Friday, 28 March 2014

What have I learned from my audience feedback?


From my audience feedback I have learnt that for my trailer if I had used more shots with props in like guns it would have been more effective. If i was to do the project again i would defiantly add in more shots with a gun or knifes or something to do with the violence that it might hold. Even if it is a shot of a women learning to shoot a gun. I have also learnt from my feedback that in my trailer to have some more shots going a bit more upbeat and they would have loved to see a shot of looking in the distance at the beginning talking about a memory more. If i was to do this again i would defiantly listen to my audience feedback on what i should include/ change to make it more realistic and more appealing to my audience. I have also learnt from my audience that if i was to make m title on the poster a bit brighter then they would be happier as they said it can be a bit hard to see but they loved every other aspect to it. They said that it really drags their attention to it and if they saw this they would defiantly go to look at the trailer to see what it is about. I have also learnt that my audience said that if I was to change the writing on my magazine cover and also add more depth into the picture by having a prop whether it is gun or knife just something to add dimensions. From all the feedback  i have been given i defiantly would change and listen to what has been sadi as it will change all the effect of the marketing process of the film the decision we made to the poster and magazine at the time seemed that it would catch their attention but it all depends on how your audience perceives what you have done.

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

Throughout my media project i have used a variety of different technologies to create all the different aspects. The main technologies i have used are all computer based. For my research and planning i used programmes such as word and PowerPoint. This allowed me to make word documents and presentation in order to display the research and what we have come up with. I have use the apple macs for my trailer based programmes such as final cut express which allows for us to cut and edit the shots we have got and put them together using different transitions and effects. My skills have developed so much within final cut express and i have been able to show that whilst editing all the shots together as i have found out shortcuts into the programme instead of having to do it the longer way which helped me save time and allowed us to have more time to sit around together to do the poster and magazine. Within my project i used the programme prezi to be a belt to make different presentations which shows my skills within the technologies now too offer. My skills of using Photoshop have increased so much as before i only knew how to use the basic tools but as we went throughout the course Emma helped me with learning new things and also it allowed me to contribute into the magazine and poster. For my research I had also used YouTube online t look at previous trailers of all different genres and allowed me to look at what is similar between all and what sticks out in war trailers.

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

I wanted the promotional package to be mainstream as I wanted it to be effective to attract all different audiences not just our niche audience which it might attract. The poster will be more mainstream than the magazine cover as the poster will be advertised in a number of places, which makes it more available to be seen by people. The magazine cover will be seen by those who are interested in film magazines. The three elements work together as they are all showing areas that we have used for the actual film and are all linked in with each other. The poster is the most successful out of the ancillary products as it is really capturing the feel of the war with the background location and the feelings that the picture gives off to us. the trailer will be advertised in cinemas at the beginning of other films and will also be on networks such as twitter, face book and YouTube. This will help to get an audience to have a look and see if it interests them. I think that it will do well as it pushes the conventions of a normal war film, poster and magazine as it really captures the feeling and also allows for people to recognise that it is more modern that than historical. I think that in my poster the most successful thing about it is that it is plain in the fact that it is not overcrowded with information, pictures and wording, also the picture adds a dimension of sorrow.  I think this is effective as it will catch the audiences attention to the picture and then will make them want to read it as it is not filled with writing that will lead to the plot. The successful items in the magazine cover is that it showing more than one person in the shot and also adds a bit of colour to it, which allows it to stand out to catch the readers attention. This will be the key to getting the magazine cover noticed as much. The strength of my trailer is that it goes in an order that shows the progression through the film from starting at a normal life to training and then to fighting and possibly losing or winning. The weakness in m trailer is that to could have used a few more characters in to show much more people but then I could say that where they were it is a quite area if war and that it is not as high impact as some of the other places in the uk.( or where they would go to train before getting sent off to fight)the weakness in the poster that the writing may not be big and may not stand out as much as I would have liked to try and catch the reader’s attention as this may have an affect that some people may not be able to see it if it is blended in with the background. The weakness in the magazine cover is that the writing may seem a little small and cramped as which wont draw the readers attention the what it says which then might make the audience give up on trying to read what it says and skip everything about what might be inside. This will then effect how well that it advertises the film as I think it will only advertise the film a little as the magazines are not popular like they used to be so it will only effect our niche audience rather then effecting a larger audience.

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

We Use the conventions of war trailers for the titles and dates out in cinema by putting them in the same location as a trailer. This is then showing that we have done our research into where they should be located. To make our trailer more realistic. Our font fits in with our genre of film as its appearance is old and ragged writing which looks really effective.
We challenged the convention of war trailers through having female leads during our narrative. This could change the overall target audience o who we could target this trailer too, so far we have said males, due to it being action but if it has females leads it could also draw in women to come and watch it.  We challenged this convention as we wanted something different to all the other war trailers. We show within the trailer women training up to be a soldier and then them starting to get into some heat of action. This is not what you would typically see within a war trailer. Normally if there are women involved it is them saying goodbye to the solider or welcoming home a soldier. We called it world war III as we would not have seen any women fighting in WWI or WWII, so we could not distort the historical view. This makes the trailer seem more modernised and also makes sense of why we would be having women fighting within a war as nowadays women have equal roles to men and are allowed to fight.
We used conventions of the location and setting of where we were filming our trailer. This is due to using old abandoned war bunkers and fields near the bunkers. The location was actually used within both world wars for hiding in. When we were filming the trailer we used the areas to have a realistic effect. As the bunkers walls looked very old and had moss all over them and was showing signs of decay of the bricks when they were falling off or had holes within the bricks. I thought this would add in effect to make people look and think that everything is getting run down when in a war. This location helped with the conventions of the genre as they would have been fighting in a field with open space around it hand would have needed somewhere to hide when it is dark or when they are not fighting. Where the location of the filming happened outside this mean that we were open to variables such as weather and other people. These we would not be able to control. On one day of our filming we had rain which made our filming be quite dark and dull but then we thought that this would add to effect and also use conventions as a war would not seem bright and sunny everyday it would have days of bad weather and not only that it seems that it adds to perception of what we were watching of cold, dark and alone. When we were filming in the bunker it was quite dark sometimes when we looked back on camera which meant that we had to use a torch as a light. This uses conventions of a war genre as they would use torches when hey are in the dark to look for things so having this could look as though it is someone looking around themselves. We use that when the camera pans around the room and we see two people standing there but only when the light is shining on them. This adds a creepy effect.
The costumes of the main characters were using and challenging conventions. This is because we used an army suit to add effect that they are fighting. This adds to the realistic views of the trailer as well. We also challenge the conventions as we also see the leads just dressed in black and not having an actual army suit which could mean a different status within the army. The props of the film is using maps and other objects to seem as though we are planning attacks and counterattacks on the enemies. This means that we are keeping to a true picture of what we see in the war as they would be planning things against the enemies to turn out on top to win. This also links in with the magazine cover and trailer poster as they all have the costumes on it as they are showing what the film is going to be like the magazine cover is showing two different costume on it one being the army suit and the over being just dark clothing with a formal hat on. This adds to the realistic view on what is happening as they can see it is clearly going to involve soldiers of some sort and even by the name. The film poster is showing a completely different costume change as it is green colours and is showing vulnerability before the war has started with a vulnerable facial expression on it.
The camera work of our trailer challenges conventions as they we used different shots to what we have seen in other trailers as we could see they use close ups , long shots but we did not see a shot of a birds eye view as it was not very popular. We thought if we involve this type of shot it allows use to challenge the convention little more as we see a bird’s eye view of when one of the characters  is running.

Title

For our title in the film we wanted to keep to the colour scheme of grey like our poster. This then adds to the consistency of our products.
We changed the font style form our poster to our trailer as we wanted something a bit more elaborate for our trailer.
I like the trailer title as it looks as though it blends in with the background as it is very prominent at the top and then fades nearer the bottom. this adds effect as it can be received as you start at the top strong but by the bottom/ end you start to fade away. which can be a true statement for war.

Final Film


Final Magazine