Evaluation

Evaluation
Mohammad Mojaddidi – A2 Media

In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
 Considering how the genre of our trailer is a hybrid between action/comedy we looked into forms and
conventions of those two particular genres in order to make our film recognisable by our audience as well as
keeping them interested.
 Looking back into action films such as Smokin Aces, the way they keep their audience attracted and having
them understand what type of genre the film is, they use forms and conventions like Mise En Scene, Character
Types, Music, Sound effects, dialogue etc. During the Smokin Aces trailer, you can identify the costume the
characters are wearing as well as the use of props to distinguish what genre the film is; we can see that certain
characters are wearing outrageous costumes and having them hold weapons like machine guns, chainsaws and
rifles to show what genre this is. Consequently action films use mainly Mise En Scene (Costumes, Props etc.) In
their trailers to have audiences recognise what type of genre this is. Our audience can distinguish the fact that
our trailer is an action film is because of the use of Mise En Scene; some of our characters appear to be wearing
smart clothes that rich gangsters such as the mafia wear, this gives the audience hints that this film will involve
criminal activity which relates to action. The use of props also gives out hints that the genre of the film is action
because two of our characters use guns in the film, now this immediately tells the audience that this will be an
action film and it supports it even more by the use of non-diegetic sound effects like gun shots which
emphasised action and shock.
 Seeing how our film trailer is also comedy, we used similar forms and conventions to give our audience hints to
recognise what type of film this will be. However majority of the forms and conventions were different to that
of action films for example, in our trailer we used character types to give out hints that our trailer is a comedy;
in a particular scene, we used a character to play the role of a ‘fat person’ that is running up a hill shouting
whilst he runs out of breath. This instantly changes the mood of the audience as they thought this film will be
action/thriller but this scene questions the audience that this may also be a comedy film. Having said that, our
use of soundtrack also hints out the idea of our trailer being a comedy film because it’s very up-beat and joyful;
for example in the beginning of our trailer everything was dull and scary and the soundtrack supports that
notion even more as it sounds very serious or as if something dangerous is about to occur but that mood
instantly changes when the soundtrack is changed into a more up-beat one and this sort of toys with the brain
of the audience by making them think it was an action/thriller film but it can possibly be a comedy too.

Continued
 Within our trailer, we use text on screen to engage with the audience as our trailer includes little
dialogue so the text supports the notion of helping the audience come up with the plot of the film and
begin to create questions between each other regarding what the film will be about. For example in
the beginning of our trailer, we have the words ‘Money, Power and Respect’ written on the screen;
this will instantly make the audience discuss what this film may be about as they can assume that
there will be a battle between a few people that is in search for money, power, respect. Therefore the
use of text on screen is very valuable as it’s a common trait in existing films that connect to the
audience.
 Our trailer also displays the name of the film, its release date, website and a short description of the
main people involved in creating this film trailer at the end. All this information comes at the end so
the audience can remember it, this is very important as the audience needs to know when the film
will be released and how they can get more info about the film via the official website. Having said
that, all company logos are also distributed in our trailer because they were the companies that were
involved in the production of the film and this is also important due to the fact that audiences can see
that if the companies that made this film also made previous successful films so it will only give them
support to check this out because it’s from the same company that made a previous film that was very
successful.
 During our editing, we applied slow cuts and fast cuts to surprise the audience that this is both an
action/comedy film. In the start of our trailer we used slow cuts to intrigue the audience as well as
give them suspense and also surprise them by using fast cuts to create excitement and shock
throughout the trailer.
 We added different types of characters in our trailer to reach out to a wider audience and have them
relate to these characters. For example, in our trailer there are a mixture of characters from different
ethnicities and majority of them are teenagers so through that teenagers in reality can relate to that
and people from different backgrounds too.

Continued
 The way in which we have challenged forms and conventions of real
media products is by the use of our characters. In a typical film a
female role is usually the damsel in distress that always needs to be
saved by the hero of the film but throughout our trailer we have
challenged this stereotype by projecting our female character in
changing the traditional role of what a hero usually is into a female.
Having said that Propp’s theory in real media products have also been
challenged in our trailer. His theory claims that in a film there are
seven different types of characters (Hero, Villain, Helper, Mentor,
Dispatcher, Blocker, and Prize) and through this most films are given
support in creating their product. However in the beginning of our
trailer the audience have identified who the antagonist (Villain) is
considering how he has murdered a few people but later on in the
trailer we see the so called antagonist again but this time his
appearance is very innocent and he has a sort of positive vibe around
him; this can create an enigma as well as questioning the audience
whether or not he is a good person or a bad one.

How effective is the combination of your
main product & ancillary task?
 There are various of ways in which you can successfully promote your product, we
concluded to promote our film trailer though a film magazine and a poster. I decided to
promote our trailer through the well known film magazine ‘Empire’, the reason I chose
that was due to the fact that it has many readers that pick up a copy in their daily life
and through this it will enable our product to receive a wider audience. Added to that a
film poster can also bring us a wider audience as it will be advertised in several different
areas that are usually busy. People can take notice of our poster and it will notify them
about when the film will be in theatres as well as more information.
 Choosing Empire Magazine as the company to promote my film trailer, I looked into
their existing film magazines and they all looked quite professional and they each had a
unique template but the only factor that wasn’t changed was the Empire logo. By
creating my Empire front cover I had to use the typical codes and conventions of a
magazine. This means that I needed the following in my front cover: Masthead, Key
image, Main Selling line, barcode, cover lines.
 It is important that my front cover has a specific theme that my audience can come to a
conclusion about what type of film this may possibly be. For example in my front cover
my main selling line was the name of my film which was ‘The Bloodsport’, this
immediately can make the reader think that this film may be an action/horror film. I
supported this notion by writing the text in the colour red which signifies danger or a
warning and through this readers will agree with how they have said that the film will be
an action/horror film. Added to that I changed the colour of my key image into an invert
to make it appear more realistic thus blend in with the layout.

Codes & Conventions of Front my Cover
magazine
Masthead – This was
the only part of the text which
had to remain the same font
like other existing Empire
magazines only because fans
of the magazine can
recognize it. It needed to be
very big and bold so it can
catch the eye of a potential
reader.
Barcode – like
every other
magazine a barcode
must be included in
the front cover
Key image – The
key image you can see
is from the actual trailer
our group made,
however I changed the
colours of it to make it
appear more appealing
and interesting the
reader. Added to that
the character you see
in the cover is having
direct contact with a
reader to make it more
engaging.
Cover lines – These
are in front covers to notify
what else will be involved in
this issue, however they won’t
appear as big as the main
selling line as the main selling
line will be about the product
being promoted
Main selling line – The
main selling had to be written in a
font that is very attractive and big
in order to catch the attention of a
customer.

Film Poster
 The film poster is my 3rd electronic product that I made, I needed to add important codes and
conventions such as naming the directors, producers, actors as well as when the film will be released
and also company logos with a BBFC rating. Without those factors a film poster wouldn’t be
considered a film poster because those factors are portrayed through film posters to notify the
audience when the film will be released and who directed/starred in the film.
Title of the film
Key image of
the main actor in
the centre
BBFC rating
Name of main actor
Company logos
Title of the film
Release date
Description about the
creators of the film

What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
 I’ve learned many things from my audience feedback, it has enabled me and my group
to create a product to the best quality. At the end of the day whether the feedback is
good or bad it still allows you to improve on your product thus get even better at the
issues that needs to be worked on. For example comparing my AS music magazine to
my A2 film magazine I was given little feedback to improve on because I learned a lot
from my mistakes during my AS tasks. Added to that, having to create a film trailer is an
even bigger challenge because it’s more difficult but with audience feedback you can
successfully create a film trailer that is professional and realistic comparing it to existing
film trailers.
This is one of the questions I asked my
audience regarding what they disliked
about my trailer. This facilitated me to
improve on the specific parts of the trailer
that was disliked the most in our trailer
and in this case in our first draft the
dialogue couldn’t be heard properly so our
group came together and managed to fix
that issue by recording each dialogue
separately on a microphone and then
importing it on Final Cut Pro. Without
audience feedback I wouldn’t have
learned this technique to use later on in
the future on another project.

How did you use media technologies in the construction
and research, planning and evaluation stages?
 Apple Mac/Samsung laptops: From the beginning of our course, we mainly
used Mac’s to help us do our research and planning mainly because Mac’s
are very fast. Having said that our sixth form installed the latest ones out
which was even better compared to last year where they weren’t up to date
with their system software. However because I’m not used to Mac’s I also
used Samsung notebook laptops which was a great asset because it was
small so I managed to carry it around with ease it. Finally the most important
part of using Mac’s over laptops was the fact that it had the editing software
Final Cut Pro and Photoshop even though the Samsung laptop had
Photoshop as well it still never had an editing software.

 Blogger: We used the blogging website ‘Blogger’ to post all
our work in. This was very helpful because we can email our
teachers with ease and ask them for constructive feedback to
improve on anything. Having said that we can all keep track
of our work as a group by updating each other in the
comments section and just checking your friends blogs to
see if you haven’t missed out on any important information
that needs to be uploaded. We mainly used blogger to
upload our planning and research documents as well as
evaluation processes.

 Photoshop: This software was very important because this is what we used
to create our Film magazine front cover and Film poster. From previous
experience I know the basics of using Photoshop which was very difficult at
first but after getting the hang of it, it’s pretty simple. This software is used by
many professionals in many industries around the world and Hollywood is
one of them. This software allows you to manipulate images and apply all
sorts of tricks to create a product that appears to be quite professional. A
tool that I really find helpful in Photoshop is the Magic wand tool; this simply
allows you to get rid of any unnecessary things on a specific image. For
example in my front cover magazine, the key image originally was a normal
photograph that had a background which I did not want because it didn’t
make the front cover appealing so with this tool I managed to get rid of all
that and quite frankly it turned out really good.

 Issuu: This was a very creative website that allowed me to add any
sort of documentation on their website and it then presents itself as
if it’s a book and the animation used every time you wish to slide to
the next page is very creative. During my 2 years of studying Media
Studies I enjoyed discovering various different media technologies
online that is very creative in presenting you work.
 Prezi: This technology was the same as Issuu, it had its own
creative manner of presenting work. The best thing about this
website is that you are given the chance to download your Prezi and
it’s basically a much better version of Microsoft Power point. It’s
quite fast and has unique features which gives you more dynamic
presentations and a wonderful approach towards visualizing
information. I used this in my research and planning.

 YouTube: We used YouTube on certain occasions to research existing film trailers as
well as other film trailers that were created by A2 students. We looked into those to
seek inspiration and give us an idea on how to begin; also we used YouTube to search
soundtracks that would be suitable for our trailer and we found a variety of them but the
Snatch Soundtrack stood out the most with Ocean’s 12 and The Dark Knight. We also
used YouTube to upload our film trailer to see if we can get any feedback from anyone
in general as well as to share it with friends to get their opinion on it.
 Google: Our group and I used Google to search for existing film posters and magazines
to help us get an idea on how to create our own one. Similarly to the way we used
YouTube we also discovered other students who did A2 Media and saw how their
magazines/posters came out. This gave us more confidence and gave us a clear view
on how to produce two electronic products. Google was also used to help us learn the
different sets of camera angles as well as researching into narrative theory to help us
create our characters and storyline. Added to that we used Google to get us storyboard
templates without us having to create one ourselves so more time was saved with the
use of Google.

 Slideshare: This website was used to upload any presentations that we created in our
research and evaluation stages in order to then share it on Blogger. Added to that we
discovered many different presentations from other A2 students who appear to have
uploaded their final evaluation as well as a analyses of their magazine front cover and
film posters. This came into good use to help us a lot in constructing all our stages as
we understood clearly on how we must complete our work.
 Final Cut Pro: This software was very vital in our entire course because this was the
only available software that enables you to edit videos thus create a trailer that
successfully looks professional. What I liked about this software was that it was very
clear and simple to use compared to other editing software's such as Sony Vegas which
I found very difficult to use but Final Cut Pro helped us a lot on improving our trailer from
the feedback we received. For example we managed to change the colour of our trailer
into one that actually looks like a film. The amazing thing about this software was the
amount of effects that were available to use. Our group struggled at the start because
we never knew how to make a trailer that looks very professional like existing film
trailers until Final Cut Pro came.

 Shooting Equipment: The equipment we used to shoot our trailer was a
Nikon D300, this camera was very good because it was capable of recording
in HD quality as well as taking high quality photographs. Using this camera
last year I managed to learn how this functions and I had no difficulties in
using this camera. Our group all found the use of this camera very help and
easy to film with little difficulties. The only issue we faced was how the
battery life was always short even when it was charged it was wasted quickly
and that’s one reason why our shooting took a while to complete. Having
said that we also used a tripod during our filming and we managed to find it
a lot useful as it allowed us to record certain shots that were very shaky but
with the help of a tripod it was very steady and it supported the Camera a
lot. A memory card was also used to store in our clips before using it to
import all the files onto the Mac. The equipment’s were used in the
construction and planning stages.

Evaluation

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