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

Technology has a huge impact on the production of media products such as the ones I have made. The two most important pieces of equipment I used were the video camera and my SLR camera. We used the video camera to film our trailer as my SLR does not have the function of video recording. The camera can be zoomed which meant we could get a variety of shots and angles.

When we started producing our media products we had to some research, to do this I used the internet. For doing research for the film trailer I used the internet watch and analyse real trailers. I used YouTube to do this as YouTube is one of the most popular websites for watching videos. YouTube is a good website to use as it has a trailer for nearly all the films made in recent years. Watching the trailers gave me ideas of what the forms and conventions of film trailers are, this was useful to me as it helped me to produce my own trailer. After I finished the production and editing of my trailer I uploaded it to YouTube so that I could easily post it onto my blog.

Once all the filming was done, the editing could begin. I used my own laptop to do this which has a copy of Adobe Premiere Pro, I found the editing quite difficult as I had never used Premiere Pro before and therefore did not understand how everything worked. However once I had worked out how to use Premiere Pro properly I started to edit my trailer. I imported the clips we wanted to use and cut them down into the project timeline, I then arranged the clips in the order we had planned.

The other piece of equipment I used to produce my media products was my Canon 1000D SLR camera, this was an important piece of equipment as I used it to take the photographs for the front cover of my magazine and the film poster. I am a photography student therefore I know about the lighting needed and I also know how to use my camera properly.

When researching magazine covers and film posters, I used Google Images. I typed in what I was looking for into the search engine, I then looked through the pages slowly gaining ideas for my own products. Once I had done some research, I typed up my thoughts on the covers and posters I had found and posted it onto my blog. This helped me in the production process as it gave me ideas of what audiences are likely to be attracted to and therefore helped me decide what I should put on my magazine cover and poster.

To produce the cover and film poster I used Adobe Photoshop, this was not very difficult for me as I have been using Adobe Photoshop for many years. The first thing I did was choose the photographs I wanted to use for each product; I then edited the colour and lighting of them so that they fit in with the forms and conventions of the genre of horror. After having edited my photographs I started to put together my poster and magazine cover. To create my film poster I used a black background, red writing, the main photograph and credits at the bottom of the page. I used a different layer for each part of my poster; I put everything on separate layers so that I was able to move things around until everything was in the right place which is when I flattened the image and uploaded it onto my blog.

The production of my magazine cover was very similar to producing my film poster. I created the background by using the paint brush tool. I chose the colour black and changed the opacity, this made it easy for me to create a gradient effect. I then typed the puff and the masthead, before placing the main image on a separate layer over the masthead. I then typed up the rest of the writing and moved it all around until it was all in the right position. Once everything was right I flattened and saved the image so that it could be uploaded to my blog. 

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is a crucial part of creating media products such as the ones I have done, the feedback I received enabled me to improve my products. Receiving feedback on the trailer is more important than on the poster and the magazine cover as the trailer is the main task.

When we started this task we had a different idea for our trailer, the feedback we received on the original trailer was not what we had hoped for therefore we decided to change the story and produce a different trailer with different actors. In the early stages of the production process of our original trailer, we posted up a short bit of footage as to gain feedback from the members of my class:

Mr M Morris Nov 8, 2011 01:46

‘The camera work lacks a little dynamism in the scene. May have benefitted from a close up as well to signify the fear/humour in the clip.
I like the superhero's entrance from the tree but once again not much camera movement.
Very little footage for this stage in the project - you need to move it on quickly’  

Kate Burden Nov 8, 2011 01:49

This early footage shows progress within the story line and also develops the theme of being a superhero spoof. The transition between the different scenes is well done, and also the ways in which the camera angles are positioned are varied and interesting. However with the lack of sound the footage is incomplete.

Tyler Andrews Nov 8, 2011 01:56

The superhero spoof genre has shots in the trailer that you are providing. There are multiple shots of the hero posing and in a spoof it's funny to see that overdone. The tree scene was comical and showed how fight scenes in the movie would appear.

It was very short and I cannot see the plot of the film or who the villain is. Work needs to be done to show this but it's a good start to improve on.  

http://bmaya2media.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/early-footage-for-audience-feedback.html#comment-form (a link to the comments above)

At this point we had very little footage, therefore we did not realise that we should maybe change the plot of the trailer. However we did take on board what our teacher and class members had said and we added more scenes and tried to alter the sound issues.

Once we had finished the trailer and posted it up on to our blogs we received some more feedback from our teacher:

'The first part feels like a music video. Although you include captions and it’s edited in a way that makes meaning. The villan is over-emphasised in relation to the hero. Although the comic element is signified it’s confusing with the music. The girl is poorly introduced. Might be an idea to tell the audience who is starring in the roles at this point. Awful change of sound when the song ends – needs a fade to bridge the edit. Nice camera work in the ‘we have a situation scene’ I might be tempted to open the piece with that’

http://bmaya2media.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/trailer-feedback.html (a link to the post above)

This is the point when we decided it would be best to change the trailer as we felt a different plot would improve our marks. We came up with a new concept and planned out the shots and setting of our new trailer. When the new trailer started to come together I posted up the first draft onto my blog, we received some feedback from our teacher which I was very pleased with in comparison to the feedback from our old trailer, he told us that we needed to add some more scenes and voice overs we took this feedback on board and filmed more scenes. 

http://bmaya2media.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Audience%20Feedback

After I had finished my final draft of my film poster I asked my friend to look at it and give me some feedback, the feedback he gave me was very positive. (http://bmaya2media.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/feedback-on-my-poster.html) My teacher also gave me positive feedback and therefore I decided to keep the poster as it is. I did one draft of my magazine cover, my teacher gave me some good feedback however he did suggest that I change a few things I took this into account and rectified my magazine cover. I showed the two covers to two of my friends, they both agreed that the second cover is better than the first, therefore I left the magazine cover it is.    

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

When producing my media products, one of the major things I had to consider was that all three products were connected. I had to make sure that the trailer, film poster and magazine all linked together with the genre and the target audience. I did this by using the same codes and conventions for my genre throughout all three of my products and by making sure the features of my products would appeal to my target audience.  

One of the most important parts in making a media product is the genre, therefore I had to make sure the genre of all three products was the same and linked together. The genre of my product is horror, I made sure that the genre of my product was clear to the audience I did this by using certain codes and conventions of horror. I used a dark colour scheme throughout the production process of all three products; I wrote the title of my film in red on all three products as red gives the connotation of blood which is an iconography of the genre of horror. I also made sure that the font was the same for both my poster and the titles at the end of the trailer; I did not however have the same font for the magazine cover. This is because the film is a feature in the magazine and not made by the producers of the film, instead I used writing that looked like blood. I feel I made the genre of horror quite clear for all three of my product, which therefore links them together well.

Another major part of making a media product is the target audience, the target audience for my trailer is 15-25 year olds therefore I had to make sure all three of my products appealed to both genders for that age range. I used the colour scheme to make my products appeal to my target audience, the dark colours contrasting with the bright reds and blues is something that teenagers would be attracted to rather than adults. I also used young actors for my trailer; I used a photograph of all three of them on the film poster and a photograph of the main character on the magazine cover. This will be something that attracts my target audience as the actors are of the same age range.

Over all I feel as if I linked my products together well, by using the right codes and conventions for my genre and by making the three products appeal to my target audience of 15-25 year olds.

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

When creating any kind of media product or text the encoder needs to stick to the forms and conventions of products of that type, this is done so that the audience is familiar with the product or text. The genre we chose for our film trailer is horror; the genre is a very important factor when it comes to creating the product. The genre is important as it is easily recognised by the audience due to intertextuality over time.

We carefully planned out the production of our film trailer so that it contained the right conventions for the genre of horror. The conventions for horror are the same as any genre; narrative, themes, iconography, characters, setting and filming techniques. The mise en scene plays a big role in the genre of the film, as the mise en scene is the setting, the props and the costumes. A typical horror film would have some sort of dark or haunted location such as a woods or a rundown building, for example a house or empty car park. As the location sets the scene and genre for the film we decided to film our trailer in a woods and empty underground car park, these locations are easily recognised by the audience and therefore create a horrific atmosphere. The iconography of a film means the things that are associated with that genre such as the props. The iconographies for a horror film are things such as blood and weapons, as well as sound effects such as screaming. In my trailer I used a knife, a mask and blood; as these are the props that are found in the majority of horror films. It is important that we stuck to the forms and conventions of horror films as our genre is horror.

The film trailer was a group task however the magazine front cover and film poster were both independent tasks. I had done some research into posters for horror films, from my research I discovered that the most effective posters were the ones with a simple photograph, a dark coloured background and coloured writing. I used all of the forms and conventions of film posters. The title of the film is written at the top of the page in large red letters. I placed it at the top of the page so that it catches the audiences’ eye and guarantees the audience is aware of the title of the film. The writing is on a black background, I chose black as red stands out against black very easily and makes the poster more attractive to the audience. On nearly all film posters there will be the names of the actors, this is important as some people will see films that certain actors are in or will not see a film if a certain actor is in it. Therefore I placed the names of the actors in the film beneath the title, I put the names beneath the title so that they can easily by seen by the audience, the names are also written in red. I chose to use red, black and grey as my colour scheme as these colours are associated with horror and therefore anchor the genre.

When producing my magazine cover I made sure that I used the same forms and conventions as the film magazines that are already out there. One of the main forms and conventions of a magazine cover is the masthead (the title of the magazine), I made my masthead bold and quite large so that it stands out of the page. Other forms and conventions of magazines are puffs, plugs, main feature title, sub headings and bold colour schemes. I decided to place my puff directly above the masthead, my puff is ‘the world’s best selling film magazine’ this indicates that the magazine is popular. The plug I used is ‘free poster!’ with a picture of my film poster, this creates a link between the cover and my poster. From looking at other magazines I noticed they sometimes have a things such as 'FIRST LOOK' written across the page, therefore I decided to do something similar by writing 'WORLD EXCLUSIVE!' on a yellow rectangle, so that it looks like a sticker on the page. The main photograph is of one of the main victims in the film. I have placed the photograph in the very middle of the page with the title of the film written in font that is supposed to look like blood. This is the magazines main feature of the month which will attract the audience. As my genre is horror, I used a similar colour scheme as for my film poster; red, black, grey, white and dark blue. To give the audience and insight to what the main feature article will be about I have written ‘behind the scenes with...’ this will intrigue the audience. 

Magazine Cover Final

The Man in The Mask Final Trailer

Feedback on First Draft of My Magazine Cover

Feedback from my teacher:

I like it Betty, puffs plugs good title.

one too many exclamation marks!!!

is there any way you could get the 'actors' name on the cover and really use it to anchor the image - for example Montage goes behind the scenes with ..... .....  or exclusive interview with . . . .

Magazine Cover

Mock Up of Magazine Cover

Feedback On My Poster

'I think the way you have presented the poster is really professionally done, as it has all the positions and names at the bottom along with sponsors and an official website. The picture is really nicely edited so it stands out from the black background but without being to "in-your-face". My only criticism of the poster is the font and possibly the colour of your font, I think the font is a bit to plain and could have been perhaps a bit more scary to give off the connotations of a horror/thriller film, and I think the colour you used stands out a bit too much, but overall I think it looks really nice and professional'

Finished Film Poster

Making My Film Poster

The other part of my coursework is a magazine cover and a film poster. In order to get the right photographs for my cover and my poster I used a Canon EOS 1000D. I took photographs of my friends who acted in my trailer, I put fake blood and mud on their faces so that the photographs and the trailer link together. I took various photographs of them in different locations, the two main locations I used was an alley way and the car park in which the trailer was filmed.

 

I took quite a few photographs for my front cover and poster; this gave me a lot of photographs to choose from. This is the photograph I chose to use, I chose this one because I like the way they are positioned and they have the right expressions on their faces.

This is the photograph after I edited in Photoshop. I changed the contrast, made the photograph brighter and I de-saturated the colour so that it has an eerie kind of effect.

This is the final edit of the photograph and the first stage of my poster coming together. I have blacked out the background, I have made the boys on the right and the left appear to be standing far away from ‘the man in the mask’ I did this by increasing their size and moving them closer to each other. I have also added space above and below the photograph, this space is for the title and for the credits at the bottom.

This is the second part of my film poster; I have added the title of the film. It is in big letters so that it stands out of the page, I have chosen to use the colour red as red symbolises blood and red works well against the black background. The black space at the end will be filled with the credits.

This is my final poster. I have put the credits at the bottom of the page; to do this is I copied credits from a real film poster. In Photoshop I changed all of the names and I changed the date of release but I kept the logos the same. Next to editor and director I put my name and Marias name as I edited the trailer and Maria directed it. I have also added the actors’ names beneath the title, I used the same font and the same colour and the title.

Poster Plan

New Trailer Feedback

The concept of the group being watched was not effectively demonstrated and your next filming scenes need to capture that – perhaps shoot through a keyhole or a crack in the door. Does the man in the mask have a history with the group or a motivation for revenge? The piece is on the short side – probably needs 3 more scenes but be careful not to become too linear'

Big reliance on captions – you need to include some voice-overs.
'I felt there was a nice range of shots in the car park – the editing was a little quick which made the scene confusing. That may have been the point.


I am much happier with this feedback in comparison to our old trailer, it is still a working progress; we need to add more scenes and voice overs.

New Trailer - The Man In The Mask

Characters, Actors, Setting/Location and Props.

Characters and Actors:


Alex – The victim. Alex is an ordinary teenage boy who hears a rumour that whoever watches a series of YouTube videos called Marble Hornets will become part of the story and will eventually die. He tells his friends about the rumour, they think it is a joke and watch the videos anyway. However this proves to be a fatal mistake as he starts to notice things happening to him. Alex will be played by my friend Matt Shaw.

Tommy – The second victim. Tommy’s character is similar to Alex however he does not personally experience anything strange happening to him, he only experiences things when is in Alex’ company. Tommy will be played by my friend Conor Cruse.

The Man in The Mask – the villain. The man in the mask is a friend of Alex and Tommy who watched the videos, however the videos had a different effect on him as he turns into the bad guy. 


Setting and Location:


We are going to shoot our trailer in quite a few locations.

Calverley Park – We want to film here because there are quite a lot of trees to hide in and film from, these shots will be of Alex and Tommy being watched and followed.

Underground Car Park – we are going to film the majority of our trailer in an underground car park, the car park we are going to film in is quite run down and therefore gives an element of horror.

Matts house/Garden – There will be two shots at Matts house, the main one will be the one of them talking about the rumour they have heard.

Conors house – there will be a very brief shot at Conors house of the two main characters running into a room and the lights going out.

Outside – there will be a few other shots filmed on the streets of Crowborough, these shots will be more shots of Alex being followed and watched. 

Props

We will only be using two props which will be the mask and a knife. 

Target Audience

By looking at other horror movies it is clear that the usual certificate and therefore target audience is normally 15 or 18. The 18 certificates are for the horror films that are quite gory and shocking; the 15 certificates are for the horrors that are a little bit softer and not so scary. Based on this knowledge I think it would be best for our target audience to be 15-20, as our trailer is for a film that is not gory but quite jumpy. I have looked at trailers for films such as mirrors http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790686/, 30 days of night http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389722/, and the haunting in conneticut http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0492044/. All three of these films are rated at 15 and are similar to our trailer.

  

New Trailer

Due to a low mark on our trailer, we have decided to do a new trailer with a new concept; we hope this new trailer will improve our mark.

Our new trailer will be a horror movie based around the YouTube series called ‘Marble Hornets’. The story is about a group of teenagers who hear a rumour that whoever watches these YouTube videos will become part of the story and will die. However they think its only people being superstitious and watch the videos anyway, the rumours then turn out to be true and things start to happen. 

Title

·        The Man in the Mask

Genre

·        Horror

Characters

·        Alex – Victim

·        Tommy – Victim

·        The Man in the Mask – Villain

Actors

·        Matt – Alex

·        Conor – Tommy

·        Alex – The Man in the Mask

Locations

·        Matts house/garden

·        Car park

·        Lake

Crew

·        Editor – Betty May

·        Camera – Maria Gonzalez

·        Idea – Betty May and Maria Gonzalez

Target Audience

·        15-25

What I Have Learnt From My Research and My Initial Ideas For My Cover and Poster

After researching two different magazine and poster covers for different films, I have decided that I am going to use a dark coloured background and black and red writing as our trailer is meant to be a horror. I am going to use tag lines such as ‘World Exclusive!’ to draw attention to my cover. For my poster I have decided to use the same kind of colour scheme, so that my cover and my poster are linked together. The photographs I’m using will be of the main characters and will be taken on the main setting of our trailer. The poster will have the title of the film and the actors names in bold letters at the top of the page I have not yet decided how I am going to lay this out, I will do a mock up on paper for both the cover and the poster before I begin to create the products.

The Dark Knight Rises Poster Research

This is one of the many posters published for The Dark Knight Rises. The poster indicates to the audience that this film is quite sinister by use of black and grey colours. The main feature of this poster is of course Batman himself, the clever editing of that bats falling from the in between the sky scrapers gives the audience a clear picture of what the film is about. There is very little writing on the poster, the Batman logo at the bottom of the page with the words film title written across it tells the audience what the film will be called, bellow that it has the year of which the film will be released so that the audience will know to look out for the film.

The Dark Knight Rises Magazine Cover Research

The third and final film of the Batman Trilogy is on its way to the cinemas, Empire magazine once again managed to convince director Christopher Nolan to give some knowledge to the magazine about the film. Empire also printed two different magazine covers, giving the readers a choice between good and evil in this case ‘Batman vs Bane’. The cover shows the film title in bold letters, which stands out of the page and attracts the reader’s eye to the page. The photographs also dominate the page, the photographs used are appropriately quite dark as is the film. The whole cover however has quite a bit of colour, the yellow sticker like area advertising the two different covers stands out the page along with the yellow writing beneath it and the blue writing on the opposite side of the page.

Avatar Film Poster Research

This is the poster for James Cameron’s Avatar. It shows the two main characters, with the title and the director’s name above it. The black background makes the images of the characters stand out; it also draws attention as there is nothing else on the page to distract the eye. The simplicity of this poster draws in the audience; it’s also quite mysterious as only half of their faces are shown. If you look closely you can see their ears in the dark, giving a sense that they are coming out of the dark shadows. These are all used to make the audience want to find out more and therefore go see the film. The second poster shows only one of the main characters, but in the same style of the first poster

Avatar Magazine Cover Research

We have three parts to our main task: a film trailer, a magazine cover and a film poster that all relate to each other. In order to complete to three task properly I need to research the products that are already out there. I have previously researched two film trailers, one for ‘A Single Man’ and the other for ‘Fight Club’. However I feel as if I did not analyse these trailers in full detail, therefore I am going to analyse the trailer, the magazine cover and the film poster for the same film. I am going to do this for three different films so that I can get a good idea of the finished products and gain inspiration for my own products.

Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. It has been one of the best-selling film magazines since its first issue in July 1989. Empire also organise the annual Empire Awards, sponsored by Jameson; the awards are voted for by the readers of the magazine. Similar to most magazines Empire makes the majority of its money from advertising. Every month Empire magazine has the newest film splashed across its covers, with in depth reviews of the top films for that month, plus interviews with the directors, the stars and the stories from behind the scenes.

In 2009 Empire magazine was lucky enough to be given the chance to have the first look at James Cameron’s Avatar which went on to be the highest grossing film of all time. The main feature title of the film is shown at the bottom of the page with the director’s name above draws in the reader, the capital letters attracts attention. The words to the left of the cover ‘The planets first look at the movie even of the decade…’ also draws in the readers, the words indicate to the reader that the film is going to be a massive hit, the use of ellipsis shows that there is more inside and will make the readers want to buy the magazine so that they are able to read on. The cover photograph is a shot taken straight out of the film; this is interesting as other magazine covers normally have a separate photo shoot just for the cover. The whole cover is quite minimal, there is very little writing; the photograph of Neytiri, is the main feature and therefore not much else is needed on the cover. 
Here is a link to the Empire website - www.empireonline.com