Evaluation: Q4 - How do you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

* All photographs used are example images used to demonstrate techniques, not the original photographs used for my magazine and poster.
* Video footage used is also example footage, not the original.

Evaluation: Q3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Feedback on Prezi

Evaluation: Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Evaluation: Q1 - In what way does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Magazine
- The size of the masthead along with the positioning and font design is very conventional. I copied Total Film in the use of the 'up' being inside 'close.'
- I have all the conventional aspects that are typical to magazines such as the bar-code and price, both positioned where you would expect to find them.
- The main feature, or main photograph, is centered and large, which is typical of any magazine, I think I challenged the conventions by making the background photograph black and white, and keeping the character in colour, which allows it to stand out more.
- All of the fonts I have used are quite conventional, as they are all basic fonts that are easy to read, especially the masthead. The only thing that I perhaps developed is the font being longer than that of Total Film.
- The majority of the layout is very conventional, as I have tried to make the page as symmetrical as possible to make it look neat, whilst using an issue of Total Film (pictured right) for my muse. The tag-line, film title and majority of features are positioned in the same, or similar, places. The also used the same colour scheme, red, white, black and metallic.
- I used the circle that was used in Total Film in my magazine. They are ultimately the same, yet mine slightly differs in the use of fonts. This is the same for the Movie Title, 'Vengeance,' as I copied the metallic-like font to match the circle, as the circle on it's own looked out of place being the only item on the cover of that specific colour.
- I developed design ideas by taking the idea of border lines from Total Film and expanding them on my own magazine, to fill up more space without it being overcrowded.
- I aligned my magazine in order to keep all the contents within the recommended distance from the edge of the page, this is something I perhaps developed, as the distance is quite large in comparison to Total Film.




Teaser Trailer



- Our trailer is conventional in that it serves the typical purpose of a teaser trailer, which is to 'tease' the audience by showing a minimal amount of footage from the film, whilst still enthralling the target audience.
- It is only 1:14, which is typical of a teaser trailer.
- It contains the green preview screen at the very beginning, which is conventional, as every teaser trailer is required to have this to show that it has been approved for the intended audience.
- The trailer also contains both of our company logos which we designed, also conventional.
- It is conventional in the use of music to reflect the characters mood, or a change in the plot. For example, in our teaser (0.35) the dramatic music shows the character breaking, obviously this is aided with the context beforehand.
- The trailer contains screens with writing, which is typical for a teaser trailer.
- It introduces the characters right away, which most teasers do as there is limited time.
- Whilst editing the teaser trailer I challenged conventions by the use of inverted colour (0.34) as I hadn't seen this on any trailers I had looked at for research beforehand. I did it to reflect the characters emotions at that point.
- We also developed ideas by having a black screen with the audio dubbed over. I hadn't seen this directly in any other trailer, but have seen similar things in the past, and thought it would be effective to use this in our trailer.
- The use of Kuleshov Effect is very conventional for a horror film trailer.

Film Poster

- The positioning of the film title is conventional, as it is clearly visible in the middle of the poster, so that the audiences eyes are immediately drawn to the title.
- The black fade on the outside is a development considering the genre, and my own ideas for the poster. Dark colours and black are usually associated with horrors/thrillers as the connotations of these colours reflect the genres content.
- The use of an eye in itself is conventional, as eyes are windows to emotions and used alot in the media to reflect a chosen emotion such as terror or hate, an example of this would be in the 'mirrors' poster (pictured right) besides the colour scheme and the heavy black bordering, you can still tell that it is a horror from the use of the eyes.
- I think I challenged conventions by having all the main characters pictured (including Brendon's eye.) In real media posters, there is usually only the protagonist pictured, and lesser characters are shoved to the side. I feel all the girls from Vengeance play an important role in adding mystery, fear and suspense. Also, by having all girls pictured, it appeals to a wider audience.
- The list of staff at the bottom is strictly conventional, as I researched into the order of the producer, director etc and made sure they were in a chronological order as to make the poster more realistic.
- The use of film logos and websites are also conventional, as the majority of posters have this.
- The colour of the eye is perhaps something I developed, as initially I wanted more red to try and reflect the 'danger' connotation, but found that hints of blue worked more effectively to provide the element of 'creepiness' that was essential for the poster to fulfill its purpose.
- The font used for the title is conventional. Initially I wanted a more animated font, to reflect the horror genre...but it was perhaps slightly misleading, and didn't really reflect the content of the trailer very well. I decided to go for a sharp, hard font, which portrays 'Vengeance' greater than the messy font I had. The 'Mirrors' poster uses a similar font, possibly, like myself, to reflect the context of the title.

Research and Planning: Magazine Cover

This is the final result of my magazine cover.

Research and Planning: Poster

This is the final result of my Movie Poster. The detail seems to have eroded somewhat due to the JPEG transformation, the white is brighter and the overall image is sharper.

Research and Planning: Final Teaser Trailer

This is the final teaser trailer. We decided to shorted certain scenes as the time was running out.

Research and Planning: Transition Research

I have researched transitions that I then incorporated into my trailer whilst editing.



I like the shot reverse shot used (0.27-0.30) as you are getting information from one person, then when it jumps to the next person it reinforces the subject of the conversations, the myth of the blair witch. It also shows reaction shots that reflect what the first woman was talking about.
I think the cut to black (0.51), enhanced with the non-diegetic atmospheric sound, creates an eerie feeling, and creates tension amongst the intended audience. It is also used again (1.01) to create the same tension, after the woman states 'I know we're not lost.' The black shows that what happens could be contradictory to what the character thinks.
In summary, there isn't really a diverse range of transitions in this trailer, just a lot of straight cuts and cuts to black, yet I think this emphasises the sort of movie it is, as hand-held cameras are used, there wouldn't be many elaborate transitions, this is what I wanted to achieve with my trailer.

Research and Planning: Rough Cut of Teaser Trailer

Research and Planning: Poster Update

I have almost finished the poster. I now need to gather some audience feedback in order for me to improve the design and layout. I also need to make sure that the credits at the bottom are in the correct order of a typical conventional film poster.
I will gain feedback by posting an image on facebook and asking people to comment on it.

Research and planning: Film Logos

We all brainstormed as a group and came up with the name 'crooked pictures' for a film production title. Anika then went to create it in Photoshop:


I then went on to create another film production logo, as one isn't enough to put on the film poster, I came up with the name 'granite films' and then created a simple logo in Photoshop: