Heworth Grange Comprehensive School

A2 MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION

TEXT VERSION

Shaun Liddle

2012

This is the text version of my A2 Media Studies Evaluation. You will also find different multi-media approaches I have taken to post my evaluation if you’re not much of an essay reader!

SHAUN LIDDLE

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

When planning my media product, I made sure I properly analysed many different horror trailers to

get different ideas to use on my project. By doing this I have used many different conventions in my

horror trailer which are included in these trailers. As well as using some of these horror conventions,

I have also broken some horror conventions. In my horror trailer the killer is a female, this isn’t

usually the typical case with horror trailers as men are usually the killers because of strong and

dominant connotations, this results in my horror trailer breaking typical horror conventions.

I have also broken horror conventions as I decided to use normal teenage costumes, rather than

using typical dark, horror style costumes. This however still relates to the audience as the target

audience are mainly teenagers. This also gives a sense of unexpectedness as the killer is not exactly

highlighted throughout the start of my horror trailer.

My project however also uses typical horror conventions as it relates to Roland Barthe’s theory.

Codes such as connotation, denotation and action are used. Representation of the genre is repeatedly

highlighted throughout my horror trailer, for example, costume and make-up such as blood and

locations such as abandoned buildings are denoted within my horror trailer, which connotes the

genre of horror. This supports Barthe’s theory of symbolic and semic codes.

Throughout my media product I manage to apply Todorov’s narrative structure theory to my work,

(equilibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair disruption and new

equilibrium), however his theory is also to a certain degree challenged. For example, my trailer

involves the step of disruption twice, as disruption occurs when the character is drugged and

accidentally killed and disruption also occurs when the character comes back for her revenge. This

shows I have challenged typical horror conventions when producing my horror trailer.

Vladimir Propp’s theory is somewhat of use; however this is also challenged as all of the character

types are not included. For example, Propp says they are generally different types of characters

within films such as, the hero, the villain, the helper, the donor and the princess. My horror trailer

manages to challenge Propp’s theory as only one of these stereotypical characters is used. With my

trailer having the genre of horror it is evident that the villain (the killer) will be included within my

horror trailer. As a result this manages to challenge typical horror conventions.

SHAUN LIDDLE

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?

When producing my ancillary task I had to take into consider what my trailer would eventually look

like in order for them to compare with each other. Because of this I had to make sure the make-up,

costume and location looked exactly the same as it would in my horror trailer. Both of the tasks

represent the horror genre therefore it is clear to understand what the genre is.

In reality, horror posters would be released before films therefore my ancillary task needs to be a

device in which promotes my horror trailer. In order for my ancillary task to do this I made sure that

it would compare with my eventual horror movie. It is vital that my horror movie is promoted to the

target audience, therefore aspects of my tasks such as posters, magazine covers and the actual horror

trailer play an extremely important part within my coursework production.

As well as relating to my moving image piece I feel my film magazine and horror poster both relate

to each other. The title of the film is displayed throughout each of these tasks highlighting the

continuity in my project. Many of the camera angles used in my horror trailer compare to some of

the camera angles used within my ancillary tasks. For example, close up shots are used to connote

emotion in my horror trailer and ancillary task. This represents continuity throughout all of my

tasks, therefore combines my ancillary task with my moving image task.

SHAUN LIDDLE

What have you learned from audience feedback?

In the construction of my media product I had to highly consider my audience as they play a

massive part with my final piece. In order to do this I have made sure I involve my audience with

my production. For example, I produced questionnaires for both my ancillary task and my moving

image task. This managed to help me a great deal as the results I collected allowed me to improve

my work as well as allowing me to get the audiences opinions on my work.

When producing questionnaires I decided to make a closed questionnaire and an open questionnaire.

I produced the closed questionnaires to gather yes or no answers of questions I thought where

necessary to aim at my target audience. The closed questionnaires allowed me to gather closed

information, whereas the open questionnaires allowed me to gather a range of opinions from my

target audience which are people aged from 15-30. After collecting the results I decided to change

many different aspects of my ancillary task and my moving image task in order to suit the

audience’s opinion. After all, the target audience will ideologically be the people going to view my

horror movie in the cinema and who will also be buying my film magazine in shops.

When gathering audience’s opinions in my horror trailer I was able to air my production to the A2

Media Studies class and also a number of GCSE students and teachers. After airing my horror trailer

I made sure the audience completed one of my questionnaires. This helped me to get opinions on

which the mixed audience had of my horror trailer and ancillary task. For example, negative aspects

where highlighted such as too much text on my magazine front cover, and problems with lengthy

scenes within my horror trailer. As the audience disliked these points, I had the chance to change

my products to suit their needs.

As well as highlighting negative points when completing questionnaires, the audience also

highlighted some positive aspects within my work. As most of the opinions on my horror trailer

were positive there was very little we had to change. From this I have learned that audience

feedback plays a massive part within the construction of my A2 coursework.

SHAUN LIDDLE

How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and

evaluation stages?

Throughout A2 Media Studies I have used a number of technological programmes to produce my

coursework. When producing my ancillary task I used the programme ‘Adobe Photoshop’. I

experienced no difficulty when using this programme, as I have current experience from GCSE and

AS Level coursework. Even though I have previous experience when using Adobe Photoshop I still

managed to learn about many different aspects of the programme. For example, this year I edited the

lighting on the photography to suit the horror genre. This is something I haven’t done in previous

years, therefore I have learned a lot from this.

I have continued to use ‘BlogSpot’ in A2 Media Studies which allows me to display my work using

different types of media, rather than simply writing a long essay. When using ‘BlogSpot’ I very

regularly use the programme ‘SlideShare’. This allows me to display my work using PowerPoint

slides, therefore gives the audience a more pleasurable experience when looking at my work. As

well as using all of these types of technology to display my work, ‘BlogSpot’ gives me the

opportunity to display my work to the world, rather than only to teachers, fellow students and

examiners. BlogSpot and SlideShare can all be used in the construction, research, planning and

evaluation stages of my A2 coursework.

In the construction of my horror trailer I had to adjust to the new experience of using a moving

image camera. At the start of the year I had the chance to film a short chase scene for practice. I feel

this helped me a great deal when eventually using the moving image cameras as it gave me the

chance to demonstrate certain camera angles to suit the genre and when becoming to start filming

my horror trailer, I then knew how to use the cameras correctly for my coursework.

When eventually editing my filming, I used the programme ‘iMovie’. As I have never used this

programme before, I found the task challenging as I had to adjust to the different tools in which I

needed to properly edit my filming in order for my trailer to look presentable in terms of ideology.

Tools such as clipping, cropping, text clips and colour helped me to edit my horror trailer in order

for it to look professional to the target audience.

SHAUN LIDDLE

For my soundtrack I had to edit my song with Audacity to make it fit in with the moving image

piece, this allowed me to gain skills using this programme as I haven’t used this much before. I feel

over the year of A2 Media Studies I have gained many new skills when using digital technology.