Evaluation Question Four

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

In the construction of our movie trailer we used a variety of different media technologies, the programmes that we used was IMovie, Photoshop, YouTube, Facebook, garage band and Mac computers just to name a few. Each of the different software's allowed our group to create our trailer, poster and magazine cover. We used the Macs throughout the duration of our project as it allowed us to create all of our projects on one computer. Before we started to create our trailer we had to research so we used mostly the Microsoft products to help us put all of our research together before transferring it onto our blogs. We also used the Microsoft products to help us plan and evaluate our media product.
All of the different software help use at different stages of our media product for example Microsoft PowerPoint allowed us to collect a range of different film movie poster putting them together to make it much more easier to compare the with other and talk about the different conventions that each of the posters have. Microsoft also allowed is to create a questionnaire that we gave out to our target audience to ask for their advice which then helped is to create our narrative 

What Photoshop allowed us to do is create our film magazine cover and our movie poster, as a group we all decide that we would all do our own jobs I was in charge of creating the poster and magazine, as the other members in the group felt like they was as experience in using the software and they felt like I was the strongest member. Even though I was the maker of both the magazine and the poster Lauren and Rebecca  still had some input on what they wanted both of the products to look like. We all had different jobs to do as we felt like it if we done this we would be able to get all the different task done and done on time because we would be spending more time on them to make them the best that they could be.

Using the mac was the best option for us to use when we was constructing our media products, for example when we was constructing our film trailer iMovie was the best option because we felt like it had the best transitions, titles and it was a much easier programme to use and upload to. Both YouTube and IMDB helped us when we was researching what we wanted our genre of our trailer to be and once we had chosen it also helped us to look at the conventions of our genre. What YouTube also allowed us to do was upload our film trailer onto the site and get feedback from people to see if they liked it and to also get comments if they didn't like anything and why so when we went back to the trailer we could change these problems. The main reason why we wanted to do this was because we wanted our target audience feedback to see what they thought about what we had produced and if we could change it in anyway so it suited them more and they liked it more. This help our group a lot with producing our trailer because they people who we got reviews from helped us a lot to make our media product better. The camera that we used to film our trailer were digital standard cameras this aloud use to create the handheld camera effect to give the idea of a hand filmed documentary which we wanted and in the end this was successful. Overall the media technology that we used allowed us during the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages to create a well made movie trailer, poster and magazine.

Media Question 3

 3.What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

 

 

 

For Question we all decide to answer the question together, and make a voice recording of our answer. We talked as a group discussing our views and what we have learnt from the audience and how we used that to make our media product the best it can be. As you can see there are different screen shots going down the side of this blog, each of the screen shots have been mentioned in our clip so see below how these pictures linked to our answer. 

Evaluation Question Two

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

For this question we decide that we was going to film our answer as we felt like we was going to have a lot to say when answering this question and it gave us the chance to discuss what each of us felt about the trailer and also express our point of view. Some of the things that we discussed was 'What type of promotional package did we want to create' , 'How dod the three elements work together and 'what difficulties have we overcome". 
When looking back on some of the things that we discussed i fell like i don't disagree with anything that was said from the other members of the group, all of the points that were made were all valid points for example we talked about the fact that the magazine cover that we created wasn't the best that it could of been. 

Evaluation Question One

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

This shot is from the beginning of our movie trailer, in this shot it shows our target audience the location of where we have set our trailer and also the characters. From the long shot we can clearly she how our characters are  portrayed as being quite vulnerable by the use of tress towering over the top of them and making them look quite insignificant. It is very cleat the from the backdrop and also the lighting that we can tell that are characters are on a hill or they are up somewhere high this then symbolising the idea that they are going on a journey and from there their journey is going to go downhill the further they travel into the forest. In the films Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project it is a typical convention for the main characters looking into the camera and break down the so called fourth wall, the screen shot of this shot clearly conforms to this convention as we made our characters act the way that the other actors do and look directly to the camera addressing the audience. 

This shot is a middle shot of two of our main character one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The way that we have challenge this convention of most trailers that are in our chosen genre is that instead of having the antagonist hidden away giving that feeling of suspense and suspicion we had her so the audience could see. By doing this it still created this suspense and suspicion because as the audience they were able to see what the main character was doing but you didn't know what she was going to do next. The way that this shot has been taken and the angle that it is in allows the audience to see both of the characters and also more of the location, the reason behind this was because we wanted the audience to see the background so then they understood that this is the main location where everything was going to happen and also by them see both of the characters it shows them that there is something crucial about to occur. In most of the trailers that are out there in todays would most of them don't have scenes that give a lot of the movie away but as a group be decide that we should have a few shots of the main scenes because we felt like that would engage our target audience more into wanting to watch the film.

The reason why we have chosen 'The Sun' as a reviewer in this trailer is because their prim audience is working class men. Stereotypically thrillers often attract more men than they do women therefore we have successfully targeted men for our trailer. The use of the word 'riveting' creates an impression of a trailer that is filled with excitement and suspense. This builds up the idea that this movie is everything that our target market would expect from a thriller movie and want from a thriller, enough to intrigue and persuade them to watch this movie. As a group we research into the languages that is used in these reviews for example when you see reviews for Romantic film the language that they use is 'love, romance', but when you compare this to a horror movie trailer they use language like scary and unexpected'. When deciding what to put for the review we have decided as a group to go with 'riveting' as our target market will understand it and it will bring the suspense that we want it too. This choice that we made was very effective as it makes the trailer sound more exciting and it makes people want to see the trailer more.

In this part of the trailer, we had our protagonist who character starts to turn evil stare right down the camera to have a direct gaze with the audience. The reason why we did this was because we wanted the audience to be able to watch the trailer and feel like they can relate to the main character in some way. As a group we made the decision to break away from the convention of the protagonist being filmed by someone else to them filming themselves. The angle we have chosen is a low angled shot with the audience looking up to the protagonist by choosing this angle it allows the target audience to have a close up shot of the character and the expression they have on their face, in our case our character have the feeling of fear and some curiosity when going into the woods to see what it was like. Having these factors in our trailer follows the conventions of most thrillers as the main character is chosen.


This screen shot shows the title of our movie 'Shady Woods', we placed this scene at the end of the trailer developing the convention of our media products. Sometimes during a thriller trailer the tile of the film comes before a crucial scene and then after that the billing block comes along, for example in the 'Blair Witch Project' however on our trailer. We have developed this convention by having the title right at the end along with two lots of audio of both our protagonist and antagonist screaming, this creates some what of a mystery to why they are screaming and who is screaming. The text that we went with for our title challenges the conventions of a thriller trailer because when you normally look at a thriller trailer they use the colours red and black but as a group we chose white as it stand out from the black background and also it goes along with the colour theme of our poster. The title 'Shady Woods' was chosen after we asked our target market what they preferred out of some possible options that we gave them. After consideration we chose Shady Woods because we felt like it didn't give too much information away about the narrative of the film trailer .

 

 

FINAL MOVIE TRAILER

final magazine cover

Final Movie Poster

This is our group's final movie poster  

Making our poster

From looking at other posters from our chosen genre we have finally decided how we want our poster to look and what we want to put on it to make it relate to our chosen genre.

The way that we started to create our movie poster is that we first had to go and take a picture of one of our main characters. We decided that we were going to make Lauren a significant feature on the movie poster because in the trailer her character is the one who has been possessed. After we took the picture we then had to take it into photoshop and start to edit the picture. Our first major decision was to make the picture black and white to suggest that she is emotionless and her blank facial expression backs this up. When we made the eye colour a different colour we went with red for her eyes for many reasons: the first reason was because the red of her eyes symbolised the REC symbol on the camera; it also symbolised the theme of danger and death and later on in the movie it is Lauren's character that begins attacking the others. 

Cropping Lauren's face in half and then zooming in to a close up shot suggests that her character is not all there and she has only half of herself left in her where the demon has taken over. Having the picture as a close up enhances Lauren's lack of emotions.

The next step was choosing the style of font we were going to use for the title of the film. We chose a distorted looking font because it represents how everything in the movie is not what it seems and also to reflect the inconsistent personality of Lauren's character. We kept the colour theme of the poster black and white throughout, with the title of the film being solid black as we felt that the colour represented the main themes of our film such as death and evil. The last step was placing the billing block and the names of the actors and actress at the bottom of the poster, we also kept the colour of this white to go with the theme of the poster and also because of the background being black we needed to use a colour that was going to make the writing stand out to the audience.

  

First trailer before feedback

Febuary Checklist

Here is another one of our checklists for this month. As you can see it has changed alot since our last checklist, as a group we have progressed in our work and the things that we had to get done. We have now blogged more about our plan of action like the actors we are using and the lighting we are going to use. We have also started to flim our trailer but we have not finished filming we still have to flim the last parts and also start to edit our trailer.

Poster Mood-board

When you look at all of these posters there is some similarities between them all. The main similarity between them all is the colours that has been used, the main colours are Red, White and Black the reason why this could be because is red is the main colour that represents danger and also blood, the colour Black represents death and darkness, by using this colours i think that it is very effective because it lets the audience know what the film might contain and what events might happen during the film. The colours that have been use all links with conventions of the thriller/horror, so when it comes to us creating our own movie poster these are the factors that we have to think out what colours we use and how are these colours going to link with our genre. Some other similarities that i have noticed between these posters are the way that the main character is the central focus of the poster the reason for this is because by having the picture as a close up or a full body shot it allows the audience to catch on who the main character is going to be and also it catches the audience attention and draws them into the poster. 

What the film companies have done to there advantage is they have used a famous good looking actor/actress to put on the front by doing this it also grabs the audience attention. This is another factor that we should take onto our own poster because by having a close up of the main characters face it makes the audience know who is in the film and also they remember the face more so when the trailer is released they remember the face and the poster.

Magazine Mood-board of different magazine covers



Here I have put together at mood board of some past magazine covers 

Target audience for poster and magazines

When thinking about who we should target our poster and our magazines too we had to think about a range of different factors, that could determine who will be attracted to our poster and magazine, one factor that we had to think about was the language that we was going to use we had to choose what we wrote on the front carefully in order for the target audience to understand what we are trying to say. For example if the target marker for the magazine is aimed at teenagers aged 13-19 then the language that the magazine is going to use is going to allow them to understand what is being said about the movies , one thing that the writing shouldn't be is if you have targeted a younger target audience what you write shouldn't be too literal like newspapers are. This is one of the major factors that we should take into consideration.The text and the features that we use in the magazine and poster have to relate to the narrative of the film but also attract the attention of the audience. If for the title of the poster we need to think the type of font that we use, we need it to be bold and we need it to reflect our trailer. The type of font that we use has to grabs the audiences attention and it needs to bring them into the poster and make them pay attention to what is one the poster.  Some research that we done was we went through some old film magazines that was targeted at a range of different target markets for example one of the magazines that we look at has a actor on the front he was good looking actor (Chris Hemsworth) this was more targeted at the interests of the girls, even though it could be targeted at boys as well they might not find it as interesting as a young girl would. The next Magazine that we look at targeted a different target market they went for boys and men market, the way that we could tell this was because on the front of there magazine they used Megan Fox who is a very attractive women even though women might also be attracted to this magazine it wouldn't be as strong as the male target market would.
Overall we have decide that the people who we are going to be targeting is the same target audience as our trailer which 16-25. The target audience for our magazines might be differ from the target audience for our movie poster, we might end up targeting the two sides to our original target group the people aged 16,17,18 and then the older part of the group.When thinking about this we thought that we should make two different movies posters to target two different parts of our original target audience, so one of our poster might attract the audience aged 16,17,18 and the other poster might be aimed at the top end of our target audience aged 20,21,22. When thinking about if this was going to be the same for our magazine we just decide that we was going to make one magazine but try our best to target the whole of the target market. When we are creating our magazine and our poster we have to think very careful on the types features that we use for example we have to think about the colours that we use because the colours that we use have to relate to the genre that we are doing, if we was to use the colours red this often relates too the genre of a thriller or a horror so if it was to be used in another genre like animated films like Disney story it would not look right due to the stereotypical conventions that are linked with the colours. 
another thing that we have to think about is the subheadings that we are going to put on the front of our magazines we have to think about are they going to catch the audiences attention and our they going to capture their interests. 

Poster Research

When it came to start research for our movie poster we looked at a range of different thriller poster to see what sort of things that they put on them and see if we could take any ideas from these to put into our own poster. the first poster that we looked at was REC, as you can see i have go through the poster and picked out the conventions of a thriller poster. The sort of things that i picked out from this poster is the colours that have been used and how this links to the genre of the film, i also talked about how they have taken the picture and how this effects the audience and also why they might of done this.

Actors

Before we could start filming for our trailer we had to think about the people who we wanted as our actors. The factors that we had to think about is if the actors could reflect the narrative and also if the audience could relate to the actors that we was going to choose like the age of them, the way that they act and also the personality of the actors. 

The actors that we want to be in our trailer we want them to be around the same age as our target audience, as we want the audience to be able to relate with the actors and sort of feel the same emotions that the actors our feeling. We want the audience to be able to understand what is happening to the group of teenagers and also understand the relationships that the group has with each   other. The actors that we choose for our trailer was one boy and three girls, the reason why we made this decision was because in most thriller there is also a group of teenagers together, also the reason why we wanted a male in the trailer was because in most thrillers it is seen that the male is the leader of the group and seen as the more dominant person in the group. This reflects by using the girls because they are seen as the passive female the weaker ones in the group that need leading and looking after by the male.

We have started to think about that we might need one more male to make it up to two males, the reason for this is we felt like the number of girls out ruled the number of boys.

Costumes

For the costumes that we have decide for our actors are just casul, everday clothes the reason for this is we want it to look like a group of teenagers out of the blue have all come together to all talk about  what they want to do now that the exams are over. For the girls we have thought about them maybe just wearning jeans and a jumper seeing as it is still winter and it is cold and for the boys we thought they could wear the same bottoms and maybe just a hoddie.

When it comes to the scenes when they are filming themseleves in the woods we talked about how they are going to need to look like they have prepared themseleves for the time away and they are wearing warm clothes. So in the end we said that they should wear the same as before but just a maybe a hat and a coat and because its goingto be muddy they should wear something like boots.
Some other things that they could have as part of there costume is thing like a camping bag or a backpack, as this would make it look more real that they are going on a trip away.

Location

Before we started to film in our chosen locations we first had to experimented with different locations around the area to see what locations had the best lighting and also we had to find out what locations didn't have a lot of noise going on in the background. The reason for doing this is because we didn't want any of these factors to effect our filming and the way that it would turn out. To show you what the locations are going to look we took some pictures with a professional camera, some of the pictures that we took we are thinking about using them in our movie poster and also magazine cover. When deciding the location of where we was going to film we had to think of a location that was going to fit our storyline of our trailer but we also had to think about if we could get to the location easy without any hassle.  Here are some pictures of our chosen location, we have decide that we are going to mainly film in the woods. The first location that we filmed in was in a woods located behind my house, the reason why we choose these woods was because we like the way that it was set up with the stairs that let you go deeper into the woods. Plus we also like the way that the woods was set out with paths leading in all of different directions and some dead ends. Another factor that we liked about these woods was we like the way that you didn't know where you was going or what was around the next corner. This added to the narrative of our trailer as our narrative is based around the character not knowing what is going on and where they are going within the location. However we are not only using the woods as part of our trailer we also have a second location that we are filming some of the other scenes. The second location that we flimed at was at Laurens house, in this location we just filmed the basic scenes of the group taking about what they wanted to do and how it lead them to the first location of the woods. this location was easy for use as a group to get to and it allowed us to use diffferent rooms to see where it would be best to film. The reason why we wanted to film here was because we liked the lay back feel of the location and these added to the way that the characters acted.

Production schedule update

Within the month of February our production schedule has changed a bit the reason why this is because the weather that we have been having has not been the best and it has not aloud us to go out filming in the woods and filming our outside shots. Some of the days that we have been having have been nice in the mornings so in the period that we was meant to have media we deicide that we was going to go and see how much of the outside filming we could get done so at least we had some footage there, even if we was only going to use a short second of it.The way that we overcame the weather situation this is the days that we was meant to go outside and film we decide that the best way to be productive about our work is to film the inside scenes and get them all done.     

Storyboard

This is our storyboard that we have created to show the storyline of our trailer. As a group we decided that putting the pictures into imovie as it would allow the audience to see how the trailer was going to flow and the different shots we choose to use. We choose to put on the storyboard the use of quicks cuts even though you cant see it on our stroyboard, the reason for these quick cuts is because we want it to look like there is so much happen and you cant really stop it. What we also decided to put on our storyboard is the sounds and noise that the audience is going to hear while the trailer is going, the reasoning behind this is we wanted the audience to get a feel of what is going to be happening and how the noises are going to add to the trailer.

Production schedule

Here is our Production schedule this is showing what we are doing for the next couple of weeks, where we will be filming and what we are going to need for each of the days. it also shows which days we will be editing and what we will be editing. As you can see most of our filming is going to be done all at the beginning of January this is manly because it will allow use to get the filming out of the way but also it will give us more time to edit the trailer and if we need to go film more footage we will have time to go out and re-film parts if we fill the need to. When you look at the dates of when we are filming you can see they have a lists of times of when we are going to be filming so are in the day time and some are later in the day, the reason why we chose this is because we felt like we should have a range of different times to show variety of different lighting within our trailer. Sometime during our filming we have decide that we wanted to film at night so we are going to need some artificial lighting and this is a important factor for use to have because if we don't have the lighting ready for use it is going to be really hard for use to film some of the scenes that we will need. When it comes to the editing of our trailer we had made sure that someone is going to be editing the footage and someone is editing the music, the reason why this is because the music is one of the most important parts to the trailer because the music it wants sets the face to the trailer but also the mood.

Film Schedule

Here is our planning schedule for the coming month of January. The boxes that are coloured blue are the days that our group is going to be blogging and editing and the squares that are purple are the days that we are going to be going out filming. As the months carrys on we will add more dates to the calendar 

Narrative

For the narrative of our flim we came up with alot of diffferent ideas. as we was going through the the ideas and deciding what one would we like to choose, we had to think about a range of different factors before we put together trailer ideas for example we had to think about what are target audience would prefer watching, what ideas would challenge us as a group and what idea best fitted our genre. After thinking of a range of ideas we put them all together like you see in the blog before and started to go through them talking about which ones we liked the best and how we would produce that idea when we came to filming, in the end the idea that we went with for our trailer is:

A group of troubled teenagers witness an event that has potentially affected the way they behave from now, an incident so traumatic that the teenagers cannot shake off the feeling of permanent despair. In order to clear their minds and conscious the teens decide a camping trip is in order in the local wood that is far away from the news in the local town. The woods seem different, quieter and almost serene and dissimilar from what the group had expected as if it was already ready for them. This is the last year the groups are going to be together before they go off to university and decide to film their entire trip to create a lasting memory that they can share between them after the trip is done. The group’s arrival takes a sudden turn when one of their friends goes missing, his decision to follow another figure into the deeper woods will now determine the future of his other friends. The teens are aware that if they separate they will cover more ground and decide to partner up for protection and each will now face challenges that could make them or break them. The incident that they had decided to ignore has now consequently caught up with them and will soon destroy them in way that they believed could not be possible. Their families and friends will now be challenged and their decision to go to the woods now means they cannot warn their family or protect them either. The challenges that they will go through will determine if the families are safe or gone.

The pattern of challenges makes the friend realize that someone close to them has set them up, someone close to home. Their deepest and darkest fears are coming for them just as they thought things cannot go worse.

Brainstorm on Narrative