Catherine Nugent A2 Media. Evaluation. ‘Visions’

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? When first thinking about producing my trailer, I took into consideration previous trailers. Looking at the same genres trailer such as Gothika, I tried to take as many elements forth as possible. Teaser trailer would ideally contain, a slight bit about the story, but short enough to get your attention, and make you want to see the film. Therefore, in mine I tried to add certain dramatic sections in, and text was of importance. Slug lines such as: Coming to you next spring. Was influential as every trailer contains this, therefore I would need to include this in my trailer.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? After getting my footage, transferring it onto a Apple Mac was a problem. I intended on editing with I-movie, however with the college equipment technology became a slight problem. As I had imagine how I wanted my trailer to be, to get the footage to work that way would be challenging. Therefore, not only would I have to use but technology was a problem when creating my trailer, as it decided not to work. Therefore, not only was technology needing to be used, but it would also cause problems. After talking to a friend who does editing as a course, he suggested Adobe Premiere Pro, therefore technology was also changed in the production.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Another element in which media was of high important was within my trailer. This was by involving the items into my work. Influenced by ‘Mean Girls, Wild Child, She’s the man’ which is where the inspirations I got from these girls came from, as they are most alike them. The use of technology is used in order for the audience to understand how old these girls are. For instance, laptops are on the bed of one scene, she looks at an I-Pod touch at the beginning, and phones are used to reveal the ages of these girls. This is linking to the chick flick genre and taking forth technology ideas as I wanted people to be aware of the age range, and also for the audience to relate. As every teenage girl will want, or do own these things.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? MOVIEVUE FRONT COVER: Ideally, my trailer would need advertising. With most new released film magazines would advertise the new star. For instance Empires front cover dedicated to advertising Transformers 2: Megan Fox, therefore this influence my front cover. On the front cover it says ‘Visions’ upcoming star Georgia Williams, and it would discuss further the film in which she is starting. Accompanied with synergies such as online film websites dedicated to the movie, or even figures or miscellaneous items to sell, hypothetically this would market my film. Therefore, the use of the ‘Movievue’ front cover would be in order to advertise the film, and both products would work together in order to sell. Influential ‘Empire’ front cover. Star driven... My magazine front cover on previous page!

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? VISIONS MOVIE POSTER: When producing my movie poster I looked at different posters from similar genres and went from there and decided what to do. I looked at images and what may be best, therefore I decided an image of Georgia sat isolated and alone, to represent just that, staring directly into the camera to directly address the audience, therefore the poster wouldn’t be ignored. Text to accompany the title and genre well, (like in the Gothika film poster situated right to the text), and also actresses name jotted about, cast list, and then finally the release date. The Gothika poster really inspired mine. And as it is my film poster, it has a lot of relevance too my film and therefore the combination is apparent, and the poster would accompany and hypothetically help promote the film. Also I wanted my poster to look legitimate so I copied an image of a Universal logo of the internet the logo is right of this text. Movie poster on previous page! Gothika movie poster.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? I asked a group of people to answer questions about my front cover. Here is the questionnaire: On a rating of 1-10, how would you rate the magazine? Does the image accompany the text well? Would you buy the magazine if you saw it retailing? Do you think it is similar to magazines such as Empire magazine? Does the lettering suit the magazine? What would you improve? And! Here are the results: 60% said 8/10. 10% said 9/10. 30% said 7/10. 10% said: ‘she looks like an upcoming celebrity who readers would want to read upon’. 30% said that it works because of the girl and the image, and the further 60% agreed that ‘she looks like a new celebrity, who people are going to want to get to know’. 90% said yes, and the further 10% said no. 70% agree that the layout, and text was alike and professional, but 30% said it did look professional but not as photoshopped as well as Empire. 80% agreed the title worked successfully, 20% thought it was easy to read. 20% said ‘not a lot’, 50% said the arrangement, just alter the text a little, and the further 30% said the text on the banner.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? I asked a group of people to answer questions about my film poster. Here is the questionnaire: Does the film poster look as though it suits the Thriller genre? Does the tag line look enticing enough? Is the film title clear enough? Does the image suit what the tag line is saying? Does it confuse you slightly? Would seeing this film poster make you want to go see the film? And! Here are the results: 90% stated yes, with comments such as ‘the direct look gives it an eerie feel’ and the other 10% noted that it was more like a horror. 80% said it was successful in making them want to see it and 20% said that it was good, but revealed too much. 100% said it was located and easy to read. 90% said the direct look from the girl to the camera, makes it apparent that something is going to happen with her in the plot, and 10% said it was only clear she was the female protagonists. 80% said yes it did, due to the direct look at the camera, further 20% said that it wasn’t confusing but intriguing. 90% said yes, 10% said maybe.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? I asked a group of people to answer questions about my trailer Here is the questionnaire: Was there a wide range of shots involved? Were the characters believable? Would this teaser trailer make you want to see it in a multiplex cinema chain? How would you rate the trailer out of ten? Do you think the trailer flowed? What would you change? And! Here are the results: 60% noticed two-shots, and extreme close ups to connotate, 10% said they were like most horror, thriller themes and the further 30% noticed a varied range of shots. 90% said that the main protagonist and the antagonist were, 10% said the whole group worked well together. 85% said yes, 15% said no. 70% rated it 8/10, 30% rated it 7/10 80% said yes, 10% said no, further 10% said in most cases. Certain comments such as 60% noted that certain conversations were quite long considering its only a teaser trailer, 10% noted certain shots were hard to see, and the further 30% mentioned certain dialogue but other than that no changes.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? After giving out these questionnaires this is what I have learnt and taken forward for my work: For my front cover I have learnt that certain areas need to change in order to make it look more professional. When producing the front cover it was difficult too make it in the style of Empire magazine, and actually to pass MovieVue of as a real magazine, people liked the banner and the image and therefore, I learnt that this was successful. For my film poster, I learn that the Visions title was standing out the way which I intended, and successfully that the image and tagline accompanied one another well. Therefore, I would not need to change much from this. Finally, for my trailer, I learnt that making it a teaser trailer would deem difficult as I wanted to fit a lot in to my work, just for a one minute teaser trailer. As it’s a teaser trailer, it would give the audience some heads up about the film but not about it, I also learnt that the characters worked well, and my friends acted the way it was appropriately for the role. Overall, it was successful but if I could change it now I may change certain areas, however overall, I am pleased with the feedback.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Research: Whilst doing my pre-production media technology such as the internet were of high use. Websites such as Google, IMDB, Wikipedia, and YouTube all helped me find out about films, find images of the characters, listen to music I do not have on ITunes and therefore, this aided my work as it was all for research. Overall in the research (pre- production) area, media technology helped me understand the Thriller genre and research into films of the given genre.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Planning: When planning and producing my work, I had to consider what equipment I would need to use in order to film. In advance, I not only had to book a camera, and also tripod in order to film. I would have to purchase a Mini DV tape in order to film everything on to this, and then afterwards to edit I would need Apple Macs with I-Movie and maybe Adobe Premiere Pro. Therefore before filming the planning of the media technologies were of high importance.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Evaluation: After my trailer was complete, I needed to post it not only online: YouTube, and onto my blog on word press: press.com, I also had to continue to edit on Premiere Pro. press.com Therefore, out of the three stages whilst looking back at my work, media technologies were used least at this section, due to the fact the research and actual editing had already been done. Therefore, media technology in the evaluation process was not that of high importance, although a couple of websites were used in order to help.

In conclusion… After audience feedback, through the questionnaires I had learnt the best and worst things about my trailer, also things I could change. Finding out through the evaluation process was a pain as I couldn’t improve if I wanted too. Not only that, but through the evaluation process I have learnt that throughout media technologies especially the internet have helped me in the filming process, and even pre-production. With all my Pre-Production documents, I am overly pleased that I researched into the genres, as it has made the genre clearer and therefore when I was filming, I knew which shots and set styles I wanted to use. With my ancillary texts, I already knew that they were both relevant to the use of my trailer, and this aided the production as it made it more authentic and real instead of an A2 coursework trailer. Overall, I am pleased this product is finished, but in future I will continue to plan precisely and edit better, due to the fact there was slight confusion there..