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

The use of many different media technologies had allowed me to construct my products with various methods that allowed me to create unique products that are appropriate and effective for their purpose.

Sony Premium Vegas Movie Studio 11.0 is the editing software I used to create my products, when I bought this editing software I had no experience in using this type of editing software. This did not stop or hinder the creation of my products as I used the “help” option on my software to tell me how to create and use certain tools on the editing software, by using the help tool I was able to quickly learn how to use my software and create my products. The way I used my software was on the job, because time was of the essence I decided to jump straight into the course work and create the first video as the first product on my software meaning I was learning to use more advanced editing tools during the creation period of my products so throughout my work the quality of my work improved gradually over the course of creating my products the longer I experimented with my products to create effects which I have seen in professional trailers which allowed me to use the skills I have learnt to create products that were of a quality that was appropriate for the purpose.

I have used Sony Premium Vegas Movie Studio 11.0 because it was a more advanced and allowed me access to more proffessional and greater effects that aided in making my film trailers, this software is a better choice for me to have made because compared to Windows Movie Maker because of its more advanced layout and effects and I chose this editing software over the colleges Premiure Pro because I decided I would use one I bought myself so I could use it when and where I liked and gave me the capability to learn the software in more depth which allowed me to learn it more and improve my skill which has greatly improved during the evoloution of the coursework.

Prezi is internet based software I used to crate presentations to present my findings and feedback on my products so that I could present my information and progress in more interactive and creative way, this software took minimal learning to use but allowed me to have a more creative and interactive way of displaying my products and feedback.

Photoshop CS5 is the image editing software I have used in college and on my laptop to create the film magazine and poster for my coursework, I had used this software before I started this course meaning I already had a basic understanding of this software and with time I developed my skills on this software to create my final products as my skills increased throughout the period of the construction stage.

I bought and used my own video Camera, I did this because I always intended on buying one for myself and by purchasing one I was able to make use of the HD quality feature on my editing software due to the cameras capabilities. Another reason I decided to use my own camera was so I did not have to worry about using the colleges camera and be responcible for it and book it, because I was able to use my own which was of a higher quality and more beneficial for me to use.
 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Through the use of my audience feedback which I collected throughout the process of developing my products I was able to create a products that were best suited to my target audience because I was able to gather feedback that changed my products over the creation period to make my products more appropriate and affective for their purpose.

Collecting my feedback for my film trailer videos greatly affected my products; this is because for my feedback on my videos I decided to gather verbal responses from certain members of my media course and members of my target market. By collecting verbal responses straight after they have watched the trailers I was able to obtain their first opinion on my trailers, this gave me reliable and high quality information to use to improve my trailers and to gather this feedback I typed all my feedback in to a single word document.

 

Over the course of developing my ancillary texts I have collected feedback on which direction to take my products, I have done this by performing a tick sheet of which film poster draft they preferred, this gave me the insight into my target audiences preference into which version they preferred. By knowing which version was more popular with my target market I was able to develop my poster into a more appropriate version which has lead to the creation of my final version which was influenced by learning what my target audience preferred from their feedback.

The feedback that I obtained from the planning stage influenced my products massively, this is because I retrieved several video interview feedbacks with select members of my target market to see what features they preferred from the selected adventure genre trailers, this feedback on popular and professional trailers allowed me to learn wheat features were the most memorable showing me what type of shots I should use for my products.

 

 

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

All five products I have created are meant to be identical to a certain extent; this is so the audience can connect all my products due to the similar style and designs I have used to create my products.

The re-occurring theme throughout my products is the use of flames and or explosions behind the protagonist, this is used to reinforce the adventure genre and create more excitement and thrill to the audience as well as creating an iconic pose on my print texts and on the end of my film trailers, as this creates the more abstract image I was aiming for to break conventions but also form a re-occurring iconic image that the audience can recognize as my work due to this challenge against convention by forming the abstract image.

 

I based my products on the “Indiana Jones” film franchise, because it is one of the biggest and most successful franchises in the film industry that has become well known making the pastiche imitation of my product more recognisable as an adventure genre film. This was the reason the protagonist’s consistent costume was only the long coat and the fedora, this hat was inspired by the “Indiana Jones” film franchise for the re-enforcement of the adventure genre. The style of my products is based on the Indiana Jones films, but the image I have created with my products and protagonist are used to link my products together, this shared elements between my products allows audiences to group my products together and the shared elements between my products and those of the “Indiana Jones” film franchise allow for audiences to associate my products with the same themes causing the re-enforced adventure and action themes to be created.

 

An element that my products all share is the use of iconic poses by my protagonist, I have done this because it allows for the audiences to automatically link my products but also creates the abstract image crafted by my trailers which makes them break conventions to be more appealing the audiences, however this shared element with my print products are conventional meaning that my products can easily be formed together whilst also creating a set of products that appeal to a more mainstream audience but do so by breaking conventions.

 

My audience feedback has shown me that the method of making my products more appealing by breaking certain conventions has been successful, this is because the feedback I have received about my products is how they are identical with the abstract ending of the trailers which has left an image with them that they use to link my products, this is evidence by the comments made by my target market responses. My responses are from students of Media Studies and teachers of this subject, but also those who have no affiliation with this subject making this response a sign that my products are linked together by the broken convention method I have employed for this purpose.   

     

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

The media products I have created use the forms and conventions of the “adventure” genre; all five of my products have met the codes and conventions that make up this genre. The codes and conventions that create the form of the adventure genre for a film trailer include; booming music, film title at end of trailer, narration and fast paced music.

My film trailers all have made use of the codes and conventions that make this genre, the use of loud booming music was used to create the action and adventure themed sound track to build up the hype and suspense that adventure film trailers try to make. I had created the sound track with the combination of several music tracks from the band “Two Steps from Hell” and the theme song from the popular game “Skyrim”, I spent several hours to create the sound tracks present in my film trailers by using my editing software, Sony Vegas movie studio HD platinum 11.0, to use selected segments of the tracks and formed the music for my trailers which also follows the convention of film trailers having fast paced music for the building of excitement and thrill.

Film trailers of this particular genre are conventionally fast paced and full of quick action shots that display the main cast for the audience to have a basic understanding of who the main characters are, my trailers have followed this by having quick shots most of which are action shots displaying the thrill and excitement that the film has to offer the audience. The convention that adventure film trailers have many action shots is used, however I have also broke this convention by creating a more abstract part to my trailer because I have made the cinematic ending to the trailer on the one-minute and two-minute trailers. I have done this because it delivers a more mysterious and appealing ending to the trailers which attract the audience’s attention more, this has been proven by my audience feedback where several have stated that was one of their favourite parts of the trailer because it was different and broke the conventions of a conventional film trailer of this genre.  

The codes and conventions don’t apply the same to the ancillary texts due to the difference between print and video texts; however the ancillary texts do follow codes and conventions that are set for a film poster and film magazine front cover, by basing my front cover design on the film magazine “Empire” I was able to create a front cover magazine that represents the adventure genre by the use of a dark background and an explosion in the background to create an image that has a thrilling and action appearance making it more appropriate for the purpose of presenting the film.

The film poster was made in a similar way to the front cover, by using the websites “IMDB” and “Empire” I was able to analyse the codes and conventions of the adventure film posters and create a poster that was similar to the front cover but made more appropriate for the use as a film poster.

15 second film trailer version 2 - Final

I have now completed the new 15 second trailer, I had decided to create a completely new trailer after feedback said that it did not represent the genre very well. With that in consideration I created the second version with more action and quick shots that represent the Adventure genre more appropriately.

1 minute film trailer - Final

I have now made my 1 minute fim trailer and am submitting it as the final piece as I recieved feedback on my product whilst it was near completion in the development stage so quick edits could be made to speed up the editing process.

Final Film Magazine Submission

I have now finished the magazine front cover after many hours of photoshoping and gathering feedback, the finished film magazine front cover is now finished and ready for submission.

Note: Quality of the image will vary from computer to computer due to the darkness of the product, this can be rectified by adjusting screen brightness as this setting can alter the image significantly.

Final Film Poster Submission

I have now completed my film poster after hours of feedback and editing to finally create this poster below.

 

I have created this poster to be used is certain locations, this is the reason my poster is a portraight orientation. I have designed my poster to be advertise the film in these locations;

• magazines
• bus shelters
• cinema interiors

So my poster has be designed with the location and purpose in mind so that the  film was advertise in certain locations.

 

 

 

Note: The image may appear darker on certain screens, this error can not be corrected by myself as it is due to the brightness settings on the screen it is viewed on.

Final 2 minute film trailer submission

I have now completed the final version of my 2 minute film trailer, after feedback and hours of editing the final piece is completed and ready for submission.

Edited Film Poster

Upon receiving feedback on my last film poster it was suggested I made some changes, with that I have made a new film poster that has more consistancy with my film trailer.

Final Poster Web version

Following the previous post with the final version of the film poster the isssue that the image was being displayed darker than normal occured, I have resolved this matter by editing hte film poster for a printed version and a web version (below) so that both can be viewed correctly with out an image problem.

 

Film poster final

I have created a final version for my film poster, with the feedback I had gathered it was clear that majority prefered the 2nd version of the poster rather than the 1st. Since the design was complete only minor adjustments were needed for the final version (below) to be completed.

 

The image above is displaying darker than it actually is, this is causing the poster to not be shown as the final version clearly.

15 Second film trailer version

For my course work I had to create not only a film trailer but two shorter versions as well, I started with the 15 second version and have created a simple trailer for my course work that makes use of many differnet aspects of editing including;

• cutting
• chroma key
• sound manipulation
• text inputting

Film poster version 1 comparison

I created my first versions of my film poster, I had two versions with a difference in the main image. To find out which poster was the more favorite with my target market I asked 19 people which one they preferred.

I asked 19 people so there would be no possibility of a tie so I would be able to take the most popular and develop that version further to better appeal to my target market.

Version 1

Version 2

My research into which poster was more popular with my target market was version 2 with 11 votes to 8, this has given me a clear definition in to which poster I should develop further. But since the votes were close I am going to attempt to find a half way point so that more of my target audience would prefer my poster.

I will attempt to merge the two posters by slightly lowering the lighting on the main image of version 2 so that it is slightly darker.

Front cover final

After several drafts and receiving feedback from my target market I have created my final version of my front cover.

Film trailer V2

I have now created a second version of my film trailer, I will gather responses from my target audience to see what they like and dislike about the new trailer.

Front cover draft 3

I have continued further developing my front cover, whilst doing this I have been gathering opinions on how it could be improved. Some of the improvements that were suggested included;

• New title
• Better main image quality
• More images

Taking these into account I then made the 3rd version of my magazines front cover.

Front cover draft 2

I have worked on the first draft and made some improvements, through use of my knowledge of the codes and conventions of a film magazine cover I have made a more suitable cover for its purpose.

As you can see I have changed the back ground image and added more content to the cover, the cover now appears more professional and is more suitable for its purpose.

Magazine front page draft 1

I have started to design and create my magazine front cover, after conducting research into several different film magazines including; Total Film and Empire I understood the codes and conventions of a film magazine cover.

I have created this first basic draft to give me a template of what my finished version should look like, using Photoshop and gathered materials of my own creation I have made this first draft.

I can see from my first draft that I need to create content for the magazine to display on the front cover and to improve the main image as the background image and main image are not to a standard suitable for their purpose.