Our media products have been created to have the main conventions of real media products. At the start of our project investigations into the main features of magazine covers, film trailers and film posters where researched. Knowing what sells and what doesn't is very important when creating any of these products. We all as individuals explored popular, successful existing film trailers, posters and magazine covers. We each completed deconstructions that are evident in our blogs. As a group we decided that we wanted our products to be successful and typical of the media industry. This was to keep our products as realist as possible so that they would market well and take the form of previous existing media.
Below is a link to the web site containing the top rated horror movies up to date. This was/is voted by the public. This was very helpful in helping me to do some market research for our products, it contains a description of the film and also had the option to watch the trailer at a click of a button, this was very useful.
http://www.filmcrave.com/list_genre_movie.php?genre=Horror
The structure of each product was an important area, the deconstructions showed us that existing media products followed a general structure in each area. All of the magazine covers and posters within our genre had a typical similar style and layout. Most of the film trailers also had the same structure but varied in length,sound and effect. We considered the general structure of each product when designing and creating our poster, trailer and magazine cover.
With our film trailer the editing process tended to be a difficult process,it was hard to get unprofessional footage to look professional with very high standards. We all knew what was expected of us when creating a film trailer after researching,the transitions between action,dialogue and text was a basic need and our film trailer was to consist of this. We put together all the main features of a trailer and created a climax that would entice the audience, I feel that our trailer successfully used all the techniques needed and overall was a great attempt at a realistic film trailer.
For our ancillary products we knew that we would be able to create them to a higher standard, these would look more professional as the editing process wasn't as complex, we stuck to the basic rules and structures of existing ancillary products. The technology we was able to use for this editing was of a higher standard than the trailer editing process. We wanted them to be original with our own style but to follow the conventions of real products and appeal to a wide audience.
Generally we came up with challenging and developing ideas but we used the forms and conventions of real media products to make our products a success.
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| Our magazine cover conventions comparison |
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| forms and conventions of an existing magazine cover |
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The film trailer we created plays a large part in the advertising of the film. This trailer enables the audience to see a small part of the film in order to reach out to them, the trailer creates unanswered questions and draws the audience into thinking about if they would like to go at watch the film. Even if the film does not appeal to the person watching it they may know someone that it will.
Unlike the trailer that presents 2 minuets of footage to entice the audience the film poster only has one image. This has to be a main image that stands out to the audience, the fact that the image is memorable or not can depend on the success of the film overall. Our film poster clearly shows the genre of the film and also raises questions. The title being in large writing helps the audience to remember the name of the film and tell others. The picture from the poster links directly to the end of the trailer in that the same image is produced. It gives a direct link to the plot without giving too much away.
The magazine cover also presents a challenge like the poster but can contain more information about the film itself. The magazine cover didn't have to be as gory or as effective as the poster as the people that buy the magazine already have an interest in what it contains. Our magazine cover needed to contain hints of the film that would be revealed inside, we wanted it to be glossy and stylish like existing magazine covers. The magazine cover also had a direct link to the film trailer as it contained the 3 main characters and presented the situation they were in. The large image of the 3 characters took up the whole cover as is a great selling point as it is completely different to any cover i have seen before.
The combination of the trailer and the ancillary products took three individual selling points and combined them as a huge marketing project. It is important to have more than one advertising aspect as it will produce more coverage to a larger audience. I feel that this is a very successful combination, all advertising world wide consists of more than one marketing scheme. I feel that any film wouldn't become a success without posters,trailers or magazine covers I feel our combination worked well because we used a range of images and effects to portray the main plot/features in our film and the genre was clear through out. Our products have a large range of advertising ability and as a group enjoyed producing such a range of products.
3.What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
At the beginning of the research into the media products we were going to produce we made qualitative and quantitative questionnaires, this was to determined our target audience and the most popular structures behind the trailer.
The research taken was important as we found out what the audience wanted to see. If we created something the audience didn't want to see then we would fail our task. We took all the feedback into consideration and stuck to the founded information.
After completing the film trailer, poster and magazine cover several people have seen the products and agreed that they feel it is successful in advertising. The majority of the people who watch the trailer said that they would be interested in watching the whole film. They also stated that the magazine cover and poster were very convincing and realistic and they feel that they would read about the film in the magazine or stop to look at the release date on the poster.
As an individual i feel i have have learnt that taking peoples opinions into consideration is key to producing a successful product. I feel our products are successful in meeting the demands of the audience research.
4.How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Research: As technology is for ever expanding and becoming more and more technical with new modern age apps,systems and equipment, just by producing coursework has come so far, from a simple text book, pen and paper to students like me producing coursework on blogs using visual and virtual aides. This technology allows anybody to create high quality images and videos with the touch of a button. The producers of magazine covers, posters and trailers have a large amount of expert computer systems to aid them in creating air brushed, height quality images used in modern society.
After before
This technology aided us in the research and deconstructions of existing products, we were able to collect high quality images of existing magazine covers, posters and to watch professional film trailers at the click of a button. Websites such as youtube and google images where great resources. We was also able to create questionnaires and results graphs of programs like Microsoft word and Microsoft excel.
Select the link below to view a prezi presentation of the advantages and disadvantages of media technologies:
/http://prezi.com/exwpwu5ydzga/media-technology/
Planning: Technology aided us in the planning of our products, we were able to take photographs of the filming locations to insert into our blogs. We were also able scan in sketches of any storyboards, magazine covers and poster ideas we had. Particularly in my case i was able to use the programmes fireworks and paint to design and experiment with colour, text font and images in the production of our film poster and magazine cover. The editing of the footage taken with the video camera and tripod allowed us to create the effects of a realistic film trailer without any large difficulties.
Font experimentation
Font experimentation
Font experimentation
Font experimentation
Font experimentation
Evaluation stages were simple as just a typed post was needed to put across our opinions and information about what we had done through out the project.
