EvaluationBy Rosie Daly

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

This code and convention of a viewing certificate that is at the start of trailers to show the age group of who the trailer is suitable for. This is in all trailers at the very start and it shows it has been approved as a film.

I needed to follow codes and conventions of real film trailers to make mine look realistic to others. One that I followed was the green screen at the start of the trailer...

A studio ident was needed so we came up with “ARCameras” as it stood for Alice and Rosie Cameras and the “A” “R” “C” spelt “ARC” so we made that a word and put “amers” at the end. And we have an arc shape to go along with it. This studio ident is important as it is seen on all trailers to show who made the film.

Audience feedback:• Catchy• Well thought out• Effects suited

genre

Studio Idents from Batman

My Studio Ident

Whilst researching other film trailers, the studio idents always appeared at the start of the film, after the preview screen, so my studio ident appears after the green preview screen so I follow the codes of this that is included within all film trailers.

Whilst researching other trailers, I noticed the majority, not all, had quotations from people or magazines on opinions of the film. The magazines were usually well known however we were not allowed to use real media magazine names so we made them up, but still had them in our trailer.

Audience feedback:

•Realistic•Enticing•Positive viewof film

•Suits genre

At the end of the trailers, there was a screen that came up that are classed as credits. It names various jobs, such as music, costumes, producers, directors and actors as well as the film name. We also included a website for the film as well as adding our studio idents. All the writing was aligned central within the majority of trailers that we saw. However, in one trailer (see next slide) we found the writing aligned to the right and this was unusual. We decided to keep it central as it would be following the codes and conventions more

Audience feedback:

•Realistic•Red writing is effective•Clear display

Also, at then end, most trailers we watched had the name of the film and that’s the last thing that can be seen. We decided to put this at the end, also, so it will be the last thing the audience see and it will stay in their heads... “TRACE” and it will influence them to go and watch it.

Audience feedback:•Keeps colour scheme•Effective as it jumps

towards theaudience

•Simple, yeteffective

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

My ancillary tasks:

Magazine Poster

Main Image

Masthead

Strap line

Sub headings

advertising

Barcode

Issue no.

Date

Main headline of feature film

Sub text

Medium Close UpWhilst researching, I found the most common camera angle of the main image on the front cover was a medium close up shot. Therefore, I decided to replicate it as a rather large part of successful film magazines have this shot.

AdvertisingI saw in many magazines that other films are featured. I wanted to do this, but in a unique way and I think I was successful at this. To match the film reel theme in my Masthead “PIX” I decided to use the film reel idea again when advertising other films.

Film title

Main image (s)

Credit text

Strap line

Release date

Website link

Rating age

Studio ident

Film titleI have given it a “tattered” look as this illustrates action will happen within the film and it also fits in with the genre of a psychological thriller.

Strap line“Beginning Of The End” relates to the fact that Cindy has just found out that she is sisters to Belle (Beginning) and is going to trace her down and the audience don’t know the outcome (end)

Main image(s)I used two and made one larger that the other to make the character on the left look more vulnerable and to establish a general idea of the relationship between the two characters

Genre

I needed to make sure the genre was consistent throughout the whole of my ancillary texts (magazine and poster) and to do this I kept the same colour scheme of the title of the film “TRACE” in red. The red connotes danger and this is an element in the thriller genre of films.

Colours

I made sure there was a colour scheme involved and kept within my ancillary products. These colours are black and red as they are associated with dancer, fear, warning and a sense of mystery which is what are main themes in my film.

Characters

There are only two characters within the film and the most dominant character is Cindy (played by me) so I decided to use her on the magazine instead of Belle. However, Belle is included in the poster, but the size of the picture differ as Belles is smaller. This is to show the vulnerability of her character and the domination of Cindy’s which is portrayed throughout the trailer.

Font

The font of “TRACE” remains consistent throughout the ancillary products as it is the identity of the film. This font belongs to this film so it is always written in that font on the ancillary products. I have changed it in the trailer, however, the colour remains the same and so does the fact ha tit is in capitals.

Overall

Overall, the combination of my ancillary products work well together as you can tell they are all promoting the same film and this is clear even if you subtract the title of the film “TRACE” from them all.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

As a class, we organised a film night after school where we would show all of our films and trailers. I created a questionnaire that collated both qualitative data alongside quantitative data. I analysed my questionnaire and found out what people thought of our film trailer...

From these questionnaires that were filled out, most of it was positive feedback which was good. For example, people said, from watching the trailer, they would want to go and watch the film as it got them wanting to know the outcome of the plot between the two girls. And I also found that the music was very effective as people said it added suspense which was what we aimed for our music to do, so we were successful from that point.

I found the audience feedback very helpful. We did one at the start of the task (at the start of my blog) and again at the end. We used different people to take the questionnaire as well as some of the same people completed both questionnaires. This was to generalise our data to both genders, age and people. We also used a mixture open and closed questions which collated both qualitative and quantitative data and enabled us to receive rich, detailed and in-depth information.

I learned that I have followed many codes and conventions within my film trailer. The audience also said that the trailer was effective and it would entice the audience to go and watch it if it were to be released in the cinema. Furthermore, it was found that the accompaniment goes well with the material that is shown within the film trailer. This all helps to establish the genre and furthermore, create suspense and mystery.

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

I used various media technologies whilst researching, planning and evaluating...

Blog - throughout the whole task as I used it to keep a record of what is have done and if I made any changes to it.

YouTube – I used this when researching film trailers so I could view them myself and see what codes and conventions they use as well as getting a few ideas of what I can put in my trailer as well as different camera angles and shots I could use. Also, to view trailers of the genre I am doing, thrillers.

Digital cameras – I used them to shoot the filming for the trailer. I wasn’t used to it at first, but overtime I got used to it and more confident in using the cameras.

PicMonkey – this website came in handy as it helped me edit photos for my ancillary tasks. I print screened a shot from the trailer and then edited it so it doesn’t look like it was taken from there.

Adobe Premier Pro – this was the main computer programme that I used as this was what created out trailer. I had never used it before, so I was very new to it. However, overtime, I became used to it, more confident and was able to pick the pace of how I worked as I became good at it.

Slideshare – I used this website for the first time, last year for my music magazine. I have became used to it and I use it to put my evaluation of my products onto. I think it has a good layout and is easy to use, so I choose to use it for my evaluations.

PowerPoint – I am very used to this computer programme as I started to use it in primary school so I know how it works. This helped me as I could produce good quality of work at a quick pace. I used this programme when making pictures to analyse different media products.

Paint – this basic programme came in handy for simple tasks, such as print screening shots and making the background of a picture a different colour to help me, eventually, make it transparent. I did that on both of my ancillary products.