In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

• I was able to get my media work near to a professional product by carrying out research on teaser trailers, magazine covers and posters that have already been done. This helped me as I was able to pick up on the good things and bad things I need to consider when creating my own product. Because I was doing a romantic comedy, I didn’t have to follow any specific conventions I would have had to if I done for e.g. a horror movie. Rom-coms are pretty flexible in the way you can present your ideas to your audience seen as there easy to understand. This means you can play about and try different things that would keep the audience focused and interested. I used real media products such as Valentine’s day teaser trailer to help me see what conventions they had used in their work, I understood from looking at this that teaser trailers are usually snappy and short, they also don’t give away too much of the story line but the do keep it interesting enough so that the audience want more.

• I learnt a lot of different conventions from looking at teaser trailers such as using text throughout the clip so that the audience can understand what is happening further, using text is a useful way of engaging the reader as it makes them concentrate on what is written on the screen. The fact that the two texts are in different fonts and size makes the audience aware of what the important thing is, the ‘one’ stands out making the audience realise that this is a romantic film because they will acknowledge that two people become one when they fall in love. This would have already set up the context for the trailer which is good as the audience wouldn’t be confused as it progresses. Moreover, I decided to make the colour red stand out more than the rest as it symbolize energy, passion and deep love, red is usually associated with Valentine’s day which most of us know is connected with romance. This emphasise on the idea of love I am trying to convey to my audience. I decided to have a plain black background as I wanted my target audience to focus on what was written rather than concentrating on an image or a clip. This also helps with continuity as it makes it more smooth and connects the shots together.

• I understood from looking at real media products, there always has to be something memorable in the trailer that would stick in the audiences mind after the trailer has finished. I chose to use an extreme close up of my main characters teary eye as it represents pain, love and the fact that love is blind which is the title of my movie. Most of us would know that eyes are the windows to our soul. Our eyes are probably the only facial feature that shows really, the emotions and thoughts a person's having. This is good as the audience would be able to recognize genuinely how she is feeling at the time, this makes them engage with her and favour her character which is what I want to achieve by the end. Moreover, because I used her eye as the image for my poster, it helps connect my products.

• I challenged the conventions of real media products by making the female role have a higher status than the female. In most professional products, the men are the ones with the highest power and role, however for my teaser trailer I wanted to move away from this expectation and show that women are the important characters. I done this from the start by using mise en scene, we can see how when the trailer starts the female character is in a house and wearing what looks like a dress and heels. Her clothing shows us that she is wealthy and classy as heels represent sexiness and power. Where as we can see the male character walking along the street with out any shoe wear, this contradiction shows us a clear difference between their status and undermines the male character because shoes are an essential part of a guys image. Moreover, we see as the scene progresses that she’s the one that has the highest power as we see her story unfold and leave his to be untold. We see how she explains her feelings to her friend making her emotions and her self important in the clip, I have done this to make the audience connect and engage with her mental state.

While researching professional teaser trailers, I recognized that they all used different camera shots and angles to make their product more effective, so I decided to use a range of different angles as you can see from the pictures above. I thought it would be good to have an establishing shot (first picture) as it helps set up the context of the scene by showing where its set, in this case we can see that it’s set on the streets of dirty London, which is good as the male character is supposed to be a hobo. Additionally, throughout my teaser trailer I tried to use different shots and angles to make it fast and exciting for the viewer. This was inspired by ‘The hangover 2’ as there trailer was thrilling because of the amount of different shots they used to stress the importance of different scenes. Moreover, I was also able to make it more effective by changing the speed of certain scenes to slow/fast, this will bring the audiences vision into higher focus as there is a sudden change from normal speed to for e.g. slow motion. I used a slower pace when we see the male character with another girl to give the audience time to understand that this is the twist in the movie as well as emphasize emotions connected with the pain that’s to come.

Establishing shot

Extreme close-up

Long shot in slow motion

Shot Reverse shot

When I analysed different posters I understood that a poster needed specific conventions such as title, age restriction and tagline to be recognised by the audience. These are important information that they need to know in order to get familiar with the product, if the poster didn’t have the title of the movie then they wouldn’t be able to do further research on it to examine whether its worth watching or not. A poster is probably the first thing most audience would see as it would be promoted around different areas, this means that the first thing the audience see has to be a good representation of the movie as well as exciting and eye catching. I have tried to make mine exciting by using different fonts and bright colours such as red which catch peoples attention. I have realised that posters use the idea of famous names and big companies to build up credibility which is why I decided to have ‘A Mark Stevenson movie’ on top of the title, this emphasises on the importance of the name as it wouldn’t be there if it wasn't famous. My tagline contradicts with the title which is good because it is supposed to be a rom-com so the cheesy line would make the audience laugh which is the response I am aiming to achieve by doing this. Moreover, I thought it was important to use a tagline as it would be a good way of making the title memorable for my audience.

I picked up on the fact that most rom-coms have a low age restriction which is why I made mine 12, my teaser trailer doesn’t contain any swearing or violence so even if younger audience were to watch it I don’t think there would be any problems.

I wanted my poster to relate a lot to the title similarly to ‘Jumping the broom’ which is why I have used her eye and the two characters at the back. The fact that the title is love is blind emphasises on the use of her eye as they both share the idea of sight. We can see how the eye is on top of the male character hinting that she is the one that is being lead astray by his false feelings, this again undermines the male character as he is put across as the bad person and the audience are made not to like his character.

I chose to stick with the normal conventions of a poster by including; name of characters, music used and other important information at the bottom, this is known as the Hollywood credits. This helped me create a sense of comfort with my audience as they would expect to find those things there. However, this is done in very small writing just like professional products as there are more important things the audience should be paying attention to.

I decided to make the image darker than the original picture as I wanted the audience to understand the pain in her eyes. The black shadow around the picture emphasises on the gloominess I wanted my audience to feel. I wanted there to be a contradiction of humour and pain so that it creates a sense of mystery on what might happen during the movie, this suspense makes the audience eager to watch the movie

I thought it was important for my poster to relate a lot with my teaser trailer which is why I decided to screen grab an image from my teaser trailer to use for the background of my poster. I was able to make the quality of the image better by smoothing out the images roughness on Photoshop.

From looking at professional products that have already been done I was able to construct a magazine that followed all the conventions expected. Magazines that sell live up to peoples expectations of containing informing, exciting and illustrative pieces of work. Which is why I thought it would be appropriate to use similar styles as professional products like the magazine cover beside this. I researched on Total Film and Empire but decided to use Sight & Sound for my own work because it’s a British monthly film magazine which relates to my work more than the other two seen as my chosen location is London. When I analysed three of my magazine covers, I picked up on the fact that the magazine cover didn’t have to be related to the movie and poster, as long as it contained an actor from the movie it was enough. Which is why I decided to use the main character from my teaser trailer for the cover of my magazine, this is similar to Megan Fox being used for Empire to advertise Transformers 2.

I’ve used the sight and sound logo to make my audience aware that this is a film magazine. The fact that it is an international film magazine which is familiar to most British audience makes it more appropriate to use. The tagline used underneath the masthead promotes the magazines importance and credibility.

The main image is of my main character from my teaser trailer, once again we can see here how the importance of her eyes are stressed in this image as she is wearing glasses. Because glasses are not something natural, they are bound to draw the audiences attention to her eyes.

Moreover, her make up and clothing emphasise the idea of sexiness and class that has been constructed around her character on my other two products. The bright colours; blue, purple and pink make her stand out as well as creating a theme of royalty.

Barcode – typical convention of a magazine

The main cover line on the magazine is the biggest text on the page, this is the same as the professional products I has researched, this has been done so that fans who are interested in the film will have a reason to buy it. In my case, I am trying to advertise my movie ‘LOVE IS BLIND’ which is why I decided to make it bigger and bolder.

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

• When I was researching professional products I understood that they had similar things that were produced for one specific movie. I acknowledged that for audience to be easily interested and familiar with my work I had to make important things such as title and characters consistent through out. When looking at ‘The Hangover 2’ I recognised that both for their poster and teaser trailer they had kept the font, characters, location and tagline identical. We can see below how the location looks pretty similar to the poster as well the characters being dressed the same way. They have also used the same tag line ‘The Wolf pack’ to make it something memorable for the audience.

• We can also see how they have stuck to the colour of white for all their fonts which is good as it is bright and can create a sense of space or add highlights.• I have followed this idea to produced something familiar for myself

• Name of product I made sure that the name of my movie appeared on all my three products to keep the

continuity of my campaign going. If all three products had been different, the audience would have assumed they were separate pieces of work. However the consistency of imagery and written information throughout makes it strong as the audience are exposed to the same thing over and over again which eventually makes it memorable and familiar to them.

• Use of same people The consistence use of the same

character throughout my work makes her important and familiar to the human eye. The fact that they see her on all three products stresses her importance and also helps create a relationship between the audience and her.

The consistent reference of the females eyes creates a selling point that attracts the audience as they would have made a connection with the uniqueness of the idea behind it. Moreover, if there's something that stands out, it gives audience something to go off and think about or talk about with friends, family etc. which is good as my product will be getting more recognition from more and more people. In addition, eyes are a good way of engaging with people as they tell a lot of emotion and help create some sort of feeling in the audience.

We can see how the typography has been kept the same for all my three products. I chose to use the font ‘IMPACT’ because it is bold and vibrant, this is good as it would make the texts I want to be easily noticed by my target audience stand out. Moreover, the fact that its only certain texts like ‘Love’ that have been done using this font, stresses the importance of them. I decided to do this to emphasise on the point of ‘love is a big word’ that most audience are familiar with. We can see how the font goes soft and small when it moves away from these important words.

I tried to keep the colours the same through out by sticking to white, red, black and gold. This doesn’t only relate to love and class but because I have used a wide range of different colours, I will be pleasing a wider number of people. Colours are what attract a human eye to specific things which is why I have chosen to use bright colours that stand out against darker surfaces.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

• Before I started constructing my main product I had to complete audience research in which I had to collect information from various individuals. This did not only help me get an idea of what's good and bad but it also helped me change some of my ideas I had in mind when initially coming up with the concepts for my work.

• This was a good way of producing the perfect product for my chosen target audience, as I was able to understand what kind of genre’s, music, clothing style etc. they were interested in. This meant that I was able to focus on certain things more than others seen as its of my audiences interest. For e.g. when I carried out my focus group I understood from a lot of my participants that music was the main thing that caught their attention. This made me think in depth about the kind of music that was popular among the type of people I was aiming to attract.

• After taking my focus groups constructive criticism into consideration, I was able to produce something that pleased most of my target audience. This was clear from the good feedback I received after showing the same group of people from my focus group and a new group of people my main task. I decided to separate these groups when carrying out my final research into audience feedback so that they can’t influence each other in any way.

• Initially I had in mind something related to classical diegetic sounds for my teaser trailer but after my audience research I acknowledged that it was better to use music from the genre of R&B/Hip-Hop. Which is why I chose Wale – Lotus Flower Bomb, a famous Hip-Hop choice of track of this age and Frank Ocean’s – Thinking about you which is favoured by many R&B lovers.

Audience feedback• Quote from an individual from old Focus Group : “I

think this is so much more better than using classical music throughout your trailer, as soon as I heard it I couldn’t help but pay attention because both songs are one of my favourite tracks at the moment”.

Audience feedback• Quote from an individual from new Focus Group :

“The use of R&B for your product is very good as I was able to relate and understand the emotion behind it. I found the fact that the lyrics went with what was happening in the scene very good because It made me pay attention even more. However, it would have been better if you used one song only as it would be like a soundtrack to your film”.

• My feedback shows me that my audience are pleased with the music I chose for my main task, when showing them the clip they all seemed to sing along and dance which is the reaction I was hoping to get. As soon as the music came on at the start, I recognised that those people who weren't paying much attention were instantly drawn to the screen as it was something that was familiar to them. This teaches me that familiarity is important when presenting products to a target audience.

• Moreover, I have also learnt from the new focus group that maybe using only one track throughout my whole teaser trailer is a good way of keeping the consistency. I realised after that most of the trailers I analysed had a soundtrack that run from the start to the end. This is good because the next time the audience hear the song, they will be able to associate it with the movie.

• This will be something I will keep in mind if I have to do anything similar to this task.• On the next page I have created questions based on all my three products that I have

presented to a media student so that I can gain perspective on how well my three products go together and etc.

• What relation can you spot between my three products (magazine, poster and teaser trailer)?

I thought the constant use of the same character for all three things was a good way of conveying that’s the central character. This made me aware of the fact that I'm supposed to be focusing on her which made me want to find out more about her as I saw her over and over again, the mystery became unbearable. I also picked up on the fact that the colour of her clothing is the same throughout, she’s wearing blue for everything.

• What improvements do you think I need to make on any of the three products? The teaser trailer could’ve been a bit shorter and snappier. I don’t think any improvement

need to be made to the poster, I thought everything I needed to know was clear and the poster was very creative. However, the magazine doesn’t really relate to the two products, it would’ve been good if you used an image from the movie to make it more obvious that’s what your trying to advertise.

• Do you think my products used conventions of real media products well? And from the three which do you think looks more professional?

Yes, I was able to understand what each product was without being informed by just looking at the context, setup and conventions you used. This is good because it means its similar to real media products. I think the poster looks professional more than the other two because of the editing and good use of imagery.

• Do you think my three products together would be successful if on sale? I think the teaser trailer and poster would do great but you have to put more work into the

magazine.

From that I concluded…

• I found that using the same character throughout was good as my audience were able to make a bond with them, it made them want more in depth info on my main character which is what I was aiming to achieve. If the audience are kept wanting more then the simplest things are bound to please their needs.

• Moreover, I found that I should’ve made my magazine similar to my poster and teaser trailer as most people didn’t think it linked in anyway. Also the quality of my magazine was the poorest out of all three, which I was disappointed with because I tried to make it similar to professional products. But the idea of consistency for audience is more important which is why, next time I will be using very similar images for all my products.

• From further research not included on the questions, I found that the fact I used a female as the central character was largely favoured by a lot of people including males as they thought it was different and new. Most said it would’ve been better if you didn’t show her power being taken away when he cheats on her, this made me think about how effective it would’ve been if she had the power throughout the clip.

• I will be considering all of these points in the future if asked to produce something similar to this.

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

stages?

• From the start to the end of my construction for my final task, I had to use different types of media technologies. Some I was already familiar with and some I had never used before but at the end I ended up learning new skills and developing on my old ones.

Research and planning

When carrying out my research and planning I mostly used paper and the internet, these two are a good way of gathering information both from primary and secondary sources. The fact that I could log on to the internet and find things that have already been uploaded is good because it gives me quantitate data, where as handing out questionnaires and carrying out focus groups provides me with qualitative data. To be more specific I have included pictures of the sites I used to help me with my research and planning, these are:

• By using Google and YouTube I was able to research different trailers and information about what went in to the making of a trailer so that I had a good idea when constructing my own work. YouTube was a good way of doing this as I could find any clip I wanted very easily.

• Using programmes such as Word, Excel and Word press was an appropriate method for sorting and organising my work out. I was able to write and even create pie charts for the things I wanted by having easy access to these. Word Press helped me present all my work to my teacher, class mates etc. I learnt how to upload pictures, videos and more which I may find useful when creating my own blog.

• I also used YouTube convertor when downloading the songs I wanted to use for my teaser trailer.

Word

VIDTOMP3

Filming & Post production• During my filming process I used different kind of equipment's that helped me capture what I

wanted on film and image. Last year we had to film a trailer which meant that I was already familiar with most of the equipment so I didn’t waste anytime trying to film. When filming my teaser trailer I had to use a number of different equipment's such as a small hand held canon camcorder, this was easy to use as well us flexible due to its size. I had to make sure the camera was on record at the times I needed it to be rather than not because last year we got it mixed up and ended up not filming half of our work which had a huge effect on our final piece. Moreover, I also had to shoot scenes more than twice from different angles so that I could pick and chose when it came to editing.

• In addition, because this was an individual project I had to get people from outside the college to help me out with things like holding the microphone so that the sound was heard clear in my clips, this went well as you could hear my characters louder than any background noise.

• To get the image for my poster I used a Mac Computer to screen grab an image from my teaser trailer as I thought it was very effective and eye catching. To use the screen grab on Mac’s you would have to press Command-Control-Shift-3 which lets you screen grab a chosen area of the screen.

• However when taking the picture for my magazine, I used a SONY Cyber Shot camera, this lets me take pictures and using a USB upload the on to the desktop of the Mac’s ready to edit. Using Mac’s allowed me to use software's such as Final Cut and Photoshop which aren't available on any other types of Pc’s.

Editing• When editing my teaser trailer I had to use the software Final Cut which existed only on

Mac’s, this did not take me a while to understand due to having used it last year. Having more time than last year to edit our work, I was able to play about more with the different tools and effects I could included to make my work look better and I did. I learnt how to change speed of certain bits of my clip by reducing and increasing the pace. I knew already from last year that I had to use In and Out to cut out bits I wanted to drag to the bottom bar so it didn’t take me long to construct the bits I needed.

• Final cut enabled me to cut out the bits I didn’t want as well us add music and text so that my work looked similar to a professional product. Underneath are pictures of some of the tools I used.

• When editing my poster and magazine, I had to use Photo Shop CS4, I found this quiet difficult at first as the last time I used it was when doing GCSE’s and I had forgotten most of my built up skills, I did however manage to ask my class mates and understand what I needed to do to get a good finishing. Once I played around with the adjustment and tones of images, all I needed to do was add text. However, when doing my poster I wanted a black shadow to be present around my image and I was not able to do that on Photoshop which made me find a different site (Photobucket) to carry out that effect. I was happy with what I achieved because it looked near enough to a professional product. You can see below the difference in the original image for my magazine and the edited version after Photoshop CS4.

Further info…• I over came copyright issues by stating clearly that I do not own any of the music present on

my teaser trailer.