Key questions to be addressed in your blogging record

Gerry Otim

How are you using media technologies in the research and construction, planning and

evaluation stages ?• When beginning planning the initial stages of making my product research

was the first thing that was done. I researched what exactly a trailer was and what where the key features of a trailer. I found that a trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. Trailers usually last around 2 and a half minutes. I used media 2.0 technologies such as YouTube , Google, Twitter to gain information about trailers and the genre of zombie. YouTube was used to watch and evaluate a range of zombie trailers and take tips and ideas from them such as Camera shots and angles, editing techniques , story lines and the pace of the trailer.

SCREENSHOTS

• YouTube was the most helpful technology that I used. It gave me the opportunity to put videos onto slides and analyse the conventions of a horror trailer. Also I was able to check statistics to evaluate who my target audiences may be. I found that the target audience would be females of 13-17 and males 13-17 and 18-24.

• Google also assisted me in researching my target audience. It helped me find other horror trailers that used zombies or the zombie storyline. This was very helpful as horror was a genre I wasn't knowledgeable of beforehand. Google was very helpful with research as it the best search engine and most used.

• When it came to planning our trailer my partner and I used slideshare and scribe to make my storyboard as we found these to be the best programme’s when planning. When it came to construction of our trailer we used our college’s camera’s which were Cannon XM2. A tripod and tape recorder came with camera to help record and save our footage. To edit we used Adobe Premier which helped with editing techniques such as introducing cuts, fades and the use of sound to fasten the pace. This is due to the fact trailer are fast paced to increase tension and make it as exciting as possible. We used Premier as it is the only editing programme we have available in the college. For the ancillary tasks I used the programme’s Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe InDesign CS3 to construct my film poster and magazine that were made to promote the horror trailer.

Question 2 : In what ways will your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

• Our media product used conventions of real media products with the use of make up which all major films use to give the film/trailer a sense of realism. We used talcum

powder for the zombies white face and red lip stick for the blood

A monster or representation of distorted humanity and evil: Our monster or monsters where the zombies who rise from the dead to try and kill their old friend.

The victims

The victims : In the trailer the victim used to be friends with the zombies before they become zombies. The lead character that is often the sole survivor which is seen here.

Here we see the use of central a big central image in both poster to attract viewers to the film

Real Image

My poster

The use of credits are also seen in both examples of posters. I did this to give the poster some realism.

The use of a punch line in both posters is done to get viewers to want to view.

Question 3What have you learnt from audience feedback ?

• My partner and I showed our horror trailer to a variety of media students and fellow students at our college. We then asked for their views and opinions on what was good or bad about our media product.

Quotes • “Very exciting trailer. Quick

and fast. Also you don’t waste time and prolong the trailer

unnecessarily”

• “The camera angles used in the trailer are very effective as

they vary and the shots are very fast. However I felt that

the trailer was a little to short and good have been longer”

“ I really liked the use of the point of view shot when the

character is running as it creates an excitement and gives us his

account of the story”.

“The only disappointment was the length of the trailer as it was

very short and if you had more content it would have been more

exciting”.

Overall feelings on feedback

• Overall I felt that the feedback on the trailer was very positive and the only complaint was on the length of the trailer. However I felt that my partner and I had enough exciting content that we didn’t need to make the trailer too long and in turn bore the audience with unnecessary content. I was really pleased with the feedback on the point of view shot where our main character is running away from the zombies but he is holding the camera. This was one of the shots we wanted in the trailer as we knew this creates an excitement and gives us the viewpoint of the character. This shot also brings the audience into the trailer and they feel as if they are also in the trailer

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Q4. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 

Main Product

• As part of our AS Advanced Media Portfolio we were required to create a film trailer

Ancillary Task 1

• A film poster

Ancillary Task 2 Film Magazine

• As part of our Media Advanced Portfolio we were given the task of creating three media products. The main task was to create a film trailer and my partner and I decided on making a horror trailer. The other two ancillary tasks were a film poster and a film magazine. I feel the combination of the products is very good as they are basically a marketing ploy to get people to watch the trailer. This is shown through the choice of image for both ancillaries. They also combine well to reach out to the target audience.

• The combination of the colours red, black and white are seen through all three media products and this is done to keep a consistency and so that the products combine well. Furthermore, as it is a horror trailer these colours are frequently used and this is a generic convention for these colours to feature.

• The fonts used in the two ancillary are the major difference between the products as they are two different media products. I used impact for my magazine to make it look as professional as possible.

• The models used in both ancillaries are also used in my main product which effectively combines all three products together.

• The selling point of our film trailer is the horror and the element of the audience not knowing if the main character will escape the zombies. This comes across effectively in the ancillaries and in the trailer itself via the storyline of the main character and the creatures.