EVALUATION

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

Trailer - Our trailer product both uses and challenges conventions. Before completely challenging conventions, it is important to follow certain ones as they are needed in order for it to be accepted as a media product. We have included a productions logo, as every trailer promotes who is behind the scenes of the film, for audience recognition and to promote the production company. By following this convention, it allows the audience to link other films under the production label and to encourage them to watch this film. If they have no previous experience of films under this production logo then hopefully our trailer will be the start to building their trust with this particular production label. We included text in our trailer to build tension, and to give the audience a slight insight into the storyline, but to also leave them with rhetorical questions, which should entice them to find the answer to by watching our film. We used music along side our quick edits and transitions on the trailer to build up tension, resulting in a climax. This is needed in every trailer as the climax that is reached isn't solved, so the audience are left wondering, with un answered questions which encourages them to watch the film.

We also decided it was important to challenge the codes and conventions of a film trailer for our target audience to gain a new experience from our film. We did this by using black and white through out our trailer. Our target audience research highlighted that they prefer colour film, but we thought that black and white would add an extra dimension to the trailer and increase the tension and mystery. We feel our intentions have worked, and the grey scale through out our trailer re enforces the horror genre we are trying to portray. The black used is the darkest shade possible, and darkness is known for being frightening, scary and mysterious as your sight is unable to work to its full potential you feel venerable and victimised. We also used direct mode of address in the trailer. This is very rarely used as usually the camera isn't addressed by the actors, its treated as invisible and that the audience are receiving a secret view of whats going on, making them feel special. We felt we needed to address the audience to make them feel a part of the film, and make it feel more personal and make them feel more valued, as they were addressed.

Film Poster- We carried on with our theme of black and white and with the scratchy looking font so that each media product connected to one another and from the same collection promoting the same film. This also increases the professional look and feel of our three media products. We followed the conventions of a film poster by including the production logo and stating the names of valued people behind the production as well as including the web address and release date. We also included endorsements as they are more valued then what is stated from the production team as it is an opinion from an outsider and so more trustworthy.

We challenged the conventions by having the poster direct mode of address, usually it is indirect, but to reflect the trailer we felt direct mode of address was needed to create more tension and fright, as we are focusing on the horror genre. Using a black and white effect also intensifies the image and increases the mystery that we are trying to create. By having our sub text at the top of the poster and our title at the bottom in more or less the same size, it challenges conventions. This would make the audience work harder to find out which is the title of the film, as initially they may think it is the title at the top of the poster, and therefore force them to engage with our product and gain an interest within our film.  

Film magazine - Our film magazine follows many codes and conventions of a magazine as they are vital in order to hail our audience. We used hooks, tag lines and anchorage all in an attempt to draw a reader in. These conventions are usually bright in colour compared to there surroundings, and include information into what the target audience would be interested in. As well as anchorage, we used direct mode of address so that the audience will engage and maintain eye contact, which is a powerful thing. It makes the audience feel selected and special, it addresses them personally, as eye contact can only be delivered to one selected person at only one time. We followed on with the theme of black white and red as that is the decided colour scheme for our media products. We wanted them to be noticeably all from the same collection, advertising the same film. We also included a mast head and main cover line as a magazine front cover, firstly needs to include a mast head so that the loyal readers of that magazine can recognise it and build up a relationship with it as they are able to notice and read the weekly copy, but also so that new readers can begin to build up their own relationship with it, positive or negative. The main cover line is needed to advertise the contents of the magazine and the focus for that week. It is used to catch the target audience and interest them so that they are encouraged to read on and purchase the magazine. We also stated the web address to broaden the variety and availability of finding out the latest about films. Having a web address available will also appeal to different audience types, so increase the number of audiences you are able to tap into and interest, also with the Internet it is accessible from the comfort of their own homes, so may be more appealing. We also had to include a barcode, as it is vital convention and increases the realism of the magazine.

We challenged the conventions by having the photo in black and white, as usually its colour that is used to grab the audiences attention, but we feel we hail in the audience through direct  mode of address and the intense black and white image, with a visually appealing colour scheme and font. Our colour scheme instantly brings connotations to the horror genre and as we decided this issue would be dedicated to the horror genre, this works extremely well. Although conventions have been challenged, we feel this has worked to our advantage.

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

In order for our main product and ancillary texts to combine together effectively it was important to make sure the genre conventions were consistent throughout each text. By looking at existing media texts, specifically at how parts of a trailer are injected into the poster or a magazine front cover, allowed us to identify and pluck out the vital conventions we would need to follow. This will give the audience a clear understanding of how all three of our products are related.

As the main character in our trailer is made very clear it is essential to include just him in our ancillary texts as well. The other characters, although vital for the storyline, do not share this importance as he is the one whose story we’re following, he is the one who should frighten and intrigue us and he is the one who we are all going to watch. On both the poster and magazine front cover we decided to use a direct mode of address as not only does it mean the audience is engaging with the character and wanting to know more about him, it is consistently used in each text which links them all. No matter which text the audience come across, they are all going to have a moment of looking directly into the characters eyes which is not only chilling but also following the conventions of the horror genre. By having only the character’s right eye visible on our poster fulfils the poster purpose of creating intrigue and, essentially, selling tickets. Once the audience have engaged with this, they may recognise the same stare on the front of our magazine cover. They get to see a little more of the character and maybe find out more within the magazine than the poster gives away. They get to know more about him but all of this is linked by that direct address. When the trailer is viewed by the audience, they are once again greeted by a direct stare into the camera lens. By this time they would be familiar with this but it would be different as they are facing the character and what he is doing.

As we decided to challenge conventions and use black and white in our trailer it was vital to carry out the same technique with both our ancillary texts. This is a very effective way of linking all products together as the audience may not have come across this very often and once they’ve seen it they will not only make automatic links with connotations of black and white such as Gothic genres but also link each product together.

We also made sure the font of the title of the film ‘Sacrifice’ was used consistently on each product making sure our three products were combined effectively and recognisable. By this being used on both the main product and ancillary texts would, in turn, establish this font and title almost as a logo for the film.

Although the colour schemes are slightly different in the ancillary texts, each 'logo' links effectively to each other as the same font was used and it is still easily recognised.

We wanted to have the same conventions and characters featured in each text in order to combine all three and we feel we have met our goals and succeeded with this particular task. Each texts provides the audience with something different to take in and form views about but overall, each product follows the same genre and ideas.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our audience feedback worked in a positive and helpful way towards the production of our media products. It helped us realise what they primarily expect from this genre of film, from it we were able to decided what conventions we wanted to challenge to excite the audience and what conventions we wanted to keep the same so that our audience were still engaged.

We firstly produced questionnaires and handed them out to males and females within our targeted audience, as its them that we are wanting to hail into our media product, so is was there attitudes, values and expectations that we needed to tap into with our media product so that they would want to watch our production. From our questionnaires we discovered that the older age bracket in our target audience seemed to enjoy the more gory aspects of the horror genre, so to appeal to them in the trailer we left that element to the audiences imagination, our trailer doesn't suggest that there are no gory aspects but it doesn't dismiss the idea either. The younger age bracket we questioned preferred the more spooky and startling aspects, so we made sure we included sharp cut edits in our trailer and suggest that the main character worked in mysterious and spooky ways. Noticeably the preferred location was in a secluded area, like a wooded area, which was accompanied by some sort of abstract building, from this we found a location near by that included these aspects. From the questionnaire we also asked what type of character intrigued and interested them, the most common storyline was a damsel in distress; not just limiting it to a woman in distress, this we didn't want to follow and decided to challenge. We challenged the common storyline by using the minorities vote of having a group or singular person in a disturbing or dangerous situation. We decided upon this as we wanted our trailer to not been seen as 'the same old', but cutting edge. Also the audience are able to relate to this scenario and they could possibly experience it themselves, as it will involve huge amounts of realism so it is believed by the audience.

After analysing our Questionnaire responses to use as guidelines for the creation of our trailer, we investigated our poll question replies. Collecting our results we discovered that the people predominantly answering our poll was male, as first thought, because stereotypically the Horror Genre is seen as more masculine, so appealing to men, just like the romantic is stereotypically seen to attract women. Our intentions were to address both genders so we had to take into consideration our female audience as they will be harder to hail. Just like our questionnaire results, murder and gore is a favourite within the Horror Genre so again suggested the path we should take when creating our trailer. From that we feel we have included subtle hints towards this convention within the Horror Genre, but as this is a trailer, we are holding back on suggesting the storyline and plot within the trailer. After understand what type of film our target audience prefers we decided to question whether they enjoy colour film rather to black and white. Our results clearly state that colour is more preferred, but we daringly chose to challenge this convention as we felt colour was chosen as they connote black and white film with old, out dated and un-enjoyable films. We decided that we wanted to change this stereotype of black and white film, and felt that using black and white film will increase the tension and mystery. We also questioned whether they like the effects of a hand held camera or of a stationary camera more, 64% preferred a stationary camera, so we decided to follow the codes and conventions and film with a stationary camera. Finally we were intrigued to know how impacting a trailer is and whether the target audience feels it is a vital aspect to interest a potential viewer, 60% of the poll viewers decided that a trailer plays a key role in enticing them to watch a film, so we felt it was vital that we made our trailer fit with a certain criteria that we discovered through audience research, so that our trailer is viewed, and acts as a trailer should.

The poll taking and questionnaire research has played a fundamental role in creating our trailer as well as magazine front cover and poster, as it has set guidelines for us to cater for our target audience. Also it inspired us to experiment with conventions to create something slightly more alienated, so that it stands out, and acts as an advertising tool.

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

Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker was our choice of program during the construction stages of creating our trailer. We had both previously had experience with this program so we felt comfortable using it and knew we would be able to create something without having to practise and get to know how to use it. We had an advantage as if we had used an unknown program we may not have produced a quality product and would have used valuable time in trying to familiarise ourselves with how it functioned.

Windows Movie Maker had many advantages and although we did manage to create a trailer we were happy with, we did encounter some minor problems along the way. We had issues with it freezing and shutting down a lot but that could have been due to our school network not being very reliable. The program also didn’t have features that we wanted to include in our trailer, for example when wanting to create a quick cut edit, we had to insert a black slide and shorten it to less than a second to create the same effect. Although it did work out in the end, it still didn’t have the fluidity we were after. We also had difficulty editing shots, we wanted to brighten up shots but keep them in black and white but Windows Movie Maker didn’t seem to be able to do that very efficiently. Another issue was we could only animate text when the fonts Windows Movie Maker supplied us with so when we used our film ‘logo’ in the trailer, we weren’t able to animate it and we would have wanted it to have a slow zoom in as we did with the other text.

Sound and music was also a problem. We had to use a different program, audacity, to crop our music and insert it to our film which we found a few problems with.  Originally we wanted a combination of sound from our film footage alongside the music of our choice but Windows Movie Maker didn’t seem to cater for this. Alternatively we could have used recordings and inserted them that way but it would have sounded more like a voice over than natural sound and conversation and we weren’t looking for that sort of effect.

We were, however, able to include features such as slowing down or speeding up shots which we played around with and proved to be effective in our trailer. The fact that we were able to use grey scale was a benefit as it helped us create the atmosphere in our trailer and it allowed us to challenge codes and conventions of a horror trailer which we feel we did. Windows Movie Maker did allow us to use a combination of both black and white and colour on different shots which was helpful and we did toy with the idea of using black and white for the scenes with the villain in and colour for the victims scenes but we decided to commit to the black and white.

Audacity

Audacity is a sound editting software, we needed this software as our chosen trailer soundtrack was over 6 minuites long, this was too long for our trailer and in specific areas of the trailer we wanted our soundtrack to compliment it. On this software we had to import our soundtrack and discover what areas we wanted to crop and  what areas we wanted to save. So that the soundtrack still played smoothly and doesnt sound like areas of the track has been removed, we had to view the frequency of the track and make sure where we have removed a section of the soundtrack that it matches up with area of frequency it is now joining. This took time and patients as even the smallest change in frequency was easliy heard when listening to the soundtrack. We also had to consider what parts of the trailer we wanted to compliment with the soundtrack so had to make sure the areas of the trailer we were cropping lined up with the parts of the trailer to compliment. This was ensured by lining up the time scale. With out this software, our trailer wouldn't have the same effect as it does now, and the scenes wouldn't be striking to the audience. With out sound images or shots have no atmosphere or meaning.    
Photo Editing Software

We decided to create our other two media products on photo editing software, we chose this software as it combines photo editing, with poster creating and handling different types of text, to basically create what ever you need to.

We chose this software as it had a number of advantages to what we were wanting to create. Firstly we could create both our poster and magazine front cover on the same software, this was helpful as we could advance on one software instead of trying to learn two different software types. We were able to import the picture we wanted to use, enlarge it, rotate it and use it as the background to our media products. We were able to insert text in the specific places we wanted, change the font and colour so it fitted with in a certain scheme. Also we were able to import text from the web, like our Sacrifice Mast head and film title, that we created on a font generator. As this was imported from the web we had to remove the white background as it didn't look professional, and looked 'stuck on the page', also it prevented the realism affect we wanted. It was easy to erase the white background, and the outcome was a success. We were also able to use special effects on the items we placed on the page, this again increased the professional look of the overall piece and allowed us to follow codes and conventions of a poster and magazine front cover, as special effects on text and images is needed to be visually appealing and hail in an audience. We were also able to insert different shaped text boxes, to also improve the visual appeal of our media products. The software we used included all we needed, and with our previous experience with it we were able to advance.

The problem which we experienced with the software we used was the document type we created. When we saved our media products we were not able to upload them onto our blog as the document type was not compatible, so we had to import them into 'Paint' and save them as a Jpeg file so they could be uploaded to our blog.  

Paint was a useful tool as we were able to transfer our products into the software and save them as a Jpeg file. This is because the software we used to create the media products, saved the file in an unrecognisable format to what Blogger recognised. So when uploading the products onto our blog we encountered difficulty as they weren't supported. We then had to transfer them into paint and save them as a picture file (Jpeg). We could then happily upload them onto our blog as the Jpeg file was readily recognised. 

As we have previously used Blogger, for our AS media production we were fully aware of how to use it. We were already knowledgeable of how to upload text and pictures in posts. Also how to edit the time and day it was posted so that we were able to order the posts chronologically.
For A2 we had to learn how to upload a video; our trailer. This involved us changing the format of our trailer into a movie file, this was then recognised by Blogger and we could upload our trailer by clicking on an icon to import video.