Advanced Portfolio Evaluation

By Amber Gamble

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

There are many elements across the three media texts that take on conventions from real media texts. Within the final cut conscious choice has been made in order to incorporate typical aspects from a trailer. For example the use of a voiceover, recorded in the style of a typical American Hollywood males voice, creating a sense of familiarity and ultimately acceptance for the audience.

Voiceover- click to listen

Additionally titles have been included, (print screen titles) a common convention noted during the research stage, leading the narrative and enticing the audience to want to see the film. What’s more, Careful decision was taken with regards to the style of font used, unsatisfied with the fonts already in flash I made use of the internet to find my desired font, www.dafont.com provided me with the perfect typography, with spotlights incorporated within to cement the idea of fame and stardom, similar to the font used for the film Fame, 2009, Kevin Tancharoen.

Pace within a trailer is very important, therefore editing of sound and footage to create a feeling of excitement was essential. The trailer starts slow in order to build the audience up, with shots lasting as long as 4 seconds.

Half way through the trailer at 00:00:24 the pace picks up, a sound whoosh has been layered in to pre-empt the idea that something is about the change, as well the inclusion of a title and dissolve to white transition all used to create the idea that one has entered a new stage.

Direct ComparisonsConscious choice with regards to locations have been made, every shot holds iconic imagery/ props which conotate fame and stardom, for example music equipment, a stage, the wings.

Piano

Stage

Gymnasium (all

iconic of aspects

of fame)

Such locations have also been used to build upon a narrative, not including the first and last shot, the rest of footage within the trailer leads the characters through a journey, walking through a school corridor and finishing on stage with the audience clapping, such conventions have also been included in the trailer Step Up, whereby, the trailer starts with aspects of the beginning of the film and ends with clips of the final performance.

Establishing setting and

location.

Finishing with the

performance on stage.

Seeking Stardom Step Up

Both ancillary tasks again feature forms and conventions of real media products.

Ancillary 1- Magazine Front Cover

MASTHEAD

IMPORTANT CHARACTERS MAIN FOCUS

OF MAG

LANGUAGE

TECHNIQUES

FOR THE MAIN

TITLE

PUFFS

PUG

Ancillary 2- Film Poster

The film poster again considers codes and conventions from real media, for example the inclusion of images of the main icons in the film, release date and production company logos as well as elements iconic from the film itself such a wording from the titles and similar fonts in order to create a sense of familiarity for the audience. Common amongst packages of products used to promote.

To conclude, its evident that in order to meet audience expectations, during the creation of media products they must subconsciously and consciously use, develop and challenge real media conventions.

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

Planning and Research:New media technologies were an essential part of all processes within the production of my media products. During the research stage the Internet was particularly helpful for obtaining information about trailers and their purpose, as well as online editions of magazines such as media magazine that had particularly useful information. Moreover the use of YouTube to view real media texts and take a grasp on the look of existing trailers which can be analysed to gain an understanding on the types of codes and conventions vital for inclusion. What’s more by creating a blog planning stages such as brainstorms can be scanned and uploaded onto ones blog and then referred to quick and easily at a later date. Proving particularly helpful as during the creation stages all my planning was in one place to refer to for creative ideas.

Media Magazine webpage My blog with scanned brainstorm.

Construction:Throughout the construction process it could be argued that without media technologies any form of construction would have been impossible. In order to film the footage I used new HD cameras which gave me a high quality finish to the shots, however it did take some practice before I became accustomed to the settings available in order to capture a quality shot. In addition the use of audio recorders was needed, as there was issues with certain bits of audio from different clips not flowing, therefore I had to record this audio again and lip sync it together with the clip- my final piece changed so much from the drawing board I never ended up using these shots, however practice with such technology was useful.

The quality recorded of Becca’s singing was poor on the HD cameras, therefore I needed to record it again using audio equipment.

Furthermore, the construction stage also provided the need to use programs such as garage band in order to record a voiceover and meet the codes and conventions of a trailer. New to such program proved challenging however interesting, after navigating the program I found the ability to record podcasts and the likes, a fact good to know for the future.

During the post-production stage, applications such as premiere pro and flash were used for editing and the creation of titles- again another vital convention for a trailer. Premiere pro allowed me to edit the footage together to create a sequence, I wanted to create a cinematic effect on my shots, unsure as to whether I was able to do this on Premiere Pro I searched YouTube to find tutorials. I was able to find numerous tutorials in which guided me to create this effect, a process I avoided during the foundation portfolio. The program flash enabled me to create some professional looking titles that aided the feeling of fame and stardom within the trailer due to the inclusion of a spotlight flashing across the text- a lengthy and difficult process, but one, which was well worth it.

The spotlight was created by using flash and within it stop

frames.By looking at video tutorials on YouTube I was able to find out how to create a cinematic effect to my shots, one of the stages was to use the three way colour corrector- as shown above in print screen, by experimenting with the different colours in the shot I was able to create a more professional looking finish.

New Media technologies for the evaluation stage:For my evaluation the use of new media technologies was essential, firstly the simple fact that programs such as QuickTime were needed in order to play the trailer for people to give me their feedback for the evaluation. What’s more the use of PowerPoint to display the evaluation in a professional and organized way and finally the internet in order to obtain videos from YouTube to make direct comparisons.

How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary tasks?I believe the combination of main and ancillary tasks to be particularly effective due to several reasons. Firstly, the trailer can be used to promote the film, through viewings at the cinema before films of a PG and 12 rating of a similar genre, for example, comedy or romantic, not for example horror or action films.

In addition the film poster can be placed around cinemas, on the sides of buses and in the underground. Due to aspects of intertextuality and synergy, for example that of the film title font used in both the trailer and the film poster familiarity is established for the audience and therefore they can have an image of the film in their head (should they have seen the trailer) when they see the poster.

Furthermore, the film magazine is also a good promotional text should the film be the main focus of the months magazine, I also made sure to include aspects of intertextuality within this product also, done by. A great way for promotion, through audience members viewing the characters and aspects of the film on the shelves of different stores.

Click to play trailer

Film Poster Magazine Cover

Creating Synergy: Inclusion of the same typography for the title of the film, within the film poster and trailer, the same colour across all three texts, yellow iconic of stars, thus stardom. Becca

(singer) is always the main focus of the text, positioned in the middle of both ancillary tasks and framed centrally within the shots. All of these techniques help to create familiarity and thus

recognition for the audience.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/mgm/fame/fame_teaser-large.html-

Use the link to view the fame teaser trailer.

As well as film posters and a trailer another way of promotion was a radio advert, fame teamed up with kiss100

in which information and promotion for the film was broadcast, in order to

create synergy the radio advert used the same soundtrack that is evident in the trailer in order to establish a sense

of familiarity for the audience.

What have your learned from your audience feedback?In order to gain audience feedback it was essential to create a questionnaire and then organise viewings in which the target audience of 12-18 could view the products and give their feedback. However, it proved difficult organising a large viewing therefore the use of new media technologies came into play. I uploaded my trailer onto YouTube and copied and pasted the link onto different peoples walls on Facebook in order to gain some views on what the audience felt about the products. This proved the most effective method. It was evident that the majority of viewers accepted the text due to the way the text had been pieced together, they understood the messages within the text, a piece of promotional material for a new feature film. Certain audience viewers felt the editing of music worked well, due to the way it builds up and thus creates suspense and maintains the audiences engagement.

There were those who felt the spotlight effect across the text worked well tying in with the theme of fame, additionally the range of shots within gave an understanding of the text but at the same time didn’t reveal everything.

It was noted that the text used for the title screen “coming to cinemas near you” wasn’t effective and therefore should I produce a text similar to this again I will bear that in mind and carry out more research into the type of typography which should be used. Moreover, many people mentioned that for a trailer it lacked as much pace as they would have liked to feel. From this I can understand my editing skills need to improve further in order to meet this requirement.

The ancillary tasks also received positive feedback, the purpose of the magazine cover was clearly established. One person said “by encompassing all of the necessary codes and conventions I was able to immediately understand the genre of the text, however I feel it lacks professionalism due to the typography used, it looks to similar to a font I use within my word documents.” from this I can understand that browsing different fonts from different websites is necessary in order to create a sense of differentiation and professionalism. Additionally the film poster received generally good feedback, however one person failed to understand the genre of the text, mistaking it for a DVD cover, they felt the spotlight effect was creative but they wanted to see more of the females dancers face.

Lastly, having shown my products to audience members I was overwhelmed with the responses, everyone believed the texts to be very effective and thoroughly enjoyable, these views contrasted to that of my own as I feel slightly disappointed by the final outcome- perhaps a little too critical of my own work.

Take more consideration into typography

Audience feedback.