information and more impressive interviews. Cosmo magazine is also involved with the media platform, e-media, and its online website is of a high standard and is up to date.
In my own version of Hello! magazine, Matilda Tennent is represented in a personal way. The large close up photographs of her and her with friends suggests she is ‘letting you in’ and sharing her story with you, the photographs makes the reader feel involved and give them an insight to her personal life. In the main photograph Matilda appears upset; this enables the reader to judge her mood before reading the interview itself. Rose is an attractive and famous actress and readers will aspire to her values and appearance. The main text reads ‘I will always love Jack’ which represents Rose in a weak manner and is stereotypical for the end of a relationship story. The style of my article links in with Heat magazine as it focuses on celebrity culture and gossip.
On reflection, I feel I did really well with my project. The magazines look realistic and high quality and the trailer has had good response from its target audiences and YouTube viewers. In the future I might focus on another media platform, for example e-media, perhaps creating a website which is widely and frequently accessible to the vast majority. Information online is more current, whereas a monthly magazines have limitations. If I had created a website I would have stuck to the same theme so it linked with all media platforms involved, for example bright colours to to entise the audience to reader the interesting article. The website would have included character profiles, hyperlinks to personal websites of the actors and possibly an interactive game. I conclude that the film making experience was enjoyable and I now have a greater understanding of the aspects involved like camera shots, editing and Mise-en-scene. I found my focus on comparing and contrasting the two magazines was interesting and these skills will be helpful in my studies in the future.
By Elly Craig
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