Evaluation

Evaluation

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

In the production part of my coursework I have developed and challenged real media products. My media products are a trailer, magazine cover and a promotional poster and the genre was a romance drama.

Beginning with the trailer ‘Moments’, for planning I have developed the idea of happy scenes verses sad scenes within in a trailer. As I have looked at many other romance drama trailers like ‘The Vow’ and ‘Dear John’ There were conventions that all romance dramas had these opposition scenes. In moments I had my leading actor create scenes which fits the romance mood for example slow dancing then followed by crying scenes. This was effective because it showed my genre throughout my trailer, which is how I wanted my trailer to come across to the audience.

Another convention which I have developed was how the trailers always starts off with a high point  which is supposed to show the audience the romance side then slowly changes into drama which shows the dramatic side of the genre. As I looked at a real media product for example ‘The Vow’ which starts off with Rachael McAdams and Channing Tatum’s marriage ceremony. I started my trailer off with a intimate dinner date where James King my male leading actor breaks the ice with a joke about James character being Batman. As I have seen in many romance drama trailer jokes used to break the ice between characters as well as show how their love is fun. The romance at the beginning is supposed to establish the genre straight from the beginning as it attracts my target audiences who mainly will be females to be interested in my trailer from the start. I feel the one liner was very effective as it made everyone I showed chuckle for example my class when I showed.  The romance scenes at the beginning were effective as it set the scenes for the trailer and to happily bind the narrative for the audience.

Having a drama moment in the trailer is also important in the conventions in a romance drama trailer. As seen in Dear John one of the real media products I used to draw conventions from, I found out that the dramatic moment in the trailer really sets out the narrative. In many other romance trailers I have seen happiness at the beginning where nothing is wrong in the couple’s life then at one point drama comes through to the genre. This is very important to the audiences to know that this is a romance drama genre trailer. ‘Dear John’ has Channing Tatum leaving for the army. This point in the trailer showed the problems arising in the film. In my trailer I had my male actor starting to become ill, with shots of coughing blood and panting point of view shots. It was vital to have shown my audiences the barrier between both genre’s as I am doing a hybrid genre. This was very effective as it showed physical proof of drama arising in the narrative. I used Todrov’s theory to help me figure out there needs to be a disruption for the audience to understand the drama part of my trailer.

Then onto the promotional poster, I also looked at real media products which helped me develop my promotional poster. The promotional poster ‘P.S I Love You’, I drew out conventions that a promotional poster need. I drew out that a promotional poster needs to show intimacy between the characters through proxemics. As Gerald Butlers and Hilary Swank characters are lying down their proxemics is close which portrays the message that the characters are close which connotates love. Also on the ‘Dear John’ promotional poster, it shows Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum together sitting on the beach where their proxemics is close too. This is where I developed the idea of my two characters back to back which shows their intimacy and Alisha the female lead looking up at James which shows she’s in love, however I challenged the idea with James looking away from her and having his eyes down. I wanted that to portray the hybrid genre on the promotional poster and to let my audience know this is a full on romance drama film. I think it was effective to show the romance between both characters. However it would’ve been more effective if I had both my characters kiss as in a cheek kiss which comes across as sweet love to my audience. As both my friends were helping me in my coursework, it would’ve been awkward so overall I am pleased with my final product.

I also noted down that the colours used on promotional posters are important. So I developed the idea from real media products like ‘The Vow’ where the colours used was pink, and white which connotates love, romances and innocent love. Also the white connotates fairy-tale like love which is what teen females are stereotyped to want in love Also it connotates heaven like love.  Then I developed the idea of using pink and white and grey in my trailer. The grey I used was only used because the pink font of the institution wasn’t readable so therefore grey was used. As black has negative connotation, I chose light grey instead. Also the pink and white has the best connotations for my romance in my trailer and promotional poster. Another point for using grey and pink was that as my trailers genre is a romance drama, I wanted my colours to show the genre too. The pink was for the romance part and the grey was for the drama side. With the magazine I used the colour dark blue and red which was used to connotate romance with the red and a bit of drama too. The dark blue was only used because I didn’t want to use black as it has negative connotations. I feel that my promotional poster was effective as it came across as a romance drama film and had its soft connotations to it. However overall I don’t think my magazine cover wasn’t effective as it didn’t look professional enough. The red and blue look too bold. Generally on a magazine cover the colours are supposed to flow together whereas I think mine don’t. If I was to improve my work I would have a look at different colours which work together on a page.

The magazine cover was the hardest as they aren’t directly for genre films, so therefore I used the conventions of a normal magazine cover where I adapted it for my romance drama trailer. I looked at other magazines to see the conventions which were used like titles, sub heading and puffs.  I made my own decision with having no pictures on the front of the magazine cover due to editing issues which made the pictures look out of place, so therefore I only placed font and no pictures. I thought it was more effective as it made the stories stand out and make my readers read each of the insider stories. However I could’ve improved it with an outline for all the insider stories surrounding the main image which allows pictures to be inserts so that they don’t look odd.

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

All my products have an effective combination of synergy which is the main point of my coursework.

My trailer and promotional poster have synergy of the colour scheme which shows the throughout my genre, each product with the colours pink and white due to its connotations such as fairy tale like, young love with the pink. The hegemony of heaven is where good people go and that’s where love is set there forever. It was effective at the end of my process because colour is very important to a trailer and promotional poster which establishes the genre and from audience feedback they automatically think of a romance drama film.

Also the photos and the acting also represent synergy as they are a part of the synergy. Romance and drama shown on the promotional poster and in the trailer also shows synergy with happy scenes and dramatic scenes. This was effective as its proof of my genre back to back in a scene also it shows the narrative of my trailer very well.

At the end of the trailer, there’s institution information shown on the trailer which has the same font , font size and colour as the one used on the promotional poster. This creates synergy to show that both of these media products are connected with the font. This was effective because it showed the links between both products.

Also the institutions used are very well known institutions which allow the audience to understand that this is a good film backed up by the trustworthy ‘Universal Studios’. ‘Sony’ was used in the ‘The Vow’ promotional poster. I felt that as Sony is a trustworthy brand and the positive point is that ‘The Vow’ used it too on their trailer and promotional poster, I had to use it on mine so that the audience can recognise it from other romance drama promotional posters.

The inspiration of the Facebook and Twitter address at the end of my trailer and on my promotional poster was from ‘The Vow’, as most of the audiences will find information from democratic social sites like Facebook and Twitter. This was effective as it gave my trailer the current trend as mentioned before most of the audience members check information online and want the current and new information for the film.

Onto all three media products which are the magazine cover, promotional poster and trailer, all three have effective synergy with the actors used. As both Alisha and James are the main focuses of my products. As the trailer is about them, the promotional poster has a picture of them and the magazine has the fun element of their relationship. I feel that you can establish a great combination between all three products due to the main image and the focus on the characters. As the magazine cover is the fun element where both characters are back to back, this is supposed to show the fun element in romance. In comparison to the promotional poster and trailer, this is where romance and drama is shown to attract the target audiences to the main promotion.  This was effective as they are the key to my project which identifies the synergy with my products.

On the magazine cover and promotional poster, the use of colours worn by the characters was chosen purposely. Alisha wearing pink was to show how their love is still a young love and it hasn’t reached that point where romance has matured together. James in white was to show how innocent their love is. The pink tie is also used to show how their love is mixed with the young love and innocent love. In the trailer the colours used were for a reason. In the production of planning, I made sure in each happy scene no dark colours were used and in the drama scenes only dark colours were used to portray the mood and feeling of the trailer. I feel this was effective as the clothes worn by the characters are a projection of the mood of the scene and the mise-en –scene of the props is vital so therefore I feel the purpose planning of coloured clothes was effective.

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

At the beginning of the research stages, as a class we used Blogspot.com which is the blog site where we displayed all of our findings on the blog which we created ourselves. My own address was www.poojadholakiamedia.blogspot.com where we updated everything we did, for example notes in class we made about our product. Also I looked on You Tube and IMDB.com for romance drama films to figure out the conventions. Researching using Google and IMDB to find romance drama promotional poster and used Google to find examples of empires magazine covers.  This was useful as I looked at previous successful romance drama media products as it gave me an outline to work too.

I even went to the extend to time watching many romance drama films to help me figure out a great narrative. I watched A Walk To Remember, The Vow, Dear John, The Notebook, P.S I Love You. Then some Rom Com like Think Like A Man and A Little Bit Of Heaven. Although all these were in my leisure, I felt that I was researching and experimenting different narratives. As I went on the quote from The Vow- ‘How can you look at the girl you love and tell yourself it’s time to walk away’. I based my whole narrative on that quote. I felt watching all the films gave me an effective narrative as it was heart-breaking as well as romantic.

For the planning, as shown on my blog, I conducted storyboards which contained what the scenes will be like, what props will be used and what lines. I also created a mise-en-scene list which contained props, lighting, and setting for what will be used in my trailer. I posted all this information on my BlogSpot address for my coursework.  Also I hosted interviews with my target audiences which I conducted using my video camera, also hosted focus groups with some of my friends who are my target audience and conducted questionnaires which again for my target audience.

For the evaluations I also used BlogSpot to show what my class mates said about my trailer where my teacher screened out trailers for peer assessment on our trailers. We each wrote down stars and wishes for the trailers and then wrote an entry for the blog to show what their response was and how we responded to it.

I also posted a blog on self-evaluation where I wrote all my thoughts about my trailer and what I thought I could improve on. I posted another blog where I wrote down all my issues with filming which narrows down what I needed to do and what had problems.

     What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
 

Audience feedback is very important in my media projects as it shows that I have met or not met my audience’s feedback. I began with creating a questionnaire which gave me primary research on my target audiences. I created 10 and gave them out to friends which were my target audience of females. Alongside I offered my questionnaires to males as a challenge to see whether I could attract them as a target audience. 10 questionnaires gave me a wider knowledge of what females want to see in my media product. In my blog I analysed my information gathered from my target audience. I learnt that many factors which were requirements, for example the importance of colour of soft colours like pink and white and the setting of the scenes in my trailer. As I analysed my information it made it easier for me to plan my scenes and magazines and promotional poster out. I made use of the colour scheme and the main picture being the main love interest. I think it was successful as it gave me an idea of what scenes and colours to use as it came straight from my target audience. Overall the questionnaire was helpful, however as outlined in my blog, the questionnaire was biased as I asked mostly females and less males which can be a reason to why many single males weren’t attracted to my media products.

Also interviewers were conducted, I conducted four interviews which are all on my blog. Interviews allowed me to elaborate points made from my target audiences. As I interviewed a couple, two females and then one male, it allowed me to know what they expect from my media products. As the interviews were in depth I felt that I could gain important information such as having bright colours and having enigma codes as its vital for my media products to have the audience input. Also I wanted to see my target audience recognise my trailer for what genre it is, which I feel it does follow the conventions which I think have conducted and done to the standards of my target audience.

I also conducted a focus group with a group of friends to ask questions about what factors should be seen in my promotional poster. I created a video of my focus group which is posted on my blog which includes the feedback. As my focus group was mixed, I got a feel of what they were looking for i.e. what fonts to use and what images should be used in my romance drama promotional poster. I got great feedback with a range of answers and opinions and views on settings of bright coloured backgrounds and having the main image of the main couple. I analysed this information and used it to my advantage which is why overall my promotional poster followed the conventions set.

When my trailer was complete, my media teacher showed them in class for peer assessment with my class. I got a range of feedback which I posted on my blog such as, good use of soundtrack, good use of colours and good acting. However I have had criticism with the use of creating my own billing card. However to justify why I created my own was because I wanted it to make it my own work and I didn’t want to copy another one and I wanted to prove that this would make my work look more professional as I created myself. Also another criticism was to use a range of music in my trailer. I was advised by a few to use a range however I didn’t use a ranges as I was following codes and conventions of a romance drama trailer. As I am doing a hybrid genre, I only used two scores to fit with the scenes, so therefore I didn’t follow the advice of some of my peers. Another reason as to why I didn’t change was because  the advice wasn’t from my target audience, so overall I didn’t want to change anything which doesn’t appeal to my target audience.

Lastly I showed my media teacher my finished trailer, it was very helpful to get great feedback on what was done well i.e. good use of camera angles and colours. Also my teacher gave me a change to conduct, which was in a scene where one part of the dinner shot was a jumpy shot. I put that shot of James laughing to inform the audience that they are laughing which is a key factor in a couples romance and first date. However I understood why my teacher pointed the shot. As she was a target audience I felt that it was a necessary change so therefore I cut the shot out as they were holding hands. Overall I feel it was a successful cut as it gave the aspect of innocent and cute love of both characters holding hands.