Introduction - A2 Media Coursework

Welcome to my Media Blog where I will plan and research for the brief I've decided to chose; A promotion package for a new film, consisting of a teaser trailer, together with a film magazine front cover and a poster featuring my film. I've decided to continue from my AS coursework and base my film trailer on the work I produced last year, thus situating the three tasks on my horror film, The Unnatural.

IMPORTANT: When Marking my blog - Scroll to the bottom of the blog to view the oldest post... and then work your way up!

The beggining of the blog starts with the lowest post i.e. Reflection on my AS Coursework!

Conclusion - A2 Media Coursework

Overall I’m extremely happy with the products I've created, which I feel was mainly down to the excessive research and planning I completed in the field of horror over the past 2 years (including AS), as I believe this helped distinguish the conventions that I could use, develop and challenge.

There were many strengths and also some weaknesses to my products which I have too noticed along with my audience, and therefore comprehended with; however I will always look to improve my ability and knowledge in a certain topic and I will therefore take these on board when producing similar tasks in the future.

Evaluation Question 4

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

Planning & Research

Internet – Blog:

At the beginning of the year, I and the rest of the class were asked to create a blog to hold all of our of our media coursework excluding the production part (planning and research, and evaluation). It proved to be an extremely effective way of showing creativeness in our work, as we could share information from other websites onto our blog and say how we have used this i.e. writing how we took inspiration from specific YouTube videos and images. We could also place our own documents in the blog including written work that has been scanned i.e. storyboards and flat plans. In addition to this, our teacher also had a blog website which was kept up to date with newsfeeds and deadline days, so that we could therefore time-manage ourselves appropriately.

Construction

Adobe Premier Pro CS5.5 – Teaser Trailer

The Adobe Premier Pro CS5.5 software helped me edit the shots I created for my teaser trailer. I used the system the previous year for my AS coursework, so it wasn’t too difficult to become accustomed with the software and its content. Because of this knowledge, I felt my video editing was extremely well done, as I had the capability to include numerous visual effects and audio effects to my trailer i.e. Solarise ins and outs, Colour Emboss, Exponential Fades and Constant Powers etc. I also included a number of sounds which I downloaded from www.freesound.org to use in my trailer i.e. slow booms, eerie sounds, screams etc, along with the main theme song, James Newton Howard’s ‘The Hand of Fate’. I did however have other difficulties, as the college only possessed Adobe CS4 (an older instalment) which meant I could only work on my teaser trailer from my laptop and not on the college computers.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended – Movie Poster and Magazine Front Cover

For both my movie poster and magazine front cover, I used Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended via a 30-day trial, as it included all of the essentials I needed to create my products. This included using the Magnetic Lasso Tool to cut and merge pictures for the split-screen effect I was looking to do, as well as using a variety of brushes that were made available to tidy up the images. In addition, I also utilized the brushes to create a cloud effect for my magazine front cover. The software also possessed many customary options which I used to change the colour and style of each layer by using layer effects i.e. having the focal image as luminosity and the title as linear light, and dropping inner and outer shadows to certain texts etc.

Equipment

Panasonic HD Camera

The camera I used helped in terms of the quality of the picture, as it was HD. It was also extremely easy to use, as it was touch-screen and allowed myself to replay footage to check if certain shots were done correctly.

Tripod

I used the tripod regularly throughout my filming, as well for the still shots for my magazine front cover and the movie poster. The height was adjustable, however there was some difficulties with this, as it did not reach high enough at times i.e. for over-the-shoulder shots.

Evaluation

Prezi

Despite using an internet blog to show my evaluation, I still included other sources which made it look more creative. One of these included the internet website http://prezi.com/ which allowed me to construct a presentation and apply specific effects to it i.e. adding images and zooms to give it a ‘professional’ look.

Facebook

I used Facebook to present my production work to others and gather audience feedback. This proved to be easy and useful, as I gathered feedback from the audience in their spare-time, so there was no pressure in terms of time constraints. This therefore allowed me to receive back qualitative data and personal opinions on my coursework.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Feedback

To obtain audience feedback, I used the social-networking site ‘Facebook’, and started a group where my friends and other fellow students could review the production side of my coursework. This proved to be an extremely effective way of acquiring feedback, as this targeted an articulate teenage audience, which was one of my target audiences. As they could provide me feedback in their spare-time, there was no pressure in terms of time constraints; subsequently this allowed me to receive the necessary qualitative data and personal opinions on my coursework that I needed.

Teaser Trailer Audience Feedback Summary

Overall, I believe the audience seemed to enjoy my trailer. From the feedback I received, the main strengths came from the combination of the editing and the music/audio that altered the tempo of the trailer. Some also believed the theme of the symbols and captions were intriguing and added mystery. However, the main negative of the teaser trailer was that it revealed too much of the storyline, instead of leaving the viewer trying to unravel this for themselves, which in hindsight I agree with. However on the whole, I believe my audience found my teaser trailer very fascinating and enjoyable.

Teaser Trailer - Audience Feedback                                       Teaser Trailer Close Up - Audience Feedback

Movie Poster Audience Feedback Summary

The main positive I received from my poster was that it ‘looked’ professional; with the effects I placed upon the image and the use of various fonts. The lighting of the picture also strengthened this point, as part of the audience noticed the darkness surrounding the image and how that fitted in with the horror genre. The impression of intrigue was highlighted again by the ‘feedback-group’, mainly because of the split-screen effect I used and the symbols that were embossed on the mirror. On a negative view the poster did seem to lack convention, as part of the audience pointed out that no actors or release dates were cited in the poster. Because of this, I feel I will learn, and detail more conventional information in any future projects that I may undertake.

Movie Poster - Audience Feedback                                                       Movie Poster Close Up - Audience Feedback

Magazine Front Cover Audience Feedback Summary

There were mixed reviews, but the majority of the audience seemed to point out specific weaknesses for my use of ‘Photoshop’, as they clearly identified that I had difficulties when trying to brush my images and merge them together. This is a significant deficiency, so I will therefore use the background of the image in future to overcome this drawback. On a positive note, the audience were complimentary of the additional information around the focal-image, and the usage of font and colours. Overall, I may have over-challenged myself and subsequently this resulted in the magazine-cover ‘looking’ not as professional as I had hoped. In future it maybe more prudent to plan and produce a front cover that was slightly more basic in its use of Photoshop and therefore simpler to produce.

Magazine Front Cover - Audience Feedback                        Magazine Front Cover Close Up - Audience Feedback

Conclusion

On the whole, I felt the majority of the target audience really enjoyed the production side of my coursework, as the feedback possessed plenty of positives i.e. the audio and the pace of my trailer, the fonts and the lighting for my Poster and Magazine Front Cover etc. However, part of using Facebook was to gain personal opinions from the audience with no influence being pressurised to praise my work. Therefore I did receive constructive criticism which I have taken on board i.e. practise on improving the airbrushing of the focal image in my magazine front cover or being more conventional with my poster in terms of adding names of stars and release dates etc. In Summary, I have taken positives out of my audience feedback, as well as taken the criticisms on board for any other future tasks that associate to ones I’ve done.

Evaluation Question 2

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

Below are the 6 main ancillary tasks I used to make my project a robust and an effective production: 

• Equipment: I used an HD Camcorder that allowed me to film and take screenshots during various times of the day. Subsequently the quality was not impaired due to light restrictions for afternoon filming.      

• Location: All filming took place in one location and this ensured that my movie trailer had a ‘flow’ and a connection with the audience, as I used a residential property in the suburbs.

• Costumes: I used dark colours for the antagonist and neutral for the main character. Once again linking this to the make-up of the horror-genre of ‘costume’.

• Music: I carefully selected the music to ensure that it would provoke a reaction from the audience of impending anxiety. The ‘loud’ sounds where cleverly choreographed to particular film-scenes that would make the audience ‘jump’; whilst the sounds of the violins would resonate imminent danger/horror.   

• Editing: I applied the split-screen techniques for both my Magazine Front Cover and my Movie Poster. This was to create a connection between both the antagonist and the main character (good and evil), to show a visual ‘possession’ of an entity in a human-body.

• Planning:  I aimed to keep a main theme which ‘flowed’ within each of my three products. This was primarily to create an overall impression of professionalism and a marketing strategy to connect with audience, albeit if they viewed the trailer, the poster or read the front cover of the magazine.  

Regardless of which ‘one’ they viewed the audience would have a direct connection to my ‘film’. I also utilised the ‘symbols’ in all of the three products, once again having the aforementioned connection to the ‘film’. Subsequently this thoughtful planning of ‘flow and connection’ made my products robust.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Below is a link to Prezi.com in where I completed my evaluation to question 1. Click on the link below to view it:


http://prezi.com/wyyf6xtsrs8k/present/?auth_key=7lcwotq&follow=rvufkqys_pe3

Letter - Music Copyright

For my trailer, I am using James Newton Howard's song 'The Hand of Fate', owned by hollywood. The letter below was sent to gain permission to use the song in my A2 Media Coursework teaser trailer 'The Unnatural'.