MEDIA EVAULATIONJOHN WOOD

MEDIA EVALUATION

LOFTLIGHTPRODUCTIONS

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

of real media products?

FILM POSTER…CONVENTIONS

To make sure I understood what conventions to follow when creating my film poster, I did research on film poster codes and conventions and I made myself a list of what type of things I need to follow when creating my poster. I then uploaded a list of the codes and conventions onto my blog as a guideline for me to follow; as shown on the image below is a screenshot of my blog.

The first convention I wanted to make sure I included when producing my Film Poster was the movie title. This is a necessary item I needed to include on my poster, this is so that my audience will know what my product is called. It creates my films brand or ‘identity’ so to make this extra special, so for a start the title of my film had to be good to make it eye catching to my audience, yet also I had to do my best to make my font look different to other fonts, but also looks good and stand out. This is very important also as I want people to notice it, my poster will be displayed on billboards, local shops and outside cinemas.

FILM POSTER… FILM TITLE

When I created this font on Adobe Photoshop I did not want to make things to difficult for myself as the outcome may not be as professional as I want it to look. So to give it that eerie look I found a basic font, but I smudged the letters on the font to make it looks spooky. After doing this I then had to decide the colour of my font, I tried out many colours such as red as this represents blood, but when I tried a dusty white colour it worked out much better and looked better with my main image on the page.

FILM POSTER… IMAGE

When creating my film poster, I have used another typical

convention of films posters, this convention is the ‘image’. On my

poster it includes all the stars from the trailer, the two teenager boys

and the antagonist. I took this photo myself which I then edited

using Adobe Photoshop. I darkened the edges of the image and

blended it into the black background. Due to the darkness of the photo and the mysterious

person wearing a mask in the background, it makes it clear that

my film poster is part of the horror genre.

FILM POSTER… TAG LINE & RELEASE DATE

Next, I followed yet another convention, on my film poster I have included a tagline, the tagline used on my film poster is ‘Home Sweet Home’ my group colleagues and I

decided to use this for our products as the whole story is about a person or thing which breaks into homes.

We think this will persuade our audience to watch our film as they

will want to find out whether it really is… home sweet home. I have

followed another convention as the word ‘sweet’ is in red and represents

the colour of blood in the horror genre.

The next convention I have used on my film poster is the ‘release date’. Most film posters and trailers will

have release dates on their products, this is to let the audience know when their film is going to be out. I have placed my release date

at the top of my poster just underneath the tagline as it is

visible to read and easy to find so that my audience will deliberately be able to see it when viewing my

film poster.

FILM POSTER… OTHER CONVENTIONS

The next convention I followed when producing my film poster was a billing block. Most film posters have these billings blocks as it informs

the audience who has done what when creating their product. I decided to make my text on my billing block white, this is because it looks extremely affective on a plain, black background. I placed my billing block at the bottom of the page, this is because it is not as

important as the film name or the image on the poster, it is not one of the conventions I want my audience to notice first. I have also included

my production company logos on my film poster, when researching other film posters, for instance, on ‘the strangers’ poster, they also include their production company’s on their all of their products.

FILM POSTER… OTHER CONVENTIONS

I have also included other conventions of film posters within my poster, for example, I have included the stars/actors names who are in the film trailer I have

produced. This is to give poster more of a professional look, I do understand however that actors names can be a big seller as people may really like the person from another film and will want to see them in the new film being

advertised. I have also included social networking links on my poster, this is so that people know where to view my trailer, or poster or magazine online, also to find out

more information about my products and potentially, tweet about us via twitter for example by @TheIntruderFilm. The last convention I have used when creating my film poster is the ‘Inspired by True Events’ text. I have used this as it will scare

the audience and will persuade them to come and see my film even more.

MAGAZINE COVER…CONVENTIONS

To make sure I understood what conventions to follow when creating my magazine cover, I did research on film magazines codes and conventions and I made myself a list of what type of things

I need to follow when creating my poster. I then uploaded a list of the codes and conventions onto my blog as a guideline for me to follow; as shown on the images below are all of the

conventions that are used when producing a magazine cover.

MAGAZINE COVER…MASTHEAD

MAST HEADMy film magazine followed many codes and conventions, the first convention I have used is the MAST HEAD. The magazine I used was ‘Scream’ magazine as I understand this is a well-known horror branded magazine and thought that this would fit best into my film genre. As this is a well-known magazine more people will be willing to buy it, if it was an unknown random magazine it would most definitely receive less purchases. I have also followed a convention as to put the Mast Head being the main image on my magazine. I feel that the MASTHEAD is one of the main feature on a magazine because when people see the title, if it well known then people are going to buy it. I edited the ‘SCREAM’ Masthead on Photoshop to make it fit in with the rest of my magazine, but to also so that it fit in with the Intruder text. I did this by changing it from black and white, to instead, red with a white outline.

MAGAZINE COVER…FILM TITLE

My next magazine convention that I will be looking at is the film title ‘THE INTRUDER’. I have designed this title on Photoshop, I have made it purposely bigger than the rest of the text on the page, yet smaller than the MASTHEAD. I have chosen the colour red for not only the MASTHEAD, but for the film title text as well, this is a typical feature from the horror genre as it fits in with the connotations of blood, and it also looks quite sinister.I have also added a piece of text next to the film title saying ‘special’ which means that this magazine is an Intruder Special. I have edited this text in Photoshop also, I have made this text green firstly, so that it is different to the film title but also so that it fits in with other parts of the magazine as there are other conventions in my film magazine that are this colour.

MAGAZINE COVER…MAIN IMAGE

Another convention I have followed from film magazines is that I have used a

Dominant Central Image on my magazine cover. As shown on the image on the right

is my magazine, the image of the villain from my trailer is on the main cover of my

magazine, I feel that this will persuade people to buy my magazine more as it is a frightening image. I have also not let my text go over the mask on my image as it

will look bad and will not follow conventions for a magazine, because

typically, the mast head is always behind the main image. I found this after doing a

lot research on film magazines.

MAGAZINE COVER…COVER LINES & ADVERTISEMENTS

Other conventions within film magazines are cover lines and advertisements. These are both very important conventions as these massively influence people to buy the magazine if

they notice that there is something that they can win or receive within side the magazine, this is why I have used

these conventions. Firstly, to attract the readers attention I created text on Photoshop ‘the worlds best horror magazine’ so that if the customers believe this, then they are going to

buy it over any other horror magazine. I used advertisements such as ‘PLUS!’ at the bottom of my

magazine to inform people what is included in my magazine, for example, ‘DVD’s, BOOKS, GAMES, COMPETITIONS’ all

sound extremely appealing.

MAGAZINE COVER…PRICE, ISSUE NUMBER & WEBSITE

The price of the magazine is a typical convention, this is

needed on the magazine cover so that people will

know how much the magazine is, if it is a

reasonable price then it can be a key factor to somebody buying the magazine. I have also put the euros price on my magazine as well, this

shows that you are able to buy my magazine in other

countries too.

The barcode is always needed on a

magazine cover, I found this through doing research on

other film magazines and found that every

magazine has one.

Having a website of the magazine on the front cover is also a typical

convention, when searching through other scream

magazine cover, every issue had the scream website on

them, I have put the website in a slightly

different position to other scream magazine issues as I feel it fits best like this on

my cover.

FILM TRAILER…CONVENTIONS I did research on film trailer codes and conventions and I made myself a list of what

type of things I need to follow when creating my film trailer. I then uploaded a list of the codes and conventions onto my blog as a guideline for me to follow; as shown on the image below is all of the conventions that are used when producing a film trailer.

FILM TRAILER…FILM TITLE

When creating my film trailer, I have used conventions, for example added my film title at the end of it, I feel this is a big convention as my audience need to know what the film trailer is called. I created

this text in Adobe Photoshop, my group and I decided that the blood effect in the background looked really effective, and fit in perfect

with out type of film as it is in the horror genre. We have also added our film slogan ‘home sweet home’ onto the trailer, so that when

people hear our trailer, they will remember our slogan, and as it is so easy to remember and catchy, they will remember our trailer more.

FILM TRAILER…PRODUCTION LOGOS

I have used other conventions in my film trailer; I have included conventions such as ‘production logos’ within my trailer. I used the Intrepid Pictures right at the start of my trailer as it is more known than ‘LoftLight Productions’, this is because if LoftLight

productions was at the start of the trailer, then people may not take as much interest into it. The LoftLight production logos was

made by us drawing on a box, and lighting a match across the box so that ‘LoftLight Productions’ is just visible to see, we think

that this is really effective.

FILM TRAILER…EDITING AND SHOTS

Editing and shots are both very important conventions of any film trailer, if these two conventions aren’t correctly done then the film trailer will unfortunately not work.The editing my group and I have done in our trailer works, for example we have flashing images of the ‘villain’ within my trailer, and the non-digetic sound in the background matches the quick flashing image perfectly. For example the two images are the flashing images that appear within the trailer.

To make things seem as spooky as possible, I have also had to make sure that the shots I have taken are right, for example on the next slide shows different shots from our trailer that had to be recorded a few times to make sure that they were perfect. This is because the shots are huge

conventions, and if the shots aren't very good then it will show in the

trailer.

FILM TRAILER… SHOTS

Shown around this text are screenshots from my trailer, these images are the shots that took time to make sure that they worked properly, it proves how

vital it is to make sure that the film trailer conventions need to work, if they don’t then the

trailer will not work.

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

BILLING BLOCKThe billing block is an area in which I have combined my media products and

ancillary texts. The billing block was used to show who has done what in the overall production of our work. I created the billing in Adobe Photoshop, I downloaded a

text font that is called ‘Steel Tongs’ and I opened it in Photoshop, I was then able to create professional billing block in any colour that I wished to use for all of the

sections of my products that it was needed in. Once this text was completed it was inserted into both myself and my groups trailer and also inserted into my film

poster. I kept the billing block the exact same on both products, for example ;both the same colour; white. Shown on the images below is the billing block in my trailer

and also on my poster.

TAG LINE

When doing research I found that it is rare to change the text font throughout your products, when creating the tagline I kept it the same throughout my trailer

and movie poster. This is so that when my audience see The Intruders tagline ‘home sweet home’ they will recognise it instantly due to its unique font, and the fact the word ‘sweet’ happens to be red. I created it in this way to make it more

appealing, I chose the colour red as it has connotations of blood and when discussed as a group, we decided this work best.

TITLEAs spoken about previously, I understand that it is extremely rare to change the font title

throughout all media products. However, when producing my media products, I have edited the font I have used so that It looks better with different products. For example, when using the

typical red font that I have used in the film trailer and magazine cover, I have changed the way it looks when producing my film poster. I took inspiration from the strangers poster as their title is in lowercase, when creating mine I also put mine in lowercase. Doing this did not make it look as good as I hoped, so I smudged the text slightly to make it look slightly spookier and changed the font colour to white, to make my poster. I feel that doing this it looks much better on my poster compared to the red text, yet the red text looked much better on my magazine cover and in the trailer. However, I have kept the word ‘the’ smaller and kept it above the word ‘intruder’ on all

products which will hopefully be recognised by my audience.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

PADLET

FRIENDS

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

I have learnt many things from my audience feedback, I have been given positive and negative feedback, the first feedback I have been given are through a

Questionnaire that I created when I first started research and planning. I used the website ‘google docs’ to create this, it let me create my own online questionnaire

and people were then able to answer it. I felt that this type of feedback was useful as I was not entirely sure what trailer genre I was going to produce, but after going through this process it helped me to choose. I was also able to find out information

such as ‘What noises do you think would best suit a horror film?’ and due to the feedback I was then able to find out what noises where voted best, in this case it

was ‘Children’s laughter and Bangs’ so because I was able to find this out, I was then able to use this information and potentially include in my trailer.

PADLET… FILM POSTER

PADLET was another website that I used to gain more feedback from my audience. This website allows you to create your very own ‘wall’ and anything onto it which

people are then able to comment on. I used PADLET to upload my first drafts of my ancillary products so that people could view and leave their comments of either

positive or negative feedback about my products. As shown below this text is my film poster, I gained all positive feedback, only other type of comment I received was a

friend telling me something I could possibly do to improve it.

PADLET… MAGAZINE

As spoken about on the previous slide, this website allows me to create my very own wall, as shown below this text is my film magazine, once again I gained mostly positive feedback, however I did receive one slightly negative comment saying ‘I do not like where the movie strip is’ which I am grateful for, this is because if all of the comments are positive then I would have had no room for improvements. Due to me receiving this comment I was then able to do something about it and produce a better, more professional looking magazine cover.

Overall I liked this type of feedback as it helped me to receive fast, positive and negative feedback for improvements which has helped me to make minor changes to my work to give it that much

more professional and better quality look.

FRIENDS COMMENTS… POSTER

Another method of audience feedback that I used was asking my friends to view my products which I then received honest opinions. I showed a number of friend

from my school all of my products, they gave me both positive and negative comments, telling me what was really good about my products and what needing improving slightly which I found to be extremely useful. The first product I tested out was my film poster. I received positive comments, for example ‘it looks really

professional, I like the masked man in the background as it identifies clearly which genre you film is from’ which I thought was really good. Next I also received

negative comments for example ‘billing block looks professional, but I need to make it my own’ which I really understood as the billing block was not my own as

it was I found from the internet. My solution to this was that I downloaded the correct text font and then created my own billing block in Adobe Photoshop.

Shown Below is the before and after of my billing block;

FRIENDS COMMENTS… MAGAZINE

I then went through the exact same process with my Film Magazine Cover where I receive once again both positive and negative comments. I printed off copies of my magazine cover which I then gave to my friends and they said to me what they liked and informed me on areas where I could improve my product. The type of comments used where ‘Overall a very good magazine, look very realistic’ which I was happy with but I was still hoping for negative feedback so that I could make it better. So I then asked more friends from my class and I finally receive some slightly negative comments on it which has helped me to improve the final outcome. The comment was ‘I feel that the mast head should be made bigger, also the film cuts should be moved so that they are more visible’ also ‘Looks extremely professional, but it needs more advertisements or cover lines on it’. With these comments I then opened my magazine in Adobe Photoshop and made the appropriatechanges to my magazine cover. For example, I have added the ‘PLUS’ at the bottom of my finished magazine as it makes it much more appealing to magazine buyers, as when you look at the first magazine, it doesn’t really grab enough of your attention as it doesn’t tell you anything you can win etc.

FRIENDS COMMENTS… FILM TRAILER

This leaves me to my main product, the trailer. Myself, and my group were all extremely nervous when showing this product as this was the product that we spent most time on. I did not want to show it to any other students younger in the school I decided to just show it to students 18+, as all of my classmates are this age I thought it was appropriate to ask them. So, after showing my classmates my final product their overall opinions of it were super, they really liked it. However, they thought the sound was slightly jumpy, this was no major problem for me as I was able to fix this right away. The only other thing was, was that at the end of question that I have asked there is no question mark, this was no big problem and took literally minutes to fix. Overall I am extremely happy with my end product and I would not been able to have produced the work that I have without all of the feedback that I have received. Shown below is the text before and after my group corrected it;

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

When undergoing this whole project, myself, and the rest of my group aimed to use as many new different media products as we can, this is so we can

illustrate how vast technology is getting and how many new types of media products there are that are available for us to use. I have used many media

technologies, some being software on a computer and some being hardware. The type of technologies I have used are, IMovie, Adobe Photoshop, PADLET,

YOUTUBE, Blogger, Camera and Tripod and Microsoft Office.

MICROSOFT OFFICEThe first type of media software that I have used throughout my whole project is

Microsoft Office. This was used through the research and planning of my work, the software's that I used were Microsoft word, PowerPoint, Excel and Publisher. I have

used Microsoft word for research and planning, I have been able to write up any work to do with this project and saved it all in files, especially with unfinished work, I will

save it and finish it off when I have to time before post it onto my blog, this keeps all of my work safe and I know exactly where it is. I have used PowerPoint to create this Evaluation for my work. It is easy to use and I feel that I have produce a creative yet, formal piece of work for the end of my media project. I have also used Excel when

putting together my questionnaire results charts, this was also extremely useful, as it was easy to use, then all I then had to do was upload these charts onto my blog, yet I was also able to save my work in files. I used Microsoft Publisher to create my mock ups for my Poster and Magazine, this was also easy to use and was a more creative

way of making a mock-up instead of just drawing one on paper. Shown on the next page is an example of what I used this software for;

MICROSOFT OFFICE

Shown above is an image of why I have used Microsoft publisher, it lets me create my mock ups for my magazine front cover and film poster, it is very easy and simple to use and I will carry on using this throughout the rest of my life.

Shown below this text is an image of the software Microsoft Word. I use this every single day as it is extremely useful and I feel that it is more useful than any other software. An example of why I have used it is, as shown below, to paste my print screens of my questionnaire results graphs from the excel software onto word, I am then able to crop the screen shot and then save it as an images then upload it to my blog.

YOUTUBEThe website ‘www.youtube.com’ allowed me to do tremendous amounts of research for my project. I looked at all types of trailers, then when I decided

which genre I was able to look for nearly every horror trailer there is on the web through this one search

engine. I found it extremely useful, I was also able to paste videos from YouTube onto one of my blog posts,

then analyse that video. I was also able to find inspiration for not only trailer ideas, but music as well. I

could find out what type of noises or soundtracks worked well In what trailer and I could download it and use it in my own trailer. I was also able to use YouTube to look at Viral Marketing Campaign ads which I was

then able to write about within my blog research. Last but not least, I have used YouTube as a free and easy way to upload my trailer for the whole world to see, a

friend from my group use their account to upload it which currently has over 16,000 followers which is great as it will get us noticed faster than a newly created user. This allowed us to gather peoples

thoughts and opinions of our trailer which we were then able to add or change to the trailer to improve it.

Shown below is a screen shot of my trailer.

GOOGLE PADLETLike last year, I have created my own ‘wall’ using the PADLET website. This has been extremely useful to me as it lets me gain feedback from people on my products that I upload onto it. As shown on the images below; I am able to upload and share my wall with all of my friends and people in my class. They will then be able to comment on my walls for free without even setting up an account, and are able to give me both positive and negative feedback if required on what ever I decide to post. In this case it was my magazine cover and poster. Shown below are my padlet walls;

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP

Another software that I have used throughout this course is Adobe Photoshop, it has helped me to create my ancillary products; Magazine Cover and Film Poster. I have

been able to upload images that I have taken, which I can then upload them onto this software and it lets me professionally edit and change the image to what I wish it to look like for example, the image my need brightening, or even darkening to give it

more an eerie look, this is what I did with my film poster. With my poster, I wanted to darken all edges of the image and give it a vignette effect, I was able to do this by

using the Photoshop tools, I was able to say how much of the edges I wanted to be darkened and how much by, this I believe has given my poster a much better look.

The reason I knew how to do all of this editing is because I used it last year as well as part of my AS Level Media Coursework, so that experience and practice has helped

me to produce what I have done in this project. I would not have been able to produce the work I have produced without Photoshop, as the outcomes from

Magazine and Poster are to a standard that I am extremely happy with. Shown on the next page is an example of when I have used the Photoshop Software.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP

I have used Photoshop in various ways as explained on the previous slide, however, this is one of the main tools I have used throughout this process. It

is called the ‘magnetic lasso tool’. This tool enables me to cut around an image professional and get rid of the background behind it, which as shown above, I am then then able to cope and paste that image onto a new page,

which is how I create my magazine image.

IMOVIEIMovie is another software that I have used throughout the construction of my

project. At the start of the year however, I used windows media player, this was to try out what it was like doing basic editing, therefor when the time came to

produce my film trailer on IMovie, things seemed simpler as this type of software wasn’t unfamiliar with me. We practised editing on a conversation between to

friends, using over the shoulder shots switching from both points of view of the conversation which worked really well. Even though myself and the rest of my

group had this editing practice at the start of the year, we found it difficult when trying to make our movie trailer look professional and seem realistic, even though we had all of the right tools and practice we had a struggle. It was only when we started adding more clips into it, and more sounds that’s when things eventually starting fitting in place and worked, and myself and the rest of my group are all

happy with out overall trailer.

TRIPOD/CAMERA

When producing our trailer, posters and magazine covers, we where able to acquire high standard camera and tripod equipment from Shaun’s dad; Shaun is apart of my group; this is due to him being a photographer and he kindly let us borrow his equipment. This type of equipment is called hardware. The tripod was used to balance the camera on so that no clips that were shot or photos that were taken were either blurry or shaky, this made them look much more professional. The camera, once again is a high quality camera and because of this, the clip that were shot and photos that were taken turned out to be extremely good quality and everything was produced to a very high standard.

BLOGGERFor the past 2 years, going through AS to A-Level, helping me through my journey, Blogger is the main site that has been used to help me achieve and post all of my work that I do, onto my own blog. Out of any other type of website like this, this is probably the best to use, it has let me post all of my research, planning and production work on it and nothing has ever happened to it, all of my work has always stayed in one place, it has been extremely reliable and easy to use and I will continue using it throughout the future when planning things and typing up documents or reports as I feel that it is extremely useful and anybody can use it.