Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and exaluation stages?

A wide range of media technologies have been available to me throughout the research, planning, construction and evaluation of both my ancillary products and my final teaser trailer.

RESEARCH

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The main way that I chose to get audience feedback on my work was though the social networking site Facebook. As my target audience is teenagers, I thought that using a social networking site would be an easy way of showing my work to the masses.

This is the link to the Facebook 'group' I created.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/group.php?gid=109223052429666&ref=ts

Firstly I posted the link to my rough cut video on YouTube so that I could get comments on how to improve it.

These were some of the comments I recieved back from people who watched my trailer.

I received a lot of possitive feedback from the rough cut and I was given a lot of constructive critisism from the people who were my potential target audience.

Strengths - Common things that people liked in my rough cut.

Shakey camera in the point of view shot when the boy runs.
The Editing
Use of words within the trailer e.g. 'Keep both eyes open'
Music/Heartbeat
The way my actor disappears off the swing.
That it didnt give a lot away about the actual film.

There were some common comments that came from people who watched my trailer about things that I could do to improve my rough cut.

The first thing people thought I could improve was the font my text was written in. This was something I wasnt sure about anyway but having other people mentioning the font too meant that this was something I definitely wanted to change. Lots of people said that the font looked too 'happy' for the genre of my teaser trailer so I found a text that I thought worked better and was less happy and more plain.

Also people said that the 'RUN' parts of my rough cut didnt work so well as it was written in capitals so I changed the font it was written in and also put it into lowersace letters which I think works far better as they have become harder to read. People also said that they needed to be sped up and little bit and when going through my teaser trailer I found that some of the 'run' parts were faster than others so I made sure that I made them flash as fast as it was possible (00.01 of a second).

Another suggestion was that in the shot where the camera zooms into the boys eye, I should have it fade out to make it more atmospheric. I therefore used the Dip to Colour transition so that it fades to black. I think this works really well and it does make it more atmospheric.

I also got feedback from people on the Flipshare cameras (available for viewing in a previous blog post) and much of what was said on my Facebook group came out in this feedback too.

I then posted my first draft of my Magazine Cover.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?pid=5646965&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=109223052429666&aid=-1&id=571396137&oid=109223052429666&fbid=416276201137

These were some of the comments I received about my first draft.

Strengths - Common things people liked about my Magazine Cover.

Colour scheme.
Composition
Text used
Fonts

Most comments were very possitive but there were a few things people would have changed. However I was pleased with what I had created and in my mind, moving things round and changing things would overcomplicate what I had already made so I decided to leave this as it was.

I then posted the rough draft for my film poster.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?pid=5655725&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=109223052429666&aid=-1&id=571396137&oid=109223052429666&fbid=416588391137




These were some of the comments I received about my work.


Strengths - Common things people liked about my Poster

Composition
The fact its not too busy/cluttered
Mysterious
Font
Image used

They were all positive comments containing some constructive critisism but a lot of it were things that I couldnt change. There was one comment that I did take on board when improving my poster and this was making the gap between the 'Out Of Sight' and the 'Keep both eyes open' part as it was a little hard to read. Also to improve this poster I added my own film company logo in order to make it more professional looking.

I finally posted my finished teaser trailer onto my blog and whilst I didnt get many comments about it, the ones I did get were possitive.

Overall the audience feedback for my three peices were very possitive and it was increadibly useful getting this feedback as it showed areas that a large group of people wanted me to improve and it allowed me to show my work to my target audience easily.

Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Part 2

This is the transcript for my voiceover. I have removed the stuttering and ‘umms’ so it makes a little more sense.


"Ok this is the answer to one of my evaluation questions about how effective the combination of my main product and ancillary products are. Basically the combination of the different pieces of promotional material is vital to the success of the release of any new film and the marketing campaigns are important to guaranteeing an audience on the first week of the release.

For my ancillary tasks, I chose to do the magazine and the poster for my film and I chose these two because I have a lot of previous experience on Photoshop and I figured they would be the easiest two to do and most importantly, I could make them the most professional. For example I think they work really well in comparison to the Pixar’s Toy Story 3 release because they released a set of teaser posters which included the well known characters and the number 3 and I think this works really well as it doesn’t give too much detail which is kind of like my posters. The first teaser trailer was released in May 2009 with the release of the 3D version of Up and the second teaser trailer was released in February 2010 followed by a full length trailer appearing in the 3D showings of the Alice In Wonderland film.

I think there are areas of my work those mirrors the professional marketing really well. For example my film poster links well with my teaser trailer. I chose to photograph a swing for my poster because I think it’s the most iconic image in my teaser trailer and I thought it was the most fitting for my poster. As it is a teaser campaign I didn’t want too much detail on the poster so I’ve included limited text in order to add interest and mystery to it and I included my actors name to create a sense of hype for the film. In comparison, I don’t think my magazine cover links well with the rest of my texts. I didn’t think it was appropriate to include a photo of my actor on the magazine as he is a child and looking at existing magazine covers, if there are any children on the cover there is an adult that usually joins them. So therefore I decided that with the recent success of Katherine Bigelow because she is the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar I wanted to do something a bit topical so with the help of my media teacher we came up with the cover line for my magazine ‘Bigelows Angels. The women determined to turn Hollywood on its head.’ Whilst I think this is quite a strong idea, it doesn’t promote my film very well and the only mention of my film on my magazine cover is the name of my film included on the clapper board that the girl in the middle is holding.

Looking at all 3 together I think they are strong but I don’t feel that the magazine front cover promotes my film particularly well."

Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Part 1

This is the voiceover I have recorded for my second evaluation question. Transcript to follow.

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Eval 1

View more presentations from ML.

Final Poster

Final Magazine Cover

Final Cut of Teaser Trailer

This is the second and final cut of my teaser trailer. Looking at the Facebook feedback page I created, I used this feedback to make some of the changes suggested by other people and some changed I wanted to make myself. I have changed the text throughout my teaser trailer and i think its a more effective text. this is most prominent on the 'run' part of my trailer as I have changed it to a lowercase lettering so it is more subliminal.

I have also added some more transitions to make the teaser trailer run a little smoother. I also added a Dip to Colour Dissolve when the camera moves into my actors eye as this gives a better effect than it going straight into the eye and cutting immediately.

I think I have created a really strong teaser trailer for my coursework and I am really pleased with the final product.