Original PowerPoint from A2 media studies evaluation Without/sound

1. LIAM MARSH
A2 MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION

2. In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
Teaser Trailer
The products I looked towards for inspiration within my trailer, were the
Bourne, James Bond and Mission Impossible series’.

3. Having already seen the films I watched the
trailers to help the development of my own
film. The trailers used various conventions of
the genre (which was an action thriller). This
included such features as;
Establishing shots
The use of weapons
Fast-cars chases
‘Slow Motion’ techniques
and standoffs
Titles/Credits

4. By exploring these conventions and inserting them into our own trailer, it meant that we
could easily establish our genre and aim it towards our target audience of predominately
18-40 year old males.
We also developed on the storylines of films such as ‘Taken’ where the main
character has his girlfriend stolen, however our film trailer suggests it is not by an
‘enemy’ of sorts but by a ‘friend.’ Hence our title ‘Friend Or Foe.’

5. We also managed to challenge existing media products, by
twisting the conventions slightly. For example, the main
characters all appear ‘young’ and the British and ‘home-
grown’ feel to the film (Featured within the establishing
shot) offers a unique selling point and differs to the
stereotypical ‘Hollywood’ action feel. The cars also used
within the film are not the stereotypical ‘Supercars’ the
audience are used to within the genre, meaning they may
feel a stronger attachment to the characters as they
appear more ‘human’ as opposed to the ‘undefeatable’
characters such as James Bond etc. This gives the trailer a
new feel and the audience a fresh new feature they may
not have seen the likes of before.
Another code and convention which was used throughout
the trailer, was the pace. We observed that most trailers of
the same genre begin slowly before short, fast, action
filled scenes kick in and then dropping slightly before the
final credits at the ending. Our focus group also suggested
that we add our music in a similar fashion, fitting in with
the trailer and establishing the pace and feel of the film for
the audience. We also included a voiceover as if the main
characters were speaking on a phone to establish the plot.

6. In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
Magazine
I looked at various
editions of the world
renown empire
magazine to analyse
various conventions for I based my own magazine primarily on the conventions
to use within my own on this version of empire magazine. You will notice the
magazine. conventions I have applied to my own magazine

7. In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
Poster
I looked at the latest
Mission impossible
poster to analyse
various conventions for
to use within my own I based my own magazine primarily on the conventions
magazine. on this version of empire magazine. You will notice the
conventions I have applied to my own magazine

8. How effective is the combination of the main
product and your ancillary tasks?
All three products aim to create a sense of excitement and buzz within the audience as an
advertising campaign through their respective forms. They are all clearly representative of
the action thriller genre.
The colour scheme and fonts between the three is particularly noticeable and it is this subtle
continuity between the three, which helps the audience to recognise the film and
acknowledge it within the different forms.

9. Both the poster, and magazine help towards establishing the protagonist in the piece.
With him featuring at the forefront of the whole campaign and prominent in both,
it gives the audience the opportunity to get a feel for the plot (Two ‘darker’
characters waiting in the background.) This would give the audience a ‘sneak peak’
At the plot of the film and encourage them to go and see the film or look out for a trailer.

10. Same Clothes. Continuity.
Fonts remain the same
Dark background, red and white text.

11. I believe that the combination of the texts and main product have been extremely effective
as a promotional campaign.
They all feature stereotypical action/thriller conventions making them appealing and
recognisable to the target audience. They are all also in someway linked as a group of
products and contain continuity, whether it be the images and giveaway of the plot from the
characters and their body language, the font and colour schemes of the texts or the symbolic
codes and conventions featured in each product.

12. What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
We acted upon the constructive
We set up a focus group during comments we were given and
our early stages of editing. This went onto creating a second
meant that we could get and third version of our trailer
audience feedback from people before submitting our final
both inside and outside of the entry which was again judged
target group. We received mixed by our focus group who had
comments as can be seen nothing but unreserved praise.
below;
We created the music to fit in
with the pace of the footage
and also added the voiceover as
the audience believed they
couldn’t quite grasp the plot of
the film. We also changed some
of the clips and special effects
all based on the comments we
received on the day of the focus
group.
Focus group – Trailer version 1.0 – 16.12.2011

13. Rather than use another focus group to display my magazine and poster to, I
decided to go down the route of social networking. I uploaded them to the
sites Facebook and Twitter asking for comments from users (Generally people
aged within the target audience.) Feedback was mostly positive with various
users leaving comments on Facebook. The poster also gained 21 likes with 2
shares from friends, to raise awareness and gain more comments to build
upon. I changed my poster image and manipulated it by adding effects, due to
a comment left on twitter about the clash of colours between the background
and main characters hood. They have since commented that ‘It looks much
better’ and ‘They are a fan as it appears a more striking image.
We have since uploaded the finished trailer to the teams own ‘YouTube’
account, where it has been viewed (as of now) 32 times, incurring 2
‘Thumbs Up’

14. How did you use media technologies in the construction
and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Throughout the construction of the trailer and ancillary texts, we have used many different
media technologies, without the likes of which, wouldn’t have made our coursework possible.
Pre-Production (Research and planning).
Within the Pre-Production stage of creating
the coursework package we used various
different media technologies;
The Internet – The Internet played a pivotal role in helping us within all three stages of production.
YouTube – We used YouTube regularly in pre-production. This meant that we were able to
view the codes and conventions of previously made trailers of films within our genre,
before establishing them within our own. It also gave us the chance to analyse the
characters and some of the shots featured. With YouTube being a free service, we were also
able to look at as many trailers as needed.

15. The Internet
Blogger – Blogger.com, is essentially an online blog, which within the task became more of
a diary for myself and the FOYOW team. Everything that we have achieved over the year is
available for viewing and everything from original draft copies of trailers, to location recce’s,
research and budgets is featured on our individual blog page. Mine can be found her by
following the link below. It also acted as a link between the group, as we could see when
each other was updating their posts and adding new and fresh content. I tried to update my
blog as regularly as possible so that if one of us had completed a task, we could share it
between each other easily on our blogs and it served us as somewhat of an archive.
Content we often shared was the embedding of codes from YouTube clips etc.
http://armthorpea2lmarsh.blogspot.co.uk/
Google – The use of Google (and more specifically), Google Images, meant that I could find
examples of well renown magazines and posters. This was important as being able to
search through the entire library of previous Empire Magazine covers, meant that I could
focus on the conventions of magazines specifically related to my genre (action/thriller).

16. Production and Evaluation.
Apple Mac
The bonus of working on Apple Mac meant that I had access to both the ‘Final Cut Express’
and ‘GarageBand’ software within the same device. Final Cut Express was used to firstly
import clips that I had shot on the camera, before editing the clips into order (adding and
cutting footage.) It also allowed us to add the effects such as gunshots and upload titles we
had previously created. We then exported our finished trailer into GarageBand, where we
were able to edit and create the sound and voiceover (Recorded using a Dictaphone) to
match the clips, before exporting the final version onto the desktop and then YouTube
respectively.
Microsoft Windows
Using Windows allowed me to create my evaluation using Microsoft PowerPoint,
before uploading it to the online format of ‘slide share’. I also had access to the
image manipulation software ‘Page Plus’ and ‘Photoshop’. These programs allowed
me to edit the cover of my magazine and add effects to the image as well as
developing techniques and key skills I had learned in my previous (AS) years work.
This included cropping, layering, fading, adding effects and the use of the ‘Magic
Wand’ tools.

17. Thank you for viewing