Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Discuss ways our teen drama incorporates generic conventions and identify specific ones, how do they challenge these conventions? Our trailer follows the generic codes and conventions of a typical trailer. Some conventions are: Green screen at the beginning classified by the Motion Picture Association Producing screen, for example we used ‘Universal’ A montage of clips from peak/exciting moments of the film Close ups of our main characters to highlight their importance Appropriate cuts and editing styles that emphasises the genre A soundtrack which is popular and relates to the genre of the film, sometimes lyrics correlating with the scene Voiceovers are sometimes used to narrate and add a specific atmosphere Names of main actors, title of the film and credits at the end

Our film trailer uses forms of a real trailer, to start with, we used the conventional green screen certificate at the beginning of the trailer, and chose the producing sign of Universal mid way through our trailer.

Before the peak of our trailer, we included a screen that advertised the directors, ‘From the Directors that bought you ‘Look back at Love’’ At the end, we flashed the credits of our trailer, following the generic conventions of a film. We also included the title of the film right at the end of the fast montage of clips, for we wanted to have an impact on the audience after such a fast paced ending.

We used a montage of clips during our trailer to display the story and the peak, exciting moments to successfully advertise our film. We made sure we used numerous camera angles and different scenes and situations for our characters. We were able to successfully do this by using technical equipment including the tri-pod, tracking dolly and the crane. Alongside these shots, we included close ups of our three main characters, establishing the actors names to highlight their importance

We used appropriate cuts and editing styles to fit the genre of our trailer. At the beginning we used slow fades in-between shots, showing the main character, Jack on his own whilst Katie was miserable with her current boyfriend, Mark. The pace quickens as the characters begin to collide and we start to use faster, plain cuts between shots. This continues up to the middle of our trailer, where we show a turning point in our plot. The shots turn to black and white to symbolise that something darker is happening, and begin to look disjointed, displaying a sense of the unknown as this is what the characters are feeling. A shot of a knife covered in blood falls to the ground in slow motion, and colour fills the image, highlighting someone is hurt and that the audience have suddenly been brought into the present. Immediately after this we have a montage of fast images, where we are trying to portray that someone's life is flashing before their eyes.

Our soundtrack we chose followed the conventions of a modern trailer, for it was a well known, modern song. Florence and the Machine- ‘You’ve got the love’ The lyrics speak to the audience, for it narrates the main theme of our story and what the main boy is thinking. ‘You’ve got the love I need to see me through.’ At the peak of our trailer, we turn the music to still a well known song, but something more classical; Snow Patrol, ‘Open your eyes’ the lyrics relate to the reality that is happening and that the characters need to open their eyes to it. The dramatic music fits with our fast paced, dramatic ending. Like in professional trailers, we managed to find two songs that fit well with our themes and the lyrics correlated to the scenes the audience was watching As well as a soundtrack, we also included a small phrase, narrated by the main boy. It was said slowly and emotionally, linking with our romantic genre. Sometimes, you can’t help who you fall for. Even if they can never be yours.

Does our use of conventions indicate what other teen dramas have influenced your work? General codes and conventions of teen films: Storyline based on particular teen interests e.g. first love, rebellion and peer pressure, forbidden romance A setting the young audience can relate to e.g. a high school Relationships between characters e.g. jealousy and love Stereotyped characters and their typical social groupings.

Some popular teen films we analysed included The Notebook and Adulthood. The Notebook is a story of romance and lost love, and we came up with our original romantic idea from this film. Shots we have taken highlight a similar atmosphere from those of the Notebook, portraying a loneliness that you can’t do anything about and a sad love story. We then developed our idea, challenging the conventions of a romance and included a twist in our plot in attempt to make it a more exciting trailer. This idea stemmed from the modern gang film Adulthood. One of our characters, evil boyfriend Mark was inspired from this film, and we decided to include a sub- genre of gang culture to challenge our conventional teen romance trailer.

Therefore, using many different techniques a professional trailer would use, we have developed these conventions ourselves, from making a teen romance into something more dramatic with sub genres of violence and loss, challenging the original idea, making it a more interesting story line as a whole.

How effective is the combination of our Main product and Ancillary tasks?

Film trailer with ancillary task, film poster: Why are film posters made? Film posters are made in order to publicise a film and make a specific audience understand what type of genres and themes are included. In search of what our poster should consist of we looked at one similar trailer and poster that we researched in our STA’s ‘The Notebook’ Screen shot of ‘The Notebook’ trailer ‘ The Notebook’ Film poster We noticed that both the poster and the trailer focused on this idea of the central characters alone in the rain. This clear link shows the audience a defining and compelling clip that entices the audience to see the film so we decided to do a similar thing...

Our Film poster and its relationship to our trailer In our trailer we had moments which showed emotion and stood out visually none ore than our ‘silhouette’ shot. So we pictures with the intention of using Photoshop to black them our in comparison to the background. We took new images of this rather than taking a clip straight out of our trailer because it was very tight framing and did not have the arch of the back of either character so would not have the desired effect. We considered this to work well as it relates to the audience that these two characters are totally separate from the rest of the world as they look into each others eyes, and how what they have is so special. This Silhouette in our trailer was A moment that really symbolised how these characters are extremely passionate about each other, as it is the first shot we see them together in a relationship sense. This image in both our advertisement based products work well in correlation with one another because it tells the audience how their relationship is the central focus of the film. This also tempts the audience to want to see the film because her face is blacked out and not shown. There is a clear connection between the characters before they even see one of them enticing us to want to see her face.

In terms of what we give away to the audience through the poster and the trailer itself, we decided to go with different approaches. For the poster we wanted to add an air of mystery with such a harsh and powerful title. The point of this was that it challenges the words ideology, the fact it is written so freely amongst images of freedom such as the field and open sky in the background. This makes the audience question why is this love forbidden and implies that if they were allowed to be together that they would feel the freedom that the poster conveys. The trailer in contrast plainly shows what is forbidden and why it is and focuses instead on building up questions in the audiences mind about whether they can escape the problem. We felt that this would work well as it shows that their is more complexity to this story after seeing both tasks. In our research we found that an interesting story is one of the largest selling points especially with a teen romance.

Concluding, for our poster and main task that they work well together in advertising the film ‘forbidden’ as they both quickly display to the audience the themes of love and intimacy from the way the characters are close together. Also how the poster poses questions that the trailer can answer and that suggests that to undrstand the trailer you would have to see the film.

Film trailer with ancillary task, Magazine cover: Why and how do new film releases have magazine coverage and how have we used our knowledge to produce ours? Why do they use actors to sell the film? This is because of the fact that people are more likely to want to see a film with known actors that are either considered a good actor linked to previous known films or have mass sex appeal. This use of the word ‘back’ suggests repetition and that he is a well known star and that he must be good in order to make such a big deal over someone's return to the big screen. This suggests how good the film must be for such a known actor to be associated with it. The actors name is in a large font and bright red in contrast to the rest of the page showing he is the most important thing in this magazine demonstrating his higher value. The only other thing on the page which relates to this is the word win which could suggest him and his films winning persona. ‘ Josh tells us’ gives the reader the impression that this idolised person is telling us gossip and makes us feel luck to be personally told THIS RELATES TO THE TRAILER....because the actors names have been shown on screen representing that these people are important showing a direct link between the film and the social world. The image that the actors have willingly gone and spread the word about the film suggests to potential viewers it is something worth spreading the word about.

Film trailer with ancillary task, Magazine cover: Why and how do new film releases have magazine coverage and how have we used our knowledge to produce ours? THIS RELATES TO THE TRAILER....because we aim at our target audience in two ways. first through the trailer and giving them themes and ideas which they need such as sex and violence. And secondly by showing the kind of style of the magazine and the actor who are willing to collaborate with the film displaying the films influence to the glamorous community Who are these magazines aimed at? For our specific teen genre they are aimed at teens mainly girls aged between 13 and 18 meaning that use of modern language and themes such as rebellious style should be incorporated. And also at the ‘Film Buff’s’ who make it an extreme hobby to know all there is about film. The hair of the actor is considered very modern as it could be seen as rebellious with its random disjointed spikes which fall freely across his face relating to the target audiences need to be cool and free. Gives a young audience a hope and dreams of becoming and interacting with the stars The jacket whilst matching with his hair with spikes of rebellion this idea of fur and thick coats relates to the ideology of wealth and stability which would attract people to want to know about his lifestyle and his work with the film to get there.

Film trailer with ancillary task, Magazine cover: Why and how do new film releases have magazine coverage and how have we used our knowledge to produce ours? THIS RELATES TO THE TRAILER....because in order for the film to be well publicised and for viewers of the trailer to know that it is a serious feature film within the film making industry they must see its connection with other media outlets. This has to serve the readers uses and gratifications as a magazine otherwise trailer would loose credibility and magazine would not be bought as frequently. What basic codes and conventions do we need to satisfy? Use of a bar code, a price around £3, suitable name, a star on the cover with reference to a story about them concerning their new release. Title is clear and makes the reader understand exactly what the main focus of the magazine as a whole is. Showing that this magazine is a well established recurring magazine giving it some credibility in the industry Giving a reasonable price for target audience Showing the reader they have a chance to interact with the magazine and to entice the reader to buy it because of their excitement to enter competition. Has a clear main story and focus of that story Makes this magazine sellable at any retail outlet and look real amongst other magazines on the shelf.

Film trailer with ancillary task, Magazine cover: Why and how do new film releases have magazine coverage and how have we used our knowledge to produce ours? THIS RELATES TO THE TRAILER....because choosing a face of the film is necessary so that when an audience see the trailer they will instantly recognise the star and who he is. This means that an audience is already aware before seeing the trailer that this film is massive and worth looking out for Who should publicise the film on the cover? A star who target audience can adore yet relate to. This star was chosen to represent the film because he is the one of the main character along with the female lead. Use of the boy instead would appeal more to the teenage girls who reads magazines more than boys do. He has obvious rebellious feel as he stares straight into the camera without smiling as if e has nobody to impress. He seems powerful and unafraid as he looks slightly down at the camera showing his fame.

Concluding, that for our magazine front cover it was vital to advertise the magazine from a different perspective. This shows that the magazine is used alongside the trailer to be totally separate but both advertise the same thing through totally different mediums . This means that an audience can get a full view of how good the film really is and encourage their desire to see it as they can understand alternate views on the film from the story in the magazine and produce their own upon watching the trailer. Overall the combination of our main task and ancillary tasks was for one purpose: which is to advertise the fictional film we had created and we felt we did that by covering needed aspects and fulfilling all required codes and conventions of all three media outlets.

What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

In order to gain audience feedback on our film trailer we put together a showcase which played our trailer back to an audience of teenagers (who were our specific target audience age). This was to gather opinions and feedback as to what worked successfully and what we could improve within our trailer. How did we gather our audience feedback ?

Positive feedback that we gained: Feedback through questionnaires revealed to us that the themes within our trailer were clearly shown to the audience. Furthermore, the genre of our trailer was obvious which was essential in order for the trailer to be successful.

Positive feedback that we gained: The audience also commented frequently in their feedback with reference to: The excellent quality of many of the shots in the trailer. Positive comments about the realistic portrayals of characters by the actors and actresses in the trailer. As a group, we were pleased that the feedback in regards to the acting was positive, as we ourselves were pleased with how that element of the trailer went.

The audience also commented on the fact that they liked how certain frames in the trailer were shot, in particular, the scene of the two main characters in silhouette, kissing with a bright blue background was specifically referred to as a very successful shot within the trailer. The silhouette shot

Feedback which required improvements: Many of the audience members at the showcase, referred in their questionnaires to the fact that they felt that the storyline was too cheesy and perhaps too cliché. As a group we took this criticism on board and came up with ways to alter the storyline to allow it to be perceived as more believable to the audience, whilst maintaining the romantic element which is so heavily associated with the teen drama genre.

One further comment that the audience made in reference to the storyline, was that it was unclear what was occurring between the three main characters throughout the trailer, which prompted our group to rearrange the order of some of the scenes whilst editing. Through this altering of the order of the trailer, we felt that the main storyline became much clearer and therefore easier for the audience to understand and follow. Screen shot of the three main characters in our trailer

The third major improvement that the audience felt that we should make, was to include a second song within our trailer as they felt that one song throughout the entire trailer was too repetitive and caused the trailer to lack tempo and anticipation. As these elements are both so important to have within a trailer, we decided to include a second song into the trailer. Although the process of finding a song that matched the storyline, whilst sounding balanced alongside the previous soundtrack that we had chosen was a difficult and lengthily process, the final cut using both soundtracks within the trailer works so much better than our first cuts, using just one song throughout. The use of two soundtracks brings more excitement to the trailer, but also highlights much more clearly and effectively where the turning point is within the trailer. Artists which we used within our trailer

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? OCR Media Studies - Unit G324

Media Technologies For our media coursework production, we used various media technologies to help us produce professional outcomes. The software and equipment we used, allowed us to capture, create and edit still images and video. We used Adobe Photoshop CS3 for the photographs and preliminary tasks, Pinnacle Studio 11 to edit our trailers, and Microsoft Office 2003 for our word processing and presentations. We used a Canon XM2 video camera for filming, a Rode microphone and a Canon 1000d SLR for still photographs

Fronter Our entire coursework was done electronically and uploaded to our school MLE; Fronter. Fronter allowed us to create web pages to upload coursework too. As a group, we had our own “room” in fronter, and in that room we created various web pages for different categories. Fronter is a secure online based environment, but as a precaution we also made back up documents of all information uploaded.

Pinnacle Studio 11 Pinnacle Studio is a highly complex high end consumer video editing software. The programme consists of three main features used in video editing which allows it to combine ease of use with a wide range of techniques into producing an edited video. The three parts included are Importing, Editing and Burning. The import feature allows you to import titles from a DVD or from a DV/Web camera. We used a DV camera using a 1394 FireWire, this wire is the ONLY way to transfer video from a DV camera ensuring that the lowest amount of quality is reduced. The programme allows both widescreen and HD video editing, and has lots of effects, special FX, sounds, transitions and title screens as preset. The export burning feature too allows you to export video in a flexible manner, whether it be online, DVD or to file. Pinnacle has a very user friend interface and the programme proves very complex. It offers a vast amount of features and options and allows the user to highly customise the video to their needs.

The Internet We used http:// fronter.com /harrow to organise and present our coursework We used YouTube to view existing trailers and do STA’s on them YouTube is the worlds most used video sharing website in which anyone can sign up and upload videos. Now owned by Google, YouTube is the host of record lable music videos, film trailers and short films as well as amateur video blogging and movies.

Canon XM2 – Video Camera To film our trailer, we used a Canon XM2 HD Mini-DV Camcorder. The Camcorder had many features which proved to be useful to us during our filming time. The lens had a very wide zoom, it allowed manual focusing, it had a mic input and fire wire PC connection. These features enabled us to create our trailer exactly to our needs. The camera also had an interesting feature of zoom on both the handle and side, which meant when doing low shots the camera could be held and controlled using just the top handle.

Adobe Photoshop We used Adobe Photoshop to create our Preliminary tasks and our title screens that we used in our trailers. Photoshop was an ideal programme for this, and we were able to edit the images used also.

MS Office We used Microsoft Word for all our documents and for our back ups and Microsoft PowerPoint for our evaluations. Microsoft documents are accessibly usually by a wide range of universal programmes. This means, most computers can open these files as long as a word processor/presentation software is installed. By using this in our coursework and evaluation sections, we are able to ensure that our coursework is accessible to those who will be viewing it.

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