Thursday, 10 December 2009

Evaluation

Evaluation

1)In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
After doing a large amount of reserach I had enough knowledge of the forms of conventions horror film trailers to create a successful trailer aaswell as ancillary texts that follow these conventions.
Trailer- A trailer must be tense, build up to a climax and not tell to much of a story. We followed the conventions of the trailer as our trailer is gripping, there is tension and suspense leading to a climax. However we chose to develop this as we have a short story at the beggining including captions. There are not too many captions in horror film trailers but we chose to challange this convention by using more. I think it has work incredibly well as it doesnt tell a whole story but enough to get the audience interested. The captions are gripping and audiences will definately want to know more. We also used and followd the conventions of the music in horror trailers. The music is used to build up tension and add to the effects the footage is trying to create. It usually begins at a slow tempo and becomes faster as the editing gets faster. We have followed this as at the begining the music is eerie at a slow tempo an event happens and the music becomes faster and more aggresive along with the editing.
Poster and magazine cover- In both of these we have followed the conventions completely. The poster consists of a large image of the house we chose this as it is simple the main focus of the film and eye catching which is typical of horror film posters. Here you can see the comparison between our poster and other real media, showing how we have followed the conventions.







































































We added the caption at the top so it is not interfered with by the other text on the page which is usually the credits small at the bottom of the page which we have also done. Film posters always have a website so that there audineces can find out more, we have used this convention and added a website at the bottom of the page. The title on film posters are not usually placed at the top in the middle as this is too obvious and more for the comedy genre. We have followed this as our title is over lapping the house in the middle of the page to the right. It is in colour and stands out against the black and white house. Here we have clearly followed the conventions and all of these can be seen in the comparison above.

The film magazine cover contains photos of the two actors in the film which is typical of a film magazine cover.
Here again you can see the comparison of the two showing we have followed the conventions.





































































They do this as if the audience like the actor they will immdeiately see the magazine and want to read it to find out more. We have done this hoping it would have the same effect. Not forggeting the house which is the main focus of the film we have placed a small image of it in the back ground making it clear it is a horror magazine article. We have added caption such as ' Exclusive interviews with your favourite stars' Most film magazines do this as they know fans will want to read about the actors they like.

2)How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our products all act as a sinergy and when they are combined there is a clear link between them. It is important for them to all be recognised for the same reasons so audiences will recognise an elemnt of one and link it to the other acting as a reminder for them to see the film. An example is the font we used. The font we used was called Bell and it was used on the Film poster and also the captions and title of the film. Although it was not used on the music magazine ocver as they would have their own fonts. These photos show the font we used.I think it is a very effective font as it gives an eerie impression telling audiences it is a horror.



















We also used the same locations to have the same effect so audiences will again be reminded of what film it is and that they should go and see it. Pictures below show how we have used the house many times through the sinergy as it is the main feature in the film.






































Overall, the combination of the trailer and the ancillary texts are very effective and meet the conventions of a horror genre sinergy. They attract audiences and will immediately trigger them into wanting to see the film.











3)What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I individually carried out a large amount of audience feedback, as this is who the trailer is aimed at and the reason for making it. So finding out what they thought such as, what worked well and what could be improved, is vital in order to make a successful product. I made two questionnaires and surveyed 20 people from our core audience. This is not a huge amount of people however I wanted this amount so they could give more in depth answers and I could analyses their suggestions closely. I learned that the audience know what they want to see in a trailer and this must be taken into consideration other wise it will not be successful.




I previously showed my first draft of the trailer to my core audience and I learnt a great deal from this which then allowed me to improve and re edit the trailer. Below are the results and analysis of this questionnaire.
As we are making a horror film trailer is is important that audiences know that it is of the horror genre immediately. I wanted to know if the draft of the trailer had this effect so i asked: 'Did you immediately know the genre of the trailer?'

I found that 16 out of the 20 immediately knew it was a horror trailer. This is good but could be better so that the whole of the audience know its horror and are immediately interested. When they elaborated and I asked what it was that made them think this, the comments they made included:



' It was the eerie music that let me know it was a horror'



' The dark atmosphere led me to think it was a horror or maybe a thriller'



' The images of the road were creepy giving me the idea it was a horror trailer'







From the rest of the results I learned they thought the music was the most intense part but a lower number thought the build up was, which wasnt what we wanted. The idea for our trailer was to make the audience on the edge of their seat. So to have this effect more we used more captions and louder music to increase the intensity.



I also asked if the audience knew what was going to happen. 3/4 of them said no which i thought was very good as we want to keep them on edge. Altough the rest knew what was going to happen this is typical of a horror genre as they music and tension builds up letting know audience somehting is about to happen. So nothing needed urgently changing.



My inital worry when being told we had to make a trailer was that it would look unproffesional and un believeable so i asked the core audience if this was the case. To my surprise the majority said it was believable which i was very pleased with and I more confident now that we have created a successful trailer.



I learnt that they thought the trailer fitted the horror genre conventions and that the trailer made them want to see the film which was the most important thing. Overall the audience feedback alowed me to learn what they wanted to see and their views and opinion so the trailer was altered to meet there needs and proved to be very successsful.

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



As I am taking a media course there is alot of technology used in otder to show I have the skills and ability to use them.



For research I mainly used Youtube for analysis. This included the downloading of videos to post on my blog and completed a full analysis of the horror film trailer. This allowed me to get ideas of my own and research the conventions needing to be used. I found this very useful and easy to use as I ahve had enough experience using youtube for my personal use.















I also used google images to research a variety of things such as film posters and mag covers. I also found this useful as i could again see what conventions needed to be included in our own.






























For planning the major media tecnology used was the blog. With easy access,the blog aloud us to post what we want when we wanted to. I prefer them a great deal to folders as they are simple,easy and more organised to use.It aloud me to clearly complete the plannign for all three texts and when i come to the construction of them the planning was there to help me.



This is a screen grab of my blog and it shows the stages of my planning in a reverse order.

















The construction is the hardest section and where the most technology was used. For filming we used a video camera and tripod as seen below.

















































This was a new experience for me has I had rarely used a video camera and never a tripod. However once it was set up i found it easy as it allowed us to video a variety of steady shots. Howver i foud it difficult converting the film to our assigned computer as i found it a difficult process. Once i was shown how to do it i knew for the next time we uploaded film.

To take the photos for the poster and magazine cover we used this still camera. I enjoyed this and found it particularly easy as i have my own camera which i have used for personal use many times.




















Once we had taken the film and photos it was time to start creating the text. For this we had our own assigned computer and used Adobe premier pro for the trailer and Photoshop for the other two texts.










I had previously had experience using iMovie but not Adobe premier. However we had a lesson where we were shown how to use it and i was amazed my how much could be done using the programme.
This is a screen grab of Above premier pro and below a photo of myself editing our trailer on the programme.









Creating the poster and mag cover was a relitavely quick prosess as I am experienced in using this.




After the construction I have completed a vast amount of evaluation. The main part is the stages of constructing. I found it useful to explain the stages of making so it is clear what im doing and the reason for it.Belwo are phots and screen grab of myself creating the textss. All of the evaluation is shown on my blog next to these images.






Overall I feel I have used a variety of technologhy to my advantage to complete a successful outcome.

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