A2 Media Blog 3 (Promo package)

Evaluation

The Three Products as a Whole

My three media products all work together to form an advertising package to the film. There is a strong sense of continuity through each media text which is displayed through plain colour schemes, plain costumes, images and shots of money and the same actors appearing in each product. I think that the whole package will do well to atttract the action movie audience and feed them with more information about the film. I have tested the audience feedback by displaying all three products to a certain group of movie fans. They agreed that there was good continuity and that each product did its part to attract them towards the movie and would leave them with a hunger to watch it in full if it were made.

THESE ARE MY 3 FINAL MEDIA PRODUCTS:

Below are 3 out of the 4 evaluation questions. The other question has been answered in different areas throughout the whole blog and was answered as I encounted it whilst working.


1. In what ways do your media products (magazine and poster) use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Below is the process I took in planning and making my poster and magazine and the comparism and contrasts between a real media product and my media product. This evaluation question also extends to the trailer but will not be answered in this section as use, development and challenges of conventions in the trailer have been answered throughout the course of the blog.



Planning the poster and magazine front cover

After completion of the movie trailer I moved on to the films promotion package which includes the poster and magazine front cover. These are very important when spreading awareness to the target audience as the poster attracts the public's interest through powerful pictures and text. Posters reveal the actors in the film and if these actors are well known then they may bring their own audience to watch the film as some people are followers of particular actors and watch films specifically because that actor is in them. Also a well known actor will show a sense of professionalism as the more experienced the actor is the better the quality of the whole film is expected to be and people will already beleive that the realism in the acting is top class. Posters are put up everywhere including billboards, train stations and inside and on public transport so they need to be eye catching and have an effect that makes the information their presenting stick in their audience's minds. The magazines are also very important because they are read by part of the target audience and will directly inform them that the film is being released and will give further information to them about it. I started drawing out plans on the appearance on both products. I quite liked the idea of a plain background with the main character on it for the poster and during this process I started to think on how I could link the pictures I'd take to the title 'Lizzie's Head'. I'd have to find a way to show that Lizzie's head was relating to money on the poster. As for the magazine, my first thoughts were making the character a different one to the poster so I felt that the antagonist should be in this picture. Photoshoot Many problems encountered me when taking photos. I had initially booked a room in my school where I'd be able to set up all the equipment needed including lighting and a white back drop. I came to a problem as some of the back drop stand pieces were missing so I could not set it up for a white back ground. I then decided to use a white wall as my background but doing this meant I had to create my own lighting and do a lot more work in photoshop than I had originally planned. The actor playing the antagonist and I, who played the main character, went to various places looking for the best place to take pictures. We found some walls that we could use some backgrounds but I constantly found things such as windows and light bulbs appearing in my pictures with the walls so I constantly changed location. I eventually found a good enough wall to take my photos with although I will still need to do a lot of photoshopping to perhaps make a cream wall look more white or increase the lighting on a person's face.


Poster Research

Before starting to make my poster I decided to do some research on other action movie posters.

This poster is of 2008 British action movie 'Adulthood'. My first idea of an action poster would be two or three characters from the film pointing weapons at the camera, looking mean and ready for anything. This poster shows a complete contrast to my first ideas which is why I like it. This film is about London street crime and the main character, who is on this person, is a man released from jail after killing someone with a baseball bat. I like this poster because despite of the genre of the film their are no weapons on this poster including the infamous baseball bat. This character, like my own, is also on a road to redemption and the focus is more on the expression on his face. He looks tough but also a little bit in pain as he is unhappy about the pain he's caused others through the murder. The poster is quite plain but still striking as a hooded person with a weapon gives the impression of a dangerous youth but a hooded person without a weapon gives a better impression of the transition of someone like that into an adult.

This poster is for the very successful 1998 British crime film 'Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels'. This poster is also somewhat plain but takes a different approach from 'Adulthood' in the sense that it has more acrtors on it with the appearance of two guns which is understandable as the film is about 'two smoking barrels' of shotguns. This showed me that it is important to include in your poster, not just the actors but something representing what the film and its title is about. In this poster it was two shotguns in my poster it should be money or a picture of Queen Elizabeth. Through this poster I have also learnt a typical poster's layout consisting of the bold title and possibly a quote from the movie, quotes from other media organizations commenting on the film, names of the actors and distributors.

This poster is of the American TV series 'Prison Break'. I thought I'd need to study this as it is similar to my film in the fact that they are both largely set in a prison. This poster shows the two main characters of the series with a quote from the film on the right hand side. This quote basicallly sums up the series as it is about a man breaking in to prison to break his brother out of prison as his brother is facing execution for a crime he did not commit. The poster does well to tell us the situation even through the images as one brother is in a crouched position, looking up showing a lack of superiority as the other brother whose face is enlarged is looking straight at us as if to say he's on a mission. There are also a shade of dark lines across the crouching brother which I beleive represent prison bars and I thought this effect was very interesting. I like how the message is put across through just the images and a four line quote. This poster showed me what factors I needed to concentrate on in order to convey my message through the poster

Film Poster Evaluation

After my research I started making my poster using Adobe Photoshop. I wanted the poster to be relatively plainly coloured as the film is set in a prison and my shots were inside mostly plainly coloured rooms and had actors in plainly coloured clothes which shows continuity in the media texts. I already had a plan on how my poster would look and decided I wanted tha main character to be shown boldly as well as having the item of which the film is about which is money. I found a way of getting both the main character and Queen Elizabeth's head on the same poster by taking a picture of my main character and cutting him out from the background using the magic eraser tool. I then placed the cut out picture on a white background I had opened up previously. I did the same to a picture of a diagonally placed 20 pound note that I had taken earlier after enlargening it on 'photoshop'. When using the magic eraser tool on the money picture I erased a bit off the edges and sides of the note to give a better looking effect that gives the feeling of the money being dirty and ruined. The money is being used for criominal activity which is the ruin of moneys true purpose and primarily causing the threat of ruining Sam's hopes of redemption which I decided to represent through the ruin of the note image. I decided that I'd enlargen this image so it would take up most of the white background and in a way act as a new background. I then decided to lower its opacity so that it could be seen faintly which contrasts with the picture of the main character. I liked the fact that when I put both images together, the money was still faintly showing through the face of the character which shows how as a criminal, the greed for money is still inside him also and how the situation of dirty money effects him. I decided to also include my credits on the poster as well as the film caption also shown in the trailer which is 'Dealers still deal, killers still make death over and under... Lizzie's Head.' This further adds to the continuity in the media texts. I decided to leave quite a bit of space to the right hand side of the poster so that Queen Elizabeth's head was more visable and not consumed by too much text. I then began to make space under the title to write the ratings from other media organizations. I decided to put in some speech quotes instead of just rating stars as this would give my audience a further understanding into what the media organizations found good about the film as stars tell you little about what a person actually felt on the movie. At first all my text was in black but I felt I needed to make a little bit brighter to attract more attention and although the poster is not meant to be colourful, it shouldn't be so dull as to not attract attention from my audience. I also wanted to distinguish between the poster's text and the quotes from the media organizations such as the 'Daily Mail' so I decided to change it to a dark red. I did the same for the film caption to balance the colour on the poster a bit more. Lastly, I added the website which is essential as my audience may want to research into the movie before watching it and also added the logo of my distributing and audio company. I chose 'Dolby Digital' because it is a very well known surround sound technology for cinemas which may attract my audience to watch it in movie theatres instead of waiting for it to be released on DVD as there is more thrill when watching a movie with a powerful sound system. I then added on the logo of my distributor which is 'Revolver Entertainment.'


Dispute on the Distributor

I have chosen 'Revolver Entertainment' as my distributor after a series of occasions of picking and changing. At first I was going to present Lions Gate as my distributor and I added the logo to the beginning of my trailer before realizing that Lions Gate is primarily an American company and although they do have a UK branch I decided I'd like a distributor that was known more for its work on my particular genre which is British crime/action. I then changed my distributor to PolyGram Entertainment as they were behind the 1998 Brit-flick 'Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels' but later changed it when doing more research into the company and finding out they had merged with Universal Pictures and changed their name. I then began to do more thorough research and found 'Revolver Entertainment' which had distributed multiple amounts of British crime Thriller and Action movies including 'KiDULTHOOD', 'AdULTHOOD', 'SHANK' and 'DEAD MAN RUNNING'. Through their experience, 'Revolver Entertainment' would know my audience well and be a very effective force when releasing my film to the public. My film would have to have to have a release date that is well calculated so it will not fall within the time periods of other films of the same genre which may take away my audience. The distributors will be in charge of advertisements such as posters, magazine and newspaper features and trailers. Trailers may be shown on televison, the internet and in the cinema before the showing of another film of the same genre. This will make sure that my target audience is aware of it because they'll see it whilst going to watch another film. My distributors may even be in charge of language subtitles if my movie progresses to cinemas in non-English speaking countries.

Magazine cover research

I began to plan my magazine cover once my poster had been made. I looked at popular movie magazines such as Empire. I studied Empire issues like this one that advertises X-Men Origins. I see how a lot of text has filled up the magazine so there is hardly any free space on the front cover. This may be another method of attracting a person to the magazine and teasing them with a bit of information as to what is inside the magazine. I have also seen how the front cover should include one of the main characters and I acknowledged how in this magazine the character is standing triumphantly and is centralized on the page. Many magazines show the characters looking straight at the audience to draw them in but this one shows the character looking ahead as if to say he is on a mission.

Magazine Cover Evaluation

Once I had researched on magazine front covers, I began to make my own using Adobe Photoshop. To show continuity between the three media products I used the main character in the picture instead of the antagonist which was my original thought. I also decided to keep a plain white background and the actor in a white prison shirt. Through study on other magazines such as 'Empire' I learnt that information like the month of issue release, price and website of the magazine is vital. I've followed the current conventions by adding these in but in small text as it is minor information. I also inserted the barcode in the bottom left corner. I also included gossip spoilers on the page which will attract the audience towards wanting to read the interviews and film information inside. I've put the titles in a bold red font to draw readers in, with Lizzie's Head being the biggest since it is the main movie topic of this particular issue. After I had decided to use an image of my main character, I began to decide which one to use. I've used this one because the character looks tough and yet slightly uncomfortable to be in the situation he finds himself which is why he doesnt have a full on frown on his face. The character is holding a gun which gives you more information as to what the film is about. The connotation of the gun shows it as a weapon and reveals the genre film as an action one. The character is looking straight at us and is holding the gun out towards the us which gives a feeling of him inviting the audience into the action. This will draw my audience in. I've decided to name my magazine 'Emotion' for a number of reasons. Firstly it consists of two words which are 'Entertainment' (signified by the golden letter E) and 'Motion' (signified by the rest of the word being in red). The magazine is advertising motion pictures for people's entertainment so I thought it would be clever to put these two words together to make 'Emotion' which also leads to the fact that actors display a character's emotions to create a good performance. I decided to make the font big and bold and have hard edges to display the hardness and roughness of the action film, Lizzie's Head.

2.What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After the editing of my trailer was complete I decided to present it to my target audience and find out their thoughts through a short questionnaire. All these people were action movie watchers from ages 16-20 which are the main ages I'll be targetting as it cannot be younger due to the violence and drug use displayed in the film and it is mostly teenagers and young adults that are into such types of action movies and 50% of cinema watchers are between the ages of 15 and 24. My audience being questioned consisted of both genders and they all knew what features they looked for in such a film.

I conducted this questionnaire similar to a media examination as I seated everyone down with the question sheet in front of a wide screen. I connected my computer to this screen and played the trailer on it and they were told to watch the trailer through once before answering any questions except the first one. After a little pause to write their ideas I let them see it again and in total they watched it 3 times.



Question 1: The title of this film is 'Lizzie's Head'. Before you watch the trailer, what are your impressions of the trailer from the title?

Most people wrote that their first thoughts was of it being very bloody and involving a young girls head being cut off or mutilated. Others thought it was a psychological thriller or a murder mystery. Some even thought it had sexual references and a few almost felt it concerned an anti-monarchy conspiricy. This idea made me happier as they had at least thought about the possibilities of 'Lizzie' representing Queen Elizabeth.

I was concerned with the other ideas at first and saw why they could easily be lead into those ideas. It was strange how all where an action film audience and immediately some jumped to the conclusions of it being psychological thrillers and murder mysteries although some did think it was action but still involving gory features as only Lizzie's 'head' was mentioned in the title. This may have made them wonder what happened to the rest of the body provoking thoughts of bloody scenes or murder mysteries.

Question 2: If they are different, what are your impressions of the title now that you have watched the trailer?

After watching the trailer everyone understood what it was about and why I decided to name it 'Lizzie's Head'. The trailer clarifies the reason for the title through the captions and also the last scene (a zoom in shot on Queen Elizabeth's picture on the twenty pound note). Everybody understood immediately that it was a slang for money and referred to the queen's head on notes and they liked it and thought it was very clever and catchy. In my opinion the title was successful as even though initially it was confusing, the trailer did well to explain it and everyone liked it. Some even admitted that the confusion caused before viewing the trailer made them want to see it even more as there were so many possibilities to how such a title could be used.


Question 3: Please rank the following in order 1-5 which stood out the most and then rate the following five categories out of 10:- Camera shots, music (non-diegetic sound), acting, costumes and realism of the fight scenes.

Answers involving the category that stood out the most were very varied. The least outstanding feature seemed to be the costumes. This is understandable as for most of the trailer all actors were in a plain white shirt and dark trousers. Many stereotypical prison outfits include yellow or orange jump suits which are a brighter colour. I could not obtain such material so I chose to go for a plainer approach that may possibly have looked less professional but indeed helped to achieve my goal in making prisoners look dull and giving the impression of them blending in with one another making them look like nothing more than identical 'scum' inside prison walls. I didnt want the prisoners to stand out with bright colours and the dullness also reflects their moods as most are dull and unhappy about their situation which causes them to bully other inmates or make their stay more pleasant by getting richer.

As far as rating each categorie, most rated the music highly as they felt it fitted the mood of the trailer. All categories were mostly rated highly as people were impressed with the variation in camera shots, realism of the fight scenes and even the costumes. People also highly rated the acting also although this did get the lowest rating which was a 5 from one person within the audience.



Question 4: What did you understand from the storyline? i.e what you were able to interpret was the main storyline of the film.

Most peope understood the skeleton of the story after seeing the trailer. They understood that the film was about one man's fight for survival in prison, and his journey for redemption. They understood that he was out to make a life changing decision for his family but I purposely didn't present the idea of him trying to make it out on parole so as to create the feeling that he is locked in with his enemies for the longest possible amount of time which makes the audience even more sympathetic for him. My audience also didn't know which decision he'd make as his life was frequently threatened. This was good as I didn't want them to know or even be able to guess correctly the out come of the story before watching the full movie.



Question 5: Were you able to read the captions in time before it changed to the next scene?

I had carefully timed my captions after complaints that they were too quick to read when I was still in the process of editing the trailer. My audience were satisfied with the amount of time the captions spent on screen as they were able to read all the text. One person even said some captions stayed on the screen too long but I had done this purposely to add tension to the trailer before it sped up.


Question 6: Did the music fit the trailer?

Most of my audience were impressed with the choice of soundtrack and the timing of it. I quote one who said "it was grimey, dirty, dark and fitted the prison setting well." I was happy with this response and most people rated the music between 8 and 10.


Question 7: Did the location look like a prison to you?

Many people who go to my school laughed at the sight of the school building being used as a prison and were very much interested to see how I depicted the prison setting. They were impressed with the areas of the school I had shot and agreed that the location did look like a prison. I quote one who said, "Yes, uncoloured bricks, white dirty walls, small messy rooms." I was happy that I was successful in this area as it is a main part of the mise-en-scene.



Question 8: What do you look for in an action movie?

This is a question I had previously asked my target audience before filming and I decided to bring back the question to see if they could find relations with their action imaginations and my trailer. These are a summary of what people said:

Fights, tension, a character with a dark motive, emotions, psychological depth and realism, car chases, drugs, sexy females etc.

My audience and I agreed that most of these areas appeared in the trailer and things that didn't e.g car chases were simply because of where the trailer was set. The idea of sexy females was brought up as well and although there is no 'blonde bombshell' in a skin tight outfit, there is a love interest for the main character who is his girlfriend seen in the arrest and prison visit scene and she is a pretty woman as my audience would agree.



Question 9: What was your favourate part of the trailer?

Answers to this, as you can image, varied immensely although it was interesting to see which scene caught people the most. As action fans many people presented certain action packed scenes as there best e.g. the telephone strangling scene. There were also others who loved the camera movement and show of emotion in the scene where the main character reveals a gun from a towel and there were people who shared my opinion on the best scene which was the low angle shot on the main character in motorcycle gear as he fires a gun. There were also people who particularly liked the emotion shown in the scenes and one when describing the medium close up on the main character in prayer said, "I liked the shot of the protagonist praying in front of the wall with the tally marks. It summed up the film for me."



Question 10: Is there any advice or criticism you would like to add?

This was probably the most important question directed to my target audience in this questionnaire and thankfully most of them were satisfied and didn't offer any criticism but the few that did were very helpful. One person said that there should be slightly more impressive lighting. I agreed with this to an extent as I thought that lighting could have been better in the baseball bat scene and the scene where the antagonist is jacked up against the wall. Also the fact that the actor being used was dark skinned was a big factor and the camera being used was not always strong enough to pick out all his features. I do, however, like some of the light lackage as in the baseball bat scene it shows an evil, mysterious side to the character.

Another person said that "the story could have been a tad clearer." This was interesting as most people seemed to understand the basic story line but I liked the fact that this viewer was a little confused as the conventions of a real trailer are to tease the audience with the action and not spoon feed them the whole story. This meant my trailer wasn't giving away too much information as it was not meant to be 100% clear in the first place.

This questionnaire proved very helpful and the target audience was overall happy with my trailer and agreed it was a film they would be interested in watching.

3.What I have learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have constantly learnt new things whilst making these three products. I have improved my use of Photoshop especially when making the film poster. I started with very little knowledge on construction of videos in Corel Video maker but I quickly adapted to it and enjoyed finding out new things as I worked with the program. A lot of work on the video was done through experimentation. In my research process I used websites such as youtube and used blogger.com to write a journal. I quite enjoyed using technology such as video cameras and digital cameras. I knew how thwe cameras fuctioned so I experimented with different shots and learnt new ways to use the camera which was very important.

Google is the most popular search engine in the world and it is used to gather information about everything and anything. It is used by typing a word into the search bar and then it brings together all the information it can find relating to what is typed. I used it to find out more about teaser trailers, their production complanies and action movies in general. I have learnt better ways to research media products and good media product websites through using this site.

Photoshop is a program used to manipulate images. Through this program one can change a digital image in almost anyway possible and fuse them with more than one other image. I used Photoshop to create two of my media products through different effects like adding text to my images and changing the brightness of images. I also fused images together on one canvas page when presenting screenshots as movie stills. My skills have improved through constant use of this program and I am very confident with it.


Blogger.com is a website where people can write their ideas and views about anything. It can also be used to write stories and, in this case, journals. You can write anything in your blog and post it so it is vailable for the world to read. I used my blog as a journal of the process of creating my media products. It has been very useful and I have learnt to use it more efficiently and organize my thoughts better when writing. Using the blogger has been more useful than writing an essay as you can add videos and pictures to a blog which helps you further explain your point. You can also write about a thing as you do it as it is perfect for writing through day by day progression through a task.



Corel Video Studio is a program used to edit digital videos and put them together. You can add and remove sound from a video, change the speed, quality, length and visability of the video. Text can also be added to a series of clips which is how I made my movie trailer. I used this program to create my trailer by cutting my clips down and arranging them in a story line as well as adding text to seperate some of the scenes from each other. This was very fun to work with and I have learnt how to use this program well as I also had no skill with it before this course.