My Finished Promotional Package

Trailer

Poster

Magazine cover

Question 4: How did you use new technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?

Below is a presentation made on emaze that outlines how I have used new technologies in research, planning, construction and evaluation stages:




Key learning points
In this post I was able to evaluate the ways I used technology throughout this coursework, it enabled me to reflect on the various technologies used and comment on which ones have been the most useful during the process. It has encouraged me to look back and evaluate each of the blog posts and reflect upon what I have achieved during the process of this blog.

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

You can see the feedback I gathered from my draft film poster here and feedback from my draft film trailer here

I have gathered numerous forms of feedback from my draft promotional package and my final promotional package, this has enabled me to see what I was able to improve to ensure that my final promotional package is as effective as it can be.

Feedback from draft trailer

From my audience feedback, I received both positive feedback and feedback that that

Created with Padlet

The feedback gathered from my draft trailer gave me a clear indicated clearly to me what I needed to do to ensure that my trailer was able to be of a higher standard than the draft. Below I will go through I worked upon the points that people brought up:

''Unsure of story'' There wasn't really enough footage to show the relationship that the key protagonist had with the other characters in my draft trailer. I feel as if I worked upon this to ensure that a clear relationship is established between the characters by adding more dialogue and shots to the trailer. Hopefully now the storyline is clearer and more engaging.

''Music is repetitive and annoying'' after listening to the song on my draft trailer various times, this is something I agreed with and have changed the music on my final trailer to a track that I think better suits the genre and goes well with what is seen on screen.

''More shots and locations needed'' There wasn't enough shots and locations used in the draft trailer to effectively show the storyline and genre, so I added a number of more shots and locations in my final version that made the trailer make more sense and portrayed the genre more clearly.

''Brighter shots needed'' Some of the shots were not very visible when shown on the screen in class. After hearing this feedback, I went into premier pro and increased the brightness of the shots so it was easier to see the footage.

''Add film distribution company''  This is something that I wanted to do from the start, I added a film distribution company to make it seem like a more realistic and effective trailer.

''Tighter framing'' This went un-noticed by me when I was editing my draft trailer, but at a second glance, there were areas of the trailer that needed framing in to ensure that there weren't any unwanted objects in the shot and to make the angles more effective.

So I feel as if I have used this constructive criticism effectively to enhance my film trailer and make it more effective. I have followed every piece of advice I was given about it to maximise the quality of the trailer and I am satisfied with the results I achieved.

Feedback from draft poster

Created with Padlet

Feedback from final promotional package:
I used Padlet to gather feedback from my final film magazine which can be viewed below:

Created with Padlet

This feedback was gathered from people that fit in to my target market of young people, so I could gain valid feedback from the type of people that would watch this film.

Feedback from poster:

Questionnaire for focus group for final trailer.

1.What genre do you identify this as?

a) Action
b)Teen-drama
c)Social realism
d)Thriller

2. Does the trailer make you want to see the film?

3. Do you get the general idea of the storyline from the trailer?

4. Do you think this follows a good 3-act-structure? (Initial predicament of storyline, area of calm and an area of conflict.)

5. Do you think the music is good for the film trailer? Does it fit the genre and follow what is seen on screen?

6. Do you think the intertitles are well-placed?

7. Overall how effective do you find the editing and camerawork?

8. If there's anything you would change about the trailer what would it be?


I held a focus group and decided that the information gathered can be more clearly presented through typed up feedback rather than audio because I can see what people have said and more easily memorize it because it is in this form.

Below is a presentation of my findings from the focus group:

Key learning points.

This section of my evaluation has enabled me to look at the feedback gathered from my main and ancillary products to see what has worked well about my final promotional package and what could have been better. It has enabled me to gain an overall image of how people have viewed my poster, magazine and trailer so I can see how it is perceived.

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 Below is a infographic created on piktochart that answers the question:

Key learning points
In this post I looked at how I was able to make the three aspects of my final promotional package work together and convey the genre through the use of colours, fonts and the key images. It has been good for recognising how effectively I've enforced continuity across the three products and it has reassured me that I feel as if I have achieved this.

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

In this question I am going to comment and evaluate the ways in which my film magazine, poster and trailer challenge forms and conventions of media products. I will look at the typical conventions of film magazines, posters and trailers and see how they compare to my media package.

Film magazine.

Below is a word cloud of the typical conventions of a film magazine front cover that I created on 'worditout';

This wordcloud can be used to compare what I have included on my film magazine cover. Below is an analysis using 'thinglink' of my film magazine cover and how it uses or challenges the typical conventions of a film magazine cover: (Hover over dots to view points)





Overall, I think that my magazine is more conventional than not because it has been inspired by magazines like 'Total film' and 'Empire' magazine, so it is likely to portray some similar conventions, I think my film magazine cover has most of the typical conventions of a film magazine and doesn't challenge the forms and conventions of real film magazines too drastically although there are some areas in which I have strayed away from which might challenge some of the typical conventions of film magazines which I have noted in the above analysis.



Poster

Key conventions of film posters.

Analysis of my film poster (hover over dots to view points)




Film trailers

Conventions of Film trailers

Below is a presentation I made on emaze illustrating how my film trailer challenges forms and conventions.



Key learning points
This section of the evaluation has helped me recognise what parts of my film trailer follow or go against the generic conventions of film trailers, posters and magazine covers. I have evaluated how my main and ancillary products compare to real promotional film packages and if I have effectively followed or tested conventions and forms of real film campaign's promotional packages.

Focus Group on final Promotional Package

During the lesson today we discussed what questions we're thinking of asking participants in each of our focus groups. The general consensus was that a focus group should consist of semi-structured interviews with prompts to enable an in depth response to be obtained.

Before conducting the focus group, I need to consider the following questions;

Where?
I'm going to need to use a quiet room to record the responses because this will mean that the feedback is clear and easy to understand, I could use the studio in school to record responses or a quiet room elsewhere.

How?
I will consider whether to use a camera to record responses so the person being asked is seen on a video, or whether to just record the voices and cut out the visuals or whether I will just record my findings and present them in a typed up format. This is dependant on whether respondents are happy to be on camera/have their voices recorded or not and also if the information gathered can be more clearly presented in a visual, typed up format. I will also need to think about what questions will be asked and what I want my respondents to think about, this could mean providing a prompt sheet or asking a direct set of questions to ensure that the feedback is as useful as possible.

Why?
This will enable me to have recognised aspects of my trailer, film cover and poster that work well and what I can learn from if  creating a promotional package for a film again in the future.

What?
 I'm intending to use the following elements in an unstructured manner to ensure that I get a wide range of responses and in depth detailed responses.
Aspects to think about
-Is genre effectively conveyed?
>Does the magazine cover, poster and trailer together work to show genre?
-Narrative
>Does the narrative show a clear storyline in the trailer?
>What do you think about the Scripting in the trailer?
>Engaging?
-Overall quality
>What Do you think about overall think the quality of my promotional package?
-Music
>Does it suit the genre?
>Do you think it adds emphasis to any themes?
-Editing
>What do you think about the way my film poster and cover have been edited
>Editing of trailer
-Camerawork
>What are your views on the use of camerawork?
-Colour
>Does the colour help define genre?
>Does the colour enable texts to stand out?
-Fonts
-Images
-Use of language
-Realistic?
-Compared to draft versions.
>notable improvements

Key learning points
In this blog post I planned how I was going to record and present my focus group and the questions I want to ask my respondents to gain the most useful feedback possible. Without planning for a focus group, I would not be able to get well thought questions to receive useful feedback.

Finished Film Magazine

Below is my final film magazine cover;

Finished Film Poster

After receiving feedback from my draft film poster, I have taken this in to account and worked to improve the areas where I was initially constructively criticised, below is my final film poster;

Analysis of film magazine cover

Below is an in depth analysis of a film magazine cover in preperation of my film magazine. (click to view)

Key learning points.

This task has reminded me of the key conventions of a film magazine front cover and has given me a clear indication of what I need to include on my magazine cover to make it as realistic and high quality as possible and also how I am going to effectively target my audience.

Draft Trailer

Below is a draft version of my film trailer.

After getting the shots for my film trailer, I have put together a drafted version of my film trailer, there are some things that work well in the trailer, although, there is also some things that need to be improved.

The first issue I have is the sound. I found that background noise on some of the dialogue scenes made it seem slightly messy, this is an issue that can be resolved by filming these scenes in different locations.

I also think that the trailer could have a better structure, it is difficult to work out what the trailer is about, this can sometimes be a good thing, but I think I need to re-think the scripting and structure to ensure that it follows a good narrative structure, referring back to Todorov on his analysis of the narrative structure of trailers may be useful with this.


Key learning points.
I now am aware of what I need to do to improve my film trailer, so this has been useful in regards gaining some feedback on how exactly I can do this. I can now take this information and refer back to it when I am in the second phase of my filming process. This post has also reminded me of some of the key conventions that a trailer should include that I should be careful not to stray away from too much. I will go through how I have learned from my audience feedback in my evaluation.

Construction update

After capturing the footage I need for my draft trailer, I have started to edit my film trailer

Film Magazine Planning

I intend to make a magazine that specialises solely on British films of all genres, making it slightly niche but gives exclusivity to the UK giving it a unique selling point. I have decided to do this because my film trailer is inspired by british social realism films that aren't very well known in other countries, so it is likely to receive more attention in a magazine that specialises in British film reviews, behind the scenes information and information about the actors etc.

So I am going to take some of my inspiration from magazines such 'British Film Magazine' in terms of content, which was a film magazine that produced content about British Films until the departure of the editor, Terence Doyle, this way I will be able to properly and effectively target my audience through content headings and 'Total Film' in terms of the design of my film front cover, because they use a bold and strong design which I think is very eye catching and appealing as a reader.

My target market is going to be a mass target market of people interested in British films, the magazine itself would be target at people aged 16-50 because anyone can be interested in a British Film, though interest in film magazines may not be very high for the older generations and for young people with low spending power, this demographic may not be filled as much. Although for the copy that I'm doing in particular, the target market will be 16-30, because from my research I found that social realism films are generally more popular with teenagers and young adults, so the copy will appeal more to this target market. Although subheadings will still be based on the magazine's target market.

I have come up with some different names, designs and fonts for my magazine name heading;

1.

For this name idea, I was aware that it could be seen as 'copying' the British Film Magazine name, despite the abbreviation. This is my favourite magazine name that I came up with, but I am slightly put off by this factor.

2.

 

This film name idea has the same principle of being clearly a British film magazine, however the drawback of this name is that, it doesn't have the same number of letters in each word, which I find slightly displeasing because it doesn't look as 'clean' on the page as the previous name idea. Most magazines are usually one word, an abbreviation or the words are equal in length. This magazine name is both an abbreviation and a word that doesn't equal the length. I think the heading has to be very clean, clear, prestine and eye catching, so I am taking this factor in to account.

3.

 The idea of this name is to abbreviate the words 'New British Film Magazine', although the principles are in place, it is quite a long abbreviation and isn't necessarily going to be very memorable despite the clear purpose behind the magazine: to be essentially a sequel to the previous Britsh film magazine. I am not keen on the idea of an abbreviated heading like this one because it looks like there is something missing on the page and isn't a very memorable name.

 I have considered four different fonts to use as my heading, after looking at other fonts that wouldn't be appropriate, these are the four fonts that I have narrowed my final decision down to. 

The first font has an eroded theme to it, which makes it original and it also suits the grit that we would  associate many British films with and indeed some aspects of British culture. It is a very bold font, making it very eye catching and clean on the page. However this font is very fitted to the British drama/action/social realism genre and strays away from historical, comedy, fantasy and romance genres. Although, I have noticed that magazines such as Empire don't really have a heading that fits the genres of some of the films they feature, so this factor may not be too important.

The second font is very bold and clear, but it doesn't have the same eye-catching and original themes that the first font has.

The third font is very similar to the second font, though it is slightly

more bold, I think this font would work well on my magazine cover because it looks high quality and premium, but lacks the identifiable nature of the first font.

The fourth font is interesting because it is a lot less bold, but still looks good on the cover of a magazine, although, I'm not sure it really that suitable for my magazine aims, because I want to have a bold title, though this font could work as the heading on a magazine.

I have decided that I will use the first font for the heading of my film magazine because I think it best reflects the themes of the magazine and I believe that it is the most eye-catching font that I have looked at out of the four.

I have also decided that I will use 'Brit Film' as the name of the magazine because it is the most simple, self explanatory name and looks clean and clear on the page.

Having thought about the name and the font, I now need to think about other aspects of the magazine, such as the image, colour scheme and subtitles.

The colour scheme is going to follow a black, white, red and blue theme to represent the Union Jack, this runs the risk of the magazine looking 'tacky' or cheap, so I am going to use darker, secondary colours because they look more premium. This colour scheme will help emphasise the British themes that my magazine aims to communicate.

Subtitles will follow the colour scheme and be aimed at my target audience to ensure that the magazine still reaches out to a broad target market.

And for the image I am going to have the key protagonist in a bleak looking location looking at the character to help fit the themes of the film that is being featured in the magazine. I have decided to have the main character as the key subject in the image because the key protagonist will be the character that people associate the film with the most, therefor is more likely to catch the readers attention.

Key learning points

This task has enabled me to thoroughly think about and plan my magazine cover so that it is as effective and as high quality it can be. It's meant thinking more about font choices, colour schemes and their impact on the target market that the magazine aims to reflect.

Film poster draft feedback

Below is a draft of my film poster.

As a part of this process, I was required to create a draft version of my film trailer. I chose a colour scheme of black, white and red because they connote dramatic themes of danger, violence and grit. These are three themes that I want to be able to convey because they fit in to my genre quite specifically, social realism is a difficult genre to recognize on film poster, because they usually use an image that is quite simplistic and hard to pin down a genre on. However, after studying other film posters of the social realism genre such as 'Spike Island' and 'This Is England', I think this film poster effectively conveys the genre through the use of colour scheme, fonts and the image. The main font I've chosen is a sans serif font with a shredded effect to it, I wanted to be able to make the main title look as if it had been damaged or eroded because this connotes further themes of destruction and grit. This type of font is often seen on social realism film posters because they are very bold and easy to read and stand out as a dramatic font. The image itself was taken in an alleyway because I wanted to be able to use a bleak style of lighting, which is something that this location offers and also wanted to have an imperfect background because It connotes the themes of grit that I am going for. The subjects in the poster are positioned to promote the idea of two antagonists and the key protagonist, they are positioned behind the subject with glaring expressions to connote themes of peer pressure, aggression, back stabbing, manipulation, isolation etc.

Overall, I was relatively satisfied with my film poster draft, but I am aware that there is need for improvement in areas. I received useful feedback and constructive criticisms to help me improve my film poster.

What works well...
The main aspects of the poster that people thought work well are the font choices, colour scheme, positioning of actors and the image. People seemed to like the simplicity of the image and the editing because there isn't much going on, but it is still able to communicate with the potential audience what some of the themes in the film might be.

Even better if...
The main criticism I received was that I should add a tagline, this is something that isn't necessarily always on film posters, so I decided not to have one. Though from my feedback, It is clear that I should consider using a tagline for my final poster, however, I should ensure that it isn't 'cheesy' or over the top, because this may stray away from the themes of social realism.
Other criticisms were that I need to be able to think of names for production companies and awards/reviews, this is something that I was aware of and need to think of some appropriate distribution/production company names and also some appropriate award titles. Also received feedback that the credit block needs to be smaller.

Key learning points
This task has been pivotal in developing my understanding of film posters and how to create an effective film poster that portrays its genre clearly. This required research by looking at film posters from other social realism film genres to effectively portray my genre which meant that I was able to recognize what themes should be incorporated in to my poster and what I should avoid.

Construction update

Over the past few weeks, I have been filming footage for my film trailer, I have just over a week left of filming and have captured about 50% of my footage, It has been difficult because the footage that I have got has been lots of short shots in different locations, however the remainder of my shots are in locations that are close to each other and so easier to quickly get this footage and have it edited.