Main Task - Reflection

Task	What did you learn from this?	How did you use this in your own construction task?
Trailer analyses	Trailers never give too much of the storyline away, contain enough plot to keep the viewer intrigued and contain short shots and quick cuts/crosscuts that increase in speed to build tension.	We followed these conventions to ensure our trailer looked professional.
Titles analyses	Titles are short, sharp, increase in pace and intensity with the trailer, fit the style of the trailer and are quick and easy to read.	We followed these conventions to ensure our titles looked professional.
Research into potential target audience	Target audiences for horror films are usually 16-30 year olds, often targeted at males and producers look at the socio-economic scale, the four c’s (cross-cultural consumer characteristics) and Blumler’s uses and gratifications theory to find target audiences.	We followed these conventions but targeted females as well, though our audience was niche to due to the sci-fi elements.
Questionnaire on storyboard	Audiences often judge a film on its title so it needs to be related and if storyboards are detailed, people that view the storyboards are more likely to watch the film.	We made sure our title was related and our storyboards were detailed.
Risk Assessment	Needs to be detailed and cover everything, otherwise could lead to problems if someone gets injured in a way not covered by the risk assessment.	We made sure our risk assessment was as detailed as possible.
Conventional locations	Conventional horror locations are graveyards, churches, forests, derelict houses, abandoned hospitals and abandoned mental asylums, basically anywhere with links to death/devastation/mystery.	We used both a derelict house and a forest in our trailer.
Conventional props	Conventional horror props are usually items that have connotations of innocence i.e. dolls, also candles and cameras.	We broke typical horror convention and went more conventional for sci-fi instead, using big complicated machines.
Conventional characters	Conventional characters are usually strong protagonists, weak side characters and a supernatural/mentally disturbed antagonist.	We used two strong protagonists and a supernatural antagonist in our trailer.
Conventional costumes	Conventional costumes are usually dark clothes if the character is evil and light clothes if the character is good.	Our protagonists wore grey to show the haziness around whether they were actually doing good or evil.
Shotlist	Needs to be detailed to give clear instructions to production team about what needs to be shot.	We made our shotlists detailed.
Storyboard	Needs to be detailed and clear to show the proposed storyline.	We made our storyboards clear and detailed.
Animatic	Helps to visualise roughly what the film would look like if it was made, needs to be short and sharp.	We made our animatic short and sharp.
Scripting	Scripts need to be formatted properly in order to provide clear instructions to the cast.	We formatted our scripts correctly so they looked professional.
Magazine analyses	Magazine covers usually have one main focus and are themed to fit the main focus. Typically, fonts are bold, images have a direct address and lots of imperatives are used.	We followed these conventions to make our magazine look professional.
Film poster analyses	Posters usually contain one large image significant to the plot but don’t give anything away, which intrigues the viewer.	We followed these conventions to make our poster look professional.