Evaluation 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation 4

You can expand this slide show by clicking the bottom right hand button.

Blogger is where we have kept a record of everything we do and why and also provides evidence of what we have done, therefore being one of the most important media technology for this project.

We also used an Acer Aspire 5750 laptop to do all of the editing for our trailer, magazine cover and poster. We found that this gave us more freedom to download and use any software that we might need. We also came across fewer issues than last year when we did our project on our school computers, many issue's occurred. It also allowed us to do more work out of school as well as in school.

For the researching process we mainly used the Internet, this was because we had easy access to the Internet and is very useful to find any extra information we may need to know, such as researching into codes, conventions, camera angles, movement and shots, help on how to edit (we used YouTube tutorials to help us with the main editing) etc.

For my evaluation I have created a slide show presenting each piece of technology that I used. There are various aspects of technology used for our project. I have used all of these features during every stage of my project (construction, research, planning and evaluations.) In order to get this slide show onto my blog and into my evaluation, I had to use a couple of other media technologies. One being Slide Share, which is a website which you sign up to and post slide shows. I added my slide show onto here and then edited the HTML to paste the copy code to put it on my blog and then click compose. This worked well and has added an extra feature to my evaluation process. I also used PowerPoint to make my slide show, which was the easiest way to go about it and still look smart and effective.

Evaluation 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Please click the play button to view my presentation and then click the next arrow to view each stage of my presentation.

I have decided to show the section of my evaluation via a presentation video. I created this presentation on Prezi, which is an online presentation designer that you can sign up to and make creative and different forms of presentations.

Our main product (the film trailer) and our ancillary texts (the magazine cover and poster) worked well as a combination and complimented each other. We decided to use the same colour theme through out which was black, red and white. (black was mainly the background)They worked well together as they had a contrast but fitted in with our genre and our plot. White showed the innocence of the baby, red represented danger and blood and the black represented the dark happenings of the story. 


They all shared an eerie theme and grabbed the audience's attention by making them think about what is happening as it isn't quite clear, they can sense that it is a mystery just by looking at all three aspects our project.

Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

During the process of our media project, we followed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products. Through out the process and each stage of our project we had to look back at real media products for comparison and to start recognising what exactly we were doing differently to what's already out there. Without access to the same equipment and facilities as existing media products, many things would not be the same, but including conventions just not at such a high quality is still realistic and achieveable and so is challenging the forms and conventions.


We followed many of the forms and conventions of real media products within our trailer. We used a fast pace throughout (we used many jump cuts), which we knew was something that most trailers consisted of, this creates the suspense for the trailer, urging people to see the film, this is a technique which we found in all of our deconstructions of exiting film trailers. A trailers purpose is to only show a small part of the film, giving the audience a small insight into the film but not giving away too much at the same time. Ours did just this, following how most trailers are, we showed the most exciting clips from the film but did not explain exactly what was going to happen, making the audience still wonder what was going to happen within the film. To gain this fast pace, we used the speed duration tool on premier pro to make it look faster than what we originally filmed on the camera, this also allowed us to fit more into our trailer, as trailers are meant to be short, by speeding it up we were able to add more content into our trailer. 


Another aspect of our trailer which follows the forms and conventions of existing media and film trailers was the title clips. We put quite a few title clips into our trailer, we noticed that most trailers and all of our deconstructions of existing trailers showed that many title clips were included, this then allows the audience to see what the film is called, when it is released, who the production company is and who is starring in the film. These clips are fast but effective, the audience can then remember the film either by the name, actors or production company, making more people aware of the film as more people remember these points and talk about the film with associates. 


After caryying out some research, I found that it is also very common for high and low camera angles to be used within thriller films. We have used the low angle several times for our trailer, once again following the forms and conventions of existing thriller films. We used this for the shot of the 'detective' getting out of his car, this was used to show authority and give the effect that he is higher than the audience and the other characters. This is the same in many thrillers and other films/trailers.

The characters within our trailer also represent conventional characters for our genre. The representation of the characters is important and is key to demonstrate certain genre's and emotions. Our main character fits into the conventions and forms of existing thriller films. Commonly thriller films characters are either mentally unstable (such as ours), criminals, stalkers, police or army associated characters, spy's, strange/mysterious people or detectives (also like our film). This is how we have followed the conventions so that people can tell the genre of our project.


Our Magazine cover also follows the forms and conventions of existing media products. After doing the deconstructions of existing media products, we gained an insight into the way a magazine cover should be laid out and what should be included. The main image is typical of a magazine cover, the positioning is central and the main title of the magazine is at the top of the page, bold and striking. We included lines and small bits of writing which tell the reader what else is inside the magazine, so that they know what else they are paying for, but still our magazine cover lets the audience know that our film is the main feature of the magazine. We only included information of films, this is because our magazine cover was designed just for films rather than a mixture of topics. The short, snappy lines we included is typical of a film magazine, it grabs the reader in to want to know more about the film by buying the magazine. We included a price, bar code, date and the our company production, this is also what you expect to see on a magazine cover, showing how we followed the forms and conventions. 


After deconstructing existing posters, we found out the way in which a promotional poster differs depending on its purpose. We found several posters for each film that we were going to deconstruct, and each were produced for different reasons. This is why we chose to explain all of the posters we made rather than just the one, different promotional aspects such as for cinemas, for the side of buses, for billboards etc. We than decided that one of posters was most suited for our final poster as it contained more of the form of a film poster because it included the release date, the production company, who was involved in making the film, who stars in the film, popular poser quotes such as 'In theatres everywhere...' and so on, where as some of the others we made did not. We had a main focus on the image of our character on the poster and fitted everything around it. 


We did chose to challenge some forms and conventions particularly in the film trailer. We decided not to follow the usual form of having a voice over in our trailer. Most trailers that we came across had a voice over and it is almost expected in a trailer. We decided to go against this conventional aspect as we thought it would ruin the eerie feel we gave the trailer, it would take away the sense of 'mystery' and 'the unknown' as it would be given away by the voice over. We thought that also it would spoil the backing track we had added, we felt the music was very much effective by itself. This is a particular challenge as thriller trailers mostly do have voice overs, we noticed that all the thriller film trailers that we looked at had a talk over. The fact that it doesn't has a more shocking effect on the audience as it leaves them in silence almost rather than processing what the voice over is saying. 


We did not really challenge any of the conventions in our magazine cover or our poster. This is because we thought that they worked best the way that other magazine covers and posters are conventionally. The layout worked well, the information was familiar and the audience would be more likely to buy the magazine as they can clearly see what it is, what is inside etc. The poster however, we did develop various ideas to try and challenge the conventions within our poster, we produced different posters but we did decide that the final poster was the best one and that it does follow the forms and conventions of existing film posters.

Audience Response Questionnaire;

We made a second questionnaire at the end of our project, this is so that we can see the audiences response to our film trailer, magazine cover and poster. We can then draw up a conclusion about our project and whether we were successful or not. Here is an example of our questionnaire. We found this useful to fully understand what we could improve on and what we did right and should keep the same.

 

The first question we asked was what age range are you? This is important to see what the majority group is that we asked, which is 15-20 (because we had limited time and thus limited amount of people to ask and had to stay within school to ask the questionnaire, which is why it is 15-20.) We can then see how this age group views our project and film prospect. We did try to vary the age range a bit however.

This second question turned out to be very successful, we asked the audience what they genre they thought all aspects of our project were, and the main majority said that they thought it was within the thriller genre, meaning that we fulfilled the purpose of making it look like a thriller. Although, one quarter said that they thought it was within the horror genre, this is because our film is a psychological thriller which is closely linked to a horror, but it does not contain any gore and other horror aspects, but our designs are a bit creepy, thus leading the minority to believe it was a horror.

 This third question also went very well, we asked the audience what age rating did they think our film was, the vast majority said 15, which is correct. This means that they could tell from the content and how we presented the film that it was a 15 and we have successfully produced features of a 15 rated film. Although a few said 12, this is far too young for the content within our project, but some also said 18, which is still realistic.

This next question was asked to see whether or not we made it clear and obvious what the title of our film is. A large number of people said that it was clearly shown, which means that we had displayed the title so that the audience knew and remembered what it was. This is an important factor of promotion and advertising as the audience need to have the film title stuck in their heads so that they are tempted to see or buy the film. Only a few said no, meaning that we could have made it a bit more clear perhaps. 

We decided to ask this question because it is important that the music fits with the genre and with the style of our trailer. Most of the people that we asked said that yes the music does work well to convey the genre. This is good, it means that the music we chose to use fits well with our trailer and makes it that bit clearer as to what genre our film is. 

Question 6 - What did you enjoy most about the trailer?

This was an open question where we left a space for the audience to write down what they thought the best aspect of our trailer was, this does not require a graph. The results were:

• Music
• fast pace
• transitions
• mystery of trailer
• the titles 
• the red smoke effect 
• lighting 
• make-up and costume

This shows us what we did well in our trailer and which parts the audience recognised as the most attractive features.

This question is to see if we needed more titles in our trailer or not. We felt that there were plenty of titles through out our trailer, but it is important that we get the opinion of a non participant audience. This found that they also agreed that yes, there were enough titles in our film trailer, proving it to be a success. Although, a few said that no, there were not enough, maybe if we added one more title, there would be the right amount. 

Question 8 - What do you think of the length of the trailer?

This question tells us whether or not we got the length of the trailer right and whether or not the audience felt as though more needed to be added or they got bored and it needs to be cut. The results show us that perhaps our trailer should be used just for TV purposes. The results for this question were:

• Bit short
• too short for theatrical trailer but perfect for tv

This question shows how we have allowed the audience to see whether or not out three aspects of our project give an insight in to the plot of our film and whether or not it is clear. The results are positive as a majority said that yes, they had gained a sense of the plot from viewing all three elements. However, 30% is still a big portion of our result and means that perhaps we should have allowed a bit more of the plot to show through our trailer, magazine cover and poster.

We decided to ask this 10th question as it is very important to know whether or not the three elements of our project work well as a package and not just singly. As we can see, the audience felt as though they did, which is good and means that we have successfully created a trio package of promotion for our film. Only a small number said no.

This question is aimed towards the trailer aspect. A large proportion of our audience answered that yes, they were intrigued by what would happen next in our film. This is a very positive response as this is one of the main aims of a film trailer, to make the audience want to see the film and want to know what is going to happen next, getting them to be interested and get into the idea of the film and then end it where they want to know more. Only a very small fraction said no, making this a successful aspect.

Question 12 - If you saw this magazine in a shop, what aspects would influence you to buy it?

This question is to see what aspects of our magazine cover would attract an audience and influence them to buy it. It is important to understand the audiences needs. The results show the main features of the magazine cover which stand out to an audience, making these aspects most important to consider.  The results of this question were:

• The main picture
• the lighting
• the character picture
• title of the film
• the magazine itself

 

This question we thought we would ask to see just how persuasive and effective our ancillary texts are alone. 15 out of 20 people said that yes, they would be influenced to see our film just by seeing our magazine cover and poster, this is very good and gives us confidence that our magazine cover and poster work well. Although, 5 said no, which means some more work could be done to them to get better satisfaction from our audience.

 

This question is to show whether or not our trailer was editing to the satisfaction of our audience. Although more people said that yes, it was than no, almost half did say no, which means that our editing could have been done to a higher standard, showing a fault in our project. This means that our trailer may be less pleasing to the eye than it should be.

 

The final question on our audience feedback questionnaire is to round up and conclude the whole point of our project and the questionnaire. The vast majority said that yes, they would want to go and watch our film, this is the response which we aimed for. All three elements of our project are meant to persuade the audience to want to see our film, so this proves the success we have achieved.