A2 MEDIA
PRODUCTION
EVALUATION
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
Within our media product we develop and challenge the
typical conventions of the heist genre to construct a teaser
trailer. Within the heist genre the type cast for our characters
consisted of stereotypes to either play the typical character
roles usually seen in the genre (e.g. an Asian Computer
Hacker), which the target audience would be able to identify
in our trailer. Our media product developed upon typical
conventions and plots usually seen in real media products;
heist films such as the Ocean’s trilogy, Bank Job etc.
whereby an alliance attempt to rob a bank or prized artefact,
although we try to remain faithful to the genre, our heist
concept in our text is a plan to steal a code from a corrupt
firm, which intertwined sub-genres such as thriller and crime.
With the direction of our media product we chose recognisable character
roles that conform to the heist genre i.e. the mastermind, we opted for the
traditional male, clever and assertive leader (e.g. Danny Ocean – Oceans
trilogy, Charlie Croker - Italian job) that we represented through dialogue
between the mastermind and his subordinates and use of
cinematography; framing and close ups to underline his importance.
…
The inclusion of a tech guy we used a stereotype to represent the
character role, which we cast an Asian male to play the computer wiz/
hacker and another typical character role we included was a muscle man
which we represented through mise-en-scene e.g. in a gym location,
using props- dumbbells and his character with a stub shave, rugged look
(influences such as Jason Statham in the remake Italian Job and Bank
Job films). The plot of our media product initially included a female
protagonist, in doing so we intended to challenge the typical male cast
role (for the protagonist) however due to our actress withdrawing during
the filming process we replaced the female character with a male
character who played the protagonist ‘inside source’ an opted change we
received from audience feedback.
The conventions of a film trailer our
media product conforms to using the
conventional form typically used in action
/ heist film trailers. By using establishing
location shots and key frames
establishing each character with the aid
of title names we found this was a typical
convention used in heist film trailers when
establishing character roles; the
mastermind, tech guy & muscle man
were represented also through mise-enscene.
How effective is the combination of your main product
and ancillary texts?
The combination of our main product and ancillary texts
linked together very effectively. To go with our media
product we created a film magazine cover and film poster
to promote the main product (trailer). The magazine cover I
created used an image of one of the main characters from
the main text i.e. the muscle man. I chose to use the
muscle man as a selling point to appeal to my target
readers effectively drawing in male and female readers
with an iconic (Bad boy) masculine image made obvious
through costume and hair to relate with a young male
audience (teen+) and also reversibly providing a attractive/
sex appeal to a female audience with the image.
Magazine cover main images
of muscle man – hoodie gives off a
bad boy look and right image w/ open
shirt revealing masculine chest.
The typography for the magazine
title is in a contemporary style in
bold white font to attract the target
readers furthermore the title uses
word play to establish the
association to filming / movies
“TAKE 1” as an effective film
magazine masthead. The layout of
my magazine closely imitates the
typical conventions usually found
on a real magazine cover with the
use of cost, puffs and sell lines; A
quotation from the actor on my
magazine cover combines both
media texts recognising the
existence of my main media
product as well as the inclusion of
real text references (article on
Emma Watson, puff image of Dev
Patel etc.) I feel I have created a
magazine cover that supports my
media product with promoting the
media film in a similar method to
media institutions (Total Film,
Empire magazine).
The second ancillary text was to create a
promotional film poster for the main
product. Before doing this I researched
existing film posters and analyzed the
particular layout from posters in the heist
genre, in doing so I observed the most
common codes and conventions and
followed suit keeping my media text
conventional in layout design, so this will
be easily recognized by the target
audience. In combination with the main
product I used various conventions (key
motifs, connotation & denotation) that
relate to the heist genre and themes in
my trailer to translate these onto my
promotional poster, In addition to clearly
establishing the main characters and my
film’s title for the target audience. Doing
so, the poster is used effectively as a
marketing tool for the main product.
This combination of the trailer, magazine and poster
is very effective, as all 3 allow the film’s promotion to
potentially market across several media (e.g.,
youtube, blogs - trailer, retail stores- magazine, public
areas –poster). This is very valuable to attract the
target audiences, increasing the awareness of my
product.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback throughout the construction of the media product and
ancillary text has pointed out various constructive criticisms to help
improve our products to appeal more to the target audience. During the
different stages over the project, audience feedback has be helpful in
making changes and inclusion to the media product for instance replacing
our female protagonist with the next most common character role/ type
(“an insider”) from our genre chosen by our sample target audience group.
Within the planning stage after constructing an audience questionnaire we
asked a sample teen audience and adult audience various questions
relating to our genre (e.g. the typical conventions) and their expectations
from a media product of that genre (findings like the breakdown of the
plot/ plan). Overall the questionnaire confirmed and provided helpful
conclusive choices to include in our media product ranging from the
character role types and revealing how much of the narrative in form of
dialogue, fast pace action etc.
Audience feedback given to
my magazine cover, once I made
my first draft I received feedback
opinions over my main image
regarding its appeal, the general
consensus I received was the actor
was ideally photogenic for creating
the hard boy image I wanted
however more critical feedback
included the choice of costume i.e.
the wool hoodie, therefore I made
amendments with changing for a
more conventional costume i.e.
black jacket & white shirt with open
collar to match the “hard guy”
representation I aimed to convey,
thus retook another image with the
actor also looking directly towards
the camera to engage the target
audience.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
In the research stage I used computer technology i.e.
internet to analyse magazine covers, posters and film
trailers to gain knowledge on conventions used in each
construction of the different text before creating my on
media product and ancillary texts. Using the Internet can
obviously provide archives and images of existing
magazine covers and film posters found on various
websites and also official film promotional sites that have
similar graphic/ poster adverts that are constructed using
similar conventions. (movie title, image of main
character(s), film tagline, release date.)
Examples of
different film
posters
Film poster with just a
main portrait image
such as Orphan and
Wolverine can also be
used as online
advertisement found
on (/film)websites.
The different media technologies used in the planning
stage consisted of various resources available to us in
college; Computer technology and more specifically
web 2.0 applications such as ‘wiki spaces’ and
facebook (permits users to upload user generated
content) allowed us to share planning documents such
as shot list & location pictures over the Internet with
quick and easy access. The wiki space was used to
electronically upload all planning documents for our
coursework that would be easy to display for the
examiner to see the preliminary research stages before
making our media product.
Constructing the main product (trailer) our group recorded all
the video footage needed on a video camera (Sony
handycam using a tripod). We then used a USB cable to
transfer the footage from the camera to the PCs where our
footage was backed up and saved. Acknowledging our trailer
had to be less than 2 minutes we chose select clips from our
footage to be made into the trailer, in order to do this we
used Adobe Premier Pro an editing suite software that
allowed us to trim, rearrange and edit the speed and
durations of the video clips. The software allowed us to
capture sound and video at a smooth f rate in conjuncture
with importing music (free rights) from the Internet to utilize in
the trailer soundtrack.
In addition to the title and video effects available to us in
Adobe premier pro, we also used Adobe Photoshop to create
title screens in our trailer.
screengrabs
evaluation
In The evaluation process I have used several media
technologies to complete this (in addition to creating hard
hardcopies of my work using printers & scanners), I have
created my production evaluation in powerpoint slide format
outlining the different production stages of my media
products which I will be able to present back to my
audience, in addition my presentation will be recorded using
a video camera (and edited if neccersary on premier pro),
as a video presentation for the examiner. However overall
the most frequent and helpful media technology used was
the internet which is used as media to exhibit my media
product on web 2.0 applications (video streams, blogs etc.)
that are accessible to anyone for viewing.