Evaluation-Question 4

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

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Question 4 Text-Media Evaluation

Evaluation-Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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Question 3 Text-Media Evaluation

Evaluation-Question 2

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

Lucy Media Evaluation-Question 2 Text

Evaluation-Question 1

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

A2 Media Evaluation- Question 1

Audience Reaction- Melinda Trailer

We decided to get our target audience to film their reactions to our trailer. This allowed us to see what parts of the trailer scared them the most and if they had a clear understanding of the narrative. We will be able to use this in question 3 of our evaluations.

Final Trailer

Final Film Poster

Final Magazine Cover

Changes & Problems Encountered

Although a lot of my coursework development went as planned, it was inevitable that I was going to encounter a few problems along the way. Time was evidently a big issue for both Beth and I throughout the development of our coursework. We both had other school commitments. One major issue was the deadline of our ICT coursework, which was the same week as the filming deadline, this meant that we had to work incredibly hard on our time management skills. Nonetheless, we still managed to get all of our filming done before the deadline. Lighting was an issue when filming in the woods. We had to ensure that we were filming at the correct time of the day, the ambient lighting had to ensure that it wasn't too bright as this isn't conventional of horror however, it couldn't be too dark as we also had to be able to see what was within the frame of the camera. 

Unfortunately, Shannon who we originally planned to play Melinda wasn't in London on the day of filming due to other commitments and therefore, Beth played Melinda. We did understand that everybody wasn't going to be available at the same day and time. It was important that we had backups available. Beth playing Melinda did make more sense as it meant we could get the shots exactly how we wanted as we both had a clear understanding of the storyline and where we wanted to go with the filming. When filming, we noticed that the memory card filled up very quickly and we had the memory card from my camera as a backup to ensure that we filmed all of the shots that we needed without having a full memory card. 

As previously mentioned, sound became a big issue for us. We found it extremely challenging to find conventional sound to fit in with the shots within the trailer. This became evident after editing all of the clips together. However, we overcame this by getting Alix to play a piece on the piano that would fit in with the clips. We recorded this sound using the camera and microphone available. The final issue that we came across when editing was the narrative. When editing, it became obvious that out trailer didn't portray any particular storyline and it would therefore be unclear to the target audience. This meant that we had to change our storyline around, which is why our final trailer is different from the original shot list that was planned. We overcame this problem and made the narrative more clear within the trailer by adding a diary entry at the beginning of the trailer to identify Lucy as the 'new girl'. 

Film Trailer Development

Beth and I created many different drafts of our film trailer. Everytime we created a new draft, we would get feedback and then go back and make these changes to ensure that we did everything we could to meet the needs of our target audience. Our main issue at first was allowing the audience to understand the narrative of our trailer. At first, the narrative of the trailer wasn't clear and this didn't allow the audience to understand the content within the film. This meant that Beth and I had to create a new shot list and change around the audience of the film. However, this did mean that we were adding in shots that we hadn't originally planned within our shot list. This also raised an issue with time as we had to film some new shots that would allow us to get our storyline across a little bit better.  In the end, we came up with a few shots that we could add into the beginning of the trailer. As a group, we decided that we were going to add in a diary entry at the beginning of our trailer. This diary entry would consist of Lucy writing in a diary and explaining that she has just moved to a new town and it is her first day at school. This ensured that the audience had a better understanding of Lucy as the new girl within the film.

In addition to this, we had also originally planned to have a news scene at the end of the trailer. This scene would have consisted of Melinda’s body being found as she has been missing for so long. However, we decided not to do this as it gave too much of the storyline away and the whole point of the trailer is to make the audience want to see the film. If the audience already see what happens to Melinda within the trailer, they would not need to see the full movie. We also had to design a title and release date for the end of the trailer, which we did using photoshop. At first, timing within our trailer became a big issue as the trailer was 45 seconds too long. However, this soon became beneficial for us as after target audience feedback, it allowed us to remove any shots that were no longer necessary within the trailer. Finally, we also had to re-think a few of our intertitles throughout the development, which is evident in the different drafts of the trailers. The development and drafts of our trailers can be seen below. 

Trailer-1st Draft

Trailer-2nd Draft

Trailer-3rd Draft

Final Melinda Trailer (To Date)

Sound

Throughout the development of our trailer, we found it extremely challenging to find conventional sound to fit in with the shots within the trailer.  As previously mentioned throughout my research, sound is one of the most important aspects throughout the development and Beth and I found this to be a very time consuming and challenging task. This is one of the most important aspects of a horror film as it is helping the film try to create a specific mood to the scene. We recorded many different sounds; a piano, a door slamming and footsteps however, none of them seemed to work as well as we wanted them to. For example, the piano was just one pace and didn’t have different tones throughout. This meant that where we wanted it to be scary and tense at the end of the trailer, it was exactly the same as what it sounded like at the beginning of the trailer. In the end, we finally recorded something that fitted well with the shots within our trailer. Alix Long played a piece of music on the piano, which we recorded. This piano is played throughout the whole of the trailer and gradually gets faster and louder as the trailer goes on to build up tension for the audience.

In addition to this, we also recorded a voiceover on iMovie and added different audio effects to this. For example, when Lucy says “I’ve got to find out what’s going on” we edited this to make it echo. In addition to this, diagetic sound is used within the trailer when Melinda (Beth Hayes) is in the woods and is saying the teddy bear picnic rhyme. We didn’t decide to record this as a voiceover because it would have been hard to get the sound in sync with the movement of Melinda’s lips speaking. We therefore edited the audio to make the diagetic sound louder. 

This piano fades in within the second half of the Melinda trailer when Lucy walks into the woods. This is because at this point within the trailer, the narrative should be clear the audience and they are always waiting to see what is going to happen next. This music was the best sound for building up tension within the trailer. 

This is the first piano within the trailer. This sound appear at the beginning of the trailer when Lucy starts her new school and fades out when Lucy is about to walk into the woods and the scary, loud music begins o fade in. 

Piano played by Alix Long. 

Feedback throughout the development

We received a lot of helpful feedback when developing the film trailer. This helped us to go back and make changed to trailer. 

Magazine Cover Development

When creating my magazine cover, I had to keep in mind the house style of the promotional products. I understood that there were certain conventions and aspects of promotional products that I had to implement in my magazine cover. The colour scheme within my media products are; red, black and white as these colours are all conventional of a horror film. The masthead on my magazine is white and I added this using the ‘T’ tool. The main image is situated in the centre of the page and is the biggest aspect of the magazine cover to ensure that it catches the audience’s attention.  I also decided to put Melinda as the main image to give the audience a better understanding of the genre of the film that is being promoted on the cover of the magazine. In addition to this, I made Melinda's eyes red using the shape tools within photoshop. I also added the woods in the background by creating a layer behind Melinda and adding in an image and changed the opacity of this layer to ensure that the main image was still the main focus of the magazine cover. 

I changed some of the colours that were part of the main image. I added a new layer and then went to colour gradient. Using this tool allowed me to add 3 colours into my image (red, blue and green) which added an effect to the image. I added mostly blue and red to my image and a little bit of green to ensure the image wasn't too bright. To do this I chose the colour>Channel>Red>Input (Made it bigger)>Output (Made it smaller). I had to do this for blue, red and green.  All of the conventions that are around the main image, for example cover lines and headlines, were added to the magazine cover using the text 'T' tool. The shapes were added using the 'Shape' tool. 

Original Image

This is the original image that is used on the front of the magazine cover. 

First Draft & Final Magazine Cover

Above, you can see the first draft and the final draft of the magazine cover. The feedback that I was given on the first draft that enabled me to make changed to create the final draft was as follows:

• Move the barcode to the bottom right corner
• Consider changing some of the font styles in white
• The masthead on the magazine font seems to be blurry around the edges
• The ‘Melinda’ font is blurry around the edges
• Issue number is missing 

I made the above changes to the magazine cover and the changes can be seen on the final draft.

Target audience feedback

Film Poster Development

Final Film Poster

When creating my film poster, I had to keep in mind the house style of the promotional products. I understood that there were certain conventions and aspects of promotional products that I had to implement in my film poster. The colour scheme within my media products are; red, black and white as these colours are all conventional of a horror film. In addition to this, I made Melinda's eyes red using the shape tools within photoshop. I also added the woods in the background by creating a layer behind Melinda and adding in an image and changed the opacity of this layer to ensure that the main image was still the main focus of the film poster.

I changed some of the colours that were part of the main image. I added a new layer and then went to colour gradient. Using this tool allowed me to add 3 colours into my image (red, blue and green) which added an effect to the image. I added mostly blue and red to my image and a little bit of green to ensure the image wasn't too bright. To do this I chose the colour>Channel>Red>Input (Made it bigger)>Output (Made it smaller). I had to do this for blue, red and green.  However, I then decided to make the image black and white. I did this by going to effects ‘fx’ and clicked ‘black and white’. In addition to this, I changed the brightness and contrast of the image using the ‘brightness and contrast’ tool. As you can see from the first draft of the film poster, some of Melinda’s hair was white after adding effect to it. To turn her hair back to black, I used the ‘paint brush’ tool and painted her hair black and changed the opacity of the layer to ensure that it wasn’t too harsh on the main image.

Most of the film poster is black and only showing Melinda’s face. I created this effect using the gradient tool and rotating it. I added the tag line using the ‘T’ tool and changing the text colour to white. The title of the film is in the centre of the page and is in red as the colour red has conventions of blood and evil therefore, this keeps the film poster looking consistent. Finally, I added the credit block as an image and pressed ‘Ctrl+T’ to re-size the credit block to fit the conventions of film posters. 

Original Image

This was the original image that was used on my film poster.  

First Draft, Second Draft and Final Draft

These three images show the development of my film posters based on feedback. From looking at the first draft, the text wasn’t very effective against the main image and I therefore changed this. From looking at the second draft, the credit block was too big and the woods could no longer be seen in the background. I made all these changes and they can be seen by looking at the final draft of the film poster. 

Target audience feedback

Creating My Credit Block

A credit block appears at the end of every film trailer and on every film poster. They list the entire production crew. The credit block has small letters. The credit block will include the names of actors appearing in the movie, the directors, and producers, the companies producing and distributing the movie, which is normally displayed as a logo at the bottom of the credit block. The order in which the credits appear on the block, signify their importance within the film. The first thing to appear on a film poster is the motion films company and then the producer. After these have been displayed, the major starring actors generally come next and the title of the movie. The actors whose names appear first on a film poster, are said to be the most popular and 'top billing' actors. They either have the most screen time within a film or this is done for publicity to get the film more attention. For the film poster, the credit block may help to distribute the film to the correct target audience. If there is a well-known actor on the credit block and people see this actor’s name, they are more likely to go and see the film as they like the famous actor.

The development of creating the credit block for my film poster can be seen below:

Firstly, as I knew that I wanted the background of my film poster to be black, I decided to make the background of the credit block black to ensure that all my media products are kept looking consistent. To create the background of the credit block, I went to the shape tool on the toolbar at the side of my screen and clicked the 'rectangle tool'. I had to make sure that the colour of the rectangle tool was black. I then drew the rectangle and this would be used as the background of the credit block. 

I could then add all of the text to the credit block. I added the text using the 'T' text tool. This text included the names of actors appearing in the movie, the directors, and producers, the companies producing and distributing the movie.   

The font used was 'AgencyFB Reg'.  

I added all of the text to the credit block and then added the 'Beelzebub' logo, which is situated next to the film release date.

This is my completed credit block which will appear on my film poster and at the end of the film trailer.

Coursework Update

Trailer

 We finished filming the final shots for our trailer 2 weeks ago and we are very happy with how our shots turned out. The only problem we came across when filming was the lighting. If we moved the camera, the lighting would be different in one shot than what it was to the previous shot. Over the past 2 weeks, we have been editing all of our shots together using iMovie. As a group, we definitely underestimated how long it would take to edit our trailer and therefore, it is taking longer than we expected. We have been spending all of our media lessons and a lot of time outside lessons editing our trailer. 

Furthermore, we also had to change the actor for Melinda as the actor that we had planned to play her was unfortunately unable to make it due to other commitments. This wasn't too much of a problem as we had a backup and Beth played Melinda. We have finished editing the entire trailer together now. However, when we get feedback, we will go over it and make changes to it. The final aspect of the trailer that we now have to complete is the sound. When doing our research, we found out that the best way to edit our sound was to use 'garage band'. We have recorded all of our sound and we now need to add the sound into the right shots. We will do this after school on Tuesday. We also feel that this sound needs to make the scary shots more 'jumpy' and therefore, we need to take this into consideration when editing our sound.

{Editing on iMovie}

{Filming in the woods }

{Filming in the woods }

Poster

I haven't managed to finish creating my film poster yet as I have had other coursework deadlines. However, I have started to edit the picture for the poster. I have made 'Melinda' stand out from the background and I have added the title to the film poster. My development so far can be seen below. I have also been using my poster research that I previously done to help me create the poster. This will ensure that I meet the codes and conventions of horror film posters. I will finish my film poster this week and hand it in on Thursday to get feedback and make improvements. 

Magazine

Unfortunately, I haven't had time to create a magazine cover yet as I have had an ICT coursework deadline. However, I have taken all of the pictures for my magazine cover. In addition to this, I have been researching other magazine covers to see what codes and conventions I need to include in my magazine to ensure that it looks like a magazine cover. I will create my magazine cover by the end of this week.

Actors, Locations, Costume & Props Update!

There are many aspects of our mise-en-scene that changed during the production of coursework.

Unfortunately, Shannon who we originally planned to play Melinda wasn't in London on the day of filming due to other commitments and therefore, Beth played Melinda. Beth playing Melinda did make more sense as it meant we could get the shots exactly how we wanted as we both had a clear understanding of the storyline and where we wanted to go with the filming. As originally planned, Lucy played protagonist within the trailer as the new school girl.

The two settings that we used in our trailer was the school and the woods as these were the most conventional. Based on my survey responses, I could see that people find the woods the scariest location for a horror movie. Melinda wore a white dress which was ordered from ASOS. We did originally order the make-up for Melinda from Amazon. However, this didn’t arrive on time and we ended up getting the make-up from a fancy dress shop. This included the special effects prosthetics and fake blood. As originally planned, Lucy wore her school uniform with straight hair in the trailer and Melinda had curly hair with a red and white ribbon.

Finally, the main prop that was used within our trailer was the Melinda missing poster. This was used to give the audience a better understanding of the narrative. In addition to this, Lucy is holding a diary at the beginning of the trailer to accompany the diary entry at the beginning.