Evaluation of my A2 Media Coursework

8/2/2019 Evaluation of my A2 Media Coursework

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EvaluationTom Dale


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1. In what ways does your media

product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real

media products?


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When producing our film we had to take into account the conventions that our audience would be expecting as thiswould affect their appreciation of the product. Our film was a physiological horror so we thought about theconventions of horror films as well as the basic conventions of film and narrative.

We followed the conventions that our audience would expect as we thought this would make them enjoy the film a lotmore. One convention of narrative that also fits Horror is the Enigma code. This is where a mystery is set in place by the

film and makes the audience think about the narrative. We looked at films like American Psycho that use this in asimilar way that we did to construct a false reality within the film. We used the idea that the main character thoughthe had murdered people when he had not but we withheld this from the audience, making an enigma code in the filmwe hope this would make people think about the film and talk about it attracting more audience.

Another convention we thought about was Todorovs theory of Equilibrium, Disruption, New equilibrium. We used thiscode in our narrative with the main character starting out seeming normal this is our equilibrium, then our disruption iswhen he believes he has killed the others and the hauntings and our new equilibrium is when he realises that it hasall been in his mind. This serves to help the audience appreciate the film.

We noticed that many psychological films had quite a dark tone so to fit in with this we applied a filter that drew outthe colour and made it a bit darker.

We looked at other short films such as Spike Jonzeshow they get there, we looked at what we thought made a goodShort film, we though this included good cinematography and an exciting and original idea. I believe that we met thesecriteria and the other conventions. As we began our production we decided that good cinematography would be amain value in our work. We also think that our idea was original and interesting.

By sticking to these conventions, we can aim to make the audience appreciate the film a lot more. As when an

audiences expectations are met they will enjoy the film a lot more.


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I used this image as I looked atsome other posters and noticed thatmany short films used head shots ofthe main character for their poster Ifollowed this convention. It alsoallows the audience to see who the

protagonist is this means that whenthey see the film they are alreadyaligned with this character.

I super imposed a Knife onto theimage to add a sinister element andsuggest to the audience that it was aHorror. Many film posters also usecomments from critics so I also didthis. I also found that white featured

on many short film posters so I useda white background. I used dullcolours to hint at the darker tone ofthe film. I used this red tone toproduce a house style as I used thison the article, the dark colours andtoned down colours also carryacross all 3 products.

POSTERTitle- identifies

the film and can

serve to draw in

an audience.

Main image-

attracts anaudience and gives

them an idea of

who the

protagonist is,

aligning them

before they see the

film the knife also

suggests to them

the dark nature

Tag line- sugests

the nature of the

film, whilst possibly

producing a viral

effect as people

talk about it and it

spreads.

Star/ Director names to

attract people to the film

Awards and

critics

comments,

attract an

audience

House colour unifies the

article and links the ancillary

tasks together


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Double Page spreadWhen producing a double page

spread I had to think of magazine

conventions, that I developed in AS

media. I had to consider the rule of

thirds, for this I divided each page

into three columns. I used an

indirect mode of address but also a

personal tone. I used a heading totie the article together with the

magazine. The title at the top

addresses the article and takes a

slightly comical and informal

approach to the magazine and links

with the personal tone of the

article. It also ties in with the film as

it his some dark humour in it.

Title

Heading

Main image- draws

the reader into thearticle.

House

colours-

unifies the

article and links

the ancillary

tasks together

Pull Quote-

draws the

reader to the

article

highlights a

main point

This is a double page

spread from empire

magazine, I looked at this

as an example of real

media when producing

my work to get a idea of

what an audience wouldexpect


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2. How effective is thecombination of your main

product and ancillary texts?


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When producing my ancillary tasks I kept my film in mind so that I could produce an overall house style. I tried to

carry the dark style and drained colour over into the poster and article. Through my ancillary tasks I carried a dark

red colour between the two, this complemented the dark style of the film and also reflected the sinister tone of

the film.

When producing the content I looked at existing media including films, posters and film magazines. I used this

understanding of the conventions of these products to make my content so it will meet their expectations. I looked

at how films carried themes or styles across their products such as the Dark Knight, that has a very distinct style

that was mirrored in the posters and other images.

I think that the film was our strongest product and that my article piece was my weakest. If I made it again I would

like to have better photography as I feel it was not as good as I thought it could be.


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3. What have you learned from youraudience feedback?


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Audience Research is extremely important to any product , especially so in the media industry. If we do not get audience

feedback and think about the results, if not you would risk not meeting the audiences expectations.

Our target audience was 15-25 year olds, as this is the main film audience they are also the largest audience for horror films so

by targeting this audience we would be targeting the largest audience.

I uploaded our footage onto Facebook a Social networking site, this allowed me to distribute our work to a much larger

audience, this is an example of how web 2.0 helps film makers especially Short film and independent film makers. It shows how

people across the web can converge to work on a product through feedback.

An example of how audience research is used to great effect in a film, would be Snakes on a Plane. This film used large

amounts of audience feedback from the very start. Many elements of the film were influenced by audience responses .

Including the famous line that was used due to audience demand.

This shows how audience research is very important to film makers, especially in short film where audience is smaller and if the

film wants to be successful it must meet the audiences expectations or challenge them to make an enjoyable film.

From our audience research we can see that those

that watched it enjoyed it. Most of those that

watched and enjoyed the film were between the

ages of 15 to 25 which was our target audience.

Whilst one was in the 26 to 50 group and one wasin the 50+ group. The fact that this wide group of

people gave positive feedback though a comment

or like shows that our film may have a larger

target audience than we first planned, this shows

how audience research can be extremely useful to

a film producer. This also shows how web 2.0 has

benefitted the film industry.


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4. How did you use mediatechnologies in the

construction and research,planning and evaluation

stages?


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Digital technology has had a great impact on my coursework, firstly our film itself. We filmed the footage on a HD

camcorder, and then uploaded the footage onto a pc. By doing this it allowed us to easily edit the footage through

Final cut pro, this programme offered a simple way to manage and alter the footage. By putting it on the computer

it also allowed us to add music that we had produced on garage band or the music we had requested the license for

from MobyGratis.com, this site has music that people can request licenses for to use on solely non profit

productions, This is a good example of convergence on web 2.0. the pc element also allowed us to upload the

footage onto the internet, where we could get audience feedback on a much larger scale than we could ever

achieve. This is another example of how web 2.0 allows convergence on a huge scale when people can work with

people around the world. Through our blog and YouTube we have been able to distribute our work this is an

example of how the internet especially web 2.0 has allowed people including short film makers to distribute their

work without the backing of a studio or other financial help.

The poster and double Page spread also used digital technology. We used Digital cameras to take the pictures, this

was then uploaded onto the computer from here we could manipulate the pictures and produce the productsthrough Photoshop and InDesign. This was extremely useful as it allowed us to use many varied effects to produce

the content.

The theme of our film did not have much bearing on technology, as it dealt with psychological issues and print

media. One way the themes did make us use technology was the dark theme as this meant we had to use

technology to give the desired effect on the footage.

Over the course of producing the content, I think that my IT skills have developed massively, through editing my

footage and producing my poster and double page spread. Throughout the production we have encountered several

problems, the main being that we lost some of our footage due to some others mistakenly deleting our footage.

This meant we had to retrieve footage and re-edit our work.

Documents

Evaluation of my A2 Media Coursework