Friday, 11 March 2011
Friday, 11 February 2011
Cell 17 (Empire) magazine cover
This is my movie magazine cover, based on the conventions of the existing magazine product, Empire. I have briefly analysed the cover.
Click image for further analysis
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Evaluation Question 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Media Technologies dominate our society, in a way it is impossible to not use them when trying to create a media text, whether it is a trailer, a blog, a magazine, newpaper, poster, etc. Of course most of these products can be made without the aid of technology, but it is these new advancements in technology that have brought the large conglomerate and sophisticated development work of a media company down to a compact and accessible form, for the public, such as photoshop and garageband. And it is the web 2.0 technologies, Facebook and Youtube for example that allow us to present these 'home-made products' to our own audience with little effort.
Through the video, I am trying to show how these accesible technologies allow us as 'prosumer's of web 2.0 technologies to create our products, refine them, present them to our audience and gain feeback from them with online programs that help us do so with ease.
These technologies have shaped our products and allowed our creativity to shine through while also giving us the opportunity to experience producing our own media texts ourselves using professional equipment.
I have attempted to use this video to answer this question in a spontaneous way to present how prosumers on programmes like Youtube document their ideas and thoughts spontaneously with the aid of new technology
Evaluation Question 3
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
When it comes to creating an advertising campaign for a media product, the crucial aspect to making it effective is that it must appeal to its target audience. This audience, once established, will then give media companies the chance to test their product on them, giving them relevant feedback. It is this feedback that leads to the product being improved or refined so that it achieves its financial targets upon release.
Once our intial draft of the trailer was complete, we had the perfect oppurtunity to 'screen' it to a sample of out peers. This formed the basis of effective feedback as the average age of our classmates, 17-19, conformed to the average age of cinema-goers. This meant we had the demographic for our audience, the screening involved several viewings of the trailer as a draft, with an evaluation sheet for the audience to fill in, with questions such as "what did you think was sucessful" and "what did you believe should be improved". These questions gave us the ability to make the changes that the audience want in order to improve the product's sales value.
The feedback recieved suggested that, in terms of the trailer, that it did not conform to the conventions of short frames and quick-fire cuts. As well as this, our audience believed that the general narrative and theme were unclear in our trailer because we had not included enough information to allow the audience to get a grasp for what the plot was about. Our trailer has been posted onto Youtube, so it also has the exposure to a public audience which can also lead to more public feedback from a younger audience. Most of the feedback regarding my poster and magazine cover made me notice that I had challenged many conventions of existing products; this was mainly through the organisation of text or the appearance of the text itself. However, many of the comments from our audience suggested that the technical aspects of our trailer were effective, specifically the camera angles and lighting effects.
All of this encouraged us to look back at our products and from this we decided to find existing products that would operate as effective style models. A style model helped us to see the sucessful elements of existing products and from this we reshaped what we had created to better conform to stereotypes while also satisfying the requests made by the audience feedback. In summary, the feedback from our target demographic was immensely influential to the final developments of our products
Once our intial draft of the trailer was complete, we had the perfect oppurtunity to 'screen' it to a sample of out peers. This formed the basis of effective feedback as the average age of our classmates, 17-19, conformed to the average age of cinema-goers. This meant we had the demographic for our audience, the screening involved several viewings of the trailer as a draft, with an evaluation sheet for the audience to fill in, with questions such as "what did you think was sucessful" and "what did you believe should be improved". These questions gave us the ability to make the changes that the audience want in order to improve the product's sales value.
The feedback recieved suggested that, in terms of the trailer, that it did not conform to the conventions of short frames and quick-fire cuts. As well as this, our audience believed that the general narrative and theme were unclear in our trailer because we had not included enough information to allow the audience to get a grasp for what the plot was about. Our trailer has been posted onto Youtube, so it also has the exposure to a public audience which can also lead to more public feedback from a younger audience. Most of the feedback regarding my poster and magazine cover made me notice that I had challenged many conventions of existing products; this was mainly through the organisation of text or the appearance of the text itself. However, many of the comments from our audience suggested that the technical aspects of our trailer were effective, specifically the camera angles and lighting effects.
All of this encouraged us to look back at our products and from this we decided to find existing products that would operate as effective style models. A style model helped us to see the sucessful elements of existing products and from this we reshaped what we had created to better conform to stereotypes while also satisfying the requests made by the audience feedback. In summary, the feedback from our target demographic was immensely influential to the final developments of our products
Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?
The ancillary products that support the main media product are an example of how media distributors create effective advertisements that give a media product publicity.
Media products are promoted through trailers, magazine articles/covers. posters, billboards and many other exclusive promotional events. These events help distributors work out who their exact target market is and how they can better develop their campaigns Big Blockbuster films get a lot of media attention and many advertising methods are used in order to ensure that the target audience come in contact with the product before it is released. It is these things that give the films the biggest chance at suceeding in their opening weekend. Independant films do not get the same amount of media publicity because they are stereotypically not projected to accumulate as much in profits and these advertising methods cost a lot of money, this normally leads to the promotion efforts being in proportion to the estimated revenue.
The advertising poster is effective at displaying the best visual advertisement without a need for a large amount of information. The poster is very important to the campaign as it the most accessible advertisement and it is also free as it is the type of promotion that would appear on busses or billboards for the public to see as they passed. Although this is a simple promotional text it is important that it shows the highlights of the main product without exposing the full story, in a similar way that the teaser trailer does. I think my poster effectively presents the genre and the themes of the film which is what it was created for, making it a successful product.
The magazine cover is equally, if not more, important as it present the production company with a chance for more advertising and possible interviews and reviews that could really aid the effectiveness of the release weekend and then the showtimes to follow. The benefit of being featured on a magazine cover is that there are not an exceptional number of these kinds of magazines available, so getting featured is an impressive feat. A magazine cover gives more information than the poster and is designed to invite the audience to purchase/read the contents. They do this by utilising the films unique selling point to maximise sales, which gives even more publicity for the film. I think my poster is relevant to the house style of EMPIRE and effectively presents a good amount of information for potential buyers to see and be persuaded by.
Empire, Magazine Cover. 2005
I have analysed this magazine cover to see what conventions are used by the publishing house. I like the layout and desing style that this magazine uses so I think I will use this as my style model and adapt my horror poster to suit being a magazine cover for Empire.
Click image for further analysis
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Teaser trailers are created for the purpose of 'whetting the apetite' of the target market. The trailer is meant to display the conventions of the genre and make it clear what the audience should expect but is vague as to the storyline and the chronology of the plot. Our trailer displays many conventions of horror trailers, such as shooting in dark, tense locations, using inter-titles to hint at the storyline and using a varied pace to make the trailer more exciting. Our trailer tries to conform to the conventions that media companies have created because they have proven to be successful. Media companies follow the standard convention as guidelines in order to ensure that their product is as successful as trailers that have been made before. As much as following conventions is important to our media product, diverting from these conventions is also a good way of getting the viewers attention. For example, our trailer uses a psychological horror theme that requires no gore and very minimal casting, this would immediately appear unusual to the viewer and they would begin to question why this trailer is different from the rest. The point here is that conventions are good to follow but it can be rewarding to break them.
The sample shots from our trailer, I believe, shows how we looked into existing products and analysed what makes them effective. We have borrowed many effective shot types and editing ideas from existing trailers as this gives us guidance as to how we can present our ideas in a way that will have a powerful effect on the audience. We made sure we included a collision cutting moment, where we hear the iconic horror scream (Top images), This shot is important as it is a conventional shot that's associated with the horror genre. The second set of images shows how we have used shots that highlight the expression of the character, this gives the audience something to relate to. This is also shown through the fourth set of images as it is once again an example of how expression is used to convey the emotion of the character. I believe this is important because this way the audience will feel more empathy for the character and then understand the fear that they feel in that situation. Empathy and situations that the audience can relate to are some of the features that make horror effective so it is important that out trailer conforms to this and uses these features in order to make it a useful advertisement.
A common convention of horror trailers is to have no voice-over as the use of voice seems to take away the impact of what is happening in the scene. Diagetic sounds give the impression of everything being close to the character and because of this the audience can believe that the character is genuinely in fear of what is happening around them. it is better, for the purpose of a horror teaser trailer, to use inter-titles to hint at the storyline and punctuate the trailer with diagetic sounds, such as screams, breathing and powerful music. Extensive dialog in a trailer is not effective either because it takes away the impact of the shock elements that are in the trailer. Our trailer uses very minimal amounts of sound. We are focusing on screams and a soundtrack to enforce the dramatic elements of our trailer and have no voice-over to follow the conventions. Our trailer does not use as much sound as a standard horror trailer as we want the audience to feel a bit isolated from the film as this goes well with the psychological theme of the trailer. This is the way we have attempted to challenge existing product's conventions. I think sound is a powerful tool for horror and we have spent a lot of time on our soundtrack to make sure it matches the pace of our visual information and gives the trailer a rhythm and pace.
 |
| Left: Cell 17 Right: Samples Conventional lighting, angles and text. |
Media products are made with extreme amounts of effort and precision, if they do not match up to the standards of previous/existing products then they are not adequate for public consumption. Therefore, it is wise to adapt my own product to the 'conventions' that previous products have established, that way my product is performing the functions it is meant to do when the audience interact with it. I will illustrate the way that my products have developed/challenged the forms of coventions of real media products in regards to the Horror Teaser Trailer.
Teaser trailers are created for the purpose of 'whetting the apetite' of the target market. The trailer is meant to display the conventions of the genre and make it clear what the audience should expect but is vague as to the storyline and the chronology of the plot. Our trailer displays many conventions of horror trailers, such as shooting in dark, tense locations, using inter-titles to hint at the storyline and using a varied pace to make the trailer more exciting. Our trailer tries to conform to the conventions that media companies have created because they have proven to be successful. Media companies follow the standard convention as guidelines in order to ensure that their product is as successful as trailers that have been made before. As much as following conventions is important to our media product, diverting from these conventions is also a good way of getting the viewers attention. For example, our trailer uses a psychological horror theme that requires no gore and very minimal casting, this would immediately appear unusual to the viewer and they would begin to question why this trailer is different from the rest. The point here is that conventions are good to follow but it can be rewarding to break them.
The sample shots from our trailer, I believe, shows how we looked into existing products and analysed what makes them effective. We have borrowed many effective shot types and editing ideas from existing trailers as this gives us guidance as to how we can present our ideas in a way that will have a powerful effect on the audience. We made sure we included a collision cutting moment, where we hear the iconic horror scream (Top images), This shot is important as it is a conventional shot that's associated with the horror genre. The second set of images shows how we have used shots that highlight the expression of the character, this gives the audience something to relate to. This is also shown through the fourth set of images as it is once again an example of how expression is used to convey the emotion of the character. I believe this is important because this way the audience will feel more empathy for the character and then understand the fear that they feel in that situation. Empathy and situations that the audience can relate to are some of the features that make horror effective so it is important that out trailer conforms to this and uses these features in order to make it a useful advertisement.
A common convention of horror trailers is to have no voice-over as the use of voice seems to take away the impact of what is happening in the scene. Diagetic sounds give the impression of everything being close to the character and because of this the audience can believe that the character is genuinely in fear of what is happening around them. it is better, for the purpose of a horror teaser trailer, to use inter-titles to hint at the storyline and punctuate the trailer with diagetic sounds, such as screams, breathing and powerful music. Extensive dialog in a trailer is not effective either because it takes away the impact of the shock elements that are in the trailer. Our trailer uses very minimal amounts of sound. We are focusing on screams and a soundtrack to enforce the dramatic elements of our trailer and have no voice-over to follow the conventions. Our trailer does not use as much sound as a standard horror trailer as we want the audience to feel a bit isolated from the film as this goes well with the psychological theme of the trailer. This is the way we have attempted to challenge existing product's conventions. I think sound is a powerful tool for horror and we have spent a lot of time on our soundtrack to make sure it matches the pace of our visual information and gives the trailer a rhythm and pace.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)