EVALUATION: Question 4

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

 

The first thing to ask is what is media technology? 

Technology which disseminates (spreads), stores or produces media content.

 

Throughout this year, where I have created my trailer and ancillary tasks (magazine cover and film poster), I have developed my skills in areas of media technology I am familiar with as well as learnt how to use a variety of new technologies. 
 
Below is a Prezi Presentation I have done to answer this evaluation question in full:

 

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK: Ancillary Tasks

Here is a word document which I have shared on Slideshare, showing my audience feedback about my ancillary tasks and what they said about it.

Ancillary task feedback from EttyHope

FORGET ME NOT: Film Poster

This is my Forget Me Not film poster. In this blog post I am going to explain how I made it and why I made certain designs on the style, colour and design the way I did.

I decided I wanted a bold font so that the title stood out, however I also wanted it to be personal, so chose the bold italic font to try and make the title look as if it had been handwritten (this is typical on Drama/Romance posters such as P.S. I Love You).  I chose the soft blues in the poster to match the colour of the forget me not flower. I edited my poster on Photoshop, overlaying the images of Chrissy my actress and experimenting with fades. This effect is supposed to show her memories fading and her forget who she.

 

 

These are the images I took in the dark room at school which I used on my poster.

 

POSTERS: an exception to typical conventions

I just wanted to add this to my blog as I just found this photograph on twitter and thought that it was really useful to my blog and very interesting!

This is a image taken of a Deathly Hallows Part 2 film poster. I thought it was really interesting to look at as you can clearly see there are no text on the poster other than 'It All Ends' and the release date '7 (July) 15 (2015). This an example of a film/story where it is so recognizable and which everyone knows that it doesn't even need the name of the film doesn't need to be on the poster but instead they went for a much more dramatic heading which makes dedicated fans feel excited and sad, knowing that it will soon all be over but they get to see how the final story ends on the big screen.

PLANNING: Of the Film Poster

I have been thinking a lot about how I can make my film poster as dramatic as possible without having it look overcrowded or complicated and sticking to the typical conventions of a poster. I think that the film posters look best when they are simplistic, rather than really busy.

So, as a rough idea for what I want my film poster to look like, is similar to the one of Train Spotting as I really like the simplistic layout of the characters and the way that all of the information necessary is there without looking like it it too much crammed onto one poster.

I like the idea of having a line of colour (blue for my poster - fitting with the forget me not flower) for the title to go on, like the orange on the poster above. My poster will have directors billing in small small print at the bottom which will have actors names, directors name, the production company name etc. This will help audiences get an understanding of who is in the film, however is in small font as it isn't one of the main things viewers tend to look at first but only when digging for more information. I don't want to put actors names obviously on the film poster as I want it to look as simplistic as possible so putting the actors names at the bottom still fills in the audience but not obviously. I also only want to use the main protagonist on my poster rather than the lead male who features in the trailer as well, however I still want to use the same layout as trainspotting so plan to use Photoshop to overlay the protagonist on the poster more than once, relating to her confused, disorientated thoughts and memories.

FILM POSTERS: billing and credits

Here I am going to look at the importance of billing and credits on a film poster and have decided to look at this on a romance based genre trailer as while mind mapping ideas for my trailer I have been more drawn towards creating a romance/drama based film trailer.

On the poster it says 'from the author of 'The Notebook' and Director of 'Dear John'' which has been used to reel potential audience members in who are fans of the book and the film mentioned due to their high success. These name of the book and film mentioned in bold to draw the audiences attention to it. However due to it not being the most important thing mentioned it isn't in a big font across the poster.

The use of well know actors names above the title are used because they're fighting to stand out so using better, bigger actors to draw in audience members who are already fans of them. The use of critical acclaim shows the audience the film is worth while watching, while females may want to watch the film due to the good looking actor Duhamel. 'February' is bolder and bigger than the other billing at the bottom, standing out so that viewers can see it at quick glance and know the release of the film.

The use of blue and white font are typically used in romance/drama promotional texts. The light blue connotate peace and serenity which is what the female protagonist is looking for throughout the film.

TRAILER FEEDBACK: survey monkey responses

Here is a PowerPoint, which I have made to present my audience feedback which I collected on Survey Monkey:

Audience feedback survey monkey from EttyHope

FILM POSTER RESEARCH: Poster Analysis

Here is a link to a slide I made of the Jaws film poster, using terminology to analyse what typical conventions have been used.

Film posters from EttyHope

RESEARCH: Conventions of a film poster

Film posters are seen everywhere; in cinemas, in and on magazines, on buses, at bus stops, on McDonald happy meals! Everywhere!  So it is important to make sure that my film poster stands out over other film posters and is more memorable. In order to do this my film poster must: 

1) Be eye-catching and draw people in to find out more about it. If you're film poster is boring and not different to anything seen before, people aren't going to find it interesting and wont pay attention to it.

2) Have a main picture, known as a focal picture. It is the first thing people see when they look at the poster, drawing them in. Usually the focal picture  is of the main protagonist in the film.

3) Font that is bold and stands out. If a person saw the poster on the side of a bus, they'll need to be able to read what the film is called,  wherever they are standing because otherwise they'll miss it and are more likely to forget about it or not be able to find out what it is called or about.

4) Have a review. Not a proper review which you may find online or in a newspaper, but usually just a word like 'Stunning' or a short sentence along with the reviewer's name and how many stars they give the film. This  reassures potential audiences that they won't be wasting money by watching this film. 

5) Have a release date or a caption saying "Coming Soon". This is so the audience have as much information on the film as possible in a short space of time. 

6) Have an obvious genre shown within the poster, so the audience know what kind of film they are going to see.

FILM MAGAZINE: FestiFilm

This is the front cover to my independent film festival magazine 'FestiFilm'.  I chose this name as it's a film festival magazine I combined the words 'festival' and 'film' to make the name 'FestiFilm'. I decided to use the actress on the cover rather than 'the character' as if they were on press tour. I think this is more effective for an independent magazine and similar to the magazine 'Sight and Sound' which I chose to use for my guidance.

I think this makes the magazine more interesting and personal as well as more professional and chic.

I used photoshop to make and edit my magazine cover as I had easy access to this in school and I was familiar with the software.

As the name of our film, Forget Me Not, is also a type of flower, I have used the flower on the cover to almost make the flower a symbol for the film, I also decided to use the colour of the flower as the colour for the magazine to contrast with the black and white image of Chrissy. I wanted my poster to look simple but sophisticated so using only a soft blue stopped any detraction from the main photograph.

Magazine cover inspo from EttyHope

SURVEY RESPONSES: from AS Media Studies students

Here is a PowerPoint I have put together of responses from AS Media Students in regards to our trailer. It is useful to get other media students to look at our work and give us feedback as they have started to look at films themselves and can give us a slightly more media based response rather than just putting the survey online and getting family and friends to fill it out. This in turn will improve the quality of my products.

Survey responces media class from EttyHope

MAGAZINE COVERS:

This post is to explore what similarities/differences movie magazine covers have and how I can incorporate that into my own cover for this years auxiliary task.

One of the biggest ways of advertising films in the media industry is through magazines and more specifically covers. The most well-known film magazines are Total Film and Empire.

 

In majority of the covers, the main protagonist of the film being advertised is in the centre of the cover, which is a key detail to remember when designing and producing my own cover.

In these magazines the actors featuring are popular in the sense that most of the regular readers would recognise them. However, I will not be using well-known actors for my film. Both magazines tend to use only one character on their covers unless for example with 'The Expendables' for The A-Team, as they are more recognisable as a group and come more of a 'package' rather than one character dominating the film or being portrayed as the main protagonist. It always depends of the context of the film, the audience it is aimed at and the way it is being advertised.

RESEARCH: Conventions of a Film Magazine Cover

Film magazine covers follow certain conventions helping the magazine boost sales and make it look more appealing compared to their competitors:

1) The title is almost always at the top of the cover in bold writing, which is usually generic to the film magazine cover. E.g.  Empire always has the same layout for their title: red, in capitals, bold and using the same font. However, whenever there is a special edition issue out such as the Skyfall edition, they change the colour of the title to gold showing readers that it is a special addition.

2) The main image of the cover is usually a mid shot of one of the lead characters/actors in the film which it's promoting for that months issue.

3) There is always a barcode, issue number and release date.These are essencial.

4) On most issues of film magazines there is text around the image telling the viewer what the magazine features within. This is so that a potential reader can pick it up and straight away see what is inside the magazine without flicking through all of the pages.

SURVEY: trailer

Here is a link to my survey on SurveyMonkey where people are able to give feedback about my trailer which I am then going to analyse to see whether overall my trailer was successful or not.


https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/JKRTG5B


Below you can see what the questions on my survey are:

Survey - trailer feedback from EttyHope

MAGAZINES AND FILM POSTER: Research & Analysis

Before the release of the film, either into the cinemas, onto Netflix or onto DVD, the film needs to gain as much publicity as possible to maximise viewing audience along with maximizing potential profits and gaining the highest gross income as they can. To do this they need to a buzz and anticipation for the films release. A recent example of this is the release of the new Star Wars film which my Dad hasn't stopped talking about, counting down the days to the release of the film on DVD as well as him spending money on reading magazine article and books on the film to find out as much information about it as possible. This hype is caused through advertising and promotional campaigns, which get the film out into the public eye through; posters, the internet, television, social media, radio, magazine advertisements, billboards, chat shows and interviews.

Magazine Covers:

From previous trailer research I have now began to look at the advertising campaign within film magazines; Empire, Sight & Sound and Total Film, to see the typical features of the films presentation on the covers.

To continue this research I am going to analyse the covers for 'Inception' which I found online in previous research. I looked at both 'Total Film' magazine and 'Empire' magazine to compare their approaches to advertising the film and the images that they had decided to include on their covers.

The Total Film cover uses the Leonardo DiCaprio image as a way of establishing an audience firmly from first glance, as DiCaprio already has a huge fan base it's likely to attract them to the magazine straight away.
The next thing you're drawn to, is the word 'Inception', rather than the Total Film title even though this has also been emphasized to stand out. This is due to the positioning, as DiCaprio is placed in front of the magazine title, showing how significant he is, showing his importance. Then on the top later, placed in front of him, is the title 'Inception', gives the word importance and appears most significant to that magazine issue.

The title 'Total Film' has been cleverly manipulated, to fit in with the theme of the film itself, as in the trailer there is a sequence of events where the buildings fold on themselves and people defy gravity. The word 'Film' has been made through the use of aerial imaging of buildings to link to this sequence.


The black suit that DiCaprio is wearing looks quite sinister and connotes power, importance and dominance, which can also be shown from his facial expressions. His shadowed facial expressions  indicates that there may be a more dark side to the film, creating a sense of enigma.


Next I am going to look at the film magazine Empire, looking at the same film. This cover uses the same colour scheme: red, blue and black, with the red possibly representing anger or danger, the black representing power and mystery and the blue representing the sinister tone that the film creates in not only on the magazine covers but the trailer as well.

The positioning on this cover of a similar format to the of Total Film magazine where the title of the film is in the middle, with the image of DiCaprio underneath and then the title of the magazine behind him, which like Total Film shows the importance of the film Inception. The background is again, city landscapes, this time with the text positioned around DiCaprio. It is harshly angled inwards towards DiCaprio, making eyes constantly moving back towards him.

Film Posters:

Film Posters usually feature a lot less text than a magazine cover, therefore meaning the image is the most powerful aspect of the poster. It needs to grab the attention of viewers straight away, being able to draw direct focus onto the films name as well as establishing the mise en scene of the setting and characters of the film. As my film has an element of social realism as well as Romance/Drama I decided to look at the This Is England film poster.

This poster is promoting a film an economically deprived group of friends from Northern England. It was directed by Shane Meadows, who is known for creating films that look at British culture and the issues that effect and influence the lives of every day people.

The poster has text which looks slightly as if it has been painted on, possibly similar to graffiti, fitting to the crime theme of the film emphasizing the gritty nature of social realist films. The text is large on the upper centre of the poster and uses the colours of the British Flag, reinforcing the ideologies that are held within the film, due to a strong sense of nationalism and pride within society at the time (of when the film is set). The dress codes of the characters themselves encourage stereotyping of 1970's British fashion, where there was a large trend of individualism and self expression through capitalism.

The main idea is for the poster give off all of the important information needed for the viewer while also giving an overall sense of what the film is about.

FILM PROMOTION: Posters & Trailers

Having created my trailer, while designing my poster I want to make sure it follows the right conventions of a film poster as well as linking to my trailer in the right way. In order to do this I am going to look at an example of a film poster and trailer of the same film and look at the similarities and differences between them which I can then consider while making my own. I am going to do this for the film Legend, so here is the trailer for it, then I am going to talk about how I think that links well to the poster.

The first thing I see when looking at this poster is that its split in two, one Kray on either side. I think this is really clever as it separates the twins, making them their own individuals which is vital for the film as this could mistaken as both characters are played by Tom Hardy. The fact that Ronnie is in front of a black background suggests he may be slightly 'darker' than Reggie which is shown in the film through him wanting to kill everyone, while Reggie tries to 'go straight' for his wife. It could also suggest that Ronnie is a burden to Reggie as the American in the trailer tries to separate them and Reggie says 'he's my brother' meaning Reggie has to stick by him due to the same blood running through them both. The simplicity of the poster is good, linking to the fact the movie is 'the notorious true story' as its as if the film makers are 'stripping the Krays down' so that people can see the truth. The bold titles in the trailer are continued in the poster, making each important word stand out.

I think this is a really good example of a trailer and poster which link well together while also being able to stand alone in promoting the film which is why I wanted to include it on my blog.

FILM: Promotion and Continuity

In this post I am researching the idea that continuity is a key part in marketing films. When advertising the film it is essential to use the rule of continuity to allow the audience to recognise the brand of film easily on multiple platforms in order to successfully promote the film and create the most profit.

This is done in many ways other than film trailers, film magazines and film posters:



Merchandising:

     

Merchandise is used to bring in additional profit to a film. If it's official merch same logo and colour scheme is usually used which promotes the film franchise.

Interviews:

Film actors, directors, and producers appear for television, radio, print, and online media interviews, the purpose of interviews are to encourage journalists to publish stories about their "exclusive interviews" with the film's stars, creating hype around the film and interesting the audience in watching the film.

Chatshows are also used to promote the films in an entertaining way. For example the clip above is from Henry Cavill's American chat show, where they show a clip from Batman VS Superman and then say talk about the release date and encourage you to watch the film before talking to the actor about his personal experience of it, making viewers of the chat shows connect to the audience on a personal level making them again more likely to want to watch the film if they like the people in it. This is a typical tack-tick on chatshows as well as promotional tours and radio interviews.

Here is another example of a clip from a chat show (Graham Norton's) where Daniel Craig talks about injuries hes had while filming Spectre. This again, gets audiences to get more interested in the film, hearing backstage exclusives from James Bond himself.

Websites:

Websites also have to think about continuity in the branding of the film, needing features which the audience will want to read, watch or interact with, with special features. They must also think of the target audience when doing this making sure if its for a young audience it is easy for them to interact with. The use of a website generates a buzz for the audience members.


Social Media:

On social media, actors, directors, producers etc, can connect to fans in a less formal personal way, as they are able to write what they want (within reason). So, they are also able to promote films they are involved with to fans who have chosen to follow, connect or look at their page, making them more aware of whats going on, such as release dates, interview dates etc.

UPLOADED TRAILER!

Here is the finished film trailer "Forget Me Not", a romantic drama inspired trailer based on a runaway girl with a degenerative brain disorder, struggling to start her new life.