Evaluation Question 4 - How do you use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stage?

Evaluation Question 4 - How do you use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stage?

Evaluation Question 3 - What Have We Learned From Our Audience Feedback?

Evaluation Question 3 - What Have We Learned From Our Audience Feedback?

Tinika and I asked people to view our trailer, poster and magazine cover and then took them outside one by one to ask them for their honest opinion on each aspect. We asked them to give us varied feedback, some positive and some constructive. Below are the clips of the people we asked to give us feedback and underneath is their name and age. 

We chose to interview them and record it as a video to allow them to express more of an open opinion rather than a questionnaire which wouldn't allow for their own personal input and detail. 

We also chose to vlog our feedback to tell if our understanding of our audience's demographic had been effective when creating the video; especially in targeting the right demographic. 

Our trailer was aimed at males and females aged 16-25. We conducted our interviews on a few of our peers, all aged 17 and 18 and also we decided to do our interview on two people who fell outside out primary audience as their ages were younger or older than 

Name: Monique Jackon

Age: 18

Our participant made clear that she really liked the text we used throughout our film trailer and how she like the way we portray the stalker. She also goes on to say how she thinks it has come a long way from our first draft as we have condensed our film clips and developed the text on screen during our trailer. Her favourite clip was of our protagonists screaming and we added a blur effect at this point so it showed her exhaustion which she liked. She would have our text on screen on for another second just to make sure it is clearly readable and she would have the same title from our magazine cover/poster on the trailer to show they link. When we moved onto our magazine cover and poster, our participant said she liked the fact they weren't too busy. She said she also liked the colour scheme with our magazine cover and poster which links with the colour of our trailer creating the synergy and showing these media texts link. This is something we were aiming for and the fact one of our participants picked up on it is really positive. She also said both texts look professional and if she saw them in her day to day life she would believe it is a real film.

Name: Amber Ellis

Age: 18

Our participant made it very clear that she liked the editing of our piece, she also liked the mood lighting throughout the piece which she spotted carried on into our film poster and magazine cover which is again what we were aiming for. This is very positive as two of our participants in our primary audience have picked up on a key feature we were aiming for. She also liked the variety of shots and angles used and a low angled shot of our protagonist running was her favourite. She thinks its come a long way from our first draft due to our music and editing. The thing our participant would change would be our text/font to make it more suitable for our genre. When we moved on to our magazine cover, she said she liked the continuing colour theme and our central image. She said she would make the barcode clear if she could which was something new which we hadn't heard before which was an interesting piece of feedback to have! When asked what she liked about our poster this participant said she liked the colours and the water effect that is going on. She liked how bold the font was and the actual name of our film trailer. She said to be fussy she would change the accent colour on our poster to be a navy blue instead of a red or a white just so there wasn't too much going on. However, she did say she thought the poster and magazine cover looked professional and if she saw them in her day to day life she would think it was a real film coming out.

Name: Sue Cattermole

Age: 37

This participant said she really liked the music we added to our film trailer as it engaged her; due to the fact it was tense. She continued to say that she liked the variety of cuts we had used as it made our trailer look very fast paced and she liked how you could see a few different story lines in the trailer also. She believes it has come a long way from our first draft due to the editing and how the format now looks more like a trailer rather than a film. Her favourite shot in our trailer was when our protagonist was on the running machine in the gym. However, she was unaware of what our antagonist was doing writing on a whiteboard and would want to make that more clear if we were to include it.

Moving on to our magazine cover and film poster, she said she liked the different colours of blue and the contrast of the text colour with these blues to make it stand out. She said she would add a few more details about the film on the poster to give more of an idea of what it was about. However, our participant said she would not change a thing about our magazine cover. She also said she thought they looked professional and if she saw them, she would believe they would be part of a real film.

Name: Ionie Wynters

Age: 15

This participant said she liked the text on our film trailer as it engaged her into our trailer. Moreover, she said she liked the editing of the trailer as it flowed well and the quick cuts, even though they were quick, still allowed for a lot of detail to be added. She also said it has come a long way from our first draft as the images now catch her eye which is something we were really looking to do. Her favourite shot was our protagonists eyes as she said it showed her emotions which is also something we were hoping audience members would pick up on as we wanted our protagonists eyes to speak for her in that shot. She said she would add the release date into our trailer so audience members knew to look out for it. Moving on to our magazine and poster, she said she liked how colourful the magazine cover was which will draw her attention into it from a distance. This is a key thing to have as it means it appeals and engages with our target audience. Our participant also said a similar thing about our poster and how the writing and the colours would draw her in which is a really good thing to hear as it means we are engaging with our primary audience. She would keep the font of the title of the film the same throughout all the media products to create synergy and she agreed it looked professional and like a real film!

The main thing we learnt from our media feedback was our editing needed to be improved and spent a lot more time on. This is due to the fact that editing combines everything together and if done right can make it seem professional and can create many different emotions for an audience member.

Initially our editing was very jumpy and quite plane because we used Serif Movie Plus X6. However, from our experience last year and having this software which limits us, we realised that we were able to make a lot of the shots we wanted ourselves. One example included a CCTV shot. We initially thought we would have to use an overlay but we were mistaken when we just added a black and white filter and text on screen. Getting a variety of shots and speeds allowed us to mix it up and appeal and engage our target audience more.

Our editing process improved when using iMovie. It helped us to create a story line whilst following the conventions. It was a much more helpful piece of software to help us edit.

Adding in text really allowed us to change the format from a film opening to a film trailer. After doing so, we received feedback telling us it was a little too revealing and getting feedback really helped us to develop this and not reveal too much of the plot.

Moving on to our poster and magazine cover, we created a lot of drafts before getting these how we wanted them before receiving feedback as we knew we weren't happy and we didn't want to release them. 

When we eventually did show our peers our poster and magazine cover we received really helpful feedback about our background colour on our magazine cover as half of it was blue due to the fact we took a picture of our protagonist with an L.E.D light which only covered half the background in the picture. Our peers told us to make sure we colour the whole background and we spent ages on a website called Pixlr trying to colour the background...unsuccessfully. I decided I would cut the image of our protagonist out and stick onto a different coloured background. Even though it took a while, it was praised much more by our audience.

Another thing we struggled with was our credit block, Tinika created an amazing credit block, however it was not able to be used on the editing website we were on called Canva. It was a really good website which is where we created our poster and magazine cover. However, it doesn't let you copy and paste texts without a white background occurring. Therefore, Tinika and I had to work on creating a new credit block at the last minute with limited fonts which became very frustrating. However, we did manage to develop a credit block that we liked and we were able to change the spacing between the letters and lines to make it have more of the conventions of a credit block.

One final thing we struggled with was changing the film title on iMovie to the one we had created on Canva. Tinika and I were unable, in the end, to change the film title on our trailer to match our poster and magazine cover which was a real shame. We were unclear of how to do it and ran out of time to change it. 

Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main media product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main media product and ancillary texts? 

We researched a lot for our trailer and ancillary texts to make sure we could appeal a lot to our target audience. We wanted to make sure we achieved a mass audience and we realised that research would benefit

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Shackled Final Draft

Shackled Final Draft 

This is our final draft of our media trailer called Shackled. It has gone through a long process of editing and adapting things to appeal to our target audience of our chosen genre, Action/Thriller.

We changed and adapted a lot of things on our trailer but, the main aspect Tinika and I developed was our text on screen. 

The name was one of the last aspects we changed due to the fact that we had a questionnaire where people were asked what name they preferred and Shackled came out on top. I am happy about this, due to the fact it links to our trailer more. 

Our first draft had no text on screen at all. This is something we seriously looked in to when changing our trailer. 

Tinika and I decided to study quite a few trailers including: Gone Girl, Inception and Die Hard. These were all Action/Thriller films which linked to our trailer. This enabled us to see where we were going wrong in terms of the template of our film trailer. As a result, we saw we needed to add more text in different parts of the trailer. This really changed our trailer for the better and helped us to create a film trailer! 

Moreover, the editing of each shot, adding effects, changing it to cuts or cross fades and creating cctv shots allowed us to make sure we really had developed a film trailer. 

Recently, we looked at feedback from our teacher and asked her how to improve our grade. She said that if we added foley sound and edit our protagonists eyes to make them red at the end. 

I took a lot of time doing this to make sure the eyes weren't too obvious but still had an effect. I also made sure I had the best high quality foley sound. 

Vlog on Editing Process

Vlog on Editing Process

Tinika and I created a vlog about the strengths and struggles we had during our editing process.

The first problem we came across was the number of shots we had used. Initially we decided we wanted to have lots of shots so, we could build tension by having lots of quick cuts. We soon realised this was much more difficult than we first anticipated as it started to look like a film opening as we began putting them in chronological order which is not typically something you do in a film trailer.

Serif Movie Plus X6 was the software we used to edit on and was very difficult to use, even though we had previous experience on Serif Movie Plus X6. This was due to it crashing all the time and the quantity of film we had was a fair amount which made it even more difficult to edit on as it became even slower to use. We also wanted to add more features/effects on our film trailer. This is due to the fact we had gained knowledge about media studies as we had been studying it a lot longer compared to the last time we had to create a media text. As a result of this, we knew Serif Movie Plus X6 was not able to provide us with all the effects we needed and had to resort to another editing site.

Before we changed editing sites, we opened all our footage on to Serif Movie Plus X6 and we began opening them all up and sorting between the clips we could and couldn't use. This was due to the fact a lot of the clips we filmed were either trail runs or had a lot of mistakes/bloopers. This took up a lot of time as we had to go through and delete everything or crop the lengths of the videos to make sure they were suitable to use. However, the deleted clips were put into a file that we called 'bloopers' in case we wanted to make a blooper video. However, we ended up not doing this as the school system crashed and some files were lost, including our bloopers. We were lucky enough to have everything else backed onto a memory stick.

To start creating our film trailer, we located our storyboard so we could refer back to it to help us get an insight into our first initial plan. We realised from looking at the storyboard that it contained a lot of short scenes, which was good however, we had a few problems with the amount of short scenes we added therefore, we had to merge and cross fade a lot of our short clips. 

After doing so, we looked at different films that were action/thrillers such as Gone Girl, Jurassic World and Inception. Then, we looked into the conventions of these specific genres and decided we would note down some conventions that we were able to copy. These included blackouts to create tension and fast paced cuts to build suspense. We chose different bold fonts to intrigue our audience too. 

Initially we had narrowed it down to two different soundtracks we liked the sound of. We decided to not add any sound until we had completed our trailer to see which sound track went the best with our film trailer. Unfortunatly, we still couldn't decide and ended up cross fading the two. This worked really well until we tried to edit the music to change on a beat drop. This ended up messing up all the work we had done with the two soundtracks and we both decided it was best to just stick with one. 
Eventually, we ended up choosing the one which sounded more like an action film to really stick to our genre and reinforce it. 

We added some effects to our trailer to make it more engaging. We added a blur effect to our protagonist as she was screaming to make it look as though she was exhausted. We also added a slow motion effect to the clock to make it seem as though time was taking forever to pass. These two effects were added to build tension to our film trailer.  

Poster - Institutional Information

Film Poster - Institutional Information

Whilst looking up the codes and conventions of a film poster, I found that, located at the bottom of my poster, I must include institutional information. This is conventionally in a small font, and should tell the audience some of the people who are involved in the production, editing and exhibition stages.

Here is the institutional information I created for my film poster using the websites 'canva' and 'infogr.am'. We made sure to include the costume designer, the editor, the director, the producer and some of the actors involved as, we thought these were the most important to include. This institutional information doesn't and can't include every body as it isn't the credits of a film. Therefore, we chose to proritise.

Analysis of Magazine Cover

Analysis of my Film Poster

Film Poster and Magazine Cover Final Draft

Film Poster and Magazine Cover Final Draft

Below you will see our two media texts; our film poster and our magazine cover.

This is our final draft of our film poster. Tinika and I took a while editing with the main image to make it as appealing as possible to our primary audience. The positioning of the main image on the poster was really important as we wanted it to sit well with our chosen background colour. This was really important to us due to the fact that the colour blue linked across our other media texts and shows the synergy of the three. 

We also spent a while editing our credit block due to the website we were editing it on. Tinika and I chose a website called Canva and as I edited the poster and played around with the image and title, Tinika was given the job of creating the credit block. She did this off Canva as she found better fonts elsewhere. We didn't realise until afterward that the credit block wouldn't paste on without a white background which we were unable to cut out using Serif Draw Plus X6 either. This was very disheartening as it took Tinika ages to create it and would have looked really good on our film poster.

However, we eventually created a new credit block on Canva, trying to mimic the previous one as much as possible. 

Other feedback we received was to make the title stand out more which is what I spent doing, experimenting with different fonts, sizes and colours. The end result is what you see pictured above which we received a lot of positive feedback about.

This our final draft of our magazine cover. This went through a major change from our last piece of feedback. The colour of the sticker changed and the size of the font inside the sticker.

The words 'mega movie marathon' changed size, position and were taken out of a box because it took away from the central image. We also added in a review from The Guardian about our film. 

Furthermore, we added the buzzword 'exclusive' to our magazine cover to make it more eye catching to audience members when it is just sitting on the shelf. 

Both of these media texts have come a long way from their first draft and have really developed to appeal to our primary audience.

Magazine - Creating Film Magazine Front Cover

Creating Film Magazine Front Cover

The first step in the process of creating the film magazine cover was looking at codes and conventions of a magazine front cover. 

Tinika and I looked into research and found the main codes and conventions of a magazine front cover were: buzz words, a central image, a masterhead, anchorage text, banner, barcode, date, issue, price and further images.

The first thing we decided to do was create a few masterheads to see which one would look the best/we would prefer.

After creating mastheads, we decided that we would put a template together of what would be an ideal front cover for our film magazine. This would include some of the key features. We wanted to do this so we had a little bit of time to edit things we didn't like and add other things we had forgotten about.

We then received feedback from our media teacher about the layout and masterhead.

She told us the masterhead needs to change, the bar code and price need to move and buzzwords needed to be added.

Due to this, Tinika and I spent a lot more time editing the magazine and researching its codes and conventions. We used my previous knowledge of doing GCSE Media Studies and the fact I spent a year studying and annotating them to our advantage. 

Around the same time we received the feedback, I came across an editing website that allowed us to create pieces of work such as posters and magazine covers called Canva. 

As a result, mine and Tinika's magazine cover began to improve drastically. We made sure we responded to all the feedback given to us by our teacher and added some more colours to make buzz words stand out even more.

After we added all the features of a magazine cover and finally got an image for our film magazine, we decided to play around with the layout and a few of the subheadings we had scattered around the magazine. 

We decided we didn't like the look of the box around 'mega movie marathon.' We decided to chance this and the colour of our sticker as it wasn't eye catching enough for our audience to take it off the shelf. 

This is our magazine front cover that we are about to show to our class and teacher for feedback today and hope we don't have to make too may adjustments. 

Magazine - Conventions of a Magazine Front Cover

Conventions of a Magazine Front Cover

MASTERHEAD - A masterhead features on all magazine covers. It is usually placed at the top center of the page which tells the audience which magazine it is. As it tells the audience which magazine they're looking at, it only makes sense that it is the largest text that appears on the magazine. This makes it eye catching for the audience. Masterheads often have bold text or are placed in a box to make them stand out even more. 

IMAGES - Magazines always have a main, central image which takes up most of the space on the page. If it was a film or gossip magazine, the central image would usually contain a picture of the main character/celebrity. This magazine becomes more appealing as it is about a celebrity in the lime light. This magazine is using celebrity endorsement to sell their magazine. There may be smaller images around the central image to advertise other products etc. 

BUZZ WORDS - These are words which grab the audiences attention and make the magazine seem to stand out from any other. Using words such as "exclusive" when talking about an interview will make them seem like they are the only magazine with this exciting information. 

ANCHORAGE TEXT - This text often overlaps with images and is normally quite large on the magazine cover. It tells the audience what stories will appear within the magazine. These often contain quotes taken from interviews. This will be to sell the magazine and make it different from all the others available to an audience member. 

BANNER - This gives overall information about the magazine and what can be found inside of it. 

BARCODE, DATE, ISSUE NUMBER and PRICE - All magazines contain these. The barcode appears on the front of the magazine as usually the back page is a paid for advertisement, the date and price are normally quite small but still relevant so that the audience can see this information.

Magazine - Codes and Conventions

Researching the codes and conventions of a film magazine will help Tinika and I to understand what we need to include when creating our magazine front cover. The key features we include will allow us to appeal to our demographic and create a successful film magazine. 
Doing this in advance helps us expand our knowledge even more as to what is key in our research and planning and what we need to do throughout our process of filming.
As a result of this research, Tinika and I plan to use a Canon EOS 1300D DSLR camera to shoot high quality pictures for out central image on our magazine cover. This gives us plenty of time to take the right shot and picture of our protagonist.  

Magazine - First Draft

Magazine - First Draft

This is Tinika and my first draft of our magazine cover. I used the first font that I created and based my theme off other movie and teenage magazines. This is due to the fact that I want the magazine to appeal to my target audience of people aged 15 and over.

We haven't included an image yet. We are planning on using a picture we take from our film footage. Moreover, I think we will play around with the magazine text. I personally think the colours do not match our theme and the layout needs to be changed however, I think it is a good start. 

We have also established that we need to have a main image on our magazine cover and it will be shot in due course. It will be shot by a Canon ESOS D1300 DSLR camera which allows us to have a high quality picture. 

Magazine - Font Names and Ideas

Magazine Font Names and Ideas

These are the designs I made for the title of my magazine. I like all of the designs, although I can only pick one.

I want to make my magazine look fun and to appeal to my target audience which is aged 15 plus. However, it also needs to relate to the genre of my film.

I wanted a contrast between the heading and the background of my magazine which may be quite dark. This is to foreshadow the themes of my film, but I wanted it to look interesting. 

I created the headings using a software on a website I found which also allows you to create/design your own magazine cover.

I will ask my peers and people aged 15 and over what heading they like the best. This allows me to get the best feedback I can and will be beneficial in picking the best font. This allows me to have a better understanding of what my audience are looking for. I will aim to receive feedback from at least 20 people aged 15 and over.

These are the 5 different fonts and designs they have to pick from:

Poster - Ideas

Poster Ideas

Poster - Types of Film Posters

Types of Film Posters

Places people normally see film posters are at bus stops, on public transport, underground stations, billboards and around cinemas to advertise film releases in the future.  

Film posters can vary in size a lot. Some are especially made, like the posters on the side of buses.

To exhibit their film the best they can, film companies will have many copies of different sized and shaped posters made to appeal to a mass target audience.

Conglomerate companies will have the the accessibility and budget to produce and exhibit many posters. Whereas, smaller film institution may not be able to afford the costs of exhibition and will have to limit how they promote their film.

Poster - First Draft

Poster - First Draft

This is the template for my poster. I created this myself and my initial draft of what I imagine my poster would look like.  I haven't decided on what background image is going to be yet, so my poster is going to be only template at the moment. I will add the image when I have finalised everything. 
The font colour is red at this moment in time as the colour stands out a lot with the temporary white background. However, the background image is yet to be added so, this may be changed. The red colour could represent blood and death. This relates to our genre and is foreshadowing what is to come in our film trailer.
Moreover, the font for the poster is similar to classic horror and thriller films. This allows our target audience to see the poster and understand the genre of the film quickly.

Poster - Drafts and Ideas

Poster - Drafts and Ideas

I decided to create some film poster ideas. This was because I wanted to try our different layouts and backgrounds to see what fit best with my genre. As you can see, I created three different film posters. 

The first has more of an action look about it due to the colours and and blur of the picrture.

The next, to me, looks more like a war poster or a book. I do really like this look, but I don't think it's appropriate for my film trailer as it doesn't suit my genre.

The final one, I can't tell whether I love or hate it. I think it looks very mysterious, which is always good as it leaves audience members with a lot of enigma codes. However, I am unsure if the flower is appropriate for the action genre. It could symbolise death, but it is the main focus of the poster and I am not sure if that is the look I am trying to establish.

As you can tell, all my text is a bright red colour. This is to make it stand out against the different backgrounds. Moreover, the red text could help to foreshadow the plot in my trailer. I wanted to make sure the posters left the audience with enigma codes to make them want to watch the film. This would help broaden my target audience to a mass one. 

Poster - The Evolution of Film Posters

The Evolution of Film Posters

1920s

The 1920s was known for movie posters that employed fairly traditional type for the time and hand-drawn illustrations.

1930s

In the 1930s, we see a shift towards bolder designs with a growing tendency towards illustrations focusing on main characters of the film, particularly close ups of their faces.

1940s

By the 1940s, character illustrations were the most prominent.

1950s

In the 1950s we start to see poster designers trying conceptual approaches, such as the Love in the Afternoon poster which is free of characters.

1960s

60s posters don’t go as far as getting rid of illustrations altogether but, play a more important role in the layouts. The illustrations move to a more peripheral role.

1970s 

The 70s is an example of the fast movement of trends in technology and the media industry. Photographs play a big role in posters for the first time, often taking up the bulk of the poster.

1980s

This is where we start to see the movie poster in a form similar to what we see today. Large photos as the big central image are more. However, the amount of text has increased compared to previous decades. 

1990s

Posters of the 90s include pretty much what we have today; photgraphic backgrounds, slogans at the top, and the names of the protagonists and antagonists actors above the name of the film.

2000s

Through the 80s and 90s we see the evolution of movie posters slowed down. In the 2000s we see improvements to keep up with trends in photography, but the layout often remains the same. Towards the end of the decade as minimalism comes into account. That can be seen in the posters of movies such as Up, The Dark Knight and Buried.