Evaluation Questions

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

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

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

Review of Research and Planning

Evaluation of Research and Planning

In order to review my research and planning, I have monitored my progress from AS to A2.

My creation of storyboards has been in area of improvement during the step up of AS to A2. In our 2-minute AS possession horror film opening about a boy who is possessed by a supernatural female figure, our storyboard had detail and most scenes had a full breakdown. Although we had some parts missing when we started filming. This meant that we had to keep rescheduling filming days in order to complete all of the shots needed, due to adding them throughout the production of the film opening.

 

Due to not storyboarding effectively, some of the shots were unachievable, including having the possessed antagonist making an immediate bruise on the protagonist, we realised that we did not have the equipment or skills for this.

In the storyboarding of ‘Eighteen’, we ensured that we did not encounter the same problems as we did at AS. We did this by writing a list of desired shots and a basic idea of the scenes we wanted to include. We then filtered these to choose the best clips. This allowed us to experiment with a range of shots and editing styles due to having an exact number of clips to film and a finalised storyboard.

Another area of improvement has been shooting scripts. At AS we made a shooting script for each filming day so that we knew the list of scenes and equipment needed. Although, we organised our filming days last minute, which meant that the planning was rushed. This meant that some group members couldn’t attend various filming days, reducing the amount of team participation.

This progressed in A2 as we organised the filming days ahead of time, we grouped clips that we filmed in similar locations i.e. a day in Paddock Wood to film the parts at my house, Five Oak Green park and Costa.

 

To conclude, my skills from AS to A2 have improved. This has helped me share better ideas with the group, and increase the quality of the planning and creation of our media product.

Final Storyboard

Final Draft of Storyboard

Below is the final copy of the storyboard for our trailer. Each box represents a different shot used. Below the box is a small description of the shot if it is unclear. The storyboard can be compared to our final trailer.

Last minute, we added a title before the first shot of the character smoking saying "Can she fight to take back her life" and after the close up shot of the character breathing out smoke saying "From the depths of depression and addiction?" 

To conclude, I think that the storyboard represents the trailer well. 

Editing the Website

Editing the Website 

To make the website more suitable for our target audience, I added some social media apps to the page. 

An example is the 'YouTube Subscribe Button'. This allows the people viewing the website to directly subscribe to our youtube channel. This could be used if we were to release other trailers, so that we could update the fans regularly with new content. 

To ensure that it works, we have to register our youtube address. I copied and pasted this from the channel so it is correct. On the website, it appears as the same subscribe button as on youtube pages, so it easy for fans to click. 

Another app that I added to the website was the 'Twitter Tweet', this allowed us to set a pre-set tweet so that fans are able to share the youtube link to their follows, increasing publicity.

I chose the set tweet to be 'Can't wait to see this film! www.youtube.com/VIDEOURL'. This will mean that people will want to click the link to watch the trailer. 

This is the overall look of the website.

Creating a Production Company

Creating a Production Company

We all created a production company so that we could choose the best to put at the beginning of the teaser trailer. 

To create mine, I used a clip that we didn't use during the trailer. It was a clip of fire in a fire pit. 

To start, I dragged the clip into the timeline.

 I then shortened it, and trimmed it to the exact part of the clip I wanted. 

I then dragged the 'kaleidoscope' effect onto the clip. I repositioned the square to be replicated so that it was half of the fire.  

This created the below effect. 

I added a basic title to the start of the fire, so that the title would appear when the fire ignited. 

I changed the font, size and position to the text below. 

Deconstruction of the Endscreen of Trailers

Deconstruction of Endscreens

Fish Tank

• The text has the same 'water' effect as the rest of the typography throughout the trailer which plays on the title 'Fish Tank'. 
• The text is relatively small for the screen, but the billing's block is for accreditation of the people involved and therefore the audience do not necessarily have to be able to read it. 
• Normally, the billing's block is in all capitals, this one is in sentence case. 
• It conforms to common conventions by having a range of sizes throughout the text. The role of the person is smaller than the person's name, due to the accreditation being more for the individual than for their job role. 
• The production companies and producers of the film are at the top of the screen, followed by the actors and other job roles i.e. casting director and production designer. 
• The loo's of the production companies and producers are at the bottom of the screen.

The Selfish Giant

• This is a more conventional billing's block. The typography is thin and tall, which is commonly used for billing block's. 
• The text is in all capitals which makes the font easier to read in the short time that it appears for. 
• The text is a range of sizes which again, makes the billing's block easier to read due to the job roles being split, for example: BFI and FILM4 present a MOONSPUN FILMS production.
• Some of the words, on the small screen, cannot be read. This doesn't matter as again, the billing's block is for accreditation and not for the audience. 
• Under the billing's block there are the 5 logo's of the producers and production companies.

• After the billing's block there is a title stating the date of release. 
• It is in the same typography as the titles during the trailer, and the same colour background as throughout
• The social media links are listed below in a colour not used anywhere else in the trailer. This is to attract the audiences attention, so that they look up the sites.

Title Ideas

Ideas for Titles

We had to ensure that the titles kept the enigma of the trailer, while giving away as much as the plot as we could so that the target audience, genre and plot were clear, conforming to Syd Field's narrative theory.

We came up with the titles:

Every moment that changes your life, changes who you are

This shows that the character in the trailer has had her life changed by something. Although, we didn't think the wording was very strong.

After this we focused on the main factors that affect the character's life. We wanted the titles to be slightly poetic, this led to:

Depression is an internal battle

Isolation is a dream killer

These titles didn't give enough of the plot away, which left the audience confused. The internal battle and dream killer parts were too vague for the audience to understand the character's journey, which means that the trailer will not attract the target audience. 

To conform to common conventional titles in social realism trailers, there is often a rhetorical question. To refer to her pain being taken away by heroin and smoking, we came up with the titles:

If there was something to take the pain away

How much would you risk to keep it?

Again, the wording of this isn't very strong which would confuse the audience again. We decided that we wanted a rhetorical question as this promotes enigma and encourages the audience to want to see the film. It also a common convention of the social realism genre.

To create better titles, we listed a range of words that are related to the plot or character of the trailer. From this, we could develop ideas.

Depression

Isolation

Addiction

Adulthood

Risks

Struggle

Freedom

Responsibility

Oblivion

We decided to use the words fight, depression and addiction in the rhetorical question.

Can she fight to take back her life 

From the depths of depression and addiction?

We decided to use the words Freedom, Responsibility, Consciousness and Pain in the rest of the titles. This gives the audience an insight to what the film includes i.e. the character having more freedom but not being able to cope with the responsibility it entails. As well as giving an insight into the characters opinions on drugs, i.e. her being conscious rather than being high causes her pain because of the bad life she leads.

With Freedom comes Responsibility

With Consciousness comes Pain 

Editing the Timings

Editing Timings after First Feedback

After we were given the feedback for our first draft trailer. We had a few corrections to make. One of these were the timings, especially the length of our reviews/awards. 

As a group, we made the timing changes i.e. Making the awards appear for a shorter length of time, and the second review appear for longer.

After this, I neatened the transitions.

This included changing the timings of various clips to fit with the music. For example of the awards below were shortened so that the next clip transitioned on the drop in the music.

I also did this in other places throughout the trailer, including the two places below. 

One of the corrections, as mentioned before, was to extend the length of the second review. Due to having a clip underneath the review, I had to extend this too. Although, as the clip was of fire, part of it is just of smoke, which has dark lighting and makes the text unclear, shown in the image below:

To stop this but keep the length of the review, I cut the clip underneath the review when the fire started (towards the beginning of the clip). I also cut the clip again just before the end, the same length as the cut at the beginning, and copied it.

I pasted the copied clip at the front of the sequence of clips, and used it to replace the clip of the smoke. This meant that throughout the whole lengthened review there was fire behind, allowing the text to be clear and readable. 

 

Reviews in Social Realism Trailers

Reviews in Social Realism Trailers

To ensure that our trailer looks professional we have to conform to common conventions of our genre - social realism.
Below I am will explore the language and review types used within the reviews of three social realism films - Fish Tank, The Selfish Giant and This is England.

Fish Tank

There is only two reviews used within the trailer of Fish Tank, which is small number compared to most social realism trailers.
One of he reviews has stars, which is a visual representation of what is said, allowing the review to cover a shorter space of time within the trailer, as the audience will still be able to see that the film is given a 5 star review.
Most reviews use two describing words with an 'and' between, this is shown in the first review "Brilliantly and Sensitively".

The Selfish Giant

There are lots of reviews used in the trailer for The Selfish Giant, making it conform to the common conventions more than Fish Tank.
Most of the reviews used are very short, allowing the audience to read them quickly - keeping their attention on the trailer. Examples being:

In the trailer, there is also a whole page of star reviews. Again, this is for the audience to easily see a visual representation of the main opinion on the film.

There are 8 star reviews on a single page, 4 being 4 stars and 4 being 5 stars.

This is England

Usually reviews are spread out in the trailer, but This is England uses all of the reviews at the end of the trailer. There are only three reviews used, all of which being quotes from critics and not stars. The review is shown over a clip, when usually it is a blank screen between clips. The review is on a white background, which has an effect as though it was ripped from a newspaper.

The same use of language as Fish Tank is used in the reviews for This is England i.e. "Stunning and Unforgettable" as well as "Profound and Moving".

Filming Evaluation 4/12/15

Filming Evaluation

Date: 4/12/15

We didn't have all of the equipment needed to shoot the rest of the remaining scenes, but we filmed the shots that we could.
I went to the garages in the housing estate near the school, this means that it was a convenient location. It also was a good location because the area is quite built up, which is suitable for our genre and the shots we were filming.

We also decided, while we were on location and Verity was in suitable clothing for the character, to take pictures for the poster.
We went for a range of shots:

• Verity in the bottom left corner against a brick wall
• Verity in the bottom right corner against a brick wall with garages in the back
• Verity in bottom right corner against garages
• Verity in bottom left against garages

We experimented with focus, angles and framing.

We only filmed for about an hour. We need to arrange another filming date to get the small amount of filming left done.

Storyboard Draft 3

Third Storyboard Draft

This storyboard is in more detail than the second draft, but still have some development to go. Each box represents a number of shots, which means that it is not very accurate in representing the sequence of clips. The drugs scenes are split, which could either represent a split screen in the editing, or the sequence.

The drawings are of high quality, with specific details of each shot, but could be neater as some of the drawings are quite rushed. One box in the image below has four shots in, this again, could cause confusion when it comes to editing the clips together.

Some of the boxes are specific, i.e. 'videos of Verity year 7 - 11'. This does not help with the length of the clips, and the proportion of the trailer that they will take up. Again, this could cause issues during editing, if we come to it and we do not have the clips.

The 'coming soon' and billing's block boxes, will be still images and not moving. Which means that they will be easy to input. Although, we will have to think of the timings of this while editing based on the length of the trailer and the time limit of 1 minute.

Film Website Deconstruction

Website Deconstruction

The Spectacular Now

[website]

• The website is not overcrowded and quite simple. The colour scheme is very neutral the only two colours being cream and green.
• The majority of the website is taken up with the trailer, which plays when the user clicks it, not automatically. We are going to have our trailer play automatically, so that when the user is the on the website, they are drawn into watching the trailer.
• At the top of the website, there are a few tabs that the user can click to find out more about the film i.e. synopsis and cast and crew.
• Below this are links to the film’s social media accounts and websites to purchase the film from.
• The green band at the top of the website is a review, that changes around every 10 seconds, so that the user can see the reviews of the film, so that they can choose whether it is suitable for them or not.
• Below the trailer is an active link to the accounts tumblr tag. This means that when people post pictures/videos of things about the film with the tag #thespectacularnow it appears on the website. This is a way of getting the audience involved with the film and increasing the amount of online publicity as more people are likely to post about the film if they have the chance of getting onto the film website.

Paper Towns

[website]

• The trailer automatically plays full screen when the website is clicked on. The user has an option to close this, above is an image of the website that comes up as a result of that.
• The colours of this website are the same as those on the poster and titles in the trailer. This creates brands reputation for the film, attracting the target audience and allowing all three media products to be linked.
• The yellow and blue work well together as the yellow stands out against the electric blue colour, drawing attention to the tagline and similar films specifically. This targets a specific audience.
• The main image taking up the website is the same as that on the poster. This, again, creates brand loyalty.
• In the centre of the website, there is a banner with the options for the user to find out more about the story, trailer and music, amongst others. This makes the audience more active which benefits the publicity of the film through opinion leaders, who lead the people around them (the passive audience) to believe their opinion, which hopefully is that the film is good.
• Below the banner, is a live link to the film’s tumblr page. Employees of the main production company will look on the film’s tumblr tag to find posts worth reblogging. Once reblogged, the posts would appear on the website. As fans have the chance to get their work reblogged onto the website, more people are likely to upload posts about the film, increasing online publicity.