Evaluation - Question 4

Evaluation - Question 4

-Emma 

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback, this year we felt was something that we both wanted to improve on and gain throughout the process as opposed to only after we had finished our products. Leaving time to gather feedback, allowed us to improve our work multiple times and be notified of flaws and improvements that we did not recognize ourselves.

We have gathered and used audience feedback at multiple times throughout the course. The most prominent way was after each draft, we presented our work to the class and asked for their ideas of what they felt went well and what could be improved, this feedback either Emma or I wrote down and then typed up underneath the uploaded product so we could refer back to it when working on the next draft. Other useful ways of gathering feedback was individually asking people to fill out a questionnaire or presenting our work to a group who were free to give any opinion they felt would help us. These many different ways of gathering feedback allowed for a range of feedback and honest opinions that would genuinely helped improve our work.

Even for simple tasks such as choosing the name for the production company or which cover image we would use for the magazine, audience feedback, gave us an insight into what appeals to our target audience. From the earlier feedback, we learnt a lot about making things very clear and obvious, such as character relationships, as just because we were encoding messages and ideas into a text doesn't mean that every audience member would get a preferred reading. If we hadn't asked our target audience to speak to us about what they felt the story line of our text was and the relationship between the characters was, then the genre would not be entirely clear. A lot of the feedback reminded us of 'Genre is an intertextual concept' we noticed that our audience understood our genre because of what they already knew about films they had previously watched, placing generic codes and conventions made it easier for our audience to understand the genre. The feedback we gained was key to reminding us to stay focused on elements that the audience would be aware of and would expect to see.

Using different platforms such as survey monkey, verbal feedback and written feedback or asking people through social messaging such as WhatsApp, meant that we could quickly and easily gather feedback which we then discussed together. It was interesting to see what the audience responded to well and what people didn't like as much. By the end of the process, we had gathered plenty of feedback and we were comparing to our last year projects and realised the impact that this has had on the quality and suitability of our final product.

What have you learned from your audience feedback from samasmedia

Please listen to this clip as the example in slide 2 'The Trailer'  

After completing our final drafts for each text, we decided to ask our audience how effective they felt that each of the products were to establish how much the audience feedback improved our work and here are a few of the responses:


-Sam

Evaluation - Question 2

-Sam

Evaluation - Question 1

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

-Emma

Audience Feedback

Examples of our audience feedback. The examples below range from videos in which we interviewed members of our target audience, asking for feedback to our peers via Whatsapp, voiceclips and written feedback.




Name: Lucy
Age: 17

Lucy said that all three of our products looked professional which was positive feedback as this is what we had wanted to achieve. She also commented on our use of camera work and this was varied in the trailer which made it look more professional. Lucy also mentioned that our trailer was conventional therefore did not reveal too much of the storyline in order to make our audience want to go and watch the film and all three texts worked well together in promoting the film. One improvement Lucy suggested regarding the film poster was that the white border wasn't particularly conventional of film posters and maybe would have worked better if the main image filled the entire page. Although we tried this we felt that the white border made our product more unique and was still inkeeping with the drama genre. We used the white borders to make the poster resemble a polaroid to give the film a more vintage and gritty feel.



Name: Brieani
Age:17

Brieani picked up on our storyline also. She said that she was intrigued to find out who 'The Others' were and mentioned that this presented a twist to the storyline of a sci-fi element which was effective in promoting the film because you had questions after watching the trailer in which you wanted to find out. She also mentioned the fonts used on the magazine cover were simple but effective as they weren't too distracting from the main image. The colour scheme was also quite feminine which was good because we wanted to have this throughout our texts to promote our strong female character. Additionally, she said that the galaxy background worked well on the film poster because it suggested an element of fantasy therefore this was consistent to represent our drama and sci-fi genres.


Check this out on Chirbit

From this feedback we learnt that our soundtrack definitely helped to convey our genre. This was enabled by the atmosphere it created to show the drama genre but also had an eerie element which hinted to the sci-fi genre to present our hybrid genre. Rasharn also pointed out that our camera work was good particularly the 360 shot around our female protagonist which added to the disequilibrium. Regarding the magazine and poster, the colour scheme was good such as the combination of blues, pinks and purples which created the fantasy element of our products linking back to the theme of our trailer. It was also commented that our products looked professional and worked well together in promoting our film.

This is an example of the written feedback we got. This was specifically for the completed cut of our trailer and commented on the improvements we had made and how this had worked effectively. For example, Laura liked the fact we had now included critics because it was conventional of the drama genre and the galaxy background added interest to the text. She also said that our use of sound was much better and helped to convey the storyline much better. The first thing she picked up on watching our new trailer was that there was definitely a sci-fi element to the film therefore the improvements we have made definitely helped to portray our plot better whilst still creating enigma and show our hybrid genre.

Final Magazine Cover

Final Poster

Audience Feedback

These are responses to the questionnaires Sam created for members of our target audience which we got them to fill out after looking at all three of our products.

Questionnaire for Audience feedback from samasmedia

Creating the Magazine Cover

Creating the magazine cover from samasmedia

Third Draft Magazine

Updated Magazine Cover

This is the final cut of the Poster as one of our ancillary texts using audience feedback to constantly improve the drafts until it was perceived to look similar to a real life media text.

-Samantha

Magazine Cover

This is the magazine cover created by Samantha. The purple and pink colour scheme coincides with our trailer and poster as purple is present in all of them. She has added the pink to give the magazine a more feminine feel, taking inspiration from independent magazines to focus on femininity and strength, a reason why we use a female protagonist. The central image is our main actor which is consistent with the film poster and a similar image.

Third Draft Poster

Updated Film Poster

This is the final edit of our film poster. From the feedback we received from our audience, I have only made slight alterations to the poster. For example, I made the "November 2016" slightly bigger and put it in a dark purple to make it stand out more. The quote at the top I have also enlarged and made slightly darker so it was more easily readable. I also made the title bigger as well just so it was more obvious on the page.

Editing the Film Poster

Film Poster - Draft 1

Mock Up Magazine Cover

Before beginning to create my magazine cover, I have drafted a template for the structure I will follow whilst creating the magazine. I plan to follow this mock up as a basis for structure, however this may change depending on if it looks professional.

-Samantha

Magazine Research

Create your own infographics

-Samantha

Audience Feedback - Magazine

As Sam was creating the magazine cover, she decided to carry out a survey to ask our target audience what kind of magazines they preferred. Below are the results:

Survey results from samasmedia

Editing the Trailer

This is how we edited the improvements into our trailer.

Final Trailer

Reflecting on Editing

To begin with, Sam edited the first cut of our trailer using Serif MoviePlus x6. This was a basic editing software however it allowed us to see what kind of order we wanted our shots as this differed from our storyboard as we felt different footage would work better in different places. It also meant we could play around with basic effects such as fades and lighting to get a better idea of the transitions we wanted and some of our footage was to bright therefore we were able to adjust this to make it darker making the film look more gritty. However, as we wanted to begin working on our ancillary texts, and Sam had done GCSE media, therefore had experience creating a magazine cover, we felt it would be best for her to begin on the magazine and I would edit the second cut of our trailer then begin working on the film poster.

To edit the trailer, I used Adobe After Effects. We both felt that this meant we could explore a broader range of effects to create a more professional outcome. As I hadn't used this software before, at first it was difficult to edit the footage because it varied extensively from Serif which is what I was used to using. However, I managed to pick up the basics fairly quickly such as cutting footage, and working on each clip as an individual layer. At the beginning of the trailer, we wanted some of the footage to fade into each other; on Serif we could simply drag the footage over the previous clip however this didn't always work effectively because it didn't always fade in the right place. Although on Adobe this was a lot more time consuming to edit, the clips we wanted to fade over each other such as the lights at the beginning worked a lot better. To do this, I used the stopwatch tool and changed the opacity levels of each clip at different points so the first clip was fading out whilst the second was fading in which gave the footage a smoother transition. One of the things that I did struggle with however, was fading to black. When I went back to edit in the sound, we felt that the footage at the beginning needed to be on screen for less time and fade to black in between. The sound we used at the beginning was a voice mail, therefore with the shots on screen for too long we felt that this looked to much like an opening sequence. As a consequence of this we decided to try it with the footage fading to black in between shots to create a slightly faster pace contrasting to the sound. However, we did feel it was necessary to add a soundtrack behind the voice mail to add another layer to the sound. When editing the fades to black, this was slightly more difficult as the clips sometimes ended up looking choppy and the transition wasn't as smooth. To fix this, I changed the opacity levels by less of a jump at different points which meant that the transition was a lot smoother. 

The first time I edited the text, I used a solid black background with white text. I then added the purple glow as this was a colour highly relevant to our film, and added the sci-fi element to our trailer. I animated the text by adjusting the blur level and moving where the blur was directed. This worked well and our audience said they liked the text however it was on screen for too long. I went back and edited this so the text on screen was only visible for 1-2 seconds. When looking back at the trailer, we both felt that the black background and white writing perhaps made the trailer look like it was too much into the horror genre which we didn't want. Therefore I decided to experiment with different background colours such as using a white background with black writing instead. When doing this however, the white looked too bright we found. Although this was the effect we wanted to reinforce the sci-fi element to the film, we felt that a slightly more grey background may work better. 

Fourth Cut of Trailer

Third Cut Trailer

This is the third cut of our trailer which includes sound. This is our first cut with sound which includes a voiceover at the beginning. We did this as a voice-mail to get a muffled effect to make it sound more gritty. I have also combined two separate soundtracks to create the dramatic atmosphere and give the trailer more pace.

Harry Potter Film Poster Analysis

As one of the most popular global franchises, I wanted to analyse the final Harry Potter movie poster as it depicts the typical codes and conventions of a film poster. This was the official movie poster for the final film however it is also notable the amount of teaser posters that were also created. This is a common promotional technique to keep up the hype about the film and as this was so popular it acts as a constant reminder for the audience as to the films release soon. For big franchises or blockbuster films, this is probably a beneficial advertising technique, however I won't be doing this for our trailer because it is a much smaller scale film and as it is a low budget film, companies who create similar ones like this tend to stick to social media to promote their product due to insufficient funds.


From the film posters to the left, these were just a few from the masses of film posters created for the final film. Many teaser posters were created with different characters on the poster but all had the same vital inforamtion: the release date and available in IMAX and 3D with the same tag line 'It All Ends'. Although my partner and I won't be creating teaser posters we found this is becoming a much more common technique to advertise a film and create an ongoing interest with the audience.

The official poster follows the typical conventions of a film poster for example the main image. The protagonist is placed in the centre of the poster making it clear what film is being advertised. Either side of the protagonist are his two main friends and important characters in the film whom are also easily recognisable. In the background of the poster is the outline of Hogwarts castle indicating the recurring setting for all of the films and other students although these aren't distinguishable facially, it creates the idea of chaos combined with the rubble in which they are standing on and giving the sense of a big battle at the end of this film. The main colours in the poster tend to be quite dark; there is a mixture of blue and green creating an idea of fantasy linking to the genre however these are tinted with black and grey darkening the poster. Contrastingly, there is a tint of yellow and white in the background by the castle as if the sun were rising suggesting an element of hope. The characters clothing are fairly neutral colours however muddied and stained reinforcing the chaotic atmosphere and idea of a battle. One of the characters is also wearing a muted red which could connote danger.

The title of the film is included in the bottom centre of the page and is written across the main protagonist linking the character with the name of the film. The typography of this is the same font as all of the other films have used with the jagged edged writing making it clearly identifiable. Underneath 'Harry Potter' is the name of what film it is in smaller writing conforming to the layout of all the other movies and reminding the audience of the franchise. Underneath the title is the billing information. This is in a much smaller font and a darker colour making it harder to see therefore showing it isn't of much relevance in this instance in order to promote the film. However, underneath this, the tag line used in the teaser posters is also repeated 'It All Ends' followed by the released date. The tag line has already been seen numerous times on the teaser posters so audiences are familiar with this already and the release date being repeated acts as a constant reminder for audiences to not miss out. The text is in a bold font, place in the bottom centre of the poster and a slightly different font to the title making it stand out showing this is important information for audiences. Also on the poster, the fact that the film will be available at IMAX and in 3D is also stated in a small font as it isn't the most essential information but it may create more hype for the film as audiences can now experience the movie in more immerse ways.

At the bottom of the poster, red dots seem to accumulate. This has also been used on the teaser posters therefore coincides with this theme. The red could connote danger and the red seems to resemble fire, as if the sparks are flying off an explosion. This reinforces the idea of chaos and destruction creating more anticipation for the film by evoking a sense of lack of safety and fast paced thrill that will be present in the film. This also hints to the genre of the film, showing it will be dramatic and there will be a lot of action included in the film.

Movie Poster Research

Looking at Film Posters

Second Cut Feedback

This is the second cut for our trailer. This time we used Adobe After Effects instead of Serif MoviePlus x6 as it is a more complex editing software and we wanted to challenge ourselves with our editing skills to try and create a more professional looking trailer. As I was getting used to the editing software, this is cut is not completely finished however we wanted to show this to our target audience to get more improvements to add to the ones I had already set myself as to make sure we could aim to make the trailer more professional and appealing to our target audience. This was useful as we showed the rest of our media class this trailer and they identified that this had progressed from our first cut however there were still some minor errors that we needed to work on.

Positives:

1. Good use of a variety of locations
2. Good use of camera work and including different types of shots such as high angle, close-ups etc.
3. The movement of the purple glow behind the text was more creative
4. Colour and lighting was more consistent 

Improvements:

1. Some of the text was on screen for too long therefore this needs to be cut down
2. Need to add sound 
3. Some of the fades were choppy therefore need to go back and edit these to create a smoother transition
4. Need to add production logo at the beginning
5. Need to add another slide at the end with text on screen with the billing information, production logos and date of release. 

Updated Script

This is the updated script for the voicemail message at the beginning of our trailer that Alexia leaves for Arby. We intend to use this at the beginning of the trailer then edit lines so they are used as a voiceover throughout the rest of the trailer but will played in a random order:

"Hey...umm look I don't really know what to say...I have to leave. I have to go because...because everything I know is a lie. There are others...others like me. But we're not safe. I have to find them. I wish you could understand...I can't put you in danger anymore. I don't even know what's real...I don't know who I can trust but I need to find them. I need to find the others.

Day 2 Filming

Our second day of filming was slightly easier because the location we were filming in was closer to home. We filmed near our school so it was an easy meeting point for us and our actors. The first shots we filmed were in the woods by our school. As the weather hadn't been good throughout the day, we found a relatively dry area in the woods because we needed to film Mia running. We decided we wanted this as a long shot to include some of the setting showing a clear change in location, necessary in a trailer. As Mia wasn't wearing a coat in these shots we needed to film quickly because it was cold but this also meant that we could then move on to our next location fairly quickly.

The next shots we filmed on this day were at the viewpoint which were the scenes between Mia and Beth (playing Alexia and Kaya). We had originally intended to film this on the swings in the local park by our school however as there were other people in this location at the time we decided to film at viewpoint. We filmed the scene where Beth is talking to Mia however we also managed to get a few other shots of Mia, Beth and Bryn walking. We added these in to show the 'others' as this is important to our storyline. We also used Bryn because we felt it looked better by having another character to show there are more 'others' than simply Alexia and Kaya. 

First Cut Feedback

                                          

After showing our target audience the first cut of our trailer, we gathered some valuable information about what worked well and what we needed to improve.

What worked well:

• Nice camera work - we had included a variety of shots such as high angle shot when we see the silhouette of feet walking over the glass. 
• Contrast in lighting - some shots such as the close -up of Mia as the camera rotates 360 around her was bright with high key lighting, contrasting to darker shots such as the high angle of the feet over glass and the use of colour with the yellow wash in the long shot in the tunnel.
• The text on screen also worked well and the purple glow effect made the writing more interesting. 

Need to improve:

• The opening shot was too long therefore we need to cut this down
• The lighting in some shots didn't work well as it was to bright therefore affected the colours 
• Add a zoom on Mia and Rasharn dancing with the 360 shot faded over so the shots fit better together
• Work on the effects we've used such as fades and cuts to make sure it looks more like a trailer than opening sequence whilst still keeping continuity. 

When editing our next cut we will take these points into consideration to make sure we can develop our work well. We also know that we need to add sound, and we have planned to film a voice over with Mia and we need to find a soundtrack that would work well in the background. As we also found it difficult to schedule time to film the rest of our shots with our actors, we now need to add these to the first cut which will also help portray the narrative slightly better and the genre of our film. Whilst editing we also need to experiment with different lighting effects as some of the shots we weren't happy with as they came out too bright when we uploaded them.