The Finished Primary Task

Below is a copy of our final film trailer for 'Press Enter'. From research to planning, creating, editing and evaluation. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable task in which I have learnt loads about the film industry and producing a trailer through all the steps. Our team is really happy with our finished piece, it has required a lot of editing and tweaks, but we have all worked well together and I hope you have enjoyed reading my work and watching the trailer below, thank you.

The Finished Ancillary Tasks

Below is a copy of my final ancillary tasks for our film 'Press Enter'. I have created a film poster and magazine cover and am really happy with how they are in their completed form. It has taken a lot of time researching, planning, editing and evaluating but I am pleased with the authentic look of my finished pieces. 

Evaluation - Question Four

"How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?" In this Google Slides presentation below I discuss the different software and hardware used in every stage of this project and my opinion of them and what I have learnt since the start of the year.

Evaluation - Question Three

"What have you learnt from your audience feedback?". I believe that audience feedback is quite possibly the most crucial part of making a media product. I have used audience feedback all the way back to my research task and continue to use it, I used it to determine my film poster, etc, I think it is of extreme value. Apple are known to do a huge level of market audience when making their products and despite the high prices and strong competition, their sales continue to increase. I wanted to conduct my research in multiple ways to get a lot of feedback. Recently, in Sociology, another one of my A Level subjects, we have been looking at different research methods and in particular the benefits of quantitative research compared to qualitative and vice-versa. For this task I decided to carry out some of each and have done along the way so that I could create a product that I was happy with as well as one that appeals most importantly to the consumer. A little while back, I did a blog post about my cousin Russell who has his own filming company, he gave our team some valuable advice and told me to send him the final copy when it was completed. I did just that and his feedback was extremely valuable to us. He told us that he really liked the trailer but felt the areas for improvement were fixing the lip sync errors between Liam speaking and the audio and to also tone down the phone call affect with the Prime Minister as it was hard to listen to. We re-watched our trailer and could agree with the points Russell made and so edited the film trailer, re-rendered and uploaded to YouTube, this shows how valuable feedback can be.

I also decided to send the video to lots of people that fit within the target audience bracket for their qualitative feedback to both the trailer and my ancillary tasks, I feel quantitative isn't as useful because it doesn't suggest what to improve but it does allow for wide-scale responses but in the case of a film trailer and ancillaries it is not effective as they are visual and highly subjective to one's opinion. Below is a recording of the feedback and results we received from Grace and Tim and how we plan to use this feedback.



To extend opinions and criticisms, I also asked a number of peers that fall into our target audience bracket for their opinion on my film poster, magazine cover and trailer. Below are pictures of the happy consumers and their opinions.

To conclude, I continue to believe that target audience feedback is extremely important and useful. I asked so many people and got an extremely positive set of results. I am really happy with the final product and feel that I took on-board all the feedback that I have received throughout the task and year.

Evaluation - Question Two

"How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?". I had thought a lot about this evaluation question during the task as I have always wanted my trailer and ancillary tasks to work well together, I felt the best way to discuss my views on the connection between them and what I would have changed would be through this attached voice clip below. The main and ancillary tasks can be seen as completed, at the top of my blog.

Evaluation - Question One

"In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?". In the presentation below, I explore my media product and compare it to the conventions of real products and decide which parts use, develop or challenge those traditional forms.

Film Trailer - Stages of Development

The first stage of editing the film trailer was to find suitable clips of current news and make a montage for the very beginning. We firstly created a minute long sample of clips and put a filter and music on them to make it fit the theme of our film [1], we knew that the introduction to the trailer couldn't be this long but it allowed us to have options for later debate. We then created the first part of the trailer, it was not a perfect version but was a good start to the project in our eyes [2]. However, feed back from peers and family taught us that the plot was not clear enough and that the trailer needed work through reconstructing the order of scenes. The film trailer construction has been changed since the first edits and storyboard. I feel that making a plot clear through a trailer is a difficult task as naturally the ones making it know the plot inside out, so it is easy to forget how the story will be seen by a viewer who has no pre-knowledge of the films plot. As a group, we looked back at our storyboard and clips that we have recorded and considered how we could rearrange the events in the trailer using the same clips and basis. We did this by looking at the storyboard and rearranging the steps as shown below as well as stripping back on unneeded scenes as we were starting to get a sense of how long each part should be to keep the audience engaged, [3]. Although the changes we made were time consuming it meant that our finished trailer will make more sense and it is paramount that the trailer creates mystery but not confusion to audiences. The rearranged storyboard and first edits are attached below.

[1]

[2]

The Blooper Reel

Throughout the project, it's fair to say we've had a lot of fun. We have enjoyed the processes of the task and working as a team has proved a success as we are friends outside of lesson meaning our communication is good, teamwork is good and we are able to have a laugh during production making the task a whole lot more enjoyable for both us and the cast. We have put together a YouTube video with some of the outtakes from filming our trailer, enjoy.

Choosing a Final Film Poster

I have shown the research, planning and development of my film poster throughout the year. I am now left with two film posters that I am happy with but am undecided as to which I prefer. 'Poster A' was the first I created which has black 'Press' text and a darker edging to the poster. I feel this makes the film trailer seem more dark in tone, which it is, but the text could be harder to read. 'Poster B' has white 'Press' text and a lighter edging to the poster than 'A'. I feel the white text looks good as it matches some other text on the poster and is easier to read but may not have the same impression of fear and darkness that 'A' presents. I decided the best way to decide which poster to use would be to ask people both male and female to get a general consensus. I will also ask a range of ages however the majority will be of the bracket of 16-24 as this is our primary target audience. This will be easy to quantify to find the favourite. I will also ask people their opinions in more depth to find out what they like about their chosen favourite and why they prefer it to the other.

Picture A and B

Opinion Research

Hannah Barfoot (21) - "I prefer Poster B with the white text as it stands out as clearer to the eye and you can easily see the whole title straight away. The black 'Press' makes it a little difficult to notice as the eye focuses too much on the red 'Enter'".

Oliver Riches (18) - "Poster B looks more professional as the white text matches the names at the top and makes the poster consistent. I also feel the dark edges of Poster A mean the poster doesn't stand out enough".

Joshua Bailey (18) - "I think that Poster B stands out more and would look suitable in more places, it can be easily read on a computer, paper and on a bus, etc, because of its lighter colours".

Benjamin Glanville (17) - "I prefer Poster A because black looks a more appropriate colour to use. The white text looks too upbeat and given the nature of the story, not sinister enough".

Feedback Results
I asked the question, 'Which film poster do you prefer, and why?'. The pie chart above shows the results with a win for Poster B with the lighter surrounding and text with 29/40 compared to the 11/40 that Poster A received. I felt this win was significant and so decided that Poster B would be the one I used. Some feedback is shown below the chart explaining peoples decisions. Based on this majority and the opinions given, I have chosen to use Poster B. I agree with the comments made and although I can understand the appeal to Poster A, a decision has to be made and for my project. In both my project and real life media, the most effective method to make decisions is by asking your target audience, and this is the method I have taken.

Constructing a Film Poster

In this post below I discuss and show the different stages of making my film poster. It explains the photos I used, and how I edited them using Adobe Photoshop. When making the poster, I was always sure to look back at my plan to guide me so that I could remain focused. The video is attached below and discusses the decisions I made, how I edited the poster using Photoshop and an issue I had due to computer hardware and how I intend to resolve this.

 

Constructing a Magazine Cover

I decided to make a post about making my magazine cover. The presentation below discusses the stages of making it and the tools that I used on Photoshop to make the magazine to a good standard and produced in a way that looked like the plan I had previously sketched.

 

Ancillary Task Planning - Film Poster

As with the magazine cover, I felt that an ideal place to begin my planning for my film poster would be to review all the research I undertook at the beginning of the year. From looking back at this, some of the key points I read were:

• The text should be stylish and fitting to the film, but also clear.
• The main focus should be the characters.
• Any other focus should be on subtle equipment and props.
• Include generic features such as cast names and a billing board.
• Make sure that the colours work well together and the poster is not seen as over the top and instead sticks to a few dominant colours.

With this in mind, I decided to roughly design three different posters using the user-friendly program of Microsoft Paint and ask my friends and family of the target audiences age on their thoughts. The designs were rough but would allow for me to decide a format which I feel is an important starting point for designing a poster. The designs do not show the picture of Joe playing the character of Liam as I explained that it is assumed that a large picture of the main character would fill the gaps. I wanted a large quantified number that would be easy to understand so I simply questioned people which template is most authentic and preferable to them and received the below results.

Now that I have decided my template, I felt I should find a suitable picture of Joe to use. I have previously blogged a range of pictures I have taken of Joe throughout the task and now I need to decide which is most engaging and appropriate. From my research, I have decided and believe that a poster with Joe making eye contact with the camera is most engaging and can also lead to people feeling uncomfortable and given the severity and tense aspects of our film trailer and concept, this is fitting. I reviewed all the pictures I had of Joe and decided to edit and use the attached picture below. With my template and image decided, I decided to roughly draw how I imagine my poster to look below.

 

Ancillary Task Planning - Magazine Cover

As with a lot of tasks, planning is a very important stage so that the production of a product stays focused and precise. There is a risk that with no planning, the film trailer or ancillary tasks could appear unplanned, rushed or may have contingency errors. Planning also allows for the production time to be cut as there is a clear direction for the task. The first step I wanted to undertake in my planning was to carry out some further research. I have already researched how magazine covers are created and their features but felt some further reason into the format would help my to draw a layout.



By looking at the templates above, I decided to design an initial template and with that decide what would belong on each part of the magazine cover. I made the template on Microsoft Paint as shown below. I then printed this template and wrote the contents of each area within the boxes. I decided the rough text that would be used as well as colours and fonts.

I feel at this point, I understand the norms and conventions used by magazine producers and felt I could produce something that felt authentic and followed the customs. I decided to draw a picture of how I would like the magazine cover to look, from this I have something to copy when using Photoshop, which will save thinking-time and reduces the risk of making both textual mistakes and continuity errors. The picture I drew is attached below which shows how I envision my magazine cover to look like.

Taking Pictures

Before considering the exact type of picture I would like to use of Joe for both my magazine cover and film poster, I felt it was important to take many photos in many locations. By taking lots of photos, I would be able to look through them all afterwards and consider which photos are most appropriate. By having a folder full of photos of Joe, I will be able to be picky and decide which location, expression and clothing looks most suitable for the task. I made sure to take different photos of Joe and Maria everywhere we went so I would have many options when it came to creating my ancillary tasks. The photos can be seen below.

Day One of Filming - Vlog

I decided to make a vlog discussing the events of the first day of filming. We've had a fun and busy day and the video below is me discussing it as well as some still photos from the day.

Filming Schedule

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