Media studies

Evaluation

Leanne Houghton

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Teaser Trailer Form analysing teaser trailers I have found it

is a convention within them to use quick sharp

editing, however, in my teaser trailer I have

challenged this because I have use fades in and

out of each shot also the majority of my shots are

in slow motion. I felt this was important in my trailer

as it adds to the super natural element. A lot of my shots are in reverse to make it seem like the main character is levitating or making things levitating around him.

The trailers mise-en-sene is the woods, this represents him escaping his reality and entering a ‘wonderland’ where he can be free. The lighting is bright showing his happiness. The music is slow and peaceful, this again develops and enhances the escaping of reality.

The in house style/ theme is developed through the poster and movie magazine cover. Using an image from the trailer in the poster. Also the suggestion of the protagonist being happy whilst in another reality is enhanced with the advert of the article about alter egos and showing two different shots of the character.

My Movie poster is typical to a generic movie magazine I have analysed, it includes the title of the film, a slogan, the date of release and the extra information about the film company. It is a very dark poster being lit only by candle light this develops the theme of the film as supernatural, however, it is a contrast to the trailer which is shot in daylight. This is because the trailer shows the happy side of the protagonist and the poster shows the darker side of him. My Poster follows conventions by keeping with the in house style of my teaser trailer. The trailer is very super natural the poster also suggests this as the smoke coming from the candles spells out the words of the slogan also the protagonist has his hands around the candle suggesting some control over it. Linking back with the final shot in the trailer. Also the lighting is dim suggesting the dark edge to his personality.

Movie Poster

Magazine cover My magazine both adheres to

conventions and betrays them. The picture of the character of the film is in front of the mast head/ logo of the magazine this is a very common conventions to a lot of magazines. The masthead is across the whole of the top of the magazine this is a convention to only movie magazines. I have developed the convention by having two pictures of the same person, however, portraying different emotions. I have also kept the front cover quite bare not including barcodes, price etc, this is similar to a SAGA movie magazine I analysed I felt this worked well and made the headlines stand out more and become the most important feature of the magazine.

How effective is the combination of your main

product and ancillary texts?

Within my three products there is a clear in house style within all three of my products. The theme running through is, escaping reality and becoming free and happy in an alter ego. I feel this is effective as the happy side is shown through the light magical essence shown in the trailer when he is creating magic, followed by the contrast of the darkness in the poster, bought together by the revelation of both of the emotions in the magazine. I have made the theme even clearer by using a still shot from the teaser trailer for my poster picture. I felt this was one of the most effective shots as it shows a darker side to him and also a sense of control.I feel the theme of alter egos is especially highlighted with the Movie magazine. The clearer picture is of the protagonist showing sadness, the picture which is blurred behind shows him happy suggesting his alter ego is where he is most happy.

Audience feedback

Audience feedback: I really enjoyed the trailer, the magical element is something I wouldn’t have expected and was done really well. I thought the slow motion linked well with the music. However I feel the plot wasn’t extremely clear

Audience feedback: I thought the in house style worked really well the poster was my favourite the writing coming out as smoke was especially clever as it is not noticed when you first look at it, therefore it makes you focus more on the poster to realise what it is. I also thought making the trailer backwards to make it appear as magic was a really good idea

Audience feedback: I thought all three of the products connected together really well, the magazine pictures were really good, I liked the way there are added effects to the picture behind, however I think the rest of the magazine is a little bare. The poster is excellent I like how it is just in candle light it adds to the atmosphere and also contrast with the daylight of the trailer. I agree that the plot wasn’t very clear.

What have you learned from your audience

feedback?

From my audience feedback I have learnt that it was a good idea to challenge conventions when creating my teaser trailer. The first person I asked like the slow motion which was different as teaser trailers are normally quite fast. Although the third person I asked commented on the magazine being too bare therefore I have learnt it is preferred if there is more information on the front to give people more reason to buy it. I think my poster was pretty successful as all of my feedback about it was positive . When analysing poster I came across a poster for the film ‘Grace’ on this poster was a small detail of a fly on the top of the bottle, I thought this was really clever as it was not the first thing you saw, however if you were to focus on the poster it became clear. I wanted to do something similar with my poster and so I add the slogan as smoke coming out of the candle, I did not want it to take over the meaning of the poster and therefore I decreased its opacity. I feel this worked especially well as someone commented it makes you focus on the poster more and so I am really pleased with the outcome. One thing I have learnt is although it is a convention to not let on a lot of the plot in a teaser trailer there it still needs to be slightly clear, there were a couple of comments made about the plot being unclear which I was disappointed about as I feel the rest of the elements of the trailers worked well e.g.. Reversed shots slow motion and music, however this is one of the main things I have learnt and would therefore change if I were to do it again.

How did you use new media technologies in the

constructions and research, planning and

evaluation stages?

Throughout the course my work has been uploaded as a blog on www.blogger.com. This was a new and very different way of presenting my coursework, I feel the I have gained a clear understanding of the way blogger works and would hope to use this in the future. When researching and analysing I would use publisher to show my analysis, however a publisher file can not be uploaded to blogger, I have therefore learnt all about print screening and converting a document to jpegs to make this possible. When creating my movie trailer I used two different technologies that were completely new to me, one was a digital handy cam and the other adobe premier 3.0, I found the handy cam very easy and enjoyable to use. Adobe premier was harder to pick up, however gave me a good end result. When using adobe premier I worked with time stretch a lot to both reverse my shots and to slow them down this made my trailer extremely effective. Also during the construction stage I used Photoshop, a programme I was already familiar with although developed my skills very much whilst creating my movie magazine and poster. Also during the evaluation stage I have used Microsoft PowerPoint this is once again a programme I was familiar with but have yet again used and developed my previous skills, I am now able to efficiently use custom animations as proven in my evaluation.