The document discusses the aims and conventions used in creating different media products for a film project. It analyzes a film poster, magazine cover, and teaser trailer created by the author. Feedback from test audiences is also discussed, noting both successful and unsuccessful elements. New media technologies like Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, Microsoft Word and Excel were used at different stages of the project.

1. Media Evaluation Rachael Mayer

2. What is the aim of my poster? The aim of my film poster was to create an impact on the audience, drawing their attention to the main theme in the film and hopefully making them want to watch the film. I also wanted to create a certain feel to the poster in order for the audience to get a sense of what the film is about.

3. In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products? Whilst researching movie posters it came to my attention that a lot of them used a simple colour which made the posters more appealing. For my media product I have use the typical conventions of a movie poster by using bright and bold colours. Using bright and bold colours makes my poster eye catching and noticeable to the audience. I have only used two colours on my poster which are black and white. By using the Black background it makes the white writing stand out very clear and the contrast of the two colours could suggest that some things are simple. black and white, yet others aren’t. Another typical convention that I noticed whilst analysing the posters was that they all have a slogan which often end up being the quote that is always said when that film is mentioned. The words of my slogan are ‘Always Look Behind You…’, having these words give a certain feel of suspense and danger to the poster which is what I was aiming for. I have put a slogan at the top right side of my poster, in white writing making it stand out for it to hopefully remembered and always linked to my film. When researching my film posters, all of the posters used a whole image as the background. But with using that they have also got the credits at the bottom poster which is another typical convention of movie posters. I have developed this by using a image that covers the whole page with the face being the main focus. Having the face as the main focus makes the reader notice the poster more and pay attention to it. I have also followed the convention of the credits making my movie poster look more realistic. I feel that the poster that I have made to go with my film does not follow every convention that is quite common in a lot of movie posters. That convention is having some information about the film, whether it be the name of the main actor or the themes the run throughout the film. I have chosen not to do this so that I do not give too much away to my audience and it will therefore hopefully make them want to watch the film to find out more about it. All the audience gets to see is the name of the film, the slogan of the film and the main character with blood on her hands, this leaves them in complete suspense.

4. What was the aim of my magazine? The aim of my magazine from cover was to make it look interesting so that people are drawn to it and want to buy it. My aim was also to promote my film for them to read more about it.

5. In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products? Researching movie magazines allowed me to recognise the standard conventions which many of the products used. Since noticing this I have used and developed some of these conventions on my own magazine front cover. Across the top of my magazine I have the name of the magazine in big bold font taking up the whole length making it eye catching The name of the main character which is a typical convention so it appeals more to the audience. The list of films down the side of the magazine is another convention as it gives advertising to the films and gives the reader extra information about them. I have chosen the colours red and white as these represents the idea of Christmas and winter which is when this edition will be released. The phrase ‘Massive Winter Preview is written in bold white font on the left hand side indicating that there is going to be a lot of comment on upcoming films and there will be pictures of them in previews and also reviews. The image I have used on the front of my movie magazine is one of the leading characters in my film. Although she has her hood up and blood on her face, because she is a female she may attract the male type who like rough looking female. Her facial expressions are sad looking which could also make people sympathise with her because they do not know just yet what has happened. I noticed that many movie magazines put a lot of information on the cover making it look very crowded and sometimes confusing. I have challenged this convention by specifically arranging the texts in an order which makes them looks simple and direct. By doing this it could risks losing the image of the magazine to readers.

6. What was the aim of my teaser trailer? The aim of my teaser trailer was to create suspense and excitement to make an audience want to go and watch the whole film

7. In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms or conventions of real media products? When researching teaser trailers I found that the music that goes with the film matches up to each clip and that the pace of the music varies depending on what is happening in the clip. I have followed this to the point of the pace of the music but when it comes to the music and the clips I have decided not to do it like that. The reason for this is because in my film the story line is that you don’t know what’s going on, and so to help represent that theme, the music doesn’t match up to every clip. Another convention is the speed of the clips, many trailers vary from longer clips to shorter ones. I have developed this convention by doing the same but having the longer clips at the start and then when the actions starts to take place, the shorter clips are used. I have also used the convention of have text in certain places throughout the trailer, my wording links in with my poster as well as giving the effect of fear. All the teaser trailers that I have analysed all had the opening credits at the beginning of the trailer, which is something that I have decided not to follow because I didn’t feel that I could make it look realistic enough without copying one from a trailer. A lot of my clips I have faded in and out so that it gives the effect of an eerie atmosphere, but I haven’t done it on all of them because I didn’t want them all to be going through as a slower pace. The clips that I haven’t faded out, rush through more to set the atmosphere quite scary.

8. What have you learned from your audience feedback? I have learned that some of my clips are too long and that there should be quick fast editing throughout the whole teaser trailer. I have also learned that I shouldn’t have filmed all of my clips in the same place and had more of a variety of clips. Something that was picked up on, was that because I filmed it on different days, the main character was in different clothes. Some said that the music should have gone better with the clips but others have said that it was good how it is. For my poster it was said that the face against the dark background looks good in contrast with her face. The blood on her hand looks realistic rather than just really red. The contrast of the colours black and white makes the word ‘WATCH’ stand out, looking striking and immediately grabs attention. Something that was picked up was that the certain behind her should have been got rid of and the background completely black. The colours schemes for my magazines are said to set the genre of the film – the dark cold colours represent the evil and the red could suggest the danger. The layout of the magazine is clear, tidy and simple but still has enough information on it for it to be persuasive enough for someone to buy it. My audience thought that the picture was too dull and could have been brighter to brighten up the whole magazine. It was also said that the pictures that I used for poster and magazine were too similar and it would have been better if I have used pictures that maybe both didn’t have the hood up in or with such a dark background.

9. How did you use new media technologies in the constructions and research, planning and evaluation stages? For my construction on my main product, I used Adobe Premier Elements. I found this programme quite easy to use after I had tested a few things. It found it easy putting the clips together ad cutting them where it was appropriate but to begin with I had trouble with putting text into my video in the place I wanted it. The writing seemed to come up in the clip before and that is not what wanted. It look me a little while to figure out how to stop it from doing that but now I know. Atone point during my construction some frames came onto the screen around my video and I was not sure how to get them off. Although Adobe Premier is quite easy to use for some things it is also very confusing and hard for others. When I was doing my filming I was going to use a tripod to make it steady but then I felt it would be better not to so that it looked like someone was actually watching her. I did this to create the effect of suspense, creating the feeling of danger.

10. For my construction of the poster and magazine I used Photoshop which I am quite familiar with. Although I have used it before there was a few complications with using certain tools and trying to remember where and how to use them. For my poster I had to black things out of the background using the fill with colour tool but that meant having to zoom into the picture so closely to be able to make sure every pigment of the picture was black. Some of the time I got confused with the layers forgetting that they have to be in a certain order for them all to show. I was able to make my fake blood look like real blood by darkening the colours. For my research and planning I used a number of different programmes which are; Microsoft word, paint and excel. I am quite familiar with these programmes I didn’t have any trouble doing anything on them. I used Microsoft word for all of my analysis of magazines and posters, I used this programme because you can make boxes to write text in and you can change the size of the picture if it needs to be. I used excel to draw up my graphs of the results from my questionnaire, I didn’t have too much trouble using that after I had got a few wrong to begin with. Paint was used a lot more than I thought I would use it, I was only going to use it for my story board but then when trying to upload files onto blogger I wasn’t able to. When uploading files to blogger it has to be as a JPEG and Microsoft word documents and excel documents can not be changes into a JPEG. To be able to upload my work I had to print screen and cut out everything to get it into a blank paint file and then save as a JPEG and upload. Some of my work hasn’t shown up clearly because I wasn’t able to get the sizing right when going from one programme to another. I also had problems with getting the order of my work correct, this was because I saved work in drafts on blogger and when I published them they came out in the order of how they were drafted, not in the order I tried to publish them in.