Media Evaluation

Media Evaluation Christina Fisher

In what ways do my media products use, develop or

challenge forms & conventions of real media products?

In what ways do my media products use, develop or challenge forms & conventions of real media

products?

In my media coursework, I have used many conventions that I found whilst studying media products such as magazine covers, movie trailers and movie posters. The main conventions I found in these products surround colours, text font and size, imagery, shot types and layout. I have created a magazine cover, a movie poster and a teaser trailer as a promotion package for my product, and I feel I have used many conventions within all of these products.

In what ways do my media products use, develop or challenge forms & conventions of

real media products?

My magazine cover is created for a film genre of horror. The image I have used links to this genre through costume, (2 models have fake blood over clothes and messed up hair), and mise-en-scene, (the location is dark and surrounding a grave yard, and props such as chains and lanterns are shown). The 2 models used in the image are also creating a mysterious and scary emotion through there facial expressions. These factors conventionally link to horror and I feel for this reason, my image was a successful choice.

I fitted the text around the image, conventionally creating a professional looking magazine cover. The text colours I chose were red and white, this was because the red signifies horror in general – blood and evil. White works well with the red to ‘soften’ it up, because if I used red for all of my text it would not be eye catching. Also the colours are clear above the image which is generally dark. Also, using two colours allowed me to create a house style of subheadings, headings and descriptive text. I used red for my headings and subheadings as it is more eye catching, and white for the longer patches of text so that it was clear for the reader. I added a banner at the top of the magazine cover to put an eye catching reason for people to want to buy the magazine – in this case, a competition. I made this background bright orange to catch the readers eye. I made the text white so that it was clear for the reader but also fitted in with the rest of the text colours. The font I used for headings and subheadings was Rockwell and Accent. This was because they are clear but also interesting; I didn’t want a ‘boring’ font. Other fonts I used, for paragraphs included Accord because it is a clear format.





The layout conventionally uses the path of the eye line effectively – the banner and title are read first, allowing the reader to instantly relate to the genre through the colours and wording used. The image (mainly the facial expressions of the models) is noticed next, relating clearly to the genre of the magazine. “The Cure” is the next thing to be seen, in large red writing it catches the reader’s eye, and again, relates to the genre effectively. I placed celebrity posters in the bottom left corner so as not to have too much writing and include some imagery – the posters are seen last, just before the bar code and price which is the least important thing until the reader decides they want to buy the magazine.



My movie poster again conventionally follows the genre of horror. The image includes a bandaged hand covered in blood holding a chain. This creates mystery for the onlooker as it isn’t a clear meaning – but it portrays violence and horror, interesting the reader through the creative imagery. To create a house style, I involved the same colour scheme as the one I used for my magazine cover. I made my main title red for the same reason as my magazine cover; it catches the reader’s eye, it is bold and allows them to relate to the genre of horror instantly as red signifies blood, evil and power. The smaller writing is a contrast of red and white to keep to the house style. The font style I used was Academy Engraved throughout. I felt this text was readable and clear, but it has a gothic edge to it to conform to the genre.



The layout of my poster also conventionally uses the path of the eye line effectively. The title is the first thing to be looked at, allowing the on lookers to take in the meaning of the film. The image of the bleeding arm and chain leads down to the ratings of the film. This allows the person to learn a little more about the genre, and also see that it is a successful film as the ratings are 5 and 4 star. I have also included actor names and the release date to give the basic information they need. The 18 certificate is placed in the last place they look; this is to clarify the boundaries of the film, and to ensure the cinemas do not allow anyone that is under 18 to watch the film.



We have also used many convention in our media trailer. Examples of these include a happy beginning and a mysterious finish, written narrative, for example: 3 weeks later, different shot types and upbeat music. We decided to include all of these after analysing horror trailers for their conventions. Our main narrative is the news reader, which i feel is an effective way of telling the story line because it gives the main facts and shows the seriousness of the topic. We then introduced short and snappy violent clips to pick up the pace of the trailer as shown in conventions.



Much of the editing included ducking - where we made the background music quieter whilst the news reader scene was playing to allow her voice to be clear. We also changed the saturation, exposure and brightness of the video clip to make some scenes black and white and to make the other scenes clearer and brighter. We cut some of the scenes at the beginning and at the end of clips that we didn't need to make the run through more efficient.

How effective is the cross-media package as a whole?

How effective is the cross-media package as a whole?

Overall, my cross-media package is effective as a whole. This is because I have consistently stuck to a house style of colours, fonts and image conventions, in my magazine cover, poster and trailer. This shows that I have created a horror genre in each of my products, and they can all fit together as an audience would relate the same fonts etc as “The Cure” package. Also, the magazine promotes The Cure and provokes the reader to want to watch the movie with the information given, the movie poster clearly promotes The Cure and persuades the on lookers to watch the movie, and the movie can provoke people to buy the magazine to find out about the characters and behind the scenes if they haven't already done so before watching the movie, so it all links into each other as a package.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?


From my audience feedback I have decided to use the results in the planning of our product. We can see that our target audience enjoy watching horror movies, so this is a good start. The majority of the people asked would however change stereotypical events, the most being changing the gender of the villain from conventional male to female. We have decided in our movie, we are going to include both male and female characters that are seen as “villains”, (in our case, zombies). The majority of people asked, said that Dead Set was there favourite horror movie, which is effective as that includes zombies, and we are basing our movie on zombie like characters. Also the feedback questionnaire I created about our finished media promotion package turned out to be very successful; the majority of the answers come under ‘definitely’ which is the desired answer.


For our movie poster, we decided to edit the image to show conventional stormy weather. This idea has come from the feedback: the majority of people stated that stormy weather is most effective in a movie poster. We will use a zombie character for the magazine cover, this therefore includes one of the actors/actresses so the audience can relate easily to the movie, but also it shows the horror genre. We will also use bright colours like red to attract the readers to buy the magazine, but also it will go with the blood on the characters clothes.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and

evaluation stages?

I used some new media technologies whilst constructing my research, planning and evaluation. Examples of these include imovie - to edit my trailer, Fireworks to crop and edit images, and a modern video camera to film our trailer, using updates such as night vision. All of my work has also been put on this blog which is an example of new technologies. In the production stage I used imovie to edit our movie trailer and make it more professional, and I also used the night vision on the modern video camera to create an effective trailer in the dark. In the research stage I used fireworks to crop images I found and analysed.

Documents

Media Evaluation