Evaluation - Question Four

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

I used Facebook and Google Documents to help me conduct my audience research. It was very easy to get many people to complete my audience research, making it easier for me to see how i could appeal to my target audience. I also went through a similar process when evaluating the audience response.
I sent out a message to my friends on Facebook, which had a link to the Google Document i had created:
Once everyone had completed my audience research, the results were put into a spread sheet, making it eay for me to identify any trends within my research.

YouTube was also useful, as i used it for my product research. YouTube has many official teaser trailers, so i had a many teen drama trailers that i could look at. This helped me understand the conventions of teen drama. However, anyone can upload a trailer to YouTube, meaning that i had to be careful that the trailers i studied were not fan made.

As for planning, Google Calender was very useful for making sure i made the best use of my time and was aware of the deadline.

During the construction, i relied entirely upon Imovie HD and Photoshop CS3. Without Imovie, it would have been difficult to achieve fast-paced editing that is conventional within teaser trailers. Without Imovie, my magazine and film poster would have looked amateur.
Such programmes have made it possible for anyone to become a producer of media. In the past, it would have only been the privileged who were able to produce films, now it is open to almost anyone.
I also used free font sites such as CoolText to construct my magazine and film poster. This meant that i had more choice when it came to choosing my typography.
The issue of copyright was something i also had to overcome when it came music. As i could not get permission to use songs by well-known artists, i used this site. On this site you can use music by unsigned bands, which means there are no copyright issues.




In the planning, research and evaluation, I used blogger to record the findings of my research and to communicate my ideas in a way that is easily accessible to the reader.
Blogger also made it easy to reflect upon my progress throughout the course, making my evaluation more accurate, and also meaning that details i may have forgotten were recorded on my blog.

Evaluation - Question Three

What have you learned from your audience feedback? From my audience feedback, i can see that my film poster was effective for the majority of my audience. When the people that replied 'no' to the above question were asked to explain their answer, i was told that the film poster did not give away enough of the narrative. So in retrospect, perhaps more images or text on the film poster would have been a good way to make it have a wider appeal.

As we can see, more participants answered yes to this question, showing that for the most part, i used sound well. When asked what they felt had not gone well with my teaser trailer's sound, participants stated that they believed the sound to be too loud at some points within the trailer. This is something i struggled with during production. It was difficult to get the audio of my characters loud enough to be clearly audible.














I asked the participants to state which genre they believed my trailer to be, to see if i had successfully used the conventions of Teen Drama. As we can see from the above chart, everyone surveyed identified my genre as Teen Drama. This leads me to believe i was effective in using the conventions of my genre.


I also asked my audience other questions such as what was good/bad about my trailer, film poster and magazine front cover.
Things my audience felt were good about my teaser trailer were;

• Music went well with what was happening on screen.
• Text used for title slates was effective and helped convey genre.
• Gave away enough of the plot.
• Didn't give too much away.
• Kept the audience's attantion.

Things that could have been improved;

• Music was too loud at some points.
• In some parts it was unclear of what was happening.

As i said before, it was difficult to adjust the music precisely using Imovie HD. As for some parts being unclear, i wanted to leave some uncertainty in scenes as otherwise it would give away too much of the plot.

Things that were good about my film poster;

• Engaging main image.
• Clear name of film.
• Good tagline which engaged audiences attention.

Things that could have been improved;

• Text under title not easily readable.
• Image not very high quality.

I did not want the text under the film name to detract from the rest if the poster, so i made it smaller. I downloaded the text from a free text website, and it was difficult to edit in photoshop, which meant the text was not as clear as i would have liked it to be. I only had a personal digital camera to take my photo on, so this retricted the quality of the photo. I also took the photo at night, as i wanted to create a dangerous atmosphere, hence the photo quality suffered.

Things that were good about my magazine front cover;

• All text is easy to read.
• Main image clearly related to the film.
• Title of the film in the same style and colour as in teaser trailer and film poster.
• Good sub-stories.

Things that could have been improved;

• Some parts around the image are white.

I found it difficult to work with photoshop, as the image i used had some tricky parts around it (sure as the hair, which is messy as this is typical of the character) and it was hard to get the editing too fine enough to get around everything.

Evaluation - Question Two

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

I believed that for my main product to work well with my film poster and magazine front cover, it was important for there to be clear continuity between all three.
To create this sense of continuity, i used a similar font for the movie title across all three of my products. I also used the same colour for the name of the film.

Magazine:



Film Poster:



Teaser Trailer:





This means that the audience is more likely to remember the name of the film. By doing this, the three different media texts promote my film and each other. So, in this respect, i believe that the combination of my main task and my ancillary texts was very successful.

I also used the same girl on my magazine front cover as i used for my film poster and appears in my trailer. She is in character, which would mean even if someone did not know the name of my film, they would recognise the character and this would help promotion for the film.

Evaluation - Question One

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

My teaser trailer was in the genre of teen drama. Other films in this genre include; Thirteen, 4.3.2.1 and Shank. The latter also includes comedic moments, which according to my audience research was the preferred genre of my audience. I tried to incorporate comedy into my trailer by showing the characters having fun.

A convention of a teen drama is obviously that it has to revolve around teen characters, so i used two teenage girls as my main characters;

This is also done in Thirteen and 4.3.2.1.;

From my audience research, i could see that most of my audience are 17 or 18. Because of this i decided to make the main characters in Sixth Form, which would mean they would be around the target age.

This subverts the conventions of a teen drama as most of them are set in schools, and the characters are generally younger than 17/18.

An issue that is often adressed in teen drama is drinking. I have used this stereotype in my film;

I also had to conform to the conventions of a teaser trailer.

I did this by using title slates, as we can see from my product research, this is also done in 4.3.2.1.

Shank use title slates to hint at the narrative of the film to give the audience some prior knowledge about the film, just as I did.

This is similar to my own teaser trailer:

I also used a vague release date at the end of my teaser trailer and a change in pace of music as the conflict and drama build within the trailer.
I conformed to the genre of teen drama by having clear teenage stereotypes (e.g, Kia being 'the rebel' and Cara being 'the innocent one').

As for my magazine, i conformed to the conventions associated with film magazines as this makes it easy to recognise to the audience, and also not many magazines break the conventions of a front cover, otherwise it would confuse the audience.




















On the right is my magazine, and on the left is the front of a well-known film magazine Total Film. As we can see, there are some similarities between the two. Firstly, i have used a Masthead, and a subheading. Where Total Films subheading reads "The Ultimate Movie Magazine", mine reads "The Alternative Movie Guide". I also used many explanation marks to create a sense of enthusiasm, again we can see this is done on Total Films cover. I used hyperboles such as "much more" and "exclusive". This is done on most magazine covers, as it makes the audience feel as though they are reading special and rare information.
However, unlike other movie magazines, my magazine has an article about music on the front. I did this because accoring to my audience research, the type of magazine my audience are most likely to read.


Finally, in my Film Poster i also mostly conformed to the conventions.












Like the Kidulthood poster, i have used the characters dress code and surrounding to hint at the narrative of my film. The girls in my poster are wearing tops that could be seen as uniform, but they are wearing tutu's, suggesting that they are breaking the norm. In the Kidulthood poster, you can see an estate in the background, which hints towards the characters economic background and where the film will be set. It also hints that the film could revolve around gang culture, as estates are often associated with the formation of gangs in the media. In my poster, the main characters are behind a fence, hinting that the feel trapped, and the fact that they are leaning on the fence suggests that they will rebel against this. It is typical to hint at the narrative within a film poster, and as we can see, i have hinted at the narrative in various ways.

Teaser Trailer - Final

Magazine Mock-up

Poster Mock-up