Evaluation of how we used media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages

Evaluation of how we used media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages

Throughout our project we have used various media technologies ranging from Microsoft to imove and have used these technologies on apple Macs and computers, in order to gain general knowledge and experience using technologies available to us as a group.

Microsoft

Microsoft was used during the research, evaluation and planning stage. We decided to use this software for these stages as we felt it was capable of living up to the ideas we had to present our billing block, poster and magazine. In research; Microsoft PowerPoint was used to aid the creation of the mood boards of the two mass market magazines as well as the thriller collage.

Within the planning stage we used Microsoft Word in order to lay out our ideas in a logical way so that future ideas can stem from them.

When evaluating we used Microsoft Excel to create graphs to visually see the responses our participants’ gave in the generic and thriller questionnaire.

As a group having worked with Microsoft we felt the advantages were that it didn’t put a cap on our creative thinking because there were a various amount of tools at our disposable to create our media products.

Microsoft Excel helped to show accurate figures of percentages of people from our questionnaire which helped when it came to analysing and making decisions on the direction of our A2 trailer.

Microsoft PowerPoint enabled us to create drafts of film posters so that we could evolve it into our final production as part of the promotional package.

The main disadvantage is that we feel in the media industry Microsoft may not be seen as a professional programme that creates the media products which we see around today.

We feel another downfall of Microsoft PowerPoint is that it does not offer the advanced tools like Photoshop.

 

 

 

 Green Screen

The green screen was used in the research stage in order to allow us to experiment with photos and gain knowledge of how professionals within the media industry use this as a tool. During the stage in which we researched the magazine covers, we found that a convention was to have a solid or gradient background, it was for this reason which we pursued using the green screen, to create the more professional look as it would eliminate shadows and poor lighting. Our experimental session gave us the insight as to whether we wanted to use the green screen in producing our final media product.

An advantage of capturing images and shots on the green screen is that this would increase the professionalism of our media products as we would be mirroring the film industry’s procedure. Moreover, the screen provides a consistency in terms of lighting, wind and recapturing the image if needed.

Upon reflecting the effectiveness of the Green Screen, as a group we decided that it if we were to utilise it, we would not promote the magazine in the best light and this is due to the fact­­­ we could not eradicate the shadows and we felt that we were lacking in knowledge of how to edit the footage once uploaded onto the Macs.

 

Internet

The internet acted as a portal for us to aid our research, construction, planning and evaluating. The websites in particular which were used were mainly YouTube, official film websites, Oden, IMDb and Facebook.

Facebook was used when evaluating which was effective in getting feedback because those commenting would be those who were in the target audience range of our trailer.

However the disadvantages of using Facebook as a means to receiving feedback is that the responses are not very descriptive and much of the feedback was not very detailed as many individuals do not know what to look for in a trailer. Areas which did not get commented on where the mise-en-scene as many did not know what aspects it addresses.

 

Out of all the websites which we looked at YouTube throughout all the stages and it proved itself to be the most sufficient. The reasons for this are that it provided us with templates of previous thriller trailers, Adobe after effects tutorials inspiration for our trailer soundtrack.

The advantages we found from YouTube is that we can directly upload videos from YouTube up onto our blogs with ease. Furthermore there was an unlimited amount of trailers we could browse through.

The disadvantage is that people can upload fan made videos and at times can be very similar to the real thing. This caused us to spend more time searching for the official trailers. Bad quality videos can be uploads which again was time consuming as we then needed to search for the video with good quality sound and viewing.

The International Movie Database assisted us in our research process mainly as it helped us to identify what movie production companies sponsored which films, and furthermore, what distribution companies collaborated with them.

The resourcefulness of the IMDb allowed us to look at vital information, this website acted as a library where we could view any film trailers and facts about the films, for example who was involved in creating the movies. Another advantage of this site is that it is constantly being updated; therefore all of the information is current. In light of this, a drawback of IMDb is that without internet connection, you cannot obtain its facts.

Official film websites were used when planning and researching, this allowed us to get a general overview of the professional promotional packages. We looked at official film websites in great detail to analyse the font styles they used and the positioning of images and text. In addition we looked at how they marketed their film and which conventions were broken or adopted. When looking at the film websites it showed their creative expression and opened our minds to the different paths we could explore when producing our promotional package. This is an advantage of official websites as it broadened our minds to the possibilities and options.

The disadvantage to our group is that some films do not have a website or in some cases the film is very old so the website no longer exists; and in our case many good thrillers are from a few years back.

Another disadvantage is many films do not use the official website as their main way to marketing, resulting in a very basic site.

 

Programmes

During the construction and planning phases we started by working on final cut express, this was to create the storyboard and acted as a base for later development within our project. Our reasoning behind utilising this piece of software was down to our previous knowledge gained last year, where we created our thriller film opening. We knew that we would be capable of constructing an effective trailer which will evoke the feeling of suspense, due to our successful use of transitions and filters which Final Cut Express offered.

Final Cut Express is a programme which we were made aware was used by professionals; we wanted to duplicate that cinematic effect which they so well achieved.  A noted benefit was that Final Cut allowed us to unite the visual and audio elements. When applying an effect onto footage the programme gave us freedom to either stick to the default settings or adjust as we wish.

The disadvantages of final cut were that the camera did not download directly on the program it needed to go through imove and be exported as an XML. This was just an inconvenience to our group as it was time consuming.

Also to those that have little knowledge in Final Cut Express it would be very difficult to teach yourself.

Lastly as we were producing a thriller trailer we wanted to include a sequence of very fast paced shots, synchronised with a soundtrack; sometimes when deleting footage the continuity between the visual and audio elements were distorted. We found this extremely time consuming and testing on our skills.

Photoshop was used when planning and constructing in order to aid work with the promotional package consisting of a film poster and film magazine. This programme was used in order to explore the different conventions which are showcased in thriller posters, for example the use of a spot light tool to emphasize the girl’s situation.
When constructing the poster, Final Cut Express was required to help edit the original image. The lighting was corrected along with the surrounding area. The ground was very patchy in places and some had no leaves covering the ground. Final Cut Express allowed us as a group to correct minor elements such as this.

The advantage of Photoshop is that it is a professional programme which is used in the media industry; so if we had advanced skills and time we would be able to use the functions and tools available to us to create a professional edit of a film poster.

Another advantage is that a member of the group studies A level Photography so had previous knowledge which made using Photoshop easier.
Photoshop acts as a magnifying glass which allowed us to scrutinize even the smallest areas of the poster to allow correction.

The disadvantage of this programme is that an introduction is needed due to the intricacy of the tools available as many only differ in use slightly.

The programme is very time consuming even to just carry out one task such as cropping round an image because if it goes wrong half way through you need to start over.

Amidst constructing Queensdown Warren, we felt that in order to achieve a sophisticated looking trailer, we required the use of an animated effect on our film title shot and that this could be accomplished through the software called Adobe After Effects CS6. It was from this programme that we created a number of prototypes.

The positive of using this software is that on YouTube there are a number of tutorials that can guide you through the programme to create an effective shot. This made this part of the constructing process bearable and seem less alien to the group. However it was time consuming and frustrating.

Another bonus is that this programme is a well renowned piece of software amongst the experts and would looked high quality when accomplished.

Despite those points, Adobe After Effects is such a detailed programme that at any stage something could go wrong and it could be very difficult to backtrack and pinpoint what needs to be altered. We felt that without the use of following a tutorial as a group, we would not have understood the first thing on how to go about constructing such an animated title.

What is more, the programme is very expensive to install, it is for this reason that we tested the free first month trial. The negative about using the trial version of Adobe After Effects is that it is limited in some of the effects which the full version buys, for example the “Knoll Light Factory”.

 

iMovie was an essential programme for our progression as it acted as the middle man when we needed to upload our footage onto Final Cut Express. At one point we had to decide whether to edit with Final Cut Express or iMovie, it was decided upon that going for iMovie would not be a wise decision as we had a stronger foundation of knowledge about Final Cut Express. Furthermore, we came to a mutual agreement that it seemed like a less professional programme.

The benefit of having a programme such as iMovie at our disposal is that it does have a wide variety of transition options which would be suitable for any type of genre and as there is a library of effects, it makes the editing ordeal less time consuming.

Furthermore, the fact that the software itself can lay out a template for you to follow when creating a trailer, can prove itself to be very effective as the template acts as a guarantee to having a well thought out, fluid trailer.

On the other hand, there are drawbacks of exercising iMovie, for instance, if you did use a template, it does restrict your creative development which you would generally experience in a non-restricting process.

Additionally, there is general feedback from people who have used the programme and they have said that on the whole, it is difficult to import videos from the internet directly to iMovie, such as YouTube. This makes adding the film production companies very testing to upload and put at the beginning of the trailer.

Garage Band was a useful programme which was use to construct the soundtrack for our A2 trailer. Garage Band allowed us to combine different sounds, tones, pitches, beats and instruments to put together a piece of track which was fitting for a thriller.

The advantage of Garage Band is that it is a professional programme which is used in the media industry; so if we had advanced skills and time we would be able to use the functions and tools available to us to create a professional soundtrack.

Another advantage is that the program was very self explanatory, which was a positive for the group as none of us had any experience in using Garage Band.

The main disadvantage is that you cannot change tempo within a song. However this did not cause too much concern for our group as when imported into Final Cut Express tempo changes could be done on that program.  

The second disadvantage is that you cannot edit the loops to exactly how you want, which therefore means we may not have had the expect soundtrack we intended at the beginning.

Equipment

Camera

The camera was a vital part of our media project not only to film but to take still shots for the film poster and magazine cover. The cameras were new in this year and were updated from previous cameras which are a benefit to our group as these cameras were of a much higher quality.

The camera was used in the planning stage in order to experiment with shots and become familiar with the technology. When constructing the cameras were relied on greatly as they were required for every session.

The advantage of having the camera that we did was the high quality that could be produced when videoing or taking still shots. The focus for a long distance range was still very clear which was an advantage to our group as it did not hinder when we were trying a wide variety of angles and movements with the camera.

The main disadvantage was that on the market there are still cameras which are of higher quality which would have been better in picking up detail in darker shots.

The cameras provided for us are not take of professionals in the industry as theirs are very expensive and produce the highest of quality, and this is something which we as a group do not have access too.

By Katie and Grace

Evaluation of audience feedback

Evaulation of the effectiveness of the combination of our main product and ancillary texts

 

The message of our trailer: Fate doesn't discrimate

The message works well becauase like professional films it gets the audiences thinking more depthly rather than just watching. I makes the audience wonder and imagine; this entices people in as they want to know more.

Aim: Create a promotional package which displayed a continuous message throughout, with contininuity also being a feature across all three methods of promotion.

This aim was effective for our group as it helped us remain focused and have an aim of what we not only expect the outcome to be, but guidance of what professional companies try to achieve.

The areas in which contininuity were shown were; fonts, texts, facial expressions, lighting, costumes, body language and emotion.

The three main areas in which continunty was kept under tight control was; lighting, text and body and facial expressions.  

We as a group are able to justify why the combination of areas above are effective when all together. Individually they are important but when all combined together it leads to a very good trailer, magazine and poster which aids the promotion of the film.

 

Lighting

The lighting was essential within our three promotional packages in order to highlight to the audience not only the genre but the overall mood, which is fear and intensity.

Within the trailer the lighting helps to contrast the two situations. There is high key lighting around the car as the girls are setting off, however, as soon as the guy steps of infront the the key the lighting dims and continuously gets darker throughout. This was done to show the constract of situation and type of character. This is effective as the dark lighting highlights mystery and fear which is important as we only see the characters at first; no hear them.

Natural light was used when filming in order to highlight to the audience when certain things are taking places. The trailer is not in time sequence our and the girls set off for the camping trip in daylight it helps the audience to place events in the trailer. This was effective as the natural lighting is something which the audience can relate to and at this point in the film the audience can feel comfortable and relaxed as they would be familar which will constrast when they feel tense and scared when there is low key lighting.

Unatural lighting needed to be used when filming at night and for both ancillary texts. We as a group decided to lighten up footage which was shot at night in order for the viewer to still clearly see what was happening at night, but for us to still give over the fear element by keeping it dark. The poster had the lighting altered to make it darker which then enabled the audience to suss out the genre. High key lighting was put in around the victim on the poster so the audience were drawn into her, as she is the main character and this needed to be highlighted as there were three figures on the poster.

The red light which encloses around the title holds key significance which is that it is trying to tell the audience that there will be moments which are unexpected which means the perpetrators are closing in on the victim even more. This was effective as it would evoke fear and unease in the audience. As our film is the genre of a thriller it meant that fear and unease needed to be put onto the audience.The colourings work well in doing this because of what they resemble.

Fonts/Text

The texts all interlink with each other in order to give off the same vibe. The font used throughtout all text in our pakages was Didot. The reason behind keeping the same font for all text relating to 'QueensDown Warren' was so the audience could become familar, and soon regconise the font style and that it is asocatied specifically to QueensDown Warren.

Any text for our three promotions is either white, black or red. This wasn't just done for consistancy, but more to help get a message across. Red is key in helping to represnt danger, blood and fear and black gives off the sesne of darkness and the unknown. These are two colours used greatly in order to get this feeling across in all areas.

White was a colour also used in the trailer, and the reason for this was to not detract from the title which was in red as thats the most important text given to the audience. Additonal reasons include wanting the text to stand out on the black ground as it draws the audience in. The colour white is used which is effective in order to show purity and vunerability in amongst the red which resembles blood and the black which remsembles darkness. These work because the colours are all inkeeping with conventions of other well known thrillers because black, red and white are all very striking colours against a plain or busy background. 

 

 

Body Language/ Facial Expressions

In all three promotional packages the victim (shown below in the images) is holding the same facial expression and also the body langauge gives off the same feel as her face. This expression is of vunerabilty and fear of the unknown which is what we were aiming for as it effectively shows off the genre of a thriller.

In the poster the girl is crouched on the ground which suggests she has either fallen or is to weak to carry on; which in addtion highlights to the audience that physically and mentally she is drained from whatever is happening. This is reoccuring in the footage within the trailer as the girl falls over whilst running away and is often shown in many shots to be hiding behind objects or running away.

Also within the poster the two male figures behind her are holding a strong pose which highlights to the audience they have greater strength than the girl. There strong stance and over powering presence suggests they are of a much higher status which os effective as we want to demonstrate the power which the men have over her. This is another example of the effectiveness of all three texts because in the trailer the perpetrators are shown which great phyical and mental strength as they are continuously hunting down the victim and running after her in the chase scene.

The film magazine cover shows the three victims in the film and them protraying a very different message through the use of body language. She, like the other two are holding a very strong pose which signifies their friendship. Highlighting to the audience that together there is a bond and strength between the girls which may not be there when on their own. Throughout the trailer and poster it shows the constrast to the magazine as the main victim is shown on her own and not to be coping or showing any signs of inner strength.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Katie and Grace

Evaluation of how our media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products

Evaluation of how our media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products

Media in general relies on conventions in order to standardise multimedia products so that audiences can identify and analyse key points. The stereotypes which the media produce help individuals to distinguish between genres, character types and the medium itself.

Whilst developing ideas for our three media products we had to adopt and challenge forms and conventions used in real media products, in order to produce and make our ideas materialise.

Magazine

Within our magazine we used a variety of forms and conventions in order to make it look like the work of a professional. Following are the points which show how we adhered to other real media products.

At the beginning of making our product we initiated research into the mass market film magazine companies and the niche magazine titles such as Sight and Sound. The reasons for choosing Total Film were because it has a very specific layout which not only works but looks effective. By going with Total Film we were able to have the image covering part of the title, due to its worldwide reception.

Key conventions which needed to be included were the barcode, price, website, date and issue number. We followed this not only by incorporating these aspects but also by positioning this information to the top and bottom right hand corner of the magazine cover.

Another main feature that is displayed on the front of any film magazine is that the individuals are posing in character and looking directly down the lens of the camera, however are not in action. On our Total Film cover each of the characters are in costume whilst maintaining an expression of helplessness. This links in well with our other two media products as they are also displaying the air of vulnerability. This is one aspect which makes our promotional package sucessful.

Within the magazine product another convention which has been used is gripping phrases such as “mind blowing” and “starring” which capture the audience’s attention whilst glancing at the magazine. Phrases such as these are put into a large font in order to stand out from other text on the page. Without phrases the cover could just be consumed by text which does not excite the audience.

A characteristic of film magazines are that the cover shows what the main articles are enclosed inside. With our magazine we have done just that, as it states “Iron Man 3 full cast interview”. In addition, there is an article for Stoker the new film which has been released.

There were times during the constructing of Total Film in which we felt compelled to challenge the magazine’s normalities. The incidences in which we challenged the conventional form are when we applied the background and number of characters which featured on the front.

Firstly when we gathered audience feedback it was mentioned to us that our use of background was not a common attribute for any film magazine. Simultaneously after this piece of information we launched an enquiry and discovered in actual fact some covers do involve a background, for instance, in the Total Film repertoire there is a cover advertising Sherlock Holmes and just behind in the blue mist you can just about visualise Big Ben. After having looked into examples which display the main setting of the film on the forefront of the magazine, we felt at ease to not alter our rendition of Total Film. The dark green metal container which the girls are standing in front of was chosen in our planning stage as it symbolised the clash of the urban and countryside elements which intertwined in Queensdown Warren. Furthermore, as a group we talked of going onto feature a shed of some description in our film at some point if we were to shoot the rest of the film.
Instantly we thought the bakground didnt work as it challegnes conventions, however we can justify the reason for this background. The reason is this; the cravings in the container highlight to the audience that the container is not only old but abandoned. This ties in with the concept of our film: the girls getting taken and no one being there to save them as they area is diserted.

The second convention that we challenged is the image; a general aspect of a film magazine is that there is only the main character on the cover. However we are able to justify the decision for this because there are occasional incidents where there is more than one character advertised. Examples of this are the Twilight and The Lord of the Rings issues. We as a group decided to use three characters also; and the reasons for this are the strong bond and the experience in which the three girls shared. This works because one of the major themes within our trailer was isolation and we thought it would best be reinforced in our other media products by displaying them together.

When comparing to other magazines from the same company (Total Film) it was clear to see that we had been successful,because not only did they look similar in the layout, but text and font, and styles were similar also. One key element was making sure the title, slogans features and postioning of the image was inkeeping with professional ones. This was achieved when visually see ours and a professional one.
    
                                                      

                                                     
 Trailer

As a trailer has to be able to successfully captivate an audience there has to be a wide variety of shots which either demonstrate the people’s perception, location, status and reactions amongst many other things. In films such as Quarantine and Sorority Row there is the conventional ‘girl being dragged away’ shots and this demonstrates the element of surprise and how they are not in control of their own lives. The last shot in which you see the antagonist of our film: she is being pulled away into the darkness. This was used in order to grip the audience and give them a sense of irritation that the boys are manipulating innocent lives. This was an effective shot as it allowed our story line to develop while still giving the feeling of intrigue to our audience. This shot is effective because it left the feeling of unknown to the audience as the victim was never shown in a shot with the perpetrators until this point, causing the audience to wonder what they will do or if she will ever get back to her friends. This gave mysterous and suspense which is justifiably used because they are conventions of thrillers.

A large number of close up shots were used between the victim and perpetrators which is an aspect of thriller trailer conventions. The reason for this is to show the contrast between the feelings of both characters to show how good and evil are represented. The victim will portray fear and anxiety on her face whereas the perpetrator will show aggression. In addition showing the two facial expressions with a close up shot highlights to the audience just how severe the situation is because of the detail on their faces. An example of this in our trailer is when the girl is hiding behind a tree in fear, with the next close up shot of the perpetrators coming towards the girl with a threatening look upon both their faces. This works well because in the same or following shots we can see how differently two people act and respond in the same situation: one being the victim who is under threat and the perpreprator who is hunting.

After having sent out a Thriller Questionnaire to 15+ year olds, we received information that 12 out of 30 participants favoured to watch Thrillers set in the City. Upon acknowledging these results, we decided on capturing the beginning of the storyline in the City and then moving the plot into the suburban area that is Queensdown Warren. The effectiveness of showing the girls in both of these surroundings was helpful in demonstrating binary opposites. “Shark Night”, “Wrong Turn” and a film called “The Ruins” are all examples which also put their characters at a different place when the main event occurs. Location is one way in which we managed to develop our own storyline and adhere to a convention.

In addition, to the list of comparison points between our media and real media products, we also employed text shots and this acted as a foreshadowing technique so that our audience could anticipate what our film entails.  We used our text shots to tell the audience the following statement – “What started as a camping trip... ended as... a fight for survival”. While we were researching and before we had chose upon a genre we appreciated that these types of shots were a conventional aspect to a trailer and acted as a statement in itself.

Poster

In this next section we will be highlighting the conventions that we implemented on our poster which can be seen of those of real media products. When producing this element of our promotional package, we had to take into consideration characteristics such as lighting, costume, props, text and the general overview.  

Lighting was one of the first things on our agenda to assess as with a thriller genre light is a focal point on generating emotions. The way which we applied light to our poster was by employing a spotlight effect on the girl. “Awake” featuring Jessica Alba is one instance in which they have utilized a focused light onto the victim. This is sucessful because it provokes the feeling of pity amongst an audience as it reinforces the antagonist’s angelic-like disposition. Furthermore, the bright light is very effective as it connotes that the victim is going to be immersed into a chaotic circumstance which will change their perception of life.

In conclusion, we stuck to the conventional look of the costumes for our trailer as they show the two villains in dark clothing covering their faces and the victims will be in lighter clothing which is fitting for the situation in which they think they are going to be placed in to. The girls head for a camping trip so they will be shown in wellies, and camping gear such as tracksuits and waterproofs. This is effective because we are keeping to the conventions as villains want to hide their identity which will be done with the dark clothing to help disguise them as the setting is dark. The victims are fitting in the clothing they are wearing because like other images shown they are suitably dressed for the situation they think they are in or going too. In addition this is effective because we are clearly displaying to the audience who is who and what they represent. This has been presented to the view, to help them understand the parts before any action which displays the roles has taken place.

Text was conventionally used on our poster to display our title, tagline and billing block. The billing block is generally used to credit all of the cast and crew which participate in a film. We browsed at a number of thriller posters and found a common colour scheme for their billing block was white, black, red or grey. We went with a grey billing block in order for it not to be too prominent on the poster. The reason for this is because we did not want to distract from image. The is effective because the grey is not distracting yet this visable to give over key information and inkeeping with conventions.

‘Queensdown Warren’ title was decided upon however the font did not help to portray the genre in which we had chosen. However after a lot of research we developed our poster and font style so that the audience could work out the genre just by looking at the title. Moreover, we analysed the significance of thrillers adopting the colour red and felt like by applying said colour to our poster it would look extremely effective in getting our audience to immediately associate the film with the feelings of fear and danger. This is effective and sucessful as it draws the viewer in to the bold red writting. It makes it memorable which is key in a trailer as we want to audience to then see the film.

Some may say that the font in which we have used to display our title is not conventional of a thriller genre as it does not have any resemblance of special effects which are generally used on a title, for example, blood droplets or a clever image that forms one of the letters in the film name. Despite this point, as a group we believed that our end product did not require any animated effects due to the lack of room and the fact that the trees and leaves make our design look full enough. The font is effective for our type of trailer because the writing is very clear making it easy for the view to read and inkeeping with trailer conventions becasue; all thrillers use a bold font in order to look invasive and overwhleming.

When comparing to other posters of the thriller genre it was apparent that we had been successful, because not only did they look similar in the layout, but text and font, lighting and information was similar. One key element was making the positioning and light surronding the image was inkeeping with professional ones. This was achieved when visually see ours and a professional one.

 

 

 

  By Katie and Grace

Development from AS to A2

The development from AS to A2 is vast for our group and for us individually.

The group development areas are in:

• Media technologies
• Research/planning
• Experimenting

My personal developmental areas are in:

• Analysing
• Final Cut Express skills

 As a group we have used a variety of media technologies in order to help us represent work within our blogs. A new media we all used was Prezi, which helped use to create presentations in new ways. Another is wrodle to produce word clouds and brainstroms; this prgrame became very useful in the research stage where ideas were envoling because we could show how come idea brought upon another.
These were the two main tools used however there were more; which offered different uses.
The reason for exploring these new technologies was to showcase our work differently to last year which shows our progression over a year as we are able to write a blog as well as keep up with the lastest media technologies. This year After Effects and Imovie were used by the group which shows progession as last year only Final Cut Express was used. We wanted to experiement with different programes because in year 12 we felt limited to one programe.

This year we developed the research stage, because last year it was clear that the research into our target audience was limited.  Last year we looked at cerificate ratings to see what the viewers are allowed to witness; whereas this year we researched our audience the same way but then followed on by finding out our target markets opinions, views and preferences. This was done through a generic questionaire which was later anaylsis then to add to this a thriller questionaire was given out then analysis by the group. This gave us indepth knowledge on our target audience which we later found out to be vital when producing the trailer.

As an individual I feel my progression is shown through in Final Cut Express and analysing. My personal aim this year was to gain knowledge in how to use Final Cut effectively and I believe I have managed to do this. Intially this year I had help with understanding how to use different functions and tools by Katie in our group as she was confident in using the programe. At the beginging of the editing process I helped, however was being told how to crop, cut, copy, paste and overlap footage in order to gain experience and confidence. Half way through I still wanted someone there for guidance on how to use tools and the right technique as I didnt want to mess it up. By the end of the process I was capable of using Final Cut Express on my own without help or guidance from the group.
The areas which I was able to work on were:

• Cutting footage
• Overlapping footage with text and music
• Copying and pasting footage from different programes onto Final Cut
• Changing the duration of footage
• Changing the speed of footage
• Moving Text around
• Changing the pitch of footag

This shows the transistion from last year becuase in year 12 I was unable to use the programe which being told what buttons to press and how to move footage from one time to another.

Another area in which I have shown personal progression is my general analysis skills. I found this quite challenging last year when knowing how to integrate it into our project. This year I have been able to throroughtly anaylse text and imagines to ascertain their true meanings.

To conlcude, I think we as a group and individuals have shown progression in a number of areas within this subject. Thinking back to last year when making a two minute film opening we only used the facilites and tools given to us, such as Final Cut Express. However, this year we have expanded our programes used and learned how to use After Effects on our own; whereas Final Cut we had a tutorial in. This resulted in the end product being more sucessful this year because we were able to experiement to find the best way possible on different programes to either create effects, lengthen footage, import etc. Combining group and individual progression was effective in highlighting the progression made, because we all showed signs of improvement in key areas such as Final Cut Express. By combining progression in a variety of areas it helped with the sucess of our group as we were able to work at a faster pace becuase we were not only familar with programes and the process but more advanced.
For us as a group; experiementing for with new programes worked for our group effectively because we created a better overall package than last year. For us as a group we played it safe last year in a variety of ways such as camera angles, story line, the message etc. The effectiveness of our developement over the year was shown by audience feedback in all the areas. Audience feedback was much more postive which is shown with the responses in other blogs. By evalutating the package myself I feel we followed conventions tightly and kept tight controls when deciding as we always reverted back, to whether it tied in with conventions. This helps me justify: that overall we are stronger and more advanced this year.

Queensdown Warren Trailer

This is our final trailer of QueensDown Warren which I feel is effective as there are key parts which stand out within our trailer which highlight the genre, story line and situation and feels of both the victims and perpetrators.

Promotional Package

Overview of promotional packages:

 

Promotional packages are used by the film industry in order to promote the film. Marketing is a crucial part of the film process because audiences need to be made aware of the film before it comes out in cinema. This can be done in a number of ways:

• In cinema
• Posters
• Magazines
• Bill boards
• Buses
• London Taxis
• Internet e.g. Facebook, YouTube

 

Our promotional package:

 

Our package consisted of a poster, magazine cover and trailer in order to grab the attention of the target audience in a number of ways. Within each product we wanted all three to link through the message given  out to the audience. This message is that of fear, anticipation and intensity. Through the poster the visual of fear is shown which links with the magazine as intensity is shown on the faces of the character. Both packages link with the trailer as this also provokes strong emotion into the viewer.

 



 

 

                                   

 

Importance of audience feedback

Audience feedback  is vital to aid the evaulation of the groups final products.
The reason audience feedback is so cricial in media is due to the fact it is the audience which bring in revenue causing the sucess of a film. Having the correct marketing with a productional package helps to do this.
The aim of any film is to satisfy the audience which it targets; and through audience feedback we can see if this has been achieved. We can see this by the comments and suggestions left by those asked.

Audience feedback can be obtained in a variety of ways:

• Questionaires
• Viewing Sessions
• Focus Groups
• Online Surveys
• Facebook
• Twitter

For our audience feedback we used facebook, questionaires, viewing sessions and online survies in order to reach out to as many people who fit into our target audience.

The reason behind audience feedback being vital for our evaultion is as follows:

We as a group can see what the audience like and dislike, which can then be considered if we were to carry out the same or similar task again. This will make our products even better as we will know the target audiences response to certain things early on. For instant with our poster ;audience feedback on the poster stated they liked the lighting as it looked as through the darkness was closing in on the victim. This is benefical to our group as we wculd see what went well from the viewers perspective and then use this within our other promotional packages.

Also with audience feedback we could find out ideas and viewpoints which we may not have considered, such as reasons why they think something has been done. This helped when analysising because we could go into more detail on why things were done and for what reason. An example of this is a comment by Vicky on the poster, 'The dark edges that lead into the lighter centre creates a vibe of fear and foreshadows the idea that something bad will happen'.
Orginally I thought this shoot was effective to show the 'good' of the victim as she is in high lighting compared to the rest but this is another valid point which can be used when evaluating on why the light was as such.

The main reason for wanting audience feedback on the final products was so that as a group and individuals we would be able to analyse futher because of having the audience comments. As the comments are that of our target audience we were able to obtain indepth and valid anaylsis which we could review and then use as feedback for personal progress next time.

Magazine Feedback

Fom this footage of audience feedback we have gained both postive and constructive feedback which has helped us to evaluate our piece.

The postive feedback was to do with the characters and positioning; the comment made was, 'the girl to the left looks as though she has been through an aldeal', ' the girl on the right looks apprehensive' and 'the girl in the middle looks strong and the leader.'
This is effective feedback as it has confirmed to us that our magazine portrayal has been effective to the audience. When planning we wanted to create this effect for the audience so that they could begin to understand the girls situation for the girls as a group and individually.

The constructive critism of the magazine is that the colouring of QueensDown Warren does not show up enough and that if the colouring of the girls jump was paler it could help. I think when evaluating it is fair to say the title of the film on the magazine was not totally effective and did not acheive what we originally planned for. Intially we wanted the title of the film and the image to the two things which stood out the most. However unfortunately this was not the case with the title of the film. In order to correct this we would have to go for another font in order to make the text more stricking. However to justify our reasoning for not changing this is becasue the font style, Didiot, was used throughout the other promotions so we wanted to keep it the same so that the audience could become familar with it and associate it to QueensDown Warren.