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

Media Technologies were used throughout our project for all the sections that brought together our final production, this included research, planning and evaluation.

For our planning the media site we used the most was youtube.

Youtube is an extremally popular site used worldwide. We used this site to explore the genres and the conventions of the other genres. It was also really useful to look at the types of setting,costume and props used so that we could get an idea of how to construct our trailer. Youtube was also used in our evaluation stages as we posted our trailer to the site to get audience feedback. We did this because it allowed us to gain feedback from poeple all over the world, not jsut in our immediate community. Although this wasnt as successful as we had hoped it was still intresting to see how many views we got.

The website http://www.google.com/ was used throughout our production we used this to collect research look at other products and for general information use.

http://dafont.com/ the well known website font provider website was also a great help to us throughout the final stages of our production. This website combined with google and youtube allowed us to research and try out the conventional fonts for a trailer/ film poster and magazine front cover. When using da font we also used

and

when trying out fonts we print screened them into paint, this then allowed us to crop and cut the font we wanted, and then we could place them into microsoft word and compare them.

To create the magazine and poster and also edit the images we used a combination of three programmes. These were Indesign, photoshop and paint.

In design was where each of the products were made and put together. This software was the base of each product and this allowed us to plan our ideas and

Movie plus five was the main part of our trailer production as this is where the trailer was actually constructed. In movie plus we inserted each of the shots and put them together to create our trailer, we then put music in and overlayed effects such as slow motion, fades and flashes. Without this technologie our tailer wouldn't have been possible.

Obviously to film our actual trailer we needed to use a video camera, this technologie was a fairly simple piece of equipment which allowed us to film different types of shots e.g. close up, night vision and just a normal long shot.

Facebook the worldwide social networking site was also used within our project, we used it to get general research, it helped us look at our age group in society today to see who to aim our trailer at. We then used it later in the project to post our video on for people to see. This allowed us to gather audience feedback from people our age group which is who the trailer it aimed at.

It is apparent that each bit of the construction process would have not been possible without the use of media technologies. These helped us plan construct and complete our production.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For our audience feedback we wanted a variety of different opinions so we decided to get are feedback in a variety of ways. First we displayed both our poster and magazine on face book and then later on we put our video up for people to view. This allowed people all over face book to give us their opinions of our work. We also uploaded the trailer onto You tube.com so that it could be viewed worldwide. As-well as showing our work on the Internet we also did a feedback session with our media class, this was really helpful as obviously they have all be doing the same work as us so they no what looks good and what doesn't. We did our feedback as it gave us constructive opinions as well as constructive criticism on our trailer and ancillary products. This would help us improve and see where we did well and where we could have done better. After getting all the feedback we will take into consideration all the things that have been said and see if any changes can be made so that we produce the best products we can.



Audience feedback for magazine front cover: This is the feedback from our magazine front cover it was our responsibility to read what onlookers had said and take it into consideration to see if any changes could be made. The first two comments made from Benjamin Tomkins and Bethany Sheldrick were pointing out the parts that worked and the bits that looked effective. This was constructive as it helped us no what works it also showed us that our magazine cover did reach out to the appropriate age group. The next comment was from my mum who is the older age range, but it was good to see her opinion of the magazine. She said the only thing she was unsure about was the back being backwards. This is something we then needed to discuss to see if we wanted to change. After talking to the group we decided that we were going to keep it the way it was as we thought it worked, another reason for keeping it how it was was that other people from our target audience liked it and this was the most important thing. The last person to comment was Rose, Rose is a media student at university so it was good to have her opinion in the magazine. She said she like the backwards back which was positive as this backed up our thoughts. After this and then doing the feedback session with the class which we were able to pick up a few pointers on we decided we were going to make some changes to our magazine.
This is the final magazine front cover:

The changes we made were:

• Aligning the edges so that the border was even the whole way round as this made it look neater (feedback from media class)




• We moved the tag line over to the right so that it was more visible for onlookers (facebook feedback)




• We moved the images at the bottom around to work better with the colour scheme (media class feedback)
  




• We changed the colours of some of the writing so that it was more visible
  

Film poster feedback:

This is the feedback from our film poster. The feedback in general over all was really positive most people made similar comments which in a way was a good thing. The most common comment was that people didn't like Ellie our main character being in red. When uploading the image onto face book the colour red changed slightly making it brighter so on our actual poster it isn't this bright so that was one of the bits of audience feedback dealt with. Another thing said was that 'night cameras are usually green' this is true but we weren't using the red to look like a night camera we were giving an enigma to the genre and trying to represent danger. When talking to our class about our poster there wasn't many comments made on things we needed to change. Overall our feedback on our film poster was positive so we decided as a group that no changes needed to be made.
This is our final film poster:

Audience feedback for film trailer:

We gathered audience feedback for our film trailer on youtube and facebook.

Youtube- Youtube was unsuccessful as it isn't something that people would necessarily view on their own accord, meaning that we only got five views and no comments. Although this was unsuccessful our facebook feedback was very successful.

Facebook- We uploaded the video onto you tube on my account and then I titled it 'media trailer, please could people leave constructive feedback, thank you.'
We got a lot of positive feedback on the trailer which was good as it meant people liked our trailer and we didn't have that much to change. A few people said the music at the beginning needed to be quieter so we made sure this is something we would change. Another person said the end shouldn't have the same music it should have different music so again we will work on this. After looking at ourselves we also decided to add in a few more effects and flashes. We had also noticed that the production label appeared twice at the beginning which we sorted out as it did'nt look professional. As a running theme between our pieces of work has been red we also decided to add red into the trailer at the end as this gives them all a strong connection.

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

I think the combination of the main product and ancillary text has worked really well. They all emphasise each other and it is clear they have a relationship showing their immediate link. Without the film trailer neither the poster or the magazine would make sense, the pictures would have no meaning and the text would be irrelevant. However the poster and magazine are so important as they build the tension for the film. They are almost a blurb for the film enticing people to want to watch the trailer. Without the combination of the products the overall production would not be as effective. We linked the products by using a similar colour code, for example the text in the trailer is white on a black background we did this to create a sinister atmosphere. We then on the magazine front cover and film poster included a lot of blacks and whites to link the two. In the magazine front cover and film poster we have made a link by using the colour red as one of our main colours. Also the font of the film title has stayed the same on each product showing a distinctive link. If we were to do the products again and we were changing the fonts my only change would be is that maybe the font we used in the film trailer for the actors names stayed the same on the film poster because this should run throughout.
On each product it is clear that Ellie is our main character again this is a very clear indication that the three products are linked. In each image of Ellie we put her in the same clothing and did the same style hair and make-up, we did this because if she was dressed completely differently it would most likely confuse the audience and therefore the link between the products would be weak.
Another image we kept the same throughout was the image of the house. We obviously made sure we used the same house otherwise the image would be irrelevant.
All in all I believe that we have successfully linked the products. It is a very important factor of our production as it will help successfully market them.

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

The whole media project has been based around real media products meaning it was our responsibility to challenge and develop real media conventions. I began by doing in depth research into other media to get guidelines of how to begin our media products in a professional way. We began looking at the conventions of all the different genres for example - a rom com- would generally be very high key (lighting) and have a funny story line usually where a young couple falls in love, or a horror- usually has a main victim and a murder and is genrally set in a woods or old house. We then found an real interest in the genre Thriller, and decided this would be the genre we chose. The conventions of a thriller are: (Below each convention I have tried to show how we used each convention in our production.)

• sound and editing- Low pitch music and beats. Quick cuts, low camera angles, night vision, fade in and out and flashes. All of these help build and create the tension within the trailer which is vital part of a thriller film.


• The conventional music for a thriller trailer is generally music that gives tension and adds a hint of fear making the viewer scared, but generally it begins with a steady slow beat song to introduce the story line it then picks up pace to create anticipation for the main event.


• lighting, especially the use of shadow and darkness, this might be used if there was something that needed to be kept a secret to create more suspense.




props can also be effective such as the use of mirrors or weapons, although not really a prop, stairs can also be really effective as they create a chase that is nerve-racking


Setting- This is a very wide category as a thriller can take place pretty much anywhere but the most common settings are woods, houses and holiday homes.

Throughout the project we as a group paid attention to the fact that that we needed to follow the conventions of our genre. We followed the conventional story line using Longacre's theory by beginnining with a 'once upon a time opening' then a 'climax' but also adapted it, as are production is only a trailer we didnt finish with the conventional 'conclusion' as that would defeat the object of it being a trailer. We decided to follow this narrative as we felt it conformed to other real media products. It is a very common theory used in our genre trailer. For example 'The shining' begins with a family going to stay in a hotel. The beginning of the trailer is very calm and happy this creates an atmosphere to the viewers making the almost unaware of the happenings that are about to take place. This also helps build up the tension and suspence and this is exactly what we wanted to do in our trailer. The trailer then takes a turn and the husband becomes violent, there are alot of chase scenes which is really nerve-racking to watch and we have also used an idea like this in our trailer. The trailer then ends on a cliff-hanger almost a "what happens next" and again our trailer does this so that is doesnt reveal what the story line is.

We used similair settings to other films we had looked at for example- Paranormal activity- is set in a normal house, for our trailer we used one of our homes to make it as normal as possible. Another main theme in paranormal activity is the found footage throughout, we also used the idea of a found footage but decided to only use that for a section of our trailer not all of it. Our idea behind this was that it gave it a realistic feel. The fact that the girls were filming themselves would make the viewers feel more involved in the 'excitment' of the girls holiday.

The images below show paranormal activity found footage (op) and our found footage (below)

Another way we used and developed the standard conventions of a real media product was attracting are viewers in the same way. In any film these days if an actor in it is highly famous and good-looking it immediatly attracts more viewers. For example the film Jennifer's Body

This film made a huge $2.8 million on its first day and most of this money was proberbly drawn in because Megan Fox was playing the main part. We needed to attract are viewers with an attractive girl that could be a 'star' we chose Ellie as she has the typical look of an actress. It was important that ellie was our main picture on the magazine front cover and film poster as these were are main advertisement for the trailer and film. We also devloped this idea, by editing the images of Ellie before they were placed on the magazine front cover and poster. We did this to make them more dramtic and eye catching to the audience. On the magazine front cover we decided to make the image of Ellie red, although this is not a common convention this is an idea has been seen before in films such as 'Red Riding Hood', 'Red white and blue' and 'Dead end'.

Another important aspect of making a realistic trailer and other products was that we followed the conventions of how much information they should hold and how much they should tell the reader. We looked at lots of trailers to see what sort of information they hold about the film. We found that generally it was the Logo- for the production label, the Title, the Release date and maybe a web address. We used all of these in our trailer but also developed them by adding in snippets of writing and the tagline.

For our film poster we followed the conventions of a Teaser poster which almost has set guidelines for what information it holds. We followed these guidelines but also added and took away text where we felt appropriate. To make our poster look as realistic as possible we again did more research into what the conventional film poster looked like. This helped follow but also develop these original ideas. For the magazine front cover we wanted to make it look busy and exciting. We realised that a magazine was much more interesting and appealing when it looked busy but we had to make sure it didn't look to cluttered as it could become confusing. We followed the conventional layout, with this title at the top we also stuck to a colour scheme so that the magazine didn't look tacky.

Overall I think we managed to develop and challenge media conventions successfully. Although there are some areas we could of taken the research and ideas further I think what we did do has made our media products look more realistic to the target audience.

Evaluation planning