A2 evaluation - Enforcer
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The document discusses conventions used in film trailers and posters to promote media productions. It describes how the author's trailer and promotional materials for a film follow conventions like using key plot moments out of order, including release date and production company at the end of the trailer, and using titles to introduce clips. The poster features the main character and production details against a backdrop relating to the plot. Challenges to conventions include combining genres of action, thriller and sci-fi and portraying the main character as potentially a "false protagonist".
A2 evaluation - Enforcer
- 2. USE Our trailer uses a variety of forms and conventions from real media products. Its important that the genre of the production is easily identified so that it attracts an appropriate audience. Our trailer shows the key moments from the film to intrigue the audience and make them want to watch the film. However, they aren’t shown in the correct order, this is to avoid giving the plot away. Our production also follows the 3 act structure which is used in most real media products to make the plot interesting and understandable. The first act establishes the main characters and the storyline, the second act is when a character is faced with a problem which sets an objective for the rest of the film and the third act is when the characters face the problem head on and solve it to create a new equilibrium.
- 3. USE Our trailer also displays the name of the film along with the release date at the end, this is the last thing the audience see from viewing the trailer so this information remains strong in the audiences memory, this is vital because the audience need to know when they can watch the film and could be the difference in the audience deciding to watch the film or not. In addition, we added more important information at the end of the trailer such as the directors name and production company, this is so the audience can relate to previous productions from the director/production company and will be more likely to watch the film because of their success in previous productions.
- 4. USE We used titles to give important information about the plot to the audience, this was then supported by a clip from our film. This is used in many film trailers to help the audience understand the plot but also see some shots from the film. For example, the film ‘In time’ uses titles and then shows a clip supporting what the title says, as shown below:
- 5. USE For the editing, we used fast cuts which is very common in action/thriller movies, this creates excitement and intrigues the audience. We added non diegetic sounds such as gun shots, this added to the excitement and emphasised the action. Police sirens were added in the background of one of our scenes, this was to make it realistic and to support our plot. We used two soundtracks throughout our trailer to create two types of emotion; our first soundtrack created tension and mystery because the trailer was showing the main character being interrogated/drugged by a scientist and our second soundtrack created excitement because the main character was being chased, he was killing people and buildings from the town was on fire. The soundtracks emphasised the emotions we were trying to create from the plot. Gun shot SFX: First soundtrack: Second soundtrack:
- 6. USE Different types of characters are used in most real media products, we tried to achieve this in our production by using a little child, teenagers and a female. This was to make the trailer realistic because in reality there isn't just male teenagers. In addition, the 'murderer' in the thriller genre is often a strong male figure, whereas the victims are a mixture of genres and ages. We tried to achieve this by having different types of victims, we included a 7 year old child and a male/female teenager. For the mise en scene in real media products the main character wears smart clothes and the other characters, mainly villains, wear all black. We used this in our production but also challenged the way its used because our main character wears partly black when killing. This makes the audience question whether or not he is doing the right thing or whether his killings are unjustified and therefore a villain.
- 7. CHALLENGE We attempted to challenge forms and conventions of real media products so we could make our production unique and different to all the other films in our genre. First of all, we added a sci-fi element to our production so it was an action thriller with parts being Sci-Fi, however, we didn’t want to go to much into the Sci-fi genre because Sci-Fi productions are usually high budget as they require a lot of special effects. We don’t have the financial backing required to be able to create a Sci-Fi production and didn’t want to mislead the audience into thinking they would be watching a Sci-Fi production, therefore we didn’t include too many Sci-Fi conventions. Our media product contains time travel which is common in Sci-Fi movies, having these three genres combined is a rare occurrence (Action, Thriller & Sci-Fi) so we feel we have made our production unique by doing this.
- 8. CHALLENGE Another way in which we have challenged the forms and conventions of real media products is our main character; he is a protagonist but may also be a false protagonist because he is shown killing people without the reasons being explained to the audience. An example of a real media product that also used a false protagonist is ‘Psycho’. Our main character also kills a child which suggests he is actually the villain because the child is simply too young to defend himself and couldn’t possibly have done anything to deserve being murdered. The child is playing with his toys in his garden having fun, this will make the audience sympathise with the child and generate some hatred towards the main character, causing the audience to question whether or not the main character is the good guy. We also show the main character being vulnerable because he is drugged by scientists at the beginning, he is chased by a man and then shot by the man. This is also a factor for the audience to consider when deciding if the main character is the protagonist or if he’s a false protagonist.
- 9. CHALLENGE Our main character wears smart clothes which is common for main characters in the thriller genre but also wears partly dark clothes when killing people, even though it’s villains that wear dark clothing in thrillers. Therefore this also supports the theory of him being a false protagonist because he sometimes dresses like a villain, especially when killing people. Our main character dressed smart. Our main character dressed partly black.
- 10. Its important to target all types of audiences when promoting your product. There are a variety of ways in which you can successfully promote the product, we decided to use a poster and a magazine to promote our media product. We decided to use a poster and magazine because they can help reach out to a large audience, our magazine cover was from Empire which has a lot of readers because of how popular the magazine is, using them would help us promote our product. Our poster would be able to target a large audience too because it can be posted online and also in cinemas to attract those who like similar media products. We tried to keep a consistent layout and also similar fonts/colours to make it professional. We decided to use the main character on the magazine cover, he is centred because we want him to be the main attraction to the film and also what people relate to our film . We decided to have the character dressed in casual clothing so that it appears as though he blends in with the crowds (average day clothing). We decided to use Empire for our magazine because they are one of the most popular magazines in the film industry which have thousands of readers. We decided that our production company should be LionsGate, they create high budget productions and have a great history of successful films, this would give us the exposure to a large audience which is needed to make the production a success. To make our magazine cover realistic and professional we decided to look at some examples of Empire magazine, we used a similar template with the same fonts so we could achieve the professional look.
- 11. Film posters are used mainly for promotion, they can be displayed in cinemas worldwide, billboards, shopping centres, online and anywhere else that is appropriate. To maximise the promotion from the poster its important that it’s appealing and relevant to the plot. We used a picture of our protagonist which was also used on the magazine cover as this is a common convention of film posters. We tried to achieve the ‘simple but effective’ look for our layout, the background was relevant to our plot as it was about devastation and then we had our main character overlaying. The main character is on the poster and the magazine which is an element of synergy as people can recognise our production via this character. The title of the production should always be in bold and easy to read, this makes it easier for the audience to identify what film the poster is for. The poster should have a theme and important information for the film should also be present. Our theme is destruction and an urban feel because this is the main setting for our production. The information we included are all the technical roles such as the director and producer. We have used a quote to add effect to the poster, this relates to the plot of our production. We have included important information such as the producer and director, this is common on all film posters. The title is bold and appealing to attract the audiences attention. The background we have used is dark but has brightness from the sun set. This works well for our poster as it shows both a devastated city yet a small glimpse of hope. An image of our main character is at the front so the audience can identify the character, this is useful if your production has a famous actor because it will appeal to their fans. We have also included the release date of the film which is important because it informs the audience of when they can watch the film. An example we looked at is ‘Source Code’, this contains quote with the main character being the focal point, the title of the production is also bold and stands out.
- 12. It’s important to understand what your targeted audience expect from a production and the types of codes and conventions required to satisfy them. We decided that our production would be rated a 15, this was because of the action scenes which should be viewed by young/mature adults. To receive feedback from our audience we started by creating a questionnaire that asked the audience what codes and conventions they expect in a production of our genre and what characteristics of characters they like/dislike in productions. We asked members of the sixth form at random and this information helped us decide what to include in our production and it gave us some ideas. Some of our results are shown below:
- 13. To receive more feedback we interviewed 3 members of our Media class. The sampling method we decided to use was the ‘Simple random method’ and to do this we used a website called random.org which allowed us to put a minimum and maximum number to randomise and this would give us a number and select a person to sample. This would make it a fair sample and prevent biased answers and unrealiable data. The people chosen are shown below. As a group we came up with questions to ask the 3 chosen people so that we could understand their expectations of our genre and so we could gain some ideas to include in our production. The questions asked allowed us to learn about the type of characters they like in our genre, what attracts them to our genre, their favourite films in this genre and their opinions of the ideas we had. Click here to watch the interview.
- 14. Once we had finished our production we wanted to receive feedback from our audience about what they thought was good/bad and their overall opinion of it. This helped us understand whether or not we had reached our target audience and whether our production was suitable for the genre. To do this we selected 3 people who had watched our production at random and then asked them open questions so we could get their opinions on what we did good/what could be improved. Click here to watch the interview.
- 15. Apple Mac Computers: We used apple mac computers throughout the whole project. This is because these systems are faster than the other computers that we had available so it helped us to work faster so we could continue with the production. In addition, these systems have advanced programs that can’t be run on the standard Microsoft PC because they’ve been specially designed for these systems, therefore we had to use a Mac in order to use these programs for our production. These programs include Final cut and iMovie which are used by professionals in the media industry. Edu blogs: We used ‘Edu blogs’ as our blogging provider. This enabled us to keep track of any work that needed to be done and allowed us to communicate easily. It also allowed us to receive feedback from our teacher and other students via comments so that we could improve our production. We used our blogs mainly in the research, planning and evaluation stages.
- 16. PhotoShop: This is another program used by professionals, it allows you to creates images instantly and easily. We decided to use this program because we wanted to use the best possible resources so that we could make our production to the best of our abilities. We used Photoshop to create our film poster and also our magazine cover. We used the magazine ‘Empire’ as a template and attempted to get a similar style to this so it looked professional and realistic. We looked at several posters including ‘Inception’ for inspiration because this is also in the same genre as our production. This program was used in the construction stages involving our poster/magazine. iMovie: We used iMovie to create the titles within our production, we were undecided on what titles to have in our production but once we decided this we looked on YouTube for inspiration. After doing some research we decided to go for the simple look with just white text and a black background, this also faded in/out. iMovie was used mainly in the construction stage to create the titles.
- 17. Final Cut Express: This program was the most important to us, this is the program we used to create our trailer and is where we combined all our shots/edited our shots to create the final product. This program enabled us to add effects such as cross dissolves, blur and special effects such as fire/smoke/gun shots. This program is used by professionals and is the best software to use because its possible of anything. We used this in the construction stage to create our production. Camera & recording equipment: We used the camera to record our clips for the production. We also used the camera for location scouting, although most of our final images were off the internet. The camera was used in the construction stage and the research/planning stage. We also used a tripod to support the camera and make the shots more steady and professional. A memory card was used to store the clips and transfer them on to our editing computer.
- 18. YouTube: We used YouTube in every stage of our production, whilst researching/planning we used YouTube to watch trailers from similar films in the same genre to give us some inspiration. We also used YouTube in the construction stage to find special effects such as fire/smoke and sound effects. We also used YouTube to look at camera movements and angles to refresh our memory from last years production, this helped us use professional camera movements/angles so that our production was to a good quality. Google: We used Google when in the research and planning stages of our production to find out information that we needed. Google was used to help us gain an understanding of important media theories and also camera angles/movements, we had learnt most of this from last years production but Google helped remind us what was needed when making a production. We also used Google to find our soundtracks and the images for our poster and magazine cover.