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

Evaluation question 1 from zoeheinzbeanz

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

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

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

Final Trailer

Final Poster

Final Magazine Cover

Trailer Second Draft

Magazine Cover Second Draft

I have inserted text into my magazine front cover, including the headline and subheading that states the name and genre of my film. I have changed the colour of the masthead to correspond with the photo I used for this, as the scheme is aesthetically pleasing and I found is common on magazine covers similar to my own. I have also added information about other articles to the cover, although I made sure these would also appeal to my target audience. My cover now features a barcode and date as this makes it look more like an existing text.

Poster Second Draft

Due to feedback on the first draft of my poster I have altered a few details, for example, making the stars and reviews larger in order for them to become more prominent. I still, however, used rulers in photoshop so that, even while certain items had changed size, everything on the poster was still in line and appeared professional.

Magazine Front Cover First Draft

This is the first draft of my magazine cover. I will experimented with a gradient, similar to my poster, although needing to adjust it in order for it to appear professional. I also need to refine the colour scheme so that it complements the outfit I had the actress wear for the photoshoot but still causes it to stand out. I  had Nicole wear this as it is similar to the outfits she has during the trailer and therefore develops continuity. Moreover, Nicole has a happy expression on her face, which will appeal to my target audience as they will find her to be a charming character. Again, the primary manipulation of this photograph is the use of lasso tool to cut Nicole out of the original background and onto the artificial one. This allowed me to integrate the title of the magazine and the photograph. When I improve this I will insert text to introduce the actress and subject of the interview with her, including a large masthead at the middle-bottom of the page.

Diary Post 11

Today I conducted the shoot for my magazine front cover with my main actress Nicole, making sure that in all the photographs she was smiling or had a happy expression on her face. I also directed Nicole so that she had one arm in the air, for when I am manipulating the front cover and need the photograph to take up enough room in comparison to text.

Audience Feedback on Trailer

  I have uploaded the first draft of my trailer to YouTube in order to obtain feedback. Improvements I have been given are to increase the volume of the diegetic sound, which I can easily and quickly do in iMovie; giving the production companies less screen time in order to add some more scenes without the trailer dragging; possibly change the colour of the intertitles to make them more interesting. I am going to pursue all of these ideas as I feel that they will all make my trailer more engaging. My trailer was also commended, however, for the music flowing well; the storyline being clear due to the voiceover; the genre being obvious, the latter of which was one of my main goals during production. I have also gathered to export my trailer from iMovie in higher quality as on YouTube some of the darker scenes appeared grainy.

Trailer First Draft

Diary Post 11

Today I used iMovie to put together the first draft of my trailer. The most challenging part was inserting the voiceover, which I concluded to do by using the audio only tool. I then had to experiment with the volume in order to get a balance between the diegetic and non diegetic sound, as I encountered the problem of the characters' dialogue being drowned out by the music. As I have two music transitions in my trailer I had to make sure the volume decreased towards the end of one piece, the next increasing, so that it would flow well but also change the mood for the audience. I then added intertitles, which were relatively easy as there are already presets on iMovie that I could use, I decided upon a minimalist fade in and fade out transition as my film trailer is socially realistic, therefore has no need for special effects. I may change the colour of the text, but will keep the black background so that it is not too over the top.

Audience Feedback on Poster

I have set up an instagram account for my film, as this is currently one of the most popular social networks, especially amongst teenage-young adult females, who are my target audience. I asked the followers of the account for feedback on my finished poster and what I received was mostly positive. Improvements that were suggested were to make the reviews and star ratings larger and more noticeable, which I will take on board. A successful element of the poster was the colours I used for the background contrasting with those of the clothes that the actors are wearing.

Diary Post 10

Today I filmed some more, using diverse locations in order to make my trailer more interesting and engaging for the audience. I first used Nicole's car, which was a good opportunity to experiment with shot reverse shots. We then filmed in a park, a coffee shop and a supermarket. This will supply plenty of footage for the montage of scenes that are shown during my trailer at a fast pace. The actors I used for these scenes were, as usual, Nicole, Jack, myself and two of our friends who played non speaking roles in one of the scenes in the park.

Poster First Draft

I have finished the first draft of my poster. I have drawn largely on the poster of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which is also a coming of age film that centres around similar themes of my film and has a likewise mood.

 

 

Diary Post 9

Today I worked further on the poster for my film, adding reviews and credits to make it look more professional and legitimate. I changed the background from pink to blue, as although the previous colour was feminine and would appeal more effectively to my target audience of teenage-young adult females, it looks fresher and has positive and calming connotations. I noticed during my research that star ratings are often used on posters to show commendations the film had been given. It also adds detail to the otherwise minimalistic poster. I kept to the limited colour palette even with my credits, although these are conventionally black anyway. I used the ruler tool on photoshop to make sure everything was lined up and in proportion, for example, the photo taking up exactly half of the poster.

Diary Post 8



Today I began creating the poster for my film. I have past experience in using photoshop so knew to use the lasso tool to cut out Jack and Nicole as a new layer. I am using a block colour for the background and experimented with a gradient, transitioning from white to pink. I have used pink in this draft of my poster as it is a feminine colour and my target audience is females. I have experimented also with fonts, and am still looking for a sans serif for the text that is not the title of the film. For the text I have kept to a limited colour palette of white and black in order to keep the poster simplistic. I added a slogan for the film to make it memorable for the audience.

Diary Post 7

Today I took a shoot for the poster of my film. The main inspiration for my poster was The Perks of Being A Wallflower, so I had the actors of my two main characters, Nicole and Jack standing side by side. I had Jack looking at the camera, which I have found in my research to engage the audience, and Nicole's eyes on him, to suggest a romantic interest, as this is the main focus of the film. The poster is going to be simplistic with a solid colour for the background so I had Jack and Nicole stand in front of a whiteboard, as this will ease the process of cutting them out of the image. I used natural lighting, as I can manipulate the image on photoshop when creating the poster to increase the saturation or brightness if needed.

 

Animatic

Diary Post 6

Today I edited together part of my film trailer using iMovie on an apple mac. I worked on splitting clips so that some scenes would not appear to be too boring as they would have different angles and shot types used within them. A difficulty I encountered was avoiding continuity errors, for example, when Nicole's character is being pestered by Jack's, she turns her head and I had to make sure that this did not overlap in the next shot. I also had to ensure that the dialogue made sense. I used the clip trimmer tool, which proved effective as if prevented any shaky footage from appearing in my trailer. 
 

Filming Schedule

Trailer Order Analysis

The Bling Ring begins by introducing the main characters of the film and establishing their personalities, in this case, teenagers Nicki and Sam are rich, lazy and full of them selves. A montage is then shown with a voiceover that transitions from diegetic to non diegetic, followed by two other characters talking about robbing Paris Hilton's house, setting up the premise of the film. The scene of the teenagers stealing clothes and jewellery is skimmed through, with an interjection of them walking down the street wearing said items. A contrasting next scene is shown of them getting scared by police that are threatening to appear at a house they are raiding. Fast-paced scenes demonstrate the havoc caused by the teenagers' hobby and them continuing to steal things. All of the scenes portray different emotions, for instance, a car crash is shown immediately after a character is contentedly taking selfies. There are a few landscapes shown between the people who are predominantly having fun. The longest scene shown is of Emma Watson's character making a speech, and even this is not in full but has scenes of the police and the teenagers edited into the middle of it. Overall, the trailer for The Bling Ring is fast paced and is predominantly made up of montages from different parts of the film, the only chronological order being at the very beginning and end of it.

Target Audience Research

Storyboard

Diary Post 5

Today I filmed some footage, first at school. As it was an inset day today, the school was empty and I was able to record without being interrupted. I used the sixth form social zone, as this is where the couple first speak. I also used the study zone, which is usually not to be disturbed which would have prevented me from filming in there.
I then went to Nicole's house, filming during the journey there. At the new location, I filmed a few scenes throughout the trailer, using my newfound knowledge of lighting to influence the mood of these, as some were devastatingly sad and others happy and uplifting. I will film some more on sunday during a gathering of friends, and the next day at a library, then begin editing.

Actors

Jack Woods and Nicole Wilmot will play the pivotal couple in my film. They are together in real life, which will assist me in my trailer as they will have chemistry onscreen as well as off. Also, they are available at very similar times, which puts my filming schedule at ease. Both are seventeen year old sixth form students, the same age as the main characters. Nicole used to do professional drama classes so will be experienced in and willing to do acting.

 

I will also be starring in my film, as Nicole's character's best friend. However, I will not be in the film as regularly as the other protagonists, as my character is deceased for the majority of the film. This is helpful though, as I will be able to monitor the camera during most of the filming instead of having to rely on the tripod and playing the footage back.

Lighting Research

Intertitles Analysis

Intertitles Analysis from zoeheinzbeanz

Costumes

Trailer Scene Analysis

For this task, we were asked to plan a trailer for the made up romantic comedy The Crush, making sure it was not in chronological order or gave away too much detail about the film to the audience. This assisted me in planning my own film trailer as I would have put the scenes in order of events and probably caused my trailer to become boring and predictable. It also reminded me to asses microelements of my film, for example which shots and angles to use throughout every scene.

Synopsis:

A man falls in love with his beautiful next door neighbour, the catch being that she is married to his boss. The film follows his comical efforts to impress her.

Scene Order:

1. Man is introduced
2. Man meets female neighbour and is entranced by her
3. Cuts to in the man's office, him being lectured by his boss, only to see a photo of said boss and attractive female neighbour on the desk
4. Man is shown staring at female neighbour gardening
5. Cuts to man watering his plants in an attempt to impress her, only to trip over his own watering hose
6. A montage of scenes show the man trying to win over his female neighbour by bringing over flour while she happens to be baking, a paintbrush while she is doing art, a pack of nappies while she is babysitting
7. In the last scene of the montage, she invites him inside
8. Cut to in a bar, the man in a fight with his boss
9. The female neighbour and he are at an office party flirting
10. The trailer ends with a black screen and The Crush coming up in bold letters.