Evaluation - Question 1

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

The media has its own forms, codes and conventions that they use to construct reality. The codes make up the conventions which help audiences to understand the genre as it forms the elements that we expect to see.

 As our chosen genre was Social Realist Drama, we analysed and researched the forms and conventions of real media texts of the same genre to help us plan and produce our own products. From this we found that the main conventions that occurred regularly were things such as ‘hoodies’, gun crime, drug abuse and gangs. We also found that films of this genre use locations set in urban environments often at night, and rural and secluded areas are often avoided. In the trailer, use of low angles and close ups were used to make the main character seem more threatening. Another trait of this genre is a fast paced edit. This creates excitement and anticipation within the audience generating interest within the film. However, due to this fast paced edit there is less time for the characterisation of the characters so the audience feel less connected to them.

To begin with we analysed a cross media campaign where we each found that the same fonts were used across the products. The products tended to keep the images similar but with different effects as you can see from the Friday the 13^th campaigns. This makes the film more recognisable with viewers of the media products.

 

From this we followed these conventions in our own products where we kept the fonts for the film title consistent and the tagline presented in each. The images we used weren’t the same but showed the use of the same character in the same costume as we had used for the film poster.

My research into magazine covers showed me that the use of a single image was used to promote the film of the issue. Some of the magazines had more text than others, and for our own product, we decided to use more text on the page, as it has more of selling point to viewers, as they see more that they can read about from the cover. The type of magazine that this genre would be promoted in would be a more independent magazine, for example Little White Lies. My research into this cover showed me that the design didn’t use as many effects as other well-known magazines so we decided to challenge these coventions and advertise more articles.

When analysing the film posters I researched, it was clear that they focus on persuasion techniques to get people to watch the film by advertising different ways to get more information. For example, the Adulthood film poster includes the film director’s name, which works for fans of that director to know what genre and style of film it is going to be. Included also is a number that people can text to receive a free trailer of the film. We decided to develop this convention by putting a website across the bottom of the poster, which would link audiences to a site with more advertising and information on the film. I also realised that the mise-en-scene was very important for the covers. As our film genre is Social Realist, a more urban environment worked better for the genre and poster, which is a code used from the Adulthood poster. To make the poster look more professional I used the conventional ideas of adding in company logos, and production information in small below the title.

To plan our trailer, i watched and analysed the teaser trailer of Adulthood. When watching this i found that main conventions followed in this genre were elements such as fast paced editing to create tension and anticipation, and also settings that we could use for our own trailer. Also the characters in the trailer were shown wearing ‘hoodies’ and often short cut shots of violence were shown. You get to see the social class of the characters by the establishing shots that are shown and the costumes they wear. We used these elements in our own film to show that we had understood these conventions and to also represent the type of character we wanted to portray.

In our trailer we used props of guns and fake drugs. We used these as a symbol to show the type of characters we were using in our product. We also followed the element of costumes used in this genre, where the main character wore jeans, black jumper and body warmer. This costume resembles a more ‘chav’ style and represents the social class that you expect when watching this genre of film. Another character in the film was ‘Boss’ who is seen wearing a suit which shows his wealth and status.

Overall, our group has fully understood the codes and conventions of this genre and we have developed them into our own media products well. We chose to use the elements of gangs, drugs and gun crime as a main storyline for our film and challenged the way that the characters are shown through their costumes and roles that they play in the film. As we have used these conventions throughout our media products we have used and developed the forms of real media texts.

Evaluation - Question 2

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

Cross-media advertising - advertising the same product or service in several different types of media which are offered by a single-company provider


To make the combination of my products more effective, I researched into the cross-media advertising campaign for Friday the 13th. I found that they repeated some of the features and elements across each media product. For example the font and text was kept the same throughout all three media products. This created a logo for the film so that it made it more recognisable. This was also shown through the images used, as the character became the main figure for the film, who is also seen in the film trailer. At the end of this research I understood that the reason for this was to ensure that more people would recognise the product being sold and would be able to associate one with another, therefore the thought of the product stuck in the mind more than just seeing it from one media product.

http://egrahamstratford.blogspot.com/2010/10/cross-media-campaign.html

From my research, I went on to do my own media products. I followed the same conventions of the cross-media advertising, using the same type and font for the ancillary tasks. I kept the representation the same also so that there wouldn't be a difference between them, keeping the style consistent. We also used the tag line '£10,000, 1 WEEK' across all three products, representing the film. Having this combination emphasises the promotion of the film in the same way the Friday the 13th film promotion does.

 

I think that the combination of all three products has worked well using the conventions that I have researched in the Friday the 13^th campaign. Using the same font for the title and tag line across all three media pieces shows the understanding of the codes and conventions. We took into consideration the mise-en-scene which would represent the characters in the same way each product did. For example the costumes used show the characters in the same light as shown in the trailer. Also having the main character standing in front in the film poster, and having a single image of him for the magazine poster represents the same status as the trailer. Using all these techniques promote the film in the way cross-media advertising does, which I think brings all three products together well.
The purpose of having a film poster is for advertising the film out in public, where you are most likely to see it on billboards, bus stops etc. The purpose of the magazine promotion is so that people can read reviews on the film and find out more information about the film and get ratings. The main product, teaser trailer, has the most purpose of advertising the film and giving the audience a plot about the film and gives them a feel of what it’s going to be like.
Overall, all three media products have worked effectively with the combination of characters, fonts, tag lines and props. I am happy with how each of these products have come out because I think together they have worked well and it is a successful cross-media campaign.

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To get my audience feedback I created a questionnaire for each product and got 15 people of my target audience to answer my questions. I also did interviews where I recorded them on my phone. I then analysed the answers to find out what the positive and negative responses were, and find areas of improvement that I could use for future products.

For the film poster, my target audience rated it highest in between 7 and 8. Most agreed that it was eye catching but the information wasn’t clear enough. For example, improvements suggested were to make the film title brighter and bolder so that it stood out more, as people agreed that the tagline took the attention away. This feedback showed me that the tagline did need repositioning, but would have left me with a big gap in the centre of the image which would have caused the poster to look weak. One of the suggestions were to add in another character to fill in the gap which was a constructive suggestion as it is a good idea and would make the poster look better as it would solve the problem of the positioning of the tagline and also the gap created.

The positive feedback showed me that I had got the mise-en-scene right as they were all able to understand the genre from the setting, costume and props used, and the composition of the image made the poster eye-catching. Some of the feedback said that the poster looked professional and conventional which teaches me that the certain information I included was necessary and helped improve the poster.

http://egrahamstratford.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-01-17T14%3A30%3A00Z&max-results=6&zx=eb0e5652b1c000a1

My magazine cover got a rating of 8, being most common, but 5/15 rated it at a 9. All agreed that it was an eye catching cover, mainly due to the gun being pointed towards the camera. Some said that it was bright and appealing, which made it exciting. This showed me that the single image of the main character worked effectively for the cover. The feedback also told me that the amount of text on the cover was enough to draw readers in to buy the magazine as it gave them more to look at, and interest them with the articles advertised on the front. The feedback I got didn’t give me much areas of improvement to learn from except for possible suggestions of having a different colour background for the masthead so that there wasn’t much contrast between the top and bottom of the magazine. I don’t think I would use this suggestion as I am happy with how the magazine layout and presentation looks. I think the masthead works effectively on its own with a bright background as it stands out more.

Finally, I learnt that the trailer was very successful in many ways. For example reaching out to the target audience, making it exciting enough to watch and then going on to watch the full film. It got the highest rating of 8 which tells me that the trailer worked well and effectively. All said that it represented the genre well which shows that our planning and research contributed effectively to our final product. We got a few improvement suggestions such as including less of the storyline as many thought a bit too much was given away and it should be less sequenced. This criticism is something I could agree with as it seems more of a short story in a trailer than a teaser trailer. As most people agreed on this point it shows me that I need to consider my sequencing and shots more so that enough of the plot is shown without giving too much of the story away. I still think the trailer worked well, as the transitions and music all worked well together, but taking out less of the storyline will increase the effectiveness of the trailer and make it more of a teaser trailer.

 

Audience feedback is used to see how the product is working, and if the meaning of the product is being portrayed. The feedback I got was able to tell me whether my work has been successful or not in representing my genre, and advertising the film well. I have learnt from my feedback that all three products have represented the genre well as was easy to understand the roles that each character played in the three media products. The improvements suggested have also shown me areas that didn’t work as effectively such as the tagline and empty spaces in the film poster. Also the amount of storyline given away in the trailer was brought to my attention and was clearer to see after getting the feedback. Having the feedback makes it easier and helpful for me to improve on areas that didn’t excel as well as others, and also make future products work better.

Evaluation - Question 4

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

New media technologies have been increasingly helpful to the media in the production of media texts. During this portfolio, we used different media technologies to help our planning and production.

RESEARCH
To progress to our final products, we each constructed primary and secondary research.

I began my initial research into teaser trailers, film posters and magazine covers. I found my magazine covers and film posters through Google Images. I used Youtube as a way to get my teaser trailers and upload them onto my blog where i was able to see clearly areas for analysis and stop and start so that i could understand the trailer better.

I then researched into the different types of technologies that i expected us to of used throughout this project. Again, using the internet was a way for me to find out about these technologies and write up a brief evaluation of how we would be using each of these and to show an understanding of the products.

From this i went on to do my questionnaires to find out how general audiences felt about this style of genre. I used different ways of sending this questionnaire out to people. I first began by printing it out and handing it out to different people, and then i decided to use Facebook. I used this as i knew it was an easy access to a lot of friends that would be willing to complete the questionnaire for me. I also sent it out using Google Mail, as not everyone uses Facebook, such as older audiences.

http://egrahamstratford.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-media-facebook.html?zx=aba43be54450e8

PLANNING

When it came to planning, there were a lot of things that my group had to consider to make sure our final products were thought through well enough to make them as effective as we wanted them to be. We began by doing a props list, so we could see what kind of budget we would need, if any, and what we would need to get together for our products. To create this list we used Google Images. Google is a quick easy way for us to get access to the certain types of images we need, and also a place to find where we could buy such props if we needed to.

For the ancillary tasks, I did a font test where we looked at a different selection of fonts from dafont.com, and chose our favourites for the genre. This website has different categories for the types of fonts they have which made it easy for me to select which would be best for our genre such as ‘Destroy’ ‘Cartoon’ and ‘Distorted’. Each of these categories provided most appropriate fonts for our products and genre.

We also had construct mock-ups for the final products so that we were able to see what would look good and what needed adding to. This was also done to become more familiar with the software so that we knew how to make the final products stronger. To do this I used Adobe Photoshop CS3. For the first mock-up I used an image from Google, until we had done our own Photoshop where I then tried to see how it would work with our own images.

To plan for our trailer, we did a list of possible locations that we could use to shoot our film and then selected ones that would be most appropriate and easy for us all to get to as well as the actors. I went round to get images of the location we decided on to get a location reccee so we could see what areas to use. I got these images off my phone Samsung Tocco Lite. My phone provided images with good enough quality that were clear to see.

 To help with the structure of our trailer, I drew out a storyboard of our shots so we were able to see the basic flow of what the final trailer would look like. We then used this storyboard to scan in and create animatics using Final Cut Pro. Tim used each image from the storyboard to put them in a sequence which we thought worked best, and also cut out shots that weren’t necessary and also got the timing right. He also used the sound effects that were provided to add to the trailer. This was helpful to us as we as a group were able to criticise our own work and visualise how our trailer would come out, making it easier for us to get the right shots.

Tim and his friend were responsible for creating the music, which they did in Logic Studio. Once they created this, he was able to add it into the animatics, showing where certain shots worked well with parts of the music, and gave us even better timing. This was something we could look back to when making the final trailer.

http://egrahamstratford.blogspot.com/2010/11/skrilla.html

 CONSTRUCTION

To construct the ancillary tasks, we came up with a shooting schedule of when we could take our images. We had two shoots: one in the studio, one on location. For the studio shoot, we used Graces camera – Nikon D40. For this shoot she used low key lighting using just one soft box to light up the main character for the shoot. She set her shutter speed to 125 and the ISO to 400 so that the camera complied well with the lights in the studio. she used a range of shots, both portrait and landscape to give more variation to the shots. When doing the location shoot I used my own camera – Canon 450D. We located the shoot in an alley as we thought it would be appropriate to the film trailer. To get my shots I used a range of shots using the zoom ring on the camera. I had to change the ISO and shutter speed to make sure that the lighting was correct and there was no over or under exposure in the images. I changed the white balance as the natural lighting was very grey and was quite bright, so I changed the setting to ‘cloudy’ so that it gave a warmer colour to the images.

 

I then used these images and put them into Adobe Photoshop CS5. 

For the film poster, I edited the original image changing the levels and curves to adjust the lighting, and also corrected the colours and saturation. As we weren’t happy with the background, I used my camera again to go out and get images of a more urban setting that we could use for the poster. I adjusted the lighting again on the background, and then using the selection tool, I cut out the characters from the original image and placed them onto the new background.

  

 

 

I rearranged the characters so that the main character was larger and in the foreground, with the two muggers smaller and in the background.

 

I then used the font that we had chosen from dafont.com and placed our title in the middle of the characters. For the text, I first began using a colour scheme of red and white, but felt the red was too powerful for the image so I used a colour scheme of blue and white instead. I used the effects of having an outer glow on the text, so if the text was white it would have a blue glow and vice versa.

   

For the magazine cover, I began adjusting the levels and curves first. I also edited the colours as the image started out quite cold.

 I then made a new layer of the background and then chose to use the radial blur.

As I had made a new layer, I was able to use the eraser to make the main character in focus, keeping the background blurred. I also used this same effect to turn the image into black and white, and then used the eraser tool again to turn the character back into colour

Once I had finished editing the original image, I then moved it onto a new page. I had already created the masthead previously for the font selection, so I added that to the layers. For the text I used the fonts provided and kept a colour scheme of red and white. I used the same font for the film title from dafont.com

For our trailer we used two cameras: Sony A1E and Sony HVR-V1E. we began recorded using the Sony A1E. We then moved on to using a Sony HVR-V1E because the features and quality were better. The Sony HVR-V1E had a better dynamic range and colour quality as described in my earlier post.

When filming we used both handheld and steady shots using a tripod. As a lot of the filming was done in daylight, we used the exposure control button on the camera to keep our shots from being over exposed. To also keep our shots in focus, the focus ring was often adjusted. We also had to readjust the white balance for each change of setting. We often set our own white balance by placing a white sheet in front of the camera and manually setting the white balance.

When we had finished filming, we took the tapes from the camera and imported our film into the Macs at the college. Tim was responsible for most of the editing as he was most familiar with the software, but the rest of the group gave ideas, criticism and feedback to ensure we were all involved in the making of the trailer. The software used for editing was Final Cut Pro.

We used this to cut our shots and put them into a basic sequence of order. This was made easy by using the section across the bottom that showed the times segments of where each shot was. Tim then imported the music track, where we were then able to cut our shots down even more to fit the music timing.

Once we had all our shots in place, Tim then began to add on the transitions onto the shots. He used a lot of fading transitions which worked well, but also kept a lot of them as cut shots to add the drama of the trailer. After this, we then added in title cards at parts that we felt weren’t necessary or relevant, but also so that they were put in the right times and places.

EVALUATION

To evaluate our work effectively, we got audience feedback on our media products. I used different ways of getting this feedback such as questionnaires and voice recorders. I scanned in each of my questionnaires and analysed them on blogger. For the interviews I recorded, I used my phone and used the sound recorder on my phone. This was an Lg Optimus One, which is an android phone and has good quality microphone built in. I then uploaded these recordings onto Audioboo which is a website where you can blog your recordings. I used these to analyse as well to constructively analyse and criticise my work.

Overall using new media a technology has been overly helpful to the whole production of our work as it has helped us to plan effectively, evaluate and produce good quality media products. During the whole  portfolio we have used blogger to upload our work and be able to work as a group well.