Audience Feedback

After posting my teaser trailer on youtube and linking it to my Facebook account, I found that almost all my audience feedback was positive. A lot of people said this is the sort of film they would watch at the cinema, and that the trailer makes it clear what the genre of the film is and what the film is about.

As for my print pieces, my feedback was similar. The one main point that people picked up on is the strap line i have used for my film "They're BAD at being BAD" everyone said that this was a veery effective element in my print pieces, especially the poster. This is because the photo and title don't outline the genre on their own, but with the strap line, it is made obvious straight away that the film is some kind of bad boy spoof.

Overall, i get a feeling that the audience i'm looking for are very interested in this kind of film and that they were very impressed with the quality and style of my work. Many commented on how the poster looks "so realistic" and how the magazine cover is "very convincing"

Representation

The main collective group that is being represented in my film is Teenage Males. More often than not, Male teens are represented in a very negative way. My teaser trailer could be seen as representing them in the same way, however it comes with a slight twist to conventional representation of male teens in film.

In a feature gangster film like kidulthood, teens are represented as a collective group that enjoy, violence, drugs and crime. However, in my trailer i have included the comedy element that will lead the audience to believe that these teens aren't truly this way and that because it's a kind of spoof, the crimes they are committing aren't as sinister or destructive.

I feel personally that this was a very important element to include in my film as i strongly disagree with the way that teens are constantly represented in the media, especially in film.

Narrative: Print

There isn't as much narrative theory that applies to print as there is to film, however, there is one small piece of narrative that can influence a magazine cover or a film poster.

This would be the inclusion of a well known person or "celebrity". If a celebrity is featured on a magazine, it not only draws the attention of the audience even more, but it also brings a story or narrative with it e.g. "What Katie did next"

If my film and magazine were real, it is possible that the main characters may already be celebrities, this would create the affect i mentioned above. It's as if the story of the film extends into reality through the identity of the actors. This is a very Postmodern Theory.

Narrative: Teaser Trailer

Tzvetan Todorov proposed the idea that a narrative has 5 distinct transformations through which the story proceeds: These are:

1. The state of equilibrium - all is in order

2. A disruption (disequilibrium) of the ordered state by an event

3. A recognition that a disruption has taken place

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption

5. A return to some kind of equilibrium

It seems that my teaser trailer is almost a perfect example of this media theory, it starts with no problems, the disruption is when the two lads are caught, the recognition is when they realise they've been caught, the attempt to repair the disruption is when the car doors lock and they try to escape. And finally it settles down when they are trapped and the stranger phones the police.

Vladimir Propp

Propp extended the Russian Formalist approach to the study of narrative structure. In the Formalist approach, sentence structures were broken down into analyzable elements, or morphemes, and Propp used this method by analogy to analyze Russian fairy tales. By breaking down a large number of Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units, or narratemes, Propp was able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures.

He concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100 tales he analyzed:

1. The villain — struggles against the hero.
2. The dispatcher —character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. the hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
5. her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
6. The donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
7. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

These roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters, as the hero kills the villain dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one character could engage in acts as more than one role, as a father could send his son on the quest and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher and donor.

Along with this, Propp discovered that After the initial situation is depicted, the tale takes a sequence of 31 functions. Here you can see a list of these functions.

I feel that just in my short teaser trailer, it is very easy to outline which character is which, e.g. The Hero and villain are the man stopping the lads (hero), and the lads themselves are the villains. The only difference in my film is that it is comedy/spoof so it plays deliberately on these conventions and sometimes even exaggerates them to give more comedic value to the piece.

Audience

I feel that through my Poster and film magazine cover, i have managed to capture the attention of my target audience (mid teen males). There are two main features that i personally think would have played the biggest part in capturing my audience, firstly is the full page photo's that feature in both. The two main characters in the film are a similar age to that of my target audience. This provides them with something to relate to and is more likely to get there initial interest and keep them interested for a while.

The second feature i feel that would help captivate the audience i'm looking for is the title and strap line of the film "The Estate" "They're BAD at being BAD". This is something that a lot of my target audience will relate to. e.g. living on an estate, and the comedic value of the strap line will entice them to look further into the film.

Something that I thought about right from the start was how i'm going to make my teaser trailer appeal to my target audience and how the trailer would represent the rest of the film. I achieved this by making the trailer a comedic moment from the film. This way, the trailer in itself is memorable because of the funny ending. As well, it leaves a lot of speculation for the viewer about how funny the rest of the film will be. This plays a key point in holding an audience up until the release date of the film.

Real media Comparisons: Teaser Trailer

I feel that with my teaser trailer, i haven't followed conventions as much as my ancillary tasks, the main reason for this is because there is a massive variety of real teaser trailers already present very few of which are similar to each other.

Here is a link for the teaser trailer for Paul.

Here is a link for my teaser trailer.

when looking at them together i can see that there are a few main points of difference. firstly is that the trailer for 'Paul' is a compilation of clips throughout the film. Whereas mine is one scene from the film. The main reason for this is because i didn't want to follow conventions when producing my trailer. I concentrated more on challenging my own shooting and editing skills, and i feel that a single scene was the best way to do this.

For another media comparison, follow the link to the research section of my production blog to watch the trailer for the hangover. click here

Real media Comparisons: Magazine Cover

Once again, i think i have followed conventions in the production of my magazine cover. I am confident in the design and layout of my work to the extent that i feel it wouldn't look out of place on a magazine shelf or rack in a shop. Below is a real media product that is very similar to my final design.

Both Pieces contain most of the same features; a large magazine title, the featured film title just below centre, various magazine features on both sides. My magazine cover has a few added features that aren't on this magazine, however if you follow this link to my production blog, you will see some more media examples that i took inspiration from. Click Here

Real Media Comparisons: Poster

I feel that during the production of my work, i have definitely stuck to conventions when producing all three of my media products. Fromthe research section on my production blog it is evident that i have based my products around existing media products. Here is a perfect comparison for my film Poster.

I think that my product isn't very different to that of the real media, as seen above, i have stuck to conventions and produced a product with a very realistic feel to it. The main difference is the fact i haven't included the film company name and film age certificate. This is for two reasons, the first is because it is a teaser poster and it doesn't need to clarify these facts yet. Second and more important, without a age certificate announced, it leaves more speculation to a wider audience. For example, if the age certificate was 15, no-one below that age would bother finding out what the films about and telling others about. Thus leaving the target audience door open for as long as possible.

For even more opportunities to compare with real media products, please refer to this link to the research section of my production and scroll down to the poster research section: Click Here

New Technology II

New Technology

This year has seen many advances in technology throughout the media world. These advances are something i have had to consider when producing my coursework as it may have hindered or aided me in my attempts at creating new media products.

There are a few new products in the market that are important to anyone in media. Firstly is the iPad 2 an similar tablet devices. Even devices like the iphone. The main reason these are important is because they are all portable/mobile devices. Offering media consumers the opportunity to access all sorts of media anywhere they are through the internet. This is important specifically to me because the iPad and similar devices are beginning to kill off the paper magazine. So, when producing my magazine cover and film poster, i had to consider what they would look like on a digital screen. Not only looks, but if my products were real, there is such huge potential with the iPad. Such as creating an App that would allow extended advertising for my film, reaching much wider audiences.

Another big advancement in the pass year has been the ever growing development of 3D technology. In march this year, the nintendo 3DS is scheduled to launch, the first no glasses needed 3D gaming device, also capable of browsing the internet and more importantly watching movies. This device along with 3D televisions and 3D cinema has led me to consider what my film would be like if 3D was an option. This technology would allow me to create a film that would reach even more audiences and create a bigger media product. Something that i feel is more than vital when producing new media.

Not so much a recent development, but social networking has played a big part in the production of my coursework. Even though social networking has been at large for a few years now, it seems that this last year has seen a massive growth in the market. Sites such as Facebook and twitter have definitely seen a lot of growth and even more importantly, youtube. Firstly, Facebook has allowed me to create bigger amounts of publicity for my media products and therefor given me more chances for improvement. I achieved this through linking my youtube account with my Facebook account. Embedded in this link is an element of synergy, the overall advantage of creating greater publicity for my products wouldn't be achievable without this link. 1 + 1 = 3, they are functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.

New Technology

New Technology

This year I have explored a few new technologies during the production of my coursework. The first one that I utilized is Aperture, very similar to Adobe’s photoshop, aperture is an Apple programme designed for editing photo’s. The main reason that this was such a useful tool for my advanced production is

because both my ancillary tasks are print. Aperture enabled me to edit my photos to give a professional finish, something that i feel is vital when producing a poster and especially a magazine front cover.

The second piece of new technology I used during my production is GarageBand, once again this is an apple programme. Garageband is used to produce music or soundtracks. In my case, I created a custom soundtrack to go with my main task, the teaser trailer. The software functions by overlapping and joining small sections of sample sounds to create your required track. The software allowed me to tweak and adjust the beat and tune to give the perfect track to accompany my trailer. Once finished with the editing, I was able to export the soundtrack to iMovie and add it to my trailer.

The last piece of new technology I have used this year is social networking and youtube. These have allowed me to get some audience feedback on my teaser trailer. I have been able to upload my video to youtube and post links on social networking sites such as facebook. This has increased the awareness of my video and in turn increased the volume of feedback from my audience.