Audience Feedback

During the planning of my media texts I had several conversations which involved me asking questions and noting down peoples opinions on certain aspect. I also conducted focus groups with family, friends and teachers on a number of different decisions that would shape the aspects of my media texts. I felt audience feedback was crucially important as just going on my personal preference and instinct would not be sufficient enough and wouldn't represent the views of a wider public. One conversation I had was when I asked my peers what poster would be the best option, I had my peers look at several different sketch and layout possibilities and asked them what there favourite was. I feel having a third person perspective really helped me in the development and decision making of the production of my media texts. I also asked my family on there opinion whilst I was producing my magazine cover, I felt having a varied demographic of people each voicing there opinion on certain design factors helped me engineer a magazine cover that would appeal to a broader public, than just asking peers, who were around the same age as myself.

Questions I asked consisted of:

What sketched design would fit best for my poster ?

What poster layout design would fit best for my poster ?

What image, when cut out would look best on my magazine cover ?

What colours would you expect to see on a Horror themed poster ?

What magazine name sounds best in regards to its mainstream nature ?

By showing my teachers the several sketches I had drawn and asking them which one would suffice, I came to a conclusion, and was happy with the choice as I agreed. Having taught Media studies I asked my teacher what layout would be best for my chosen image, he advised me and I went with his opinion. I asked my family what image (out of the options I showed them) would look best on a magazine cover.  Having looked at many posters by this point I was sure What colours I would use on my poster, but just in case I asked peers what they thought about colours like Black, Red, and white on a horror poster, and then agreed with my judgement.

One decision I was completely unsure on was deciding on what my magazine would be called, after deciding my magazine would be mainstream, I focused my attention on looking at the type of names of these publications, having gained what kinds of names and words were regularly being used on mainstream film publications, I listed several potential names, and Wrote why  they would be a suitable choice. Still not convinced and on what name I should go for, I carried out a survey, and asked fifty people what name sounds best for a mainstream film magazine. I put my results into a pie chart to clearly show the results, and the result showed in favour of the name 'MOVIE'. I felt the choice was to favourable to ignore, so I chose the name 'MOVIE'.

Evaluation - Unified Ancillary Texts and Marketing

It is essential that in the marketing of a brand, consumers are able to identify the unification between separate media texts marketing the same product, this is done through the use of consistent factors and conventions that producers of these texts include in the texts themselves. Examples of conventions and factors that are commonly spread across a brands media texts are Production Company and Social Networking Logos, Fonts and Taglines. Through the use of these factors and conventions matching across separate media texts, consumers gain recognition and  familiarity with the brand itself. This is especially the case between film posters and trailers, as the producers of posters and trailers have full control over synergizing there brand through these conventions that were mentioned before, however this is where the magazine cover differs as the people producing the trailer and poster do not have control over these unifying factors that produce consistency within the brand. The control lies with the magazine editors, and usually magazines wont adapt there usual conventions just to review a film.

After learning this I made sure that I would take advantage of my new found knowledge and incorporate it into my main and ancillary texts. during the production stages of my poster and trailer I ensured that my font matched, and I used different fonts and taglines on my magazine. I also made sure that the production company logos, social networking logos and taglines coincided with each other across the Poster and Trailer. By doing this I hoped my all my media texts would become more authentic.

The two pictures below show the separate media texts

which are the poster and the trailer sharing the same font.

The magazine cover below does not share the same

familiar conventions as the other media texts do.

Teaser Trailer evaluation

Teaser trailer

For the main production task I filmed and edited a teaser trailer which was inspired by big mainstream Horror movies. my task was to create a teaser trailer on a genre I was interested in, and to do this I had to carry out  research and planning into primarily what aspects make a teaser a teaser trailer and what conventions of teaser trailers contribute to there authenticity and realism. The first task I carried out was to compare conventional theatrical trailers to teaser trailers. By carrying out this task I felt I had a basic understanding of the main differences and similarities between teaser trailers and theatrical trailers, this task acted as a platform for my research and planning of teaser trailers as I had understood the main difference. The next task I carried out enabled me to identify conventions of teaser trailers, this task really helped me understand what makes a teaser trailer and by this point I could not only identify the difference between a teaser trailer and a conventional trailer, but I also understood the conventions that make a teaser trailer a teaser trailer.

By this point I felt I was ready to plan, the next few tasks I carried out were the planning tasks which  included analysing different productions companies that would be suitable to make my film, compiling a list of fonts and taglines that may be used in my teaser trailer, a list of music and a shot list for my trailer. After completing these tasks I was prepared to create my media product.

I have taken numerous screen shots of the editing stage of my production.

Magazine Evaluation

Magazine cover

The final media product I produced was a fictional magazine cover, based around real magazines who would publish reviews about my "soon to be released film". I started my research by looking at several existing film publications and writing information about each one, this was helpful as it showed me what things are included on all magazine covers and what aspects are suited to different types of magazine e.g. mainstream and independent. I decided that a mainstream magazine would be best suited to my film I looked more specifically at mainstream magazines and identified there conventions. after deciding that my magazine was to be mainstream I compiled a list of potential names with an explanation next to each describing why they were suitable options. I felt it would be best to get a third person perspective on the magazine name so I asked 50 people what magazine name sounded best out of my the options, and the results showed in favour of the name "Movie".


Mastheads
For inspiration on mastheads I looked at mast heads from Empire and Total film, I chose these two magazines because I had decided hat my film was to be mainstream, and therefore would be likely to appear on a mainstream styled magazine. Below are mastheads from both these magazines.

I noticed that alot of these magazines I was looking at had there mastheads covered by central images, therefore I came to a decision that my magazine will have this attribute aswell. Another aspect I noticed was that both magazines had the price and edition number located close to the masthead, I also incorporated this into my magazine cover. Below is a screen shot of the mast head on my magazine cover.

Banners and Cover lines

Researching other magazines it came to my attention that they all included banners and cover lines, consequently I included these conventions into my own magazine cover. Below are examples of existing mainstream film magazine banners and cover lines.

Below is one of my cover lines and a banner from my finished magazine cover, While looking at other cover lines I noticed that alot of them used multiple colours, I incorporated this into my cover lines, by using Black, Red and White colours. I also noticed that many covers included circular banners, so I included this aspect aswell.

Extra Content/ Plus Content
Nearly all of the mainstream magazines I researched included the word plus or the symbol: +. They also all included references to extra content included in the particular issues. Below are examples of these conventions from Total Film and Empire magazine.

Having understood the conventions, I included them into my very own magazine cover, below are some screenshots of the extra contant and plus content on my finished magazine cover.

Here is my the final product: Move magazine, in it's great entirety.

Poster Evaluation

Poster

Another media product I was given the challenge of producing was a poster for my trailer. To start my research I analysed three existing posters from a variety of genres, I annotated each poster pointing out there varieties of conventions, after having decided my genre was horror I then analysed and annotated five existing horror posters. By doing this I could see the difference between Horror posters and posters from other genres, It also made it clear to me what conventions I would have to include when producing my very own poster. After I had completed researching different poster by genre and convention, I decided it was time to start planning how my poster will look. To do this I sketched layouts of posters from similar genres to mine, doing this helped me and educated me on how posters, in particular Horror film themed posters went about there layouts. I was now ready to sketch my first poster drafts as by this time I was better educated on Horror posters. I went out and shot several potential images that would appear on my poster, having already looked at conventions and genre conventions of posters I had a better understanding of what type of pictures would fit and be suitable to use on a Horror poster.

I also had to come up with a tagline, so I listed many taglines, all from the same genre -  horror, I then wrote a paragraph on the similarities between the taglines, doing this gave me the confidence to come up with my own, so I did that exactly, I thought up sixteen taglines, which I felt would be suitable for my film, that also shared similar conventions to other horror taglines. By analysing billing/credits from other films I understood what conventions were needed, which would go on to help me produce my own poster billing. My poster had to be classified, so I researched the BBFC and found useful information on how films are classified, after having read all the information, I came to the conclusion that my film was going to be a 15.


Looking at other posters I noticed that nearly everyone had billing/credits, so I looked at other posters billing conventions such as what they included in there billing and what font billing uses, and where on posters are billing and credits normally placed. After doing this I was ready to create my own billing that would appear on my poster. I used photoshop to create my billing. Below there are three billing pictures. one of them is my billing draft, before it was re edited and positioned on my poster, the other on is my final billing on the poster, and the third is a billing from another poster. by looking at other billings you can compare the similarities and judge the authenticity of your own billing/credits.

Billing Draft 

Complete Poster Billing

Example of existing Poster Billing

Whilst looking at other posters I also picked up on several necessary conventions, one of them obviously was the title. I realised that most of the posters from my chosen genre used big bold font, with basic colours such as Black, White or Red. I made sure to use these conventions in making my poster as authentic as it could possibly be. Below is an the title on my poster and also a title of another poster from the same genre as mine.

My Poster Title

An existing Title from a poster of the same genre

A few other conventions I felt were crucial to include were Release Dates and Taglines. Looking at other posters, I noticed that they all included some reference to a release date, whether it was coming soon, or this summer, or an exact date. I also noticed most of the posters included taglines, especially the posters within the Horror genre, therefore I included these conventions in my final poster. Below are examples from existing Film posters sitting next to screenshots of my Release Date and Tagline for comparison.

An existing Posters Release Date

My finished Poster Release date

An existing Posters Tagline

My final Posters Tagline

By this point I had researched and understood all the conventions that were necessary to include in a Poster, and what factors would improve its authenticity. By incorporating all these new factors and conventions I had learnt into my poster, I feel I have created an eligible piece of Film marketing that would be authentic enough to actually be used in the process of marketing a film.

Draft of final Produced Poster

My final Poster in its Entirety

Evaluation New Media Technologies

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

Firstly I set up my blog which holds all my research and planning, by setting up a Gmail account I am given not only the option to have a blog but also a youtube account, Blogger not only allows me to write posts but also allows me to share videos, link pictures to my blog and reach a global audience, I have used all these benefits through the use of blogger.

Photoshop

Photoshop has played a massive part in the post production stage with my research and planning in the following ways. It enabled me to annotate magazine covers and posters, create my magazine cover, and create my poster, photoshop allowed me to edit and adjust pictures, such as the central image on my poster, it also enabled me to put certain effects on my poster such as fading and dimming the brightness and saturation, A very useful tool photoshop provides is the lasso cutting tool, this tol allowed me to cut around my dominant image and put it on an alternative background. The tool bar on photoshop also benefited me as it gave a variety of different cutting tools, text box tool, and image correction tools, which were incorporated into making my poster and magazine cover. 

     

          

Avid Media Composer

Avid Media Composer enabled me to edit all my shots and most importantly create my entire teaser trailer. Avid was very practical and easy to use, an example of this is how Avid enables users to open several bins/folders at a time, meaning accessing certain shots is easier as they can be categorised, another advantage of these folders was that they could hold other media, such as sound effects, music tracks and title captions. As well as the multiple folders, AMD also has a multi track system which was very helpful as it meant I could have one track for the shots, one for the music and sound and one for the captions, which when all brought together using this feature creates the final piece, which is the trailer.

Adobe audition

Adobe audition enabled me to edit my music and sound effects, it also came in handy editing voice note which were included in my trailer, similarly to AMC Adobe allows for a multi track system, this came in extremely helpful when I had to merge to pieces of music together in my trailer