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Evaluation

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

Teaser trailer

We wanted to make our teaser trailer very creative and have multiple interesting unique shots, by picking the genre of film noir we were able to do this in order to successfully implement the style. For inspiration we used YouTube which was a fast tool which allowed us to easily find film noir teaser trailers from our chosen time period.

Skygeskell 

After searching YouTube we came across this film noir teaser trailer. Due to the unique shot types and key iconography portrayed we decided to use this trailer as our main inspiration as it included all of the key generic conventions of a film noir trailer.

Poster (Click image to enlarge image)

For my film poster i wanted to mix 1940's noir with modern neo-noir in order to attract a contemporary audience using conventions of 1940s film noir posters and images that have not been illustrated, but i have used digital photography in order  to give it a contemporary look. As i have done this i have broken conventions by not including a credit block or directors names etc. After looking at multiple film noir posters they use illustration but i found that the colour schemes or colours used include, yellow, red, blue, white, black and sometimes additional colours depending on their image. From the image to the left you can see i have taken inspiration and used a similar font to the "Dead Reckoning" movie poster using a white very informal rough text, the wavy shape the text takes form of gives a an unsettling visual image which immediately connotes semiotics to my audience. I have used the red, white, black and yellow colour scheme which gives the overall poster a pre-modern look, yet contemporary due to the digitally taken image. I chose to have the main character and femme fatale on the cover as this keeps with almost every film noir poster and keeps with conventions. The composition of my poster makes it seems seamless amongst other modern posters whilst still expressing the essence of film noir in the costumes and stance.

Magazine

My magazine is an art house independent magazine and therefore follows the conventions of these, opposing to the mainstream film magazines.

For my film magazine i decided to stick with conventions. My masthead is along the top of my cover, this is often where they are placed, or in the top left, in order to be seen on a magazine rack/shelf. I have followed conventions also by using a menu strip, this displays other films also reviewed in the magazine.After researching into Sight and Sound magazine i realised that the art house style magazines usually focus on one story/film each month and therefore i have only used one cover line in keeping with conventions. My masthead name "Fluent Film" clearly states the type of magazine and is aimed at my target audience as the word "fluent" suggests that it is for a sophisticated audience. I have kept with cool colours and a limited colour scheme as this independent art house style tends to be subtle and look sophisticated rather than brash and to stand out. I have kept with the style of Sight and Sound in which the image is simple, iconic and portrays the character rather than actor, showing the magazine is about the films, not the behind the scenes gossip etc. I have followed the convention of a film magazine or magazine in general as I have placed my main coverline within the sweet spot and have also followed a "Z" pattern with my text and symbols so that the magazine reads easier. The non verbal imagery of the character in the image is very iconic and shows her femme fatale figure expressing the time period and genre effectively.
Here is a video showing the different layers of my magazine to give an idea of the editing process carried our using Adobe Photoshop:

Q2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I undertook some audience feedback sessions in order to find out if my products had clearly established genre and my aims as well as allowing the sample audience to give compliments and criticisms which helped me create three successful products.
I held a focus group of five people in which i recorded on a handheld recording device, I asked three questions and allowed them each to say what they think whilst sometimes asking prompt questions to make them stay on task or help them understand the genre. I have recorded my results in word documents below.


Focus Group One - Draft stage

Improvements after draft stage:

• Poster doesn't represent genre
• Poster too dull
• Unfinished products
• Magazine looks too mainstream
• Get rid of bright external countryside shots
• Poster needs bright colours to stand out
• Trailer needs more shots including shadows
• Magazine could have image of actor in costume
• Magazine needs to convey genre
• Poster looks more like a novel
• Music is boring and more for a horror trailer
• Trailer is too confusing
• Develop relationships within trailer and other products
• Too many repeated shots in trailer

I took all of the improvements on board and continued researching, thus creating my final products and repeating the same process with the same people to see if i have made them look like real media texts.

Focus Group Two - Final Products

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

Research

I used the Internet to carry out extensive research, this new technology was a fast and easily accessible way of gaining the information and inspiration I needed. I used the search engine Google in order to get fast responsive and reliable results in order to find the most suitable research for my findings. (See right image)

I also used websites such as Wikipedia to get gain in depth explanations of the purpose of teaser trailers etc. I looked into industry websites such as Mediaknowall.com which gave me more insight into blockbusters vs independent type films and allowed me to use this new technology to further use YouTube in order to back up the theory found out from these websites. Using IMDB and YouTube i was able to get a visual understanding of teaser trailers whilst also getting ideas for my own trailer and thus choosing the genre of film trailer i would like to create. I looked into industry specific websites such as Paramount, Disney and Columbia to see which films they distribute and to get a better understanding of the film industry before creating my product.

On blogger i have been a proficient user and was able to embed URLs into my blog seamlessly, displaying my work in a more attractive way.

I used Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2009 in order to create a presentation of my top five teaser trailers in which I highlighted the key conventions, this new technology enabled me to display my research in a variety of ways. After completing this task I used an electronic interactive whiteboard which was a brilliant new technology as it allowed me to present my presentation to my peers in order to share my research and opinions.

Planning

For my planning section using new technologies was really beneficial in creating visual prototypes and was able to use a variety of multimedia in order to present my planning ideas. I used Premiere Pro CS4 in order to create a preliminary task, we created a horror teaser trailer within school in order to practise using the software which i became proficient in using over the course. To film the preliminary task and our final task I used a Sony HD 1000 camera in which I was able to adjust contrast, exposure and was able to create canted angles. We used handheld stills cameras in order to take shots of our location and for our magazine and poster images. I also used the Internet during planning using websites such as Adobekuler.com to create colour schemes and Freeplaymusic.com in order to get copyright free music to use from a wide variety. These were good as I was able to maintain house style using the same colour scheme and find out which colours are best related to my genre as well as using freeplaymusic to create the perfect mood and atmosphere specifically for our trailer. I continued to use YouTube to gain inspiration into my genre and pick out interesting shots that we could implement and was able to look at the costumes work in the 1940's.

Construction

For the construction of my teaser trailer I used Premiere Pro CS4 which is a fairly advanced new technology which allows me to create my trailer using key frames, effects, shots down to the millisecond that we want them and can make everything exactly how we want it to be. In order to create my film poster and film magazine I used Adobe Photoshop CS4. This new technology was extremely useful I was able to have full control of my product and design whatever I wanted without limitations due to the range of effects and advanced technology that I can use in Photoshop. I used the lasso tool in order to carefully cut around my models in images, I was able to adjust the contrast, saturation and hue to make my images as clear as possible and stand out to look professional. To create the titles for my teaser trailer I used Adobe After Effects CS4 which allowed me to animate my titles and create genre and narrative specific font styles to place in my trailer. Using these programs have made me a proficient user of Adobe Master Collection CS4. I used a sound recording studio post-production in order to have great quality sound for my voice over and dialogue.  

Evaluation

I have used this site, blogger.com  to evaluate my work in which i was able to separate each stage of my coursework and was able to be creative in the layout and design of my blog in order to make it appealing. I have used the file hosting website Slideshare.net so that i could include hyperlinks to share my work and also to embed my work into my blog for a seamless look to my blog. I have also used Google Docs as an alterative so that I could upload documents and videos to share my work which is also linked to my blogger account profile for easy access. On my blog I have embedded multiple YouTube clips, this new technology process has allowed me to show my inspirational real media products. I have used Wordle so that I can display key conventions of a teaser trailer and film noir genre creatively breaking up the text on my blog. I have finally used Smart Recorder to record my screen, this has allowed me to show the progression in Photoshop of my film magazine front cover.

Planning

Initial Planning
Who will you be working with? Nick Jevons
Chosen genre and why? We started off planning a horror film trailer, we then realised that this would seem to obvious and wanted to challenge ourselves,thus researching into a niche market film genre: Film noir.
Target audience for your film? Our target audience are people who enjoy period drama, crime films and is aimed at a more intelligent appreciated audience who have a interest for the genre of film noir. Due to the themes and tones of the piece, plus the time period it is set in has made us aim our film at an older audience.
USP for film? The unique selling point for our film is that it is a film noir film and has a unique appeal due to it being in black and white and additionally the 1940s time period.
Producers of the film? We have chosen Elizabeth Avellan to produce our film as she is the producer of the successful film noir film 'Sin City'.
Distributors of film? We have decided to choose Columbia to distribute our film because they have not distributed a film noir film in a long time yet they have distributed some in the past such as 'The Glass Key' and therefore are experienced.

Synopsis of film

Our plot consists of a middle aged man who is in a well paid job, yet is forced to do escalating crimes by a dangerous man. He gets into a relationship with a femme fatale woman who double crosses him by being involved with the dangerous man. The film ends with him losing everything he has due to his ambitious increasing number of crimes and ends up ending his life.
MOOD BOARD
After research into the genre specific conventions of film noir it gave me some prompt ideas for my trailer and using Google images I was able to create a visual stimulus in which i could explore colour, costume, themes and text styles etc. This visual mood board was very helpful in seeing my initial ideas combine and see what compliments another. Here is my mood board below:

 

























ANIMATIC - STORYBOARD

Click here to view my animatic storyboard

I created this in order to give myself a greater insight into the pace of editing needed for my final product and also to apply music to get a full sense of the trailer before production.

SHOT LIST

shot one - A pan of the town

shot two - Canted mid shot of character Jack

shot three - Reverse mid shot of Jack walking in a multi-story car park
shot four - Mid shot of the character Jack smoking
shot five - Extreme long shot of character Jack walking down steps
shot six - Two shot of characters Jack and Elizabeth
shot seven - Close of Elizabeth's tear
shot eight - Two shot of Elizabeth and protagonist
shot nine - Canted mid shot of Jack's silhouette bringing gun upwards
shot ten - Close up of Jack washing blood of his hands
shot eleven - Low angle shot of Jack with his head in hands
shot twelve - Pan of an empty briefcase
shot thirteen - Long shot of Jack sat on steps
Title one - Dangerous Ambitions
shot fourteen - Canted mid shot of Jack's silhouette with gun to head
title two - Coming soon March 2011

RISK ASSESSMENT
We had to ensure that each one of our shots was safe. We made all of our actors aware of what was happening at all times and reassured them that they are safe to prevent our actors or nearby people feeling uneasy or unsafe. (Click table to enlarge)
 

LOCATION DETAILS

One vital part of the construction of my trailer is that i got permission and found suitable locations for my chosen genre and style. Below are the key locations i have used in my teaser trailer and why i chose them:

Jordangate car park

I used this location as it was dark and created allot of shadowing which links to the film noir style. It is a location that is dingy and helps convey the narrative, he has a briefcase meaning that he is possibly meeting someone in private.

Macclesfield town (sparrow park area)

We used this area as it has cobbled streets and old lampposts. This gives a very 1940's feel to the film which enhances the genre. This aspect of mise-en-scene (setting) was crucial in creating the time period and was a suitable location from our modern surroundings.

Leisure Centre car park

This location was used as it is obvious that it is a public place and helps convey the narrative through the idea of isolation.This was a large open space which gave us the opportunity to experiment with wide shots and different camera angle.

ACTORS LIST

Lewis Payne

In order to make our main character convincing we decided to choose Lewis as he is a theatre studies student and was able to play the character how we wanted him to. 

Naomi Tipton

Naomi is also a Theatre Studies student meaning she was a versatile actor willing to give full commitment to the role in order to make her character convincing.

Nick JevonsWe chose Nick, my partner, to play this role as we felt he had the mysterious look and was taller than the other characters which showed his authority immediately within the trailer.

  SCRIPT FOR DIALOGUE/TITLES/MUSIC
After researching into trailer scripts and looking at the script for 'The Tourist' in particular I realized that the script must include suggestions or reveal the plot line, this is key as if the audience have no clue to what the film is about it will put them off watching it. Whilst looking at the script for 'The Tourist' we depicted it into sections; voice over and characters. I then listed the amount of times each main character had some dialogue and realized that character relationships are revealed in the trailer. I took this and made sure our trailer revealed a relationship too; Jack and Elizabeth's. 


PURPLE - JACK (VOICEOVER)
BLUE - JACK (DIALOGUE)
ORANGE - ELIZABETH (DIALOGUE) 

I used to do jobs for fun

Turn people's pockets inside out

Give me the cash!

It was easy money
An easy lifestyle
I had everything I ever wanted

Until i met her
Why jack, why? 
She robbed

She cheated

I love you

She destroyed

And now,
what do i have?

No cash
No life

No choice

We decided on a first person voice over to show that the film is from the voice's perspective; Jack's. We used dialogue shots to show the confusion between who Elizabeth loves and her relationship with Jack. We felt a first person voice over had the feeling of diary being read out, as our character Jack takes his won life at the end we saw this as a perfect opportunity to be sections of text from his suicide letter.
The themes are clearly shown through dialogue and voice over such as money ("Give me the cash!"), relationships as mentioned above, ambitions as he says "I had everything I ever wanted" and loss as he finally says, "No choice". 

Music

During our planning we realised that the music is vital in creating the right emotion, anticipation and must be genre specific. We then used google to look for "Copyright free music" in which we found a very useful website: www.freeplaymusic.com

Free play music allowed us to chose music that had the right tone, mood atmosphere, instruments, feel that we wanted and had a huge range to choose from. 

We selected the 'Somber, dark' choice under the heading 'Feel' to get exactly what we want.

After scrolling through multiple pages we finally found the music for our trailer that fitted with the genre as well as not seeming to like horror.

Our music choice is very monotonous to fit in with the character Jack's life and gives a moody feel to the trailer and as it is not too varied in pitch and tone etc. it does not take away from voice over and dialogue and is not overpowering. We decided on this instead of the typical classical music used in film noir as we wanted to make it more contemporary and enjoyable for a modern audience.

Research

 In this section I will be displaying my research into teaser trailers, websites, film posters and film magazines.

TEASER TRAILER

A teaser trailer is a method used to entice the audience. It gives the audience an experience and allows them to immerse in the film, something that the audience cannot experience through a poster.
Firstly, I needed to establish the key conventions for a teaser trailer before adapting into any genre, I have created a wordle below  to displaying these key conventions:

I carried on my research by creating a PowerPoint of my top five teaser trailers and wrote about them with the knowledge I had at this early stage in the research, I presented these to my class using an interactive white board and was able to gain an insight into other people's top five and understood the concept of genre a lot more after the completion of this task. Here is my PowerPoint presentation:

My top 5 teaser trailers

In order for me to grasp and develop an understanding of the key elements to a teaser trailer I decided to research into two teaser trailers in depth of different two different genres.

 Click here for analysis of Inception and PA2 teaser trailers

Inception teaser trailer

 




 Paranormal Activity 2 teaser trailer

Title Graphics
The genre of a film needs to be established through the title graphics and therefore i have analysed two in order to depict the genre and narrative at first glance.

This title graphic shows a lot about the film ‘Inception’. The word ‘INCEPTION’ is surrounded by  a maze, this suggests the idea of entrapment. Due to the colour scheme of black and grey I can tell that the feeling of being trapped is a dark one and not a fantasy maze or light hearted one. There is a shadow effect around the outside of the graphic showing that there is a lot of depth to this film. The title is created through gaps in the maze and represents the characters in the maze. The word ‘Inception’ also gives of a sense of psychological essence.

In this graphic the juxtapositioning of the text is abnormal linking to the paranormal entities of the film. The text is red and hazy with lines running through it, this is done to look like video recording quality to keep with the style of the film of them being recorded. The “2” is a different colour bringing our attention to it and highlighting the film’s success as this is a sequel. The black background immediately connotes that the film is dark and either horror or thriller.

POSTERS 

Film posters are carefully constructed to entice an audience to watch the film it is advertising. A film poster is the most important product of a promotional package in getting across the release date of the film. It's purpose is to catch the attention of the audience for those mere few seconds they pass by it, this is done by using large images and bright colours. Information film posters display are:

• The title
• The narrative
• Actors and directors
• Genre
• Unique selling point
• Release date

A film poster conventionally uses the following elements:

• Key image - This is used to give some idea of the narrative or to display a well known actor
• Sometimes background images - Further show narrative, parallel story-lines
• Title graphics - typography needs to reflect film genre/narrative
• Actor and director names - Usually if well known
• Tag line - Sticks in the audience's head in order to help remember the film
• Credit block - Display film producers and distributors information
• Website - Usually included in credit block, directs audience to further source of information about the film

Here is a Wordle I created which highlights the key conventions and emphasizes the importance of typography:

I used the two films I have previously researched, Paranormal Activity 2 and Inception, and collected the film posters for both. I have analysed these below to gain a better understanding of the key conventions and too become with familiar with identifying them. I chose the same two films in order to gain an overall analysis of two promotional packages in which I thought would be most beneficial.

WEBSITES
As I am researching into promotional packages, I looked into film websites in order to gain a greater insight into how each product interlinks. This task gave me more in depth research into how to establish the genre and theme through the use of interactivity and multimedia.

The visual look of this website complements the style and content of the film as the text and images are skewed implementing some sort of abnormality. The background image of the street in an impossible position shows that the film is about entering a world that is manipulated. The colour scheme of blue, white, red and black make one another stand out , these cool colours complement dark undertones to the film, whereas the red is used to stand out from this. The use of guns, serious facial expressions and the mention that the director directed 'The Dark Night' shows that this film has allot of action and themes of darkness yet highlighting the age range of 12+.

FILM MAGAZINES

As part of our brief we had to create a film magazine front cover with the cover story advertising our film. The conventions of a magazine front cover are:

• Masthead - Name of the magazine
• Main cover-line - Main feature story
• Main image - Anchoring the main cover-line
• Cover-lines - What else is included in the magazine
• Banner - Masthead tag line or cover story
• Bar code/issue number/price - Vital information
• Menu strip - Additional content

Here is an analysis of the film magazine front cover 'Sight and Sound', I have researched into this to get be able to identify the key conventions of film magazine as opposed to a any magazine.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH
After deciding on my genre, I decided to create a questionnaire in which I could find out more about what parts of Film Noir interest my target audience. After collecting the questionnaires back in I then used the results to create an analysis and clearly shows the pathways in which I should take for my teaser trailer.

Click the images to see a copy of my questionnaire:

 Click the images to see my questionnaire results:

 GENRE RESEARCH

After researching into teaser trailers I found that the next important research task was into the genre specific conventions. At first we were set on creating a horror trailer, this was going to be about a Ouija board. After researching this we found that horror was too predictable and didn't allow us to be challenged and there was less chance of it being real due to the monsters etc. needed for a horror.
We looked into genres that we were not as familiar with yet still had a good enough understanding to produce a promotional package for it. After the idea of doing a period drama film we came to the decision on the genre, Film Noir.
I used wikipedia.org to find a list of film noir films, I then borrowed the film noir DVD 'The Maltese Falcon' which was a great starting point for our research.
We researched into this further and I have displayed a wordle below containing the key conventions:

After a lot of research into film noir teaser trailers I compiled a list of the most important genre specific conventions using the websites wisegeek.com, wikipedia.org and filmsite.org:

• emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations
• keep to the 1940s time period
• low key black and white visual style
• film noir is a form of German expressionist cinematography
• the theme of crime
• Buildings of great heights
• sharp angles
• crowded environments
• depends heavily on chiaroscuro lighting
• first person voice overs
• Characters such as a femme fatalé, detective and antagonist/protagonist
• Shadow effects
• Canted angles

INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

During my research it was important that I looked into Film distributors and magazine publishers to see which would be most suited to produce my film and distribute my magazine. I have looked at both US and UK film distributors and have researched independent films and blockbusters using the website mediaknowall.com. (Over 9 million pound budget)

Film distribution is the process of a film to get it to it's audience. Distribution can be done in many ways:

• Theatrical release
• Home entertainment release (DVD/Blu-Ray)
• TV broadcast

Click here for Institutional research

Top four UK distribution companies

BBC

• Produced/co-produced 'An Education', 'StreetDance 3D' and 'Match Point'.
• Produce British films that bring the best British talent to the UK audience.
• Produce around eight films per year.

 Working Title

• Produced 'Paul', 'Nanny Mcphee and the Big Bang' and 'Green zone'.
• Founded in 1983
• Parent companies: Universal Studios and PolyGram

Aardman

• Founded in 1976
• Produced 'Flushed Away', 'Wallace and Gromit' and 'Chicken Run'
• Private company
• Specialist in animation

Film 4

• Produced 'How to lose friends and alienate people', 'Trainspotting' and 'Slumdog Millionaire'
• Has its own television channel
• Owned by Channel 4

Click here for Magazine publisher researcher

PRELIMINARY TASK

Before I started my final products I thought it would be beneficial to create a preliminary product. This has allowed me to use Premiere Pro CS4, the programme I have used for my final product, and therefore I have learned the basic uses and key features in order to make my product successful. Also before creating this we had a workshop session in using the Song HD 1000 cameras. During this we learned how to do the following shots:

• Mid shot
• Long shot
• Two shot
• Establishing shot
• Close up
• Extreme long shot
• Canted angle
• Pan
• Crane shots
• POV shots
• Shot reverse shot

We all had to create a horror teaser trailer. I was able to research into music of this genre, understand pace of editing, direct actors in a shot and had lots of practice using cameras and software.