Responce to feedback from the Planing Presentation

The feedback we received from our planning presentation looked at our media class’ views giving strengths, limitations, how representative will the product be to the genre and whether or not the product will meet the expectations of the audience.

The general strengths we received were; that we considered how we would create our product and having acknowledged the right limitations that would affect our product, “gender representations have been thought well,” and that we had a good plot. I think that our trailer will be more achievable because of these factors; it will be simple to film however we will still challenge our skills when doing so as we will be going into more depth that we did in AS level.

The feedback we received about how effective will the product be in meet expectations of the identified audience were; that “the audience would be able to relate to the main character as the audience would be around the same age,” “the narrative is modern which will connect to the audience better” and “the content will be hard hitting and talking social realist issues.” I agree that the plot will be good for our audience as they are at a younger age and they will be able to expect what happens due to their own experiences and understanding.

The feedback we got from our class on how representative the media product is to the genre was; “it is representative as the characters are relatable and it is a believable storyline,” “has violence and terror for the genre” and “enigma is created well by the storyline”. This shows that we our plot and characters are going to be well represented in the trailer.

More importantly the feedback we got on possible limitations were; “Needs more research into audience demographics and archetypes” I understand that we may need some more information on our targeted audience for the trailer, so we can get a better understanding on how we can represent the trailer.
Another limitation that we received was that it lacks on the background narrative. In the presentation we gave we didn’t show our draft storyboard to the class that shows a flashback scene when the girl is shown being abused (not physically, but it is implied) so this overcomes that limitation.
One imitation suggests that we give away too much of the narrative in the trailer. I do agree with this in some way, as the trailer does give information in what happens. It would probably more effective if we made the cuts in the trailer more choppy as some of the scenes we have are in depth (like the scene when the girl is being watched from a high view point) it may be better if we make this scene shorter. We do have a cliff-hanger at the end with the phone ringing, so I we do have that cliff hanger at the end, it is just building the suspense better through the trailer.
The other limitations we received were ones we have acknowledged ourselves in the S.W.O.T analysis for example weather, time and distance from the college which will be difficult to overcome. However one we acknowledged was the quality of the actors, I believe that if we find actors that are more enthusiastic about being in the trailer they will give a better quality of acting, than if we got someone that wasn’t interested in being involved.

Planning documents

These are a few documents when we started our initial planning and ideas for the trailer we need to produce

SWOT analysis - this is to help us understand the difficulties we will face in both the planning and filming process. Once we have acknowleged these it can be easier for us to overcome and plan ahead when these problems occur.
Powerpoint - Planning - this is an overview plan for the trailer, we then presented this to our media class where we had some feedback in order to improve and see the strengths of our initial idea.
Draft Storyboard - this is our initail storyboard we put together just to make sure how the trailer will be shown and presented. We will complete a final storyboard while basing it on this so t will be easier to produce.
Planning Notes - these are our initial ideas and the first stage of the planning process, deciding on the story and what the trailer will be about.

Research - Gothika

Gothika is more of a horror than a thriller, however it does show a good use of the codes and conventions to create the horror genre.

In the beginning it starts of calm, with talking. However the characters are shown through a cage, in an enclosure, this sets the scene for the audience making them feel insecure due to the two characters being in this change atmosphere. The camera is showing the characters through the meshed cage making the audience feel as outsiders and observers. However extreme close ups are used to show each of their emotions, being pulled into the drama straight away. One woman is dressed smartly and to emphasise her professional look the title 'expert' is shown and the other looks messy in a hospital gown. She makes the audience feel at unease due to her unstable character and this is emphasised through the cage.

Throughout the trailer there is low key lighting giving an uneasy and scary atmosphere, the darkness creates a fearful setting of the unknown and is representing the dark storyline of the trailer. You instantly know something bad is going to happen because of this. The heavy rain shown also emphasises this and gives a pathetic fallacy by represents the mood of the film, it is used to heighten the drama and there is a screeching sound just before as the girl appears which will make the audience jump. The shaky camera gives an unstable and fast pace feeling making the audience almost feel part of the action with the close ups and reaction shots used. The loud bang and the flash of light also makes the audience jump with the music heightening and all of these codes used you can get the audience terrified. After the crash it becomes quiet and fades to black for a few seconds, which calms the viewer after the heightened moment earlier, until the girl screams where a loud bang occurs and the screeching scream will make the viewer jump and be more scared than before because of the calm representation shown.

As the trailer goes on the main character changes from a professional psychologist to a messy mental patient. This dramatic change is what the audience what to find out; why? and how? this is the message for the trailer and the audience will find out by then watching the film. After the crash she wakes up in a mental hospital unaware of what happened and this is the key moment in the trailer as it focuses on the question before. The music becomes louder and the scenes cut more quickly making it fast paced. There are lots of close ups of the main character and other characters, this trailer relays on the close ups to show the emotion of the characters and this is a key factor for the trailer as bad things are happening to her. With these close ups the audience are given a more subjective view and makes them feel more involved to what is happening.

This trailer will be useful to use as research because of the way the camera, editing, sound and mise en scene are combined and used together to create a spooky and uneasy trailer. We will use some of these techniques in our trailer to achieve the same mood and feel.