Trailer and Ancillary Tasks (Poster and Magazine Cover)

Evaluation 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Using new media technologies within my research and planning stages:Firstly, to create our coursework we have used Blogger, an advanced way to keep a diary for others to see and comment on. This gave me the tools to keep organised and up to date with my work, to record everything I have done, to upload all my work to and also to be marked through. Blogger is easier than traditional paper coursework as it is hardly ever lost or damaged, it is also easily saved and stored. It enables you to use videos, voiceovers, screenshots, sounds and do endless research. In the research and planning stages I mostly used computers and the internet, with websites likeYouTube, IMDB and official film websites to explore film trailers and gain ideas for our own promo. The disadvantages of this is that it might constrain originality, the information isn't always relevant or reliable, as well as our area S.W. learning grid often blocks us our of Blogger and other websites. The benefits of the technologies is that they are mostly convenient and we can access a wide range of genres very easily.

Besides this, we did audience research using Vox-Pop, a visual device which gave us instant feedback, was easily and creatively presentable, and for planning on the blog, we used the presentation tools bubbl.us and slide.net which are also creative. For our animatics and storyboard we used transitions, continuity and added titles to keep it interesting. Lastly in the planing and research we used casting and location shots to show extra detail in our work.


Creativity: This section involves thinking and behaving imaginatively, so for this side of our project, we chose to do the genre 'social realism' which i think was an interesting and thought-provoking choice, when compared to a horror or thriller. We have shown this genre by using ordinary, eye level shots, everyday situations and realistic settings and lighting. We used the software GarageBand for our soundtrack with the non-copyrighted range of music that has many options for any feeling or mood you wish to create, and we wanted our music to look and sound professional. It also allows unmusically talented people to create soundtracks simply. For our camerawork in the production stages, we used a HD video camera and tripod to film with. The HD cameras are more effective than the DV cameras. They produce a much higher quality of video, improving the overall look. Using DV cameras produces a much more grainy image quality. However, some of our lighting is a little dark, for example in the 'clubbing' or 'party' scenes, so the quality is not always at its best. 

Throughout our coursework we have used new media concepts to help promote the trailer. Having our trailer on YouTube allows us to see how much our trailer is being viewed, who by and where in the world they are watching it. Knowing the demographics of our audience would really help use in marketing and distribution as we are more likely to have a clearer idea of who is our target market. To encourage more people to support our trailer I posted the link on my social networking site allowing friends and other Internet user to go directly to YouTube and watch the trailer.

Here is a screen shot of when I posted the link on my Twitter. My Twitter privacy settings are completely public so this link was open to anybody who found it. With over a hundred follows, and many of which are not direct friends, this post was made very accessible. Also the privacy setting for the actual trailer on YouTube were set in such that anybody was able to view as well. I also published the link to my Facebook profile, which although is not public, the direct audience was much larger than that of my twitter account. Another point on this matter is that the viewers are all people I know so their responses should be more ‘helpful’ than some of the ‘haters’ that post on many viral productions.

After posting our trailer on these social websites I noticed that the view count started to rise quite significantly. After a week of being on YouTube without having posted to my networking site the play count was around twenty, however after doing such the play counts are now in the high sixties which is really encouraging. Media 2.0 shows that gaining instant feedback for your productions is extremely achievable today. Viewers are able to comment on the film straight away voicing their opinions and hopefully providing constructive responses helping the producers.

Evaluation 3: Audience Feedback Questions.

Evaluation 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

- Introduce our selves.

- Logos (still & moving)

- Writing and Narrative

- Handheld camera (documentary style)

- Styling of shots (artistic)

- Diagetic sound

- Master/Abstract shot (walking)

- Editing (contrast of bad/good)

- Montage #1

- Transitions

- Mise-en-scene

- Montage #2

- Music (piano repetition)

- Introduction of new Actress (up beat music)

- Film Title

- Magazine Cover

            - Character’s personality (good/bad)

            - Characteristics reflection in costume

            - Hue

            - Title

Poster

            - Character’s positioning

            - Urban vs. Country theme

            - Title

            - Conventions of a poster

Preparing for Director's Commentary

As part of our evaluation we have chosen to complete a director's commentary to talk about how we completed such like camera work, editing, magazine cover and poster and comment in real time. To make this easier to structure we have written a prompts list first which we can then post along with our director's commentary video. Here is Cally working on this as I time to the trailer. We hope to compete this task over the weekend!

Audience Feed Back Planning

To gain valuable feedback we set up a viewing of our trailer infront of peers such a GCSE Media Student and Year 13 English Language Student. We gave them each this questionnaire and whilst watching our trailer for the second time they completed for us. Now we are studying their comments to evaluate at a later date.

Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

More niche and independent films rely on reviews and other’s opinions from reliable sources, which will gain greater audiences.  The independent social realist film on the left has a quote made by a respectable source in the middle of the trailer. As there will only be a small audience for this film, a positive quote such as this would have boosted sales. We have used this idea and replicated in our work. Total Film magazine is definitely a reputable source and should help draw in a larger audience.

Social realist films use a lot of more artistic techniques to portray the narrative. Here we are looking specifically at lighting. Lighting the subject from behind is not a ‘normal’ method as it is less obvious to recognize the character. However film of this genre revolve around one or a small group of characters. Therefore artistic shots like silhouettes are much more plausible to use such techniques with effective outcomes. 

As I mentioned before social realist films tend to revolve around the lives of a small group of characters, or possibly even just one, such as our film. Therefore a typical trailer of this genre will have many close up shots of the main character(s) to help convey the emotions of these characters at different stages of the film. Another approach to communicate with the audience their feeling is ‘to-camera’ shots, where the character addresses the camera directly. Eyes are a great indicator of people’s emotions, so looking directly into them includes the audience to have a better relationship with the character. Both approaches me have used throughout.

CCTV-like shots, such as these high and wide angle shots, help to produce a realistic themes that are needed to improve the nature of our genre.  We have also chosen very realistic lighting in this shot, which would be characteristic of a social realistic film, as we can see on the left.

For the shot of our character ‘Cally’ with her friends, we chose a long shot and this generally shows the image as approximately "life" size. To create verisimilitude, which is a key convention in a Social Realism film, we have focused on the characters, but still allowed plenty of background detail to set the scene.

This mirror shot shows our character close up and is used to establish an emotional moment within the film, enabling the viewer to sympathise, gain greater understanding of the character or relate to them. By concentrating on her face, or a specific detail of mise-en-scene it creates an intimate atmosphere, meaning the close-up takes us into the mind of our character.

This extreme close up again also exaggerates facial expression which helps convey realistic emotion. The viewer is drawn into the subject's personal space and shares their feelings. This is done within the genre of Social Realism in a confined space to take the viewer out of the cinema experience and place them into actual life.

This shot is to exemplify the location used; here we have used a typically British small town which conforms to Social Realism conventions as you need a convincing setting.  An important theme within our trailer was the contrast between rural and town life as well as the difference between the working and upper classes.

This establishing shot shows the spatial relations among characters and the space they inhabit clear, but here we have used it to establish our characters change in mood and it becomes symbolic of her moving from one life into a new brighter one.  In the comparison shot from ‘TopBoy’ the camera moves toward the character, forming a state of realisation for both characters. 

Poster

I have now added a comment and rating from Synergy Magazine, our fictional magazine we designed a cover for, this should hopefully attract a further audience as a reliable source as reviewed this a a great film!

The billing block did not need to be so large, so we decided to shrink like This Is England poster, where the production cast are not needed to be so noticeable as not well known. This also allows the title and tag line to stand out more, better advertising!

Actor and Director added above title, mimicking suck like Moneyball suggesting there is a following to these people or just to promote them, should attract a wide audience.

Studio logos added as well as website. One on each side helps balance the overal look.

Once we had overlaid our title did not word at the top as it became too busy and top heavy. We therefore moved the title lower and added our title and billing block.

This drainpipe was near the doorway, but not close enough to have in the same shot and Cally to still be large enough. We decided to crop this image and edit it to have the same white levels and then overlay to our main image. We wanted this in our poster as it adds an aspect of 'grittiness' to our poster which is representable of our genre.

Histogram edited, on Aperture, to give a more professional style.

Title over laid too, using Gimp.

Original photograph, subject off centre as this is more pleasing to the eye. Contrast between white and black with the subtle hints of colour catches your eye, similar to Somers Town poster.

BLOGGING!

Poster Research

All these posters have been taken from films that have a similar genre to ours, social realism, or storyline, a third party or ours interrupting the equilibrium.

In the Billy Elliot poster we have a close up shot of the main character. The high saturation of this photograph as well as the shapes in the background, which mimic the patterns created by flashing light, suggest this character has celebrity or high status. However we are not exposed to the whole face of the character, which could suggest there is struggle or something is not quite right, depriving this character to have this outcome.

Moneyball’s audience is very board. There will be the followers of Baseball, then Brad Pitt fans, as well as Jonah Hill and Phillip Seymour Hoffman fans, but also the people whom have seen the trailer and like this genre of film. Therefore the distributers have to incorporate all those factors and produce a poster, which will target these audiences. I believe it has bee done very well. Main character centred, with name above title aims at one group. Other famous actor’s also large to target another.  Photograph shot in baseball stadium. But the very realistic camera angle suggest a realistic nature to this film the final target audience.

Somers Town is a very eye catching poster.  The contrast between the black and white is the bright yellow type draws your eye straight to the title! Famous director also to target his following, and if unheard of a title of one of his previous films it on the poster too.  As this is a very independent film there will not be much of a following/existing audience so good reviews from reliable sources are also published on poster to make people want to see this production as it is thought to be good! The shallow depth of field on the photograph has been used to draw your eyes to these two characters, suggesting what the film will be about, their lives. The urban housing in the background suggest the settings as well as the costumes of the characters all portraying the mise-en-scene of the film.

Similar to Somers Town, This Is England depicts a photograph of the charactes with mise-en-scene to convey that of the film. Location, and time period are quite clearly shown, urban housing and “summer 1983” above title. But the main thing about this poster is all the awards and reviews given at the top. These are large and the main influence in making people was to watch this film, very typical of a niche independent film with low funds.  Billing block and studio logos very small as no recognisable names so this is not significant.

Final A2 Trailer

This is our final trailer, edited and complete!

Final Magazine Cover

After More Thought...

After watching our 'final' edit a few times we both realised it was just lacking something. We decided to move some the clips around into a more ordered fashion hopefully allowing the audience to understand our trailer better. we also added a scene of Cally looking extremely happy to empathises her happiness. We choose this scene as we didn't have a shot that showed her clearly really happy and this emotion directly related to riding. In this shot she is wearing her riding hat, and although you cant see, she is on a horse! Now we just have to adapt our music again to fit this new edit and then we have finished our trailer.

Magazine Research

Main character in costume (centre, very famous actor)

Type face and colours in style of genre of 'Inception'

Tag line relate to film aspect "mind-blowing"

Very similar to previous cover.

Colours and typeface relates to genre.

Main characters centred in costume.

Different magazine company, same style.

Character centred in costume.

More stressed on other aspect within this edition as well though.

Style representative of genre, american action.

Character's name overlaid a might not be as noticeable to who the actor is.

very stylised to the genre of this film.

Main character again centred in costume.

"bloody brilliant" risky comedy but apt. for audience.

Final Edit of Filming.

This is our film cut for the moving images for our trailer. We have changed some of the fonts to match the genre more as well as adding a montage of shots to create a climax, making our audience more intrigued and hopefully creating curiosity for the correct reasons! The studio logos we created have also been added and so have the title of our film. We decided to add the ripple effect over the title for extra interest and to just give our trailer an added dimension. Incorporating a film magazine quote will hopefully attract more audience, this is why we decided to add one to our trailer. Now we are able to finalise our music/soundtrack and publish together in the near future!

More Trailer Music...

This is some more music I have produced for our trailer. Now our film has been completely edited to how were want the timings for the soundtrack can be finalised. This was the first finalised piece that I produced, once put to the moving images we were able to see if it worked ...



...in this piece there is a part around 1min10secs that was too sci-fi for our trailer, and the ended to this piece just wasn't right.



After analysing our first 'in-time' piece this was my follow up. I think this piece works much better and is stronger this the trailer much as the trailer is stronger with this music. However we are going to need to gain some audience feed back from our target marget as they are the people we need to impress!

Trailer Soundtrack

For our music we had this idea of two genres mixed together, much like the different personalities through the life of our min character. We decided we wanted quite old fashioned classical music , not very up beat, for "good" Cally so the audience could relate this to her characteristics. We then wanted really up to date dance music for the scenes and shots where Cally is 'going of the rails'. This music should reach out to our target audience of teenagers as this is what the majority of them will listen to! A track we first put together I shall publish on this post which we made on garage band. We both like the style of this piece with the repetition of the beginning at the end and the climaxes and breakouts during the middle section. However we are unable to finalise our music until our editing is completely finished as he need the soundtrack to be completely intime with the moving images for our trailer to be a success!

First Rough Edit of Trailer

We have not yet finished our trailer, but this is our first rough edit of how we want our trailer to look like. Studio logos, Title and other small matters like that will be added later. However we realise some scenes need to be cut, cropped and added to progress our trailer into a more exciting piece of media. Although we have created some soundtracks to accompany our film, these are not yet finalised and we need to decided what dialogue we intend on keeping. On the other hand we are both pleased with how our ideas have come together and it is exciting to see how our work is being refined to achieve our final product.

Working With Garage Band

Today we have been composing our sound on the Mac using Garage Band. Last year we were given lessons in how to use the programme, which came in helpful again when trying to produce a professional sounding soundtrack.

Release Date Research

We have come to the decision that our film will be release in the summer of this year. There are many factors to our decision, as I am going to discuss:

-       Target Market, teenagers, will be on summer holiday. Therefore will have more time to go to cinemas with heir friends so our film should bring in more cinema ratings. This could have been released at Christmas due to similar factors, however films released at Christmas time are usually family orientated or festive, both of which ours is not.

-       Film festivals are mainly held in the summer months. Our film will therefore be fresh in people’s minds and more likely have promotional factors of such due to spoken work and publicity related to these festivals.

-       If cinema release is at the beginning of summer then the DVD release should be around the time when teenagers are going back to school. Therefore we presume those who have not seen our film will hear from their friends whom saw it, and buy the DVD to feel included.