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

During our construction, research, planning and evaluation stages we used many different media technologies to develop our final products. We made extensive use of www.google.co.uk especially in our planning stages to find out about certain films and images of posters. To research genres I used the website www.filmsite.org, which I found particularly useful on sub-genres during my initial research.www.youtube.com was very useful to watch trailers to note conventions we should follow, and gain inspiration.

We created our movie magazine front cover and film poster on Indesign. We edited our pictures on Photoshop and Paintshop Pro, by adding effects such as contrast, shadow and colour for a more professional finish.

To make our texts for our trailer we used Microsoft Word for the captions at the beginning of the trailer. For our 'Betrayal' title we used the website www.dafont.com. To source the most suitable text for our trailer.

To construct and edit our trailer we used Movieplus. This was a simple software to use but enabled us to create some good effects. We were particularly pleased with the CCTV shot. This software proved useful and relatively simple to dub out background noises which would have made our product unconvincing and amateur. This software also allowed us to import gunshot sounds which we downloaded from the Internet which played an important part in this trailer. This process was simple and straight forward.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For our audience feedback we have used 'Facebook' online social network to be the hub for our audience feedback. The photo shows the feedback we have had on our film poster. From this we have learnt that perhaps we should take a closer look at our picture composition, and think about our graphics.

This is our film trailer uploaded to 'Facebook' by Tristam. By using 'Facebook' as our main hub for our audience feedback we thought it would be great for instant feedback as it is a main source of communication for our age group. The cons of using this social network service is it may only get opinions of a certain age group and being a social forum we will expect to have a few comments that are not particularly helpful or useful.

We have received a lot of comments which was very useful and constructive they have been helpful to see our strengths and weaknesses.

The second comment above was particularly good to read from this I can learn that the music we chose worked well. The feedback on pace in particular holding close-up shots for longer to add tension, are very helpful.

Piers has uploaded our trailer onto www.youtube.com in the hope we can have some comments from different people from those on 'facebook', and get a more varied audience feedback.

We have got one positive comment already. "I like the parody aspect of this!" This is an interesting remark as it was not our intention to make a parody of a 'gangster' film but make a serious storyline.

Piers showed that we do not own the songs we used in our trailer to stop any copyright issues.

I handed out a Audience Feedback Questionnaire to those who watched the trailer, and looked at our magazine cover and film poster. From the results I can gather that our genre was clear, the props were good, and the trailer was exciting. I also learned that for some the storyline was hard to follow.

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

I think that the combination of our main product and ancillary tasks work well. I think there is a reoccurring theme through out. Each task compliments each other and creates a brand.

The main product, our trailer, conforms to its genre and challenges it too, with a leading female protagonist. The magazine front cover layout has been inspired by looking at many well known and established 'movie magazines' such as 'Empire Magazine' and 'Total Film Magazine'.

Our magazine front cover which we named 'MovieReel' has been given a special 'Betrayal' edition which is a marketing scheme. The image for the background for the cover is of Sarah against a brick wall holding a gun staring at the camera in a direct mode of address. She looks like she is challenging the viewer. The lighting of the photograph adds to the sinister mood.

The film poster developed by Tristam was inspired by many crime and gangster film posters he researched. The poster shows Sarah in a urban setting with a gun surrounded by clouds this to highlight her confusion and the isolation she finds herself in this film. She is above a London skyline which was edited by Piers. The red skyline reflects the violence and blood which Sarah will experience in the twists and turns of the plot.

I think our trailer has been successful and effective as it has followed the theme of the gangster genre. We managed to conform by using guns with realistic sounds found off the Internet, and the use of the traditional trilby hat is used in a vital scene. However we deviated from the genre by adding 'hoodies' which updated the image. 'Hoodies' are often associated with criminal activity in modern Britain so they were a useful wardrobe choice for this trailer.

The magazine front cover and film poster have dark images which suggests night time, which is when criminal and sinister activity usually takes place. The choice of lighting and colours is effective and adds the whole image we have tried to portray.

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

Throughout our media production we have been researching and using media products, we have also tried to challenge them too. Before we began production, once we had decided on a genre we researched into several gangster/crime films and trailers so we could fully understand the conventions, forms and expectations of this genre.

This was a great starting point because it gave us aims and plans to follow. We realised that crime and gangster films are based around a male dominated world and industry. We also discovered that these films appeal to a much higher percentage of men than women. We decided to follow and challenge these ideas. We wanted to follow the stereotypical themes of violence and action to maintain the high percentage of the male audience. We also wanted to capture the attention of the female audience by having the leading protagonist a female who out-smarts, out-thinks and out-moves the males which unbalances this male dominated world. We also included some romance too to appeal to a feminine audience. Gangster films are also most often based in America or Italy we wanted ours to stand out as one of the minority gangster British films. This is illustrated by the red London skyline we have on our film poster.

This film would also appeal greatly to feminists who fight for equality between the sexes, they would love how the young girl seeks to get even with her father and does not conform to the expectations that are pro-male.

We also followed the conventions of this genre. We filmed in urban settings, which is typical and stereotypical this is illustrated on our film poster with the London skyline. We also filmed in rural settings for a contrast and to give the feeling of isolation. We used quick action shots depicting violence and showed images of a gun which is a very powerful enigma code for this type of film. We also used Pier's father to play the 'Don' this is a well known character and is common in these films one of the most famous examples is Marlon Brando's role as Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather'.

We also used conventional costumes such as a trilby hat, and a suit is worn by the 'Don'.

We would have liked to have made our media product even more authentic, but unfortunately we were limited to the props, and equipment available to us. The genre lends itself to special effects but we improvised quite successfully.

To conclude we have both adhered to the traditional genre, and also diverted from it to extend our audience.

Audience Feedback Questionnaire

1. Would you say the film trailer was exciting?


2. Did it entice/ make you want to watch the film?


3. Was the genre clear?


4. Was the props/ mise-en-scene relevant?


5. Was there anything unclear?


6. Was the poster effective?


7. Was the magazine front cover eye catching?

Evaluation Preparation

Final Film Poster

1.

2.

Number two is our finished and final film poster, we choose number two because we thought the composition was better, and preffered to use a different image to our movie magazine front cover.

Final Magzine Front Cover

As you can see from my magazine devleopment I have used the photo of Sarah against a wall as my background.