evaluation

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 My film trailer use conventions of real media products in the way that when looking at other film trailers of many genres, I have taken ideas and points from them to form the basic structure of the trailer. Also when looking at camera angles and shots used in existing media products, I have recreated them using my camera and then used them in the same context in my trailer. From the More Than a Game trailer I took the idea to do interviews with the players and use snippets in my film trailer, I also got the idea to introduce each player and have something said about them, this is good as it gives us a small introduction about the player and shows us what sort of person they are, this helps people relate to them now and make them feel like they know this person. It also enforces the idea of a brotherhood and unity as a team while giving each player an identity. I needed an opening shot for my trailer something just as an introduction, so I took ideas and from the more than a game trailer I decided to go out to locations in Poole and get some establishing shots of around the town, I shot this at different angles and zooms, I also added motion and would pan the camera round and up and down. Because this is a documentary film trailer I didn't want to have a set up shot with actors so I just turned up at a time I knew it was quiet and when the weather was good. I did this because I would believe that it would add spontaneity to the trailer, also it put me in the moment and I didn't know fully what to expect. I had the rough ideas of the locations, but when wandering around I am observing myself and looking for what I feel was right at that moment. That is the whole point of me choosing to do a documentary film trailer. That I have little control of what the final product will feature, I can only set up the camera at different angles and positions and then observe and the footage I get is the footage I get. But that is also a good thing as I have gathered so much footage, I have a lot to work with. And the editing of the video is the where I have most control to alter and edit to achieve the final product I envisioned. When looking back at the footage I gathered for my basketball trailer, I saw all the shots were long shots and there seemed to be no close ups of the basket. So decided to shoot some footage close to the hoop and the players, so I can play around and cut them in different places, as when analyzing the more than a game trailer I discovered it was very shot clips with fast cut edits showing them scoring baskets. In order to do this I’m going to need to stand under the hoop and move quickly, or find a way to mount the camera up high and pointing toward the hoop without it being in the way to get damaged. In the process of creating my media products I analyzed and evaluated existing media products, from all genres and age to understand properly what I am creating. 

 When deciding what music to use for my film trailer I was focused around the area of hip hop as that is predominantly what basketball is associated with, in the media, so first I listened and researched into hip hop to find some songs that had the right feel for a documentary film trailer. I found Bashys ransom which had a beautiful instrumental part at the begging to use, I also had Jay-Z Show Me What You Got, and Wretch 32’s Be Cool which had a good upbeat tempo. Then when making my final tester film trailers, with the documentary style one and the sports style one, I used music from the London Symphony Orchestra, this worked so much better than the hip hop, so I started to research in to instrumental music from the symphony Orchestra and string Quartets, and some music with more tune I then looked into classic rock, as I new it had tune and was often showed emotion. I listened to many bands, including the Beatles, Rush, Led Zeppelin and Lynard Skynard. Favorites to use for my trailer included, Lucy in the Sky, Tom Sawyer, Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Set The Fire To The Third Bar, and Free Bird. I then decided to look through many modern and older film trailers to see what music they have used for theres. It was when watching the 127 Hours trailer that The Funeral, by Band of Horses played that I new that this was the music to use. 

 For film trailers I analyzed the More Than a Game trailer and Michael Moore’s Sicko trailer.

Film poster- when designing my film poster I had the style of my film trailer in mind, and based it around the trailer so they would work as a set. I created the poster from viewing and analyzing others and used most codes and conventions of classic film posters. I analyzed the More Than a Game film poster and from this I learnt that the off white backgrounds with chips and stains on it shows that were the team came from was rough, and from the streets and that they had no money behind them to make it on there own, and when thinking about what my film is about it makes me think about how I can include something that seems so simple yet represent so much. I needed something that showed that this team are built from 7 independent, different people that are from different backgrounds, that have come together. My Film Magazine is called REEL, I chose this after looking at magazines such as TOTAL FILM and Premiere, these names relate to the magazines content. Seeing as my magazine is going to be a specialized magazine for film lovers. I have analyzed a copy of empire magazine, and taken key codes and conventions and replicated them in my magazine cover. When taken the photograph I wanted to replicate the classic team photo look but I knew that to get the full 10 people into the shot and put it on the cover each person would be tiny. So I looked into other film magazines that used a group shot on the cover of there magazine and found that the greatest number of people on a magazine cover was 4 on a film magazine featuring the A-Team film.

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts  
I chose to do a Film Trailer because it is a new exciting and i have not done anything like this before. Also as it is a form of media which is seen everywhere and has such an impact on people and is often the decider for people, if they go and see a particular film or not. The film trailer is the main form of advertisement for the film because it involves clips from the movie and audiences have become accustom to visual entertainment. It is snippets from the film and gives them a rough idea into what they will be watching as a final product. The film trailer is the basis of what my ancillary texts are based on, as it was what I made first so I chose a style and a colour scheme, so in order for them all to work well as a group I have kept the same styles and colours. I chose to do the trailer because I thought it would be an interesting experience and a challenge, because I have never worked with film before. All my created media before has been still media. I feel that film trailers are the most viewed piece of advertisement, because it is so easily accessible. With the internet and on demand TV, trailers are everywhere. On video streaming websites such as YouTube the easy access of film trailers is what has made these the most popular bit of film advertising around. Links to these videos on YouTube are embedded into the films website and are shared on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites because people enjoy film trailer, they make the film look exciting and creates a buzz around it and if the trailer looks good and is enjoyed people will share it with there friends online. Before the internet the i believe that film trailers were still the most popular, but the access to them was much less as the only times you would see this advertisement would be on TV in the ad breaks or at the cinema before the film started. This meant that you couldn't browse and pick and choose what films you would see as the amount of trailers you see would be considerably less and you would have no choice over which trailer you saw and when.

Whereas the film poster is can be more abstract to the film, as it one shot that needs to represent the meaning of the film, this is not as powerful as the film trailer. Also with the popularity of the internet, and video streaming websites such as YouTube, the easy access of video makes it a more available to the audience when they want to see it rather than catching it in the adverts on TV. Even though you are able to find film posters online as well, the fact it is a piece of still media it doesn't have that impact and audience are able to find the poster out of the online world, on billboards, walls, in newspapers and magazines. With the film magazines all modern magazines would have a website online, which would probably feature the same articles, pictures etc, but still this magazine has to sell. So the front cover is its main point of attraction as it is what people see on the shelf and it has to be made to stand out and not just let the potential customer pass by it, as it has to grab the readers attention to buy it there and then. 


My Magazine featuring my film is a Film Magazine which is a specialist magazine and existing specialist magazines often sell by having subscribers and not often a spur of the moment buy, like magazines like Hello and OK. My magazine cover is a good compliment media product to the film trailer as it puts it out into the real world, rather than something on a screen which is viewed and enjoyed, but to a physical magazine in which people can purchase and touch. Also a magazine contains printed media, so will be made up from pictures and text so you have to read and you gather more information about the film, and read behind the scenes and what the film is about more. Specifically to my film the magazine is important to it as it will provide more information on the film and will provide interviews. This helps the audience to identify with the players even more and feel like they know them, this will help bring a sense of joy when watching the film as they will feel like they know them. 

Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 I have learned a lot from my audience feedback, to acquire this feedback I created trailers and presentations and then distributed or showed these to a range of people. Not only have I learnt things about what to do for my media products but have learnt about how I approach audiences with intention for response. My first questionnaire was three pages long and required to watch a presentations showing 3 film trailers, this was too long and people rejected it when asked to partake. In result to this my feedback from this was not great and therefore I did not have a great deal to base my trailer on. When I created my tester trailer using all sorts of different transitions, fronts, screens, animations and effects, I created a one sheet questionnaire with structure, by asking easier questions first and then asking the difficult ones at the end this help as people scanned the first few questions and as they deemed simple they agreed to fill in the questionnaire and because they had to watch one of my own creations people seemed more intrigued to watch and give opinions. My results from this were extremely helpful in my next process of creating the final trailer. I had my results but no way to order them as the people I asked were from varied backgrounds, and ages, and also some were more interested in the subject of basketball, so I split my results into different categories and would take all into consideration, but seeing as my target audience is teens interested in sport, the main focus will be on the teen category. Knowing I would be focusing on the teen category, this is the group I presented most of the questionnaires to and of the 45 people asked around 10 were basketball playing teens.

Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

 To create my final media product I have had to learn to use programs, such as iMovie, photoshop, illustrator. As well I have had to learn to use a camera, video camera in different ways and look in to the shots. When creating my film trailer I decided to use the program iMovie, mainly because it has a reputation as it is user friendly and a good starting program to make video. Seeing as I have never edited a video before I thought that this would be a good stepping stone. I have had problems and have had to learn many things about it in a short space of time but I believe I have been successful and fully understand the program and could use it to its full ability. The main problem with iMovie was the fact all iMovie project became corrupt and so I had to completely restart the whole process, luckily I sorted out the problem and was able to import all 12hours of footage I have collected and restart the whole trailer, and because I had experimented with the program and learnt new thing I was able to complete the final trailer.

 To film footage for my trailer I had to learn how to use a video camera the actual basic of the camera was easy, it was holding the camera steady and learning about angles and zoom and different types of shot.

 To create my final Film Poster and Film Magazine I have had to learn to use Photoshop and Illustrator, these are much more complex programs to use but the end result turns out better because of the detail you can add.