Evaluation

Rebekka Byrne, Laura Warren, Kieran Chesney, Bekezela Charakupa

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

The layout of this magazine is a typical ‘Sight and sound’ layout. The masthead font for ‘Sight & Sound’ is in bold and big writing which stands out to the viewers. The colours used are very effective but yet simple and help make it easy to read.  The masthead is one of the main aspects of  a magazine so it needs to be bold in order for there target audience to recognize the title. Unlike other magazines like ‘Empire’ the sight and sound magazine does not allow the main image to cover up the master head.

The title, and the date are always on the top right hand corner, in the same place. This makes is really recognisable fore the reader.

W e choose to use a medium close up shot, as this is typical of sight and sound magazines, as it allows a clear vision of the main image, yet it still enables the master head ‘Sight and Sound’ to stand out.

Like many ‘sight and sound’ magazines, the image used on the magazine is strong and doesn’t need titles or cover lines advertising the film. This leaves the audience intrigued to want to know more.

By including interviews, or information linked to the main image is common for sight and sound, as it keeps the audience linked to the film, without over advertising it.

The turquoise colour was picked up during the editing of the image as it was a bold. colour which we felt worked with our

campaign.

We have kept our look constant in the fact that we kept the same fronts on the front cover, and haven't used any more than 2 fronts on this page.

We choose the old version of the sight and sound logo, as when we tried the newer version, we felt it didn’t go along with the long we was going for.

The main image is a close up ; it is very simplistic, and looks very It connotes danger, by the lost facial expressions and red lipstick. The image could connote the character is in danger, or it could connate a more seductive approach.

Unlike the typical ‘Sight and sound’ covers this cover is completely out of their comfort zone by using different colours, and a different master head layout. are in the same place.

Just like our version of the magazine, the cover include a pug which is very similar to our cover line saying ‘every new film reviewed’.

Cover lines mentioning ‘sexual verge’ and ‘porn’ could be a connation of the film, making links from the film, to over stories mentioned in the magazine.

When titles are mention on sight and sound covers, they are usually kept simple, short and straight to the point. Unlike Empire, who tend to exaggerate their text.

The characters face is hidden which may connote that their identity is hidden for a reason, keeping their face covered so we can’t really see who it is.

This character identify is visual here this shows that they want us to see her character, also it is shown In a bright light which may connote that she is the ‘angelic’ character.

The layout of the page is done, so one character is going after another, however we are unsure of the identity of one character, as their face is barely screen this creates a sinister affect.

For the text we have used the same text which we used in the teaser trailer for the word ‘PURSUIT’ this shows a consistent look between our trailer and our advertising our film, also we have chosen to keep the turquoise on some of our text like we have used on out sight and sound front cover as we feel it adds an edgy look to our campaign.

For this background we choose to left it blank as we feel that the overall poster comes across better, as it leave a mystery to the scenery of the film.

The layout of this film poster is very similar to the way that we have layed out our posters.

The colour of the poster are similar to ours also, in the fact that they have left most of the poster in black and white to show mystery, and a sense of the unknown. Also they have included a hint of yellow in their text similar to what we have done. They have probably done this to add an extra effect to the poster.

Again similar to our poster the character who is shown on the bottom right of the picture identity is hidden, it could be similar to ours where she doesn’t want her identity known or uncovered.

The background for this image is different to the one we choose, this one shows the scenery and doesn’t leave as much to the mind.

Pursuit Teaser trailerJust like typical teaser trailers, our teaser trailer ‘Pursuit’ includes snippets of the

fundamental points of the film, at a fast pace. The main idea of a teaser trailer is to ‘tease’ by presenting a series of small, sharp and challenging shots which anticipate a brief summary in images of the film. Film teasers unlike theatrical trailers are generally very short in the length, usually between 30-60 seconds in total, and usually contain little if any actual football from the film it is promoting. Examples of the key parts in the film, are; the main woman being taken unexpectedly, a woman holding a gun against a tied up mans head, photographs taken of the kidnappers, and the trailers ends with a sound bridge saying ‘ you’ll never find her’ this teases the audience by making them think ‘will they find her?’. What we may have done which differs from typical teaser trailers is that we often repeated the same shot after around every 10 seconds of the trailer, which pinpoints the main focus of the trailer. The same clip is of a woman tied up, In look of help. We choose to repeat this shot a few times as it allowed us to place it in points, to stop the trailer from flowing in order of sequence, by doing this it leaves the audience intrigued to know more. The title of the film appears as a gunshot is heard from a sound bridge, this makes the audience jump, and brings a sharp (what they believe is) the ending to our trailer.

Fat Themes/Narrative Teaser Trailer

‘Pursuit’ is a violent thriller, this is shown in many ways throughout our teaser trailer. This can be seen when the main woman is taken, and also when violent weapons are used to help track down both the taken woman and the capturer. This film includes a hint of the unknown, along with chase scenes, and a sense of a difficult adventure which is seen in ‘Taken’ where a girl is kidnapped, and its up to her dad to track her down. Our teaser trailer goes again most thriller films, in the sense that it is a woman that is captured and it is a woman whose going to try and rescue her, this is unusual as usually thrillers tend to connote the woman characters as vulnerable, but in ours we represent, a strong independent woman, was has to fight to save her sisters life.

Representation of Character

There are a few main characters that are in ‘Pursuit’ the first is the woman whose is taken who appears your typical ‘thriller’ victim by being vulnerable, innocent and helpless. This is typical in many thriller films like in ‘taken’ where the character who was taken was a target as she was a young girl, in a big country that she wasn’t used too. These are the typical victims which we often see in the in thriller movies. The twist of our film is that the other main character who is the sister, is the complete opposite, when she realises that her sister has been taken, she wants to find her and will do anything until she knows that she is safe. She isn’t your typical thriller character as it usually tends to be a strong, and heroic male character that runs to the rescue, however in this trailer it is a confident, courageous woman who is longing to get her sister back.

Iconography

Like in every thriller film, there are iconographic thriller elements, which pop up time and time again, like in our film the kidnapping scene, often happens as it gives the audience the ‘thrill’ of them being captured. The blood which is shown in the trailer is also iconographic, as whenever you see blood in any film you know something bad has happened or that something's not right. Also there is use of a gun in the film, which again connotes danger, and fear as it shows how far the woman is willing to go in order to ensure that her sister is safe, and the people that capture her are punished.

Audio-Visual Style

Often in thrillers the lighting is usually dull in order to connate a sinister feel to the film. In order to keep up with this we have kept some shots at low key lighting, as this makes the audience feel more on edge, and more nervous to find out why the lighting on the image is low. Close ups are usually very common for thrillers, as generally when people are in harsh and terrifying circumstances their reactions has an impact on the way that the audience reacts for example, if the main woman character looks scared and anxious, the audience which catch onto this vibe and may feel their emotions as they may put themselves into the characters position. We have played around with the timing and pacing order of the film sequence in order to draw an emotional response from the audience. During the highly dramatic moments, the editing may convey the story's tension through fast-paced cuts or linger on a particular shot to promote the seriousness of the storyline. The use of very short, and quick shots connotes that there is a lot of action in the film, also it helps to build suspense and excitement. The use of zooming in and out of particular shots, encourages the audience to look at that shot as a focus point. By using this flashy style it shows the audience that this is a specific part in the film, as it is as thoughtthe character is thinking back to when they’ve seen the face before.

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

We think that all of our media texts work well

together, as they all complement each other by sticking to a consistent style throughout. The text which we as a group feel works the best for our campaign is Text 2 which is our magazine cover. This is because we feel we have adapted out look well to fit in with the typical ‘Sight and Sound’ magazine cover by including the usual features which complete the ‘Sight and sound ‘look. We did this by the usual master head, and san serif fonts which sight and sound are known for using.

As well as going with the typically ‘Sight and Sound’ colour scheme, we have added our own touch to our campaigns look by adding a turquoise colour which was picked up during the editing of Text 2 image. While using trial and error on the magazine image we found the interesting effect you see to the right of this paragraph. This turquoise colour was found when the saturation of the image changed. We liked the affect which this colour brought to the campaign, and have used hints of this colour through Texts 1 & 2.

All our text products link back to each other in various ways as there is no obvious connection in terms of focus on any one key character. Although there are different images on both Text 2 and Text 3, the shots which were included in Text 1 (the trailer) create the link between the two texts.

All of the 3 media texts do have a consistent style this is seen by the ways in which the images which are present in both Text 2 and 3 are similar shots which have been taken out of Text 1 (the trailer) as mentioned above. By including a consistent style between the 3 texts makes it easier for the audience to recognise the campaign as a whole and be able to relate each Text to each other. However Text 1 is slightly different, it doesn’t completely fit in with all aspects of Text 2 and 3, but there are consistent aspects which link all three of the Texts together.

In Text 3 we see two characters in different levels of shadow. We attempted to make the male character at the front of the poster look domineering and dangerous to show the fact he is a villain and will be a source of great trouble in the film. Meanwhile in the background of the picture in clear light is a female character pointing a gun in the direction of the male character. We attempted to show an un-stereotypical female sort of character who has been pushed to the breaking point between good and bad. We normally expect female characters to be either weak or seductive. Here our female character is shown as the one who is in control and powerful, traits that we expect to see only with male characters.

The idea was to show the fight between those who do evil and those who do good in the film can blur the lines of good and evil.

3;- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Target audience In order to be able to gain our audience feedback, we presented our film to

a range of people mainly targeted at 15-35 year olds. We felt that our film would suit the male target audience more due to some scenes which contain shots of violence, and hints of torture. However we wanted an equal view from all members of the audience, so we chose to select both males and females to take part in viewing our trailer. We looked at all of the comments which we received from the audiences feedback and as what was correctly predicted most of our positive feedback was received from the male audience as they was drawn in by the fast pace shots and the loud music we used. The females audience seemed to dislike the concept of our movie which involved a scene of what appeared to real of lady being followed home.

Feedback

“ It was really cool, I liked the pace of the shots and themusic building up creates suspense”

“I enjoyed the trailer, but the kidnapping

scene felt too realistic, and puts you on edge. if I watched the whole

film I would be terrified!!”

“I enjoyed the short action packed clips, leaves you wanting to see more, definitely my

type of film.”

Media department feedback

Teacher A said “The fast pace of the trailer is what really grabs

your attention. The trailer includes the action which it

needs to deliver, it consists of the key aspects of a typical

teaser trailer. Very impressive.”

Teacher C“ It takes a while to relate the

kidnapers to the case that the victim was working

on, as the information is not so obvious, however this is a teaser trailer, so they have provided the

‘tease’ well”

Teacher B said “The acting by all characters is well done, this

enables the audience to be able to put themselves in the victims

position, yet it leaves them wanting to know more”

What sort of audience feedback have your

had? In general we had good positive feedback, they mostly commented on the

build up of the trailer. It started at a slow paced but as the story went on the pace of the shots also increased. The audience also complimented on the suspense created by the fast paced shots. We also received good feedback when it came to the font we used “it was not too cliché”. However when we showed it to a few people (under 15) who were not our targeted audience they were confused about the concept of the film. They also did not understand the ‘tease’ of the trailer and seemed to get confused with the number of short fast paced shots which we used. This is why we feel that the target audience that we aimed the trailer towards, was the right choice.

Have they made you see your finished products differently?

Judging from the feedback we received for our film we can assume that it was a success. We are happy with the overall feedback which we did receive, and we feel that the audience which we did target was the right choice. We do not think we would change anything if we were to do this again, as we got the reaction from the audience which we predicted. We knew that not everyone was going to like the concept of our film, but we knew that their would be a good percentage of the target audience that liked the pace, and action which was included in the trailer. We still agree that the target audience should specifically male, and the evidence from the audience feedback presents this.

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

The way that the media technology helped us research into thriller trailers, posters and magazines was by searching the internet to gather research and information to help with our findings. As we wanted specific results we used Google to search key words in order to help us find some ideas to help us when working with our own campaign. We research ‘film magazine covers’, ‘film posters’, and ‘teaser thriller trailers’. By searching these key words, it enabled us to be able to able to decide what magazine our trailer would be most appropriate on, what information should be included on the film poster, and how teaser thriller trailers are typically set out. We look at the typical similarities that were included through, magazines, posters and trailers, and looked at the usual conventions, and took note of this when creating ours.

The media technology helped us a lot with planning our teaser trailer as before researching it we didn’t know what we would have to include to make it different to a full length trailer. But after researching some teaser trailers on YouTube we noticed that there are certain key elements we had to include in our trailer to make the audience aware that it is a teaser.

The key elements we noticed we have to include in our teaser trailer is fast paced music which builds up the speed and the suspense of the trailer, the use of caption is used quite regularly in teaser trailers as it gives very little information but gives over a small message to the audience and also the use of very little information being shown and very little of the story is been given away is used almost all the time in teaser trailers, withholding certain information in a trailer builds suspense and makes the audience want to see more.

For the film magazine and poster we had to use the same techniques by researching them on the internet and annotating them to show what they normally include and how they are set out. We annotated them to recognise and make ourselves familiar with where certain things go for example, masthead, pugs, banners, cover lines, images and many more. We had a lot of trouble when It came to researching the music. We found a sight which provided a range of different sounds, this was www.freeplaymusic.com. We struggled to find music that slowly built up suspense, and then reached a point, in which the trailer came alive and all the action really began. This was important to us, as we wanted a good sound track to keep to the pace of the film. We eventually came down to three soundtracks, it was trial and error when it came to trying all tracks with the trailer, we eventually settled for a track called ‘eliminate’ which we felt included all the dynamics which we wanted the soundtrack to include.

We used Adobe Premiere 6.5 to edit and give effects to our film. We had quite a hard time while in the editing phase of our film as we could not quite decide on an order for the sequence of the film. Once an order of events had been established we went on to start adding effects to our film to create flow and tension. We used fade in’s and fade out’s to establish time passing and a change in event.

Also we came across a rather interesting technique where by we could make text flash like a camera shutter on and off the screen, we created this by editing the timeline of the ‘Summer 2011’ by simple adjusting the timeline up, so that the title appeared and then down to create the flashing of the title. We used this at the end of our trailer to create a sense of time running out for the victim, and to fit in with the end of the phone call, showing the kidnapper hanging up, leaving the trailer at a cliff-hanger. We also choose to include a scene towards the end of the trailer, that plays the soundtrack over a scene that shows a gunshot to one of the kidnapers heads, there is then a black screen and gunshot heard, but no killing is seen. This shows the transition on the trailer from digetic sound which was the soundtrack, to a non- digetic sound being the gunshot.

We then had to focus on the creation and editing of our poster and magazine cover. For these we adapted ideas and parts of previous examples of poster’s and magazines to create them. For the magazine for example we based it on the well renowned Sight and Sound magazine. Then using Paint Shop Pro we combined the title and usual stereotypical items that would appear and added them to the pictures and images we felt best portrayed the idea of the trailer.

When it came to editing the magazine cover, we came in luck by messing around with the saturation levels of an image, we came across an affect which changed the whole look of the image. This simply created small tints of turquoise colour on the centre of the image, and the saturation also created a ‘video camera’ look to the image, by making the image more pixelated. We did struggle to add the turquoise colour to Text 3, as we felt the black & white look fitted in better, and it created the sense of the unknown, and keeps one of the characters identity well hidden. So we added the hints of turquoise to the text on the poster, to keep a consistent look to the campaign. Adding the master head and the cover lines to the poster wasn’t easy either, It was difficult matching up the fonts used in the poster to those that were used in the magazine. We was also aware that we had only used two different fonts with the ‘sight and sound’ poster, as with sight and sound magazines they do not use more than two fonts. We chose to use both sans serif fonts which was Arial, and serif fonts which was Bookman old style. We particularly struggled with the placing of the billing block, as we was unsure of the font and the size, this took a lot of time. As we were constantly attempting to place the billing block as a layer, and in the end we had to enter the billing block word by word to help us figure out how much of the text would fit on the line. We then used ghosting, as the lighting of the text was too bright and didn’t fit in with a typical billing block look. By using the ghosting it faded the billing block so it fits in with the look of the poster.

The poster was much harder to complete compared to any of the other parts of the project. We had a great deal of trouble picking an idea we could easily tie in to our trailer and had issues when we attempted to recreate the effect from our magazine cover unsuccessfully. We eventually decided to go with an image of two of the main characters on a black background. We attempted to alter the brightness and shadowing of the two images using a tool in the program called Illumination effects which took quite some time to do as it took a lot patience and trial and error because by illuminating the image, it made some aspects of the image too bright and some too dark. It was up to us to change the areas in which the light would reflect of the faces of the two characters. We wanted more like to be placed on the main girl character as we want to show that she is the more angelic character, as compared to the character which appears at the front of the poster. We wanted as much shade as possible, to keep his face and identity hidden which connotes a suspense.