Evaluation

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

These images strongly display how my media product uses, developed and challenges forms and conventions of real media products as they highlighted and emphasize the key elements and ideas which surround these products.

Analysis of Film Magazine

Analysis of First Poster

 

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

In this blog entry I shall be explaining how I tried to and successfully achieved to convey a brand identity with consistency across my three piece of work throughout A2. I first began analyzing and evaluating other popular horror and thriller movies, along side with their posters and trailers. This helped me to gain a stronger insight into how promotional packaging, and continuity, can be achieved successfully further helping the audience to understand the themes of the film and make links between the trailer and promotional packaging. As a group we personally decided to create two posters along side our trailer and magazine cover, one being darker than the other. This in turn gave us more of a chance to display the themes within our trailer and the generic conventions which surround it, without giving too much of the plot or film ideas away. We used a more Gothic and generic horror/thriller looking font for our promotional package, illustrating in text the genre of our film and making the title very identifiable without just the use of images of the actress. Our unique selling point was a simple yet effective one of "based on true events", thus our film gained more depth and realism which enhances the sense of fear and terror before much more is known about it. This fear is then reinforced by the tag line of "If dreams can come true, so can nightmares" which further establishes what the film is about and how the audience are meant to perceive the film, genre and what the basic plot is. The colour schemes we used were predominantly quite dark, further emphasizing the elements of horror and Gothic and the key images used are that which are quite menacing and intense.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to gain essential audience feedback, we conducted focus groups for both our draft and final teaser trailer, helping us to gain a strong level of audience feedback and critical perspectives towards our work. In the beginning of our A level in Media our audience research and feedback skills were very limited, to things such as questionnaires and open interviews. However, by the time we reached A2 we have gained more knowledge and insight into the professional Media world, further enhancing our skills and allowing us to hold focus groups with more than one person, allowing our audience to feel more comfortable and able to say their true opinions. Essentially our Draft Teaser Trailer helped me to gain the depth and insight to successfully change and establish a stronger Teaser Trailer.

 Click the image to view our first focus group!

This is our final focus group recording.

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

Throughout my AS and A2 course in Media Studies I have been able to use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of my coursework. My initial in AS research was done by watching DVDs with David Hepworth talking about his contributions into the Music Magazine world and how the media industry had been effected over the past few years, this in turn helped to give me more of an insight into the real media industry and how things have progressed over the past few years. I also conducted research into magazines such as Mojo, Q, NME and Kerrang! via the internet, helping me to gain vital statistics about sales and which was the most popular and unpopular magazine over the years. I then later used these research skills in A2 whilst we watched the construction of the film poster for Goal!, which helped us to understand more thoroughly the process behind creating a successful and effective poster for any film. I also conducted institutional research into specific areas of the media world to achieve a greater knowledge of what companies would be involved with my film to give my work a stronger sense of realism. Without completing this area of research using new media technologies I would've been unable to successfully complete my course and understand the full extent of my work.

After conducting vital and important research using new media technologies I was able to begin my planning of my AS and A2 coursework, my planning was mostly conducted through Microsoft Word and PowerPoint as these allowed me to create successful plans and creative ways of presenting my work. Without these new media technologies I wouldn't have been unable to display my work in a new, creative and positive way which helped to contribute to my work overall.

Once all research and planning was completed using new media technologies I was able to begin the actual construction and creation of my film teaser trailer and promotional package, which it wouldn't have been possible to successfully create these without my access to new media technologies. I used still cameras to capture most of the essential shots which I used for my music magazine in AS and my A2 promotional package, and later in A2 I then used the Sony HD1000 camera to film all footage for my teaser film trailer. Access to these new media technologies gave me the best chance of successfully achieving good quality images and footage, which I may have been unable to obtain if I wouldn't have had access to these. Once the initial process of capturing the footage and taking the images I was then able to use new media technologies such as PhotoShop, PremierPro and AfterEffects. These pieces of new media technology further enabled me to produce the most effective work to the best of my ability using new media technologies.

After completing the first draft our our teaser trailer I was able to construct my first focus group with a few people viewing and then talking about my trailer in a constructive manner. I held this focus group in the media suite on the SmartBoard, whilst recording with the Song HD1000 cameras, this enabled me to successfully create a helpful and constructive focus group and the skills I learnt from this enabled me to further hold a more successful focus group for my final draft. Using this new media technology I was able to hold successful and effective focus groups which I could later use for my evaluation.

In both AS and A2 to present my work in a new and creative way, I hosted my work on blogger which enabled me to save my work online easily. Using this media technology allowed me to collect all work which I have completed in a manner which was productive and imaginative way, which was simpler than creating a paper portfolio. Overall, I used new media technologies creatively and successfully without losing the stronger elements which may have been difficult to obtain through other means of production and technologies.