Evaluation

Eleanor McKeown

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

My media product develops various existing forms from other media products in many aspects. To start with, my media product used the form conventionally seen within trailers of the green audiences screen.

In addition to this, we then used the production logos and animations we had made on LiveType and AfterEffects at the start of the trailer as it was a convention we had seen used within our research and planning which added to the realism of the product. Furthermore, I would say that the use of score which changes in the middle of the trailer is a common convention used which we adopted into our own trailer in order to lure the audience into a false sense of security in which they are then surprised when the darker soundtrack kicks in, heightening the attention.

I also used text inserts I made on Aftereffects between the shots and takes to ensure the audience was aware of the story-line. Furthermore I would say that the shots and camera angles used are typical of those in real media products as they are a variety of mid, over the shoulder, long shots and shot/reverse shots. The use of editing is similar to those of real media products, for example the straight-cuts which fasten and become more frequent towards the end of the trailer is a typical convention used to fasten the pace of the product whilst adding to the suspense of the plot. My favourite part of the trailer is the over the shoulder mirror take, which is a convention we mirrored from other media products as we had seen it used various times within our chosen horror genre before –although we challenged the convention in a way as we added a negative effect to the dead friends face when she is reflected in the mirror – as seen below in the film The Omen (2006)

The inserts I created on LiveType were inspired by those I had seen on various horror film trailers within my research. I first created the smoke screen background on after effects and then used this as a basis for my LiveType text. I created the text for each insert using the same font ‘Trajan pro’ as I had seen used in other text screens used within popular horror film trailers, such as here filmed in the horror film trailer for Carrie. I think this font with some extra spacing worked particularly well because it is clear to read at a glance however still has a certain formal and severe look to it.

In addition to this, our trailer uses other aspects of already existing media products as it incorporates a long take towards the end of the clip as seen within the ‘Conjuring’ trailer in order to heighten the suspense and tension leading up to the final moment of the last fright –in this case we used the long take of the actress walking into the room until she releases the girl is behind her. Here we also re-use the mirror motif within our trailer. Furthermore, our use of soundtrack was a carefully chosen piece we made sure was royalty free which made our work original and distinct.

This is my final magazine cover. I used a variety of fonts and text styles for this cover as I thought it helped emphasised important areas of interest in the cover such as the exclusive interview and ‘oscarspecial’. Furthermore I thought that the use of alternative fonts worked well as inspired by the Empire Dark Knight cover, which uses either the green or white text in the way I used the red or white. In addition to this my use of tag-lines and a website address was a convention I seen featured in the majority of film magazine covers as a whole not just for the specific horror genre.

This is my film poster text. The use of two tag-lines is a technique I had seen used within various other media products such as the Sinister theatrical poster, however I challenged this convention by using the second tagline in an extremely small font as though it appears as a subliminal message whilst hinting about some of the re-occuring films within the film such as betrayal and revenge. The use of this second tag line also proves to serve the same purpose as it does within the Sinister trailer as it helps hint at the plot of the film also without baring all too explicitly.

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

I would say that as a combination my main product and ancillary texts work effectively at a glance. Subtle details such as the frequent use of similar fonts- such as my staple ‘Trajan Pro’ worked well to create a sense of continuity between the products. The similarity within the slashed out texts for the film title in the cover, poster and final credit all works well in providing a recurring image of the film name, whilst the repetition of the font/colour/size would effectively stick in the audiences mind for them to memorise the film name. In addition to this, I would say that the frequent use of close-ups of the dead friends face effectively adds to the motif of death and revenge whilst being haunting to the audience – I used similar camera angles and shots for both the magazine cover and poster, whilst within the trailer a similar close-up of the actresses face is used as she appears in the mirror. Despite this, I would argue that I could have made a further effort to make the ancillary texts look more similar to the final main product by creating a more blue/white hue to the poster and magazine image, as this is the colour film used within the trailer on top of the footage. This continuity between the pieces is crucial for creating an effective product on a whole as it portrays a sense of professionalism and realism to our tested audiences.

Question ThreeWhat have you learned from your audience feedback?

For my audience feedback I made a questionnaire for a sample of 10 students opinions of our trailer, magazine cover and poster.

1) What would you rate the trailer out of 10?

2) Did you think the trailer looked professional if so what made it look realistic?

3) What would you rate my poster and magazine out of 10?

4) Would you be enticed to go and see the film?

5) Overall what areas of improvement would there be for all the pieces?

Question ONE: Question TWO:

• In response to my questions, the response was varied.

Question Two: “ The camera shots and angles gave the appearance of professional filming which made the trailer look more realistic” to “The transitions and straight-cuts, and variation within scene lengths allowed the trailer to fasten towards the end and climax of the trailer as often seen within real trailers, giving a professional finish” whilst some argued that the trailer did not look that professional due to the “amateur acting that jeopardised the realism”.

Question Four: “I would be enticed to see the film because the end of the piece leaves you wanting to know what happens after the girls encounter one another” to “I wouldn’t want to see the trailer as I think the clip could have given a bit too much away” to “The dramatic score really put me on edge throughout the trailer, and as I like the horror genre this would make me want to see it at the cinema as well as the creepy poster”

Question Five: “I think a scarier image should have been used for the poster whereas I liked the use of image for the magazine cover because it suited the uses of plugs and cover-lines without being too scary and hard to look at”

Question FourHow did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

IMOVIE/FINAL CUT:

Within my construction of my trailer I used various software's available on the Apple Macs. I first started off with using iMovie to edit and cut the footage we used for our original draft. After we had collected our final footage, I continued to use iMovie for the editing process as I found it accessible within easily selecting and trimming footage. We then went on to experiment with Final Cut Pro to broaden our skills and adapt to new, more complex technology. After successfully creating some clips through Final Cut Pro after a lengthy period of time, we made the decision to continue using iMovie instead as we found it more manageable for use, but still used Final Cut when it was needed for more complex effects such as the jumpy effect within the car crash scene.

Question FourHow did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? LIVE TYPE / AFTER EFFECTSFor the inserts between the clips, I was responsible for creating the plot details. I firstly created a smoke screen background on After Effects I used after watching a tutorial on Youtube. This was a great piece of technology I found with a bit of direction easy to use and effective in creating a professional finish to the moving background image. To ensure I used a variety of software and technologies, I imported the moving background into LiveType and created the text on top, making sure I stuck to the staple text we had used throughout of ‘Trajan Pro’. I really liked my use of LiveType because I think the technology enabled me to create a good looking text as I could easily create a ‘stroke’ and ‘glow’ effect which worked well against the smoke screen background. PHOTOSHOPI used Photoshop for the construction of my magazine front cover and poster. Photoshop is a software I had the most confidence within working with as I had used it a lot last year. The skills I collected last year were transferable to those demanded by this years work so I found it fairly easy to create my own magazine cover and pick up where I left off with the abilities I attained last year. I used Photoshop as a technology as I believe It provides a great selection of tools to enable you to create a realistic media product. I used Photoshop for both ancillary texts and found I transferred a lot of techniques between the two, such as colour correction, the clone stamp tool and the selection pen tool to create various effects. A great use of this technology was the pen tool as it allowed me to almost re-create the makeup upon the actresses face in ways such as whitening her skin, enhancing her grey lines and creating dark blood injuries within an instant.

Question FourHow did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

RESEARCH AND PLANNING: PREZI/SLIDESHAREWithin my research and planning I used various technologies to aid the presentation of my work and planning. I most commonly used Microsoft PowerPoint and Prezi, as I found them pieces of technology I was used to from my coursework last year. In presenting my work I liked Prezi as it is a new innovative piece of software which enables you to create animations and a more fluid and sophisticated look to the research you are presenting. Prezi is also good to use as the templates available create a sense of journey and a pathway to your work which makes it more easy to comprehend where and how you are advancing on your initial ideas for the construction. Furthermore, I found that although I often used PowerPoint and then uploaded the work onto Slideshare, as a visual aid I would say that Slideshare is not that interesting to look at and read, but it can be easily embedded into a wordpress text post unlike Prezi which I eventually had to hyperlink instead.

AN EXAMPLE OF MY SLIDESHARE AN EXAMPLE OF MY PREZI

Question FourHow did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? RESEARCH AND PLANNING: VOKI/ YOUTUBE

I used Voki within my research and presentation of my coursework as a unique way of presenting information in a way which is still widely accessible. I really liked the use of Vokifor the Actor audition descriptions as I found that it was a better way of displaying short pieces of information through an animation with an audio narration. I liked my use of Vokifor each of these actors because each was only a few sentences long, whereas I think that if I had used Voki for large chunks of information it could become a bit tedious to listen to as the narrative tends to speak rather slowly. I also liked Voki as a technology as it can be uniquely adjusted according to how you would like it to appear in relation to the topic. In addition to this I also used Youtube in order to share various pieces of planning and construction that were of a QuickTime or mp4 format. I have my YouTube channel already, so I found the proceess of cutting and trimming images fairly familiar, and I enjoy using the website as a video sharing technology as my other group members and myself could easily visit the videos and embed them into our own blogs for whatever reason. I also used YouTube in sharing my auditions for the two actresses we considered using for the film trailer.