Advanced portfolio evaluation

Advanced Portfolio Evaluation
By Alima Ali

My chosen brief:
A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer together with two of the following three options
A website homepage for the film
A film magazine front cover, featuring the film
A poster for the film
I chose to create a magazine font cover featuring the film and a poster for the film.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Codes and Conventions: Film trailer
Within my film trailer, i used a variety of different camera angles and shots but primarily focused on using close-ups and panning of the camera. The main purpose of the close-ups and extreme close-ups were to engage the audience within the fast paced action and for the audience to identify the characters expressions and emotions.

The duration of the trailer was just over a minute which gave the audience enough time to gain a brief insight into the storyline without giving too much away. This is the average duration for a teaser trailer.

From our research, we identified that a number of transitions mainly ‘Black to White’ are used within a horror teaser trailer to create enigma. We made use of such transitions throughout our trailer and also included blackouts and fast cuts to build up suspense for the audience.
We ensured that the trailer started off with the film institution logo which was Artisan Entertainment. The purpose of this was so that the audience could identify the creators of the film and the age group that the film is targeted at. Artisan Entertainment produced the film The Blair Witch Project which is a horror film so by including their logo at the beginning of the trailer, the audience would be encouraged to go and watch our film as they would be aware of the fact that this institution had created The Blair Witch Project. I included the green screen right at the beginning of my trailer as it appears on every single film trailer and is a legal requirement which is why i had to include it in my trailer.

Music in film trailer:
I used a song that was used for the film ‘Dead Silence’. I chose this song as it is a dramatic song that starts off slow, but then builds up speed and is able to successfully reflect the horror genre of my trailer. The music has an element of darkness and is in synch with the transitions used in my trailer.
Despite having little narrative in my trailer (aside from the film release date and the film website), I feel that the music created an overall dramatic effect. The horror teaser trailers that i had researched had some sort of an eery sound track which is why i felt it necessary to include music in my trailer.
Text in film trailer:
I included text mainly near the end of my film trailer. The first piece of text that i included was the film’s release date so that the audience are aware of when the film will be shown in cinemas which a common convention of film trailers. I also included the films website which not only acknowledged the title of the film, but also the site which they can visit to find more information about the film. I used a white font colour so that it stood out against the black background.

I used the same font that was used on the Blair Witch Project film poster on my poster and also created my own red stickman and placed it above my film title. The stickman leaves the audience in thought as to what the symbol may mean and how it may be relevant to the plot.
The background used on the poster is woods which indicates to the audience that this is the main location and setting for the film. Like the background on the Blair Witch project, I inverted the image so that the hooded figure stands out against the dark background and this in turn, reflects the films genre.
I included ‘If you go down to the woods today you will surely be in for a big surprise’ as the films strap line and this also signifies to the audience that the films prime location is the woods and a film strap line is a common convention that is always included on the film poster.
I placed the strap line above the film title, similarly to the Blair Witch Project and also included the films website right at the bottom of the page which provides audiences with more information about the film. This is a common convention that is included on all film posters.
My film poster makes use of four main colours: black, white, grey and white. These colours are also used on the Blair witch project poster and the colours make a bold statement. The colours that I have used on my poster allows the audience to identify the films genre and creates a sense of mystery and darkness.
Codes and Conventions: Film Poster

Codes and Conventions: Film Poster
The magazine cover on the right-hand side is the cover that I did for my ancillary task. A common generic convention of film magazine covers most specifically Empire magazines is to feature a main character from the film on the cover which is seen as being the viewers main focal point. The image that i used is a mid shot of a hooded figure whereby the face has been edited and covered in scratches, nails and a plaster for the mouth which turn reflects to the audience the films genre.
Another convention is to clearly display the magazine title on the cover, usually within the top margin. I used the same font that is used for the ‘Empire’ magazine title and added a red outline, red being a consistent colour that i had used throughout the magazine which can be interpreted as representing blood and hence, representing the genre horror. The use of black and grey adds a sense of mystery and darkens and leaves the audience in thought as to who the figure on the cover may be which encourages them to read the magazine to find out more about the film.
A common convention of Empire magazines is to advertise one film in particular and to display content relating to that film and/or to that films genre on the front cover and this is what i did on my magazine cover. The strap lines that i had used on the cover alongside the films featured for the ‘Real Reviews’ sections are all iconic horror films. For those who are unable to identify that Empire is a film magazine, the strap lines used are able to distinguish this to the audience.
Other obvious magazine conventions is including the magazine issue number, the price of the magazine, the barcode and the magazine website and I displayed all four elements on my cover. The website is shown so that the target audience know which site to visit to find out more information about both Empire and the film The Outsiders.
The strap line ‘The outsiders-World Exclusive!’ which I positioned above the masthead indicates to the audience that the film is exclusive and restricted and so, has not yet been featured anywhere else. This gives the audience the impression that they are only able to find out more about the film if they pick up and read the magazine. Such strap lines that advertise the film is a common convention of film magazines.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
I believe that the combination of my main product goes very with my ancillary tasks and believe that the films genre is easily identifiable in all three products. I ensured that i used a consistent colour scheme as well as typeface throughout which in turn, signified to my target audience that the products were a package and that they were promoting the film ‘The Outsiders’. At one time, i used 2-3 different fonts on my cover but i felt that this was necessary as when i conducted my research, i noticed that on many of the magazine covers, a combination of different fonts were used as opposed to just using one particular font.
On both my main product and ancillary tasks, i ensured that the i had included an image of the hooded figure, primarily so that my target audience would be able to identify that the figure played a significant role within the film. I also ensured that i used elements of greyscale and black and white in all my products in order to reflect not only the films genre, but to also add a sense of darkness and mystery which in turns, creates enigma for my target audience.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I showed the media products that i had created to my target audience in order to receive their feedback, I received some positive feedback from my target audience and some of this feedback is shown below:
“ I felt that i was able to identify the films genre straight away. The use of dark colours such as grey and black clearly showed that the film was revolved around the genre horror/thriller”
“I liked how you ensured that all the clips used in the trailer were in black and white. I thought this to be quite effective in capturing and holding the viewers attention and it certainly held mine!”
“I am a great fan of horror films and this is most definitely a film that i would go and watch! I liked how you included white flashes in the trailer as this left me in thought and created suspense. The colours that you used on both the magazine font cover and the film poster followed a consistent house style”
“I could tell straight away that the three products that you had created were part of a package. If i was to give you any critical feedback, it would be that some of the shots used in the trailer were a bit shaky. Whether this was purposely done in order to create a dramatic effect i do not know. Aside this, you had my attention throughout the trailer and i found the poster and magazine cover to be quite appealing”

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Digital Camera
I used a Digital SLR camera to take pictures for all three of my products. The camera allowed me to apply the rule of thirds whilst taking the pictures and also allowed me to take most of the pictures in black and white. With the digital camera, i was able to experiment with different camera shots in order to achieve the right effect e.g. mid shot of outsiders face used on the magazine cover in order to allow the audience to see the outsiders appearance.
Camcorder
I used a camcorder to capture and record the footage for my teaser trailer. I had never used a camcorder before so this gave me the opportunity of gaining some skills in recording. For certain shots, i had to attach the camcorder to a tripod in order to capture to capture the right shots.
Adobe Photoshop
I used this piece of software to create the black screens that displayed the film release date as well as the film website. This software was primarily used for the construction of the film poster and the magazine front coverand allowed me to edit the pictures. For example:
For the film poster I used a negative effect and also changed the brightness and contrast of the image.
- For the magazine front cover I used the magnetic lasso tool to go around the face of the character and then placed an image of scratches found from the internet over the outsiders face. I then adjusted the transparency of the scratches to make it look realistic.
Final Cut Pro
This software was used for the construction of the teaser trailer and allowed me to edit the footage and insert white flashes to create enigma. I had never used this software before so whilst using this software, i learnt skills such as how to edit footage.

For my research, i used the internet and websites such as Google to research existing films. The main focus of my research was the film ‘The Blair Witch Project’. I researched into both the films teaser trailer and the films poster in order to identify some of the conventions that were used. Such conventions included black and white footage and fast editing which reflected the films genre.
I also used the website Youtube to view existing horror teaser trailers i order to gain some ideas and inspiration for my own teaser trailer.

For my evaluation, i used the software Microsoft PowerPoint which proved to be very useful as it allowed me to insert pictures and screenshots of my coursework. It also allowed me to insert text to annotate my work as well as to insert multiple slides to explain the progress of my coursework.
As well as this, i also used a website called ‘SlideShare’ which allowed me to upload my evaluation to my blog which i created using a website called ‘Blogger’.

Advanced portfolio evaluation

by Alima Ali

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