COURSEWORK COMPLETE!!

The coursework deadline of tomorrow has approached, and my coursework has been finally finished today.

Coursework done, Owen out.

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

There are many different ways in which my media products use and develop the codes and conventions of real media texts. I chose to avoid challenging them as much as possible, however there are certain ways in which my projects disagree with a few of the codes and conventions. I will begin by talking about my magazine front cover.

The first point to note is the use of a large, bold mashead to grab the attention of potential audiences. This is something that you always see of magazine front covers, not just the covers of film magazines. It is a vital part of the codes and coventions and plays a vital role in establishing the genre of the magazine and also in attracting the attention of target audiences. If, for example, a magazine was entitled 'Action Film' or something along those lines, the audience or consumers would clearly see and understant that it was a magazine about action films, and therefore they should only buy the magazine if they are interested in reading things about that genre of film. I chose to call my magazine 'Film central' as it attracts a wide range of individuals and as a result will have a wide target audience. My use of a large clear masthead at the top of the page is one way in which my magazine front cover uses and develops the codes and conventions of real media products.

A second part to consider is the style and framing of the main image. Throughout my research i came to understand that there was somewhat of a split throughout the codes and conventions of film magazines between to different things. Half of the front covers featured the whole of the an individual and the other half had a relavively close up shot of his/her face and shoulders. For my magazine front cover i chose to go with the head and shoulders approach. The main image tells the audience a lot about what is in the magazine and also the genre of it. In the case of my magazine, i chose a quite 'urban' styled image to depict the urban grudgey aspect of the film. At the same time, the character you use for your main image tells the potential audience about th content of the film. For example, you wouldn't have an image of a cat on the front cover to advertise a sporting film. The use of a main image, depicting  the head and shoulders of the prtagonist is another way in which my magazine front cover uses the codes and conventions of real media texts.

The use of cover lines was essential in producing my magazine front cover. It is rare that you will find a magzine cover with no cover lines to offer an insight into its contents. I chose to take the route of using and developing the codes and convention by embrassing the use of cover lines in the production of my front cover. As well as the cover lines, i used a strap line to emphasise the genre of this particular copy of the magazine. I used 'the ultimate action special' to clearly define the genre whilst the sporting doceumentry aspect was coered by the focus of Alex in the image.

As well as the cover lines, title and main image, i included the simple things like a price and a barcode. These are small things, but are vital in making the magazine front cover look like a real text. By following th codes and conventions you can make the magazine front cover look very near to a real media texts. As well, i used the codes and conventions more by including a website. Almost every film magazine will have a website on it as the magazine tries to become an even larger part of peoples life. By including all these fine details i have further used and developed the codes and conventions of real media texts. Below you can see an image of my magazine front cover against a real media text...

The second project I will look at is the poster. The main code and convention I used and developed here was the bold title of the film. This is probably the most important part of the poster and it must be clear and easy to read. I is essentially th main focus of the poster and so it must be large and interesting, as well as eye catching. I have used this code and convention on my poster by making the poster one of the most predominate parts.

The next code and convention that I followed was the use of production and distribution information coupled with the logos of certain company’s. This is something that is often used on the posters of magazine to offer some publicity to the distributors and also tell the audience where the film came from. By including this section on my poster I used and developed the codes and conventions of real media texts.

Putting the characters names across the top of the poster is something that you see more often than not on film posters, and you could argue that it has become somewhat of an icon and is definitely a code and convention of film posters. I chose to embrace this convention and add the names of three characters to my poster across the top.

Finally, there is the release date. Second only to the title, this is a hugely important part of the poster. The whole idea surrounding the poster is to advertise the film by telling the audience something about what the film involves, defining the genre and telling them when the film is released. Not mentioning the release date would be like having a sandwich without any bread, it just wouldn’t be right. I am, however, aware that there are film posters out there that choose to disagree and challenge this code and convention. I on the other hand felt that the date was a vital part of the poster and therefore I used and developed the code and convention of real media texts.

My final point surrounding my poster and the codes and conventions of real media texts is the main image. One code and convention of real posters is to include a close up shot to one or more characters within the film, often in fact only half of the face is depicted. This was something I had initially planned for my poster, however after getting started I decided to challenge this particular convention. I chose to remove the race and focus simply on the BMX bike against the fence. There were two reasons for this. The first was that I didn’t feel the ‘half a fence’ theme fitted very well on the poster, and the second was that one of the main parts of the film is the sport of BMX and I feel that only depicting the BMX in an urban environment attracts the young target audience that I am aiming for.

Here you can see an image I have made to show my poster against a real media text.

Moving on to the trailer…

In fear of clogging the blog with writing I decided I’d screen flow the answer for the trailer so there isn’t quite so much writing. You can follow this link to youtube where i have uploaded the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoHByHclNzQ

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Results

I collected results from a total of 32 different people, all of which were a variety of different ages. In order to collect these results, I printed copies of the questionnaire and I placed them in various public places, all with a copy of the trailer, the poster and the magazine front cover. I placed 30 copies in the library and then handed some out to some of students at my school. I only received 20 sets of results from the library and I believe this was due to the time period, as I only left them there for 2 days.

• Out of the 32 people, 14 said they would rate the trailer an 8 out of the possible 10. This is 43.7% and was the majority. The lowest score the trailer received was a 7.

• The posters most popular score was 9 and this was given by 53.1% of the people.
• The magazine covers most popular score was, like the trailer, 8 and this was given by a record 78.1% of the people who replied.
• 17 out of the 32 people said that there favourite part of the trailer was the titles, making up for 53.1% of the total people. This was followed by the 10 people who said the editing was their favourite part, accounting for a further 31.2% of total people.

• 18 out of the 32 people (56.2%) said that sound was there least favourite feature of the trailer. I cant help but think this was something to do with the loyalty free aspect and the fact that they couldn’t recognise or relate to it.
• 31 out of the 32 people thought that the trailer looked like a real media text. That is 96.8% of the people asked.
• Both the trailer and the poster came in equal in terms of popularity with 12 each, leaving 8 people preferring the magazine front cover.

• The least popular was not simply the flip of these results as you might expect. In fact, the poster and magazine front cover came in equal here with 15 votes each, leaving the trailer with only 2.
• The distribution over this question was relatively even. Style came in top with 8 out of the 32, giving it 25% of the total peoples vote. The main image, cover lines a colour followed, giving a value of 15 together.
• The main image and title came in top with 16 and 12 respectively. These two options were far above any of the others, leaving only 4 people out of the 32 choosing the other options as their favourite part of the poster. The least popular part was ‘Other’ with people not having to specify what they meant by this. 21 out of the possible 32 people chose this option.
• 14 out of the 32 people said that they consumed media surrounding films on a daily basis; this is equal to 43.7%. Weekly was the next popular choice, with 12 out of 32. Interestingly, only one person selected the ‘more’ option.

So what do these results mean?

I have made a video to explain what these results mean and what i've learnt from them. I have uploaded it to youtube and the link is as follows... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNlsC6MRjdY

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

I chose to answer this question by using a screen-flow of a powerpoint presentation. I've posted it below for you to see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz3cubOyJsA

As well as the video, i thought i put together the image you see below to point out the main ways in which the main project and the two ancillaries work together. All arrows of the same colour point to the same theme of things, just so it's easier to see the differences.

... As you can see the ways in which the combination work together is by establishing the genre in a clear and easily notable way and also by having distinct similarities with each other so you recognise them as promotions for the same film. The three things i have chosen to show on the image below is the same font used for the film title on all three texts. This is probably the most important feature. By usung the same font the audience will begin to recognise the title or font and associate it with the film, by doing this where ever they see the font, whether its in print or video, they will recognise the film. As well as the title, the other thing i kept the same throughout was the 'urban style'. This plays a large part in establishing the role of the film, and also reaches out to the younger target audience with its sense of the city and being 'cool'. By carrying this urbanised style through the main task and the two ancillary projects, the three become linked and work as a combination to drive home the genre and promote the film. The final thing i chose to point out in the image below was the use of the same character and same style of props. Obviously using the same character goes without saying, and the audience will recognise the film by the character that plays the main role in it. Also, by having the main character as a young, urban looking male it attracts the teenage target audience and they are able to relate to it. Using the same style of clothing for the main character was also an important part. A t-shirt and dark jeans was what i chose to help distinguish the genre and, again, attract the target audience.

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

Here is a link to a video i made of me explaining how i used different technologies throughout the duration of the coursework... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiE261vFgas

I thought just to finish up that i'd make a list of all the different technologies i had used:

• Internet
• Photographs/Camera
• Scanner
• Screen-flow
• Powerpoint
• Final cut pro
• After effects
• Sound track pro
• Photoshop CS4
• Imovie
• Screen shots
• Videos
• Film cameras
• Radio station (voice recording)

Audience Feedback

I created my audience feedback questionnaire today and tomorrow i will handout copies (obviously with a copy of all the projects) in the hope of decent results. Below i have taken a screen grab of the questionnaire in the word document before printing to blog about.

Evaluation/Construction Documentary

Right, now i've totally finished my projects i need to evaluate them. I understand that there are 4 different questions and i will approach each one in a differenrt way to ensure that i use different forms of media texts, whilst finding the best and easiest way to present the information. One of the questions is about audience feedback and so i will have to begin collecting this quickly as the dealine is this friday, 4 days time.

CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTARY


My construction documentary is now live at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj_r_r6UGAw

Complete magazine...

This afternoon i completed my magazine ancillary and this is it...

(please ignore the white strip at the top and the bottom)

Complete Trailer...

The easiest way for me to be able to show you my trailer through the blog is using youtube. Loading videos up onto blogger takes quite some time and on top of that, you cant access them at school, which makes life hard for mr.dowson to mark it.

So here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gshWUE1RW7g

Last changes to the magazine cover...

Today i changed two things about the front cover.

• Firstly, i changed the film title, i took away the effect that was on it which made it look more solid. At the same time, i changed the test 'pushing the boundaries' to white so it stood out more. (you can see this on the bottom image below)
• The other change i made was adding some new cover lines in the top right, just below the masthead. I didnt think there were enough cover lines considering it was a front cover so i thought i should add some more.

This is the front cover before the new cover line was added...

And this is it with the new cover line on...

Main image on the magazine...

The image on the magazine was too much like a poster image, as you can see below.

So today i set about changing this. To begin with i increased the saturation, which made the image look far to orange and fake. Take a look...

I had a play around with the effects on photoshop, and in the end i came up with this...

Which i still didnt like. I thought the image looked too orange/pink still and the 'wind' effect as its called just makes the image look a bit strange.

After removing the wind effect, i made the image both colder and darker. I finished up with this...

This is the image as i will use it in the final magazine now. I think it words better as a magazine main image and doesnt jump out and detract away from the other features so much.

Slight change to the trailer

Today i changed the end of my trailer very slightly. I changed the music over the end part to a heartbeat because i felt that with the main soundtrack it confused the narrative slightly. With the heartbeat it tells the audience more about the story of him and his life.

titles....

I've decided to change to font and colours of the title. I feel that they dont accurately reflect the trailer, and in the same way they dont link to the magazine and the poster enough. Today i changed them to be more like them. You can see screen shots of this below.

These are the new titles...

and these are the old ones...

As you can see, i've changed quite a lot. To start with, ive changed the font of the writing 'alex coleborn' so it is the same as the text which is on both the magazine and the poster. As well as this, i changed the colours because i felt the red was too bright and didnt work well. I also added an effect to the 'pushing the boundaries' writing to make it look a little warn. The effect was called 'subtract'.
I've now added this new title into the final trailer and i thing it works a little better.

I thought id throw a screen shot of when i tried the red font in just to show you.

New magazine title

Today i changed the masthead on the magazine to something i am much happier with. Below you can see the old title and the new one next to each other so it's easy to tell whats changed.

Old masthead:

New masthead:

As you can see above i've kept the font the same and also the stroke. I added a new gradient overlay of red to add some colour and at the same time i added the drop shadow. As i mentioned in the changes, i added the drop shadow with no distance but a large range so it creates a sort of haze behind the text.

writing on the trailer

One of the changes i had previously thought about making to my trailer was adding more writing to the action parts. However, i have tried this and i do not like the product. I feel that the trailer works better if it is kept a little more simply without the extra writing.

I've uploaded one of the clips that i added writing to for you to see...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1KlzL5hsXI

You can also find my construction of it on youtube if you follow this link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FtZ72m8Uxk

As well as this, today i added in my final titles using final cut pro. I took a few screen shots for now, and then i will go into more detail in the construction documentary...

trailerrrrr titlesssss

Above are a few images that will be used in producing my trailer titles. They will be used along with a series of short clips to, hopefully, ensure the title is good. You will see how i make my titles in my construction documentary.

Complete Poster Ancillary

I've now made all the changes i'd like to, to my poster and here is the final product...

(please ignore the white strip at the top and bottom)

I've changed the title, moved the writing around and changed the font of one of the writing parts.

TV noise

I've decided that i will use a TV noise dissolve effect to start up the second action part of my trailer. Originally i had thought that i would just bring it straight back in, but after watching the trailer i feel that it doesn't really work. I took a few screen shots of me producing this earlier on today, and then putting it into the actual trailer in final cut pro. I used adobe after effects to merge the TV noise effect with the next clip.

I also had to source and create the sound effects for this TV noise idea, and i have some screen shots as seen below. I used soundtrack pro to do this and it was very helpful. It was very simple to make, i searched through the soundeffects in soundtrack pro to find ones that may work. After choosing the ones i liked, i mixed them together to create the desired effect.

music...

I've found some new music to put over the more emotional section of my trailer, as after watching my trailer back, the music i had originally used was to 'piecey' and not long enough to cover what i needed it for. After looking through soundtrack pro i found a new soundtrack that would suit my trailer well. In the construction documentary you will see me adding it into the trailer and removing the old one.

trailer title

As i've already blogged about, i came up with a new idea for the title of the trailer. Below i have shared a link to a first draft of this which i completed. It is quite a simplified version and is not perfect, but it was just a first attempt to give me some sort of idea as to how i would need to do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD0ezU4u3mM

To create this i used after effects. By freeze framing a section of the clip i desire i will have a shot of alex on his bmx freezing in the air. The background and the titles are moved around by key frame, meaning i can move them where ever i like. As for the paint splats, i can move those around too and get rid of the black background using colour dodge. In the final titles i will use colour effects like 'colour correction' to add colour to the titles. In my construction documentary i will show how i made the final titles.

The background will be the same for the final one, however the text is likely to change so it is the same at that from the poster and the magazine front cover. The clip may not be the same either, although i am yet to decide this.

As well as the draft titles i did, i tried another one as well. I never completed this, but i did add a few different things to it and it has the basic elements as how i made the draft in it. Below i've shared a link to a screen flow of me creating it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSHln_bVdz0

Magazine front cover

After looking at my magazine front cover first rough cut, i've come up with a few improvements that i feel will make it better.

• firstly, i don't like the title i i think it needs more colour. I have decided that i will add a little red to it to make it stand out a little more and work a bit better with the cover lines and photo.
• I dont like how red the film title is, and i dont think it stands out enough, so i will change the colour of the writing 'pushing the boundaries' to white and i will try and make the 'Alex Coleborn' part stand out more whilst keeping it red.
• I think the photo needs to be darker because at the moment it detracts away from everything else and ends up making the front cover look a little like a poster.
• There aren't enough cover lines and i feel that if i add a few more it will look more like a magazine front cover, rather than a poster, which i think it has the slight look of at the moment.
• Finally, i will change the stroke on a number of cover lines and also the mast head and the website. At the moment, many of these have a small stroke on them which makes them look like some kind of tacky word art from Word. I will replace the stroke with a drop shadow, but give it no distance and a larger spread so it ends up making a black haze behind the text. Hopefully this will be enough to make the writing stand out.

Improving the trailer's narrative

The rough cut of my trailer had a confusing narrative. The focus of the film is about Alex and his talents on a BMX, but by the end of the trailer the audience were left believing that the film is about Alex's struggle in a mission to become the worlds best BMX rider. On this light, i have decided to change around the order of the trailer slightly. I will still however, use the same shots. I will split the action section up into two parts, and then by adding the emotional section between them, the film is established once more as a more action film by the end.

Ancillary - Poster

After looking at what i was going to do with my trailer, i decided i should review my ancillaries too, in order to establish a plan of what i will do.

For my poster i will...

• change the font of the writing in the top right corner
• switch the top and bottom writing around
• make the writing of the main title look more like its on the fence and also more in keeping with the style

Reviewing my trailer

After looking at the the possible ideas of changes for my trailer, i will be doing the following:

• Changing the order to show a better narrative
• changing the 'emotional music' at the end of the trailer
• Ive already moved additional shot from the beginning to the end
• adding the new title idea (with the freeze frame and effects)
• Adding a few more effects throughout the trailer to show a different range of skills

trailer...

After thinking about all the changes that i could make to myu trailer i've come up with a few new ones. Instead of mixing the trailer up i will simply change the order so it tells a better narative, as at the moment it is set up too much like just an action film.


I am still going to do the other changes, like the smoothing the end music up and adding more effects. I've had a better idea for the title, instead of having the bmx riding through it i will have one that uses more effects. The general idea is that i will use a freeze effect and then have titles and paint effects come on to the screen.
 
A link to some similar styled titles is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F68ax29Qzs

This is the trailer for the film jackass 2. It uses some freeze frame style things at the start and this is similar to what i hope to achieve, although the writing on mine will also be animated.

Ancillaries

I'm now looking at the changes that may or may not need to be made to my ancillaries. I have already changed the writing on the poster to make it look like it is on the graffiti wall as it was suggested by numerous people that it would look better like that. I'm still looking at what i could do to the magazine front cover.

Here's a print screen of the poster with the new title on it.

Trailer changes...

As well as the changes i am already reviewing for my trailer, it has been proposed that it appears to be split up into 2 parts and that i should perhaps mix it up a little bit in order to make it flow better... I will look at doing this over the next couple of weeks or so, but we're coming up to exams now so everything is very busy.

I filmed the shot i'll need for the title of the BMX over the green screen yesterday, although i dont think i will be adding that it for a few weeks or so, just before i complete the trailer and look at evaluation.

With all ancillary drafts and trailer drafts completed, i am well underway to meet the new dealine towards the end of february. This allows me a lot more time for changes and improvements to all of my project pieces, in order to come up with the final productions. As well as that, it means i have much more time to ensure my evaluation is done thoroughly and well.

NEW COURSEWORK DEADLINE!!

On returning to school today, i found out that everyone has been given an extension from the 21st january to sometime at the end of february. There are numerous reasons for this, from the deadline being in the middle of exams, to Mr. Dowson being understandably absent, and also the fact that this way works a lot more efficiently for the rest of the course.

This extension in the deadline means i have a lot more time to complete the coursework, which is helpful over the exam time throughout january, and also offers me more time to improve and achieve a better standard of work.

Potential changes

After talking to the Big D about my trailer today i have come up with a series of potential changes to make:

• i want to add a few more effects to the middle section and change around the writing parts because im not too keen on how they look,
• The end bit needs a little bit of tidying up so it runs a bit smoother,
• i am going to change the music over the end bit so its not so piecey
• the additional shot i put at the start of the trailer, i will move to the end where i think it wuill fit a lot better.

I will have a play around with these changes opver the next couple of weeks and update the bloge if i change anything. At some point Mr.Dowson will have a quiick look at my drafts and see what he thinks of them, after that i'll have a look at changing parts of them.

Back to school

Today we came back to school after the christmas holidays. I've now finished bothe the rough cut for my trailer and the rough cuts of both ancillaries. Over the next couple of weeks i will go over and review all the projects and collect some audience feed back to help me in prioducing the final copies. After that i will sort out all of the evaluation and essure my blog is completely up to date. I will blog my construction documentary as soon as i have finished making everything and completed editing it together.

Rough cut ancillaries complete

Here's the rough cuts of the two ancillaries, there a likely to be improvements across the two of them to produce the final copy.

Poster:

Magazine:

Update

I'm on track for finishing my ancillaries by the time i go back to school on the 5th january, an then about a week after that i will finish my trailer and start the evaluation which will give me a couple of weeks for that.

I've now got all of the photos and i've chosen the ones i will use.

I also decided that the poster looks better without the image of alex himself on it. I will still, however, use this image on the front cover of my magazine. This means that the main focus of the poster will now be the BMX bike in the centre, coupled with the title above. I did, however, take some screen shots of me cutting out the image of alex in photoshop and i have posted these below...

This is the original photo. The background uses a variety of colours which made it a little tricky to cut alex himself out. To begin with i tried using the 'magnetic lasso' tool on photoshop, but the range of colours made this a tedious and painstaking task. I then came to the attention of a different tool of which i can no longer remember the name. This tool allowed me to colour around alex in red.

Here is what the photo looked like after i'd coloured the area i didnt want in. From here i was able to select the outside of alex and delete the rest, leaving a white background.

By this stage i could select alex and copy and paste him to where i needed the image.

These are the photos i have chosen for my two ancillaries...

I felt that of the photos i took of the actor, that this was the best one. This was simply because on his facial expressions. I intend to use this photo on both the poster and the front cover of the magazine to establish a link between the two and make it look like some kind of marketing strategy.

I have chosen this one because the BMX is in the far left of the image and it engages the rule of thirds.

This shot was meant to look quite amateur as it will feature on the magazine front cover as one of the 'extras'.

This image is the same as the above in nature. I chose these too out of the selection that i took because the character is central to the photos and they look quite casual.

This was a second idea i had for the magazine front cover, although i dont think i will use this. It's a back up plan of sorts.

This photo has a lot more space around the bike and it is for this reason that i chose it. It is different to the other one in that it would allow me to use more of the fence and ideally, work it into the poster.

I have chosen this selection of photos for  various reasons. I may not use them all and there may be a couple of different ones that i use, should i end up not liking any of these. But for the mean time i feel that these photos are easy to work with, and could hopefully produce so decent ancillaries with a little editing.

Ancillary photos

Here are the photo's i took today for the two ancillary tasks: