Friday, 7 January 2011
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Some Audience Feedback on our coursework as a whole.
Here are some words that the audience has said about our work. We wanted to do something
funky with it so we but it all onto wordle!If you click on the link you will see some very
positive feedback we gained from our audience.
Our Poster Evaluation
We have been researching a lot of posters to get ideas for our own poster.
(this was meant to be before the blog about our final poster but was saved, therefore comes up after the post)
http://www.allcitymedia.com/ Here is a link that we have been looking at, there is a lot of posters on here which we can look at to make sure we get the conventions right!
I have already looked at some horror posters (very start of the blog) and also analysed the single white female poster which we took some ideas from.
This is what we noticed about the conventions of advertising posters.
* There is a statement about the film to get the viewers attention and to get them
interested on the film that is being advertised. This is usually a contrasting colour to make it stand out more.
* The font usually is to do with the genre, e.g. italics and bubble writing for rom-coms and ghostly writing for the horror and thriller films. This is what we did with our title 'Tracing Steps'.
* Usually a colour Scheme, In our the colours on the poster are bright and lighter, the colours for the fonts are a deep purple and white.
* There is a list of the actors and actresses names usually on the top or bottom of the poster.
* The main image is usually to do with the genre. We really like our main picture as Charlotte looks actually crazy but we edited so the audience couldn't see her very well - adding mystery to the poster.
Charlotte is also wearing grey and dark colours to show her evil and dark personality, it wouldn't of worked if she was wearing bright and happy colours!
* Sometimes the poster will have ratings such as how many stars it has *****
or quotes from critics telling the audience how good the film is.
We chose not to have this in our poster but we do have the actors and actresses names.
We really like our poster, thinking it looks real and professional.
We had some feedback from some teens on what they thought and they all agreed it looked really creepy and persuaded them to go and watch the film. One agreed that the look of the oblivious expression on Summers face made the viewer tense as she does not know what is behind her. We wanted to make this the intended feel of the film so were happy with the outcome.
One thing that they said we could improve on is that it is not really clear of the names of the actresses because of the colours. However, we tried our best to make them stand out it was just quite hard with all the objects in the way (for example the door handle) and the different colours. We felt if we wanted to have that bright and warm colour on our main picture it would be hard trying to find a right colour for the writing. We played around for a long while deciding where to have writing and colours and eventually came out with our best outcome.
We also felt that the simplicity of our poster helped add to the theme 'mystery' which is what we wanted to put across and so that it went well with the overall theme of the trailer.
(this was meant to be before the blog about our final poster but was saved, therefore comes up after the post)
http://www.allcitymedia.com/ Here is a link that we have been looking at, there is a lot of posters on here which we can look at to make sure we get the conventions right!
I have already looked at some horror posters (very start of the blog) and also analysed the single white female poster which we took some ideas from.
This is what we noticed about the conventions of advertising posters.
* There is a statement about the film to get the viewers attention and to get them
interested on the film that is being advertised. This is usually a contrasting colour to make it stand out more.
* The font usually is to do with the genre, e.g. italics and bubble writing for rom-coms and ghostly writing for the horror and thriller films. This is what we did with our title 'Tracing Steps'.
* Usually a colour Scheme, In our the colours on the poster are bright and lighter, the colours for the fonts are a deep purple and white.
* There is a list of the actors and actresses names usually on the top or bottom of the poster.
* The main image is usually to do with the genre. We really like our main picture as Charlotte looks actually crazy but we edited so the audience couldn't see her very well - adding mystery to the poster.
Charlotte is also wearing grey and dark colours to show her evil and dark personality, it wouldn't of worked if she was wearing bright and happy colours!
* Sometimes the poster will have ratings such as how many stars it has *****
or quotes from critics telling the audience how good the film is.
We chose not to have this in our poster but we do have the actors and actresses names.
We really like our poster, thinking it looks real and professional.
We had some feedback from some teens on what they thought and they all agreed it looked really creepy and persuaded them to go and watch the film. One agreed that the look of the oblivious expression on Summers face made the viewer tense as she does not know what is behind her. We wanted to make this the intended feel of the film so were happy with the outcome.
One thing that they said we could improve on is that it is not really clear of the names of the actresses because of the colours. However, we tried our best to make them stand out it was just quite hard with all the objects in the way (for example the door handle) and the different colours. We felt if we wanted to have that bright and warm colour on our main picture it would be hard trying to find a right colour for the writing. We played around for a long while deciding where to have writing and colours and eventually came out with our best outcome.
We also felt that the simplicity of our poster helped add to the theme 'mystery' which is what we wanted to put across and so that it went well with the overall theme of the trailer.
Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main task and subsidiary tasks?
Our trailer was put together by inspiration from a lot of existing film trailers. Taking some shots, and scenes and ideas from trailers like fatal attraction, the roommate, obsessed and single white female made the whole thing work well. The trailer, I believe, is the most important part of the advertising as it gives away the main storyline and can use different tricks and codes to encourage and persuade the viewer to go and see the film.
The poster is really meant to attract the audience by 'reminding' the audience to go and see the film. It can be a simple and effective or busy and packed depending on what the producer of the poster thinks would be best to go with the trailer. Our trailer has the theme of obsession but also 'mystery', so we didn't want our poster to be too packed and busy, we wanted it to fit in well the theme and felt that we portrayed the film well. We used a main picture which gives a bit of the storyline, had the actresses names on it, the title of the film and the tag-line slanted down the top of the door. We made sure everything we did looked good and conventional.
We researched posters in depth, as well as magazine covers and trailers, and feel that all work well as they fit in well with the convention of each text.
The magazine is meant to really promote the film, giving interviews from the actress or actor so when a reader sees it, it may encourage them to go see the film, or simple be a 'fan' of the actor/actress and that is why they are reading it.
We chose a black and white theme, as some film magazines have this too. We went for a consistent colour scheme and font which is conventional and we tried to make it look sophisticated and for a higher socio-economic group. The close up of the actresses face is very beautiful, attracting males and females and the magazine looks very realistic. We feel that the magazine and the poster go well as the actress 'Summer' is the main girl for both products and in one she looks herself and normal (the magazine cover) and the other she is Summer and is acting (the poster). We wanted to promote our film in a classy way and feel that the magazine helps us to achieve this.
The films we researched for our trailer were also the films we researched for our poster and I believe having the same texts for inspiration means all the tasks link better as a whole. For example we took inspiration from 'Single White Female' and also looked at the poster for this and analysed it. This means that the texts fit together well making them all effective as a whole. We used consisting fonts in the trailer, poster and magazine to give it that in-house style and to show how all three texts link together to promote the same film. Even if we couldn't find the exact font, we looked through each one carefully to find the nearest thing. You can see that in each texts, the title 'Tracing Steps' and 'June 2011' is the same in each one, which we felt was very important to do.
Another reason why our tasks work well is the fact that we all stuck to the conventions. Because we researched and planned thoroughly we were able to make our own texts look realistic and professional. We think that the proper use of equipment helped gain us better looking coursework e.g. the pictures we took were on a very high quality camera and the composition was thought of very carefully.
I have learnt a lot through the making of my three tasks, as well as the planning, production and evaluating in all aspects of different media texts.
The poster is really meant to attract the audience by 'reminding' the audience to go and see the film. It can be a simple and effective or busy and packed depending on what the producer of the poster thinks would be best to go with the trailer. Our trailer has the theme of obsession but also 'mystery', so we didn't want our poster to be too packed and busy, we wanted it to fit in well the theme and felt that we portrayed the film well. We used a main picture which gives a bit of the storyline, had the actresses names on it, the title of the film and the tag-line slanted down the top of the door. We made sure everything we did looked good and conventional.
We researched posters in depth, as well as magazine covers and trailers, and feel that all work well as they fit in well with the convention of each text.
The magazine is meant to really promote the film, giving interviews from the actress or actor so when a reader sees it, it may encourage them to go see the film, or simple be a 'fan' of the actor/actress and that is why they are reading it.
We chose a black and white theme, as some film magazines have this too. We went for a consistent colour scheme and font which is conventional and we tried to make it look sophisticated and for a higher socio-economic group. The close up of the actresses face is very beautiful, attracting males and females and the magazine looks very realistic. We feel that the magazine and the poster go well as the actress 'Summer' is the main girl for both products and in one she looks herself and normal (the magazine cover) and the other she is Summer and is acting (the poster). We wanted to promote our film in a classy way and feel that the magazine helps us to achieve this.
The films we researched for our trailer were also the films we researched for our poster and I believe having the same texts for inspiration means all the tasks link better as a whole. For example we took inspiration from 'Single White Female' and also looked at the poster for this and analysed it. This means that the texts fit together well making them all effective as a whole. We used consisting fonts in the trailer, poster and magazine to give it that in-house style and to show how all three texts link together to promote the same film. Even if we couldn't find the exact font, we looked through each one carefully to find the nearest thing. You can see that in each texts, the title 'Tracing Steps' and 'June 2011' is the same in each one, which we felt was very important to do.
Another reason why our tasks work well is the fact that we all stuck to the conventions. Because we researched and planned thoroughly we were able to make our own texts look realistic and professional. We think that the proper use of equipment helped gain us better looking coursework e.g. the pictures we took were on a very high quality camera and the composition was thought of very carefully.
I have learnt a lot through the making of my three tasks, as well as the planning, production and evaluating in all aspects of different media texts.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Here are some other pictures we took for our poster
There has been a blog already to show some ideas of how we will plan our pictures. These were taken on a normal camera and consisted of relatively the same layout, however Summer's boyfriend was in the other shots. For our real photo shoot we choose not to use the boyfriend and to go down a different root, as the film is really just about Charlotte and Summer, and the boyfriend does play a part but not a main one.
These shots are some of the ones we took for our real photo shoot. We didn't have these because the composition wasn't quite right which is very important. Charlotte is also wearing bright orange which is inappropriate for the mise-en-scene, but we did do her make-up to give her that 'crazed character' look. The top photo was a picture we liked but we did not choose it because Summer is looking down at her phone and you can't really see her face. But we do like the way Charlotte looks in it in the background, we just thought the ones with Summers face on display shows more about the character. The last shot was the main one inspired from 'Single White Female', we did change the Characters from being either side of the door to one in front and one behind, we liked this idea better.
Our Final Advertising Poster
This blog shows a before and after shot of our poster.
Quick Evaluation
Firstly, we choose this picture as we thought it was overall the most effective.
We thought it was creepy and the whole composition of it was very well thought out.
Audience feedback has shown that all of our shots were very imaginative and fits together well with the trailer and the themes of the film: mystery, obsession, fear and jealousy.
The expression on Charlotte's face show her longing to 'be' Summer and be close to her, which is why we choose this shot. When asking for audience feedback on which shot to choose most agreed this one too, the others looked like Charlotte wanted to 'Kill' her rather than be her.
Editing...
We used the editing sites iPhoto and Picasa. We enhanced the shadows on the picture to make it stand out. We changed the warmth of the picture and then the lighting. We played around with the adjustments until we found one that suited it well, we liked it best when Charlotte was more blurred, the viewer can see a person but they cannot make out her features and who she it, which makes it more effective. The main thing the audience sees is her hand pressed up on the door which we really liked the look of as this also shows how much she 'wants her'.
Mise-en-scene...
The poster highlights the actors personalities well and it comes through on the photo. Summer is looking away and is unaware of er follower, her expression shows she is oblivious and looking away, possibly waiting for a friend. Her laid back pose shows she is an out-going girl and her hair and make-up shows she is slightly high-maintenance but also the slight smile shows she is also friendly. We choose the fashionable clothes for Summer purposely, to highlight she is a popular person with a good fashion sense, just a normal teenage girl. We wanted dark and grey clothes for Charlotte however as this shows her dark and disturbed personality. We took advantage of the door Charlotte is behind; we slanted our tag line and put it along the top of the door so it becomes part of the set.
'When an Obsession takes over...
how do you control it?'
We choose this because we thought it connected to the trailer and picture well, it shows how Charlotte may have this obsession but no one, even Summer is unable to control it.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Evaluation
How did you use new media technologies in your research, planning, construction and evaluation stages.
There is a variety of technical equipment which when doing our media would simply not be possible without it!
Firstly. we have the tripod. When constructing our coursework, this was needed in nearly every shot except when we use just the hand-held for effect. We needed this piece of equipment for a variety of shots, to make the right kind of level whether it was straight on or slightly lower or higher and also to mainly make everything look steady and professional. If the camera was hand held all the time the quality of the film would look cheap and just unprofessional.
The main piece of the technical equipment! The HD panasonic camera. Without this, the planning and construction could not go ahead. We need this to film on and gain the correct footage for our moving image. We used a variety of camera shots, which have been explained in previous blogs such as close ups, wide and long shots and more. The camera was used for many different shots during the montage too, there is a really quick zoom which was done on the camera where Charlotte is outside Summers house, this works really well!
iMovie 9 is our editing programme. This is how we constructed our coursework. We used this for adding and editing music this includes fading in and out at particular scenes. We used iMovie for our voice overs as well, recording Charlotte's voice and putting it over the top of certain scenes as this is extremely conventional. We used it for transitions such as fades in and out and also our titles like 'An Obsession'. We need to adjust the speed of the clips sometimes so this editing site can also make clips go quick or slower depending on the scene.iMovie is quite a recent and pretty decent editing programme which uses digital editing rather than video editing.
This may seem a bit obvious but communication is essential for the planning in our coursework. We needed to use emails and phones to contact and text our actors and teachers about extra days of filming, various costume changes and to arrange days to meet up. Thank god for technology these days, we wouldn't be far without it!
Garageband. Well this was an extremely handy programme to use in the evaluation stage of our coursework! Look how we used this programme to do voice overs of audience feedback and add this over the top of our trailer in iMovie9, to create a watchable film with essential feedback from other people. We also we're able to create cool echoes of the voice overs to make it stand out and more interesting to listen to! It also gives it an eerie feel to it! Making it all the better I think!Not only was emails and computer technology was used but of course our trusty mobile phones, again it seems obvious but we would be no where without them! especially when trying to arrange dates and cast members to get all of the shooting and editing done.
One last thing...Taking photos!
This was also a really important stage in planning our coursework! You would be able to see from previous blogs some very impressive photos! We took pictures of the characters and locations and also previously to this we took some pictures of some middle-aged adults which were going to be in the film as the 'Psychotic' character before changing the idea completely. Taking pictures of our sub ideas for the planning is also important. It gives a clear indication of where things will be situated in the shot/photo (how the characters will stand and look) but also what the final outcome will look like, if your not happy with the practice shots you can change them to something you are happy with before starting your real piece.
We took photos constantly throughout our coursework and we are happy that we did. We needed it of course for our Sub tasks like our poster and our magazine cover.
Can I also add in how high quality the camera is that we take the photos on! Thank you to Immi's dad for letting us borrow it, you can really see the difference in the quality!
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