Evaluation: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback has been a great tool throughout my coursework. I first began using it on my magazine covers to find out what they thought so that I could gather their opinions and produce a piece of work that would want them to choose my film or read my magazine. The audience feedback even though sometimes rather harsh is usually very constructive, and they explain what points would make it more desirable. One thing that is hard though is to be able to accommodate for everyone's wants, everyone has different opinions, so I have to go with the majority as this means more viewers. Audience Feedback became incredibly helpful during the editing and making of my teaser trailer. As can be seen in my blog, I made two teaser trailers, the first being shorter. After putting this up on YouTube I very quickly got responses as to how it could be improved. As I found out, they believed it was too short and too confusing. There is guessing, and then there is GUESSING was the feeling I got from it. The swap between settings was too much and bored the viewers.
Audience Feedback is probably the most important tool available to any producer, yes you need the editing software, the equipment to film and light, BUT, who are you making this for, your target audience, if they do not like it, you have no viewers so all the money spent, all the time you take on making this product is wasted, so without their feedback from the start, you are pretty much stuck. So, audience feedback, VITAL!

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

As well as a teaser trailer, we were asked to make a magazine front cover and a poster to promote the film. The magazine cover I feel promotes the main actor very well. He is large and takes up a lot of the front cover, making it very hard to miss and his name also follows this. The poster is the more effective of the two. It does not give too much away and once again keeps and audience intrigued and wanting to find out more. The two actors on my posters looking at the same point makes you feel that they are either concentrating on a similar target, are eyeing each other up as opponents, or are on the same team are just working out a strategy. But there is no definite answer. The background image of the orange globe, rather modernised as it is implies an action film which is further backed up by the use of the guns in the poster. Lastly the fact that one actor is in front of the other may imply one is more important than the other, but this whole guessing game that is witnessed through the trailer is continued into the poster.

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

Throughout this teaser trailer, I do not stray from the forms and conventions of an action genre or a teaser trailer. Names of the characters in my film are never revealed and it is just left as '2 men" which keeps the audience guessing as to who they are, which is the whole point of a teaser trailer, to 'tease' the audience to get them more intrigued. I have you a stereotypical Caucasian male, young to play the role of my main actor and fairly well built implying he is strong and powerful which is what men in most action films are nowadays, for example Greenzone, Matt Damon is young and Casino Royale, Daniel Craig is young but has a muscular build. The other actor used at the beginning is also following the conventions of an action film, we get a sense that he is the 'boss man' and stereotypically, they are either bald or have a skinhead, and have a large figure, they are at the top and no one gives them orders. Everyone answers to him. Where is do challenge the conventions of a real media product in this particular genre is the setting. Generally, it would be at an army base, with loads of other soldiers, located in a desert or fancy hotel, or somewhere in Asia where terrorism is associated. But in mine, one scene is in the snow and another in the woods, not exactly the most exciting places, and there are no helicopters, big guns, cars, it is a simple, one man job with no gadgets. Lastly, I feel i have developed some conventions slightly by constantly changing the audiences opinions on characters and the movie as a whole, generally a teaser trailer would show the character winning throughout, defeating everyone that gets in his way and not once letting the audience doubt their superiority. I do this twice in my trailer, the first being when the title '2 rules' is revealed. The audience feels that he has some morals and has some rules to follows, limitations to his job. But this idea is quickly shot out the sky when we find out their two rules are to kill and survive. The second time is at the end where we assume he has been shot down on a mission, he is lying on the floor struggling and a title comes up saying 'some you lose'. This once again is proven to be wrong as soon after he is seen alive, with an angered face and the heartbeat starting back up again.

Evaluation: Problems

We have encountered a fair few problems during the coursework stage of our media. The main problem we have being technical issues. Camera's do not always connect to the Mac's that the schools have and many of these have broken. This has slowed us down somewhat as we had to find a way to overcome this, in the end, we just used our own cameras. Another problem has been the weather. This first problem was the huge snow storm that hit us earlier this year. We had no intentions to film in the snow as our idea never covered it, but after some consideration we thought, if we are doing a film about 2 mercenaries would they not be taking jobs in other countries? So from this we decided to film during the snow period.

Evaluation: Modern Technology Used for 7.62

-Mac Computer, This was used as the main piece of technology as it contained all the software and memory space needed to complete my project.
-iMovie-WHen it came to the editing of my trailer I felt this was by far the best piece of software to use. After having experience of it during my AS year, I felt comfortable with all the aspects that it had to offer and was confident with how to use them to my advantage. The simple yet clear layout of this software makes editing quicker and easier for me. One problem that I did encounter was the limited amount of timelines for sound. At first I felt that I would just be using a soundtrack, but after audience feedback, I discovered that this was not the case, and I needed more and more sound effects. Luckily they all squeezed in but any more and I many have been stuck.
-YouTube-Youtube was a very helpful tool for two things. Firstly, it helped when putting my work up so that I could connect it to my blog. Secondly, for audience feedback, after putting my video up, people began commenting and gave their opinions on how they thought I should improve, and from this I was able to produce a better trailer.
-Final Cut-Final Cut was always going to be there as a back-up in case I needed more sound time lines, luckily this was not the case, but for some transitions, I felt that Final Cut offered a larger array of effects for my use.
-Livetype- Livetype is a piece of software used by many professionals in the movie business. This aided me in producing a better title sequence for my film as it contains many effects such as the heart monitor, and secondly made it easier to input the bullet hole after hearing the gun shot.
-Music sites-Even though they were not used too often, when it came to heartbeats and gunshots, these sites were very useful as it made the trailer seem more like an action genre.
-iTunes-When I was searching for my soundtrack iTunes really helped out. I could input a CD and select individual tracks that I felt could be useful and then i could make a shortlist which would be used to finally decide on my soundtrack.
-Video Camera-A vital part of my coursework, needed to film everything for the trailer itself.
-Digital Camera-Needed for photos taken for magazine and poster.
-Adobe Photoshop-I have used this piece of software for the last 3 years now, GCSE, AS and now A2. I felt comfortable with using this and know the ins and out of it. With this knowledge it made it easier to cut out pictures and place it on templates of my magazines and posters.
-USB Stick/CD'S- Used to move work from computer to computer making it easier for transport, and making it easier to complete work in various places.

Evaluation: Final Teaser Trailer Evaluation

After finishing the trailer I can now evaluate my work. As soon as it starts the first thing not seen but heard is the heartbeat. Instantly, this reveals to the audience so sort of fast paced energetic film and makes the audience more likely to watch it as they are intrigued. This is soon followed by the first title over black which say 'guns for hire'. This in theory gives the genre away to the target audience as they would associate guns with the action genre. You are also given a sense of the storyline as 'the hire' section tells them that money is involved, most likely mercenaries. After this, you get the first piece of footage of my main actor Tom Springall and another actor Harry Gartell. From this the viewer can see a piece of paper being handed over and as everything seems fairly formal, the audience is most likely to assume that it is either a hitlist or payment. We are then hit with the second title over black which reads '2 men'. From this the audience now knows that there are two main actors and as they have seen two men already they shall assume these are the men. The word men even though it is a common word, aids in the experience of the trailer, as you associate 'men' with grown up, toughened, maturity and serious. Now you get a clip of one of the characters, the one that the piece of paper was being handed over to earlier and as can be seen he is patrolling through the woods. This sets a scene for the audience and they now associate that character with that scene. As it is not obvious where it is, it leaves the audience speculating and wanting to discover more. Half a second or so into the clip, the soundtrack begins. It is a very low pitched, loud drumming sound, you could even say 'manly' and the feeling from this again denotes an action genre. As we move into the next scene of the snow the soundtrack alters slightly, still with a quieter drum beat in the background but now there are symbols, this sets a rhythm and also adds to the suspense of this trailer. As i mentioned, it has now entered a new scene, now with snow, this sets the scene, but implies to the audience that some travelling takes place, but also the audience may associate this as the setting for the second man that was mentioned earlier. The shot alone is an establishing shot, and is a rather effective one as you have snowflakes dropping infront of the camera and see a man in the distance who seems to be patrolling. The third title over black follows this and states '2 rules'. From this, before you even know what these rules are, you have a sense that these men have boundaries, they are limited to what they can do, and cannot break any laws so to speak. This idea is instantly shattered after seeing the next title over black: '1. Kill'. The idea of no boundaries no longer exist, one of their rules are to kill, this is breaking a law and clearly these men just don't care, or are too bothered about the money that they gain. Following this you then have a snippet of some of the killing that takes place during the missions. This shot is rather effective in the sense that it begins with just a tree and a bush. The audience think, 'okay so he is hiding?'. What we next see is someone run in with a gun in their hand, maybe chasing after someone or running away, and then out from the tree our actor comes down and stabs him in the face, killing him. This tells the audience that these men are skilled, they can hide away and strike when it matters. The second rule is now delivered: '2. Survive'. After the initial thought of there being some sort of boundaries, the audience now knows that basically, they live to kill. The clip after this is another snippet of surviving. We see our main actor Tom walking through a corridor, but this time followed by a second man and in his hand is a gun. The first question we ask is, could this person be the second man mentioned in the title sequence earlier. The soundtrack I feel helps this clip work, because after the gun has been put to the back of Tom's head, a guitar piece (electric) begins and quickens up the soundtrack, supporting the idea of an action genre, and supports the defensive manoeuvre carried out by the actor. We are now presented with another title over black this time reading 'worldwide'. I decided to add this after the confusion of changing settings, this would imply that travelling does occur and different countries are involved. We are now shown the snow setting again, and we now know this is where a mission must take place, but what we see is running, so the audience can only make assumptions from this which supports the whole point of a teaser trailer, do not give away the story. So why is he running, he is supposed to be a killer, is this part of his rule of survival? The shot following this of a close-up of his feet is rather effective in connoting the speed and power of these men. Once again, a title over black appears saying 'have they ever thought of anything else'. This is longer than previous titles, but is obvious that a question is being asked and makes the audience want to find out the answer. Again we go back to the snow setting and there is more running, it is obvious this is one sequence of an escape of some kind. The shot change here is feel is rather clever. At the end of one we see what seems to be him flipping over a log, we then change from an extreme long shot to a mid shot of him completing the flip/roll over this log that is in his path. So now he is an acrobat? Well this is what the audience is beginning to feel. We now see just the actor in a rather modern room, wearing sunglasses for some reason. Maybe he wears them so that he feels hidden, his identity is safe, but he then takes them off, and we hear him speak for the first time. He says 'Other than killing?' We can assume this is in response to the previous title sequence. We also notice his voice is rather hoarse, clearly a tough man. The shot used here is clever in the sense that it is at a low angle so we look up at him. He is bigger and better than us, he will always win. Instead of offering an answer, the trailer goes back to the snow and we see him run out of this forest and out into the open. Following on from this is the same shot as last time with the actor after his glasses are off, we can assume straight after the previous talking part. We then receive an answer, 'no'. This once again supports the idea of, he lives to kill. he has no feelings about this, he just wants to kill. After this, the setting changes, we are now in the middle of the woods somewhere, it is sunny this time, and we see a man patrolling. He has a gun in his hand so clearly he is in the middle of a hunt, but he walks cautiously so he must be expecting trouble. The next clip shows him finding this, he quickly jumps behind a tree, so he must have heard something behind him, he cocks his weapon and takes a look around to see what is behind him. At this point, the soundtrack seems to have quietened and the heartbeat has now got louder and the pace of it seems to be a bit faster. We can assume he is scared, or after previous clips, excited due to another possible kill. From this, another title over black is revealed, this time our theory is proven, they were 'born to kill'. This is all they live for. After seeing this, the audience connotes that after coking his weapon in the previous clip, a kill is most likely to take place very seen, another one for the trophy cabinet it seems. But, instead of shooting, he seems to run behind another tree, is he making a tactical move, can he not see whatever he heard from where he was previously. The shot changes here compliment his tactical movement, we can see he is sing different trees as cover and they tie in at exactly the right moments. We see him turn once more, he must have found his target, but it fades to black and another title appears, 'most they win'. Most? MOST? The audience are a bit confused, these are super soldiers, this is all they do, they have spent their life doing this, why most, should it not be all. The soundtrack has died down quite a lot now, the heartbeat is very prominent and a lot faster, is this too much for him, maybe it is after seeing 'most'. The sound we hear next answers our question. A gunshot, very loud, most likely to be some form of sniper rifle, but it is still a black screen, the audience is on the edge of their seats, what has happened. They can only assume death, but to who, can't be whoever was following as he only had a machine gun. The next clip answers our questions once again, our actor is on the floor, he seems to be struggling, and it is the same setting so clearly it follows on. We can see he is attempting to get up, but its happening very slowly, he is in pain, so much for him being a great soldier. The quick shot change is used to show him giving up and slamming back onto the floor. The sound has all gone, no heartbeat, all we hear is the tweet of birds which is rather ironic considering our actor seems to be dying. It just shows how quiet it is, how no one can hear him being shot. Is he dead? Well according to that title he is, 'some they lose'. So after building up this amazing two men, one dies, what a let down. Well that's what the trailer connotes to the audience, but wrong again they are. All of a sudden we hear a heartbeat start up. From a black screen we just have a shot of a face, whose face is this, the head slowly tilts up, his face slightly frustrated, angry, another heartbeat, is his life beginning again? Revenge. The title sequence of the film now follows, white wrting comes from the right hand side of the screen and from the left a heartbeat monitor. The heartbeat ties in perfectly with the monitor and finally the title is revealed. "Seven point 62" A calibre rifle. Guns are clearly the main theme of this film. After a few seconds, we hear another gunshot and a bullet hole appears where the 'o' was. WE then hear more gunshots tied in perfectly as the letters that spell "coming soon" reveal themselves. AT the end, nothing has actually been given away, we know the genre and some settings, two men are involved, and after thinking death must take place, he comes back to life. So what really happens, well the audience know there is only one way to find this out, watch it.

Production, Evaluation: Final Teaser Trailer: Changes Made from previous trailer

In response to previous audience feedback i redid the trailer, it is now about 50 seconds longer. The first thing I changed was adding a title sequence at the beginning in response to 'rellikdestroyer'. To remind you, his problem was that he did not fully understand the story and was not sure who these men were, and why they were killing. Therefore, I thought if I put in 'guns for hire' it explains to things. Firstly that they know how to fight using weapons, i.e. assassins, and secondly that they do this for money, i.e. mercenaries. The clip after this title sequence also increases the understanding of this trailer as the audience can see maybe a hitlist being passed over as he is being hired once more for a job. The next change which is also noticeable instantly is the heartbeat. 'TheMyfilms4u' said that he thought I should start the soundtrack earlier as it was too quiet, but as shall be explained later in my next post "Final Teaser Trailer Evaluation", I felt that where it was at the moment worked well, so instead I decided on adding a sound effect. A heartbeat seemed like the right option which is clear from the audience feedback below. By bringing it in at the beginning, it instantly builds up some tension and implies that whatever is happening is dangerous and will contain a lot of energy. By increasing the rate of the heartbeat throughout it sets the pace for the film and denotes to the audience how tiring this mission is for the actor. Also this heartbeat does not contrast much with the soundtrack as they are both a deep low pitched beat. Lastly the heartbeat increases the effect of the shot at the end where he tilts his head up as the heartbeat has got faster throughout and then after the gunshot, it as just gone, complete silence, but as it starts up again, it implies to the audience that this actor may be some sort of 'super' soldier. The next differences are from 0:47s onwards. Firstly, there is another title over black included. It says 'have they ever thought of anything else'. The first reason for this was that even though after audience feedback that people wanted my trailer longer, I felt the snow scene needed to be split up otherwise it would just be a guy running in the snow which may get slightly monotonous. Secondly, the impact that you receive from his answer lately ensures the audience that he really is only after one thing, to kill. Everything onwards from this point is new footage not been seen before by the audience. I have placed all of the snow scenes together to make it seem like that is one mission and then all footage in the woods is another mission. Again to split up the new footage in the snow I have included two clips of my actor Tom Springall answering the previous title sequence, and the first clip of him, questions it: 'Other than killing?'. This is also the first time you hear my actor speak, and as can be seen his voice is deep and rather hoarse which gives the audience another opinion on this actor, that he is someone to steer clear of, someone that is not to be messed with. The next setting is the forest, implying to the audience that it is in a new location most likely due to it being a different person/mission. After the second clip we have a final new title slide that says "Born to Kill". Once again this was used to break up the scene as to not make it too boring for the audience, but to also to show the audience that this is all they do, they don't want to be doing anything else.

NB: I would once again like to apologise for video size on this post. For a full view of it, go to the link placed below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-gjCO9tpn8&feature=related

Production, Evaluation: Teaser Trailer Shorter Version

Above is the first teaser that I made. As can be seen it is only one minute long, so fairly short, but this leaves more to the imagination. But as i explain below, here are some problems my target audience had with it.



The first comment from 'chunkynessrass' although very short and simple gives a clear idea of his opinion. He feels it is too short, I am not given any reasons as to why, but the other two comments may provide me with some of these reasons.
'overgrowthalex' feels that having it so short detracts from the feeling of an action genre film. He says that making it short connotes to the audience that it is not action packed. He goes on to say that all in all, he does not fully understand what the film is about and the audience cannot get a sense of what they would be watching.
Next is 'rellikdestroyer' who is confused by the 'jumpyness' of the film, at one point my actors are inside and next it is snowing. It is clear that i need to make it more obvious that these "agents" travel the world, hence the change in scenery.
Lastly we have 'TheMyfilms4u' whose main concern is the sound. He says that the silence before the soundtrack begins is amateur and that it does not make the trailer work very well. He recommends moving the soundtrack to the beginning so that it begins straight away.

After reading through the audience feedback that I have gained, I have worked out some solutions to what they have said. Firstly, it is clear I need to make it longer and use more of the clips that I h have filmed over the past few months. Secondly, I feel I should probably include a few more title sequences to make it easier for the viewer to understand a change in setting. Lastly, sound wise, I'm not certain about bringing forward the soundtrack as I feel it works well as it is, but I'm thinking about using some sort of sound effect, maybe a heartbeat to add effect and to help build up suspense.

NB. I apologise for my video, for some reason, it keep missing off the last quarter of the screen, to get the full picture, visit youtube by using the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sE3fg3wg0g

Production: Film Poster 1

Here is my first poster for the coursework. I have used my two main actors as the centre piece for the poster so that the audience know who are the main people in the film. I have used a rather catchy slogan, '2 rules. kill. survive' which is seen in the trailer and once again has the impact of no limitation. There rules still break the law in one sense or another. Lastly the bullet holes let the audience know that it shall be an action genre film and that it will contain gun especially as both actors are holding one. Below is what my target audience thought.

Clearly, from the feedback, the main problem is the plain white background. people think it looks too amateur and detracts attention away from the main picture as it just seems blank. The other problem is the size of the tagline at the top. They feel it needs to be bolder or just a larger size so that it stands out better when walking past it.

Production, Evaluation: Magazine Final Cover

Above is my final poster. As can be seen, the purple line was eventually taken out after feedback from my target audience. It was also suggested to me that i should place a shadow on the magazine title to emphasise the name further which has clearly worked well. I have put in the back shadow behind the title so that it is bolder and stands out a bit more. I have not changed it much, but made the Tom Springall a tad darker so it is not hidden as much. The Z-rule is used effectively in this final piece as your eyes naturally follow across the title, down his body and to his name. The Rule of thirds is also good as a third of his body is each segment diagonally. There are no boxes left empty. Lastly I made Tom Springall's name darker to help it differ from the background and not fade in with it and made 'working his way up' and 'capturing' the best in film larger as my target audience had a problem with that.

Evaluation: AS Horror Work Evaluation

My media coursework in AS was based around a horror genre. It was made to subvert away from the stereotypical blonde female and we used an Asian girl for this. This killer is also different and is dressed up in a suit instead of your ragged clothes look that is usually seen. This project helped me to realise how important lighting and planning is when it comes to making a movie, and how sound plays such a large role in the making of a movie. Points that i would take into my A2 for consideration would be lighting, and make sure that it was always correct. The sound, ensure that the sound effects I use are dramatic and create an effect on the audience. And check each scene that I shoot as i noticed in this piece of work in one or two shots, you can see a part of the lighting or the spare tripod that we had. Lastly, ensure the setting is correct, make sure that it resembles and sets up the atmosphere intended for your audience.
Below is the presentation that I did for my coursework last year that evaluates the piece of work in full.

Final Horror Evaluation

AS Horror Coursework Film.

Above is my Horror Coursework that was completed for my AS course last year.