sandra amadi 1164_evaluation

EvaluationSandra Amadi

How are you using media technologies in the construction and research, planning and

evaluation stages?The planning of my poster, magazine and trailer meant that I would have to use a range of media technologies for the

planning section. This includes the internet; Blogger, YouTube and Vevo were very useful as it allowed me to watch real trailers and research posters of films and

magazines, this would benefit me as I would have an idea of what I needed to do in terms of ideas.

I used Blogger to keep a record of my ideas and notes, this was a good idea because blogger is interactive and easy to

use. Using Blogger is more convenient as I wouldn’t have to rely on paper with notes, rather I could keep a

methodological log of my work. From this I would be able to identify what makes a good magazine, good poster the

codes and conventions of film trailers of my genre.

Before I could initially start I had to get ideas and opinions on what to do, so I took my ideas to Facebook and Twitter. I

asked several questions on what my trailer should be about, the feedback I got was decent but could have been better in terms of practicality. I chose to use these social

networking sites as I could target a wider audience meaning that I would get different opinions if I out it out there. This is what happened as I got many people that I

don’t even know offering their ideas and opinions, this was successful. Facebook and Twitter are also good because

they are immediate

PLANNING

Sandra Amadi


evaluation stages?I used the search engine Google to help me research some well known films that are out there, I wanted to analyse the codes and conventions hopefully using the same ideas in my own production. It allowed me to research different types of genres'. It is fair to say that I used Google a lot, this is because of the variety that it has to offer. I also used the SFX

Moodle site to keep up with important dates and deadlines regarding the construction of my work. With the deadlines being there, this is a

constant reminder that the deadline is fast approaching and that I should remain on track and not be distracted. I managed to stay in

contact with my partner Deborah via Twitter, this meant that on days that we couldn’t meet up we were in constant contact throughout the

whole construction of my trailer.

For my trailer I watched Sket, Bullet Boy and Kidulthood, I chose to research these trailer as I felt that it relates to the target audience I am

targeting. The internet was good as it allowed me to research on a large scale. I also learnt the do’s and don’t’s of creating films. I got

inspiration from watching the trailers and this enabled me to create a storyboard, I made this on PowerPoint because I wanted to make it

interactive. This is where I placed all my ideas and what I wanted to do, this ranged from images and text. The images I used here were working images as the actors weren’t my planned actors. Most of my actors did not attend my college so I had to improvise and use actors that were in my immediate reach. I used a digital camera to take the pictures I used

this type of camera because the quality of the images it produces is exceptional.

PLANNING

Sandra Amadi


evaluation stages?

RESEARCH

I was already aware of how to use Photoshop from AS but I thought that I would go back and search how to use Photoshop at a more experienced level compared to AS. While doing this

I learnt about tools that I never came across in AS, I was shocked at the new tools I found and experiment more with them in my spare time to build up my skills from amateur to

pro. I would not rule out paint as I did use it to edit some images that were quite challenging to edit in Photoshop.

To keep a track of my deadlines, Microsoft Outlook was very useful as this was linked in with SFX Moodle, so I got an email

every time the deadline was nearing, this kept me involved and aware of what was going on. I took advantage of this and decided to create a timetable, this would also help me keep up to date with my deadlines and as well as when I hoped to start

filming and our filming dates. This is what pushed me everyday, the fact that I set myself a challenge.

Sandra Amadi


evaluation stages?My blog is very interactive, my blog contains images and

texts as well as presentation slides. My blog is easily accessible, this allowed me to constantly update my blog and

go back to my planning and research when creating my poster, magazine and trailer. The use of images, presentation slides and text made my blog interactive and more detailed.

RESEARCH

Sandra Amadi

While researching fonts I came across dafont.com, this was a font website that I also

used in AS so my knowledge about it was there. There was one particular font that stood out for me on dafont.com this font was the font

that I chose to use for my poster, magazine and trailer. I chose this font because I felt that it went well together with my storyline and the title of my trailer. The font didn’t just appear

like that, I had to download the font then embed it on the pc. This will make the font registered and allow me to use it on that pc

anytime I wanted to.

In the construction the main media technologies I used were Abode Premier I used this mainly for editing my the scenes I recorded to producing my trailer. Adobe

premier was new to me as I has not used it before im previous years. I thought that using Windows movie maker would be

holding myself back as in a year 2 student an I should be using a range of media

technologies, not the basic ones. Adobe premier is really advanced, this allowed

me a higher range of editing skills such as changing the lightness of scenes that i

have already shot to dark. This software was fantastic as it enabled me to speed up

shots ad slow down scenes to create a certain effect. My partner Deborah, was the main person in charge of the editing stage so I didn’t really get to experience Adobe Premier as I would have liked to however this decision was agreed on a

mutual agreement which I was happy with.


evaluation stages?

CONSTRUCTION

Sandra Amadi

My plan for my trailer was to have a voice over, this was key as I wanted to tell the story

through the main characters voice, I wanted to create a bond. I used high technical equipment for this stage. I actually went to a professional studio and used professional equipment such

as Cubase and Soundbase. I chose to do this as I didn’t want to record it off my phone as the

quality would be poor and hard to hear.

Photoshop was the main software I used for poster and magazine. The picture I used were taken by me from a digital camera and editing in Photoshop. As I've said before I really

enjoyed using Photoshop, watching tutorial on YouTube was also a bonus this helped me to be bold and use the same tools. Photoshop enabled me to manipulate images. To help me get used to Photoshop I went home and challenged myself to create a few things, for example I cropped myself out from a pic and placed it on the moon. When I showed people this they were shocked

and praised my Photoshop skills, from then I knew my skills had improved from AS.

When I was told that I had to create my Magazine in InDesign I was upset as I used it in AS to create my magazine and I just didn’t get it. I believe this is evident in my production of my magazine. The feedback I got from my magazine is that it looked more like a poster than a

magazine, now I just need to get the frame correct so that my magazine actually looks like a magazine, not a poster.

CONSTRUCTION


evaluation stages?

The pictures I took and the scenes I recorded were from a high technical equipment. The

scenes were recorded off a video camera and the pictures were taken on a digital camera. I

wanted my trailer to seem as real as possible so it was vital

that I did this.

Sandra Amadi

For my evaluation I used Blogger, Prezi and AuthorStream. Initially I used Slideshare at first, but then I had to switch over as I encountered many problems surrounding

Slideshare as my presentation slides that I uploaded wouldn’t load for some reason. I also encountered difficulties when logging in and logging out. I also used PowerPoint to

embed my ideas onto slides as images and texts.


evaluation stages?

EVALUATION

Sandra Amadi

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The feedback I got from my film poster was that it can be improved. My teacher

suggested that I should have used images from my actual film as this is the code and

convention for film posters. However I chose to use separate pictures from my trailer as I felt that I could get more.

The image of my main character is an image of her facing the floor, this shows that she

cant face her problems she finds it hard as she is going through so much. I initially was going to use an image of her putting

her hands out hinting that she is unsure of who to pick. Her ex or her current

boyfriend. The image of her ex and her current boyfriend

suggest that there is a sort of war going on between the both of them. The background image is of broken glass this links in with

the name of my trailer 'Broken'.

Sandra Amadi

The feedback I got from my Magazine Front Cover was that the use of the film

roll was very creative however the layout was plain resulting in it looking

more like a poster than a Magazine Front Cover.

I had to change my font on many occasions because the feedback I got was that it was an unusual font to use

for a magazine. So I changed it to something more youthful. I chose to

include a bar code onto my Magazine Front Cover to make it more authentic.

My audience were very impressed with the idea of the film roll as it included all the main scenes that were in my trailer. I chose to stick to the use of the same

colours Black and Red


Sandra Amadi


This scene received a lot of heavy criticism, many

people said that they could not make out what the girl was saying as her voice wasn't loud enough

and the music was overpowering. The

dialogue was really good from what my audience could make out from the

scene so on the other hand so I decided to keep

this scene and work on the sound increasing the dialogue and decreasing

the music

My audience got the impression that my

institution was comical rather than serious. My institution was not really made on enough thought and planning. We had the

choice to go back and work on our institution but we chose to keep it the same as we didn't

want anything too over the top.

WHAT MY AUDIENCE LIKED?

There were a range of camera shots used and my trailer did follow the codes and conventions. For next time I want to make it obvious to the viewer that they are watching an urban

romance film as they should be able to know this before hand. The

voice over was very clever as it told the story of what was going on in the trailer from the main characters

eyes.

Sandra Amadi


The feedback I got from the font choice was it

relates to the title of my film. The font is broken

and the name is broken . The sound effect of glass being broken also ties in with the name of the film

and the font

The slamming of the door and the sound effects

works well as the audience feels more

involved and they feel like they are actually present. The fact that we actually got a real ambulance van

and went to a hospital shows that we went all out in making sure our

trailer was a success. This leaves the audience in suspense as they aren't aware of who is actually in the van and with the characters it could be

anyone.

With the main character’s mum throwing water on her creates suspense, we

chose to include this scene at the end to

engage the viewer. This shows that the issue is

serious as there is abuse going on.

Sandra Amadi

To be honest some of my audience were concerned with my trailer, some said that they wouldn't actually see the film this was because

they felt that it didn't appeal to them. This shows that just because my product is targeted at a specific audience doesn't mean that they will

automatically enjoy it.Initially I was going to use an image from my actual trailer but I though that it would be more effective if I took pictures and then

edited them in Photoshop to give them the effect that I was looking for, I found this better. I did this for my magazine as well.


Sandra Amadi

The layout of my poster was inspired from a few posters I researched, for example Sket, I used a similar layout to this poster, I slightly altered a few things as I didn't want it to be the same,

carbon copy.The fact that some of my audience failed to

know the genre of my trailer was quite upsetting as I thought I made this obvious throughout my trailer. I tried to make it as representative as possible for example the

choice of actors to the location of shots.

The things I changed on my trailer was the sound because some of the dialogue wasn't clear so this made it hard to make out what

was being said. This was the main criticism I received.

My magazine still needs work, it can be improved. My feedback

was it is plain and doesn't really stand out in terms in someone

buying it off the shelf. It lacks the further push. If I have time I will go back and change this and try and make it more interesting.

Personally I think that my poster and magazine go well with my trailer, some would disagree. I purposefully tried to make my poster and magazine youthful

because this would fit in well with my target audience.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?My trailer is effective along with my poster and

magazine, the fact that they all relate in the same way from the images and text. The

storyline I used build up a story of what is going on. I hope that people can see the link between

my main product and ancillary tasks.

Before hand I was told that my poster dosent really link to my film resulting in me having to make some changes as I wanted it to be clear

that there was a link between the main product and ancillary texts.

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

My poster and magazine are both effective because I have used the same font throughout,

I purposefully chose this for consistency, I wanted to be consistent, this way my poster and magazine would look more authentic. The title of my font is different to the font I used for the

cover lines because I wanted to only be consistent with regards to the title.

I used the same actors, to make my poster different I researched some posters and

manipulated my images to give them the effect I wanted. For example I played around with the height of my actors making one taller than the other to make it obvious who the powerful one is. The costume of my actors is street/urban.

This was because if the males were dressed in tuxedo’s this would challenge the

representations I was putting across as its not really representative

Sandra Amadi

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

The layout of my poster was inspired from posters I researched as well my magazine. The colour I used is consistent, the colours I used

were red and black. The use of a barcode, price tag and issue number makes my magazine

authentic. My poster has an age certificate of 15. this is because my target audience is 15-24.

Sandra Amadi

My soundtrack Mary J Blige was criticised for being to ‘R’N’B’ish’ because I was adamant we decided to keep the soundtrack as it relates to my story that is being told. The story is about

people standing up for their rights, people that have been victims of life, for example domestic

abuse and love. This links to the themes explored in my trailer, the song choice backs

this up.

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

My trailer, magazine and poster are very successful in developing and challenging codes and conventions of real media products. Later or in the presentation you will find things that i did on purpose to challenge real media texts and things i did to develop real media texts and take it that extra further step.

My genre of my trailer is Urban Romance throughout my production i wanted the audience to remember this not to think it was an action film so to speak. The actors , props and costume i used conform to the stereotypical view of teenagers. In order to make my trailer convincing i had to go all out, this meant reaching the gangs and asking if they wouldn't mind acting in my trailer. Of course my actors and those that helped with the production of my trailer were rewarded for their time and consistency. My characters are very stereotypical.

Sandra Amadi

The use of the voice over conforms with most trailers with the theme of love, seeing as love is a theme explored in my trailer i thought i would be a good idea if i used this in my own trailer. i used the voice over as i wanted the story to be told through the main character, this will create a bond and make the audience feel more involved. The camera shots challenge the codes and conventions of real media products such as trailers. The camera shots i used were experimentful, i chose to use shots that weren't likely to feature in an urban romance film, for example panning shots but not of the sky view, for example but of scenery and a park. My trailer is targeted at teenagers 15-24 but i wanted to challenge the use of panning shots found in youth trailers.

Some of the codes and conventions i chose to

include were not included as i didn't

want to make copies of other peoples work, i

wanted to be different. Some scenes were i

developed these codes and conventions

weren't used as they were seen as too

extreme. The main trailers that influenced

me the most that i researched were

Kidulthood, Bullet Boy and Sket, these trailers are very similar as they are targeted at roughly

the same audience there fore making it successful. I noticed

that the gang members were all dressed in a similar way, this is a

code and convention of youth films.


Sandra Amadi

My trailer creates suspense with the fast scenes, the build up in the soundtrack and the voice over tension is created which makes the audience

aware that there is a big build up and something drastic is

going to happen. The locations i chose to film in are well

known places around south London, they have that natural

feel, that's why the scene where the main character is getting strangled is filmed in one of the estates there. The local park was also useful, its spacious and the mis-en-scene

is fantastic, i conformed to codes and conventions here.

The soundtrack playing, ‘No more drama – Mary J Blige’ was a good choice because it fits in with the storyline. At first we were going to use ‘Who you

are’ by Jessie J, but we changed to Mary J Blige as we felt that

the song was made for our trailer.

The tag lines in my trailer are directed pointed to the audience, with hard hitting statements my trailer raises awareness of the growing issues in society today, from gun crime to domestic abuse. The layout of my trailer is

good, the scenes are placed in a methodological order, building up to a story being told.

When creating my trailer my main focus was Social realism, i wanted my trailer to address many issues that have been tucked under the

pillow in society today. While doing this i didn't want to be too extreme and go over the top.

The roles in the trailer are quite stereotypical, the girl is being played to be the victim of

circumstances. We could have chose to challenge this representation like how ‘Sket’

did by making the girl/girls more dominant. In my trailer the boys are the d0minant ones as

they have the most power.


Sandra Amadi

The layout of my poster challenges real media products for the fact that i have chosen not to use an image from my initial trailer, rather i chose to take a picture of my actors and edit them on to my poster. Having researched poster i saw that this was the case with most posters i believe it was done be4cause its more effective.

The title of my poster is in the middle as i want this to be the main focus when it is seen, the rating shows my target audience i am reaching. My main colour used is white, i chose white because i knew i would be working on a white background, so

the text had to stand out.

My magazine layout also challenges the codes and conventions of magazine front covers i also deliberately chose to use images from my film, but not one dominant

image, i created a film roll, with the main scenes in the slots. I did this because i felt that it was more youthful and would showcase my In Design as well as Photoshop

skills. The cover lines and the placing of the barcode make my magazine really authentic.


Sandra Amadi

sandra amadi 1164_evaluation

Education

real media

magazine front

sandra amadihow

cover lines

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main character

media product

sandra amadi