Friday 8 May 2015

Finished Trailer and Ancillary texts






With all of my media products, I reacted to all the feedback given to me by my target audience. I believe that my audience know what will improve and make them better so this is why I shall be improving them.

With my trailer, I was told by my audience to add sounds effects at the certain moments of the trailer, this was when the draw was opening to get the knife out, when Scott sends and receives the messages and finally at the beginning when one of the bullies punch Nathan in the face. I believe that these sound effects will make my trailer seem more realistic meaning my audience will be able to relate to what is going on. I also got told to add another song, a calmer song. The calmer song at the beginning allows the mood to change as the tension rises, this tells the audience that something bad will be happening.

On my Magazine Front Cover, I got told to change the background image as they were all the same for all of my media products. Having it different allows the audience to see somewhere else that my film is going to be set. I also made sure that all the text in the middle of the page was centred, this made it look more professional.
 For my DVD Cover, I was also told to change the background imagine for the same reason as the magazine cover. I have also moved the name of the film down to the bottom, this was because I thought there was to much of a gap, now I have moved it, I think that it looks much better and you can now see more of the picture allowing the audience to see more of the physical stance, this tells everyone that he is aggressive and is ready to get the bullies back for what they have been doing.

The only things that I have changed on my Billboard is the background image, this is also for the same reason as my other media products. I also moved the star rating into the middle allowing the top to look more symmetrical.

Other improvements 
  • Text added to the Final Pitch Analysis
  • First Stage of Filming






Thursday 7 May 2015

Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?


Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?



Film and Production Feedback
In the development of both my Production logo and Film logo, I asked my target audience ,who were between the ages of 15-25, what they thought of the logos. They gave me both good and bad things about them. With the good things given, I developed on the ideas to make them better. For example, Dan said that the colour of the blood was good and that it gave my film logo seem like it was from a horror film, to make it look like more of a horror film and to make it stand out, I decided to use the colour of the blood for the Hashtag, this would make it stand out from the rest of the text allowing people to see that the film has a social networking side of it. I also got told that the computer was a bad idea and that he didn't really see the point, this made me remove the computer to just have the word 'SL#TAG'. This ended up becoming much more affective as it is a catchy name and also looks better than the original idea, it also came across as being a much more affective horror logo as having a computer in the background made it look childish and more of a gaming film and not a slasher horror. The Production logo was very successful within my target audeince, they found it very eye catching, it was also clear to them and they also found it very simple which is what I was looking to do. Helen, who was one of my target audience, found that the font was exactly the right size for people with bad eyeslight which is good as they will be able to read it easily.

Plot Feedback
I interview Emily about my plot who is 17 and is part of my target audience. Emily found that the film was very unexpected, by this she meant that you never would have guessed that at the beginning of the film, Nathan would have been the masked character and would end up killing all of bullies. She also found that the film was very secretive, none of the bullies had any suspicion that the masked character was Nathan. However, Emily also had something bad about the plot which she didn't enjoy. She found that having a murder scene in the school wouldn't be very effective. I then acted on this and decided against putting this in my trailer. This helped me as it would have been very hard to film what I had initially written in my plot.

Ancillary Text Feedback
I found the feedback from my ancillary texts very useful. Most of the people asked didn't that I had used the same picture on all of my products, I decided to change all of my pictures to completely different and new pictures, I now feel that they give a better affect to my products as you actually see some of the places during my trailer. Even the smallest of feedback can help, Angus suggested that having the star rating in the middle of the page, on my Billboard, would make it look more symmetrical, I acted upon his suggestion and it made it look better than originally. Luke told me that on the DVD Cover he didn't like that 'Bullies Get Bullied' down the right of the page, I decided to put it above my Film Logo which I also moved to the middle of the page as this is also something that was mentioned by Luke. This lead to me moving the names of the actors to the top of the page which is something Luke and Hannah told me would look better.

Trailer Feedback















Of the people that said no, most of them suggested that the film needed more sound effects to make it feel more realistic, for example, when the draw is opening to get the knife out. I also got told that the intertitles didn't look very good and they would look better if the text was moving. Most of the the people who watched the trailer told me how they didn't like how there was only one song playing through the whole trailer and suggested that I had a calmer and slower paced tune at the beginning so that when the clips starts to get more dramatic, the must will also.


I have learnt that getting feedback from your target audience is very useful. Everything they said helped me rather develop on the ideas I already had or to improve my products as they thought something would look better in a different place or not having it at all.












Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?



The question for my evaluation was how effective is the combination of the trailer and print products, as part of my media coursework I had constructed a theatrical trailer, a DVD cover, billboard and magazine front cover. All these products use the same house style using a burgundy red and black. The reason I have used these colours throughout my print products is to ensure that my target audience will always recognise my film by the colours, the burgundy stands out on the black well, the use of black creates a dramatic feel, it gives a sense of death and mystery. The Burgundy is used to represent the colour of blood, its used in a way to suggest there will be violence and blood meaning there will be murder.

The combination of my trailer, my billboard, my magazine cover and DVD cover sells and advertises the film to its full potential as they all work alongside each other. The products are all linked by characters, with Masked Nathan featured on the magazine cover and the main characters in the poster, as well as the characters all featured in the trailer. Promotional material is often done like this as the characters are the main focus of the brand and audience members can relate to certain characters.

The background of my front cover is at the school which the film is set in; I have used this as my target audience are mainly people who attend school/uni. At the beginning of my trailer, you see the setting of the school and in the corridor of Nathan being beaten up against the lockers, this is where this picture is taken, I have done this as it's a point in Nathans life where he realised that things needed to change. This makes the film more relatable to the target audience as they are able to relate back to when they were back at school and possible when they were bullied and took action against it. The main character of the film is the masked character, Nathan. I have used him on the front cover of my magazine so people know what and who he is. Using the Masked Nathan gives the film a sense of mystery allowing people to try and work out who he is before they see the trailer to finally find out who he is. This would give people an insider of what the film is going to be like, it will tell them that a masked character is going to be in it. This is also a good combination as it will tell people that there is going to be a masked figure in the film but not why he is wearing the mask, in which you will then find out in the trailer who and why he has a mask on. Sticking to the house style is important yet also very effective, having Masked Nathan wear a black hoodie once again creates a dramatic feel which is also giving a sense of mystery and death which I stated earlier, this brings a clear link to all of my products as I have tried to make everything as dark as possible suggesting the mystery of the film.

Something else that gives a clear link between my print products and my trailer are the locations and uses of all the images. Most of the images used in my print products are seen within the trailer itself, especially the backgrounds. On the DVD Cover, I have Nathan with a weapon which he uses in the film, an axe. This gives the film a sense of action, that there's going to be fighting. during the film, we also see someone getting a knife out of a draw. We then see on the back of the DVD Cover, a knife in the Burgundy colour, Having this colour tells us that the knife is going to be used to kill one of the victims the masked character giving the film a sense of gore. This will be very effective throughout all of my print products allowing the audience to understand what may happen before they watch the trailer or film.

Another combination of all the products I used is the type of shots in my ancillary text and my trailer this because in the ancillary text in most of the products such as the billboard, DVD cover and magazine front, I used a mid-shot for masked Nathan. This is because I want the audience to become as familiar as possible with this character as he is the main and most important character in the film. This is effective combination as that it allows the audience to understand what type of characters that he could be before even watching the trailer or the film.

On the front cover of the DVD Cover, I have ‘Bullies Get Bullied’ on it, this has a good link to my trailer, this is the slogan of the film. During the beginning of the trailer, I have a voice over of Nathan speaking in which he says the slogan, this tells us how Nathan has been affected by the bullying which can then be linked back to the rest of my ancillary texts. I want people to remember the slogan, 

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media products, use, develop or challenge forms and convention of real media products?