Wednesday, 28 April 2010
FINAL POST EVER - FINISHED BLOG
We feel as if our hard work over the last two years has paid off as we are extremely pleased with the final products.
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
EVALUATION - director's commentary recording
Here is a link to the commentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJwt3m7p5TI
This is a link to our teaser trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P70hIAhZ5Hg
In the director's commentary, I go through the trailer chronologically and comment on the shots we have used and explain why we thought they were effective. I also mention captions, costumes and editing, including the transmissions.
Rach.
Monday, 26 April 2010
EVALUATION Of This Year
Overall I feel that our whole marketing campaign is effective in the way in which we were trying to be. We address our target audience in our trailer, poster and magazine cover by giving clear hints of genre and showing them what our trailer is about which will attract their attention (love, death/ tragedy, good vs evil, jealousy, and the race to save the beloved girl). They show who our main characters/ actors are which could attract an audience adding a USP to our campaign. In our magazine and poster we have used subtle colour schemes of black and red to portray death and evil.
Evaluation of how we worked as a group
I feel that as a group we communicated very well with each other and coordinated what we were going to do as individuals and what we would do together as a team. We each shared responsibility for getting certain tasks done individually for the rest of the group and all shared filming and editing together. We all voiced our opinions over what we thought should be done,considering others views and then always chose a comprise to satisfy everyone in the group so they were happy with the final result.
What we did well
I feel that from last year our filming techniques have greatly improved. We used a tripod more to create a more stable and professional look. We shot our sequences many times from a variety of angles, so that we could pick and chose the best ones. The music we chose fitted perfectly in time with the action of our film, creating suspense and building a climax where needed. However had it not fit so well, we could have adjusted the audio track to make it fit. Our editing transitions are also effective in the way in which we have the 'fade-to-black' to show the transition into the evil present and the 'dip-to-white' for looking back into the good/ innocent past.
What we could be improved
I think the way in which we approached our coursework this year has dramatically improved since last year as we have learnt from our mistakes and corrected them. However saying this, I feel there is always room for improvement and there are certain things which we could have done differently.I feel that for our flashback scenes resulted in a poorer looking quality. This is because we changed the contrast of the light of our footage and with the limitations on the programme Adobe Premier Element 7, it just makes our film look like poorer quality. As you can see below it looks very yellow, but it does show the clear difference between the past and present which is why we changed it to communicate this to the audience.
Our trailer is a long teaser trailer and may give too much away but it is under 2 minutes and only shows two/ three characters so the audience is yet to learn about the twist at the end.
By Nikki Stock
Friday, 23 April 2010
EVALUATION - Marketing Campaign and year 13
Thursday, 22 April 2010
EVALUATION - Further poll results
Thriller
Comedy
Romance
Western
Crime
Horror
These are the new results from poll, as it is on going the results will be slightly different to when I last posted them. These are the results I got:
Thriller --> 13
Comedy--> 8
Romance --> 5
Western --> 2
Crime --> 3
Horror --> 10
I have decided to plot these results in a pie graph and a bar graph as they show clearly which genres our target audiences favours.
EVALUATION - A graph to show the most common way which our target audience consumers films
Nikki Stock
EVALUATION - Graph on our the audience's favourite film genre
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
EVALUATION - What I think we could have improved
Another aspect of our planning and research which I think could have been improved upon was our collaboration in relation to joint planning and development. Had we had more time outside of lessons to meet as a group and post on the blog our joint research, our final piece may have been more polished and professional.
However, having said that we spend a large proportion of our free time over the past few months, working together in the media rooms over the trailer, poster and magazine cover. This has been made difficult due to full timetables and extra curricular activities, however, I think we pulled together well as a team in order to ensure that everyone had their say and input even on days when some of us were not available. Much time has also been spent individually at weekends and after school in order to ensure that our blog posting has been as informative and accurate as possible.
EVALUATION - Audience response
These questions were asked so that our class could understand some of the thinking behind our trailer and what we were trying to achieved. I think these questions were important as our class then knew what to look out for when watching our trailer.
After viewing our trailer our class mates were asked the following questions:
Was the editing effective?
What can you say about the use of titles?
What was effective about the mise en scene?
Can you comment on shot selections?
What shots stood out for you?
What could have made the production even better?
As shown in the video our class mates liked our editing, they thought our fade to blacks were effects and that our trailer flowed well and at a quick pace. We were very pleased with these comments as we spent a lot of time editing our trailer and focused a lot on the fade to blacks and fade to whites and what effect they would have.
When asked about our use of titles our class mates said that they were good as they helped explain what was happening in the trailer and also give clues to the narrative. They also thought that were we point each title was effective as it split up the trailer and kept the flow going. We thought about the font, size and positioning of the titles as well as their content, we were glad the class picked up on this.
It was said the knives we have used in our trailer are effective as they are a good genre and narrative indicator. Also they thought that our use of lighting was effective and it should the dark side of the characters. The props, settings, lighting and costumes we used in our trailer were carefully selected to give narrative and genre indicators and also give hints about that the characters are like.
They thought that we used a good variety of shots and the different angles we used made our trailer look professional and well made. The shot that they thought stood out to them the most was the last shot as it showed the emotion of the character and how vulnerable she was. We filimed this shot a numbers of times playing around with the position of the character and the angle of the camera until we were happy with the shot.
The improvements that were suggested we agreed with, we did originally have more settings (which was mentioned as the one of the things we could of improved) but due to bad weather we weren't able too use the other settings that we had planned. Another point that was brought up was that our trailer has to much of a story which is not a convention of a teaser trailer. Our trailer does follow a narrative and give away a lot about the narrative and the genre of the film but we wanted to have as many shots and angles as possible. Even though we have a narrative the fast pace nature of the trailer and the enigma created makes our trailer a teaser trailer rather than a theatrical one.
This is a link to the audience feedback video again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmkz_fnKilE
We are the first group to be shown (00.00 --> 04.47)
Rach.
EVALUATION - Survey analysis
The survey shown below, which I took from different members of the audience to the ones who answered the questionaire, has also been enormously beneficial in order to help us learn from our work and be more audience orientated in the future. If we had more time to work on our final trailer, based on the feedback which I have received both from this survey and the last, we would spend more time on preparation in terms of lighting and props. We would further analyse the mise-en-scene used in other thriller trailers and use this information to incorporate more successful and convincing images into our work. Mise-en-scene is definitely an area on which we could have spent more time.
EVALUATION - Audience Survey Graph
Audience members where asked to choose which of these features was the most effective in our trailer …
Editing
Sound
Camera work
Costumes
Lighting
Setting
Props
The following graphs display my findings.
Above can be seen my analasis of these findings as I pin-point what, in my opinion, we could have improved upon had we been given more time to work on our final piece.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
EVALUATION - Analysis of Magazine front cover
In relation to the magazine front cover, as with the poster, we did a lot of research in order to improve our knowledge and ensure that our work was as professional as possible. We looked at a number of magazines such as Film Comment, Film Maker and Total Film, rather than just evaluating Empire, in order to ensure that our experience was as wide as possible. However, we decided to use Empire as the foundation for our own magazine cover as this is the most well known and easiest to access.
We decided not to use the image we were originally going to, as we wanted Empire to appear behind his head, however we could not achieve this with the original image as it was an extreme close up, and it obscured too much of the title. We therefore decided to use the same image as is mentioned on the poster as it was the perfect size and layout. We kept it full length in order to leave enough space at the top of the page to display the title.
We then found Empire on Google Images and consequently added a new layer in Photoshop to add the image. We then saw that on Empire magazine front covers the price and date were featured just above the 'M'. We therefore included this to our own front cover so that our work would look as professional and as genuine as possible. We also found that another common feature was the tagline: "The World's Biggest Movie Magazine." We therefore included this in our magazine cover, we were careful to try and make it the same colour as the title. We also have featured a bar code on our magazine front cover, this makes it professional. A button is also displayed in the bottom right hand corner, advertising other aspects of the magazine.
The text down the left hand side illustrates what else will be featured in the magazine. We kept the fonts the same, however we enlarged the names of the films mentioned and capitalised them, also making them a different colour (black) from the rest of the text (white). To make them stand out on a difficult background we added a glow; we did this by clicking on the tool bar 'Layers' and then selecting the 'style' option. We then chose the inner glow and outer glow effects, this made our text glow white and therefore stand out. We were going to include several other images relating to the films mentioned, however we felt that they looked out of place on the cover and that our magazine had enough already on it. At the bottom left side of the magazine we had advertised a free gift. The font is the same, however the colour is blue to make it stand out, 'FREE' is in capitals to draw the audiences attention. We wanted an outer glow on this image as well and decided that yellow would be the suitable choice as again, it would draw the audiences' eyes to the gift and so also the magazine cover.
The text on the right side of the cover relates to the image of our character. 'Runaway' is the biggest text apart from the title of the magazine. Above it was advertised a new film which would spark the audiences' interest. Below the title is information about what would be included in the article as well as the page it would be featured on. All this text is in red and therefore stands out against the otherwise neutral coloured cover. Originally, the background was white however we felt this looked too plain, so we decided to use the gradient tool again - this time with a teal blue - to add depth to the image. This makes the image stand and makes our cover more interesting and appealing to the target audience.
We found it difficult using the layers on Photoshop however after using them for a while we became accustomed to using it. Overall we feel that our magazine front cover is professional and attract the intended target audience.
RACH, LUCY, NIKKI and DALE.
MAGAZINE FRONT COVER - FINAL
EVALUATION - Analysis of Poster
POSTER - FINAL
EVALUATION - Creativity of our piece
Our whole teaser trailer is composed of creative ideas from all members of the group. This is reflected in our finished piece as well as the overall marketing campaign.
Our whole mise-en-scene, editing and titles all combine together to create an effective piece of footage which I feel produces interest for the audience.
For example, the transitions that we used. We used a mixture of fade-to-blacks and flashes. These fades represented time passes and the flashes represented a change in time. To further this, these changes in time were shown in a brighter colour not only to show this contrast but also represent happier times. This is a direct opposite to the dingy colour that our female protagonist is currently in.
The music and sounds are used effectively I feel. The music slowly builds up suspense as the antagonist finally draws a knife. The editing and shot selection reflect the feel that is created through the use of music, making it seem ever more professional. As for sounds, we could have used them a little better. It's partly due to the sounds we gained from the Internet. They didn't have an authentic feel to them so they do feel a little 'slapped on'. Otherwise I'd say we utilised sound to the fullest extent.
The whole mise en scene I feel was incredibly effective. We studied locations, lighting and even costumes to ensure that our piece looked as natural and professional as possible. It all combined together to create an effective piece. Our use of lighting was exceptional I feel, especially in the home our protagonist is trapped in. If you look to the final few shots, you can see the dim lit kitchen - a reflection of our female character's feelings.
The titles were spaced conciously amongst the various shots. They flowed with the little narrative that was given, as well as the music. The font is crisp and clear with a blood red outline, giving the sense that purity is slowly become swarmed in bloodshed.
Overall I'd say we made a very concious effort to be creative in developing our media film. Despite a few aspects that could have been made better, I do feel that we gave it our all. From the location down to the costumes, we made an effort to be as effective as possible so that it generates interest and curiosity.
-Dale
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
EVALUATION - Tomorrow
EVALUATION - Today's progress
EVALUATION - Audience and theories.
EVALUATION - Today - continued
EVALUATION - Today
Monday, 29 March 2010
EVALUATION - Reception Theory (Inglourious Basterds)
Negotiated Reading - The individual neither agrees with the views or disagrees. In the case of Inglourious Basterds the person may not necessarily oppose Hans Landa, but instead understand that it may not necessarily be the correct thing however it is his duty as Colonel and "Jew Hunter".
Oppositional Reading - The individual completely disagrees with the views the film brings across. In the case of Inglourious Basterds the person may agree with Hans Landa and his motives. The person is likely to advocate the actions of a character who isn't necessarily considered 'good'. This is oppositional to what Quentin Tarantino wanted to deliver; that the Colonel is an enemy.
Sunday, 28 March 2010
RESEARCH AND PLANNING - Harry Potter Posters 4-7
RESEARCH AND PLANNING - Harry Potter Posters 1-3
This is a poster for the second Harry Potter film, as you can see the font and colour of the title has been kept the same, this is so the audience can recognise it straight away especially the lightning part of the P. The title is surrounded by a blue glow, this makes it stand out and also looks like blue sky this links with the lightning on the P. The huge success of the first film started the Harry Potter brand and that meant on this poster they could show the three main characters and even without the actors names they will be recognised. Hermione with her wand tells the audience that there will be a lot of magic in this film, Ron with her broken wand and facial expression shows the comedy aspect of the film and Harry holding a sword shows the action parts of the film. the sword also insinuates that the characters are in danger and it is up to Harry to save them. The light shining behind them show that these are the good characters and the edges of the poster show part of an old wall, this would tell the audience that most of the film will be set in Hogwarts, like the last one. Again at the bottom is a date in which the film will be released, this is in white so that it stands out. The characters are all shown wearing their school uniform, this tells the audience that they should still be treated think children.
This is the film poster of the third Harry Potter film. This poster again shows the main three characters however this time they are in their own clothes, this tells the audience that they are no longer children but teenagers or young adults and also that they may be given more responsibility in this film. The tag line 'everything will change' gives away part of the narrative as well as the wanted posters. On the same side as the wanted posters is a man who is almost hidden, he is the same man on the posters, this insinuates that he is the prisoner who has escaped and that he could be the reason why everything changes. The circular background looks almost like a spiral stair case - this could show the confusion the characters will feel in this film and also that they may have to run away or that people will be chasing them. The flowers round the edge suggest that they will be outside a lot and also maybe that other settings will be used instead just Hogwarts. The hand in the left corner shows that the characters are in danger and the shrunken heads suggest that new strange characters will be introduced in this film. Harry is holding a wand which shows clearly the genre of the film, he also holds a map which people who have read the books will recognise. Again at the bottom the month and year is given for the films release this could suggest that the poster is being shown a while before the film will be released.
RESEARCH AND PLANNING - Silence of the Lambs Poster Analysis
RESEARCH AND PLANNING - Harry Potter Poster - further analysis
This was the first poster in the campaign which was released...
The poster below has also been released as part of the advertising campaign for harry potter and the deathly hallows. Again a quote from the film is used which is in relation to the image itself. A smaller less obvious image is also used above this quote, another reference for those who have read the books, and a tantalising hint for those who haven't to cause them to ask questions about the plot. The background is again blank darkness, however the tiara/diadem seems to be lighting it up, a possibly reference to the story line, of how Harry, the main character, brings hope to the world like light to darkness. The title and the words "coming soon" are shown in white and silver, a reflecting on the tiara/diadem, and to allow them to stand out against the dark background.
The following posters may not be official promoters of the advertising campaign, however, they are still being used to promote the release of the film. The one below mirrors the darkness of the narrative and also reveals two of the main characters to the audience. Within the mysterious darkness of the background is the title, shown clearly at the bottom of the screen in a light reflecting silver to stand out, possibly again representing how the character Harry brings light to the darkness of the storyline.
EVALUATION - Creativity and Our Trailer
EVALUATION - Reception Theory (Inglorious Bastards Opening Analysis)
There are three main reading forom this theory; the dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings of text. The dominant reading is where the audience take the same view as intended by the creators of the media text. The negotiated reading is where there is mixed interpretation from the audience of what the text is supposed to mean. And the oppositional reading is where the audience takes the opposite view than intended.
We watched the opening of Inglorious Bastards by Quinton Tarrentino in class. We had to analyse this opening 10 minutes to say which reception theory reading could be taken from this sequence. The dominant reading could be -the Kernel Landy is humorous and appealing to the audience but he is a Natzi and is seeking out the Jews to shoot them. When we first meet him though he is seen as a gentlemen towards the girls. The audience may feel sympathetic towards the Farmer by the look on his face when he knows what is about to happen and a tear runs down his face. However, the second view is negotiated. This can be where the Kernel is seen as just doing his job, otherwise he would get killed himself. Or that the Farmer has put his family in danger looking after the Jewish family and shouldn't have hidden them. Lastly, the oppositional view would be siding with the Kernel seeing him as the 'hero' or not finding him funny at all, just repulsive and horrible.
Drawbacks of this theory are that everyone is unique so the theory cannot comprehend the complexity of our responses to the media. It also doesn't take into account the everyday factors, such as what time of day it is we consume the text, or what mood we are in etc. We also consume texts in different ways as well, whether we are at home in our lounges or out with friends at the cinema. These factors all change our interpretations of the media texts consumed.
Our trailer can be interpreted differently for everyone. Some may find it scary and unnerving, some may find it funny and enjoy the fact that these characters are worse off and in danger.
Nikki Stock
EVALUATION - Hyperdermic Needle Theory
EVALUATION - Uses and Gratification Theory
- diversion- to escape from their everyday troubles and woes.
- personal relationships- using the media for emotional interaction
- personal identity- constructing their own identity within the characters and learning from their behaviour and values
- surveillance- to gather information such as, educational values, weather, news etc.
They believe that the audience watches these texts to learn information and use it as escapism from their real lives to make them feel better. It can give them social interaction with others and give them a sense of identity if they relate to the characters onscreen. More recently there is a new argument that people watch texts to fulfill their hierarchy of needs, which was created by Maslow.
However, there have been criticisms of this uses and gratification theory. Some argue that it is too simplistic. Everyone is unique and watches media texts for different reasons and react to them in different ways, so it is impossible to analyse everyone's view, about why they decide to watch certain texts at certain times. Also, it may not be a direct need/ desire to watch certain texts. The consumers may be tired at the end of the day and just decide to passively watch what is available on television. Advertisements are slotted in the middle of the television programmes and most of the consumers may not want to consume these adverts, but have no choice as it disrupts the programme they are watching.
Nikki Stock
Saturday, 27 March 2010
EVALUATION - Director's Commentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P70hIAhZ5Hg
If you watch the trailer and the read the commentary or watch and read at the same time (with pauses) then you will see in this text I have tried to explain our thought processes when filming in the form of a typical Director's commentary:
We chose to start with a close up shot of a bag as we thought it would be a good narrative indicator as it shows someone bag packing. It also adds enigma as no face in shown. The varied angles which we have next used show the confusion of the character and they keep the trailer moving at a fast rate. As shown we have used fade to blacks between shot, we thought that this made the trailer flow and we could also show the difference between the present shots and the flash back sequences. We changed the colour contrast of each flash back so that they almost look like a dream as we thought this is how the character may feel about those past times; they were too good to be true. We chose the school setting from the first flash back sequence as we wanted to use everyday settings, these settings would make the audience feel comfortable at first but also scared as these are places you should be safe. This is the first time we show the male character, he helps the female character pick up her books; the audience will mostly likely be confused as these scenes are a big contrast from the panic of the last scenes. Also the music suggests he is bad or something bad will happen, but he is helping her, our aim was to have the audience feel this confusion.
We chose the caption font carefully and we liked the red glow as it symbolised danger and that there could be bloodshed in the film. The mention of dreams relates to the past flash back scene and the colour contrast. In the next scene we only use two shots, the high angle shot shows the female characters confusion and that she is in a very vulnerable situation. In the other shot she’s her getting her passport, this tells the audience clearly that she is planning to run away. To show the difference between the flash backs and the present time we have also used a fade to white instead of a fade to black before each flash back and at the end of each one. This almost looks like a flash and warns the audience that they are ‘jumping around in time’. The long shot of Eric and Megan shows them having fun and it makes the audience feel as if they are watching them, this may make them feel slightly uncomfortable even though it is a happy scene. The next caption is in the same red font as before and it again mentions dreams, the ... at the end tell the audience this sentence is not over and the ‘but’ at the beginning will make them already think that the rest of the sentence will be negative.
In the next shots we keep the editing extremely quickly as the tension builds in the trailer, the high angle shots again show how vulnerable the female character is. We chose to have a high angle shot here as it would link with the voice over, this shows to the audience that it is the male character that has power over her and it almost looks as if he is looking down on her. The audience might also feels as if they are more powerful than her and therefore that they need to protect her. Using the voice over we have linked the past and the present parts of the trailer, the bodily language of the characters demonstrates that she is hearing the voice over as well and so they audience can ask the question; is it all in her head? The next caption mentions nightmares, all of the captions have something linked to the subconscious, this correlates the genre of the film as a psychological thriller and also makes the audience ask questions about what parts in the film are ‘reality’ and what are ‘fantasy’. The costumes the audience have seen the characters in we have thought carefully about, the female character wears bright colours and is in one scene wearing white this shows she is an innocent happy character whereas the male character is always seen in dark colours. This tells the audience that he cannot be trusted.
The sound track builds to in climax as the knife is pulled out of the draw, we were careful to match the soundtrack with the shots so we could get the most dramatic effect out of the shots. The way the knife is held in front of the camera shows its holder to be calm and understand compliantly what he is doing, this may unnerve the audience. The long shot shows the female character running down the stairs, throughout the trailer the pace in which this character moves shows her panic and need to get away this is a big genre and narrative indicator. We chose to show her getting a pen knife in a similar way to the male character getting a kitchen knife as we thought it would show the audience how even thought she is trying to defend herself she cannot win. We did not use a high angle shot like we did with the kitchen knife, this shows that the pen knife she has will not have as much impact as the kitchen knife.
We found the sound effect of a door knocking, made it faster so it sounded more urgent and repeated it a number of times, we used a shot reverse shot to show the audience where the sound was coming from. The female characters reaction to the door knock show how on edge and nervous she is. We times it show at first the phone ring and the door knock did not over lap and then we repeated the door knock again for dramatic effect. There is a shot reverse shot with the mobile phone again to show the audience where the sound is coming from. We chose to have one coming from the left and one from the right as it would make the character feel as if she was surrounded. The last shot shows her at the side of the screen, we did not want her in the centre as we thought having her to the left would reflect her off balance feeling and tell the audience that something is not right. We continued the sound of the phone and we faded the soundtrack out. The font we used for Runaway is different from the captions as we wanted it to stand out. It glows white to show the innocence of the female character, it is also slanting to the right and therefore looks as if it is 'running away'. The '2011' is in the same glowing red font as the captions to remind the audience that there will be danger in the film.
Rach.