Evaluation - Question 4

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

Sabrina's Q.4

The different types of research methods that we used are going to be explained below as these are what allowed use to make our final products. There are many different ways in which my team used the different media technologies to produce our A2 media coursework. The different types of technology that we used for our project was the internet, Microsoft office, digital cameras, logic (a music production software), Photoshop, voice recording equipment which allowed us to add diegetic sound adding to the sound effects which all allowed use to complete our coursework.

The internet was a big part of our research process because it allowed use to access a wide range of tools that we needed to start up our project that we otherwise would not have been able to access with as much ease if we did not use the internet. When we were researching we went on the internet and used Google to gain different posters, magazine covers and teaser trailers that we could analyses so we would have an idea of what we needed to produce in our own ancillary text and teaser trailer. This was very beneficial because it allowed use to plan the layout of our magazine front cover as well as ways in which the direction of our poster could go.

 

Other ways that we used the internet was by using survey monkey to research on our target audience and ask them questions on what gender they are, how old they are as most horror films are rated 15 and above we had to make sure that we were asking the right people 16-24 year olds as they were who we were targeting our teaser trailer to. We also asked the questions like what they prefer the contrast to be allowing them to pick from colour black and white or both. This gave use vital information that we needed to move on with the development of our preparation for our production. The use of survey monkey was quite easy because they gave use a vast range of answers from a variety of people and made the graphs for use already which saved use time in gathering the feedback. However since survey monkey only allows 10 questions to be asked at a time and we needed to ask more we felt it right that we used excel as well to produce more graphs as it would look better on our blog if all the graphs from our research look the same. Excel allowed use to use the graphs not only to gather information but to also see the trends that where occurring throughout our target audience which was that they were very interested in the horror genre.

The main sub-genre that they like the most was thriller second comedy and third romance which gave use more insight into what we needed to carry out.

We then went on YouTube to research the different ways that we could begin to bring our plans to life so we looked up ways to make fake make up which allowed use to apply it to the actors that were putting it on prosthetic make up which allowed us to learn more about applying prosthetics and making it look realistic. This allowed us to make sure that we were able to do it our self for our own teaser trailer.

We also used Facebook and Hotmail to communicate with each other from home which made it easier for use because sometime when we did not see each other we could send emails to each other’s to outlying what we needed to do as well as sending attachments of our poster and magazines front cover to make sure that we had a copy. Using was also good because if were forgot to do something we could check our email and it was there to remind use rather than having to write down things down or continuously having to print out copy’s as it waste paper. I also went on the internet and also watched some DVD’s that I already had for example the Exorcist, saw 2 and 3 as well as paranormal activity which allowed me to gain more inspiration for what we wanted to within our production.

 

When looking for a setting that we wanted to use for our teaser trailer we felt that as we wanted to have a priest as the main character that we should use a confessionary and since we had a chaplaincy in our college we could use this as it would provide use with the type of location that we were looking for. We used digital cameras to take pictures of the settings which allowed use to see if what it would look as it would allow use to see what it looked like on camera. For the magazine it was drawn out but scanned into Photoshop to work on contrast, the scans are clearer this way. The same thing was done to the storyboard. We looked at other examples of previous students work so see how we could achieve the same effects or better in our own trailer. This proved useful when choosing our setting, even though we has to stay on the college ground, watching other peoples examples gave us a good idea on where the best places in college are to film.

                                                                                                                      

Leyla's Q.4

When planning, we made a storyboard that we had to completely stick to throughout production.We all watched different Youtube videos to learn different special effect makeup techniques. We considered techniques that ranged from making s omeone look like their throat was slit to making them look like zombies until we opted for a fake wound as it would work best with the storyline. We found out about the best techniques to apply fake wounds and how to apply fake blood so it would look more realistic.

Monique's Q.4

In the production stages we used several media technologies that made our overall media products (trailer, film poster and film magazine)Our main use of media technology was a

Canon Eos 7d Camera that was used to both video record the footage for our trailer and take photographs for our poster and magazine. We as a group had a general understanding of use for the camera, in addition to that if you had any difficulties to turned towards our teacher that would offer the help that was needed. As we used this camera to take images for our film poster and magazine front cover we used the auto focus on that places a red light through the camera lens to the area which you wish to have the attention on. The canon Eos 7D has a through-the-lens (TFL) optical sensors, with a separate sensor providing light metering which made it easier for us to aim for the type of image that was produced quicker and having better precision then using a manual viewfinder which could be found on older digital still cameras.

Coloured gels for the lighting were a success because it enabled us to get our setting (confessionary booth) to look convincing, we had a chose of whether we wanted the colour to be deep red or orange and chose this because there needed to be a collective use of different colours in our media products, using red we thought would have overpowered the scene which was already going to contain gore and bloody shots. At first when we was creating this cardboard window we were just going to film it solo with the actors and the use of white lights to create more of a shadow filled scene however we decided that wouldn't be best and took our chances with putting these two together creating a good use of technology.
Above is a Image of members of our group (Leyla and Jide) Arranging the lighting for one of our first locations.When changing locations it took us some time but we were able to use a suitable white balance by using the Auto white balance on the camera however that was not out main issue, we came to the realization that when filming with our model walking away from the camera alot of light was lost and as we had a track shot to produce in our college's chapel, we had to take several attempts in getting the right movement to follow the subject as they moved along with the camera being aware of unnecessary shadows and bright light that we didn't want into our trailer that would affect our conventions for horror or what we wanted to achieve across to our demographic audience.

We were also equipped with a memory card reader to transfer many of our media products, such as our pictures, to the home drive of our user names to start processing them and making our posters and magazines. Although a lot of the time spent on the ancillary was done at home by the adobe Photoshop cs5 trail which enabled us to have 30 days of free use for this new software.
For setting up the lighting we had to ensure that all unnecessary objects were moved aside this meant all the tables and chairs so that the correct positioning could be done. When filming we was told by our teachers that it would be a good idea to do pre and post roll footage which consisted of counting down from 3. This enabled us to know where we needed to cut our footage when editing in final cut pro. Again we had to do the process of re-checking the lights and camera to make sure everything was in order, then we got on to the filming. The lighting for the teaser

trailer were as follows:

The first scene was of the actor (myself) slowing walking with another member of the group playing the light giver, following my movement, making sure that it would be captured in the right place which in this case was the bible in my hand.



The second scene was of me sitting down and reading a bible, the light was placed to my left which allowed the ray to be diagonal line which hit the side and centre of me, whilst the camera was on my right side tilting up slowly. The third scene was when we changed location and came in the media classroom that contained the blue scene, The scene helped in creating a background that could be adaptable and also coming out as a darker shade when transferred onto the computer becoming near black. Two sets of lights were positioned either side of me to brighten my body from my seated position whilst the camera remained on my right and the coloured gel on my left shining out into the background. The same was for the fourth scene and the ones after. The lighting for the photography was a automated trigger than got the flash to come on when a picture was taken. This allowed a better sense of control with the energy consumed from in the battery and possible damage.

Jide's Q.4

When it came down to making the trailer, we used a program called final cut pro which allowed me to be able to cut, link together clips and add effects. It was my first time using final cut pro so I had to get to grips with the technology as I did not quite understand what I was doing and for most of the time I was actually studying

and researching up on how to do basic things like add slide transitions, cut and fade to black. Also as we were making a teaser trailer I was careful when selecting what parts to include and to not as part of making a trailer is to keep your audience guessing and interested by not giving to little or too much information about your film which will prompt them to research more about it. When using final cut I found using the fade to black tool very useful as I used that tool for almost every if not every shot I made, I did this because if I just used the cutting tool i feel it would not look very professional, rushed and even look like an actual film.

The second application I used was motion which is what I used to make the intro of the teaser trailer. It was my first time using motion and I wanted to make sure I would be able to have all the knowledge about it as I possibly could so
what I did was look at the tutorial videos so it would help me hit the ground running as fast as possible. What I made in motion was an animated lightning striking around our company name ''Chaos Theory'', However before that was made I had to experiment with many different designs as I was trying to make a design that would support a horror film look. I mostly found designs such as bright lights which would suit a children's film but since we were making a horror film I was looking for a dark fast paced design something that will go well with the build up of our trailer. I only found two designs which were f use which was the lightning one and the other being a flock of bats swarming. I decided to use the lightning as the flock of bats will look cliche and also the lightning one appealed to our group most.

Monique, A member in our group used this software Logic Pro 8, for creating the soundtrack for our trailer. As she studies music technology we thought it best to have this role, her knowing the ways in to make an effective piece of music which we have been told many times it is allowed us to have confidence in the production and have an overall good response to what was created..

This track was used in the filming for our trailer; it was quite a handful because we were not experienced that well with the concept of keeping a steady move of the camera without it appearing shaky and unprofessional. In regards to this our teacher giving us help in showing us how it would be done, the camera person had several attempts in planning how to move with the person and to test of the speed and record to check whether it looked good enough to be placed sequenced with our other shots. We also took a look at some videos on YouTube to check over if we did accomplish the look we were going for.

We were unsure with our first take whether it was relatively to slow. There was the alterative to speeding the pace of the walk in Final Cut Pro however we'd preferred to know how to do it correctly helping us in future references , Thankfully with confirmation with this video and several others we looked at it shows a general use of tracking/dolly shot that has movement slower than the regular walking pace. We are also aware that instead of a track, they used the wheels on a tri pod; this didn't affect us as it still beneficial.

Prop and Coloured Gel for Lighting

A Sony tripod

we could keep our camera stable ensuring no camera movement was done when it wasn't necessary in shooting scenes for our teaser trailer
Zoom H2 Handy Recorder

Was used to create a scream at the ending of our trailer, which was then imported into Logic Pro for effects to be added on however that will be discussed in post production. Before we went ahead and used this technology we had to find an area that was indeed silent of any interruptions and would produce some ambience to make the sound broader with louder and fuller attributes. When using this technology we used the 'high gain' setting so that the scream wouldn't be distorted. Although using the program Logic Pro 8 it could of been manipulated by controlling the distortion however it was seen easier just to do this take before beginning the recording process.

Track

Using YouTube allowed use to stop the video and go back if we did not understand something and do it along with the video to make sure that we were doing it correctly as opposed to reading the directions on a piece of paper.

Feedback-

Q4: your evaluation starts very abruptly- Sabrina- can you put a clearer introduction stating that you are writing about research as this is unclear.

Leyla= your response is too short. please add more information.

Overall, it needs a bit more time spending on it to sort out some issues with the layout, and finally, can you please choose some nicer colours- the ones you've chosen hurt my eyes- this work needs to look visually pleasing, and it doesn't.

Q3: Sabrina- your work is very descriptive- try to analyse the usefulness of the feedback that you got.

Monique- your response is too short.

Leyla- good content but very short.

jide- you've only written a few lines. plus one of your print screen contains comments that would be very offensive to muslims- plus- what does that part add to our understanding of feedback anyway? please spend longer on your homework!

I haven't checked Q 2 or 1 yet.

You have loads of Q4 posts with a draft image on them- can you sort this out please- they'll need deleting.

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Sabrina's Q.3

Feedback is needed for any production weather it is professionally done or not as it helps to develop our work. We realize that to develop we have to take constructive criticism as it helps to make our work better which allows use to also give our target audience what they want as we are making it for them to watch. The first step to receiving this feedback was to make our teaser trailer available for the public to see what the response would be. We used various websites like YouTube which allowed us to get a mass response rather than just asking people in college as they are likely to be biases as we know them, but people that we do not know are more likely to be objective and give their honest opinion. We also posted our teaser trailer on Facebook and Twitter so that others can give use there opinion as well. We received a vast amount of comments that were positive and negative this allowed use to analyses what they like and disliked about the teaser trailer.

We also posted our teaser trailer on Facebook and Twitter so that others can give use there opinion as well. We received a vast amount of comments that were positive and negative this allowed use to analyses what they like and disliked about the teaser trailer. We had emailed some of my friends the link of our ‘sinners’ teaser trailer with the tag line ‘confession has a new outcome’ and because some of my friends are Christians it sparked a good debate on weather we should have used a wholly place for our horror teaser trailer. They responded with some suggestions of ‘using a place like a school as that’s the usual place where teen horror films are made not the lords house’. As this was one of the conventions that we wanted to challenge it made me realize that not everyone is so accepting of this and some Christian groups will feel upset with it. As in previous films like ‘stigmata’ which was highly controversial because of the way it expressed different issues within the Catholic Church one of the those themes was holiness.

I sent another email to someone containing the ancillary text which has given me some vital information that I needed. Some of the comments made were that ‘both your magazine cover and poster are good I especially like the lighting on the poster it makes the boy look like he has a soft side’. This made me think that the person commenting thought that the priest could have a split personality which could eventually be developed if we where to be continuing making our teaser trailer into a film.

Another messege that we received was from a media student who understood that we had to challenge some convections and sent me an email saying ‘this is a fairly good trailer however it would have been good if I could here the dialogue I couldn’t make out a thing, the soundtrack is also good but I think it would have been more effective if at 23seconds there where are crescendo of sound and then we see the out come, but I loved the ending’. This comment was very beneficial because it gave me quite a bit of feedback that our group needed. It would have been more effective if we had made sure that the sound was clearer so that the dialogue can be heard as it is a big part of the teaser trailer however there was another email that stated ‘even though you cannot here what the characters are saying the captions help so we no what direction its going in’.

Monique's Q.3

or people to be alerted of buzz around the web and communicating with friends, It made a brilliant gateway for direct responses from users.



As seen above we have comments made by friends from facebook about one of our ancillary texts. The overall response is that it has successfully embraced the conventions of horror and received positive feedback with it being 'eye catching', having a good sense of lighting and the use of shadows which was an added effect of using photoshop to enhance the darkness surrounding the model. Now with what could of been improved if we were to attempt this goal again would be as it is stated from several individuals getting the bloody hands in another layer to get it to stand out more would be a definite factor to think on, although the reason we did not do that was because of not wanting all attention on the hands. We wanted it to have a focus when you first appear to look on the image but not where it will draw eyes from the importance of the shadows embracing the model and darkening one side of the hands. Another thing that could be changed would be the tagline with the front. It is said to seperate it's self from the image but that was definitely something we wanted to achieve, as previously said in an earlier questions it connotes similarities to being looked on from above so the font would be different from others on the poster because of it needing to stand out. This font was also used to have a continuity to the other media products.

The positive feedback from the poster summarises for us that we effectively brought out the important factors that needed to stand in the photo. e.g. For it to be called 'eye catching' we must have used the right amount of blood and manipulated the lighting in photoshop cs3 well for this statement to be said. Another summary of positive feedback is from the use of lighting and how it connoted the horror genre which is what our stimulus was. We successfully got what was needed to come across to the audience with the different proportions of light that casted off/on the subject within the image creating shadows in the right places (on the light side of the model's face)

Our areas of improvement are the tagline and creating another layers for the bloody hand image. Overall we can see from the comments that these are two important factors that the audience decided with the correct alteration would enhance the image making it expand in being more outstanding and within more suitable conventions of how film posters have a good continuity for all ancillary texts. As stated above the tagline in replacement to how it is already presented would be made to stand out more with possibly a different font that is still serif and a different colour being used to contrast with the other continuous colours used.

As twitter.com as become very popular over the last year and fights among facebook to be the top social networking site, we see these opportunities to create promo pages. This would be a very good way of gettin feedback from an achillary text, The same goes with facebook however there is a slight change in last year from fan pages, previously it would of stated how many fans were apart of the group but it now is how many people like it. We decided not to create either pages as it could be done after the film was released to unreveal info on upcoming goodies for our audience enjoy and news on the post production e.g. extra scenes, possible extended versions/directors cut.

Leyla's Q.3

To receive audience feedback for the magazine cover, I made a survey on survey monkey consisting of seven questions. Five being multiple choice and two questions where there is a box for writing in their own words; question 3 and 7.
1. Do you think the colours used connote horror genre?
2. Do you think the information on the magazine cover is clear?
3. What do you think of the photo quality? is there anything you would change/improve on?
4. is it obvious that the film 'Sinners' is a horror?
5. do you think that £3.99 is a reasonable price for this magazine?
6. Do you think this magazine cover follows the conventions well of a film magazine?
7. Anything else you would like to add regarding conventions of a horror magazine?
11 people answered the questions.

From the feed back on question 1, I found that 100% of people who answered said they agree with the colours used connote horror genre so the colour scheme used wouldn't be changed if we had to change anything or redo something.

For question 2, 36.4% of people thought the information on the magazine cover could be clearer. If we re-did anything, I think making each film title in the cover lines a different font would make things clearer for the audience. all other people who answered that question said they thought the information on the magazine cover was clear.

I made question 3 a required question so that I could get the best feedback possible. I had a mix of different opinions on what people thought but they were mostly positive. Making the picture shaper and making it stand out more was said a few times, and the blood on his hands wasn't clear enough, so if we could change anything, we would listen to that criticism.

18.2% of people didn't think it was obvious that 'Sinners' was a horror film. because a majority of the people said it did in fact look like a horror, over looking the small percentage of people who didn't and keep to the original idea would seem like a safe option.

Only 2 people thought that 3.99 was unreasonable for price for the magazine. because of different research into prices for film magazines, we know that this is in fact a in the lower price range of a film magazine so this is also a result we can over look.

For question 6, 36.4% of people didn't think that the magazine cover had covered conventions of a horror magazine in everyway, some but not all. because this is quite a big percentage, this would be something we consider if we were to change anything, we would re-evaluate on conventions just to make sure we cover them all the best we can.

I made questions 7 so that it wasn't required just to see if anyone had anything to add, I only got 2 responses out of 11, One saying that the font wasn't brilliant which is something that has already been considered and the picture could be scarier. I am sure that if the blood in the picture was emphasized, the picture would all in all look more slasher horror which is what we were aiming for, and we would achieve the effect of making it look more scary.

Jide's Q.3

I have learnt that when using youtube or any other file sharing site on the internet it helps to do two crucial things which are less effort and time to promote media created as you will be able to use facebook, email the link to friends and also it helps your friends to promote your film using the internet. also the use of youtube is useful as people of different countries with different beliefs and ideas are able to comment on your videos which in turn would benefit future videos made.

Below shows the feedback we gained from people whom commented on our trailer and the most constructive feedback we received was a feedback regarding someones views about our sound being to low and the person being barely able to hear words due to the volume not being edited properly. Another helpful comment given was one given about an spelling mistake made in one of the clips which could show that maybe when we make trailers we should check our mistakes.

Below shows a video made which asks 3 different pupils 5 questions which would be used to give us an idea of whether we followed conventions which are of a horror film genre or we drifted off to a more different genre all which would be of useful knowledge to us.

Overall we thought that there are many more way that we could have promoted our teaser trailer than to have just used the obvious means of networking like YouTube, twitter and Facebook. All that we have used has given us a well rounded range of comments that we can analyze. The comments we received where very constructive and allowed use to gain vital information on how we could have made our teaser trailer better. There were even some comments that we can potentially be use to make it better. Overall we are satisfied with the feedback that we got even though we would have liked more comments on our Youtube account as it would have allowed use to have a wider range.

Sabrina's Q.3

We used Facebook and Twitter because it is very common in today's society for social networking sites, ranking at the top 2. In 2010 it was said that Twitter had 200 million users and Facebook with 600 million from January 2011. Twitter was used more for promotion towards our achillary texts and Facebook was what was used to gather the feedback which was main source of gathering peoples thoughts and excessive ideas onto what can be improved. Using these sites allowed a better opportunity for our promotion towards our media products we used two worldwide social networking sites.

Evaluation - Question 2

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

Monique's Q.2

When in the planning/research stages of our project, we had a general understanding of how synergy, cross media promotion and continuity works within the media industry as we had studied up on this for our AS media institutions and Audiences. We then knew what needed to be done in making our products to make links to each other. For example, it would be highly inappropriate to promote objects and clothing linked to a sexual references in a movie rated 12A.

Although we were aware of this, producing what we wanted to achieve was not an easy task as we came to realise there are many things that need to be done to not only make a products recognisable with each other however to get the products to blend with the conventions we had in mind to reflect well as horror and getting our demographic audience to be draw to it by just a glance. In doing this we would head of to resembling those of which are already out there in the industry and accelerating to new heights in the box office.
Below will be examples of how we would use these techniques of media to aid our distribution and effectiveness of our main product and ancillary texts.


Before we started filming and were taking ideas we first remembered that when it came down making a film, a magazine and a poster all three projects would need to link together in order for the audience to recognise that our products all belong together. For example it would not make sense for a film trailer to have a light setting, then have a green high key lighting with an arial font and finally have a dark magazine look with new times roman font as this will confuse the audience showing a lack of continuity, show poor planning and understanding and will not show what you are promoting.

Jide's Q.2

Examples of brand identity/ continuity being used can be shown with warner bros dark knight continuity below

If you were to compare the three things such as dvd cover, poster and magazine you can clearly see that they all have a aura of an light blue effect each showing one important aspect which is clearly the city whether it is in turmoil or fine and by clearly looking at each you can clearly tell that they are promoting the exact same thing which would be the film. Also it could also be seen that with the poster and DVDs cover similar font is used which could also be said about the color range being almost identical if not similar which again goes with continuity. Finally it could also be noticed that the poster and dvd have the dark knight logo which could go to show that the warner bros are trying to increase the brand or logo awareness of the dark knight.

























Above is our poster, magazine and film trailer screen shotted showing continuity between our 3 products as you can notice that the title has the same font used through out which was Lycanthrope used from the website ''dafont.com'' which allows you to use a different variety of fonts. We picked the Lycanthrope font as we felt that we did not want to run the risk of using the same font as someone else and we also felt that the default fonts used in Photoshop were to simplistic to give a horror look. notice how the backgrounds are dark, low key lighting and has a dark evil red look to it which is a common convention of horror as dark and red connotes evil, horror and vulnerability. We also made sure to use the same font we used for the poster in the magazine which was ''Trebuchet MS'' as we wanted to keep and maximize the whole continuity effect. The Trebuchet font gives a bold look and at the same time looks different meaning that it is bold to stand out to the audience but at the same time different to make the audience feel intrigued and maybe a little bit uneasy. Also our first ideal picture of the poster was to involve a specific picture shown below but we were unable to as unfortunately enough a other group member Sabrina unintentionally made a mess of the picture and at the same time a important prop we used was unavailable meaning we had to take a completely new picture. However we were able to take a picture which was not on the same level as our ideal choice but never the less extremely useful to us. The only things I feel we could have done to improve continuity would be if we were able to make a logo to improve toward would be to be able to develop a logo and also to be able to handle a high quality camera most effective.
The camera used to both record and take photographs was the Canon Eos 4OOD which was the

best available camera we could use to film at the time. We wanted to use the best camera because we felt that it would give us an advantage or a edge over other groups ensuring we used the camera with the highest quality available

Cross media promotion is indescribably important to the film industry as it could be the difference between having a small amount of consumers and large amount of consumers who know about your film as it promote a media product by a wide range of platforms being a iphone, a computer, a games console and other traditional media platforms. The Dark Knight cost 187million dollars to produce which is an extremely large amount of money to spend producing a film. However it was able to generate 1billion dollars back in return and I feel that was mostly down to the massive cross media promotion of the Dark Knight. The film

was promoted among many media items such as

Sabrina's Q.2

When it come to creating a buzz about a product that has been created for the viewing public there are a variety of components that are made to make sure that the product is being advertised to make sure that the target audience that, that film is aimed at know all about it. Through out pre production and the film making process there are always ways that the film makers can track the progress of the buzz they are creating weather its buy reading comment from the people interested. Even before the film had come out there is a Facebook page, twitter page website and blogs that allow the people to be interactive and express there views. This helps to build the branding of the film as if the images, logos and characters of the films have been seen by some of the people interested when they start to see more from the film they will automatically recognize that this is from the film being that they were interested in or herd about previously. An example of this is the with the dark knight franchise who are in the middle of production of the 3 film in the dark knight franchise which is called ‘the dark knight rises’ it is due to be released in July 2012 and already have a teaser trailer that has over 21000 views.