A2 MEDIA EVALUATION A2 UNIT G324

A2 MEDIA EVALUATION

A2 UNIT G324

Candidate NameCandidate NumberCentre NameCentre NumberEllis Blunden

The Leigh Academy

61101

In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Title: The title on my film poster uses typical forms and conventions that real film posters would use. This is because Ive positioned it at the very top of the poster in a noticeable place, using very large font so it stands out from he rest of the writing and catches my audiences eyes. In addition my title follows conventions that would be used in a romantic drama film poster as it is stylised in a very elegant curly, flowing font which I chose specifically to match my genre as it gives a light hearted, loving feel and resembles a very neat romantic hand writing typically used in romantic dramas. I chose for the title to be in white font so that it would have a very clear contrast from the dark black background; this was to help it stand out clearly from the poster and so advertised the name of my film to its full potential.Tagline: The tagline develops conventions because of the way Ive positioned it in the top corner of my poster in a small block whereas typically the tagline would be placed across the poster most likely in the centre. This also challenges conventions as it follows straight on from the title of the film, whereas typically they would be placed apart on the poster - I chose to position the tagline and title together so that the audience could easily associated them with each other and I felt like the tagline flowed on nicely from the title. In addition I have continuity by keeping using the same font as I did with the title so that they compliment each other and look aesthetically pleasing. The curly, soft font gives the correct intended feel for a romantic drama film.Image: The image I used in my film poster reinforces some conventions that a real film magazine would use as it shows the two main characters in full central focus occupying the majority of the space on the poster. The image uses forms and conventions that real romantic drama film trailers would use due to the position which the two characters are in, they are in a loving embrace and the this gives off a warm and romantic feel which is what we expect to see on a romantic film poster. The image also develops some aspects of the conventions as their is a lot of lighting around the side and behind the characters, I felt this made my poster look more aesthetically pleasing and would make the audience engage with the poster and film more. Actors Names: The actors names were positioned along the bottom of the poster on either side of the actor. I feel this develops upon conventions of real film posters as many choose to have actors names placed along the top of their poster. I opted to not place them at the top as I felt that the title would be better positioned their and would get more recognition from my audience; I felt like the actors names were a less important part of the poster and so werent necessary at the top. I still feel that they work effectively being placed at the bottom and due to the dark image they are placed against they stand out very bold and clearly in the white font for my audience to read. I again kept continuity by having the actors names printed in the same style font that the title and tagline were used, to ensure my poster is effective and to reinforce the romantic genre.Billing Block: The billing block uses typical conventions we see in real film posters as they are almost always placed along the bottom of the poster, this is because they tend to be less important for the audience to see and dont need to be as eye catching. However it is a good part to include on the poster so that production, actors and crew get recognition and to advertise the film as a whole. The billing block was written in the same colour font as the rest of the writing on the poster, this was to ensure everything worked well and looked effective together and also because the white was the best colour to contrast from the dark coloured background. The font for the billing block was slightly different as all billing blocks tend to be written in the same long, square, squashed font - so to follow conventions I opted to change my style of font and make the writing very small and narrow.Colour Scheme: I think that my colour scheme used throughout the poster uses typical conventions of real romantic drama film posters as I have stuck with dark, pale colours with a small amount of bright lights around the actors to show that they are the focus and to also emphasise a warm and loving film. I also feel that the darkness of the colours used helps to make all the writing on the poster contrast to become very eye catching which is what is needed for a film poster to be successful when advertising.

In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Skyline: The skyline on my magazine cover uses all the conventions of a real magazine cover, it is positioned horizontally along the very top of the cover and it gives the information that is expected from a cover line, a short line that tells you something a little extra that will be in the magazine. I chose a bold font to make it stand out and be eye catching for the audience, and I also selected a purple font as I felt that this was the best colour to contrast from the image.Title: The title also uses conventions of a real cover, it is positioned just below the skyline and is printed in really big and bold font to stand out from everything else and so it is noticeably the magazine title. I chose to have my title printed in white as it stood out the clearest and I thought it would be really eye catching.Image: The image develops the forms and conventions of real film magazine covers as it still uses the two main characters from the film which we would expect to see as they now become associated with that movie. However the positioning of the two actors isn't quite how wed expect them to be as it is a medium close up shot with their heads appearing in the centre of the cover - they fill up the entire cover when normally there is a background behind the characters; I did this because I didnt feel a background was necessary and I thought that having the actors over the whole cover would make them the biggest focus and nothing would be able to take away from that. I also feel that the positioning of the actors shows their intimacy and loving relationship as a couple which is the kind of feel we would expect from this genre of film presented on the magazine. Main Cover Line: The main cover line reinforces conventions of real magazine covers as it is positioned slightly below the centre of the magazine and printed horizontally across the whole width of the cover. In addition it is printed in bigger font than the cover lines, which ensures that it looks like the main cover line and is the most important information out of them. The main cover line also works as anchor text to link together the image along with the film, this follows typical conventions and helps to make my magazine cover and overall campaign successful. I chose to have the main cover line in purple to remain consistent with the colour of the skyline and this was also the best colour to contrast against the colour in the image.Cover Lines: The cover lines reinforce conventions of real magazine covers as they are positioned along both sides of the cover in the centre, the cover lines appear smaller than the main cover line which shows they smaller pieces of information about the magazine on them compared to the main cover line. The cover lines were also printed in purple to keep the continuity and to make sure they look like they work well with the other pieces of writing on the cover. Although I feel that the colour of the cover lines makes them slightly harder to read due to the colours on the background it was the best option I could choose. The cover lines were written in a bold square font as I felt that the important information would be read clearly form this font and look effective and professional on the cover.Puff: I included a puff n my magazine cover which follows conventions that are used on real magazine covers, puffs are included to present a small exciting extra that is in the magazine. The puff is expected to stand out from the cover as if it is puffing out and it is meant to contrast from the rest of the information on the cover. To ensure my puff worked well on my cover I selected a circle shape with spikes around the outside as I felt this would be an eye catching choice and also fitted in with the spikes that were coming off of the title. I made the puff a light pink colour as this worked well with the rest of the colours on the cover but also showed a clear contrast from everything else, this ensured that it stood out and was eye catching. The font within the puff was written in white to contrast clearly from the pink background it was on and I felt this would be the most successfully colour to use to allow the puffs information to stand out - the font was also written in the same style as the cover lines to remain consistent and to make sure everything worked well together.Barcode: The barcode reinforces forms and conventions of real magazine covers as a lot of magazines tend to have their barcode positioned in the bottom right hand corner, to keep it away from the information and images printed on the cover - so this is why I decided to place mine where it is. The barcode also includes the date of issue, issue number and the price which uses conventions as that is what is expected to be shown somewhere on the magazine around the barcode area as it remains separate from the film information the magazine is presenting.Colour Scheme:The colour scheme uses conventions of real magazine covers as their is a consistent colour scheme running throughout and the pastel colours help to portray the romantic drama genre that my film is. I remained consistent with a purple and white theme, with a small amount of pink which worked successfully and contrasted nicely. The image has pale basic colour so that the writing can stand out from it, the colours within the image - grey, white and khaki, compliment the colours of the text surrounding it.

In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?My film trailer starts off with an establishing shot, the type of shot reinforces conventions that are used in real media products. Establishing shots are used to show the audience a location which helps to convey the atmosphere of the trailer, in my film we chose to do an establishing shot of the field as this is where the first scene takes place and is where the two main characters meet so it is of great significance to the storyline. When choosing the location we were filming we purposefully selected to have the tree, bench and bush in the frame to make the shot look more interesting and effective rather than just an empty field. In addition my film trailer uses real media product conventions by including happy, upbeat, cheerful music playing from the beginning throughout the first half of the trailer - this type of music is typical of romantic films as they are expected to be happy and light hearted, the music also helps to depict the mood of the film to the audience.This frame shows another shot from our trailer, this is a long / medium shot as the actors start from further away showing their whole body and then they walk towards the camera. The camera is positioned lower than eye level so that when the actors get nearer to the camera it focuses on their hand hold - signifying the development in their relationship. The close positioning of the characters shows that they get on and have a close bond which contrasts to scenes shown further on in the trailer where they are positioned apart. Long shots arent typically used in real romantic films as they often use medium or close up shots to show couples intimacy and close bond - however we chose to challenge this and I feel that this shot was very effective and worked well within the trailer.

In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?This close up shot follows forms and conventions of real film trailers as close ups are often used to portray intense emotion - which is the reason we selected this style of shot as we wanted to show the female characters sadness and heartbreak as she was crying. However we could have opted for a long shot to show the characters loneliness and isolation after breaking up from her relationship. Also during this shot we used a voice over which again uses conventions of real film trailers, the voice over helps to tell part of the story to the audience which may not be able to be shown within the few short minutes of the trailer and keeps the trailer flowing. In my trailer we opted for a voice over to explain why the girl was so emotional without having to show different shots of the male kissing a different female an then our main female finding out which could have made the trailer over complicated and taken away from the effectiveness of the role of two main characters. At this point in the trailer a fade transition was used to transition into this shot, a fade is typical of real romantic drama film trailers and we used it to signify the change of atmosphere and mood. In addition to convey the change of the trailers atmosphere we used a different song to contrast from the upbeat track played throughout the first half of the trailer. The second song follows forms and conventions that would be used in real romantic drama films as when the drama happens the music is used to help emphasise this and so we opted for a sad, sombre, more dramatic track for the second half of the trailer.This shot is a medium shot of the two main characters arguing and fighting, they were placed on either side of the frame purposefully to show the distance that has come between them. The amount of space surrounding them suggests that they are both now isolated from each other and on their own. This reinforces typical conventions used by real romantic drama films as when drama occurs longer viewed shots are used to show the distance and difficulties they are facing which contrasts from the closer up shots where the characters would be positioned closer together.

In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Another close up was used to show the very front of the car just before it hits the dog. Close ups follows the conventions that we would expect to see in real romantic drama films as close ups are used to show both drama and to signify the importance of something - the car is an important part of the trailer as its the reason for the dog becoming injured and is also partly responsible for the couple possibly reconciling at the end of the trailer. This shot is followed by another fade transition into a black screen - the fade transition uses conventions that real romantic drama films would use. We used the fade into black for a number of reasons, one was to show the fact that the trailer had come to a very dark point in the story, secondly it was to help show the pass of time between the dog being hit by the car and then the dog being taken into a vets in the next shot, and finally we chose to have a black screen so that we could include the sound effects of the car screeching followed very closely by the dog whimpering so that our audience could understand that the car had come to a stop suddenly and that the dog was injured.The next shot is a medium shot which is follows conventions of real film trailers. The shot is filmed at a slight high angle which suggests that the female character and even the dog are the more vulnerable characters, whereas the male character appears to be a lot stronger as he is standing up with only his bottom half of his body in the shot and he is turning towards the door to leave - this is to suggest the male is moving on from the relationship and doesnt feel he can do anything to fix it.The female looks up to the male in a pitiful way before standing up to his level to ask the main to wait, this uses conventions as most romantic drama films always resolve the drama and one of the individuals in the relationship makes the decision to sort out their problems and give each other another chance where they then go on to have a very happy and loving relationship - which is how we intended our audience to picture the ending as we left it on a cliffhanger so the audience could have a think about it themselves and become engaged with the trailer/film. By ending the trailer on a cliffhanger it creates suspense for the audience and also makes them want to see the film as they have unanswered questions and want to know what happens after the cliffhanger - it is typical for real trailers to use cliffhangers to draw in a big audience and so by including this in my trailer I have used conventions.

In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?At the end of my trailer I used a black background to present the title of the film, I placed the title at the end of the trailer so that the audience would have to watch the whole trailer to find out the name of the film and so would keep them engaged and also I feel it will then stick with my audience more as it will be one of the last things they see. In addition I included the tagline of my film so that the audience have something catchy to remember the film by and if they see that tagline they can then associate it with the film. I used a plain background with bright white text so they contrasted clearly and the writing stood out. By doing this I have used forms and conventions which are used in real film trailers. I challenged conventions by not including my main actors names on a black background at the end of the trailer, I chose not to do this as I didnt feel it was relevant or would add anything extra to the trailer; in addition some teaser trailers dont include the name of their actors but main trailers do and since my product is only a teaser trailer I chose not to include the actors names.In addition after the title I used another black background to add in writing stating when the film would be coming to cinemas. This uses forms and conventions that real film trailers use as they put the date of release at the end so that their audience know when they can see the full film. I opted for a different font on this frame as I found that real film trailers tend to use a very bold, defining, simple font for this piece of writing to contrast from the rest of the writing that has been shown.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? Why do they work as a campaign?I feel that my ancillary tasks, especially my film poster and magazine cover, work effectively together along with my main product to produce a successful campaign. My poster and magazine cover both use the same brand name for the film and both have the film name positioned in a clear and noticeable place to maximise the advertisement and success of the film. Although the font differs on both the poster and the magazine cover, I chose to do this as the font on the magazine cover had to be bolder and thicker to contrast from the background and also it makes the writing more eye catching to appeal to my target audience. Despite this the colours that I have used on both ancillary tasks compliment each other as I have stuck to using pastel colours - mostly purples, pinks and a small amount of green. I feel that these colours work well for my films genre, romantic drama, and set a warming atmosphere for the film. The font that I used on the film poster I also chose to use in the film trailer as I wanted the ancillary tasks to appear like they are linked to the film trailer and by using the font from the film poster it also follows conventions effectively of the type of font that would be using in romantic genre films and it gives a light, warm, loving feel for the film. The film trailer presents the film title and its tag line at the end on top of a black screen, this shows that my main product and ancillary task work effectively as a campaign as they all have the same brand name but also the film poster and main product work really effectively together as they both include the tagline,

which reinforces the film title and tagline so that it catches the attention of my target audience and promotes the film in the best possible and most effective way. The last frame of my film trailer is a black background with the words coming to cinemas written on it, I chose to do this in a bolder font following the same type of style that was used on the magazine cover - I opted for this style of font as I thought it was very bold and eye catching and would make the important information contrast clearly from everything else shown. In addition the main product, film poster and magazine cover all include the same two actors who were casted as the main characters for the film, the continuity of the actors ensures that my campaign follows typical conventions and is successful and effective - also the consistent use of the two main characters on both the film poster and magazine cover mean that the audience can link images of the characters back to the film as the pictures are always associated with the film title A Winters Love.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We recorded evidence of a selected audiences reaction to our teaser trailer before we asked them five questions about the trailer to receive feedback for us then to analysis what we had learnt from their feedback. We selected two female who matched our target audience of 15-25 year old females to see if the trailer appeals to them how we wanted it to, but we also selected two young males to see if it would or wouldn't appeal to them and to hear their feedback on why they felt that way. The video shows four completely different reactions ranging from the first audience member who was really engaged with everything that was happening and became emotionally involved with the trailer especially when the dog got injured - which was unexpected due to the fact this particular audience member wasn't part of our target audience however this was a good sign as it shows our trailer can also stretch out to a wider variety of audience members. The second audience member found the whole trailer rather funny and after watching it she stated that it was because the trailer showed a very cute relationship but also found the fighting part funny. The third audience member didn't show much of a reaction to the trailer and this could be because the trailer doesn't particularly appeal to him as he doesn't fit our target audience. The final audience member seemed to be engaged with the whole trailer as she watched intently showing small smiles throughout the happy sections of our trailer and she seemed to become even more engaged when the trailer reached the climax.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?What did you find most eye catching in the trailer?

From my audience feedback to this question I found that most of the members of the audience each found a different eye catching moment in the trailer. I learned that the first few scenes we used at the opening were the best scenes throughout the whole product and this made it the most eye catching due to the bright colours and light which suggested a cheerful atmosphere and this helped to set the correct mood for the trailer from the very beginning. In addition I learned from two of my pieces of feedback that the pan shot near the beginning of the film was the most eye catching moment due to the fact it used a different and unique camera shot which was not used throughout any other parts of the trailer and I also found that this part was particularly eye catching for the audience as it felt like it was from the point of view of the dog which my audience found very interesting and effective. In addition I learned that the climax in the trailer worked well and was effective, it had the right impact on the audience which I had anticipated and the change in atmosphere and attitude of the characters gripped the audience as everything had changed so rapidly and the drama made them engage with the trailer more and kept them watching till the end.

Do you feel the trailer is typical of a romantic drama?

From the four responses to this question I have learned that my romantic drama teaser trailer is typical of other romantic dramas meaning that it follows conventions and is how my audience expected the film to be. I noticed that all the responses stated that the reason for it being typical was because firstly it showed a romantic relationship and the journey this relationship went on from the very first moment they met and secondly the fact that it included dramatic moments, where things took a different turn which helped to build a climax in our trailer. I feel that the cheerful atmosphere, along with the bright colours and lighting used at the very start of our trailer throughout the first few opening scenes set the tone of a typical romantic drama film trailer straight away. In addition I feel that the climax that was included also helped contribute to the fact our trailer was typical to other romantic dramas, as they always contain action to keep the audience gripped till the very end and to make sure they are focused throughout. The climax helps to heighten the drama and we followed the conventions of typical romantic dramas by having a change in mood and having some big event happen, like an affair, which is expected in these genre films. However what is also expected and what also made our film even more typical to a romantic drama is the possibility of a reconciliation and happy ending at the end of the film and we showed this in our trailer as the female character asked the male character to wait just as he was about to leave, this suggests to our audience that she might want him back after all but we left it as a cliff hanger to leave our audience in suspense so that they can be asking themselves questions as to whether they will actually get back together or not - this helps to keep the audience engaged and focused. Overall I learnt that my film trailer is indeed very typical of other romantic dramas which I feel means I have succeeded in creating a teaser trailer for this specific genre and it should appeal to my target audience.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?What do you feel is the trailers strengths & weaknesses?

The responses to the second question I asked my audience varied slightly which helped me to learn a lot about what different aspects of my trailer were good and worked well and what parts werent as good and could maybe have been improved upon. Two of my audience feedback mentioned that a strength of my trailer is the fact that many parts do seem very realistic due to the connection the actors had with each other which I feel helped to make the trailer engaging. In addition I also learnt that other strengths include the choice of music, I feel as if my audience liked the tracks that we chose and they fitted well with the intended atmosphere and mood of the trailer and the transition of music worked well, changing from happy and upbeat to sad and dramatic. I also feel that the music helped to convey the story to my audience. I also learnt from another audience members feedback that the use of camera shots and angles was of a good level of skill and variety and was effective in the trailer, I feel this shows that we successfully made the right creative decisions when filming and portrayed our film through the best possible use of camera shots. I learnt a lot from my audiences feedback on the weaknesses of my trailer as I took this as constructive criticism, much of the feedback was related to the ending of our trailer surrounding the incident where the dog got hit by a car as many thought that it wasnt clear enough and were confused at this point as to what had happened to the dog and whether the dog was alive or dead. In addition many became confused when the male character brought the dog wrapped up in a blanket to the vets and then straight after brought the dog running back into the females home - they felt that there wasnt enough explanation or clear enough transitions between these shots and everything moved too fast for them to understand. I feel this may be due to the fact that as the creator and director of the trailer I knew the story very clearly and therefore thought it was simple and assumed that through the action in the frames that I chose to put together that they would make sense because I could understand them, however from an audience members perspective I know understand that it does seem more confusing and that more needed to be explained and so to improve when creating other pieces of work I need to bare in mind how the audience would perceive things. Another weakness that was mentioned was the quality of the audio, I do in fact feel that the audio was quite poor at times due to the lack of technology we had available to us when filming meaning we didnt have a microphone to record sound and we could only deal with the quality of the sound that the camera produced. We did try to overcome this issue by recording voice overs to put on top of the shots when editing our trailer, however when we tried this the voices sounded too fake and made it too obvious that the actors voice werent actually coming from their mouths in the scenes being shown but were in fact recorded after the actual scenes were shot. We made a decision to stick with the audio that came with the film clips if it was of a good enough quality for us to hear and understand and didnt feel it ruined the trailer, however there were a couple of times in the trailer where voice overs had to be used as without it the voices of the actors could not be heard due to loud back ground noise or the fact that the actors just werent speaking clearly or loudly enough.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?Did you feel the sound/music worked well?

I learned from the feedback of this question that the sound and music that we picked to be included in our trailer worked really effectively and was successful and was a big strength of the trailer as whole. All the audience members thought that both choices of music used throughout the trailer were very good as they both depicted the atmosphere correct atmosphere as the music at the beginning was described as optimistic, upbeat and happy which was how we had hoped our audience would see it. In addition the second piece of music we used to show the change in mood and atmosphere worked equally as well as it again depicted the correct intended mood and atmosphere for that part of the trailer which was quite sombre and emotionally. I feel that the choice of music helped to convey the story and symbolised when things were going well between the couple and when they had reached a difficult point in their journey. I found overall the music did work well and how we had hoped it would work as the audiences feedback was all very positive and in addition some audience members stated that the music helped them to feel an emotional connection throughout the trailer. The sound effects received mostly positive feedback from three out of four audience members, I learned from this that my choice in sound effect was successful and helped work with the trailers action to make the overall product and storyline very effective. I feel that both sound effects that were included in the trailer, the car screeching and the dog whimpering, were very realistic which worked well with all the action happening within the trailer as that was also realistic. Despite the positivity from the feedback on the sound effects used during the trailer, there was one comment in the feedback that made me learn something extra as they felt that the sound effects could have been improved to help make the story clearer and easier to understand - I feel that if the storyline and shots had made this section of the trailer clearer then the sound still would have worked well and wouldnt have needed to be altered, however Ill take the criticism on board and if I was to do the project again I would think about experimenting with different sounds and seeing if, when editing, the sounds could be placed at a better point or closer together to tell the story better so all my audience members would be aware that the car screeching was because they had hit the dog and immediately after the car screeching the dog whimpered as a consequence of the incident and its injuries.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What would you suggest to improve?

I feel I learnt most from this question in my audience feedback as I was able to hear a variety of audience members opinions on how they feel I could have improved the trailer and this feedback was coming from people that were and werent within my target audience so this gave me a chance to think about how I could have made the trailer connect with my target audience even more as well as ways to improve to connect to people that werent within my specified target audience so that I could gain a bigger audience. The first thing I learned was that the ending of the trailer could have possibly had a shot where it showed more of the couples reconciliation which is typical of a romantic drama, to show this I could have filmed a shot where the couple hugged or kissed briefly just to confirm to my audience that the relationship is going to have a happy ending - however the argument to this is that then my trailer wouldnt be left on a cliffhanger and wouldnt leave the audience with questions to ask as they would have seen how the problems between the couple were resolved, this could then have disengaged my audience and made them not as interested in the film. Another improvement I learnt was that the transitions in the second half of the trailer could have been improved to show a clearer change in time and location,as a result this would have made my trailer clearer and easier for my audience to understand. Also an improvement suggested during the feedback was that the sound quality of the audio could be improved so that the speech is clearer and not as crackly at times, from this piece of feedback in particular I learnt hat when filming any piece of media its not all about the action and what you can see in the frame but the sound/audio is also a really important part to remember and focus on as well and it should be bared in mind when filming, to improve the audio all Id need to do is use a microphone when filming to capture the audio and to also listen to my clips back to see if the sound is of a good enough quality and can be heard clearly and loudly with no background sound interfering. The last improvement suggested was something that after having my audience feedback session I also agreed with, this was to clarify the scenes involving the dog and car incident and making it clearer what had actually happened to the dog as when my audience watched the trailer the shots jumped very quickly through different periods of time and this left my audience a bit puzzled at times to if the dog was alive or not. In addition the shot where the dog is pictured in the blanket could have been made clearer as some audience members were left wondering whether the dog was actually in the blanket or if it was something else, also the shots where the male character took the dog into the vets should have been made clearer as it wasnt obvious where the male character had taken the dog to especially as straight after the shot where he had entered the vets there was a shot which showed him entering the females house with the dog fully alive and healthy. To overcome this issue I could have also experimented with different transitions to show the pass of time and different locations, the shape of the blanket could have been shaped in a clearer way to represent the dog or we could have experimented with different camera angles to make it look like a dog more. Another way to overcome the confusion in the second part of the trailer would have been to use a different location for the vets, one that would have set the location a lot more successfully and clearly than the one we had used as looking back on the trailer now with my selected audience I can see that it looks like the male character is just taking the dog into a house - possibly the females house - instead of the vets. I learned that I need to be very careful and precise when planning my shots in my storyboard and I need to make sure that everything will be clear enough for my audience to understand and not just for me to understand, when I already know the whole plot.

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

Computer Hardware: For all three stages of this project I had to use a computer hardware. I used both an apple iMac computer, an apple Macbook Air and an apple Macbook Pro. During the construction and research stage I started by using the iMac computer and I found that although it had a lot of storage which would be very useful when storing all the clips for my trailer as well as all my work for the construction of the trailer, I found this computer hardware to be slightly slower than I had hoped and it was slightly unreliable which meant that it wasnt as effective as other hardwares I had available. So I switched to using an apple Macbook Air which was a very fast processor and was very reliable, this enabled me to work very quickly and effectively. In addition the Macbook Air had a better quality screen and had more up to date applications available for me to use. When creating my film poster and magazine cover I began using the iMac computers as the screen was a lot wider and enabled me to have a clearer view of my work however when I realised that the Macbook Air had a more up to date version of the software I was using I was quick to switch computers so that I would have the best features and design tools available to me to use, to help ensure my products were the best they could be. I also found the Macbook Air easier and more convenient to work on and it met all of my computer hardwares needs. When we began construction of our trailer I switched to a Macbook Pro which has basically identically computer hardware to the Macbook Air, it has the same processor and quality screen but the only difference was it had slightly more storage which was convenient as it enabled us to store all our footage easily and securely without having to worry about limited storage space.

Inputs: Inputs concern cables that are used to connect the camera to the computer so that all the footage filmed can be easily and quickly transferred onto a hardware drive to make sure it is safely stored ready to be edited. For filming both an iPhone and video camera were used, we used two different cables to transfer the footage from both devices so that they could be combined and used together on the same computer.

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

Keynote: One of the first software media technologies I used during the research and planning stage was Keynote, this was used to show all my research and to show different pieces of analytical work, building up to my own project. Keynote is a very simple software to use with loads of different features, it enables endless amounts of writing in a number of slides that can all be formatted in different ways. The software allows tables, charts, texts, shapes, videos, audio clips and pictures to be inserted whenever and wherever you wish. The text can be edited in many ways by choosing from a variety of fonts, colours, sizes, styles, altering the alignment and spacing and adding in columns and bullet points to create a list. The software also has a unique feature allowing you to animate your presentation by having transitions between each slide.

Safari: Safari was used plenty of times through all the stages of the process, firstly it was used for research so that I could develop my knowledge about typical film magazines, posters and trailers - the internet allowed me to explore a wide range of examples which then allowed me to experiment with different ideas when it came down to my own designs. In addition safari allowed me to find out how to use new and different software to broaden my knowledge and enable me to use more advanced softwares and features. Safari also enabled me access to Youtube and Blogger which were both vital websites I used throughout this process; in addition I was able to access a website called SlideShare which allows me to share the presentations I create on Keynote on the internet so they can be displayed on my blog to show my whole process.

Youtube: Youtube enabled me to see other teaser trailers so that I could understand how they worked and what sort of conventions hey typical show and include. The website easily enabled me to narrow down searches that I could select trailers just from my chosen genre of film so that I could see what conventions are used and how I could then develop them further in my own work. Besides watching trailers, youtube also helped me get to grips with new software when I became stuck as there were many tutorials to show me how to use certain features which helped me create my film poster, magazine and trailer.

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

Blogger: Blogger is a website which enabled me to share all my work online in a neat and organised blog that I could design and layout how I liked. I used blogger to display all my work that I had completed throughout this process in one place, I was able to order them in a logical and convenient way for others to see and could also add labels to group blog posts together if people were only interested in seeing a certain aspect of my work. In addition using blogger to display my work meant that I could create blogposts to show how my ideas developed throughout the process by posting updates and evidence form the very start of the process right through to when the products were completed. The website is very easy to get to grips with and allows you to layout blog posts in many way, by giving you options to change the alignment, size, style, colour and font of text as well as enabling you to embed pictures, videos, slideshows and links so items from other websites or from your computer can be shared quickly from your blog.

Photoshop: Photoshop was used during the construction stage of the process; it was used to create two of my ancillary tasks, the film poster and the magazine cover. At first I found photoshop quite tricky to use as it includes a lot of advanced features, but after a while it became pretty straightforward to use and play around with. When I used photoshop I imported my main images so that they could be the background and then I imported in pictures of text that I had created on online websites - however these pictures had a white background on them which wouldn't be any good against my images, to solve this photoshop has a cut out tool which allowed me to get rid of the white background completely and my font stayed the way I wanted it. I was able to use an eraser tool that meant I could remove anything that I wanted, so I could cut around things in my main image if I had wanted to. In addition photoshop enabled me to make the fonts I had imported different colours and thickness so that if I didnt like the colour that I had originally imported the font or it didnt go well with my background I could really easily and quickly change it and play around with features to see what made it look best. On top of all of this photoshop enabled me to type out text straight onto the project I was working on and this also had a range of options to enable me to change the way the writing looking, such as size, font, style, spacing and colour; also it enabled me to add shapes to the project and make them any colour I liked so that I was able to create a puff on my magazine cover to make sure it followed typical conventions.

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

iMovie: The final piece of software I used during this process was iMovie, which I used in my construction stage to edit together my teaser trailer. This software was really simple and effective to use, it enabled me to import all the clips I was using into one place so I could see the section I had and drag them into the section where I was ordering, trimming and splitting the trailer. It was simple to order them just by dragging them around each other, to trim the clips Id just have to drag either end to where I wanted the clip to start/finish and then to split the clip into two halves Ive just have to right click. On iMovie I was also able to speed up or slow down clips if I needed too and I could also alter the volume of the sound - so clips where there was no sound needed and there was background noise I muted and then the ones with audio I could turn up so that it could be hear clearly. In addition iMovie gave me the option of adding filters to the clips so that if I wish I could have sections of my trailer in black and white or sepia etc. The software also allowed me to do some colour correction by matching colours in same frames to colours in other frames that werent quite the same due to change of lighting or camera angle - for example in the field some patches of the grass werent as green as others so I could select a colour from when section of the grass and apply it to the rest. iMovie also enabled me to use transitions between clips, the only transition I did use in my trailer besides a cut was a fade, iMovie made this really simple and easy to do by just dragging the transition to where I wanted it in the sequence and I could change the duration the fade lasted for. Also I could add plain coloured backgrounds which meant at the end of my trailer I could insert a black background and add writing over the top - this software had a limited amount of font to choose from and I couldnt position it where ever I liked I just had to select from the positions it offered me and stick with it which was a downside to this software. However I was still able to use a font that matched my genre of film as well as the font used on my film poster, I chose a white font to contrast sharply from the black background to make it eye catching for my audience and in addition to this I added a second black background to insert writing of when the film would be in cinemas as this is typically shown at the end of trailers, this time I chose a different font that didnt match my genre film as it was a lot more bolder and defined which I think worked well by contrasting agains the other text and it also helped to link in with the font I had used on my magazine cover. The final feature which I used on iMovie was the importing of music, I was able to download music tracks off the internet or use music already on my computer and add them into my trailer, similarly to the video clips I could order, trim and split the music however I wanted and I could also alter the volume of the music and make it fade out so that I could combine more than one music track throughout my trailer. I was able to have more than one sound playing at a time which meant I could have both music and audio playing or music and sound effects, so I wasnt limited as to what I could do with my trailer.

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

Video Camera: When in the construction stage of our process I began using physical media technologies, one of which was a small hand held video camera. The video camera had a long lasting rechargeable battery which meant we were able to use the video camera in any location we required even if there wasn't a plug socket to access and this meant that when we went out to shoot shots we werent restricted to a short time limit as the camera lasted long enough for us to film everything we required without having to recharge again. This video camera also had a memory card included to store all our footage securely, the memory card had enough space to store the amount of footage we required to film. Using the video camera allowed us to film a wide variety of different shots and angles and it also enabled us to zoom in and out of shots so we could get the perfect framing like we had intended. Despite this there were a few negative aspect to using the video camera, one being the fact that the video camera didnt come with a tripod which made filming quite tricky as we had to make sure when holding the camera we remained perfectly still and straight so not to capture a shaky or crooked shot; the second downside to the camera was the fact that the quality of the footage was not quite as good as when we tested out footage with an iPhone, this included the quality of the sound captured as we werent able to access a microphone which made audio very hard to pick up and hear on the video camera.

iPhone 6S: It was decided to use an iPhone in the construction stages when filming our trailer purely down to the fact that the quality of the footage was much better in my opinion. The iPhone had the same problem with not having a tripod to ensure the camera remained level and steady, however to overcome this problem we just made sure we focused when holding the iPhone and filming and kept a very steady hand - we also made sure to watch each clip back through after filming to check that it was the correcting framing we wanted and that the shot was nice and clean. Similarly to the video camera the iPhone enabled us to film a variety of different camera shots and angles as well as allowing us to zoom in and out of a frame, however the iPhone allowed us to focus on the people or items in the shot more so than the video camera did and also the audio was slightly better quality on the iPhone than the video camera but yet again we were unable to have access to a microphone which we could have benefitted from greatly. One major negative aspect of the iPhone was the very limited storage space it had available for us to film with, however we made sure we would have enough before going out and filming by clearing up the storage not he device and we had a back up iPhone ready to use if the storage did become full. The particular iPhone we used had 1334x750-pixel resolution, a 12 mega pixel camera lens and 16GB of storage space.

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