Evaluation question 4

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

While undertaking research to influence my media product as well as the planning stages to have a solid foundation and avoid plot holes as well as following the correct conventions to appeal to my target audience I experimented with a wide range of technologies to aid my process. 

For the majority of my research I used videos, prezzie and power points to develop my presentation of research, having text alongside an analysed trailer enhanced the analysis on screen and being able to see the visuals as well as the explanation strengthened the point being made. The power point and prezzie was an easy way to present my findings as well as organised planning, being diverse, quick and easy to use.

For my audience feedback in order to get answers in quickly and easily to sort through I distributed my questionnaires on google document, being able to click the 'share' button and enable anyone with the clink to view the document as well as edit in their answers, copying and pasting a template into a new document to send to another person. This was implemented instead of the typical survey monkey in order to have more detailed and focused answers as well as questions, targeting a more smaller and detailed group rather than a wide uncontrolled amount of answers.


In order to gain many of the effects for the trailer, contributing to the chosen genres, I decided to morph Soul's voice in order to give off a more demonic and outer world voice to immediately indicate the audience that he wasn't human as well as to attempt to create an unsettling and sinister sounding characters to fit the horror aspect. To achieve this I duplicated the sound clip on Audacity and added an echo the the first layer as well as lowering the pitch on the second duplicate while making the pitch slightly higher on the original. Then I selected the reverb effect to exemplify the echo effect while also having an extra ghostly voice in the background which is usually the effect given if a character is in a large or echo y room, instead taking advantage of it in a demonic and morphing aspect. The result turned out a success and compared to the original brings much more from the character.

For the editing process I used Sony Vegas knowing it's diverse range of effects and manipulations of footage I could take advantage of to exemplify my horror and thriller conventions. This was particularly shown through the overlays with 'Contrast / brightness/ as well as /cool/ overlay to create a more toned down colour scheme to fit the seriousness of a thriller setting.

In order to exemplify the setting of the institute and the security Demi placed around Faith I also set up a security camera Point of view shot with a simulated overlay in order to make the quality of the camera appear more static and close to a real monitoring camera.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my insightful and dynamic feedback from my target audience I learnt many things both from my chosen genres and how people view and react to these as well as their opinions, push's and pull's from trailers. Obtaining this knowledge I made it paramount to apply this to my trailer an presentation for Soul, tailoring it specifically to appeal to a larger teenage audience.

(refferenced audience feedback :
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xnx50wOFXs-y5-foWy8zZuXtARG0qh8XPVvNlCe5B_0/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aNKiU5vKzslfreFz5_6KSsCzG-_yKaZRhdj97O-IvUY/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gXSX_b71rwSZbjxFoiiCd8ru7H2Lu__WypPbYCnQpwc/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AeNbP8P1WibGAdWiKyBaU8fghfg8qCsGhl343Cq5IJQ/edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fNeUrhm3G8xMQNEEFUEmNQ998eIBJZEUwmbzbZsXjFQ/edit 
)


some of the key factors that stood out to me from the audience feedback was the atmosphere and presentation of characters and story in contribution to the genre or sub genres, having many people comment on the mystery factors and arguing that this is one of the most important traits to keep an audience engaged with the trailer. This also comes into play with the introduction of characters and their intentions, giving the bases of their character personalities but not too much to give away their whole story, peaking the audience's interest to want to find out how they react and what will happen, persuading them to watch the full product.

There was also emphasis on atmosphere as well as interesting character building. In response to this I made sure to introduce faith in a mysterious way, having the audience presented the information of her wanting to commit suicide for a unknown reason at face value and how she is even still alive after the contents of the three table boxes empty. This is also further emphasized when the audience hears Soul's voice for the first time with no presence on screen as well as the demonic filter over the top to elaborate upon his out of world character; exemplifying the mystery factor by having the audience piece together the points as the trailer goes on while at the same time leaving gaps in order to hook the audience on watching the full length film. Many people also commented on how characters should be presented while also acknowledging the time span the characters have to make a statement for themselves, saying that memorable characters will certainly make for a more watchable film upon release. In response to this I played further upon the vulnerability and position of Faith against higher status and powerful adults knowing the audience would oddly identify her within a thriller / horror film in an unconventional way, further adding interest to the character and story to see an unusual and stereotypical character in this genre as well as situation.


I also wanted to make sure I asked about plot twists and false endings and people's opinions of them, knowing from my previous research that these factors alone can either make or break a film. Many people argued to giving hints that there could be a plot twist while others saying it's best left ambiguous to the audience so they don't expect it at all. for both sides giving reasonable and agreeable evidence I decide to implement both sides into 'Soul'. This was exercised by having the original fake equilibrium in leading the audience to believe that Faith and Soul would take revenge upon Demi for trying to break the two apart however with them in realty having a tough fight than expected, throwing the audience off completely as they are then forced to run a second time. With the audience believing this was the only plot twist in the story they are then presented with Faith's death as a sacrifice to lead Soul into the mortal realm however having Faith be reduced to a spirit in the spiritual realm.Having this would then also evoke the effect of having the audience on edge and not knowing what to expect next as a result of the original film's story going into a completely different direction compared to what was originally set up.


Another question I was sure to ask was the opinion of what ruins a trailer for people in order to make sure what to avoid or perhaps work around and instead exemplify the opposite effect. The most predominant answer from nearly everyone was the trailer resulting in becoming too obvious and ridiculous as well as having the whole story said and done within the trailer, leaving little to no mystery or ambiguity in how the story would pan out or how the characters would grow to conclude the plot. I understood and completely agreed with what many people said because of the analysis of Carrie I undertook, comparing the trailer to the movie and seeing pretty much the whole movie summarized within the trailer and the segments it did leave out where too predictable due to the content that was shown, foreshadowing or giving obvious hints to what would happen. In comparison to this I made sure to link back to the plot twist question, having one plot twist slightly hinted at while the other not referenced in order to keep the shock factor and have ambiguity throughout the trailer, causing the audience to want to see the film full because of the questions left unanswered; There was still no conclusion to what Soul was or even looked like, why Faith had attempted to kill herself and how this being had found her in the first place as well as why Demi was so interested in Faith situation juxtaposed with her sinister and evil outlook.

Evaluation Question 2

Hoe effective is the combination of your main product to your ancillary texts? 

While constructing the Ancillary tasks knowing they would favor and promote the trailer I made sure to keep the conventions as well as style very similar not only to keep the house style coherent but also to make the film as well as design used recognizable and contributing effectively to the conventions the full film possess.

As such, I made sure to keep the same font and style of the title 'Soul' having the glow around it present throughout the poster, film and magazine cover as the films own trademark, causing the people who see it to not only instantly recognize it due to the title but also the style. With the font of the title I also decided to use this with the accompanying text in the poster 'What would you do with a second chance?' as well as the promotional headlines of the magazine. This was to further emphasis the style of the film and to have it distinguishable as 'Soul's' font. 

All three products also shared the same colour scheme in contributing the the thriller aspect of 'Soul' containing gray scale toned down colors, with the exception of blue, letting the audience know the serious and ominous atmosphere created from the themes of the film. Of course this was an inevitable convention to include within the construction of the trailer however in comparison to the promotional poster I decided to keep it more in the grayscale spectrum in order to make it seem slightly more on the creepy and sinister side, also representing the horror element of the film. the inclusion of a faded blue glow as well as the white luminous text exemplified the black and white element of the poster as well as bring out the blue more. I also included the appearance of Soul within the background of Faith to further capture the audience in wonder why a wolf would appear in such a place and what convenience it would have to the plot. In comparison to the magazine cover I decided to further enhance the gray scale effect upon the background and in the foreground have faith in dimmed down colors of blue and black making sure to consist effectively of the serious tone , fitting for the magazine suited for thriller / horror fans.

On both the poster and magazine I decided to have Faith's face half visible and on both occasions being shrouded in something to elaborate upon the mystery and the character and how there are two sides of her with the influence of Soul. The white upon Faith's face in the poster also brings out the innocent side of her which is present in the opening almost giving the potential audience the impression of a helpless girl falling into the wrong hands however only first builds a false impression for the double plot twists to come. As previously mentioned, I included Soul in the background to further peak the audiences interest in wondering what a wolf would have in relation to the plot and upon seeing the trailer would then perhaps begin to piece together that Soul was in fact the ghostly figure of a wolf.. This was also presented as a wolf snarling to emphasis his violent and negative side which then begins to fade away after him and Faith become closer. The evil and violent body language of the wolf juxtaposed with Faith's gray scale and plain face creates an interesting contrast of the characters further evoking a mystery or curiosity of the film.

Evaluation Question 1

Trailer side by side with and without effects in order to elaborate upon the effects used in the editing process to exemplify the conventions discussed:

Soul Official Trailer

Soul: Official poster

Soul: Magazine Cover