1. Key questions to be addressed in
your blogging record
Gerry Otim

2. How are you using media technologies
in the research and construction,
planning and evaluation stages ?
• When beginning planning the initial stages of making my product research
was the first thing that was done. I researched what exactly a trailer was and
what where the key features of a trailer. I found that a trailer or preview is an
advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the
future at a cinema. Trailers usually last around 2 and a half minutes. I used
media 2.0 technologies such as YouTube , Google, Twitter to gain information
about trailers and the genre of zombie. YouTube was used to watch and
evaluate a range of zombie trailers and take tips and ideas from them such as
Camera shots and angles, editing techniques , story lines and the pace of the
trailer.
SCREENSHOTS

4. • YouTube was the most helpful technology that
I used. It gave me the opportunity to put
videos onto slides and analyse the
conventions of a horror trailer. Also I was able
to check statistics to evaluate who my target
audiences may be. I found that the target
audience would be females of 13-17 and
males 13-17 and 18-24.

5. • Google also assisted me in researching my
target audience. It helped me find other
horror trailers that used zombies or the
zombie storyline. This was very helpful as
horror was a genre I wasn't knowledgeable of
beforehand. Google was very helpful with
research as it the best search engine and most
used.

6. • When it came to planning our trailer my partner and I used slideshare and
scribe to make my storyboard as we found these to be the best
programme’s when planning. When it came to construction of our trailer
we used our college’s camera’s which were Cannon XM2. A tripod and tape
recorder came with camera to help record and save our footage. To edit we
used Adobe Premier which helped with editing techniques such as
introducing cuts, fades and the use of sound to fasten the pace. This is due
to the fact trailer are fast paced to increase tension and make it as exciting
as possible. We used Premier as it is the only editing programme we have
available in the college. For the ancillary tasks I used the programme’s
Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe InDesign CS3 to construct my film poster
and magazine that were made to promote the horror trailer.

7. Question 2 : In what ways will your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products
• Our media product used conventions of real media products with the use of
make up which all major films use to give the film/trailer a sense of realism.
We used talcum powder for the zombies white face and red lip stick for the
blood
A monster or representation
of distorted humanity and
evil: Our monster or monsters
The victims
where the zombies who rise
from the dead to try and kill
their old friend.
The victims : In the trailer
the victim used to be
friends with the zombies
before they become
zombies. The lead
character that is often
the sole survivor which is
seen here.

8. The use of a punch line in both
posters is done to get viewers to Real Image
want to view.
My poster
Here we see the use of central a big
central image in both poster to attract
viewers to the film
The use of credits are also seen in
both examples of posters. I did this
to give the poster some realism.

9. Question 3
What have you learnt from audience
feedback ?
• My partner and I showed our horror trailer to a
variety of media students and fellow students
at our college. We then asked for their views
and opinions on what was good or bad about
our media product.

10. Quotes
• “Very exciting trailer. Quick “ I really liked the use of the
and fast. Also you don’t waste point of view shot when the
time and prolong the trailer character is running as it creates
unnecessarily” an excitement and gives us his
account of the story”.
• “The camera angles used in
the trailer are very effective as “The only disappointment was
they vary and the shots are the length of the trailer as it was
very fast. However I felt that very short and if you had more
the trailer was a little to short content it would have been more
and good have been longer” exciting”.

11. Overall feelings on feedback
• Overall I felt that the feedback on the trailer was very positive
and the only complaint was on the length of the trailer.
However I felt that my partner and I had enough exciting
content that we didn’t need to make the trailer too long and
in turn bore the audience with unnecessary content. I was
really pleased with the feedback on the point of view shot
where our main character is running away from the zombies
but he is holding the camera. This was one of the shots we
wanted in the trailer as we knew this creates an excitement
and gives us the viewpoint of the character. This shot also
brings the audience into the trailer and they feel as if they are
also in the trailer

12. Q4. How effective is the combination
of your main product and ancillary
texts?

13. Main Product
• As part of our AS Advanced Media Portfolio
we were required to create a film trailer

14. Ancillary Task 1
• A film poster

15. Ancillary Task 2
Film Magazine

16. • As part of our Media Advanced Portfolio we
were given the task of creating three media
products. The main task was to create a film
trailer and my partner and I decided on
making a horror trailer. The other two
ancillary tasks were a film poster and a film
magazine. I feel the combination of the
products is very good as they are basically a
marketing ploy to get people to watch the
trailer. This is shown through the choice of
image for both ancillaries. They also combine
well to reach out to the target audience.

17. • The combination of the colours red, black and white are seen
through all three media products and this is done to keep a
consistency and so that the products combine well.
Furthermore, as it is a horror trailer these colours are
frequently used and this is a generic convention for these
colours to feature.
• The fonts used in the two ancillary are the major difference
between the products as they are two different media
products. I used impact for my magazine to make it look as
professional as possible.
• The models used in both ancillaries are also used in my main
product which effectively combines all three products
together.
• The selling point of our film trailer is the horror and the
element of the audience not knowing if the main character
will escape the zombies. This comes across effectively in the
ancillaries and in the trailer itself via the storyline of the main
character and the creatures.