Monday, 14 May 2012
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
For the construction of our trailer, we used FinalCutPro and SoundtrackPro. The tools on FinalCutPro such as inserting text, cutting clips and changing the pace of certain clips were ones that were neccessary for our production and were used the most. We had little experience on FinalCutPro therefore a lot of practise and trial and error was needed to get the correct effect we wanted. We also needed to cut the original and natural sounds from the trailer. We had several problems with the images working as the message 'media file offline' appeared several times and we had to reupload the images yet once we had worked out why this was happening we were able to stop it. We also used a microphone to record the voiceover and then had to transfer this onto the trailer. SoundtrackPro was used to create the music. We did not do much layering as we didn't want it to sound too heavy and therefore after creating several tracks, decided on one.
Photoshop was used for the poster and magazine front cover. We used a lasoo tool and contrast tools to edit the pictures and give the effect we wanted. We also changed the size of the images, making our main character slightly large than the others to make it clear she was important. Our images within the trailer were also editied to give a more 'old' effect using another editing tool on photoshop.
The majority of our research was carried out through the internet, with youtube being a key source. Firstly, we looked at the conventions of a chick flick and popular films in the genre. This provided us with an idea of exactly what we wanted to do. We then watched several film trailers and each picked parts we liked and thought were effective. We looked at current magazine coveres such as Studio and posters such as St Trinians which we found off the internet to create an analysis of the key conventions. Some of our ideas came from music videos too in which similar styles were used e.g. the photo effects in Olly Murs video.We also carried out our survey through survey monkey and sent this link via email and facebook therefore this was neccessary for our production. We also used Microsoft Outlook to email teachers about using props and certain area's of the school.
Our planning was done through the use of media technologies. A graphics pen was used to create the storyboards and for some of the analysis as this was more convienient and provided a better quality. The layout templates were created on publisher to give some idea of where we wanted things to go, which made it easier to transfer the images and text and create the image intended.
The graphics pen was also used for some of the writing on our ancillary products such as the poster's slogan.
We evaluated our text through the use of peer assessment being recorded. By recording people talk about our text we were able to get clear ideas about what should be changed and what was good. We also used slideshare to create a lot of our evaluation materials to make it interactive and interesting.
BY JORDENE
Photoshop was used for the poster and magazine front cover. We used a lasoo tool and contrast tools to edit the pictures and give the effect we wanted. We also changed the size of the images, making our main character slightly large than the others to make it clear she was important. Our images within the trailer were also editied to give a more 'old' effect using another editing tool on photoshop.
The majority of our research was carried out through the internet, with youtube being a key source. Firstly, we looked at the conventions of a chick flick and popular films in the genre. This provided us with an idea of exactly what we wanted to do. We then watched several film trailers and each picked parts we liked and thought were effective. We looked at current magazine coveres such as Studio and posters such as St Trinians which we found off the internet to create an analysis of the key conventions. Some of our ideas came from music videos too in which similar styles were used e.g. the photo effects in Olly Murs video.We also carried out our survey through survey monkey and sent this link via email and facebook therefore this was neccessary for our production. We also used Microsoft Outlook to email teachers about using props and certain area's of the school.
Our planning was done through the use of media technologies. A graphics pen was used to create the storyboards and for some of the analysis as this was more convienient and provided a better quality. The layout templates were created on publisher to give some idea of where we wanted things to go, which made it easier to transfer the images and text and create the image intended.
The graphics pen was also used for some of the writing on our ancillary products such as the poster's slogan.
We evaluated our text through the use of peer assessment being recorded. By recording people talk about our text we were able to get clear ideas about what should be changed and what was good. We also used slideshare to create a lot of our evaluation materials to make it interactive and interesting.
BY JORDENE
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Each of our products followed a similar colour scheme and layout, all using similar conventions which therefore made it effective. Our front cover, poster and trailer each used the the same font in the pink/coral colour therefore showing consistency and making it recognisable to the viewers. We used a pink/colour throughout to make sure we kept to the conventions of a chick flick and so the audience had some ideas about the trailer and could guess the genre without seeing more. We ensured this was possible from each of our texts by keeping things conventional and obvious as some of our target audience were relatively young and therefore needed to make sure that they were able to make links between our chick flick and conventions.We wanted each product to be very character based with little text and therefore at the start of our trailer we had each character introduced with their name flash up, this was to create a relationship with the viewer and by doing this we were able to have a large image on the ancillary texts. This was a positive and effective as we know from our research that a large image with direct eye contact is what often attracts people towards something.
BY JORDENE
BY JORDENE
In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our text was similar to St Trinians and Mean Girls in the fact that it was a school based chick flick with a heavily focused female cast however The Formula had an all girl female cast and this has not often been done before. It also focused on the academic side of school instead of rebellion or relationships and therefore this is different. We did this to create a USP and to ensure it appealed to our target audience of 12-18 year olds.
Other conventions of a chick flick include pink/purple text, voiceovers, often a make over scene and a group of females. Our trailer uses these conventions with our text being a pink sketchy text, a female voice over to accompany the images, a make over scene (though not a conventional one, ours has the 'popular' girl becoming a geek) and we use a group of females yet once again this is not conventional as it is a 'geeky' group of females instead of the stereotypically pretty and popular ones.
Our poster was similar to the means girls one in the fact we had a very stereotypically feminine colour scheme of pinks/corals whilst Mean Girls also used pinks. We used a similar positioning to the Mean Girls poster as our main character was faced away from the main group showing the clear divide. We decided to shows our was a chick flick with a comical edge through the facial expressions of the characters which is not often seen on film posters therefore challenging the conventions of a chick flick poster. Whilst Mean Girls slogan is 'watch your back' ours was 'Who's gonna' get it right?' showing that there is some form of competition/disagreement in both yet ours is more academic based which you can tell from the clothing and slogan.
BY JORDENE
Other conventions of a chick flick include pink/purple text, voiceovers, often a make over scene and a group of females. Our trailer uses these conventions with our text being a pink sketchy text, a female voice over to accompany the images, a make over scene (though not a conventional one, ours has the 'popular' girl becoming a geek) and we use a group of females yet once again this is not conventional as it is a 'geeky' group of females instead of the stereotypically pretty and popular ones.
BY JORDENE
Friday, 23 March 2012
What have you learned from audience feedback?
From our audience feedback we were able to develop our trailer in many ways and have learnt many things. For our audience feedback we sent a survey on surveymonkey to people within our school who were our target audience age which meant the data we collected was valuable and beneficial to us.
The audience feedback mid production showed us that our range of shots was not varied enough and that without a voice over, it made limited sense therefore for the rest of our production, we put more variation of shots within it and added a voice over. This was mentioned post production when people who study Media evaluated our production work. We learned that young people tended to like our photo clip idea within the trailer more than older people. It might be because it's more of a modern trend to have these days as it is seen in new music videos such as Olly Murs - Dance With Me Tonight and therefore older people might not be accustomed to it. Our audience feedback showed us that we needed to cut certain clips down to create more flow and continuity and that this was necessary for the trailer to look professional and create interest.
We also learned several things from our initial audience feedback about our target audiences interests such as friendship and a makeover being the most common conventions in a chick flick, mean girls being the most popular chick flick and a small cast being better than a large one. Each one of these factors influenced our choices when creating our trailer as we wanted it to appeal to our target audience as much as possible. We learned from our survey that audience feedback is a key factor for success.
BY JORDENE!
The audience feedback mid production showed us that our range of shots was not varied enough and that without a voice over, it made limited sense therefore for the rest of our production, we put more variation of shots within it and added a voice over. This was mentioned post production when people who study Media evaluated our production work. We learned that young people tended to like our photo clip idea within the trailer more than older people. It might be because it's more of a modern trend to have these days as it is seen in new music videos such as Olly Murs - Dance With Me Tonight and therefore older people might not be accustomed to it. Our audience feedback showed us that we needed to cut certain clips down to create more flow and continuity and that this was necessary for the trailer to look professional and create interest.
We also learned several things from our initial audience feedback about our target audiences interests such as friendship and a makeover being the most common conventions in a chick flick, mean girls being the most popular chick flick and a small cast being better than a large one. Each one of these factors influenced our choices when creating our trailer as we wanted it to appeal to our target audience as much as possible. We learned from our survey that audience feedback is a key factor for success.
BY JORDENE!
Monday, 5 March 2012
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During the production and research of our project a lot of new products were used that made it easier and quicker to work, and also accessible in that these stations could be worked on from home and at school, almost 24/7.
BY DEMELZA!
eBlogger: This website was a great too to process and write up/record all the information that we had or needed, as it is free and easy to use wherever there were no problems in not being able access it and not have tasks uncompleted. It also made it easier to assess the work, as it is all in one neat chronological place and not spread around in a folder. Furthermore the fact that it's on the computer and uses the Internet allows it to be more accessible when showing our media based products.
Final Cut Pro: This is where all the editing was done, it was very powerful and perfect for our movie post-production needs. The advanced software let us manipulate the time, sound, the way to whole trailer flowed and text. It was extremely useful for it's auto save feature, so our work could never be lost or deleted as it backup our work every few minutes.
Photoshop CS4: was another huge too for the production of our poster and film magazine front cover, as from AS skills that were picked up in there helped me to create these texts to the most professional looking pieces. It enabled me to incorporate our images into the background, add texts such as titles and changing Photoshoping the photographs colours, for instance the images are all tinted pink to get that feminine feel.
Soundtrack Pro: This piece of software provides us with the elements to make music, although our final piece of music is fairly simple Soundtrack Pro allowed us to explore a variety of music tracks and sound affects. This enabled us to make a clearer decision for what we wanted as our background track for our teaser trailer.
Sony Camera: The camera we used was made by Sony, it was suitable to our needs and fitted on a tripod well to get smooth shoots and the flip out viewer to get an image of what the footage looks like.
Panasonic Camera: A DLSR was used to capture our images for the magazine front covers and teaser poster, which where then imported to photoshop so it was important that we had high quality images to work with.
Google: An extremely useful tool that helped us for the research, it allowed us to find images for our reader profile and information on previous films that helped us understand the film industry to a higher level. As well as using our own knowledge we could rely on a google search to help us find what were the most popular chick flicks. IMDB and a films own website helped us on researching individual films.
BY DEMELZA!
What have you learned from audience feedback?
The first and most important factor that audience feedback as taught me is that it is extremely necessary, and beneficial in making decision and changing parts of our product. A questionnaire created and put on survey monkey was sent out to the girls from our school via email, as they were the age of our target audience their opinions and likes/dislikes was crucial.
Audience feedback during the making of our trailer told us that they didn't think our trailer flowed enough but our starting was always strong. The sudden flash of static images was liked by some and disliked by others and after evaluation we found that younger people tended to like it. As our trailer is intended for a younger audience this piece of information was key on whether to keep it. Although we worked on it from that position to make it better and maybe change the minds of the people who didn't like it.
In the final audience feedback we learnt that our trailer has been eminent in telling the story, and grabbing the audience attention enough to make the want to see the film. What people previously didn't like, such as the issue with the flow of the clips and the lack of dialogue was changed and proved successful according to the latest audience feedback.
BY DEMELZA
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of our main product and ancillary texts work extremely well together as the same colour scheme and fonts have been used constantly throughout. In doing this it allowed for familiarity to ensure and a house style is enabled in which the audience will start to recognise.
The film poster has a clear pinkish colour scheme, featured in the background fonts and the main characters clothing. In the magazine front cover, the colours are very simular, as well as the clothing and chosen pose is the same; as research did show us that these types of texts are often matching. This colour is also seen through out the trailer, starting with the same shade of pink. The flash of the names and then at the end describing parts of the film. This allowed us to achieve the overall girly appearance we wanted, therefor it was proved effective.
The use of clothing has been effective in that it the same outfit was ensured for both Magazine and Film Poster, as the audience will become familiar with the pink shirt and associate it with the film. Simular to Juno's stripy top in Juno (2007). The pink shirt is a tool in how Sam is set apart from the rest of the cast, which is repeated through out the trailer, which connects with the storyline and her questioning friendship with the others. The combination has been overall effective in that we have kept it simple enough for all audiences to associate the collective products with each other. BY DEMELZA
The film poster has a clear pinkish colour scheme, featured in the background fonts and the main characters clothing. In the magazine front cover, the colours are very simular, as well as the clothing and chosen pose is the same; as research did show us that these types of texts are often matching. This colour is also seen through out the trailer, starting with the same shade of pink. The flash of the names and then at the end describing parts of the film. This allowed us to achieve the overall girly appearance we wanted, therefor it was proved effective.
The use of clothing has been effective in that it the same outfit was ensured for both Magazine and Film Poster, as the audience will become familiar with the pink shirt and associate it with the film. Simular to Juno's stripy top in Juno (2007). The pink shirt is a tool in how Sam is set apart from the rest of the cast, which is repeated through out the trailer, which connects with the storyline and her questioning friendship with the others. The combination has been overall effective in that we have kept it simple enough for all audiences to associate the collective products with each other. BY DEMELZA
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Chick flicks usually have a strong female cast, or at least a female cast. Our film had one female main character and four sub main characters, by having this, it is clear to the audience as to who it should appeal too not just making it clear what the film is about.
The film is largely based around the main character, Sam, and the trailer followers her too, therefore we have stuck to the convention of their being a central protagonist. She is the character that the audience likes, sympathises with and is happy with as you follow her through through her adversities.
There is also an element of overcoming, in our case, Sam has to deal with the nerds, eventually becoming friends with them. This is in fact the obstacle, whether or not she will stay enemies or give in to her better self.
Unlike other chick flicks our film doesn't include a love interest purely because it's about getting what you want in terms of a future for yourself. It could be a feministic view, that isn't always depicted in chick flicks for young girls as it's always about 'getting the boy' which is where we have decided to change that.
Camera angles such as mid shot, close up, POV are used which are typical of any film in any category.
Voice over is a popular tool when it comes to chick flicks, you often have a narrative telling the audience what is going on or what the main character is thinking. We have interpreted this by having a voice of in the trailer, asking questions to the audience and bringing them into the situation in the trailer itself.
BY DEMELZA!
The film is largely based around the main character, Sam, and the trailer followers her too, therefore we have stuck to the convention of their being a central protagonist. She is the character that the audience likes, sympathises with and is happy with as you follow her through through her adversities.
There is also an element of overcoming, in our case, Sam has to deal with the nerds, eventually becoming friends with them. This is in fact the obstacle, whether or not she will stay enemies or give in to her better self.
Unlike other chick flicks our film doesn't include a love interest purely because it's about getting what you want in terms of a future for yourself. It could be a feministic view, that isn't always depicted in chick flicks for young girls as it's always about 'getting the boy' which is where we have decided to change that.
Camera angles such as mid shot, close up, POV are used which are typical of any film in any category.
Voice over is a popular tool when it comes to chick flicks, you often have a narrative telling the audience what is going on or what the main character is thinking. We have interpreted this by having a voice of in the trailer, asking questions to the audience and bringing them into the situation in the trailer itself.
BY DEMELZA!
Friday, 10 February 2012
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Friday, 6 January 2012
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Shot Types & Filming Techniques Summary - Becca
Long shot We used a long shot within the quiz frame to show the large subject of the quiz ( both tables of teams and the question master) this also showed all the surroundings of the rooms.
Medium Long Shot
We also used a Medium Long shot in this case as the standing actor (me the quiz master( cuts off feet and ankles from the picture we can see, to keep up with the social circumstance displayed. We used medium shots for the opening scenes so the actor eventually after walking to their seat was placed in the middle of the screen.
Close Ups
Close ups in such as the character's face (gee's in the competition) to really hilight her expression and reaction.We used a point of view shot made from a camera position to show the person's point of view over sam's F- paper, to show how she feels about recieving a low grade.
Zoom
Zoom, is also used to really make the F- a significant part in the film so attention is concentrated on the details. We have used straight cuts for our trailer to show a sudden change from one part of the story to another, we did this to show change in scene, to compress time, varying of building up an image.
Voice over
Commentary ( voice over) for our trailer was used to introduce characters, and to introduce different parts of the narrative and to give some extra information for audience that wasn't given in images and moving image. We have synced it with our music to create a rhythm.
Music
The music used helps to accompany the pace of scenes, it is to compliment cuts and shows the mood of the scene. It was also used to build up certain parts of our scene.
Lighting
Soft and harsh lighting was used also to set the mood again for the frame, to show specific objects and people's expression.A light humour moment such as the makeover scene has a lot of strong lighting to convey the comedy and that its a bright and happy scene. Darker shots such as the F- paper is to show the mood that Sam is feeling and generally depicts a sad scene.
Medium Long Shot
We also used a Medium Long shot in this case as the standing actor (me the quiz master( cuts off feet and ankles from the picture we can see, to keep up with the social circumstance displayed. We used medium shots for the opening scenes so the actor eventually after walking to their seat was placed in the middle of the screen.
Close Ups
Close ups in such as the character's face (gee's in the competition) to really hilight her expression and reaction.We used a point of view shot made from a camera position to show the person's point of view over sam's F- paper, to show how she feels about recieving a low grade.
Zoom
Zoom, is also used to really make the F- a significant part in the film so attention is concentrated on the details. We have used straight cuts for our trailer to show a sudden change from one part of the story to another, we did this to show change in scene, to compress time, varying of building up an image.
Voice over
Commentary ( voice over) for our trailer was used to introduce characters, and to introduce different parts of the narrative and to give some extra information for audience that wasn't given in images and moving image. We have synced it with our music to create a rhythm.
Music
The music used helps to accompany the pace of scenes, it is to compliment cuts and shows the mood of the scene. It was also used to build up certain parts of our scene.
Lighting
Soft and harsh lighting was used also to set the mood again for the frame, to show specific objects and people's expression.A light humour moment such as the makeover scene has a lot of strong lighting to convey the comedy and that its a bright and happy scene. Darker shots such as the F- paper is to show the mood that Sam is feeling and generally depicts a sad scene.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Use of Dialogue and Voiceover - Becca
This is a video I found on youtube of a supposedly typical voiceover for a trailer or in an actual film, We have decided not to use dialogue in our film to create a sense of mystery and to also let the expressions from characters to convey emotion. We are working currently on making a voiceover we would not use this particular voice but we will want to create the same effect and to give information about the narrative to the audience.
Special Effects - Demelza
Due to limited footage editing proved tricky, but not impossible, we wanted to make the start snappy and quick to in gets the viewer ready to view the trailer. With the videos of the maths challenge contestants sitting down as if to be photographed I used Final Cut Pros special effects to make it look like a camera was going off. To do this I used a flash to white transition and imported a flash of camera sound, which made it look authentic.
To make use of the photographs taken of the make over scene, they will be played one after at 0:00:04 to make it look like a disjoined movie clip. Similar to that in an music video by Olly Murs, it creates this youthful appeal and plays with the vintage style that is a current obsession. Before putting these images into FCP I had to edit them in photoshop and manipulate to create the old style effect using the noise level tool.
.gif of what it could look like. (click to animate)
Olly Murs music video Dance With Me Tonight was a big influence in our trailer as we liked the transitions and the editing effects such as the photo style's within it and the way the lighting had been manipulated on these. We found it half way through our editing process and found that he had actually used similar video to photo ways that we have included in our beginning transitions. This influenced our trailer as at first, we were not sure whether or not to include these photo's yet we editied them in a similar way to the Olly Murs video so they looked more 'worn' and 'old fashioned'. The video is very young as it not only features all young people yet our target audience is the same as Olly Murs therefore the appeal will be the same and people will be able to relate.
Jordene & Becca
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