A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation
- 1. A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation By Arianne Legaspi
- 2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My media products use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products. I did this by looking at every thing that is necessary to look at and noting down everything that I saw and comparing each and every one of them. By doing this I created my own media products such as my film magazine, film poster and film trailer. To do so I had to look at the three different types of media product that was on offer online and in the shops. Those three things are: Film Magazines such as Total Film Film Posters Film Trailers. In order to do this I had to choose a genre that I wanted to pursue first, and since horror is one of the most popular genres for film I chose that. Having chosen my preferred genre I started watching film trailers and looking at film posters and deconstructing them, after that I looked at the front covers of film magazines and looked at how they laid it out and what kind of photos they used depending on the genre of the film they were featuring.
- 3. The media products were split into three parts, the film trailer, film poster and the film magazine. I found the magazine and poster easier to do so I started with those and I did it by splitting the work into two sections, 1 st I started with the poster the poster was not that easy to do, although I looked at different horror film posters I wanted to make mine a bit different as my film was going to be a psychological horror I wanted to make it scary but intimidating as well, I found some interesting horror posters so I looked at the images they used and took my images in a similar style. The 2 nd thing I worked on was the film magazine, this was easier to do as the image was not the most important thing and did not need much focusing on, however some of the texts that I laid down for the magazine needed to be reconsidered and some had to be completely taken out and erased to make the magazine more realistic, I had to look at several magazine covers although a large amount of those magazines were not film based. The 3 rd thing I did was the film trailer, the trailer was the hardest part of the work as it was very challenging and time consuming, the filming was easy but the hard part was getting actors to play the characters for my film and making sure that they were happy to take part. For the trailer the hardest part that I found was the editing as we had to create each scene from scratch, we also had to create our own original music scores for the trailer which I found hard at first as I was using a different editing programme from the rest of the class.
- 4. Overall I think my media product mostly uses the conventions and forms of real media products because I got most of my ideas from looking at the different forms of media available from everywhere that I looked, I do not think my work challenged it because I did not really want to stray too far from what the audience saw as the normal everyday media product. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? The combination of my main product and ancillary text is effective because they all link together in small ways however they are all separate pieces of media to make it more interesting for my audience. The texts for the magazine and poster are different but the images convey the same message to the viewer. I think the overall package is successful in promoting the film trailer because it displays all relevant information in a way our target audience will be interested in viewing. For example my film poster and film magazine both have similar images of the actress depicting horror and madness making it seem as if the film will be worth watching and that horror lovers would love it.
- 5. What have you learned from your audience feedback? In order for me to make it easier for you to understand I will talk about the results of the survey that I took for the magazine cover. These are the results of the survey. Q1: Male or Female 40% Male 60% Female Q2: What Impression does the image make on you? 40% It's good 60% It's scary Q3: Do you like the colour of the magazine? 100% Yes 0% No Q4: Does the picture deliver the full impact that is intended by the maker? 100% Yes 0% No
- 6. Q5: Would You Watch Any Of The Top 5 Films Listed On The Magazine? 70% Yes 30 % Maybe 0% No Q6: Which one? Love-10% Zoli-20% Lullaby-10% Black Book of lies-40% Birthing House-20% Q7: Do you think the magazine name is catchy? 90% Yes 10% Maybe 0% No Q8:Would you read it even if you dislike the coverperson? 90% Yes 10% No Q8: Do you think the price is fair? 100% Yes 0% No
- 7. As you can see there were a lot of positive answers from the viewers meaning that they enjoyed viewing it and that they liked the magazine cover as it is. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? To do the project I had to use a variety of gadgets and peripherals to construct and plan my coursework to create the images for the poster I used a digital camera, then I uploaded the images into my laptop, chose the most suitable image for my poster and used some photo editing programmes to change it’s appearance etc. for the photos I used a programme called portrait professional to remove blemishes and make the facial features more noticeable then I uploaded the image onto Photoshop where I used the tools to edit the background, change the contrast/brightness and add the necessary things e.g. titles.
- 9. For the magazine I did the same with the image and then I used publisher to add the rest of the details such as headlines etc. The first copy which was not right. The second and final copy
- 10. For research and planning I mostly used the internet as my main box of knowledge to find out what certain audiences liked etc. For the film trailer I used my video camera which is a SANYO then I uploaded the videos on to my laptop and used a programme called Corel Video Studio 12 to create my student film. To create the rest of the project I used Microsoft programmes such as PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. To present my work in an electronic platform I used Blogger to upload written documents and You Tube to upload my final student film. Snap Shots From Student Film:
- 11. Overall I think my project was a success even though I found it difficult as I was working on it by myself, even though it was tough I enjoyed doing the coursework particularly the days when filming was being done as they were such memorable times.