What have you learned from your audience feedback?

One of the most important things you can gather from feedback on a whole is that you can gather a different perspective, for example as it is my own work there were things that i could not see initially due to a bias opinion. Gaining feedback allowed me to see these faults and rectify them.

In a project such as this it is very important that you know what the audience want and to give it to them, after all, it is them you are aiming to entertain. Therefor if i did not get the feedback that i received, my outcomes would have turned out awful.

On a more specific note, there were vital aspects of the Teaser Trailer that were only put in because of audience feedback. For example the blue vocal line, (audio graphic) during the phone call was only entered because the feedback said that it looked too blank without it. Instead of that there would have been about 40 seconds of just a black screen so the feedback was correct when it said there needed to be "something on screen".

Also in the film the Fonts in the cut scenes would have been suited for a film of a different genre;


Also it was because of the feedback that we put some Production company logos into the film, once again to fill space on the screen during the phone call.
(The different screen shots of them can be seen below)

When it comes to the magazine there was initially a lot less text on the page, and the font was a lot more "Amateur" according to feedback. The feedback also stated that the image of the axe was too small and should be enlarged. So that's exactly what i did. I made the image larger, added more text, i.e. films to promote and edited the font to make it seem more professional.


















The poster was a slightly different story all together. The final outcome of the poster is very similar to the first draft. The only differences being minor ones such as certain names in the text at the bottom and certain effects on the title/actor names at the top. Even though they were only minor changes, they were still because of Audience Feedback. I think that this establishes how much i have learnt from audience feedback and shows how important it is to a project like this.

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

From day one I have constantly been using different types of media technology.
One of the first things that i felt it was important to do was to set up this very blog as a method of keeping track of ideas, my thoughts and in a way help me to progress because i was able to see everything in one place. The blog has been the one of the most useful pieces of technology for me. As previously stated it helps with the flow of ideas and also the flow of production. Also the fact that it is on the Internet means that it is much easier to access all of my work and also receive feedback from my target audiences. It allows anyone around the world to be able to view any of my designs and final outcomes.

When it came down to actually coming up with a concept for a film it became obvious that we would need to be able to research at the touch of a button. so that's exactly what i did. YouTube and Google were vital for me when doing research. For example i would research trailers from 'YouTube' and then i would use 'Google Images' to research Magazine front covers and Posters.

When it came to the times when me and my co-creator were apart we both used social networking sites e.g. 'Facebook' as a method of communication. This also became vital as there were points where we would desperately need advise from one another and to discuss certain things about the project.

When it came to actually constructing both the Teaser Trailer and the ancillary texts we both knew that this would be the point in which we would use the most varied types of technology. For example in construction of the Teaser Trailer we would have to use a Video Recorder to obviously capture the footage and then we would use editing software in the Mac Suite to compile the film together. We used such software as 'LiveType'; a method of creating text that appears on the screen, 'FinalCutExpress'; the software which was used to put everything together, allowing us to cut clips, add music, add text etc.

Then for the construction of the ancillary texts I used multiple different technologies in order to create these pieces. For the most part I used 'Photoshop' for importing images and text on to the Poster/Magazine as well as using images that we took from 'FinalCutExpress'

Film Statistics

Here are some statistics that youtube shows us, as it is the format that we have uploaded on, every view etc becomes stored on their website.

30 Day Totals:

7 Day Totals:

Country Chart:

Discovery of Links followed to this video:

Discovery of Locations of players when viewed:

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

One of the key ideas which i had from the beginning was to have this one iconic image that would be easily recognizable and representative of the "Asylum" brand. We found this "image" in the final shot of the trailer, with the title fading in and out over it. This would be the image of the axe.

The way the light falls upon the hand and the axe instantaneously becomes an automatic front runner for the image which we would use for the Poster and Magazine.

In the above screen shot from the trailer you can see 'the axe' with the title "Asylum" pasted across it. It was because of this final scene that we decided to use that same image for the poster and that magazine cover. We did this in the knowledge that such a beautifully taken shot would easily tie in the two ancillary texts with the Teaser Trailer.

















Due too this choice to use the same image for both the ancillary texts and the Teaser Trailer causes the combination to be very effective.
Unlike a lot of other people who use images of actors or characters from their films in the posters and magazine reviews, we decided against that due to the current conventions that have already been set in place by previous successes. For example the "Scream" brand is solely identifiable via the mask of 'Ghostface' as you can see below. This was something that attracted us both and, like other franchises such as "Saw", became a huge influence for our ancillary texts.

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

Some might say that our film trailer was actually quite cliché. Firstly, the filming; the shots that we actually have are very typical of the conventions of a horror film. There is a mix of shots involved, i.e. Very dark shots with sudden lighting or very soft eerie lighting as you can see here below. Each shot is only a second or so long and quickly flashes onto the screen, hopefully slightly shocking the reader. There is a lot of silhouetting, with the light sitting behind the object or person. Or there will be flashes across the screen.





You can see in these screen shots from the trailer the different sort of shots that involve the lighting, the quick flashes, the silhouettes etc.






The sound in the film is also follows convention as it is a constant drone like sound, quite eerie and unpleasant. For example when all of the shots appear there is a sound that the audience can hear at the same time. Something like digital scratching etc. This sound certainly follows conventions of the horror genre and is once again quite cliche. We use some influences from the real media world, such as Scream, Saw etc. These are obvious with the fading cutscenes, the quick and sharp shots mixed in with the unpleasant sounds which will make the audiences skin crawl.

The Final Poster

The poster is something what both Harry and I did together, Unlike the magazines which we did separately. It was initially Harry that designed it but i was with him constantly giving feedback and my opinions on the poster.

The Final Magazine