Evaluation

Evaluation Rebecca Mahan Poster here Magazine cover here

In what way does your media project use, develop or challenge forms as conventions of real media products

In what way does your media project use, develop or challenge forms as conventions of real media products In my media project I did a movie trailer. I have used many conventions so that it resembles a real movie trailer and looks professional. I wanted to make and construct a movie trailer because I thought it would be exciting but challenging at the same time. I chose to do a horror movie trailer because I had already decided my target audience to be teenagers and younger adults. I researched into what my target audience looked for when picking to watch movies. They said that they like exciting and gory movies that are interesting at the same time. This research and audience feed back encouraged my idea of making a horror movie trailer. I first thought of the idea of doing a horror or thriller movie trailer through the movies that interest me. With the magazine cover and the poster that I have made there are many conventions in the both of them. This includes the bold and strong header, the big main picture which draws the audiences eyes in and also the splashes framing the picture to make it look the main focus on the magazine. This will catch the target audiences eye straight away. Moreover, I have used new effects to make the magazine and poster better and more current in today’s culture by making the title stand out more with new fonts and colours that work effectively. Also my media product develops conventions of downloading fonts of the internet that can be successful and promote the film well. This also shows how the internet can provide fonts for the movie. The target audience that chose to target my movie at was teenagers from the age 15 to about 20. This will allowed me some age range and also they all like the same kind of thing in a horror movie as it interests them. I got some feedback of locations to set my movie around so that they were able to have an input in what I was doing I made sure that my movie trailer followed forms as conventions that are in the media at the minute so that my target audience weren't to shocked with the end result. On the other hand I didn’t want to copy the trailers that are already out on the market as they wouldn’t be impressed in what I have produced because they would have seen it before. I therefore tried to change certain aspects of my movie trailer and digi pack but also wanted to follow conventions that have already been made.

In what way does your media project use, develop or challenge forms as conventions of real media products This is my poster that I have created and I have tried to follow as many conventions as possible so that this poster didn’t stand out of place but on the other hand I wanted it to catch the eye of the target audience. This is a poster from the movie the crazies. I took some inspiration from this poster from the way that the killer was walking away from the scene with the weapon in his hands. However, on this poster you can only see his legs and the weapon where as I wanted to go bigger so you could see the whole body and the location of the crime. I also liked the black and white theme that the crazies poster had but again I didn’t want to copy and I wanted my poster to stand out. This is why I made my actor black and white and then kept the background colourful which I think made a frame around the main figure in the poster The colour scheme that I have picked I think works very well with the genre I am doing. This is because you can tell what genre the film is from just looking at the colours. I have chosen red for blood and death, white so that it stands out from the dark black and grey background which are dark and mysterious colours to use. I feel that by using these colours it makes a very intriguing and interesting feel of the poster as people would want to go and see the movie to see what happens. By creating this feeling from just colours means that I can play on the frightening feel with the picture. With the font I have used I feel that it is subtle but why the slashes in the text shows that there is knife is involved within the film which is telling a story. It could suggest that no one is safe which is also my slogan and that is why it has been used. The slashes and the colour of the font both work together well as slashes create blood which link together and that is why I have used the colour but also the font. I got the font from www.dafont.com . I think that by using a font like this you can still tell what genre it is and it is done in a professional way and not an amateur way. I have used this picture because I think that it creates a very mysterious feel to the film that will be released but also because I think that people will be intrigued and want to find out what will happen. I think by having a very strong stance and figure shows that he is the bad guy and very strong. I have followed the conventions by using just one strong picture that stands out.

In what way does your media project use, develop or challenge forms as conventions of real media products This is my magazine cover and as you can see I have used the same picture that I used on my poster but I have made actor bigger so that the picture will stand out more on the shelves, I have also kept to the same colour scheme which creates a link between all three of my products. In my magazine I have kept to many conventions, One being that there is one main featured story within the magazine. Another being that there is a title, slogan and a barcode. . I think that the magazine has a sense of professionalism as it looks like other movie magazines that are on the market today such as Empire and many more. I have taken inspiration from Empire magazine as it is a very popular magazine that sells well and has a running theme throughout every magazine and I wanted the same effect. I have used the image as the main focus to draw the target audiences eye inwards to the picture as it is mysterious and people will want to know more. The one unconventional prospect on my magazine is the main story actor is not facing and looking at the audience. This is because if you have a lot at most magazine they want there main actor to be seen and the main focus. I still wanted this effect but on top I wanted the mysterious effect that would want people to open the magazine and find out more. For magazine I have taken inspiration from the Empire film magazine as shown below. As you can see I have taken the same layout as the magazine but with a different effect. On the empire magazine the main picture is in front of the title which shows a sense of importance and which is an convention. However, I have gone the opposite way of the convention and have my main picture facing the wrong way and not in front of the title. This shows that I have put my own stamp on the magazine but also shows I have creativity and thought about the picture.

In what way does your media project use, develop or challenge forms as conventions of real media products In terms of film there are two main types of theory to refer to. They are based around narrative and audience theories. One of the narrative theories is Todorov’s theory. Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in 5 stages. I think that my movie trailer only links to three of these stages. The first stage being a state of equilibrium (balance) at the outset. In my movie trailer this relates to the beginning of it where there are girls happy and dancing around because they are going on a camping trip. The second stage of the theory is a disruption of the equilibrium by some action. Again this relates to my movie trailer when the killer is walking in the woods looking for the gild with a knife. This raises suspicion that he is going to murder the girl. The third stage that my movie trailer links to is a recognition that there has been a disruption. In my movie trailer this happens when you see the bloody knife meaning that someone has been killed. The last two stages do not relate to my movie trailer because you don’t see every part of the movie in the movie trailer because this is giving it away. The second theory that relates to a narrative story line is Propp’s Theory of narrative. Vladimir Propp suggested that characters took on the role of narrative ‘spheres of action’ of functions. Propp came up with seven different character types. Again out of the seven characters my movie trailer only fits with three of them. The first being the Villain who usually creates a narrative disruption. In this case the villain in my movie trailer is the man holding the knife and waiting to kill the girl. This brings me onto the other character which is the Princess also known as the victim. This is usually the character that is most threatened by the villain and has to be saved, at the climax by the hero. The final character is the False Hero who appears to be good but is revealed, at the narratives end to have been bad. This character wont be seen in my movie trailer but this would be the twist if the story was to be released as a movie because the girl got hold of the knife and killed the villain. I think that this theory is very legit and I think that my trailer would link more with this theory if there were more characters in the trailer. The final theory is the audience theory which is when you consider your audience and whether your audience is active of passive. Active means that they are actively seeking to consume the product and passive means as in may have seen your product without actively seeking to. For passive audiences, one main theory is known as the Hypodermic needle model ( Adorno and Horkheimer, 1970’s). This suggests that media such as movie trailer can inject values, ideas and information into the audience. In the case of a trailer, it would be intended that this ‘injection’ would make the audience want to see the film. I think that my movie trailer relates to this theory a little bit because I have tried to make my trailer interesting and intriguing to get my audience to see the movie with different levels of moods and excitement by making the movie trailer short and snappy and lots of effects to make it stand out from the rest.

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

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Intertextuality is crucial when promoting a movie trailer there needs to be clear, precise and effective links between the products promoting the movie trailer. This is for the reason that the target audience will be able to recognise the products and make links between the products easily. This is an effective selling tool. Products will benefit from this greatly as it will be more effective. It is also good for the audience to have a good visual link between the products so that they are able to relate the movie trailer to the magazine cover and the poster. This means that the text on all the products must link as this is a big eye catcher on all of the products as the title is big bold and is meant to catch the audiences eye. I have used the same picture on my magazine cover as I have on my poster as I think that this will allow the audience to relate the products easier but also as it will be more effective. This is because it is a bold and eye catching picture that will stand out from a far. This will also link in with the movie trailer as there is symbolism to the shots that are in it. such as the knife, the killer and the clothes that he is wearing. I think that a picture is a vital part of selling and linking the products together. This is because the picture is big, bold, exciting and tells a story. This gets the audience interested as pictures are more likely to stay in their heads rather than words. The audience will know what they are looking for if they went to buy the poster or watch the film as they would just have to link the picture with the movie trailer. By ensuring that there are strong links between all 3 of my products the audience will be able to link all 3 products together. The colours that I have used on all 3 of my products link which is another link that the audience will be able to make. This will make it easier to find the product they are looking for as the colour of the titles will be the same but the colours in each of the products are similar. Dark red, white, grey and generally dark colours to represent the danger in the movie that will go on throughout the film. This should also represent to the genre of the film due to the dull, dark colours. It shows the mood gets destroyed in the film.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Here is my poster and magazine cover. There is clear intertextuality showing how these two products link together. This means that the two products work well together and therefore will mean that the audience will be able to identify that the two products are from the same film. This is an effective aspect conveying how crucial a digi pack is and how the product must work together. The two products that I have designed were made in a programme called Macromedia Fireworks. This enabled me to use the same font, the same colours as I was able to pick the colours from the first product I made to make sure that they matched which allowed some of the links to happen between the two products. I was also able to modify and change the original picture so that it would fit in with the genre of the film on either product. In Macromedia Fireworks I used many tools to help create the darkness represented on both products so that they could fit in with the genre . The location of the picture is in a woods which at night is a frightening place to be anyway. So to put a person in the picture holding a knife makes it even more scary then just a picture of the woods.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback? When getting audience feedback I was very lucky because my target audience of my products were aged 15 to about 20 and this means that I was able to get it from my class mates and some of my teachers. This meant that I had positive and constructive feedback thought the project which enabled me to improve my products so that the audience were happy and liked it but also so that I liked it. It didn’t just help me to improve my products but also helped me to understand what my target audience wanted and what the strongest aspects of each product was but also what the weakest was and what didn’t work. One of the things that I learnt from my audience feedback was what to do to change my movie trailer to make it more exciting and interesting to watch. They knew what they liked and what they though was scary and make them want to go and see the movie. They told me how to use different elements to make it more interesting and scary like using different soundtracks that link with the shots that are being played but also with the action in the movie trailer. They told me that it would only work effectively if the music was in time with the fast paced clips. I found this good advice but was sometimes stuck on what to do with my movie trailer as I felt that it wasn’t going anywhere and they timing wasn’t working. However, I kept working at it and after every draft I would ask for feedback from the same target audience but would also ask new people for a different opinion which was fresh. After the feedback on most of my trailer drafts the biggest criticism was that there wasn’t enough of fast paced shots to create the tension needed to build up for the death at the end. This meant that they weren't excited as they needed to be. I also got told that the font that I started to use was to comical and made people think that it wasn’t a serious movie trailer. This meant that my trailer wasn’t seen as to be professional which would make people loose interested if they thought that it was a joke. After I took this feedback on board I used an new font and got some positive feed back which were as follows: Chris The title looks better than before because it suits the genre better and stands out more, it also looks far more professional than the first font. M iss Walton Colour is better suited to the genre and the overall effect is more modern and subtle than the look of the other, which was perhaps a little dated. The block lettering is also more powerful and I like the 'slashed' effect of it.

I didn’t just get feedback on my products I collected all the was through my project meaning that I asked the audience what they thought on the location, which name was better, which actor was better what colour scheme should I use etc. This meant that the target audience didn’t just have a say on the product but also the things used in all of my products and they knew that their voice would be heard as I wanted to improve it to get the best reaction from my chosen target audience. What have you learnt from your audience feedback? Audience feedback is a very important part of evaluation your products, as it can be difficult to criticise your own work and to say what doesn’t work on the products because you have made them. There could also be a lack of motivation on wanting to improve the product because it is only for your benefit where as if your improving your products from other people feedback your benefitting a lot of people. For example when I uploaded my first draft there was little positive feedback and more criticism which I though was good with it being my first draft. The feedback that I received gave me a lot of things to improve on as the feedback ideas were strong. This enabled me to meet the expectations of the public by following the feedback they have given me. When looking back on the products that I have made I can clearly see how the audience feedback has helped me. If I hadn't of had this feedback then I wouldn’t have produced high quality products that look professional. They have helped me to keep the products linked but also to pick the right font to fit in with my theme but also the right colour scheme to fit in with my genre. I have learnt that your own feedback isn’t as good as audience feedback because I have created the product so I cant see much fault in the first product I have made where as the audience know what they want to see in product being made. From the audience feedback I was following conventions as they knew what they had seen before and what my products needed to look like. I also found out that using the same photo on both on my products my it easier for the audience to link the products together.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback? As you can see from the improvements made to my poster there has been a lot of feedback involved in making the perfect poster that will attract the target audience. As you can see some initial ideas have followed through to the finial product. For example the font in the top left corner and the slogan have stayed in the same place but it has just got bigger and the font has changed. Also the aspect of black and white and been portrayed in my final poster as the figure is black and white.

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

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? I have used of new technology whilst doing media so this has expanding my knowledge about the software and the technology. I have also been thinking a lot more about taking photos and what resources I need to do this. I think a lot more into how my work is represented and what it looks like because I know that it is open to the web. I have learnt about new programmes. This has made my knowledge stronger in media as I wasn’t really that interested in it but now I know a lot more about it I think that I am now more interested in it because it helps me in every day life. I think that also my knowledge has got broader from using the computers more from when I was finding my research to the construction of my products. I used the computers a lot when finding my research to get the magazine. I thought that this was the best way to do my research because I was able to find a lot of different magazines without paying from them. I could also zoom on in certain effects so I was able to translate this to my products. It was the first time I had ever posted my work on the internet. I found that this was a very easy way to do my work because I think that I am good with writing on a computer anyway so I thought that it was also a lot faster and this meant that it was less time consuming. When posting my work online I used a website called Blogger which enabled me to poster whenever I wanted. I have also used the internet a lot when researching movie trailers, posters and magazines. With researching my movie trailers I used a website called trailer addict. This website was a easy to use website which enabled me to embed movie trailers into blogger easily and I also got to choose which size movie I could embed whether that would be large, medium or small. All you had to do was search for the wanted movie trailer and pick which one you wanted to embed into Blogger. Then you had to open a new post and but the embed code into Blogger. This would then play the movie trailer smoothly.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? For my planning stage I have used a lot of programmes and already posted how I used them and what I used on them on my blog. I used Window Media Maker for my animatic, Fireworks for my poster and my magazine. I then used Pinnacle for my movie trailer. I have used Windows movie maker to make my animatics. I have taken screenshots of the programme that I have been using and what is so important about the programme which made the animatic good. All these features that are on the programme are all good and key to making a good movie trailer. I also think that Pinnacle 12 is also a very good programme and might even better. I am going to look at what Pinnacle 12 has to offer in my next post and then see which is better and will make my movie trailer better. This is a picture of the timeline at the bottom of the Windows movie maker programme. This is a good feature because you are able to see how long the picture or video lasts for and also you can see what transitions you have used or the sounds. I think that this is good because it enables to see the picture of video clearly and this makes it easier to match the music with the picture or the video. The zoom button also makes this easier as you can zoom in or out as much as you want. All these features that are on the programme are all good and key to making a good movie trailer. I also think that Pinnacle 12 is also a very good programme and might even be better. Pinnacle 12 has a lot more effects that will make my trailer look better and unique to other peoples trailer. Pinnacle 12 has many more things to offer than Windows Media Maker because it has more effects and is newer than Windows Movie Maker. Pinnacle 12 has a lot of features on the product such as a toolbar full of effects, a more in depth time line which allows you to mute all the sound if you wanted, new effects, allows you to take still pictures of the moving footage and much more.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? This is a screenshot of the kind of texts that you can put at the beginning of your movie trailer. This is my logo that I have used for my movie trailer and I feel that this is a good and bold logo. I think that this is a big bold logo that will catch people's eye because the colours stand out and work well together. I have also found that the main colours that people use for logos are blue and black. I like the font that I have picked because it is bold and stands out from the bold black background. Finally these are the tabs at the top of the screen which tells you what order to do the movie in going from step 1 to 3. The first tab is where you import the footage that you have collected or the photos that you have taken. On this tab you can also take footage on the programme if you have got a webcam. The second tab is where all the features are as this is where you edit the footage and filming that you have collected throughout the days/hours you have been filming for. Finally the third tab is where you produce the footage into a movie to make it professional and work on other computers. This means that you have completed the movie trailer all together. Another new programme I have used throughout the planning stage is this website called Dafont. I think that this wasn’t a hard programme to get my head around but I thought that it was a really good website to use. This was because I could use fonts that aren't on fireworks or word this meant that my title was unique compared to other peoples products because I had a lot more fonts to choose from. All you had to do was to download the font and then extract it from the file that was downloaded on to the computer. This meant that I can use this programme in other subjects now as well to make my products/ work look better. I have also used fireworks throughout the planning stage. From using fireworks I was able to locate all the tools and effects that I could use for my media products to make have a more professional look and stand out more.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Throughout the project I have used blogger and Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft PowerPoint has enabled me to post my work in a variety of ways instead of just using blogger. I think that using a variety of products makes my blag more interesting to read as well as having pictures of where I am on there. This is a screenshot of a feature on fireworks which allows you to fade any image in a variety of ways. I used this tool on my background for my poster and also my main picture for my poster and my magazine. This allowed my main character stand out more as the background of the trees were faded. Below is an example of was the fading does to a picture, To the left of the screen is a toolbar which I used a lot during the process of making my magazine and my poster. I feel that this is the main feature in fireworks because it has everything on there for you. I used the text symbol, the colours, the polygon lasso tool and much more. From this picture you can tell that the fading tool is very effective. It works well as you can adjust how faded you want the picture or not. I think that this tool works very well especially if you have a background to come through the picture like I have on my poster. This give the picture a little bit more edge and makes it stand out . There is a picture on the end where I have put a dark canvas behind the photo I think that it transforms the photo even more to make it stand out and this is the effect that I wanted.

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