A2 Media Evaluation

Name: Oliver MansfieldCentre Number: 15147

Candidate Number:

Question 1: In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

How my products uses, challenges or develops forms and conventions of real

media.

I feel that my media products, a teaser trailer, poster and magazine front cover uses forms and conventions of real media products in a lot of ways through conventions like:

• Setting/Location• Camera shots/angles• Music/ Sound FX• Length• Colour• Lighting• Mis en scene• Actors• Editing• Etc

Trailer:

Camera shots/anglesI feel that the use of my camera shots and angles I had used in my trailer created

a range of good techniques for my trailer to make it seem very professional. I have used multiple shots and angles as shown on this page. The image on the left is a low angle shot looking up, this screen shot was taken from a clip I have used in my trailer showing the boy walking closer towards the camera, looking into the distance. The image on the right shows another low angle shot looking straight ahead showing a pair of dangling legs with no clothes on, this is appealing for the audience to wonder who it is and why this is happening. The image at the bottom is a screen shot I have taken from a clip showing a mid shot which turns into a close up shot. I feel that I have learnt a lot through this convention and I have used it similar to other real media products to make it more professional. I feel that I have learnt a lot from this aspect of my production stage and has made me understand a lot more about different shots, angles and when to use them.

Music/ Sound FX

The music and sounds I have used for my teaser trailer were by far the most key element for my trailer to set the mood of what genre the film is. The most useful part of my trailer was to make sure this convention related to other real media products, this is done by making sure the music/sound FX worked well and blended in correctly with the clips in the trailer to create good video effects. I feel that my trailer uses this convention well through timing and the type of sounds. For example in my trailer I have used sounds such as heartbeats when text/copy is introduced to add an effect on the text to make it stand out. I had researched into different sounds online on different website by using search engines like ‘www.google.com’ and ‘YouTube.com’ to find a variety of different sounds which I could use on certain parts of my trailer.

Length

My media product uses this convention in my construction of my trailer very well as I have relating my planning of my trailer through the process of my research, analysing different teaser trailer has given me a good idea of how long to structure my own trailer. I had then made a decision and planned to base my trailer around the length of the trailers I had researched. I had planned to make it around 1 minute long exactly. This way I could realise how many clips to use in my trailer and how long they can be. I feel as if I used this convention well to construct a well made media product through using forms and conventions from the real media based on the research I have made.

Lighting I feel that my teaser trailer uses the lighting convention like other real media

products to add a lot of effects and realistic prospects of a trailer. Throughout the production of my trailer I had used a variety of different times to use lighting to add an effect on a specific clip to either make something stand out better than something else or to just make a good light to see something better. As a horror genre film/trailer to set the scene my scary features will appear at night time, due to this it can be very hard to see certain things, throughout my night time filming I created lighting through flash lights or camera lights to create lighting for certain objects/people. I feel that this convention worked well in my work and created good forms and conventions which are shown in real media products.

Mise en scene

The mise en scene is a very important convention to consider in any media product. This is important so that you can create and set the theme/genre of the film or trailer. Without this the trailer can fall apart and may not set the scene or plot of the story very well. Due to my film being about teenagers in the present tense I was able to film teenagers my age wearing average/casual clothes in my filming which was correct for my plot and story. Other aspects of real media which I have used in my work includes of different props such as hats, fires, weapons etc. Images below show examples of a few props or mise en scene (clothes) which has been used in the production of my work.

Actors

Actors in my trailer was a very aspect of conventions in my work to ensure that they are the correct types of gender and age to relate for my film, this way I was able to gather actors of the teenage age and both genders, 2 boys and 2 girls. The use of real media products must have correct actors to portray the message sent through the plot. I feel that I have chosen the correct actors to relate to the target audience of both genders and the correct age to relate to many audiences. The image below shows a few of my actors prepare for filming with make up and correct clothes etc. I feel I definitely use forms and convention of real media products in this aspect of my filming which relates well to my target audience and genre.

Editing Below shows my video trailer for my horror films. As you can see through the

trailer especially as it develops, certain aspects of my editing increase through realistic and professional ways. This aspect/convention makes the trailer very successful. For example towards the end I have created quick cuts and edits to add the effect of suspense which works well with the sound in the background of my trailer. I have also used a variety of transitions to relate to certain parts of the trailer for example blurred transitions of clips which have slow cuts. I have also used different types of transitions at the beginning of the trailer which introduces the distribution companies.

Setting/Location

My media product uses the convention location/setting very well in my construction stage of my work. The setting is important so that you can relate the film and genre well with where the film is set and filmed. Without a suitable setting for the correct type of film and genre the flow and mixture of the film will not work well at all, especially when trying to fit the plot in with the film it needs to have a correct location. For example my film is about teenagers who go camping, this means the location of filming my teaser trailer would have to be in a field/camping atmosphere. I feel that this convention works well and is developed in a way when shown with a tent and fire at night to show the scar aspect of a horror film not knowing who might turn up or what might happen at night. This convention has helped me to understand how to relate the setting with the plot and film genre.

Poster:

How my poster uses, challenges or develops forms and conventions of the real media, shown below:

Images: The image used here works well with the genre and theme of my trailer due to way the image is

constructed. It is a medium/close up shot of a boy who seems to loo evil/demented. The image works well with the poster due to the darkest of it (black and white) and the red streak of blood relating to the fonts in the poster. I feel that the image creates a good convention of real media as it looks realistic for a poster.

Layout: The layout of this poster also looks appealing and I feel uses and maybe even challenges real

media with this convention. I feel that this poster looks effective, realistic and professional comparing to other previous real media products. The poster starts with text to grab out attention, followed by the image, followed by the title of the film and date and finally showing the information of the film.

Colour scheme: The colour scheme shown here in my poster is mostly dark colours (black and red) also showing

use of white on the image and other copy (text) information. I feel that my chosen colour scheme uses conventions of real media because of the colours relating to the genre horror, mostly being dark and scary colours, as you can see the red copy (text) relates to the blood on my image creating effect.

Copy/Text and font: The copy/text used in my poster is used well for a good appeal for people to be attractive to the poster

and to also promote the film ‘Darkest Night’. The fonts used develops forms of real media due too the creativity of the title and information shown at the bottom of the page, it looks appealing and works well with the image and colours on the page

Lighting: The lighting used here creates good effect onto the image by using good use of real media, the image is glow

so that you can see it well and focus on the ‘strange’ face of the boy whilst noticing the blood stain/dripping on his face. I feel that I have used a good amount of the lighting in this poster so show the parts which need to be shown the most, leaving the rest of the background dark so that the text/copy can be shown easily through its use of red and white colours. I feel that this product works very well to create good form and conventions of the real media.

Magazine Front Cover

How my magazine front cover product uses, challenges or develops forms and conventions of the real media, shown below:

Image:The image used in this magazine front over uses a lot of forms and conventions of the real media. The image shown is close up shot of a boy covered in blood, this image is shown in the middle of the page so that text/copy can be displayed around it. I feel that this image works well and represents a lot of the real media as it blends well with the background for example his hair fades into the black background.Layout:The layout used in this magazine front cover allows text to display around the image whilst still being appealing through the creative magazine masthead at the top of the page ‘Take Two’ and additional text/copy to grab the attention of the viewers at the bottom of the page and the ‘sweet spot’ which has a circle with freebies inside, this uses up the space of the sweet spot very well in order to grab the attention of the viewer quickly to this part of the page. Colour Scheme:The colour scheme shown here shows a great use of comparison to the theme of the magazine and the main film it is portraying (Darkest Night – horror genre). I feel that the colours used on the image allow great appeal to relate to the blood stain on the left and right side of the page whilst having the sweet spot circle the same colour. The used of the blue around the eyes relates well to the text/copy at the bottom of the page to make the page more interesting g rather than keeping it black red and white.Copy/Text and font:The copy used in this magazine front cover is used to appeal and grab the attention of the audience in order for them to buy the magazine. The sweet spot is used well to create a freebie to appeal the audiences even more. I feel that the fonts/text types used are created well through the boldness and variety of red and white colours to appeal with the rest of the colour schemes. I feel that these conventions add a good effect to this page.Lighting: The lighting used on this page is mainly shown through the image grabbing the appeal for these wondering what is this picture about. The lighting brightens up the image whilst mixing well with the mast head of the magazine. This in my opinion uses and develops forms and conventions in the real media to add more effect of magazine to make them seem more realistic.Mast Head: The mast head used here a great convention of real media and I feel develops well due to its use of style. The style is shown as good

alliteration in the mast head whilst having the letters shaped as film strips to relate to the fact that this magazine is for films – this edition relating to the horror genre.

Poster:

Voice over here

Magazine Front Cover:

Voice over here

Trailer:

Voice over here

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary tasks?

Conventions

There are many conventions which relate to the combination of my main task and ancillary tasks. For example the main conventions which relate to all 3 products are fonts, colour schemes, images etc. The main reason for this is because of the genre and audience of the horror genre. All products still have to relate to the same type of audience by using similar types of conventions making them the same theme and genre. Due to the different types of conventions this makes a very effective combination of the 3 products. This is effective because of similar styles and conventions being used. The use of having an effective combination of all 3 products is that they can all relate for audiences and can be noticed as a similar product because of the colours and ways conventions are displayed to promote the same film through a poster, magazine front cover and trailer. Because of these conventions I feel that they create a very effective combination for these 3 products.

Relation of main product and ancillary tasks:

Different aspects of my 3 tasks I feel that due to the similar precautions and conventions used my products work very

effectively to send the same type of message to the audiences and through the similar colour schemes, phrases and titles of the film the message is conveyed well through very effective media products. Here shows different parts of my ancillary tasks and how similar the construction methods are in comparison to my main task (teaser trailer).

As you can see here a similarity occurs when you can see the relation between two different promotion schemes using the same companies name in there advertisement showing comparison and combination between different media products.

What I have done and Why? I feel that the combination of my main product and the ancillary tasks are very

effective. They all promote my film through different formats professional and create good aspects of its genre (horror) by still relating well to its target audiences to make sure the correct effects are used to attract the viewers.

I have done a lot of things to adapt to the combination of all of these 3 products. I feel that the main aspect was the conventions used through the layout of the products making them appeal well to the viewers. They also all promote the film very well by using similar types of words and phrases to draw the audience into the text for example ‘THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE SAFE. THEY THOUGHT WRONG’ and ‘IT WILL FIND YOU’. All of these make the audience wonder why it is said and want to find out why.

I have done most things to relate to my genre and target audience but making sure that my tasks all relate together so that once seen in a combination they are all very effective to create great advertising purposes and similarly relate due to the colours and relation for its genre of horror.

Why I didn't do certain things I have tried to keep the conventions and ways I have constructed my products to a

very similar way so that they can all be seen as different promotion parts for my film in different ways but keeping them ‘scary’ to relate to my genre. Due to this I had to make sure I created them in the correct way appealing for my audiences. There are certain reasons why I didn't not construct my work in way because of various reasons.

First of all my research was helpful so that it could help me plan my work well to make sure I have constructed it well by looking at previous trailer, posters and magazine front covers. As I then had a better way of how to construct my work I was able to plan my products well and by using audience feedback I could include the most important aspects of my genre which can also relate to my target audiences well.

For example I had worked out that I wasn't going to use bright colourful colours for my poster of my horror film as it would not relate to being scary of to my genre of horror. I had to be reasonable about what to use and what not to use.

Promotion

I feel that the promotion side of my main and ancillary tasks was a good way to effectiveness of my products. I feel that the promotion side allowed the combination of my products very effective because they were all products advertising the same thing (my film). This way the promotion products were able to use the same types of aspects including the same plot, images and clips in the trailer to show images from the poster and magazine front cover on the trailer to show a good combination so that people may see something on a poster and then the again on the trailer to maybe find out more or to add suspense to the scene to make them want to find out more.

Question 3: What have you learned from audience feedback?

Questionnaire

Voice over

Questionnaire Evaluation: What have I learnt

Throughout the course of my questionnaire I had handed out to find out information about the horror genre and what my audience feels about it. The use of doing questionnaire is a good way of getting information of your choice back from a specific audience which can relate to what type of questionnaire you are evaluating. I have learnt a lot about the audience of horror films, there opinions and what they prefer from other types of horror conventions. I was able to find out a lot from the people I had asked which had allowed me to construct my data into my planning changes of my teaser trailer knowing more information form my audience of what they feel are the best aspects of my trailer to allow me to create a more professional and appealing trailer relating more towards its target genre and audience.

Graphs

What is the best aspect of a horror film?

Music/soundSettingEvil charactersTypes of filming

Voice over

Graph Evaluation: What have I learnt

The graph on the previous slide shows data from a question I had asked 10 people in a similar audience frame. The question asked them what they felt was the best aspect of a horror film. This is a useful question as the answers will allow me to find out what the majority of people feel about different aspects of the horror genre and this could help me to find out if it can relate to my trailer. The results I obtained from this data shown through my graph tells that 40% thinks music/sound is the best aspect of a horror film, 10% of people thought the setting was the best aspect of a horror film, 30% of people thought the ‘evil’ characters was the most important aspect of a horror film and finally 20% of people thought that the types of filming was the best aspect of a horror film. This data I have recorded into a graph tells me that the majority of people (40%) prefer music/sound over other aspects of a horror films, this can help me to decide on certain parts to focus on more for my trailer which in the end worked out well.

Graphs

Which edit of my magazine front cover do you feel is the best?

YesNo

Voice over

Graph Evaluation: What have I learnt

Throughout the course of editing my magazine front cover I was unable to decide which edit of my cover I should use as my final edit. I decided to ask to audience of people who like horror films ( boys and girls). The use of audience feedback through this testing technique was very good as it showed that a high majority of people (80%) preferred one edit to the other. This shows that by a high margin there was a preferred edit which I then went on to change a couple of bits to have an outcome of a final magazine front cover which hopefully relates well to a variety of audiences.

Audience feedback was very important here as it helped me to decide on a very important part of one of my media products (front cover). Without audience feedback I could have decided to pick a front cover edit which a lot of people may not have been too attracted too once compared to other edits I have created. This feedback allowed me to complete a professional magazine front cover which includes the most appropriate conventions.

Video Testing Products –Audience Feedback

Video Testing Products –Audience Feedback What have I learnt

Audience feedback was very helpful and useful through testing my final media product (teaser trailer) for ‘Darkest Night’. Once I had finished my teaser trailer I was able to get something in the target audience to watch the trailer and give me feedback of what she liked. If there was anything she didn't like she would mention so that I could go back and change to make my trailer better. Due to my audience feedback I was able to find out that this person told me good things about my trailer and had nothing she thought I should change. Audience feedback was good here as it made sure that I was on the right road of constructing my teaser trailer and making sure people were interested in it making sure not too much of the plot was given away whilst also getting feedback on the conventions I have used such as editing techniques etc. This feedback allowed me to proceed with confidence in my work knowing what someone in my target audience thought of my teaser trailer.

Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

What have I learnt?

I have also learnt a lot more from technology as I have had to use websites to edit and upgrade my images to make them look and appeal better for my final pieces and to make them looks very professional. I have used Microsoft word, paint, a website called ‘Picnik’ and the website blogger for my blog to include my work on. All of these pieces are mainly used in my work to edit my images/photographs so that I can edit them to make them seem more professional for my final ancillary tasks as a poster and magazine front cover, also helping me edit videos into a creative teaser trailer in editing software's such as ‘Power Director’.

Research and Planning - Blogger

Blogger was a very important part of my research and planning as it was my website which obtained all of my work for this project. Whilst using this

site I had learnt a lot about how to use the site and how it works. This shows a piece of technology I have used on the internet which is known

as a blog. I have learnt a lot from this for example how to use it and how to import images and text and post them so that they can be seen online.

This is good as it shows how much information is on my blog and has different tabs at the top to include certain bits of work so that it can be

divided and not confused as a different part of my work.

Research and Planning - Internet

Online websites are a very good aspect of research and planning as it allowed me to research different pieces of information through different websites on a search engine like ‘www.google.com’. This was helpful for my research so I could gain more knowledge about horror and its genre etc. This was important to me and helped me learn a lot about searching different websites and realising which sites were more important to learn from. Also Google images was a good part of the Google website to allow me to look at different posters and magazines to help my research for these ancillary tasks.

Research and Planning - Magazines

Magazines was a very useful part of my research and planning as I was able to look at different magazine to read about different horror films, realise why they are successful and look into the details of the films. Also whilst researching about horror through different magazines also allowed to me to obtain knowledge about different magazines through the layout, colours used, images etc to help my research of magazine front covers and also help me plan my own one successfully, this allowed me to learn a lot about its layout and colours used.

Aspects of research and planning (Genre)

Genre screen shots are shown here, on the left a screen shot is shown which shows the

research I have obtained in white and then my analysis of what I have found. On the right hand side I have a screen shot which shows some parts of my planning I have created for my genre, here shows the generic conventions I am planning to use for my genre of my teaser trailer.

Aspects of research and planning (Audience)

Screen shots are shown here from my audience section of my blog, on the left a screen shot is shown which shows the research I have obtained in white and then my analysis of what I have found. On the right hand side I have a screen shot which shows some parts of my planning I have created for my audience, here shows an audience profile (primary) which I am planning to use for my teaser trailer.

Construction of Trailer product – Cyber Link Power Director10

Cyber Link Power Director was a very important part of my work. By using this piece of editing software for the first time I had learnt a lot about it and also I had learnt a lot about editing different videos through a variety of transitions, video effects and inserting texts etc. This has helped me to create a more professional teaser trailer in my work, I feel that this piece of software was a very key part of my work to make sure all aspects of my work were created well relating my target audience and genre. This was one of the most useful parts of the construction of my trailer as it allowed me to do so much

from editing videos to producing a final copy which created a smooth video trailer.

Construction of Trailer product – Voice recorder

Using a voice recorder was a very interesting aspect of the construction of my trailer. I feel that it helped to add a realistic concept to the trailer to make people think these are real life situation. I used a voice recorder in my trailer of a girls voice saying ‘help me, help me, please’ and then screams. This worked well as I learnt it could be constructed in certain ways to fit in with the timing of the music/sounds and videos in the trailer to make sure it is all added in the correct time space. I learnt by using a voice recorder it can be used in a variety of places for a variety of reasons. I have also used a voice recorder in this presentation for my evaluation to add a voice over so a voice can explain certain parts of my evaluation. The voice recorder was a very effective part of my construction for my trailer and evaluation.

Construction of Trailer product – Phone Camera/Video Cameras

I used video cameras throughout the production of my filming for my teaser trailer. This was by far one of the most important parts of my construction and helped me to learn how to use cameras through different angles and creative shots. Shown in my blog different camera angles and shots are visible to show which types of shots and angles I have considered when filming different clips. Phone cameras was also used for this but mainly for taking pictures for different aspects of my project.

Construction of Trailer product – YouTube to upload Trailer

Other types of technology was used such as the website ‘YouTube’. I needed this website in order to upload to a public site so that anyone can go and see/watch it so that I can get positive feedback or to record the amount of hits I was receiving on the video to see how popular it was getting. Throughout the construction of my trailer I had learnt a lot about how to produce and upload my trailer into a site which allows anyone to see it, this was useful so that the trailer can be put forward in one of its main advertising places. I have also learnt a great deal on promoting my trailer and how this piece of technology can help me in the future for constructing and getting audience feedback for other videos.

Construction of Poster and Magazine Front Cover - Picnik

I have learnt a lot from this internet website ‘www.picnik.com’, website, it allows you to upload photos in order to edit them in size, contrast, brightness, add text, crop, rotate and many more offers for your photos. I never used this website before so I have learnt a lot about editing websites and generally editing photos due to my media coursework. Through picnik I edited nearly all of my photos in order to create a better appeal for my images so that it suits better for my genre and audience. This was the main reason for editing my images and works well as I mostly changed the brightness and contrast in my photos so they seemed more darker or lighter depending of the colours and images on the page.

Construction of Poster and Magazine Front Cover – Microsoft Word

This is a screen shot I have taken of me using Microsoft Word which is a piece of software used to insert pictures and text to and to edit them to make them different if you want to. This is also good as Microsoft Word can also be used to edit photos in brightness, contrast, colours, and edit background of images. This is good as it helped me edit my images to make them look more professional and to suit better with my type of genre for my magazine to suit for its audience and colour scheme. I did not know how to use this before my course of media project and so I have learnt a lot from Microsoft word when it comes to editing images.

Construction of Poster and Magazine Front Cover - Paint

I learnt a lot from paint and found out it was very useful as I can add and edit as many photos as I like on it and I can use paint to crop, resize, rotate, and add text to my images. Paint is also useful as it has helped me to learn how to print screen and edit the screen shots into paint so I can crop the shots to show examples of my work in my blog and this evaluation presentation. Paint has also helped me to insert transparent text so that I can add text into a background and the text lays on top of the image and blends with the background.

Construction of Poster and Magazine Front Cover – ‘Dafont’

Dafont is a website used to create different styles of font for a specific

need, I researched into this and found certain types of fonts I liked to use for the construction of my poster and magazine front cover so that I can appeal my genre of horror. I found a variety of fonts and tested them to decide which ones to use. I found this very important to create a professional aspect of a poster and front cover. I learnt a lot from this website as it meant for me to choose wisely about which types of fonts to pick to have as a mast head etc to make sure it suits well. I learnt a lot about fonts in through this website to construct an effective poster and magazine front cover to suit the specific needs.