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

Blogger:

Blogger was very important for this as it was what was used to show my coursework. The site itself is very easy to use and was a very good way to set your work out clearly. I have used Blogger previously so using it wasn’t difficult however this time I did learn how to embed Slidshare presentations I produced onto the blog as well as linking videos from YouTube such as my trailer onto my blog so it was all in one place and easy for my teacher and my peers to see when I required feedback.

Google Chrome:

This was my platform for all types of research ranging from magazines to music for the trailer. I'm very familiar with Chrome which made it easy to navigate around and most of the time easy to find the thing I was trying to research.

Adobe Photoshop CS6:

Having worked with Photoshop for a good two years now I was very familiar when using it to construct my magazine cover and film poster. It was easy to apply the effects and processes I required and saving a PSD file meant I could come back to the task and make changes after gaining feedback. Also having the ability to work in layers meant constructing the poster and cover were easy and tidy causing no problems.

   

Sony Vegas:

Sony Vegas was the choice of video editing software my group chose. Having used it a lot before editing the video wasn't to difficult, however I did broaden my knowledge and learnt new things such as slowing down clips as well as setting markers down where the music changed beat which helped when syncing clips.

Canon 1100D

This is the camera which was used for the whole trailer an being a Photography student and using this was very easy when it came to filming as well as the ease of transferring the videos on to the laptop to edit. 

YouTube:

YouTube was very good as it was our key place to look into existing trailers to gain inspiration from as well as looking into music which we could use for our trailer. It was very helpful looking at suggested videos at the side which were similar in sound or in terms of trailers genre.

Overall having explored a wide range of technology it has been very beneficial looking into these as it has improved my skills as a whole but also familiarity with existing technology

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback

Feedback for this whole project was very helpful and a key element to producing a successful piece. The feedback consisted of positive and negative feedback which was very helpful as it told me what they as a viewer liked about it but also what they didn’t like about it and could change. When they would give negative feedback it gave me an opportunity to improve the task and make it more successful. Also it would possibly open up ideas which I would maybe would have not used before hand and completely ignored. The feedback itself was very helpful in terms of improving quality of the products for example my groups final trailer had a more professional feel to it as this was improved by gaining feedback from my teacher as well as class members.

Ways Of Gaining Feedback

The first part of feedback we got was from our peers and was after we had shown them our film pitch. Initially we did have ideas to do questionnaire but we felt it would be easier and more beneficial to us to film them and ask questions. This was very helpful as we could easily watch the video back. I also would show drafts of my poster and magazine cover to people in the class and ask them what was good about it and what was maybe not so good about it this was helpful as it meant I could improve the product as a whole as these would be the people seeing them. Asking people from my class was very ideal as they had knowledge of existing products and were able to provide suggestions. I also used Facebook to ask for feedback when not in school which was very helpful and meant I could send links to my work for them to look at and give me feedback which I then could look at and make changes to my tasks

Question 2: How Effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Overall I think that my film trailer shows a very good link between the other ancillary texts (Cover & Poster). Looking into existing films it is very clear they do this and it results in a very professional and successful looking products. It is very common that a film will use similar images and fonts to attract audiences. If they were to change them it would make it difficult to the audience to remember a film after all they are trying to attract an audience and make them remember the film.

Fonts

It is clear to see that in the trailer I have used a font called Bank Gothic which fitted in very nicely with the genre of our film. I first used the font for the trailer and after doing so felt to show a clear connection I would also use it on the film poster. The reasons for doing so are that the font itself is easy to read and bold which makes it stand out. The only really change to it within the film poster are that I have changed some of it to black instead of white like in the trailer. However I didn’t use the font on the Little White Lies cover as it didn’t really fit in with Little White Lies style as they tend to use more of a stylised font which I felt this font didn’t have.

Images

Its very clear that one of the main characters Jason Dyer features on all of the tasks which is very important when marketing your film. The images on both the magazine and the poster are very clear and are easy to recognise that it is Jason Dyer. The magazine cover itself features the iconic jacket which Dyer wears throughout the film trailer. This would be much like the film Drive as Ryan Goslings character was well known for the jacket he wore throughout the film as well as on the film poster.

Endorsements and Accreditation

In terms of endorsements and accreditation the clear link here is between the trailer and the film poster. Mid-way through the trailer it features our made up production company Anarchy Production which is also featured on the film poster. At the end of the trailer there is a small billing block which features company accreditation which is also featured at the bottom of the billing block on the film poster. We also see on the trailer actor endorsements saying Academy Award Winning which again is also included at the top of the film poster.

One final clear link would be between a piece of the dialog and the main image on the film poster which. In the trailer there is a piece of dialog which sais “The worlds a dangerous place to live in you’ve got to be constantly looking over your shoulder” which part (you’ve got to be constantly looking over your shoulder) has been used as the tagline for the poster. This also ties in closely with the main image as Dyer is slightly looking over his shoulder.

Overall I feel that all the tasks I have produce tie in closely and work well showing consistency within the fonts, endorsements and accreditation's.

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

I produced the first question using slideshare

Final Work For Dyers List

Film Trailer

Film Poster

Magazine Cover

Final Film Trailer

This is my groups final trailer, the trailer now is much shorter than before which fits in more with the genre, previously being 2:30 it is approximately 1:45. We have also changed the soundtrack rather than using one song we now have two songs which both fit well and work well with the trailer. There has also been more sound effects added to make it seem more professional as well as more realistic.

Final Film Poster

The feedback really helped me in improving my poster. I made changes such as making the credits text stand out more as well as the Coming Soon stand out. I also added some motion blur to the film title, strapline and actors. As well as that I also added in a tagline which I felt the poster needed. Overall I am very happy with the outcome of the poster as I feel it fits in well with our trailer.