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

Question 1

We have produced a film trailer, front cover for a magazine and film poster. All of these products are advertised using different platforms of media. For example, the film trailer is an audio visual form of communication to our audiences. Whereas, the poster and magazine cover are visual print forms of media which allow audiences to view the product.

Our film trailer is a crime genre however we decided to challenge the genre by using postmodern elements; such as pastiche and hyper reality. For example, we have copied elements from the film trailer “Kill Bill”. The title of our film is called Unpainted Path, it doesn’t give away the narrative and adds mystery. We developed this title by thinking of elements which link to our film like the famous painting, The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

The film trailer will be shown on different types of media, e.g. cinema, TV and internet. These different formats of advertising allows a wider mass of people view the trailer; this results in boosting our box office income. The purpose of a film trailer is to get the film more well-known before it’s released. By having an interesting film trailer it will hopefully create word-of-mouth between the public and catch the media’s eye. By getting good recognition for the film more people are likely to see it in cinemas (or even if there’s bad reviews).

In our film trailer we tried our best to include props and music which suggested the genre for the film. We purposely showed guns in the trailer, to suggest the crime/action element to our film. We also used a female hero who’s seeking revenge, this targets women to relate and go see the film. We also have a love interest in the film and male characters as well as action throughout the trailer. This is so we target men as well as women, it’s important to reach a wide target audience. The soundtrack to our film is catchy at the start and then changes to a fast paced/action type soundtrack. This is to compliment the action going on in the scenes.

In our trailer we experimented by challenging the narrative conventions of a normal mainstream film. Our trailer is an independent film, hence being distributed by “Miramax”. In our trailer we start off where everything seems to be going fine, however there’s a flashback which is explained through the narrator. This then cuts to action in part of the movie where the disruption begins; the disruption is when the hit man starts chasing after Jenny (main character). Here you see fast cuts and chase scenes, to set the pace and tone of the film. However we cut the trailer just before the resolution of the film. We decided to do this type of narrative structure to create tension and suspense. In the trailer we introduce the characters through the narrator and freeze frames of the character with their name.

It’s clear to see that throughout our trailer we are heavily influenced by “Kill Bill” because we got the narrator from them and liked the way they showed titles between scenes. However our characters and narrative are similar to “Mr and Mrs Smith”. We tried to put a twist on the narrative so it wasn’t the same as the film but we got many useful ideas from both these films.

We felt as though our trailer would follow the regulations for a 15 certification because our film would only have small amounts of swearing, no real harsh violence and nothing too sexual.

We tried hinting throughout our film trailer that the two killers were in fact married to each other. We didn’t want to give the narrative away, so to achieve this we just had them both wearing wedding rings. During the editing process we tried to make it as postmodern as possible to really challenge the conventions of a mainstream film. To do this we used a reverse effect, freeze frame, flashback and cartoon effect.

Examples for Question 1- Screenshots

Freeze frame shot in our trailer, shows that we edited these images on Photoshop. We used many different ‘sketch’ effects on the still image. We decided on using the image on the top left. We liked how it was very Guy Ritchie and looked part of the crime genre. Then we added it as titles to our trailer. We changed the background to yellow to stick with our theme colour (inspired by “Kill Bill”). It was easy to add the text, this can be done on Premiere Pro.

For every shot we had to add ‘fast colour corrector’ this enables us to alter to colour and contrast of the image. It makes the film look more professional and polished up. To find ‘fast colour corrector’ you search in Premiere Pro, ‘Colour corrector’ then select ‘Fast colour corrector’. You have to drag this icon into each shot and then you can edit the colour.

For the repeated scenes we added a ‘flash of white’ which is found in ‘Video transitions’---’Dissolve’. This is similar to ‘Kill Bill’s’ trailer. It also added another effect which stands out. This effect is added in between the scenes which repeat themselves.

It was difficult to edit the split screen scene. We had to add many key frames to the scene, so the movement of the screen would move smoothly. We went on ‘transform’ then ‘crop’ so we could move the frame to a different position. We got taught this editing technique/effect which we used for two scenes in our trailer.

This is the font we decided to use for our titles in our trailer. It’s called ‘Broken Detroit’ which we found on a website called ‘Dafont’. It’s where you can download free fonts, of all different types of styles and genres. We chose this particular font because it fits well with the crime theme.

This is the soundtrack we used for the beginning of our trailer. It’s a copy from ‘Kill Bill’ and worked well with the action in the scene. We downloaded it from iTunes and added it to our footage.

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

Question 2

Main product- Film trailerThis is the most effective for our promotion of our film, it’s the most interactive and can be viewed from different media platforms. The trailer is able to show audiences our USP, which is postmodernism and a female (anti) hero. When making our trailer we had to put into consideration the audience who we were targeting. This includes both genders from ages of 15-30. We tried targeting a younger audience because we used young adult characters in the film. By making our trailer suitable for all audiences this allows us to view this trailer at any time during the day. This helps increase the chances of people going to see the film.

Our tagline for the film is “Get your guns ready”, this is shown in the trailer during the titles. We felt like this was a suitable tagline because it suggests to audiences that the film will include violence, action and suspense. It helps creates questions that audiences will be asking themselves, i.e. What’s going to happen? Why will they be using guns? How has it led up to this?

This is a still shot from our trailer, our character is a killer as well as a typical housewife. We created this character so it would appeal to women more as they’d be able to relate to the characters.

We decided to release our film on February the 14 th. Reason being is we would get a better box office profit because couples are more likely to see it around this date. It’s also released on the Saturday which is means most people will be off work. We would release our film through local cinemas in the UK. We are an independent film company so wouldn’t expect big profits from the cinema release. However, we would advertise our film through social media to encourage audiences to buy DVD’s and the magazines.

Other conventions used in our trailer to appeal to our target audiences is the soundtrack. At the beginning we used ‘Untwisted Nerve’, this is a catchy and well-known tune also used in “Kill Bill”. This will appeal to the older target audience as they will recognise the soundtrack which will draw them in. We use vibrant bright colours throughout the titles, this colour scheme will be targeting the younger target audience.

Film Poster 1

This is our final poster 1, it helps promotes our film because it’s clear to see the genre. We’ve included both main characters in each poster so it’s more creative. This poster includes the tagline, title of our film, date of release and the credit block. All this information is vital for showing the public what our film is going to be about. The main image on our poster is of me, as I’m one of the main characters. It’s a silhouette of me holding a gun, this will attract both audiences. The smudge of paint at the bottom of the image creates a dark tone to the film and links well with the title.

Our USP for our film is postmodernism as it’s very pastiche, so our main inspiration and ideas came from the Stars Wars, Skyfall and Brighton Rock poster.

Film Poster 2

This is our second film poster that we made. We basically used the same editing techniques in Photoshop to create this poster. But we wanted to include the other main character. For this image we chose a different background for the silhouette, which is of Brighton Pier. We decided on a different shade of grey for this film poster 2 as we didn’t want them both exactly the same. We still included the tagline, title, release date and credit block. The credit block is one we made from a credit block template off the internet. We added in our names, the production company, distribution company and names of our teachers who helped us along the way.

The layout of our film posters are very simple yet effective. It has all the information that will be useful to our audiences. We decided on a silhouette image to create an enigma, and raise questions. Who is it? What’s will the film be about? These types of questions raise awareness of the film which is why we’ve decided to promote the poster first as it doesn’t give too much away. Then we would publish the magazine, which will answer questions to the public on who these characters are, and what the film is about. Lastly, the trailer will be released to show audiences a taster of what’s to come when the full feature film is released. We used different shades of grey for our posters because we felt it creates a dark tone for the crime film. It also suggests to viewers that this film is for mature audiences and includes crime, violence and action. We used the font from our film trailer for the title in our poster. It is a recognisable font which will stand out to the public. It also gives a gritty, crime feel to the film which gives away hints to the genre. We researched into many different film posters to give us ideas and what worked best with our film. We looked at Skyfall and how it’s so simple, especially with the title of the film. We didn’t want to pack too much useless information into our poster as it’ll look too busy and then wouldn’t allow you to focus on the important things. In the Brighton Rock poster it’s clear to see an image of the pier in the silhouette of the characters. We chose to ‘copy’ this idea and add iconic Brighton sight seeing views. We collected images off the internet which we felt had a moody feel to them to set the tone of the film. These posters show the location in which the film was film/set. We have decided that our film posters will appear in bus stops, on buses, billboards, cinemas and online. We’ve chosen the more traditional approach to promoting our film poster. This way we will get the poster recognised and well known by viewers. By choosing to share it online it allows it to be shared on a much larger scale between the public.

Film MagazineWe used Total Film magazine because in previous magazine covers they’ve included films of the same genre. We felt it was appropriate to use this company to promote our film.

These quotes of the film show audiences the positive feedback. The stars allow the public to know straight away that this is a high rated film. This will result in more people wanting to see the film.

We showed the main stars of the film to intrigued people. Stars are often a good way to advertise a film.

This informs readers that this film is the 1st of many more to come and we are an independent film company.This exclusive interview will

intrigue readers as it’s limited to viewers.

The title of our film is in big bold lettering. This stands out compared to the other text on the magazine cover.

Tagline is placed under the film title, so readers gain an insight into the genre of our film.

We added a border on the bottom of the magazine with images of upcoming films in 2015. This is included inside the magazine to intrigue readers.

Yellow colour theme stands out in is used a lot in our trailer titles. This colour is an inspiration from “Kill Bill”.

This subheading is placed quite large on the cover because it will catch people’s attention and encourage them to buy the magazine.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question 3

We decided to make a questionnaire to gain feedback for our trailer. Our focus group for audience feedback is both genders from ages 15+. We asked each person a series of questions linking to our film trailer. It’s useful for media producers to gain feedback from target audiences because it’s helpful for us to know what the publics views are on our trailer. It lets us know what we might need to change or add to our trailer to make it more appealing for others. There are many ways in which media producers can gain feedback from audiences is the obvious; questionnaire, Private views, Social Media, Box Office, Reviews, Awards, Readership Stats, Forums etc.

Secondly, we got three types of feedback for our trailer; interim, questionnaire and social media. We used interim feedback because it was very useful during the process of the making of our trailer. The interim feedback came from our mentors, peers and even my own group members. The questionnaire records peoples reviews on our trailer and allows them to write down their advice for what works and what doesn’t in our trailer. It also engages the audience to watch our trailer and hopefully intrigue them for when the full film is released. Then there’s social media which is a good way for people to interact and it’s an easier way for a large amount of people to comment their views and opinions on the trailer. This is a more modern and interactive way for all ages to give feedback.

Interim Feedback

From our class mates we received constant positive feedback during the production and editing stage. The teachers would often come and check up on the progress of our trailer. They gave us useful advice to do with the narrative structure, so it wasn’t as complex for the viewers. We altered the composition of the shots so it cut to and from the two main characters. Even throughout the production stage of our trailer our group discussed changes that may of needed to be changed. We would always have group discussions, with new ideas we had for example; Tom saw images online of the stars wars posters which really inspired us for our actual poster.

Then we had other ideas, for example we looked into Kill Bill trailer in a lot of detail and ‘copied’ the same effect of repeating an action during a scene three times in a row.

We would always discuss with teachers on their views with our editing techniques that we wanted to include. We got positive feedback and suggested how we should introduce the characters in the trailer. We decided on a comic effect still image from the shot, where their character name would show on screen.

Questionnaire FeedbackSo first of all we wanted to ask the audience what type of genre they thought it was. This helps us to see for ourselves if the audience think the product is what we tried to perceive it as. We used a mixture of open and closed questions to give variety to the questions and answers. For some, we only needed a straight forward answer, e.g. How would you rate the film. However we also wanted to receive personal comments from viewers, so we allowed them to write what they thought about our film trailer. This criticises our film more specifically, which helps us know what we might need to change or what’s the USP for our film. This is the questionnaire which we used for our survey.

1.Which of the following genre categories do you think the film trailer belongs to: Crime Thriller British Gangster Other (Please specify)_______2.How would you rate the film: Very Good Good Average Poor Very Poor3.How would you rate the following elements of the film trailer:a. Narrative (Storyline): Intriguing Obvious ConfusingComment_______________________b. Camera work: Exciting Appropriate UninspiringComment________________________c. Editing: Clever Suitable UnsuitableComment________________________d. Soundtrack/music Fully complimentary suitable unsuitableComment__________________________4.Which film certification do you think is most appropriate for the film trailer: 18 15 12A 125.What kind of audience do you think would like the film trailer: a. Male or Female or both

Comment_________________ b. Mainstream or Alternative/Cult or Both

Comment_____________________c. Middle class or working class or BothComment_____________________

6.Why do you think they would like the film trailer?_______________________________________

7. What did you like most about the film trailer?_____________________________________

8. What did you like least about the film trailer?_______________________________________

9. How do you think the film trailer could be improved?_________________________________________

10. Would you go and see this type of film?Yes No Maybe Don’t Know

At first they were able to categorise the film as crime, which is very important for our trailer. We got positive feedback for the narrative, camerawork, editing and soundtrack which is reassuring. However we got a lower classification then we have chosen. This is maybe something we have to alter to make sure people know what classification our film trailer is. They got the idea of ‘Kill Bill’ from our trailer, which is what we wanted to portray. They liked the editing techniques and effects we used, which shows it’s effective towards viewers, e.g. freeze frames.

They rated the film ‘very good’ which is very positive for our film trailer. We got the best positive feedback from our narrative, camerawork, editing and soundtrack. However they also felt as though this film would be rated a 12A. The audience feedback was able to establish that our film would be suitable and viewed by both genders, a variety of class and the type of film; being both mainstream and independent. I’m glad that they thought the filming and animation we included was an interesting part of the trailer. What they liked most about the film trailer was the unique shots. We wanted to be creative with our filming, and by getting positive feedback from it shows we achieved it. They also mentioned how sometimes they felt as though the music was overpowering compared to the voices.

This is another questionnaire feedback form. They thought the film trailer was for a crime/British gangster film. We chose to include British crime elements, not so much ‘gangster’. We received positive feedback for the narrative, camera work and editing. They felt as though the film was suitable for 15 certification, which is what we decided on. This person thought that it’s suitable for both genders however, leaning more towards the strong female characters. They commented saying it was well filmed, which helps us know our creative ideas don’t go unnoticed. Unfortunately this person didn’t like the voice over and would of preferred less editing. As a group we wanted to push the boundaries and make a trailer which wouldn’t be easy, to challenge ourselves. Even though this person may disagree with our editing choices and voice over, many more feedback forms include positive feedback from the editing techniques. It’s a shame that this person would not see this film, if given the choice; but this genre isn’t for everyone.

Social Media

A big advantage of using social media is the fact that it is world wide, it enables people from all over the world to interact and view things. By using social media to advertise and get feedback from our trailer, we’d get many more reviews and a vast range of people to feed back. There’s also many different types of ways you can show your film on the internet, e.g. YouTube, allows you to view the trailer (comment, subscribe), Twitter allows you to post updates and ‘tweet’ about the film (follow, dm, retweet) and Facebook which allows us to update recent news of the film, pictures, videos, website links etc. (follow, like, comment, share). All these types of social media help spread the word at a huge scale.

For our film trailer we used Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to share information with the world about our trailer. It helps gain more interaction with the public, making them feel involved.

We made a Twitter and Facebook page to advertise our film trailer. It helps us gain feedback and makes the film become more well known.

Overall conclusion on feedback

By looking back on the collected information as our feedback. I found that the interim feedback was most useful because we were able to discuss with our peers and teachers what their thoughts were and put them into action. Although the questionnaire was useful to view and see what audiences thought, we couldn’t really change anything as we had our final cut of our film trailer. The social media feedback didn’t really get put into use, so we didn’t get any feedback from that. For our group, we can’t afford publicising our trailer, magazine and poster as we’d like to for a real trailer. However, if we were a mainstream film company, social media would give us good feedback from a wide range of audiences. But for me, the interim feedback was direct and allowed us to discuss face to face what people thought during the process of our trailer, magazine and poster. So we could change anything that wasn’t appealing to others.

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

evaluation stages?

Question 4

Research and planning stageInternet- I used the internet to help me with researching into postmodern theories, which gave me an insight into what I could be thinking of for the planning stage of our trailer. The internet had many useful websites like slideshare, imdb and even Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Postmodern_theoryhttp://www.slideshare.net/raybloggs/postmodernism-theories-and-texts http://www.imdb.com/list/ls051370237/ YouTube- This is a very popular site which I used a lot. I would look up postmodern scenes in particular scenes, e.g. Kill Bill and Django. It was very useful for looking up trailers of crime films, e.g. The Italian Job, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Reservoir Dogs. We had to research many crime trailers and evaluate them. YouTube allowed me to view the clips and analyse each scene. Blog- This is useful for when updating research and planning, I was able to look back on my research which helped me in the planning stage. Also it’s a great visual to see clearly what needs to be done for each category. The blog can be accessed online meaning our group was able to update it even at home. Slideshare- This is a website where you can upload PowerPoint's or word documents, which can then be viewed on our blog. Our group shared an account so we could upload all our work (research and planning) and then copy it to our blogs. It also had many other useful slides which we could use for research. Moodle- This is the college site which has many useful resources which I used for research and planning. I was able to use templates for recce, shot list template, shooting schedule, risk assessment and location list. These helped me document my planning for the trailer. On Moodle there’s also many PowerPoint's which help guide me on what to research on and how to plan out the trailer.

Production StageFor filming our trailer we used a Canon 550D, it was easy to handle and control. With this digital camera we didn’t come across any difficulties because we have all handled cameras before. During the production stage we also used the microphone to record the voice over, at the beginning we couldn’t quite work it. However once looking at the settings and reading the manual, it was fine. For editing our trailer we used Adobe Premiere Pro C5, this software is fairly easy to use. On this programme we edited our whole trailer and used this to log all our footage. This type of technology is advanced so everyone in the group input their knowledge and we were able to help each other out. For our trailer we used many images which we edited on Photoshop as well as our magazine and posters. This software is very well-known and all of us knew the basics on how to edit images. We gained a lot of knowledge during the production stage. Photoshop allowed us to manipulate images and add effects, which we used for our the titles or still shots. We also used DaFont, this is a website which is free and allows you to download a number of different fonts. We scanned the site for many titles and one that best suited our genre of film. This site gives a huge variety which is useful as then it is unique to us. Another free site which we used during production stage was Bensound.com. This website has many soundtracks made which are copyright free. We were advised to use a website called incompetech, however we couldn’t find anything that fitted our trailer. So we began to look elsewhere, we came across Bensound which was more useful for us.We’ve included many sounds effects in our trailer, e.g. gunshot, camera flash. These sound effects were downloaded from our teachers file, which were off the internet. I went through all the sounds which I thought we might use in our trailer, downloaded them and then listened to ones which might fit in the narrative.

Examples of technology used in production stage:

Photoshop

DaFont

SFX

Evaluation

I presented my work using digital technology like the internet i.e. blog, Slideshare and Powerpoint. I used this type of format because it’s easier to view and can be edited and altered much easier than if done on paper. If we wrote down any ideas we made sure we either scanned it or took a picture, so we could upload it onto our blogs. This format can also be shared and viewed by our teachers and other classmates, so we can all gain feedback from each other. I feel as though using Slideshare and PowerPoint makes it more interesting for viewers as it’s more interacting. You can also add personal touches to it so it looks more visually pleasing. This type of technology was helpful, because we could edit any changes needed from feedback. Another useful way to display our work was on YouTube, our videos like the Pitch and trailer were added to the college’s YouTube account. This allows our classmates to view everyone's videos which is how we gave each other feedback. Then it allowed us to analyse our videos at any time as they were on the internet; as well as being easy to upload to our blogs.We also used Twitter, as it’s a social networking site which allows everyone around the world to view your account and updates you make. I created the Unpainted Path twitter account, we posted tweets of our trailer, poster and magazine to help boost the views and feedback from random people. We have definitely gained more attention through this site and it’s another type of way to advertise the film.