Friday, 8 February 2013

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.

Sunday, 13 January 2013

Class opinion on my finished trailer


After finishing my trailer, in class we showed our trailers to everyone in the class and everyone had to write down three stars and 1 wish. 
Here is what my class wrote...

Stars 
  • Liked the camera angles I used especially when they look in on the expressions x7
  • Liked how the music fits with genre x7
  • Good voiceovers x5
  • Nice use of first person shot 
  • Good use of camera shot inside the cupboard x2
  • Nice storyline which is on point of genre x2
  • Acting was done well 
  • Great transitions 
  • Love the change in romance to drama in trailer 
  • Nice clear shots 
  • Good colour scheme 
  • Good use of humour i.e. batman reference x2
  • Good use of sound quality 
Wishes
  • Billing card is hard to read, change font x2
  • Could include more camera angles 
  • Make the font more creative x2
  • Could've used the real billing card at the start
  • Have different range of music 
Overall I am happy with the response I got with my trailer from my class. 
The wishes are great which I can act upon and see what people think really of my trailer. 

The billing card, I created my own billing card because of two reason. Firstly I couldn't find a clear enough version to use in my trailer so then I decided to create my own so that I am not copying anyone and that my trailer makes it more unique as I have created my own and inserted my own information within which makes the audience read the information rather than the ideology of skim reading as it is the same information as every single trailer. So therefore I haven't used the real one. 

Onto the point where the billing card is hard to read, I used the clearest font I could find. Only 2 people in my class stated that point so therefore I showed 5 of my other friends who viewed my trailer whether it was readable and they said it was so therefore no change made. 

The other point was to use more camera angles. I used a range of camera angles which fits with my genre from over the shoulder to first person. I understand where the person who wrote the wish was coming from. As this was my first finished product of camera work. I do feel I could have used a range of camera shots. However for me to add more  shots would completely throw the whole narrative, as I have set it the narrative out in the trailer. 

The next point made was to make the font more creative. On the creation of my promotional poster and magazine cover and trailer I went through a variety of fonts to use on my trailer. Some font weren't readable whereas the final font was. Again I asked all of my friends/ family and teachers if the font was readable, they all said it was.

The last point was to use a range of different music in the trailer. I counter this point as thorough research of romance drama trailers, they tend to use only 2 different scores. As I am doing a hybrid genre, I thought two types of scores can be used to show the different genre points in the trailer. As we had to use no copyrighted scores, it was very difficult to find a score which fits the scenes as well as the genre. OCR provided some scores, which after thorough editing, I discovered two scores which fits with the genre. Also 7 people did like the music I used so therefore I am proud of the music I used. 

Below is the little pieces of paper where we wrote our stars and wishes.




Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Finished Magazine Cover

This is my finished magazine cover
Overall I am proud of my product, I liked how the picture is above the Empire sign which is normally used in magazine covers. Also it looks professional than previous covers I've done.
I used red because Empire usually used red and that's the only color which fits both the genre romance drama as it can connotate love and blood in the same category. Also red is used on Empire magazines which ticks two boxes. The blue I have used because black font colour has negative connotations which makes blue the next colour I can use which can connotate to calmness and soothing.
I chose a white background because it makes it look professional and white is the same synergy used in the promotional poster and trailer.



































After having a look at my magazine cover and showing my teacher. He suggested to change the font to make it look more professional.
So I changed the fontto Beatnik SF and shrunk the sizes to fit. Here is my final magazine cover.

Monday, 17 December 2012

Making My Magazine Cover

Here I have created on a word document a documentation of making my magazine cover on Photoshop.







Finished Promotional Poster

This is my finished promotional poster, I used Photoshop to create this poster. I personally am proud of my project because I have used synergy throughout this poster and the trailer. The colours are soft which are meant to be used on a romance drama film. The actors did really well in the photo shoot and remained in character whilst pictures were taken.





Friday, 26 October 2012

Evaluation of My Trailer

This is my blog post where I can evaluate my trailer.

Main intentions
Firstly my main intentions of my trailer was to attract a huge number of my target audience which are females, mostly couples and teen girls.

Showing my genre through the trailer. 
My genre is romance drama and after looking at many trailers and watching the films, I got a sense of the genre. With the shocking moments in the story line which normally defines a romance drama for example when someone has a terminal illness, they are doing something they don't want. Normally it is leaving the girl which in my case is part of the narrative.
 Also referring back to my codes and convention blog, I have also shown my genre through the non digetic score which reflects the feelings/ moods in the scenes.
Also as stated on the codes and convention blog, it is a convention that fades and cuts are used. I have used in the sad and information scenes, for example where my main character Aaron has started to cough blood. Also in previous romance drama trailers, at the very end of the trailer we see the characters name and face where they are smiling, I have conducted that myself in my trailer, which shows the genre off.
I have used Todrov's theory to structure my narrative. I have started with the equilibrium where I have my starting scene where my character are on a dinner date.
Then I created the disruption and recognition of where Aaron starts coughing blood and feels uneasy. Also the two shot where his best friend tells him to let go.
Then the repair was all the quick shots of him doing negative things like drinking, and having the medication.
I added my own piece to the theory which was quick cuts of the love, which I have spread from the start to the end.
Lastly ending it with a few shots of the problem and love, which I have done at the end of my trailer.

Other peoples opinion on my trailer
I have shown many people my trailer, mostly my target audience and have written down what they thought of it.
Natasha- Overall the trailer was put together real nice and flowed very well and understood the narrative. Also the shots that I used was good and were different which was good. Especially the shot in the cupboard where the main character is reaching for his medication. The transition shot was good. Also the shot where the main guy point of view shot was used when he was coughing blood.
To improve on, Try use capital letters for you questions in your trailer.
I tried the improvement and it just didn't fit. To justify I had capital letters for each starting word and left the rest lower case. The reason I have done this is because it gives the words a soft appeal to them and its not like the words are shouting to my audience when they read it. I wanted my trailer to have a gentle approach.
Maira- She thought that the whole trailer fit with the music, it flowed very well, it attracted her from the start and overall she staed, 'if the film was made, she would watch it.'
Mrs Jenkins( Media Teacher)- Overall she liked the trailer, she liked the variety of shots I used including the medication scene transition. Also the lighting in the first scene which allows the mood and sense of togetherness between the couple. However to improve on, she stated that there was a jumpy shot where my main character laughs at the end of the starting scene. I deleted that scene and re arranged the shot and it looked more better and seemed to flow editing wise better.
Shweta- Overall she liked the trailer and liked how it flowed and the narrative made sense. She liked the colour scheme I used- White and pink. Also she also liked the lighting throughout the scenes and the colours that the actors were wearing.It fitted with the mood of the scenes and the whole trailer.
Saira- Overall she liked the trailer, she liked how the voiceovers fit with the music with the emotions, also she likes how the trailer interwines with the shots.
Krishna- Overall he liked the trailer, he thought it flowed very well, he liked how the music corresponded and the final voiceover I choose was better than the other one.

My own opinion on my trailer.
Overall I thought it was a good trailer, I understood the narrative however that would be very biased of me to say as I know the narrative inside out. It flows the way I wanted it to. At the start of using Windows Live Movie Maker I was doubtful in editing my footage in the programme due to the lack of other effects I could've done. I thought that my trailer wont look professional enough... I was proven wrong.
Windows Live Movie Maker has done a great job and in fact the fancy effects weren't needed in a trailer as you just needs basic fades and cuts and simple transitions. Onto the simple shots and  the ease of editing, it did establish the characters and location the way I wanted to. I am thankful to my actors who have I have moaned constantly on getting the filming done and they have done a tremendous job on acting in very awkward situations.
However one thing I wish I can improve on  is that I wish I could have done more happy vs sad shots. It seemed my trailer started with all the happy shots and ended in sad shots which wasn't the way I wanted it to end with. However with the slow motion hug at the end I hope that has recovered that issue.


Thursday, 25 October 2012

Finished Trailer

Here is my final trailer, I have worked very hard on this and trying to make it a good and understandable trailer. I have created two trailers which haven two different voice overs. One trailer's voice over is my main actor James voice and the other is mine. I am overall presenting my final trailer as James Voice over however I thought I should present my other trailer too.

Trailer#1

Trailer#2