Evaluation

Evaluation

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

Researching into a numerous different amount of thriller movies/trailers allowed me to develop a basic understanding of what they all offer and the different types of thrillers there can be. I came to the conclusion that my thriller would most likely be a ‘mystery thriller’ I compared this to the popular movie trailer ‘The Maze Runner’. I found that ‘The Maze Runner’ as mystery thriller left the audience questioning, it gave nothing away and was the type of trailer to make yourself ask questions about what is happening. I believe I have achieve this mystery in my trailer, as it is quick and none of the shots give a definite answer away as to what is going on. I also believe by minimal speech it also adds more mystery as no solid evidence is given, like most other trailers I used blackout effects to add information regarding the film, I believe by what I wrote, this still adds to the mystery. With my blackouts it was challenging as the font and effect would occasionally jump, this unfortunately gave my trailer a less realistic look, however no editing could improve the situation. To help, I decided to make my blackouts shorter, this made the jumps less obvious as there were only there for a split second, and this allowed me to give my trailer, again, a more realistic feel. From my first draft I discovered the editing shots were not quick enough, this unfortunately made it look more like a short film, I took this into account and after more depth research into trailers, I began editing my trailer so the shots were quicker and flowed together more, including fades to add dramatic intention and offer a more realistic watch. From other trailers I found that they all had cuts from different sections of the scene, this meant a majority were not filmed or created to be based to one day. For my trailer I decided to do I similarly and filmed it over a handful of days, this allowed my characters to have different outfits throughout which I believe shows it is a story based over a period of time, which also helps the trailer to look less like a short film. I found a large majority of trailers always involve a hero, heroin and villain, therefore because of this I casted those three types as my main characters in the trailer, this made the trailer more mainstream and attracting as it is a popular choice in character. A lot of trailer also offer a range when it comes to camera angles and location, again to show the story is based over time, because of this I made sure I used a variety of different camera angles also including a variety of locations. A convention I chose to use towards the end of the trailer was a shot involving a hand against a door, shots involving body features and parts such as eyes, hands or mouths, are common through thriller/horror movies and add dramatic intention. I believe the hand against the door shot adds shock to the trailer as it ids unexpected.

As part of my poster I researched into thriller posters and found that a lot of them focused on just the face of the actor. I then looked up posters involving ‘silent’ in their names, I found a lot of posters with something covering the actor’s mouth. I decided to do the same with my poster through the use of a zip. As well as this I found all these posters were quite simple leaving everything to the audience’s imagination, I added very little to my poster in order to achieve this. By rating my film through the poster I found this made it more realistic as every film is rated in order to encourage the audience whether it was worth watching. I felt this helped with the promotion of my film. I also included the actors name along the top as I found a lot of posters include this as a way to promote the film particularly if the actor is a big celebrity.

For my magazine, despite using the same picture as my poster, I changed the colour scheme and also the font so it would be easy to tell to apart to the poster. I found with magazines that a lot of them include the same colours throughout, this showed that the magazine was its own company promoting the movie. To make it more effective and as similar as possible I added in a triangle of colour, this stops the confusion between the poster and magazine and also shows the magazine is separate to the trailer and poster and is just used for promotion, like almost every film magazine I found. I added the barcode as it is an essential when selling a product and as this would be a product to be bought, I believed it needed to include a barcode the same way other magazines do in order to be sold. My first draft for the magazine was very basic, after having another look over some film magazines, I decided to take inspiration for my magazine cover and used 'Empire' as a guide. As I tried to accurately make mine as similar to the 'Empire' yet not too similar so as it could be identified as a seperate magazine and as so not to copy. I believe now with the colours and the layout it now has a more professional look to it.

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

When creating my poster I wanted it to be easily linked to the main product through the name ‘Silent Students’. In order to do this I decided to use the main actor in the poster and show him as a ‘silent student’ with the use of the zip. I believe by doing this it is then clear he is the main character of the film being the only character featured on the poster and being in a majority of trailer by himself. Regarding font styles I used the same font ‘Monotype Corsiva’ in all three of my products, the trailer, poster and magazine. It was used throughout the trailer during the blackouts, then again in the poster and magazine for the film title. I believe this was particularly effective in the magazine, as the magazine title and information was all in a different font, yet the title for the film was in ‘Monotype Corsiva’. This shows synergy and helps viewers to link all three products together. For the colour scheme I kept it fairly simple as to add more mystery to the film overall, the trailer included blackouts with the information regarding the film in white, I then linked this when creating my poster and used white writing on a black background. I also ensured in previous research and planning that I used black makeup and a black zip to show the connection and to be effective with the rest of the poster. For the magazine I still used black, white, red and yellow for the title and sub-titles of the magazine, this was to show the difference between the poster and the magazine. It also showed that it was a magazine of its own company and not from the same background of the trailer and poster, I wanted the magazine to only promote the film and show that it was not created for the film, like other film magazines. I used the same picture for my poster and magazine to show the linkage and promotion, by using only one picture for the promotion I feel adds to that mystery of the film I was trying to achieve. By keeping my poster and magazine simple it leaves the overall film to the audience’s imaginations with only the trailer offering any solid evidence as to what to expect. Although my magazine and poster both use dark colour schemes, due to my environment and story I could not have the trailer in the continuous colour scheme as some shots were outside and some were featured in lit up areas. Despite towards the end I the trailer I did manage to add in a few dark shots to build up the tension as the trailer came to an end, I also had a final shot of my main character with only his face lit up with a dark background miming ‘ssh’. I did this end shot as I believe it shows the connection between the poster and trailer and shows the relation between them. Overall I found that my ancillary tasks and main product all showed synergy regarding the font, colour scheme, picture and character, this connection helped to show that they were all a part of a promotion package which was exactly what I was aiming to achieve.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

'I really like you film trailer, it is so dramatic and the music really adds to the suspense. I think the last clip is very spooky!!' - Ryan Powell

'I like the synergy between your poster and magazine as it shows the relation between them both. I also enjoyed the trailer and found it very captivating!' - Georgia Spencer 

Wow, Really impressive trailer! So tense especially nearer the end, defiantly would watch this!! - Chris Patel

'I loved the trailer and could instantly tell it fell under the thriller genre! I think your poster and magazine work well together, however I feel the poster is missing something. Although saying this I think the simplicity does work and adds to the mystery' - Joshua Baines-Davis

This trailer is incredible! Huge fan of the dramatic music, think it really adds to the suspense! Really want to see this film now! - Cai Veysi

Throughout the production of my media trailer, I had numerous of reviews and suggestions. I began with explaining the overall plot to the rest of my media class, by giving them a questionnaire they were able to suggest a name for my trailer as well as giving me feedback on the plot itself. The feedback I received allowed me to adapt my trailer to meet other individual’s needs therefore potentially making it more successful and attracting. After developing my plot to benefit the suggestions given, I then created a survey asking about favourite thriller types, favourite actors and why individuals enjoy thrillers so much or maybe not at all. The answers allowed me to analyse them and link them with my trailer, developing it and making small changes to also benefit the answers giving me the audience regarding thrillers. The questions asked and answered taught me how to make a more accurate trailer to meet the audience’s needs, by meeting the audiences’ needs it would attract them to want to watch the film. After my first draft I was told that my trailer appeared to look more like a short film, I realised that what I needed to do was quicker editing shots and use shorter clips, as I believed the pace of the trailer was what was making it appear to be a short film. I also decided I needed to add in black outs with information regarding the film, this would help determine it was not actually the film, but the promotion trailer. After my second trailer the feedback I received was much more positive, showing me that my ideas had worked in order to make it seem like more of a trailer. My audience began telling me that they could see it coming together a lot more and with a few more shots and a soundtrack it could be completed. This feedback taught me that my own decisions were successful, showing me that the research I had done on trailers and thrillers already had paid off as I now had a greater understanding of them, therefore allowing me to successfully begin creating my own. I decided to carry out an interview with the ‘cast’ to hear their feedback on the trailer, overall it was very positive and supporting of the final result.

 For my poster and magazine I intended on using the same picture, as after research I found this is what a lot of magazines do in order to show the connection and to be more recognisable. I made my poster simple and received some good feedback about this particularly with the synergy which is what I intended to achieve. The comment about the poster being simple is understnadable, however I am glad this audience member was able to also understand it was simple for effect and to add mystery, this overall shows me that the simplicity of my poster works well and is understood as well as the link between the poster and magazine.

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

YouTube enabled me to research a number of different trailers, whether official or other media students. This allowed me to compare my own work and take inspiration to achieve a successful thriller trailer. YouTube also allowed me to post videos I had made myself as part of my research and planning and receive feedback through the comments. I originally used ‘Prezi’ in order to post a few of my research and planning post however I unfortunately found it difficult when uploading it to my blog as it would not copy the link correctly. This led me to find another site similar as I enjoyed creating the Prezi and like how quick and easy it was to view information or pictures, I managed to find SlideShare. SlideShare was a simple way to put pictures up with information attached, allowing the viewer to go through it at their own pace. The Slide Share website itself offered me a lot of information regarding my blog, enabling me to find how to create and upload videos to YouTube and how to successfully share videos and SlideShares onto my blog.

My blog was a huge part as it holds all of my research and planning and allowed me to track my progress and gradually edit posts when needs be. It also allowed other fellow students to view my work and give me suggestions or feedback on any posts or the idea behind my trailer. When editing my trailer together I used a Mac Book Pro, the mac offers a more advanced programme than a regular computer regarding editing my shots together, it allowed me to add the blacks and information as well as use effects such as fade. The mac was also very easy to use and allowed me to work on my trailer with the soundtrack added over it, to find which shots where best and where. The only difficulty I had with the Mac was mentioned earlier where I found some of my information in the trailer jumped, the only edit I could find that would allow me to fix this was to make the clips including information slightly shorter. I was lucky enough to be able to use a professional camera, the Panasonic G6, when recording my trailer, this allowed my trailer to look more professional as it was clear, focused shots with the correct equipment to eliminate any shakiness. I also found the Mac offered the same fonts as other computers therefore I was able to successfully choose a font without it being deleted from the system, which unfortunately previously happened.

Finally for my poster and magazine I used a site called ‘Fotor’ this site allowed me to add pictures together as well as use text over the top. It offered a range of colours, fonts and shapes so I was able to experiment and have a good choice when creating my poster and magazine. Despite making both these products simple and using only three different colours, I think it was important to have the opportunity to change, had I decided last minute that I wanted any changes.