Advanced Portfolio EvaluationOlivia Carter

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

• The trailer for a film, named 'Finders Keepers' was based around some aspects of the film trailer from 'Alice in Wonderland', a recent film made by Tim Burton. The surrealist nature of the film meant that we were able to take ideas from this, and turn them into something that would fit the genre of surrealism and fantasy. The loud and overwhelming characters within 'Alice in Wonderland' were too far fetched for our trailer, however the element of fantasy we were able to add was the way in which objects which are drawn on paper, are able to come to life. The use of a distorted narrative in a trailer was taken and placed in our trailer to make it look a lot more realistic and professional. At certain points the music starts off softer gets louder and louder, building up tension within the trailer, but still keeping the sense of mystery within the trailer and the soundtrack, leaving the end of the film as an elision to the audience.

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

• There were many elements used throughout the three products that made them look like a package. The font and colour scheme on the magazine and poster were kept the same to promote the film ‘Finders Keepers’. The font was then used for the text featured on the trailer.

• Finally, the actors costume was kept the same throughout all three products to again ensure that they looked like a complete package.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• Target audience

• The target audience at which the trailer and other media products were aimed at, seemed to have been picked up on within the feedback from the audience. The slightly older teens (15+) was picked up on, as we thought the film in which we were advertising was more of a surrealist, fantasy type which would attract a slightly older teen audience. The soundtrack used was also picked up on which was said “creates suspense and tension” which is also what we aimed to do, as a lack of diegtic sound meant that we were relying on the non-diegetic sound to bring about the suspense and fantasy element which was brought into the trailer. The target audience for the magazine was touched upon, as teen films such as 'Toy story' and 'Twilight: Eclipse' were targeted at the certain audience we aimed the media texts at and therefore meant that we had fulfilled our aims. The target audience of the real magazine, 'Empire', is aimed at the same audience, mid teens, and therefore we felt it necessary to keep it to a certain age range where teens were able to understand what the film was about and how they were able to understand it.

Audience feedback

• Narrative

• The narrative was easily understood from the audience's point of view, and this is something we were worried about that wasn't coming across strongly enough in the trailer. The narrative being “about a young girl who finds a pen and what ever she draws comes to life” was the simple but surreal narrative that we were aiming to put across in the trailer and the other media products. The scene or clip that this most evident in, was where Mykela (the actress) “drew a heart onto a piece of paper and then has the actual product in front of her”. The target audience of the poster was also picked up on, as it achieved it's aim in making it clear as to what genre the film is and who the film is aimed at.

Audience feedback

• Emotional response

• The target audience was met and successfully achieved, as was the emotional response from the audience when once watched the trailer. The idea of such mystery behind the trailer made people want to see the rest of the film and know how the plot thickens with such a magical pen. The soundtrack triggered a slight feeling of suspense and threat towards the audience, making them want to know what is going to happen in the end. Also with surrealism being such an 'odd' sub-genre, it is able to make the audience want to know what is going to happen and how it is going to be resolved. This therefore made each of the three products a success and they achieved the aims in which we set for the audience to receive.

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

• In order to be able to make the trailer, I predominantly used the software Adobe Premiere in order to successfully fulfil the ideas and plans we had discussed.

• Whilst using Premiere, I was able to develop my skills using the razor tool in order to crop away unwanted footage and scenes. Also I had to add in graphics, which enabled the audience to understand the concept of the film, but not give away too much of the actual film or the ending.

• The other piece of software used was Photoshop which enabled me to cut and crop an image which was then to be inserted into the trailer. This software was then used in order to make the magazine and poster to promote ‘Finders Keepers’.

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

• The first stage of my research was to look into the work of surrealist director, Michel Gondry and the way in which he presents surrealism through his work.

• The main focus of my research however, was Tim Burtons ‘Alice in Wonderland’. With Tim Burtons unique style and complexity within his work, we were able to extract some of these ideas and use them within our three products. An example of this would be his use of surrealist worlds and situations, such as Alice falling down a hole and entering a fantasy world. We took this idea and used a magic pen that brings things to life.

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

• The main planning used for making the trailer was a storyboard. This enabled us to easily put the trailer together and know what order the scenes and graphics were to go in. This then made it easier for us to decide whether we needed to make any changes or add anything more to it. An example of this is when we had to place the graphics into the trailer into the appropriate places, and the storyboard enabled us to do this quickly and efficiently which then made the trailer successful in fulfilling its aims.

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

• Using powerpoint to evaluate my coursework has been useful as I have been able to add in images and pictures of my work and related images which would show how I have managed to create the trailer and show the creation of the other two products.