What I have learnt...

Over the last few months I feel that I have achieved a great deal- I have learnt how to use new technology, and created a promotional package that I think works really well and that I am proud of. As well as this I feel that I have learnt how to work a lot better in a group; although we did not always agree on everything we have used each others ideas and helped one another. With me having previous knowledge of Photoshop it has allowed me to be more creative, as I have been able to experiment and was less afraid of it going wrong than when I made my magazine cover, contents page and double page spread last year. This confidence in technology has enabled me to go into this project with a positive attitude, dealing with problems a lot better and having an awareness of what I needed to do to create a promotional package of a high standard.

Evalution Question 4

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

I have used features such as Youtube to enable me to carry out research into trailers. As I have constructed my blog I have incorporated many different aspects such as Prezi, Authorstream, Slideshare and Youtube.



I have also embedded videos and trailers into my blog and into the Prezi's I created to make it easier to view them whenever I need to, instead of opening links. When creating my trailer I have used the Apple Mac for the first time, where I was introduced to software such as Final Cut Pro and Garage Band.
 

Through the use of the Apple Mac I have learnt how to import footage, make cuts where needed, import text, create a voiceover, slow down or speed up sections of footage, split the footage into sections, drag the footage to where it is needed, import a soundtrack and play back the trailer that has been created. When carrying out market research I used the Sony camera to interview the people who were answering the questions, then embedded the created videos into a Prezi.

When we filmed our trailer we used the Sony camera, the tripod, the external microphone and the boom pole. All of this equipment and technology was new to me, and I learnt many new things such as doing both hand held shots and those where the camera was placed on the tripod. It also made me realise the responsibilty that came with having such expensive equipment, which taught me to be careful and to think through the shots that we would be filming and how safe the equipment was going to be. On the other hand as I used Photoshop last year to create my AS coursework it was not new to me. Even though this was the case my understanding of Photoshop has increased greatly, and this has allowed me to do much more with my magazine cover and poster than I would have been able to do in Year 12.
When creating our group evaluation we filmed ourselves and then uploaded the video on the Internet, so we could embed it in our blogs. I have also used Surveymonkey to carry out market research and to obtain audience feedback, so I feel that I have used a variety of technologies to enable me to make my blog more interesting.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have being carrying out market research as I have been going along. Even though there have been changes since the research we carried out many months ago it meant that these changes were highlighted for us. I have asked people what I can do to make it better as I have progressed. Several things were brought to my attention such as the fact that no other period drama is not based on a novel, meaning that we took the choice to include the present time period and a flashback. I feel that by changing our ideas, target audience and genre it has made a trailer that would appeal to more people, and has made it much more original.

As we developed with editing our trailer constant feedback has been really beneficial. It has brought things to our attention such as the fact that the connection between the two females needed to be made clearer, the storyline needed to be made more obvious and also easier aspects to deal with such as text needing to be on screen for longer and more institutional information needing to be added. By carrying out audience feedback through both survey monkey and Facebook it has allowed for a variety of responses from a range of people.

After recieving audience feedback for my magazine cover and teaser trailer I have made alterations to the two. Having made these changes and then asked for more audience feedback I have learnt that it was worth putting in further time/effort.

In my final audience feedback I have learnt that they think all three elements of the promotional package are of a good standard, and that most importantly there is synergy between the three and that they work together. With the teaser trailer people have said that they would go and watch the film if there was one, so this shows that they have a good level of understanding now that we have changed the text on screen.

Evaluation Question 2

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

I feel that the combination of the three products within my promotional package work well together. I have also learnt that the poster, magazine cover and teasertrailer are effective together through my audience feedback. I have used the features from the storyline such as the fire and two time periods to link the three together, and I have used the smudge tool when creating all three products as the effect it creates gives connotations of 'smoke' and 'fire.'

When creating my products I have not focused on just one time period from the two within the film, but both. With our teaser trailer we used a variety of footage to put across the link between Sarah and Frances as being relations within the film. With my poster I split it into two sections with an image of Sarah at the top, looking back into her past, and then an image of the 19th century era beneath her. The only product where I have focused on mostly one era is my magazine, but I have still included an interview with Sarah. The main reason for doing this is when I tried an image with Sarah as the main focus it did not work, and felt the image of the other three was much better.

Another reason for this is because it is easier to do an interview with just one person; there is not usually one with three people unless it is a band. I also felt that the image I chose from the 19th century worked better than the one of Sarah, but I decided to include both. I feel that it is more important to convey the fact that there are two eras within the film in the teaser trailer and the poster, as these would be the aspects that the audience would focus on more. They would then go out and buy the magazine if the film had been of interest to them.

I have also learnt that the combination of the three products is effective through my audience feedback, so it is not only my own judgement but the opinion of others as well.

Evalution Question 1

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

When I created my poster and magazine cover I researched other examples. I followed the conventions of the 'Letters to Juliet' and 'Atonement' posters as well as looking into 'Empire' and 'Total Film' for my magazine.

Magazine: I have followed the conventions of a film magazine by using the same layout: a bold magazine title, only a few headlines, a barcode down one side, a price, website, date and issue number at the top, a box of features at the bottom of the cover and a large image as the focus. I have challenged conventions by using an image which would not usually be featured on a film magazine, but as the target audience for our trailer are different to most who would buy film magazines I think that it would appeal to them. I have also included features about films which my target audience would be interested in such as 'Letters to Juliet', 'Wuthering Heights' and 'The Notebook.'

Poster: I have followed the conventions of a promotional poster by including institutional information, using bold fonts for the release date and 'Total Film' rating, by making it so that the title links to the genre and storyline and by using images which would give a clear indication of the type of film that the person would be going to see. I have developed my ideas by thinking about the connotations which the aspects featured on my poster give. For instance, the fire and the burnt letters coincide well but they also have the same connotations and link into how Sarah's character is so shocked by her past; she finds her discoveries confusing and disorientating- which is what I have tried to show in my poster. I have challenged conventions of a real promotional poster by using two images which are very different, but I think that as the storyline is set in two time periods this needed to be expressed in my poster, so that the target audience get an idea of what the film would be about.

With my trailer I looked into many other teaser trailers/theatrical trailers such as 'Emma', 'The Piano' and 'The Woman in Black.'

Teaser Trailer: After we had done research and discussed the importance of features like the institutional information, voiceover and how to get across to the viewer what is happening in the storyline we put this into our trailer. We developed our ideas by making changes as we went along, filming new footage and altering the storyline where appropriate. We challenged conventions by creating a film trailer which is very different from any other; it uses a balance of both the modern day and the 19th century to create a storyline where the girl looks back over her life. There are films where the character's life changes, but this would not usually be based on her past and how she decides to research it, and is then affected by the outcome. In a similar way to other films we have created verisimilitude by choosing a believable location and costumes, so I think that we have achieved the look of the 1800's time period well.

Three final products

Audience Feedback: Final Teaser Trailer

I carried out my audience feedback using Survey Monkey. This is the link to it:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D5SZRND

These are the responses shown below:

Final Storyboard

The sections for our final storyboard are shown below:

Final Storyboard

1.       Institutional information- MPAA

2.       Spotlight Productions

3.       Black Stallion Films

4.       Shot of computer screen showing findmypast

5.       Text on screen

6.       Computer screen with mouse on “get started”

7.       Sarah on the phone

8.       Close-up of the newspaper clipping

9.       Sarah walking through the trees

10.   Sarah going into the house

11.   Text on screen

12.   Sarah walking along the corridor

13.   Text on screen

14.   Sarah stroking piano

15.   Text on screen

16.   Walking over to table

17.   Lifting lid of box

18.   Text on screen

19.   Over the shoulder shot of her reading the letter

20.   Over the shoulder shot of Frances writing the letter

21.   Shot of Frances from the front writing the letter- tilt up to her face shows that she’s crying

22.   Text on screen

23.   Frances dancing with Peter

24.   Frances praying

25.   Frances walking down the staircase

26.   Text on screen

27.   Frances looking out over the balcony

28.   Peter walking up the steps

29.   Peter walking over to Frances

30.   Confrontation scene between Jon and Peter

31.   Jon reaching for Frances- he tilts her head upwards

32.   Text on screen

33.   Frances looking through keyhole

34.   Jon walking over to Peter- shot shows only their legs so facial expressions cannot be seen

35.   Frances drawing back from keyhole in shock

36.   Frances dancing with Jon

37.   Match being dropped

38.   Text on screen

39.   Frances running along the corridor

40.   Frances in bed- unsettled sleeping shows she is having a nightmare

41.   Frances running down the steps

42.   Frances running along the gravel

43.   Frances running down more steps near the lake

44.   Quick shot of fire

45.   Film Title

46.   Match burning the paper

47.   Institutional information

48.   Match burning paper- shot fades out with music

As there are now over 40 sections to our storyboard we felt it would be easier and clearer if we typed it up rather than drawing it out. This shows how much our ideas have developed since our earlier storyboards were created.

Final Teaser Trailer

As we all had different ideas about what to include in the final trailer Emily and I edited one version, and Lucinda did another. However we were all happy to do it this way so that we had an end product that we felt was of a good enough standard. Personally I do not feel this is an issue, as we have worked closely as a group and split the work equally up until this point. By creating two different versions it has allowed each of us to use the ideas that we wanted to but still with the same storyline and shots we produced together.

It is also noticable that we have made this a teaser trailer again rather than a full length theatrical trailer. This is because once we had cut the footage it was only 1 minute 35 seconds. This shows that our editing has developed since we decided to make a full-length trailer, meaning that the final piece is a teaser trailer instead.

Group Evaluation

As well as the four evalution questions I have answered there is further analysis and discussion of the coursework in the group evaluation below:


youtube group evaluation by EmyRoo

Audience feedback with improvements made

Here is the link to the survey that I created to obtain feedback:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RPK795X

The responses are shown below:

Question 1: How well does the theatrical poster work? (1 being not very well and 10 being excellent)

• 8
• 9
• 9

Question 2: What do you like about the poster?

• The burnt edges around the letter which reveals the image of the characters in the past
• It is like she is looking into her past, the top stands out and looks modern compared to the bottom, a very good contrast and techniques used such as smudging
• After watching the trailer as well I think it links to it, as you can tell that the girl is linked to those in the image beneath her. I like the fact that there is hardly an white showing, so you have filled the poster well.

Question 3: What improvements could be made?

• The fire part of it doesn't look completely right, maybe darken the colour of it?
• The photo could be the same from the same time as filming, as she has blue hair in film and the lower picture could be better quality
• The fire could be another colour.

Question 4: How well does the magazine front cover work? (1 being not very well and 10 being excellent)

• 7
• 8
• 8

Question 5: What do you like about the magazine cover?

• The masthead, the image of sarah and the fact that only francias is making eye contact with camera out of the three main characters
• The filmstrip, the title font, old picture, titles that would interest reader
• I like the image you have used and the features which will be inside the magazine are clear.

Question 6: What improvements could be made?

• Add more headlines and perhaps use a different font for them?
• The bottom of the picture near stair case could have something done with it
• You could have filled the magazine cover more?

Question 7: How well does the trailer work? (1 being not very well and 10 being excellent)

• 6
• 9
• 9

Question 8: What do you like about the trailer?

• I like the storyline, the music works really well, the effect which surrounds the footage when the flashbacks occur and that you've got a brilliant location and costumes.
• The burning letters, good editing, like the music, good captions
• I like the fact that the storyline is clear, the shots that you have used and how it looks authentic for the 19th century time period.

Question 9: What improvements could be made?

• Make the writing flow on and off the screen better and make sure that it is all the same font. Also don't have as many black screen parts and make sure that the trailer doesn't jump
• Some captions need to be made longer
• You could have some of the text on screen for longer

Question 10: How well do the three elements work together and why?

• They work together well as in all products there are the protagonists with their costumes and there are a lot of browny kind of colours used.
• They all work well because they all show the modern day and old time well, and the locations used in pictures and trailer are similar.
• I think that you can tell all three are linked so would say that they work really well together

Facebook Group: Audience Responses

As well as the suvey that I carried out Lucinda created a group on Facebook and invited people to watch the trailer and then write a response on the Wall. This is a screenshot of some of the things that people wrote:

This feedback is really helpful, and unlike a survey it allows people to freely respond with how they feel, as their comments are not restrained by questions. These comments will be really beneficial, and show that our trailer still needs more work doing to it.

Trailer with further improvements...

We made further changes to our trailer as we felt that the first draft was not of a good enough standard. As a group we did the editing for this, adding more transitions such as fades and making alterations to the text. I feel that it is an improvemnt on the first draft, and will obtain audience feedback in order to see what other people think of it, and to allow us to make any further changes that we need to.

Audience feedback from those in class

We also got people in class to watch the trailer and give us feedback. This will further our knowledge of what needs to be improved so that we can get our trailer to look as professional as possible. This is what they said:

• The shots later in the trailer need to be in the following order: Frances and Jon dancing, Frances running down the corridor, the nightmare scene, Frances running outside, the title shown as she runs down the steps, followed by the institutional information and then the fire after this, as the music fades.
• Either cut/straighten the shot of Frances running to the lake
• Zoom in on the titles of the newspaper clippings
• Alter some of the text so that the storyline is clear
• The match being dropped needs to be nearer the end of the trailer

We will try our best to make sure that each of these changes is made, but we are aware that the trailer needs to be completed shorty, so will put in as much time as we can to prepare our final trailer.

Vingette Effect

To further improve our trailer we have decided to use the vingette effect that is available to us on Final Cut Pro. We felt this was a good idea as we were watching trailers submitted in the past, and this was one of the editing techniques used. We feel that it will help the audience to see the contrast between the Victorian era shots and the modern day ones with even more clarity. As well as this it will also make it appear that Sarah is 'looking' into her past, as the edges of the shots with the vignette effect will be blurred.

MPAA Green Screen

After watching other trailers in order to make further developments to our trailer we have noticed that they use a green screen like the one shown below:

We have now decided to include one like this in our own trailer. We also watched British films to see if they had their own version of this, but all of the trailers showed an MPAA screen. Therefore we know exactly what to use and do not need to obtain a British one instead. However if there had been a British screen it would have shown that our trailer was filmed in the UK, but since doing our reseach we are aware that the MPAA screen is the one commonly used.

Trailer Draft

Survey Monkey results for new magazine cover

Here is the link to my survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/93FYFSK


I decided that it would be a good idea to find out some audience feedback regarding the improvements that I have made to my magazine cover. The results are shown below:

Question 1: On a scale of 1 to 10 what rating would you give my magazine? (1 being very poor and 10 being excellent)

• 8
• 8
• 8
• 9
• 9
• 9
• 10

Question 2: What do you like about my magazine?

• The features in the magazine and the choices of text
• I like the image you have chosen and the variety of texts used.
• I like how you have made the images look like they are part of the film strip
• The image of the three actors
• The variety of texts used
• I like the box at the bottom with additional features and the title
• I really like all of the texts that you have chosen and how they all stand out

Question 3: How well do you feel it works along with my poster and trailer?

• I think that they all link well
• I think that you can tell all three are connected, as images of the same actors are used, so would say very well.
• I feel that it works brilliantly, as they all use a similar style
• I think that the connection between the three can be seen through the images used
• 
  
•  

Screenshots of new magazine cover- improvements based on audience feedback

Screenshots of magazine cover- improvements based on audience feedback

More PowerPoint presentations from Charlotte Booth

The editing process that I went through for my magazine cover is as follows:

The film strip and images:

· Firstly I dragged the photo of Frances, Jon and Peter further to the right, and made it smaller.

· I placed a black rectangle down the left-hand side, and moved the film strip across to the same side.

· I made sure that the images of the three female celebrities looked like they were part of the film strip: it can be seen through the image of Rachel McAdams on my presentation above that the edges of the photo were defined, but once I used the blur tool then the image did not look as though it was separate from the film strip.

The text:

· I went onto dafont.com and chose new text from the Sans Serif section, as the style of the text followed the conventions of other film magazines. When receiving feedback from one of my Media Studies teachers she said that all of the fonts on the front cover were very similar, so when choosing new text I looked through the many pages on dafont.com and selected various styles.

· I typed the text into the box on dafont.com and print screened it. When there was a lot of text I had to type it in and print screen it separately and then place it one beneath the other on my magazine cover. One long line of text would not have worked.

· I then copied and pasted it onto Paint, selected the text, cut it and re-pasted it so that the rest of the print screened page was no longer there. If I needed to I chose 'invert' so that there was white text on a black background, and so that it was readable when I put it onto my magazine cover.

· As I went through this process I saved the text from Paint as a JPEG file, and then dragged it onto Photoshop.

· From here I used the magic wand tool so that there was just the text and no background. I deleted the original text and maneuvered the new text into its place.

· I used the same techniques for all of the text I obtained from dafont.com, but I only inverted the text if I needed it to be white and not black.

· I also made sure to name the layers so that I could find all of the text I had imported to Photoshop.

I feel that through making these changes my magazine follows the connotations of other film magazines, and that it is of a much higher standard.