Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

Georgina Salt

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

I based my magazine front cover on Empire magazine and the layout that they use

I concentrated on the title of my magazine being the same as Empire’s

and ensured that I kept the titleand film on the cover within the

same theme. For example the penwithin the film was the most

important and significant item, and is purple, therefore I madethe title of Empire purple too

In addition, I concentrated on sticking to a selection of 3

colours the font could be, on thecover, as Empire has done. For

example, I have only used black, white or purple, whereas the real

Empire magazine has stuck towhite, brown and red

The straplines, mentioning other films or stars, are a lined perfectly

around the image of Hellboy, framing his head and neck,

meaning the main focus is not lost. I made this the case within my magazine cover ensuring it

looked like a real issue of Empire. To the right of Hellboy,

there is a circle containing text which I also added to my

front cover, however I changedwhat was said within the circle

I added in a “first look” box above the name of Finders Keepers to re enforce the idea that the

film is brand new and needs to be seen

A diverse feature and unique selling point of Empire magazine is its theme to change the font style of the

title Empire so that it is appropriate to the main film it is advertising

The Hellboy issue of Empire magazine uses effects to make the title look fire, as it is red and has a fire

effect on it. I took the significance of the purple pen, within the film and made my title of Empire purple

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

• The overall combination of my main product and ancillary texts is very effective

• When making the film trailer, poster and magazine front cover I ensured that the same typeface and colour scheme was used throughoutfor example – purple, black and white colour scheme and a font called ‘impact’

• The only font face that I used which was different to ‘impact’ was the title for the magazine front cover of ‘Empire’ I had to use the same font as the real magazine as the end result looked like an actual issue of the magazine

• By doing the above, the audience were able to see that the products were a package; each product related to each other to promote the film ‘Finders Keepers’

• The fact that the actors costume was consistently the same throughout the film and the still images, it helped link the products together successfully

• The narrative throughout the three products is clear as the pen, which features in both the poster and magazine front cover, plays a large role on the narrative of the film and has great significance

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• They successfully identified the target audience of all three products due to colour scheme, use of young actors and propsfor example – the iPod shown within the film trailer which is an item of technology typically related to teenagers

• The narrative of the film was correctly guessed, along with the significance of the pen being recognised without the entire plot being given away

• It was clear to the audience that something bad was eventually going to happen to Penelope, however this was not given away within the trailerfor example – the dark music which is heard throughout and the text on the graphics which were inserted amongst the footage

• The emotional response we wanted to achieve through the trailer was accomplished for example – the audience said that they felt anticipation and fear throughout the trailer due to specifically the music which accompanies the on-screen action, along with the dark purple used on the other media products

• When creating the film, as a group we had decided that the film would initially be a surreal-fantasy, however through audience feedback it has been identified as a thriller. Through watching the trailer back, I can relate to the audience that saw it as a thriller as the music with the trailer is full of tension and sounds somewhat eerie.

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

• When constructing my products I used a number of media technologies including digital cameras, video cameras, Photoshop, Premiere Movie Maker and an online blog site

• Before I could begin making any of my products I had to film the trailer and take a selection of photographs which I could use for my magazine front cover

• For the still images of Penelope, I used my Fujifilm digital camera that has a macro and fisheye lens. I decided to use the fisheye lens as it allowed me to continue the theme of surrealism throughout the magazine front cover

• I predominantly used Photoshop to produce my magazine front cover and Premiere Elements in order to create the film trailer for ‘Finders Keepers’ as Photoshop concentrates on editing still images, where Premiere Elements is specifically for capturing and editing motion pictures

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

• When creating the film trailer I used Premiere Elements in order to edit my footage

• Within this programme I was able to crop any unwanted footage and arrange it in an order that would not give the plot away to the audiencefor example – there was a section of the footage where Mykela was laughing. As the film is not a comedy and the humour was not intended within the film, I had to cut out this section of footage as it was unnecessary

• I also added graphic slides with text on to the footage, such as “sometimes you can with for too much…” and used a range video transitions throughout the trailer such as fade to black and dissolves

• From reading through audience feedback, I successfully managed to not allow the audience to guess what happens within the film, however only leave them wanting more and build tension and suspense. I managed this mainly through the choice of music

• I also achieved the emotional response of fear and suspense from the audience, through the choice of music, and the text written on the graphic slides within the trailer

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

• Once I had chosen the photograph I wanted to use for the magazine front cover, I was able to insert the image into Photoshop and begin layering the text on top of it

• I was then able to gradually layer the straplines that would feature on the cover for example – I added straplines to the magazine cover that mentioned the names of real up-coming films. One included “ECLIPSE Jacob VS Edward Who’s team are you on?”

• I went on to alter the colour of the text from black to white in order to make the text stand out more against the background colours within the photograph

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

• Media technologies helped greatly in the complete construction of the film narrative, trailer and magazine front cover

• I used search engines to research famous surrealist director Michel Gondry and came across this website http://www.michelgondry.com/ that gave an insight to his work and displayed his peculiar and surreal artwork

• After researching surrealist films, I analysed the film trailers, posters and magazine front covers to use the conventions in my own products

• I focussed on the film ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’ when analysing film trailers and posters as it was a film grouped within the surrealist genre and served as a good model for ‘Finders Keepers’

• When making the magazine front cover I focussed on well known film magazine ‘Empire’ and therefore followed the conventions of this film magazine when creating my own coverfor example – the main convention I stuck to was the idea of relating the title of ‘Empire’ to the film on the front cover, therefore I ensured that the title was purple due to the significance of the purple pen within the film

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

• Throughout planning my media products, I concentrated on using conventions from professional media texts to ensure that my items looked as like the real thing

• I made a plan of the magazine front cover on paper, following the model of the cover of ‘Empire’ magazine. Through planning the magazine cover on paper I was able to decide on the placement of Penelope within the photograph, and how the strap-lines would sit around the focus photograph

• I went on to storyboard the teaser trailer which, in detail, included the specific shots I was going to usefor example – long shot, close upwhere the graphic slides would feature within the trailerfor example – the title of the film ‘Finders Keepers’it also included the editing which I planned to include within the trailer for example – fade to black

• As practice for making the final film trailer, I made a short film based on a storyline that we were given. Through doing this practice, I was made to edit the footage and then go on to add music and graphic slides, as I have in the final ‘Finders Keepers’ trailer

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

• Once I reached the evaluation stage of my production, I was able to look back at my blog in order the complete the construction, research and planning stages

• Throughout the evaluation stage, I have been able to use PowerPoint to display my evaluation efficiently, and have excessively used my blog to refresh my mind of the work I have completed

• Whilst using PowerPoint I have been able to insert images I have taken, some from online, add screen grabs which I was then able to go on to annotate and finally, insert hyperlinks to websites that were useful to me when I was planning the narrative of the teaser trailer

• Using PowerPoint allowed me to keep my evaluation organised