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Evaluation-Question 1

Teaser trailers are a way of film companies advertising their films. They have their own set of conventions which are different to full length trailers. The main conventions of the teaser trailer are:

• A length of 30-90 seconds
• Little or no dialogue from the film. This may be because the scenes haven’t been shot yet or to keep mystery about the film and to avoid spoilers
• If no speech is used then music is used instead to avoid awkward boring silences.

We decided to keep to the convention of having no dialogue so that we do not reveal too much about our film.We formed this decision after researching and viewing a trailer for Cherrybomb, as it was very effective and didn’t contain one word of dialogue until the very end. Instead of having silence which we decided might lose the audiences attention we added in music. We wanted to convey two very different moods, so we decided that we should use two different songs that had very different moods. One was a lighthearted mood- The specials- A message to you Rudy and the other was a hard gritty rap song by Trip to show the gangsters.

Our trailer is 59 seconds long as is exactly in between the recommended 30-90 seconds. We chose this because we felt that 30 seconds would be too short and wouldn’t show the audience the moods we were trying to set and that 90 seconds would be too long and we would leave the reader with too much information as we wanted to keep a bit of mystery about the film. We also didn’t want the viewer to get bored, especially if we had no dialogue.

As our film is a spoof of traditional teen drama films we wanted to go against as many conventions as we could. In other trailers, the teens are seen as over-sexualised or very violent, however, our characters are seen as being hapless geeks. We also noticed that posters tended to be dark and gritty showing the male characters with weapons wearing “chavvy” clothing and females being very sexual with hardly any clothes on. We didn’t want this for our poster so we decided to focus mainly on their faces, which are smiling and obviously drunk. The poster is also very bright and the faces are well lit leaving no sinister sub-tones.
Below is a real poster for the movie kidulthood compared to our poster. As you can see they are very different and do not seem like the same genre at all. We chose to make our characters completely different to those featured on the poster. They are all looking aggressively at the reader and are typical youth gang members, where as ours are fully dressed and have calm and naive expressions.

Our webpage however comply with the conventions as the image is the same as that on the poster and it also has main features that most film websites have, such as, a hompage, navigational bar, facebook link and feauture the trailer itself. We chose not to diverge against the type of websites we researched because we found them to be very successful and we felt that the audience would connect with it better when they were able to gain more information, especially through the photo gallery.

In other ways our film doesn’t fit in with the conventions of British teen films as they usually outline the problems of gang members in inner city area. Ours, show the problems ordinary people encounter when they experience extra ordinary events. They are also suburbians who are good, intelligent geeks (rather than criminals). Our setting is also very different to those trailers we researched. We discovered that they were mostly set in dark dingy alleys in cities, where as ours often shows green, leafy areas. We used this to show the stupidity of the characters and that they should be living clean cut lives, rather than running around after stealing a gangsters drug money.

Overall, I feel that we have mainly kept to the conventions set of teaser trailers but that we have altered the tone of teen dramas to combine it with satirical comedy.

Evaluation-Question 2

Question 2- How effective is the combination of your main produuct and ancillary texts?

Throughout production, from the word go, we wanted to have something that linked the 3 pieces of media (poster, trailer and website) and showed the synergy in marketing. We used the same image i n both the poster and the webpage, of the three characters lying with their heads together, drunk with a bottle of vodka. The characters are seen as geeky and somewhat innocent which directly contrasts the other posters for films of the same genre that we found in our research. Instead of being looked up to and seen as sexual and violent, the characters in our poster/film are looked down upon and are seen as the type of people the typical teen drama character would bully. This is exactly the type of image we want to portray to the audience. We also want to show the lightheartedness atmosphere of the film.

We tried to use the same colour themes and fonts in our poster, trailer (titles) and website. However, technology prevented us from doing so, as we worked on different programmes that do not share the same fonts. We did not think it was a major problem as we used the same type of text; big, chunky, rounded lettering which represented the humorous, youthful tone of the film and to attract the target audience.
Another link that we made from the poster to the webpage was theat we included the same reviews on them- 'A British Superbad'. We especially chose to write this review as Superbad was the film we mainly took inspiration from and it would give the film a potentially larger audience as it would attract superbad fans. We also used one stating that the film was 'a delirious, rollicking, roller-coaster ride of fun' giving an insight into it's comedic tone and also telling the viewer that it is exciting and something that would thrill youths.

The webpage also featured photographs of our actors together in real life. We thought that this would help link the trailer and website together as it would give the audience a better background knowledge of the characters before they went to see the film. We also hoped that it would personalise the characters and make them more likable. We dileberatly made the main girl character wear a prominent “Dog walking fleece” so that she was recognisable throughout the trailer, poster and the website. This was also to help create synergy.

We did, however, deviate from norms of marketing. We used different coloured titles throughout our three pieces. We did this to show the audience different sides of the movie. In the trailer we used chunky gold font to represent the money and to represent the flashiness of the characters. On the poster, we chose simple black and white theme which was the show the normality and ordinary nature of the characters. On the webpage, we chose grey and pink colour schemes to show the weakness of them . We also used them to try to attract the female audience because people associate pink with love. During our research we found that females are more attracted to romantic films.

We felt that to attract a large audience we need to listen to what their preferences are. If we made a film that only we are interested in we might not be able to gather such a large audience. We want are film to be successful so we have tried to incorporate all of the aspects that the audience want.

Evaluation-Question 3

Question 3 What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before we decided on what genre our piece was going to be we carried out some research (via questionnaires) into what type of films people prefer and what aspects of film they are attracted to. We found that females and males enjoy different films. Males, on a whole, preferred comedy and action films but the results for 15-20 year olds showed that they favoured comedy and teen drama. Females preferred romance films as well as comedies. This suggested that for our film to be successful and to gain a large target audience we should make our film a comedy. However, to ensure that we made our film original and to appeal to an even larger potential target audience we have decided to combine the popular genres to make a teen comedy.

In order to best connect with our target audience, we looks at the mediums in which they communicate most frequently, and found that social networking sites were the best way to get people to give us feedback. To this end, we set up a Facebook page and posted discussion topics on the wall of it, and then asked our friends who fit into our target demographic to answer our questions and give feedback on our ideas.

After establishing the who are target audience was going to be and what type of genre our film was, we decided to create a facebook page to ask people who they thought of our new ideas.
And, we have used it as a feedback tool throughout the project. The first question we asked our audience was out of our two final synopsis’ which one would they rather see? After collecting the results we saw that 75% of the people who replied would rather watch Ideas 2, s

o we used that idea as our plot for our trailer. We also asked them during the construction stages and we received comments back about our poster, rough cut of our film and our website. We then altered our products depending on the response.

After showing the facebook group our rough cut we got the following responses:

- Including more of the footage we shot, as they felt the rough cut got a bit repetetive and the extended shots of the characters walking down the alleyway were unnecessary.

- Instead of including the tagline, 'Money don't grow on trees,' they suggested that we should have prompt cards that told the viewer a little more about the plot, as they struggled to tell what the film was about.

- They liked the use of the song 'A Message to you, Rudy', but when we informed them of our intention to mix it with a grittier rap song, they were enthusiastic and felt it may help the audience grasp the nature of the film better.

We took this information on board and edited our rough cut, eventually coming up with the final trailer below. We adhered to all of the changes suggested by our 'test screening' group, and then we showed it to them again.

After we altered these criticisms we went on to show our media group our final cut, to which we got very good feedback.

Evaluation-Question 4

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

In A2 Media Studies my group and I used several different technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages. Below is a list of the different technologies I used.

- Blogger (This site). I have used this site to act as a kind of diary to present all of the information I have researched. I have also used it to keep information into how our production is progressing and to show any problems we may have faced.

-Search engines e.g. google, imdb.com. We used these to research the kind of genre we wanted to use. We researched into popular films to research any conventions the films may have including those in their synopsis, posters e.c.t. It also helped us in our construction. We had to write an email to “The Specials” to request their permission to use their copyrighted song. We wouldn’t have been able to find their contact details without the use of search engines.

- YouTube.com. We posted both our rough cut our final cut of our trailers. We also used the site to viewing teaser trailers for research purposes to see the codes and conventions. We also used it to research and find the music we wanted to use in our product. As well as using it for research puroses we also used it to help us construct our piece. We sometimes got confused when using other technologies such as Photoshop, so we used tutorials to help us.

- Photoshop. Although we found this complex and difficult to use, we produced our Poster using this programme.

- Adobe PremierePro We used this software to edit our trailer.


The main techonological advance for us this year was Photoshop. None of our group had used this programme before in the previous years study of media as we did not have to create ancillary tasks as part of our AS Media project. Because of this we had to learn to use the programme from scratch and needed the help of tutorials and the advice of other students. We found the complex buttons too over complicated but once we managed to find out which processes we needed we were able to quickly grasp the programme.

We struggled to edit the 15 certificate and needed the help of a tutorial such as the one below.

However, once we had grapsed the programme and had watched the tutorials, we didn’t have any more problems with Photoshop. Overall we found that it was effective and useful tool in producing our poster ancillary task. One aspect we found particularly good was the 'warmifying' process which warms the colour of an image. We thoughtthe range of texts available and fonts very useful.




YouTube was very helpful to us during the research, planning and construction of our project. In the pre-production/ research stages, we watched dozens of teaser trailers. It was quicker to use this site as all of the videos are in one place so we didn’t have to waste time trying to find them. This allowed us to see specific conventions within the trailers. In our construction stages we also viewed videos to help us grasp programmes we hadn’t used before such as Photoshop and I also used it when editing if I had forgotten how to use a specific editing tool. After we had completed our product we posted it on Youtube so that it was easily viewable and could be found easily by the group, teachers and examiners.

The editing software we had to use was Adobe Premiere Pro due to it being the only one available at our school. We have had several problems with this programme throughout this year as well as last year. Our school computers have a limited process power and available memory that this programme maxed out. This meant that they ran extremely slow and often crashed half way through editing; losing our work several times. We also had problems when opening our trailer to show people in order to get audience feedback. It also crashed several times and the programme often skipped past some of our clips giving the illusion that the video was of poorer quality than it actually was. Another problem was that the sound quality was sometimes reduced automatically by the programme in order for it to run more smoothly.
Due to licensing the programme could only be used at school; where there were limited computers available meaning that we couldn’t do our work as often as we had hoped. My group and I think that it would have been better if the school had chosen to use a programme that had been free or downloadable so that we could use it at home and could have a longer period to edit in.

Although we chose to create our website on weebly.com as it was easier to use and more readily available than the other option, Dreamweaver, we found that it was quite limited to the amount of features we could use. After completing the website and when trying to publish it we were notified that some of the feautures we had used, e.g. a playlist were only available if you paid for the “Pro” version. This meant that we had to change the layout and features of the website to a more basic version. However, we did include main features such as a link to a Facebook page which would be set up for the movie. We noticed when carrying out our research that most films produced in todays market have a Facebook page to appeal to their target audience of 16-24 year olds. This was the same age group as our target audience so we decided the best way to advertise our film would be via that social networking site (alongside our own website and poster. Another feature we used in our website was a photo gallery. Here, we produced photos of our characters together to show them outside of the film to give the audience a better feel of the characters. We specifically chose ones that were amusing, which coincided with our film.

Overall, we found the technologies that we used throughout our project were useful and helped us to achieve the best work and end product we could. The most useful tool, I think, was Youtube because it helped us throughout our Planning and Research stage as well as our Construction.

Final Video Audience Feedback

We showed the video to our teacher and classmates and we got the following responses:

• Very good editing of music- as we had to cut it half way through and repeat the introductions
• Good costumes
• Some clips are blurry- This is because we had to use poor quality cameras, something that was out of our control. It may also be due to slow school computers.
• Good titles- explains background information

We are, overall, very happy with our end product and we feel that we have produced the best trailer we could under certain group circumstances and technical limitations.

Final Video

Problems we faced whilst constructing and how we solved them

During construction we faced a number of different problems.

• Lack of computer memory- We had to specially request more memory on our school accounts which took time for the technicians to do.
• Video formatting- After transferring clips from our video recorder to the P.C. we had to receive help from the I.T. technicians to change the format of the clips so that we could edit them.
• Group absences- At some points we did not have all of our group present due to illness or other reasons. This made it hard for us to all get together to construct our piece.
• Refilming- this was due to poor video quality due to broken equipment.
• Losing the ability to use some actors-We filmed other characters and introduced them into the trailer.
• Weather- This caused continuity problems as we could not film due to snow, rain or it being too sunny as some scenes would not match others.

Rough Cut Audience feedback

We showed our rough cut to the teacher and to the class as well as friends and family. Below are the responses we received.

• Too much time spent on certificate and production team logo in the beginning
• Good music- adds to the comedy
• Funny clip of boy being pushed into a bush
• The walking scene was too long
• Little amount of clips
• Clips are too long
• Doesn't show the audience what the film is
• Titles do not help understanding
• Good mise en scene

We have therefore decided to change the trailer by :

• Adding more clips
• Shortening the length of the clips
• Making the editing harsher and quicker
• Changing the titles to help understanding and to set the scene
• Getting rid of the production team logo and certificate at the beginning

Rough Cut

Final Poster

This is our final draft of our poster.

Poster on Photoshop and changes made

Our group have been trying to work out how to use Photoshop, as we have not used the programme before. We have watched several tutorials on Youtube to try to figure out how to use it.

In the image above, we are trying to make a final draft of our poster.

These are the steps we have already completed

-Lightened the image to make the characters seem younger. It also gives the atmosphere a lighter hearted feel.

-Added a certification because it would make it look more realistic and show the audience who our target audience is

-Added different fonts for the titles. We would like to use a 3D effect, so have settled on the one seen in the photo above.

-Created a review and placed it at the top of the poster in a different font to the other titles.

Below is a screenshot of editing and inserting the film certification.

Firstly we found a picture of the certificate 15, and then cut out the background (as we're doing above).To do this we had to move the mouse steadily around the outside edge of the image. We struggled with this as it was very difficult to keep a steady hand and to create a smooth, neat result. After perfecting our technique we got an end result that we could move onto the poster.

Poster- Audience feedback

We recently created a first draft of a poster and put it on Facebook for feedback. We had some response from the Facebook group as well as from teachers and peers. This is the overall response that we got.

- The font being too simple- we felt it was boring and didn't show the light hearted tone of the film.

- The main image was pixelated- This was due to only using paint so we have decided to use Photoshop to create a better image.

- The arrangement of the text on the bottom- didn’t look professional, so we have decided to change the font to a more widely used one.

-The actors and production teams names were too prominent- We have decreased it in size.

Poster first draft

This is the first draft of our poster. We created it in paint and have included the following things:

A main photo of the characters- to introduce them to the audience and so the film, poster, trailer and website are linked by these characters.

A review from a media company- so that the audience know it is reputable.

A film certificate- to show who is allowed to watch the film and to also show adults that it is not suitable for young children.

A title- so that the viewer knows what the film is called so they can watch it in the cinemas. The title is also in a juvenile font which we think portrays the comedic atmosphere of the film and would attract the target audience.

The names of the actors and production team

We have posted this draft of the poster onto our Facebook page and will update any replies we get.

Final Website

Below are screen shots of each page of our website. The link for the online website is www.dirteecashmovie.weebly.com

Review page

Photo gallery page

Trailer page

Facebook link page

Homepage

How we made our website. Step by step

Construction of our Webpage

To produce or web page I decided to use WWW.WEEBLY.COM, an online program that allows you to create your own website easily and for free.

The screen capture from above is the homepage for our website. I have decided to use the same image as the poster so that it gives the audience something to recognise the film by. There is also a navigation bar down the right side of the website. This allows the viewer to easily move through the website to a different page.





This is a page of the website. The main image (of the facebook logo) is a link, when the viewer clicks on the image they will be transferred to a facebook page where they can learn more about the film. This is a major new part of advertising films in today's media. Because of the huge potential audience film companies are tapping the resource and advertising to their target audiences.


There is also a photo gallery, where the audience can see photos of the characters outside of the movie, in their everyday lives. This has not been used by film production companies before as they tend to show more information in the form of bloopers or videos. I feel, however, that this would be a good way of connecting the audience with the characters as it latches on to the facebook rage that is present time. People enjoy riffling around others photos and if they can do it with the characters then they might be more inclined to go to watch the film.


Another page is the review page. This is where the audience can see what main media companies, e.g. The sun newspaper, have thought about the film. This might also make them more likely to want to watch the film. This is used by movies all of the time. Their websites, movie posters, e.c.t., all have a review on it so that the audience knows a third party were also interested by the film.

The following web-address is a link to our web page.

http://www.dirteecashmovie.weebly.com/

Poster research

In preparation for our construction of our poster, I have done some research into what other films of our genre have produced. This is to find out more about what the conventions of the genre are in terms of marketing via Posters. I decided to analyse gritty British Teen dramas such as Kidulthood, 4.3.2.1 and Shank. I have also analysed the poster for the american film Superbad because this is the film that we have mainly drawn inspiration from.

In the British gritty films we found that the conventions for the Posters are :

• Dark, mysterious background
• Large, prominant title
• Male characters are seen with weapons and looking very aggressive
• Female characters are seen also looking slightly aggressive but are very over sexualised
• Production information
• Date of release

In the Superbad film the Poster features the following things :

• Unintimidating characters
• Large, curvy, colourful title
• Production information
• Light, plain background
• Release date

We have decided to go against the main conventions of the typical british teen drama movie and to steer towards the codes and conventions of the Superbad movie. This is in hopes of making our movie more original and therefore, hopefully, more desirable to viewers.

Shooting problems

We shot some scenes in October, however, when we have come to edit it we have realised that there are some issues that would effect our overall piece. After lengthy discussions we have decided that we need to re-film. The problems we face are :

- Poor sound quality in a scene where our characters are running.

How we could solve it: We could either refilm the sequence and position the microphone closer to the characters, or try to use the footage we have and record the dialogue again in a voiceover, editing it into the scene in post-production.

- A shaky camera lens in a shot of our characters walking, due to our tripod being broken and therefore not secure.

How we could solve it: Refilming- This is a big problem that cannot be disguised by careful editting.

- Availability of actors- one of the boys we used in our trailer lives in Stamford four days a week, and this tightens our filming schedule.

How we could solve it: We could utilise the time we all have off from school and college by doing our retakes during the Christmas holidays, weather permitting. We could also not bring his character into further shots and introduce another one instead.

- One of our actors, Sophie, has cut her hair since shooting, providing issues with continuity.

How we can solve it: We will have to either reshoot every scene invovling Sophie, or find a way to cover her hair in the remaining scenes. We could also not use her character in further scenes and introduce a different one instead.

Storyboard final draft

Copy right and our music

Because we have to use copyright free music in our main task I have done some research into what we are and are not allowed to use.

• We have to gain permission from the people who's music it is if we want to use it and we cannot claim it as our own.
• If permission is denied then we are not allowed, by law, to use it and another piece of music must be used instead.

We have found out that there are websites that list copyright free music and from where you can download it legally. I think that it would be easier to use copyright free music because it would save time waiting to be granted or denied permission to use it.
If we were to use copyrighted music it is possible to get around the laws by writing, next to/on our work, who wrote, performed and produced the music.

We have decided to use the song A song to you, Rudy by The Specials. To make sure that we are definitely abiding with the copyright laws, I have emailed the band, using the address I have found. The letter is as follows,

Dear The Specials/ Production Team

I am writing to you on behalf of my media production group, KDN Productions. We would very much like to use your song A message to you Rudy, in our A-Level media coursework film. We have chosen this piece of music because all the members of the group like it and it suits well with both the genre and the atmosphere of the short film. It would mean a lot to us if we could use your music in our film as it may help to better our grades. This film will only be used for exam purposes and will not be publically released. We have also stated the name of the song, who performed it and who it was written and produced by, to abide by copyright laws.

If we do not hear from you, we will assume that it is ok to use it in our film. You can contact us on the following email address- 03Harrisk@kscs.org.uk

Final music decisions

We have decided to use two pieces of music in our piece. The pieces contrast to show to shift in the feel of the movies and the change in the characters lives.

The first piece, A message to you Rudy, is trivial and light hearted. This helps to add comedic value to the film. It also represents the geekiness of the characters.

The second piece, Trip- Who's that, is gritty, hard, rap music that gives an urban feel to the trailer. This represents the Gangsters in the movie and the hectic minds of the characters.

Risk assesment

Main project working outline