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

Frame 1: Title

The first frame in my analysis is my choice of title. We decided to call our film 'Fixation' as this is very suggestive of the plot, therefore providing the audience with an insight into our film before directly watching it. The word 'fixation' is associated with being obsessed with something or someone, which would give the impression that our film is stereotypical of the psychological thriller genre as multiple films from this genre feature an individual being stalked/tracked down, which successfully generates adrenaline among the audience. The most significant film that we took inspiration from in relation to this idea would be 'Red Eye'. Although this film does not imply the use of this sort of theme from its title, we found that almost all thriller films referred to the main theme of the film in its title, giving the audience a basic idea of what the film is about. From my research I found that many psychological thrillers, such as 'Seven', 'Momento' and 'Psycho' used a one word title, as this very memorable and instantly draws the audiences attention. We also wanted to have the same impact on our audience so we played around with various one to two word titles before settling on 'fixation', as we felt that this was most effective and stereotypical of the thriller genre, due to its threatening nature.

The font of our title was a very important task to us as it would be something that is synergised across all of our ancillary products. Therefore, we considered the connotations of many different fonts before finally settling on the font 'Charlemagne'. We initially started with the font 'Chiller' as we thought this was quite conventional of the thriller genre, whilst also connoting mystery and suspense. The font itself looks hand-written and messy, which suggests that the male antagonist could have wrote the word himself, giving off an eerie feel, due to his intimidating persona. However, after further research we found that this was not stereotypical of the thriller genre and was actually quite cliché as none of the films we researched used this sort of font in any of their products. Therefore, we decided to change our font to the 'Charlemagne' font as this was similar to other fonts we had seen such as in 'before I go to sleep'. This font is quite basic but also effective as it almost looks like a conventional font on a computer. This can be linked to our film, as in the trailer our male antagonist is seen to be stalking the female on social media, which is a common way for stalkers to access information on their 'victims', therefore amplifying the synergy of our film, whilst also being stereotypical of the thriller genre.

Frame 2: Storyline 

The storyline of our film has both very conventional aspects of a thriller film as well as some aspects that challenge these conventions. The start of our trailer could be considered unconventional as it has a heavy romantic tone at the start. Although this is not seen in many psychological thriller films, due to the popularity of a crime focus, it can be seen in the film 'Red Eye', where it was proposed to the audience that the characters meeting was accidental. We were inspired by the dramatic contrast between the opening and middle of the film (where the action occurs), which we felt effectively impacted the audience, leaving them on the edge of their seats. The stereotypical aspects in our storyline would be the way that we built tension throughout the trailer and the increasing violent actions of the male antagonist. It is common for thriller films to present violence, as this is a threatening notion which causes the audience to feel adrenaline and tension. Frame 2 is of the collage that the antagonist makes of the female protagonist in our film. This shows the increasingly obsessive nature of the antagonist, as he has multiple images of the female, whilst also knowing her address, place of work and also locations where she has been on holiday. This allows the audience to sympathise with the female protagonist as this is a threatening situation which could lead to potentially more dangerous situations. Our trailer also conforms to the convention of ending on a cliffhanger. This is because it entices the audience to come and see the film in order to find out what actual happens. The trailer end with an ambitious shot of a knife, which is a common prop used in thriller films such as 'The boy next door' and also a tussle between the two characters, where the film is left pinned against the wall by the male with his hand covering her mouth. This leaves the audience questioning what happens to the female?

Frame 3: Settings

In my trailer I used various locations in order to appeal to my young middle-class audience. These included a park, house and restaurant, which are typical locations that our target audience are likely to  visit in their day-to-day lives. This allows our film to be more relatable to
our audience, allowing them to understand that they could just as easily be in this situation, increasing the frightening and 'thrilling' effect our trailer has. A home setting is used as this is commonly seen in thriller films such as 'The Purge'. This setting has connotations with security and comfort, therefore by expressing the fact that our female does not feel comfortable in her own home, makes the audience feel uncomfortable. The male is seen on many occasions to be hovering outside her house, taking pictures of her inside and also attempting to force entry into the house. This is an extremely frightening situation to be in and by making our film as relatable as possible, allows this fear to be expressed onto the audience also. Another setting used would be of a park. This usually has connotations of being a

family area and place of enjoyment. We conformed to these traditional connotations in order to further emphasise how 'in love' the characters are at the start of our trailer. This however, does challenge the stereotype of thriller films as, a park would commonly be used to express how much danger the character is in in an open space. This can be applied to our trailer in hindsight, as if the audience went back to these scenes after watching the whole film, they would understand that the female protagonist is in fact in danger without knowing it.

Frame 4: Props and costumes

In frame 4 I included a close up of one of our props - a knife. This is conforms to the conventions of the thriller genre as this is a threatening weapon commonly seen in thriller films, such as 'The boy next door'. Knives have connotations to murder, danger and violence, this is exactly the effect we were going for as we wanted to demonstrate the level of jeopardy the protagonist is in throughout the trailer. Other props we used in our trailer would include phones, cameras and laptops. These would not only attract our younger target audience as they are often known for being technological, but also present the way in which technology can be used negatively and cause distress among other people. The female is shown dialling 999 on her phone which perfectly presents her as being in a plead of desperation, which recurs throughout the trailer.

Both the male and female are presented in casual clothing throughout my trailer as we wanted to emphasise the relatability of the characters and situation as much as possible in order to have the biggest impact on our audience. This is considered stereotypical for the female protagonist as she is often seen wearing feminine clothing such as a dressing gown and light coloured tops. The use of a dressing gown romanticises the character, which also puts her in a position of vulnerability as females are often known for being stereotypically 'weak'. This allows us to conform to the stereotype as it emphasises the fact that the female is a vulnerable victim, which is seen in many thriller films such as 'Taken'. This film opens with the daughter hiding under a bed in order to avoid being abducted by a group of men, which then proves to be unsuccessful. The male antagonist in our film however, challenges these stereotypical aspects of a male showing his power and dominance through his clothing (seen in the main personality of the character in Split), as our character wears casual clothing in order to emphasise the idea that he blends into society easily and is therefore unsuspected. We felt like the actions of the antagonist were violent and controlling enough that the clothes didn't need to reflect this also. However, due to the fact that my ancillary products only include a still image of the characters, I felt that it was necessary to place the male antagonist in a formal white shirt, in order to emphasise his domineering personality.

Frame 5: Camera and editing

From our research we found that thriller trailers often used a wide variety of camera shots and angles in order to amplify the fast paced and chaotic effect of the editing. Before filming, we carefully planned out a storyboard with all the different shots we were planning to use. However, when we got to our first session of editing, we found that due to the fast paced nature of the trailer, we did not have enough shots. This meant that we had to go back to our storyboard and add in more shots that clearly sold the story to the audience whilst remaining true to a professional thriller trailer. We often used high angles on the female protagonist sitting on her bathroom floor as seen in frame 5. This emphasises her isolation and feelings of vulnerability and helplessness, which is a common way of presenting a female as the victim in thriller films. Besides this, we used close ups in order to focus on a specific object or facial expression, such as the close up of Selma dialling 999, which connotes desperation and also the close up of Lewis' eyes scanning his computer, amplifying his obsessive nature. POV shots were also common in our trailer as we felt that this allows the audience to connect more with our plot, putting them in the position of the male antagonist. This is most notable when Lewis is seen spying on the female outside her house and also the last shot of our trailer when the two characters are fighting. This is seen in various thriller films such as 'Girl on the Train' as it helps the audience relate to the characters, settings and also the situation the characters are in.

Fast paced editing is also used in our trailer, which is arguable the most conventional trait of thriller films. We challenged this at the start of the trailer as it begins quite slow paced, connoting a calm and romantic environment. This then builds throughout the rest of the trailer, being more stereotypical of the thriller genre. We matched the pace of the editing to the pace and beat of our music as this is often used in real thriller trailers, such as 'Gone Girl' as it increases the tension and suspense of the action shown. Non-chronological editing was also used in the editing of our trailer as this disorientates the audience and leaves them wondering in which order the action happens, which is typical of trailers as a whole.

Frame 6: Introducing characters

Our trailer only introduces 3 characters. These include the main female protagonist, the main male antagonist and the female's best friend. This is quite unconventional of thriller films as it is typical that a lot of characters are presented to the audience throughout. However, due to the complex nature of our narrative, we wanted to keep things simplistic by only focusing on the relationship between the two main characters. This focus allowed us to clearly demonstrate the increasingly violent and toxic relationship in order to have the most shocking impact on the audience. The trailer starts by introducing the characters as in love and happy within their relationship in order to emphasise the equilibrium and create a stark contrast between their relationship at the start and end of the trailer. This is further emphasised by the light hearted music and use of slow motion shots when Selma flicks her hair over her shoulders during a candle light dinner in order to romanticise her. The shots also take place in a park and restaurant which are relatable locations for our audience.

Lewis (the male antagonist) is introduced as a caring and loving man at the start of our trailer which is not stereotypical of a male antagonist in most thriller films, enticing the audience to continue watching the trailer in order to find out how this relationship plays out. Our character then becomes more stereotypical as the trailer plays through, informing the audience of his controlling tendencies. Similar character traits can be seen in 'Split', when the main personality keeps the 3 girls locked in a room forcing them to do various things.

Selma is introduced in a similar way to Lewis, however continues to remain stereotypical throughout the rest of the trailer. A variety of high angle shots and close ups are used to emphasise her conventional vulnerability and weakness as she pleads helplessly for a way out of the relationship. This is similar to the female representation of 'Psycho' who is presented as vulnerable by being in the shower alone.

The best friend is briefly introduced to the audience at the start of the trailer. A mid shot is used as Selma is telling her how much she likes Lewis and believes he is the best for her. The best friend is presented as hope for Selma as she is the comforting figure, who will attempt to help Selma out of this difficult and dangerous situation. Although, she is only shown once in the trailer due to the fact we wanted to keep the audience about Selma's safety, in the film she would appear various times attempting to help.


Frame 7: Special effects

The first special effect we used would be the slow motion shots of Selma at the start of the trailer. The first one occurs when the two characters are sitting at a restaurant and Selma flicks her hair backwards. This romanticises her as a character which is a common feature of thriller trailers and links to the theory of Male Gaze. The male gaze refers to the act of depicting the world and women from a masculine and heterosexual point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure. The second use of slow motion would be when Selma is opening the door to Lewis's car after he offers her a lift. This is the last shot before the mood of the trailer changes and signifies the disequilibrium. The use of slow motion emphasises the start of dangerous events to come and amplifies the danger of the current situation she is in. Being in a small, enclosed environment with an obsession person is filled with jeopardy, causing the audience to have increased fear for the female character.

Another way we used special effects would be that we added a night vision effect to the camera shot as well as adding the typical camera grid and flashing record button. This enables the audience to understand that this shot is from the point of view of a camera, which increases the stalker effect.

The last use of special effects would be when we made the 'When love turns sour' inter title and 'Fixation' inter title appear word-by-word and letter-by-letter. Due to the fact Premier Pro did not have an option to do this, we had to create separate inter titles for each word/letter. We felt that this was an effective transition between the equilibrium and disequilibrium as it visually hints to the audience what is about to come. The use of this effect on our title at the end of our trailer was also effective as the letters appear in time with the beat of the music, leaving a lasting impact on the audience.

Frame 8: Film poster 

From my research I found that film posters often used close or mid shots of one or multiple characters. I also noticed that besides the fact the main image is centralised, there wasn't a set way to create a film poster, due to the variety of layouts. The layout of film posters often depended on the genre and plot line of the film, as there were usually direct links and hints between these in order to create synergy. I was heavily inspired by the film poster for 'Before I go to sleep' as I felt this was effective at introducing the characters and providing and insight to their personalities and situations. Using this poster as my inspiration I split my page into three sections in order to display three close up images of the characters. Due to the fact that my trailer only introduced 2 main characters, I decided to place the female protagonist in the middle with two images of the male antagonist either side. This has strong connotations to his controlling nature, as it suggests that he is always surrounding her and watching over her. I also put these images in black and white as I felt this emphasised his rigid, traditional (black and white) beliefs about the role of males and females in a patriarchal world. The centre image of the female is washed out in order to connote her helplessness. The eyes and lips of the character have been amplified so that they draw the audiences attention. I felt that it was very signified to increase the colour and brightness of her eyes as this emphasises the direct mode of address used by the characters in order to engage with the audience. I also included a slogan under neither the title "who do you trust?" as this is another use of direct mode of address. I placed the 'you' in red in order to capture the audience attention and instil a small amount of fear into them as it makes them question themselves who they do trust in real life, further increasing the relatability and therefore thrill of my film.

Whilst studying the 'Before I go to sleep' poster I also noticed that the characters names where above the images in white. I also used this layout, as although it is not a direct use of star power due to the fact I used uncommon actors, it filled the space above the images and provided a more balanced poster. I also placed the last names in red as this linked to other areas of the poster which are in the same colour and further suggested that the female is in danger and male is the cause of the danger.

Other conventional aspects I included would be the use of a 5 star rating and release date. These are seen on almost film posters as it entices the audience to watch the film due to the trusted opinion of the review and also informs the audience of when they can watch the whole film. Overall I believe that all of these conventional features of my poster allow it to look like a professional film poster, which will effectively target my audience.

Frame 9: Magazine 

Whilst creating my own magazine front cover, I researched a lot of different issues created by well known companies such as Empire and Total Film. I made sure to take note on the layout, use of colour, and features included on it. Frame 9 includes a screenshot of the middle and bottom section of my cover, as it shows a wide variety of stereotypical conventions. This frame includes my main image which could be considered unconventional as it uses two people instead of one main one. Although this is not commonly used on film magazines, I did notice there was a couple that did. My justification for this was because I felt that this most effectively portrayed the personalities of my characters whilst also providing an insight into the plot. Other stereotypical conventions on my magazine would be the use of cover lines on both the left and right hand side of the page. This is used in order to promote my film by offering exclusive interviews and also other films of a similar genre in order to entice other audiences to watch my film. Other films are also advertise at the bottom of my page with two small pictures either side of my main image, which further targets other audiences who have an interest in the same genre as my film. The title of my film is in the largest font just below the middle of the page. The font is the same 'Charlemagne' font used across all 3 of my products amplifying the use of synergy. This was important as it allows the audience to not only identify the characters but also the style of font used for the title, increasing the memorability of my film as a whole. The colour scheme of my magazine is very stereotypical of the thriller genre. The main colours used include black, white and red which connote danger, mystery and potentially death, commonly seen in thriller films. In order to make my magazine look as realistic as possible I included all the necessary institutional information such as the price, barcode, date and issue number as well as puffs and plugs which appeal to the audience by offering exclusive things such as posters and premiere tickets.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Trailer Feedback; 

In order to gain a variety of feedback on our trailer, we decided to publish it on Facebook. This is a huge social media platform, where friends and family can leave comments about our work which will allow us to make adjustments as necessary in order to increase professionalism. Once posted we received a lot of positive feedback, with people commenting on how much they enjoyed watching it. However, by doing this we also found that family and friends seemed to lack feedback, so in order to gain more constructive improvements we created questionnaires to hand out to people in our class and year.

Positive feedback;

• Good portrayal of characters 
• Thrilling plot 
• Love the ambiguous shot of the knife 
• Effective the plot twist 
• "Left me wanting to watch the whole film"
• Successfully builds in pace and tension during the second half of the trailer

Negative feedback;

• Change the colour of the word love to red - 'when love turns sour' to represent the danger and romance elements reflected in your trailer
• Maybe change the music at the start of the trailer - potentially too classical?
• Speed up the beginning of the trailer. Although I like the pace of editing of what it represents, it may be too misleading of the genre.
• Add in more sound effects to create effective layered sound which is seen in many trailers. 

Change 1
The first change that I made to my trailer was in reference to the first piece of feedback we received. By changing the colour of the word 'love' in 'when love turns sour', it allowed us to have deeper connotations to this inter title. Red is commonly used to connote love, danger and blood, which all can be applied to my trailer at once. The love connotation is in reference to the love that the two characters share throughout the first quarter of my trailer, the danger connotation suggests that love is what puts the female protagonist in danger and finally the blood connotation could link to the ambiguous image of the knife at the end, emphasising the enigma code. Although this was a small change we felt that it was effective at adding a deeper level of meaning to our text, whilst also remaining stereotypical of the thriller genre.



Change 2
The next change that we made to our trailer was making the letters in 'Fixation' more organised and adding an effect on this. We started by spacing out each letter perfectly then organising them in a zig-zag pattern. We felt that, after watching back over our trailer, this area look unorganised and unprofessional, therefore it became one of our improvements as this is a very significant part of trailers (the title). After completing this improvement, it made the title more legible and more similar to a real thriller trailer. The effect that we added on the text was a 'slash slide' effect, which made the text disappear in diagonal bars. Although not necessarily seen in many thriller trailers, we felt that it increased the impact of our title and left the audience wondering the connotations of this. The slashed effect suggests the way in which time is running out for the female protagonist and how little by little the male protagonist is gaining more and more control of her life.

Change 3
Music was a huge issue for us, as we struggled to find a piece that reflected the romantic tone at the start of the trailer but also didn't over-power the thriller genre throughout the rest. The first piece of music that we chose in our second draft was too classical and made the trailer seem slower in pace than it actually was. We changed the sound to 'pink horizon' from the YouTube playlist, although this ha similar connotations to the previous piece it is slightly fast in pace and less classical sounding, therefore more effective in our trailer.

Change 4
The last change that we made was shortening the clips down at the start of the trailer and separating these with inter titles. Our trailer is heavily inspired by the 'Red Eye' trailer and after re-watching this we noticed that 3-4 inter titles were included at the start (the more slow paced section) in order to briefly tell the story and create a direct link to the rest of the trailer. By following a similar idea, we were able to reduce the romantic tones in our trailer and make it more stereotypical of the thriller genre, therefore increasing its professionalism. In the inter titles we made sure to put some of the words in red in order to follow a similar pattern and connotations to the inter title 'when love turns sour'.

Poster Feedback;
In order to gain feedback on my first draft of my poster, I want around my class asking for positives and negatives on the overall effect.

Positive feedback;

• 'I love how you merged the three photos together. its really effective'
• effective tagline 
• main image is very effective, colour scheme is also simple but effective as it draws the audiences attention.
• good placement and overall effect
• simplistic but effective
• excellent use of colour

Negative feedback;

• Possibly change the font of 'fixation'
• separate release date from credit block
• October looks like its part of the billing block
• billing block is too redundant and also where is the rating and who said the quote?
• put the quote on line line and include source 
• make title a fraction smaller and move down slightly

Change 1 
After receiving feedback, I decided that I didn't like the way the top of my poster looked. I felt like it looked quite untidy with random gaps. In order to correct this I moved the rating above the acts names and also made it smaller in order to fit in this area. I also noticed that there was no source of the review so decided to include Empire Magazine as this is a well known film magazine, so by giving my film a 5 star rating would attract a large audience as their opinion is highly respected. Using the 'before I go to sleep' poster as my inspiration I decided to keep the placement of the actors names however, in order to tie in the colour scheme more, I changed their last name to the same red colour running throughout the rest of the poster.

Change 2 
My second change involved changing the font of the title to match the slogan and moving these down slightly. Multiple people felt that the previous font was not actually conventional of a thriller film as similar is not seen in other trailers or posters. After further research I decided this was the case and therefore changed my font to a more simplistic font, similar to the one seen on the 'before I go to sleep trailer'. I felt like this was a very important change as the title of the film is one of the main selling point to audiences, therefore if it is unclear or in an unappealing font it would be less effective. After changing the font I feel like my poster looks more professional and therefore effective, showing that audience feedback was essential in enabling me to create the best poster possible.

Change 3 
The final comments I received were to do with the billing block. Some said it looked too redundant whereas others didn't appreciate the placement of the release date. After receiving this feedback I decided to move the release date to the left hand side filling that gap and include the production company logo and social media pages on the right hand side to fill the other gap. I felt that although it wasn't necessarily stated, I should include social media as this would attract my target audience more as they are within the age bracket (15-18) who are stereotypically known for always being on it. I also decided to place the website under neither the billing block where the release date once was to result in a cleaner finish. Although it wasn't stated in my feedback again, I decided to change the font of the release date to a more simplistic one as I felt that it was too distracting before. However, in order to highlight its importance still, I put it in the same red font as other parts of my poster.

final poster

Magazine Feedback;

In order to gain feedback on this product, I once again asked my class for both positive features and things to improve on.

Positive feedback;

• Love the mast head, very clear link to the idea of film
• Good use of colour across the magazine 
• Good placement
• Good composition 
• Background is effective

Negative feedback;

• Move the title to the centre with the tagline, possibly add more cover lines to fill up empty space at the sides and bottom and possibly add a skyline
• Add more cover lines 
• Reduce the size of the cover lines on the right
• Move skyline down and add a block of white above the title with films titles there, lighten background too
• Enlarge main image

Change 1

The first change that I made to my magazine front cover was moving the tagline further down the page to make room for a skyline at the top of my magazine. I added a strip of white in order to lighten the overall poster and included film titles of new films coming in 2018. This is a common feature seen on many film magazines, so by including this allowed me to increase the professionalism of my magazine cover. By providing the audience with three short film titles that are new to 2018 allows them to catch their attention and draw them into reading the magazine in order to find out more. 

Change 2

The second change I made was adding in more cover lines as this was a common improvement to my first draft. I already felt as though my magazine was too plain, however I was looking for feedback as to where to place more things. After receiving the feedback above, it allowed me to understand other people's views on the layout and enabled me to make more room for cover lines etc. The first step in doing so was to reduce the size of my existing cover lines, this allowed me to include more of these above and also looked more proportionate to the whole magazine. I also decided to enlarge the main image as there was a lot of unnecessary image on display, enlarging this enables the audience to clearly see the vulnerable and domineering facial expressions of the characters as well as making the protagonists direct mode of address more effective. By enlarging the image I also found that a space had been freed on the right hand side of the page. Here, I placed the 'WIN! Premier tickets inside!', which gave a more balanced look the the magazine cover. 

Change 3

My third change was to 'clean up' the look of the bottom of the cover and also reduce the amount of empty space. Although, I wanted to keep my cover quite simplistic and not clutter it too much by making it seem to busy, I felt that it was important to fill up some of the space like my feedback suggested. In order to do this I made one of the featuring film pictures more square as there was a lot of unnecessary space on it. I then moved this opposite the other featuring picture which once again balanced the overall look of my cover. I then made the 'Behind the scenes..' section smaller and spread it out across the whole of the bottom of the page. By doing this it added a level of symmetry with the skyline at the top of the cover. Finally, I added '2017 film awards', due to the fact this cover is released early 2018, audiences would be interested to find out an overview of what films won which awards in 2017. By putting the 2017 in the same shade of red as the rest of the page in draws the audiences attention to this section and makes them what to read the magazine to find out more on this.

Change 4 

The last change I made to the magazine front cover was brightening up the background image as my feedback suggested. This enabled the coloured font to pop more, attracting the audiences attention further. I also felt like this made the main image clearer, allowing the audiences to recognise these actors/characters easier from my other products and therefore appeal to my target audience more. 

final magazine cover

How effective is the combination of my Main and Ancillary products?

https://youtu.be/sj9SZ1oy81w
Scripted copy:

Throughout my main and ancillary products, I have attempted to include conventional synergistic features, as I believe this would have the best impact on my target audience, which would therefore help to promote my film. This is because the target audience will instantly recognise these features as part of my campaign due to the consistency of the characters, mise-en-scene and fonts used etc. Ultimately, I hope that this recognition will be most effective on the audience’s ability to take notice of the institutional information included in 2 out of 3 of the texts.

The target audience of my film are male and females, aged between 15-30 years old, who have an interest in the thriller genre. From my research I found that males preferred psychological aspects in films, which keeps them on the edge of their seat, whereas the female portion preferred films with a romantic tone. In an attempt to target all aspects of my target audience, all three of my products contain conventional thriller conventions such as the dominance of the male antagonist, whilst also challenging this stereotype with a small focus on romance. This will therefore target my audience in the most effective manner, as I have been able to appeal to their interests in all 3 of the products, whilst being true to the thriller genre.

My poster consists of three main images of both the protagonist and antagonist. I decided to put the protagonist in the centre of my poster as this brings the audience’s attention to her and her weak and distressed facial expression, which is suggestive of the plot in my film. This is further emphasised by the 2 images of the antagonist either side of her, which gives the effect that he is always surrounding her and watching over her every movements. This is also reflected in my trailer and magazine cover bringing in another element of synergy across the three products, which will allow for a better promotion of my film. I then used Photoshop to make the antagonists images black and white, reflecting his rigid traditional beliefs of a patriarchal world. I also used Photoshop to wash out the protagonist’s image in order to further make her appear weak and vulnerable, whilst also amplifying the colouring of her eyes and lips. The brightness of her eyes in the centre of my poster is the initial drawing point for the audience. The fact that she is directly looking at the audience, almost acts as a plead for help, which uses a direct mode of address. The inspiration of my poster came from the film poster for ‘Before I go to sleep’, which is also a thriller film, focusing on vulnerability of the female protagonist and the mysterious domineering actions of the male antagonist, aimed at a similar aged target audience.  The overall effect of my poster and corresponding features in my other 2 products act as an enigma code for the audience, which is a common feature of thriller films, as they are left wondering how the protagonist found herself in this state of insecurity, which will therefore increase interest in my film.

The use of casual wear for my female antagonist is another example of synergy across all three of my products. This adds a sense of realism to film, as the female audience members watching may be able to relate to the character more, due to her fashionable, casual outfits, which may be similar to their own style. This therefore means they may be able to put themselves in her shoes, as a young female going about her daily life, which will increase the impact of the ‘thriller’ nature of our film as they begin to understand that they could just as easily be in her situation. The adrenaline that the audiences experience is a large part of thriller films, so by making our character as relatable as possible increases our chances of our audiences experiencing this, thereby making our film more effective. The protagonist is also wearing similar casual outfits in my ancillary texts in order to amplify the effect of this synergy. The female protagonist is often presented in the trailer wearing light coloured shirts, connoting her vulnerability and innocence and a red coat, suggesting the danger she usually finds herself in which increases her victimised appearance. However, in my magazine front cover I decided to challenge these conventions by putting my female protagonist in a dark jumper and the male antagonist in a white formal shirt. The reason for this was because it links to the ambiguous ending of our trailer, where an unknown hand wearing a glove is seen to be pulling a knife out of a draw. By putting my protagonist in a black jumper could connote dark intentions, this therefore creates an enigma as the audience is left questioning whether it wad the female pulling out the knife or not. The white shirt that the antagonist is wearing is quite conventional of a thriller film as the formality of it reflects his dominance and power he has over the female. This is emphasised in my magazine cover, where the male is presented in the behind the female with his arm covering her mouth, connoting his control over her. Audiences would recognise these two main characters in all three of my products, therefore increasing their interest of who is holding the knife and how the story ends for each character.

A theme that was synergised across all three of my texts was the idea of time. In my trailer, we made sure to increase the pace of editing for several reasons. The first being that this is a stereotypical feature of thriller films and the second being that it creates the effect that time is running out for the female protagonist. This is then amplified by the ambiguous shot of the knife at the end of the trailer. In my poster, I split the page into three sections in order to display three images at once, although this suggested he always has control over her, it also connotes an idea of stages, which can be associated with time. This was a weak association, however I felt that it was important to include, as it makes the effect of all 3 of my products more successful. My magazine front cover, features a faded background of clocks. This is a direct link to time and leaves the audience wondering whether the female protagonists did run out of time, which adds an element of adrenaline to my portfolio as a whole. 

The main way I have shown synergy throughout my texts is through the use of the ‘Charlemagne’ font. My trailer, magazine cover and poster all heavily feature this font on the title ‘Fixation’, which allows my film to be easily recognisable to audiences. This is a simple but effective font, which I found to be stereotypical of the thriller genre. Similar fonts can be seen in the film ‘Before I go to sleep’, ‘Identity’ and ‘Primal Fear’, therefore further appealing to audiences interested in this genre. I believe that the use of this font throughout my main and ancillary products is important, as it has increased the overall campaigns professionalism.

I included institutional information in 2 out of 3 of my products as I found this was conventional for trailers and posters as it credits the actors, directors and all crew included in the production of the film, however unconventional of magazine front covers due to the concise information usually included on these. On my poster I included a 5 stars rating and quote from a well-known magazine company, Empire Magazines as this would instantly attract my audience and give them a perception that my film is high-quality and overall effective as a psychological thriller. The use of a well-known magazine company is important as it means that their opinion is trusted, therefore meaning there would be increased interested in my film as a result of this. Similar reviews can be seen in my trailer, also by very well known and trusted companies, which will help to improve the initial impression the audience receives from each of my products.

Low-key lightening was a key feature synergised through all of my products, as this is a very conventional aspect of all thriller films. My trailer starts off with very high-key lighting in order to emphasise the romantic tone and offer a bigger contrast between the beginning and end of my trailer. However the majority of my trailer and also my ancillary products use low-key lighting in order to connote danger and mystery.

In conclusion I believe that the combination of my main and ancillary products is successful and effective as I was able to use synergy throughout in order to make elements recognisable to my target audience, which will therefore increase interest and revenue. Although I did include counter typical conventions such as the romantic tone at the start of my trailer, I mainly focused on stereotypical features of the thriller genre in order to effectively target my young adult target audience, at the same time as offering a different perspective on the genre, which could potentially lead to added interest.

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

Video camera; The first piece of technology we used during the construction of our trailer was a video camera. This was arguably the most important piece of technology we used during the whole process of creating our trailer, this was due to the fact it allowed us to film the footage included in our trailer including the variety of camera shots and movements we used. We already owned the camera ourselves which proved to be extremely useful when filming. This was because it meant that we were already familiar with how to use all the functions on it. It also meant that we were able to film wherever and whenever we liked without the time restriction of borrowing a camera from school. Due to the hectic time schedules of everyone involved in the construction of our trailer this was the most useful feature of using our own camera. The high definition feature was also significant to our trailer as it allowed us to film clear pieces of footage which would create realism for our audience as well as allowing us to create a realistic trailer. We opted for a variety of steady and hand held footage as this was what is most commonly seen in thriller trailers. Hand held footage was used to mostly create POV shots. For example during the second half of our trailer we included a POV shot of the antagonist peering round a bush as our protagonist was entering her house. We felt that this piece of footage was extremely effective at creating panic as it put the audience in the antagonist's shoes, which allowed them to see the panic on the protagonists face as she turned around first hand. This sense of panic is a conventional feature of a psychological thriller, which is why we felt the inclusion of these types of shots vital to our trailer. Furthermore we also used a tripod to create steady shots and camera movements. This was most commonly used during the first half of our trailer as the steadiness  of the footage connotes tranquility and stillness in the environment which we felt emphasised the verisimilitude. It also allowed us to create a range of shots used as a high angle on the protagonists crying in her bathroom covered in bruises which is very stereotypical of a thriller as it creates a sense of vulnerability and weakness.

Digital camera; In order to create crisp images for my film magazine and poster I used a HD digital camera. I already owned a professional camera used for photography, which again provided useful in knowing how to use it and get the best results. This was important for these tasks as it meant I could make these look as realistic and professional as possible.

Voice recorder; A voice recorder was also used during the construction of our trailer as well as the planning stages. During planning we decided that in order to talk about our target audience in the most effective way we would film us drawing a mind map on our phones, speed this up and include a detailed voiceover explaining and developing these points. We felt that this was an effective way of presenting this information as it provided an alternative and arguably more interesting way of informing everyone of our intentions. Furthermore, the voiceover was used one again in the production of our trailer. We got our protagonist, Lewis to record himself saying 'strike one', 'strike two' and 'strike three'. We played this at various parts throughout the duration of our trailer. We made sure to play it over particular actions that our protagonist did such as phoning the police in order to make it seem as if he was threatening her. The strikes also act as a count down, inferring that his patience is running out with her and also builds up the tension to our last shot which is of an unknown hand pulling out a knife from the draw. We also made sure that Lewis' voice was very intimidating and also monotone in order to instil a sense of fear in our audience.

iPhone; Another piece of hardware that proved to be essential was my iPhone, as I used this in all stages of creating my trailer. During research and planning I was able to access various applications such as the internet, Youtube and Facebook messenger which allowed me to watch and analyse real thriller trailers which provided me with inspiration and also contact Charlotte, Lewis and Selma who were also involved in this process. I also used my phone to film and take pictures of various things that would aid me during the planning such as the filming of target audience clip and also during research by taking pictures of notes I had made.

Premier pro; We decided to use premier pro to edit our trailer as we had previous experience with using this software from As opening sequence. This software allowed us to manipulate our footage in a variety of ways such as cutting the clips down, adding transitions (fade to black and cross dissolve), increasing the sound and also adjust the speed of the clips to create a slow motion effect. A key example of this would be at the start of our trailer when we slowed down a clip of our protagonist flipping her hair back behind her shoulders. We felt that this was very effective as it romanticized the female, which is a common aspect of female characters in thriller films. We were also able to add inter titles into our trailer which is a key feature of trailers in general and the easy nature of the program allowed us to play with what we wanted these to say and where to place them. Allow we had used this software before giving us a large amount of experience, there were several things we didn't know how to do, meaning we had to search this up on the internet. The editing of our trailer was also fairly limited as it was saved onto a memory stick, which the school's computers being the only ones accessible to us with the software on. This meant we had to use lesson time effectively and find times to meet up during study periods to edit.


Photoshop; Photoshop was crucial in enabling to me create the most effective and professional poster and magazine possible. Although I had little experience with this program, I often used the internet to develop my basic skills when creating the secondary tasks as well as our production company logo. When creating my film poster I started off by using the 'quick selection tool' to cut around the outside of my close up shots in order to eliminate the unneeded background. After this I began adding in 3 rectangles that would fill the whole width of my page in order to use the 'create clipping mask' tool. This allowed me to make sure my images were evenly spread across the page due and perfectly fit the rectangles I had set out before hand. This provided me with a perfect base for my poster. From here I began adding gradients to make sure the pictures faded perfectly into the black background as well as turning down the opacity on the brush tool to disguise this fade more precisely. After this, all that was left to do was add in the essential pieces of text that appear on film posters. This included the title, slogan, billing block, ratings, actors names, release dates and also social media pages. In order to make the title and slogan stand out from the rest of the text, I added a bevel and emboss as well as a drop shadow on the title. I felt like this gave a better effect to the text and made the poster seem more interesting and professional overall.

Youtube; I used youtube in multiple ways both as a viewer and a creator. Youtube allows you to watch, share and upload videos onto one social media page and receive comments and feedback from other people using the website. This was the place I used to research different thriller films, before planning my own initial ideas. Many production company's upload their final trailers to this website meaning it was easy for me to find a variety of trailers as well as being a good place for me to upload my own drafts and final copies. We also used youtube to find music for our trailer as we found there was limited music on other websites such as 'bensound' and 'freemusic' that did not fit our trailer.

Powerpoint; I used Microsoft powerpoint in various parts of my planning to create presentations, such as my pitch and to also note down my ideas in general. I am extremely familiar with this programme which enabled me to complete tasks quickly and easily. I also found that powerpoint enabled me to crop images and save them as a whole new image which was not possible on other applications such as word. This was useful during planning and research as it allowed me to include specific parts of images to back up the research I was finding or the ideas I had.

Prezi; I used prezi multiple times to create powerpoint for my research. This website is a good place to view and publish presentations on a wide variety of topics. I found that this was the best way for me to put all of my ideas in one place on existing magazine covers and posters.

Social Media; Social media is a very important part of our everyday lives and the development of it in recent years has been extremely rapid. I used different websites such as Facebook and Facebook messenger to communicate with the actors in my trailer as well as the other person working with me in my group. Using group chats meant that we could discuss all of our different ideas and opinions and also find times to meet up and complete tasks.

Freesound; I used 'freesound' to search for different sound effects and music. Although we were unsuccessful in using this website for finding music, we did find different sound effects that we felt perfectly fit our trailer. This was a very useful website as it meant that we could easily and freely download a large variety of music/sound and experiment with different ones.