Evaluation 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction , research and planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

My Poster magazine and trailer all worked synergistically to maintain a unique advertisement campaign. Although each one had a slight difference which enabled my target audience to get an alternative insight into my film, there are some features that remained consistent in order to make my campaign recognisable

The easiest way I consistently created a relation between my poster magazine and trailer was through maintaining the same colour scheme, this being black and white as well as font design. This was something that could be easily created in Photoshop as I had already designed the font colour and style. I maintained this across all aspects of my advertisement campaign in order enhance the recognisability of my campaign as a whole. And whilst the simple black and white colour scheme used clearly underlines the simplistic nature of my storyline it also mirrors the similar pattern seen in Central intelligence as they too maintained a colour scheme throughout their marketing campaign and as you can see here it differs just slightly  as it uses a orange and black colour scheme. With regards to the main image behind my poster and magazine front cover I opted to take shot from outside the film as opposed to using a scene from the film in order to give the audience an alternative perception of my film with my teaser poster giving the audience a clear understanding of what they can expect whilst my magazine gives the audience a behind the scenes and technical aspects of my film. I considered the conventions of both my genre and put these into place through my main image as my magazine clearly highlights an aspect of my film which is evidently pranks, as when planning my image I decided that one of the most stereotypical pranks is a cream pie to the face. So by emulating this on my magazine the audience has a clear understanding of the contents within my film but because I included Cover lines on my magazine the audience is encouraged to delve deeper into the production behind my film. Alternatively my poster offered limited information about my film besides a release date, some of the key actors and the title of the film. I deliberately made a teaser poster instead of a theatrical one as I wanted to leave as much to the audience’s imagination as possible, and in terms my marketing campaign as a whole this would’ve been released first so it was important that I only included distinguishable information. Then as my marketing campaign progressed my magazine would be released which would give the audience further insight into my film as they approach the release of my film. Both my poster and magazine focus on the two key characters within my film through each main image. I did this in order to encourage the audience to question any potential conflict or relation between the two as both pictures are different however both are linked. Given that my poster is a picture of my main character taking a video of someone, whilst my magazine is almost a shot reverse shot of this moment as he is posing for the video.

Another way that my marketing campaign was a success is through the representation of characters across my trailer, magazine and poster which enabled me to give the audience a minor insight into my film within each part. For example the representation in my trailer is used to show the characters across the whole film and how they gradually change whilst the representation within my Poster and magazine is used to give an alternative snapshot from my film, which also helps me establish my genre. And in order to not give too much information away the images used on my poster and magazine are not taken from my film but as I said before they offer an insight into what the audience can expect. However, despite these similar features of my campaign working synergistically there is some level of uniqueness to each part. For example the close up on both my poster and magazine is similar but the effect is different, as my poster encourages the audience to question the enigmas on it. These being why is he using a camera, why is he smiling. I also used direct address to enhance the degree that my audience engage with my film. In contrast the close up used on my magazine uses less enigmas and is more explanatory as a magazine is expected to be. For this reason I wanted the representation on my poster to have some relation and answer some questions that the audience may have, as typically magazines offer behind the scenes information. So through the wording on my magazine the audience will be encouraged to explore further the film itself as well as its production.

The atmosphere created also conforms to the genre in the sense that it creates an air of excitement and humour especially through my image selection, as the situation as well as the stereotypical nature of the prank that has been played on him invite the audience to consider if this style of comedy is relevant throughout. Which in turn encourages them to watch the trailer and then watch the film in the cinema. Despite the contents on my magazine and poster in the sense that they reveal the actors involved, the title of the film they do not however reflect the storyline. This enigma encourages my audience to then watch the trailer, during which they can see a broadened portrayal of my film. However the non-linear narrative in itself imposes questions that the audience feel they need to answer, such as if they ever end up being successful or if their friendship can last over the course of their journey. By also referring to the storyline as “a mission” within my trailer the audience considers the dramatic tone of the storyline.

However I would say that within all three parts of my advertisement campaign there is not a clear sense of narrative, as although there is a clear relationship between my poster magazine and trailer it is difficult to establish the narrative through a still image especially when the main image used is a still image not taken from a part of the film.

Despite this, I was able to establish a clear genre across all three products, given that the mise en scene of both my poster and magazine help contribute to this. For example on my poster and magazine there is a clear sense of genre represented through the facial expression and appearance of these products. If we look at my poster specifically as you can see the close up of my main character is effectively used to convey my protagonist’s smile, which in turn mirrors what the audience will be doing throughout my film. My magazine also identifies the comedy genre through my use of genre conventions, in the sense that I used a stereotypical prank this being a pie in the face to highlight both a key concept of my film and to establish the comedy genre.  As the audience immediately becomes aware of the style of COMEDY.                 

Mise en Scene as I have briefly mentioned before played a role in linking my Poster, magazine and trailer together, but it also combines to create an enigma in the sense that my audience will question things such as “Why is he aiming the camera at us” “Why is he smiling” or even for my magazine the audience may question “Why has he got cream on his face” or “Who is he in relation to the character on the poster” my ability to link my products together was dependant on making the audience question things across my product. For example, someone who has seen the poster, the product released first in my advertisement campaign, and then looks at my trailer or magazine will be intrigued to discover for themselves the enigmas that I have created.

Evaluation 1: In what way does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

To begin with, when making my trailer it was important to include various genre conventions and trailer conventions in order to create a realistic representation of my film.

Using naturalistic camerawork to highlight that there is a balance in power but also to create a realistic setting/moment in a film that is ultimately fake.

Diegetic sound in particular dialogue can heavily influence a comedy trailer as it is a way of creating humour be it through the sound and dialogue itself or the way it is portrayed through the actors: i.e. through exaggerated body language or perhaps through prosody of the dialogue itself.

 This considered, it was important that I manipulated the sound as such that my trailer flows quickly, which in turn as the pace of my trailer increases I can build up to a climax or conflict the will be the main plot or story line.

For example during by referring back to my research Central intelligence was a film that I followed closely and tried to match the pace and shot type of.

The title of my trailer is “How to Get Famous” this clearly identifies the meaning within my story line which is something that perhaps deviates away from the conventions of the genre as contemporary films such as Central intelligence and Ride along, do not describe the concept within the film. However, I did make use of the genre conventions when developing the font and style of my title and inter-titles as stereo typically the title is simple and does not include special effects, perhaps to identify a sense of simplicity as the title therefore does not come across as intimidating or complex. Thus enabling me to conform to genre conventions whilst also creating a sense of consistency, this is something that it also important when considering my task, as the simplistic font design and black and white colour scheme used throughout despite being basic, means that there is a relation between my Poster, Magazine and Trailer.

Within my design for the title of my trailer, I decided to continue on which the consistency of my Poster Magazine by using the same black and white colour scheme throughout, this matched the common feature of  the trailers that I analysed. Once again Central intelligence used the ongoing theme of black and orange throughout the poster magazine and inter-title/main title in order to create a sense of consistency.

Setting/Locations/Costumes and props:

My selection of settings locations costumes and props was another essential aspect of my trailer, as within the trailers that I analysed I discovered that within the complexity of a trailer the locations used are relatively simple, with social places such as bars, tables being shown at the beginning of a trailer in order to show the realism. Therefore by including a school and a dining room in my trailer, despite being simple locations they help create a connection with the audience as the audience find themselves being able to associate with these locations. It is also important that I used a variety of locations in order to create a sense of excitement and escapism as the audience then finds them self in unlikely situations which in turn creates humour. The costumes that feature in my trailer are simple yet relatable and are clothes that my audience can associate with as they are everyday clothes such as T-shirts and jeans, by including normalised mise-en scene and then quickly changing it to extravagant clothing this allows me to create humour once again through the unlikely hood and style of the clothing. 

Camerawork:

Camera work was a feature of my trailer that I tried maintain and keep simply throughout as not to over complicate what is a simple story line, this also enabled me to maintain the conventions of my genre which is stereo typically simple and naturalistic. For this reason I often reflected back of the trailer shot list that I made for Central intelligence which highlighted the need for Over the shoulder shots, Wide shots and close ups. I kept this in mind when story boarding as it showed me that these shots are important when attempting to create the humour aspect of my trailer, given that close ups are used to effectively show the emotional state of the characters. Here you can see how the close ups of my character differ at certain moments in the trailer in order to create a specific mood. The movement of the camera is a feature of my trailer that was important in creating a naturalistic feel for the audience, given that even slight camera movement ensures that certain moments come across to the audience as normal and relatable. For example moments in the trailer where the protagonist will have limited movement in order to highlight the sincerity of this particular moment. Whilst during scenes where my protagonist active in a specific situation there will be considerably more movement in order to exaggerate the drama of the scene.

Final Trailer

Final Magazine

Final Poster