Evaluation Activities To Do ASAP

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of teaser trailers/poster/magazines)

You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of teaser trailers your particular design is, so choose them carefully.

Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.

The aspects you should consider across your nine frames are:

The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the trailer sets it up
Genre and how the trailer suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects

Remember to discuss narrative/genre/representation/media language/audience in your evaluation

Each one of these aspects should be a detailed post – try to be analytical and use media terminology in your response.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
You could record a voiceover to your trailer and make posts discussing how the 3 texts complement each other in advertising your film and appealing to your target audience

Enigma codes in my trailer.

Enigma codes were explored by Roland Barthes and described them as five different codes that were woven into any narrative. in my trailer the enigma code is the identity of our antagonist. we covered up our antagonists identity by the use of mis - en - scene, we did this by dressing him up in all black and covering his face with a black mask. this creates an enigma code as the audience is not aware which the identity of the antagonist. the color black is a very intimidating color and connotes danger and darkness. enigma codes are used to make the audience want to know whats going to happen next and making them feel more involved in the trailer making them more intrigued and more likely to go see the film. another enigma code is the cliff hanger at the end of the film, when the lights go out and we hear the scream. the scream could be considered and enigma code as screaming connotes as danger so it will make the audience think that they are in some sort of danger. this makes the audience  want to know what happened and keeps them on the edge of their seats. due to our film being a thriller we decided to add enigma codes to our trailer as enigma codes are a popular convention to thriller/horror trailers. lastly in our trailer we used certain editing techniques to capture the evilness of out killer. for example we used low angle shots to make him look more intimidating. this works as an enigma code as our killer looking bigger and more intimidating makes the audience wonder how will be be caught or what will he do to his victims.

Another theory which talks about different narratives. Todorus theory of narrative explains that a narrative that contains a 5 part code. in our trailer we have 3 parts of todorus's theory. firstly his first code is the equilibrium meaning everything is normal. this happens in our film when we have the two girls watching the news report. the second part is the equilibrium breaking. this happens when the 'Stalker' starts the killing under the bridge. this creates certain enigma codes and it lets the audience wonder who is the killer? and what is his motive for all these killings. the third part of his theory is acknowledgement of the equilibrium breaking, this is in a different order as we see it in the establishing shot of our news report as it tells the audience that the police knows ab out this killer and a retaliation is expected in the film. this shows the audience that the stalker has been acknowledged and their would be some sort of fight or case scene to reinstate the equilibrium.

for this response i have given myself a high level 3 as i have used a wide range of terminology, two theorists and have used a wide range of examples from my trailer.

(22 MARKS)

The hyperdermic needle theory

        my film Stalker is a horror film and adheres to several code and conventions of the horror genre for example it includes the hypodermic needle theory. According to the Hypodermic Needle Theory, a media text injects its messages straight into the passive audience. This means that the audience is seen as a passive mass who will immediately accept the presented version of events. Therefore, when watching our stalker trailer the audience would believe that the Stalker in our film ( that has escaped from a mental asylum ) would go on a murdering spree.