2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
A typical UK crime drama trailer usually consists of quick transitions displaying mainly action
scenes with a variety of other cut scenes mainly including sex, drug taking and violence. UK
crime drama is a genre of film which has been used a lot in the last 15 years with some of the
best British films falling into this category such as films like ‘Snatch’ and ‘Lock Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels’. Each individual UK crime drama trailer usually follows one man or small group
of men on their often illegal adventures and activities. In some shots we have just Rowan
walking along smoking to emphasise how lonely he is post attack, the shot of him standing on a
river bank with his arms out is especially effective. This shot is very emotional as you are able to
see and because there isn’t much action in the trailer, it leaves a lot to the viewer’s imagination.
Following the character using almost a handycam angle is becoming very popular in film trailers
now as it exploits the emotions of the actor and you can tell a lot about the film just from facial
expressions so I used this to my advantage and had lots of scenes where Rowan was just walking
along. I also liked to keep closely to the location used for the attack, if you keep referring back to
a location it becomes very sentimental and will effect the viewer subliminally; I used the
location many times in the trailer so the audience don’t forget about what happens.
3. By way of challenging conventions, I have decided to go against the idea of audible dialogue or
voiceover leaving the oral side of the trailer purely down to the soundtrack. I decided to use Bob
Marley’s ‘Sun is Shining’ as the first song as it gives a more chilled out vibe accentuating Rowan’s
positive movements and the slides also make it clear that Rowan is doing well in life. I then
contrasted this with a Streets instrumental ‘Blinded by the Lights’ as it is a lonely
instrumental, even more lonely without lyrics and make it seem that Rowan is all on his own
now with no one to turn to.
Pre attack Post attack
4. How effective is the combination of your main product
and ancillary texts?
The two ancillary tasks that I have chosen to do are the film poster and magazine front cover.
The poster is simple yet effective, the grimey background picture of a river in Ipswich
accompanied by run down buildings and old bridge add the effect necessary for a gritty film.
The 3 main characters are in frames at the top of poster with the two villans being a lot darker
than the main character Rowan, giving the audience a hint relating to their morals and choices. I
came up with this design after looking through many film posters and gaining inspiration from
‘Outlaw’, I didn’t use a skyline, however I did use a landscape shot and edited it using Adobe
Photoshop making the photo more grainy and lifeless; the photo was actually taken on an
extremely sunny day. Again, Rowan being on his own and his picture being situated slightly
above the other two character’s shows that although he is higher up in the world, he is lonely
and has inevitably gained his success through upsetting a few people along the way.
5. The colour coding of the
title is also important as it
stands out and
‘more’, ‘revenge’ and
‘justice’ are all in the same
font colour, making the
most important words
more visible to the
audience. The font is
minimalistic, it’s not fancy
or trying to say too much;
remorse is a strong word
and needed to be
complimented by a
powerful font and colours.
The photo on the left is the original of the poster photo.
As you can see, the brightness has been altered
dramatically to make the day seem less positive. The
water also looks slightly cleaner in the original
photo, something I didn’t want. I also made the shadows
more solid and the concrete darker, giving the shot a
more eerie feel.
6. My magazine front cover uses a very simple
colour code of different shades of blue
which represents the deepness of the
photo, the deepness of the blue sea etc. The
blue also makes the scene seem calm, which
is a contrast to the genre which would go
against the usual codes and conventions. In
a stereotypical UK crime drama, on the front
cover of a film magazine it would probably
be represented by having lots of action going
on. However, I decided to go with a more
laid back approach, representing Rowan in
his more relaxed state which will induce
more readers out of curiosity. Editing
wise, not many modifications were made to
the background photo apart from some
brightness changed and the character shot
was cropped in Photoshop out of another
photo and merged in with the background
image creating a powerful image along with
the grit of the council flats behind him.
7. The combination of my ancillary texts are very effective in relation to my primary task. In my
trailer, one of the focal points is that after the attack, Rowan is very lonely and the magazine
photo captures the emotions perfectly. The way Rowan is pushing back his hair and the
expression on his face makes him seem like he has something to hide whilst at the same time
gaining sympathy from the audience. The magazine front cover then links in with the poster as
both backgrounds are of gritty origins however the photos of Rowan are very clean and crisp.
Having a photo of my main character in front of a council flat garage was risky however the
outcome is very effective; the same for the poster where I decided upon a very vague shot of a
bridge leading into a town.
These 2 screenshots are examples of the gritty locations I used, linking in with my magazine
front cover and poster.
8. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
For our audience feedback we had to create a questionnaire and play our trailers to the rest of
our class and showcase our ancillary texts. I have divided up my feedback into categories;
Feedback for Rowan, feedback for the soundtrack; feedback for the filming; feedback overall.
Each category will have positives and negatives.
9. Feedback for Rowan
• Positives:
Consistently good facial expressions linking in with the aura of the scene.
The smoking added effect and suited Rowan’s character.
His outfits were good as they were different from usual, thus giving a more shady
angle on Rowan’s personality which kept the audience guessing.
Although not someone you’re likely to see on a UK crime film, he kept in character
within the boundaries of the genre.
• Negatives
Looked like he was laughing before he got attacked which took away the drama
from the scene.
He looked too sad before the attack happened.
10. Soundtrack Feedback
• Positives:
Both soundtracks fitted in with the genre of the film.
The first song was very moving because although it was a happy song it still
sounded quite curious.
The instrumental added a lot of effect to the trailer as the use of no lyrics gave the
audience time to think and reflect.
The transition of songs was at the right time.
• Negatives:
Due to the instrumental, the trailer did actually need some form of vocals in the
latter stages to reduce confusion and add effect.
The transition was poor and too obvious.
The first song didn’t set the mood well enough.
11. Filming Feedback
• Positives
Transitions were good and well timed adding positive effects.
Good use of editing regarding the colour changes at the start.
Camera shots were good, especially the free cam following Rowan before the
attack.
The fades in and out of black added good effect.
The slow motion was very good.
• Negatives:
There were too many scenes were it faded in from and out to black, overusing the
feature.
Camera shots were too simple.
End scene could have been more dramatic.
12. Overall Feedback
• Positives:
The soundtrack linked in very well to the films scenes and general aura.
Not too much action which kept the audience guessing.
The characters were good and their outfits/personalities suited the film.
Ended on a cliff-hanger which kept audience in suspense.
• Negatives
Could have used a wider variety of locations.
More emphasis on other characters.
Different second song.
Voiceover would have been effective.
More characters needed, a female especially.
Wider variety of camera shots/angles
13. How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
During the whole process, from first ideas to completion, technology plays a huge part in being
able to produce my film trailer and ancillary texts and with the constant advances in
technology, tasks which five years ago would have been complicated, are now simpler and
improved.
Dell Inspiron N5110
For my trailer, I solely used my laptop which is a Dell Inspiron N5110, with Windows Live Movie
Maker pre loaded, editing pieces of film was made simpler due to Window’s new Movie Maker
which got rid of the idea of the timeline and made the layout more vague which at first was
daunting, however, once you got used to the program you realised how useful it was with all of
it’s editing features and simple to do slow motion technique.
For my ancillary texts I used one of the schools desktop PCs which has Adobe Photoshop CS4
and CS5 built in which made editing photos simple with tutorials online which I frequently used.
On Photoshop I was able to edit all aspects of a photo, I managed to turn a photo of a nice
landscape shot on a sunny day into a grimy, gritty shot of a bridge which looked like it had been
taken on a very overcast day.
14. Research
YouTube played a major part in my research as I was able to view as many film trailers as I
wanted, gaining inspiration from trailers such as Wild Bill and Snatch. Other website such as
Google allowed me to search in depth for ideas to support my ancillary texts as well as my
trailer.
Blogger
Blogger allowed me to keep updating my on-going media blog on the move or sitting at my
laptop. I often updated my blog from my phone with to do lists as well as uploading all my main
articles from my laptop.
Microsoft Office
Through Microsoft Office I was able to create word documents to upload via a PDF converter to
my blog. I was also able to create this evaluation using Microsoft Powerpoint, which through
SlideShare.com will be embedded into my blog.
FlipCam
With a FlipCam I was able to film wherever I wanted with it’s amazing durability as well as
battery life. The FlipCam made filming very easy and it did not compromise video quality in the
process. The audio was good although not used in the trailer and all of my trailer was filmed on
a FlipCam.
