Evaluation

Teaser Trailer, Film Poster, Magazine Cover

My media products both uses and challenges conventions of real media products. As the genre of my trailer is thriller, I had looked at professional teaser trailers of the same genre, and noticed what themes I could notice from all the products, and decided to imitate this in my own teaser trailer. What I noticed is that in each trailer, they all had suspense, tension and mystery. I decided to incorporate each of these features in my teaser trailer so that my audience could recognize what genre the film was just by watching the teaser trailer.

My product also challenges conventions, as the characters used are not that of a typical Hollywood teaser trailer. I decided to have two female characters and one male character with a minor role. In most of the professional teaser trailers I had seen most of them had moth male and female characters with male characters being the most dominant, I decided to challenge this convention and instead have lead female characters.

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

Here you can see the characters I had chose for my teaser trailer.

Here you can see the characters I used in my film, I decided to go for working class people, instead of middle class people that is usually seen in most thrillers. Also I choose to have on scene set in a small cafe instead of a restaurant to show the type of movie it is.

My product uses conventions, through the camera shot, editing and mise-en- scene. The shots used added to the suspense of the teaser trailer. I used a range of shots, such as close ups and over shoulder shots. The camera shots help establish the genre, as seen below the over shoulder shot adds mystery. While I was producing my trailer, I decided to have different locations with different lighting as it also helps the audience see that the genre of my film which is thriller.

From the research, I seen most of the teaser trailers I have analysed use a range of transitions, so I decided to do the same by using allot of Fades, I decided to have fades that help transition to other scenes.

During the editing process I decided to use very little narrative as I didn't want to give to much away and in other professional teaser trailer I had seen the actions of the actors and their mise- en- scene e.g. facial expression give the teaser trailers more tension and builds the suspense well rather that the text or narrative.

As I noticed from the three movie posters I had analysed I saw that the credits need to stand out and it also need to mention the name of the characters and the director, as well as the production company and features for example soundtrack.

Also in the three movie trailers I analysed they all had a tag line underneath the title that gives the audience an insight about what the film is about. So decided the tag line on my film would be `this July the secret is about to be revealed’. As my film is about a secret I decided to have that mentioned on my film poster it also tells the audience the genre of the film.

The title `Hidden Notes’, I decided to have the title in big bold metallic font so it stands out, that why I also decide to make it the largest font on the poster as it shows the name of the film.

When deciding on the main image for my poster I wanted a image that showed the audience the genre of my teaser trailer. So I decided to have an image of the main character looking back , as If she was being followed.

Then I decided to blur the background of the picture so that the main focus is on the character in the film, as the rest of the background have no relevance to the film. I also decided to do this because of the rubbish bags in the back of the image.

Professional Film poster

My Film Poster

For my magazine cover I choose Sight and Sound magazine, as my teaser trailer is not a main stream film, its more indie, and when analysing professional magazine covers sight and sound was the best magazine for my film and If my film teaser trailer was made into a film I believe Sight and Sound would be the magazine as it appeals to the niche market my teaser trailer targets.

The cover line has very large font and attracts the audience, in most of the Sight and Sound magazines the cover line stands out from the background image so I decided to have the same convention in my magazine cover.

The cover lines on my magazine cover, have different promotions (movie poster)And are different colours that are a smaller size of the cover line. I made them like this because I want them to be noticed by the audience, but I don't want the cover lines to be the main focus of the magazine cover. The cover lines is supposed to be read after the audience have looked at the initial image and the main cover line.

I first decided on the image I would use for my magazine cover I then increased the brightness of the photo so the image would look luminous and to blur the background out. I then decided to take the sight and sound logo and place it on the top left hand corner of the magazine cover as I see this a lot in most Sight and Sound Covers. After I added the font, barcode and price for the magazine.

Professional Magazine Cover My finished Magazine cover

Barcode

The Masthead `Sight & Sound’

The image of the main character

Price of magazine

Cover line , the title of the film `Hidden Notes’

Cover Lines, showing the name of the actors and information on other films

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

I used bold font in both my teaser trailer, magazine cover and poster. A feature that is similar with all three products is the colours used, e.g. They all have grey, red and black colours.

In all three products the name of the film is seen in large bold font I made it this way so that its is easy to see they are part of one campaign.

All of my products are effective and all are part of one campaign as they all have the character. They also all seem to have mystery incorporated into all of them.

Audience Feedback Teaser trailer:

Gavin’s Response:The teaser trailer, is very eye-catching, it engages the audience, and doesn't

give way the secret of the film, it also makes the audience want to continue watching, the only thing I would say that needs to be improved is the slight technical problems with the sound, the ambient sound in some scenes was a bit to loud. On the other hand the transactions were good, and it did what it was supposed to do which is tease and made it made me want to continue and find out the secret.

Mary’s Response:The teaser trailer is really good, the background music could of been a bit louder

to drown out unwanted sounds. Also the transitions could of been more fluent, but the teaser trailer its in terms of engaging the audience it does this well, made me want to continue watching and the camera shots are amazing.

Chevelle’s Response:I love the teaser trailer . The acting was amazing and very believable. The

teaser trailer was well constructed with a very effective storyline. The music has an eerie , mysterious ambience to it and harmonizes with the plot. Definitely makes me want to watch this movie. I also ant to know what exactly they did.

Akeema’s Response:I really liked it, I thought the backing track went really well the trailer , makes

it mysterious also dangerous,. The transitions were smooth and really effective when moving from different scenes. The only thing I would say is that the font was quite plain and not that effective. Overall I believe its a great teaser trailer.

Do you think my film poster is effective?

I think that the film poster is very effective the dark gloomy colours use help the audience establish what genre the film is, as it was easy for my to tell that it was a thriller. I also like the image that was used as it showed a women looking back and added to the mystery of the product.

I think the poster is very effective especially, the way the background is blurred it allows the audience to focus on the main character and ask the question why is the background blurred, and does it have a underline meaning?

The film poster is good and effective, it makes me want to watch the film as you can tell a lot about the story of the film but not to much that it gives away the secret, I would just say it would be much better if the image of the character was more clear and sharp as it very blurred and hard to make out at first glance.

Audience Feedback For Film Poster

Do you believe my magazine cover is effective?

Yes I think the magazine cover is very effective, it stands out and the use of the editing used attracts the audiences attention. Most people would notice the magazine because of the colour used and the bold font.

The magazine cover is good as it is mysterious, the bright colours and the fade to white in the background helps the font and the main image stand out it also attracts the attention of the audience.

The different colours used is what attracted me to the magazine cover, it is very eye-catching and the way it is presented would definitely make me want to purchase the magazine to read more about the film.

Audience Feedback Magazine Cover

From the audience feedback I have learnt about the importance of the different settings when, filming. As shown by most of my feedback I had received the teaser trailer, needed to have better sound and needed to be film in a place with less ambient sound , and I needed to increase the volume of the background sound.

I also learnt from my feedback that my magazine cover was the most effective part of my campaign and the colours I used help catch the attention of my audience .

From my audience feedback I learnt that, the angles and camera shots I used in my film helped my audience establish the genre of my film and all my three products, worked well together, I could of improved it by having the same hair and make up for main character in each product to make it easy for my audience to understand that it was the same person ion each product.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Research:

During my research, I used the internet (Google) search engine, to look at professional magazine covers and film posters. I also used YouTube to look at different teaser trailers, and look for what conventions was consistent in the teaser trailer of the same genre as my teaser trailer.

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

Use of final cut during Editing :

When editing my teaser trailer I used final cut. I first had difficulties using final cut when I had to add transitions, but I finally figured out how to use it and how to add music and smooth different cuts using transitions such as fades I also learnt how to add music, and control the volume of the dialogue and the background.

Use of Photoshop: I used Photoshop to construct my poster and magazine cover, I used different

effect, such as blurring, colour contrast, I also blended together the text with the background. I also used Photoshop to put everything on my magazine cover in a specific place which it can be noticed, such as the font.

Use of camerawork: I used a camera to take pictures for my magazine cover, and I used a camcorder

to film the scenes for my teaser trailer as well as a tripod, a microphone and headphones.

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

I think that out of all my products the one that needed the most improvement was my teaser trailer, after seeing the final product and the audience feedback the only thing I would change about my teaser trailer is where I filmed my teaser trailer, as the ambient sound disrupted the sound I had added to my teaser trailer during the editing process.

I would also focus more on my poster and would have taken the image with a camera instead of, taking an image from my film, as the quality of the image was not that good and I found it difficult to sharpen the image quality.

Overall all I am happy with the outcome of my three products, as they were effective, and attracted my audience and all worked together for one campaign, although if I had a chance to I would, try to improve the quality of sound on my teaser trailer.

What I feel went well and what I needed to improve.