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

Hardware

The majority of the editing, designing for the posters and magazines and research, planning and evaluation activities were completed on a windows 7 laptop with all the relevant software installed. If not on the laptop then it would of been completed on the windows 7 school computers.

This is the camera we used to film the footage for our trailer. It is capable of HD footage which we have utilised to follow conventions of real trailers.

We used a tripod in the filming of our trailer to maintain a steady shot to follow conventions of real movie trailers using steady fluid shots.

We used a Sony A300 DSLR camera to take the still photos for our magazine, poster and location shots as it is higher quality than a phone camera which is useful when creating publications such as a magazine cover to reduce pixelation.

We used a scanner to scan the storyboard of our trailer as it allows sharper images to be created than taking pictures of the storyboard which in turn will allow for a sharper animatic which will be more professional looking.

Software

I have used Blogger throughout my foundation and advanced portfolio as a way of presenting my work and the journey to the final trailer along with issues such as weather during filming. Blogger is a useful tool as it shows all the research and planning I have done but also that you can embed youtube videos and images along with text.

Youtube has been an important piece of software for me as I have used it to research trailers and shots from films that we could use in our trailer along with using it to showcase our final trailer and being able to embed that video into blogger. Youtube also allows HD footage which we utilised as it allows our trailer to be shown in its highest quality increasing the enjoyment for the audience.

I have used Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0 for all the editing of our trailer. It allows some advanced features such as transitions and adding text which we have utilised in our trailer to create certain effects. I have also used the ability to layer video footage to add the static over some footage to again create a certain effect for the audience. We have also used Premiere to create the animatic.

I have used photoshop to create both the magazine front cover and the poster as it has useful tools such as magic eraser, magnetic lasso and the ability to edit high quality images and retain image quality along with changing the lightness of pictures to make both the faces identical in the poster.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This is the footage of our audience feedback from our class.

Conventions of trailers:
Music building up
Change of pace through the shots
Certain shots e.g. changing personality to alter ego in bathroom

Strengths:
Professional titles at the end
Storyline
Car chase scene (gear stick shots, speedo shots)

Weaknesses:
Intertitles could be longer
Gun shot sound effect on the very last shot.

We also uploaded the video to Facebook but have only had two responses and only one of them has any strengths pointed out. it said "loving the font and intertitles"

We also created a questionnaire to give to friends and family to collect good points and improvements to be made to our trailer.
We asked: In what ways does my trailer remind you of other trailers?
The black cuts in between some shots look very professional and follow conbventions of trailers. The font and intertitles follow the genre and the conventions of trailers well. The music also builds tension well and keeps the audience intrigued. The credits at the end of the trailer also follow the conventions of trailers.

What do you think are the strengths of my trailer?
The music works very well and fits in with the shots as well as building tension. The black cuts seperate shots as well as building tension through increasing the time and not allowing the audience to see the whole shot in one go. The cuts in the car chase sequence are crisp and precise increasing the pace and tension.

What do you think are the weaknesses?
I think the intertitles could be a second longer to give slower readers a chance to read them without slowing the pace of the trailer. Some shots are a little dark and could be lightened slightly.

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

All three of our texts (Magazine front cover, poster and trailer) complement each other to advertise and appeal to the audience.

The two ancillary texts (magazine and poster) have characters from the trailer predominately featured on them which will appeal to the audience that have seen the trailer. This appeal and recognisable characters will create social discussions about the film which will help advertise it and persuade the audience to go watch it.

Also in the two ancillary texts the colour scheme is black and red which hints and foreshadows to the audience that in the film there will be bloodshed but still holds enough information back from the audience to make them ask questions and want to view the film to get the answers. This colour scheme also appeals to our target audience of men that our between the ages of 18 and 40 as black and red are masculine colours that link with action as well as darkness which is what the majority of our film involves.

On the magazine front cover we used a ransom note font to introduce the killer as that is all the audience know about him from the trailer so it links in with the trailer without revealing too much of his character to the audience.

On the poster the eye to eye logo is the same used at the end of our trailer so the audience can recognise the font and will instantly know it is about our film. We also use the tagline "can you see the truth?" which is a rhetorical question used to get the audience actively involved and thinking about our film to persuade them to watch it. The font used for "eye to eye" and "coming fall 2012" are both crumbling and decaying which again can foreshadow to the audience about possible events in the film involving the protagonist and things going wrong but enough information is kept from the audience to make them want to find out definite answers by going to watch the film.

Following with the theme established in the trailer of our protagonist having two sides to him our poster shows him in both his normal form and secret form staring at each other eye to eye which links with our film title eye to eye which also links with the fact he has a split personality and is leading two lives which the audience knows from watching the trailer but still want to know more about the background and history of each life and how it happened.  

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

• The title of our film is Eye to Eye however we have reversed the second "Eye" to symbolise the theme of the alter ego as it follows the main narrative for our movie. The font used in the title follows the action genre as it is fading and a little destroyed at the bottom which symbolises action and explosions and things being destroyed and the contrast of the white text on a black background makes the text almost pop out to the audience. 
• The second shot shows the setting of the office shown by the double doors with blurred glass which is a common convention of an office. The bland white colour scheme also shows the typical office convention. This shot follows the genre of action films well as it shows the normal life before you find out about the action side to the character.
• The third shot shows both costume and props. The prop is a ransom note which is clearly shown in the shot and follows the conventions of a ransom note with the cut out characters stuck on a page which also follows the genre by creating tension and a motive as well as being clear to the audience that the prop is a ransom note through clear representation. The costume is a typical representation of an office worker wearing a shirt and trousers which the audience will know shows a normal office job through the representation of the costume and the mise en scene of the shot with the white walls. 
• The fourth shot shows the office worker leaning down to splash water on his face in a mirror and when he looks back up he has changed to his alter ego which is shown through his costume and facial expression. This shot shows our narrative as its the first time you see his alter ego and this creates tension and curiosity within the audience wanting to know more about this character. The editing of this shot also makes it appear seamless which makes the illusion to the audience even more convincing and allows them to be immersed in the trailer.
• The fifth shot shows one of the intertitles in our trailer. The font used is different to the one used for the movie title however it still shows signs of destruction in the font with the letters falling apart which follows the genre and narrative of our film. It also hints to the audience about the narrative of the film through the font for the same reasons. Again it uses contrasting colours to stand out and grab the audiences attention. 
• The sixth shot shows a shot just before the charcter changes into his alter ego and this shot shows his emotion at finding his family have been kidnapped through his body language and looking down which hints to the audience that there is more to this character and that he wont let this crime go unpunished. The audience then use the rest of the trailer to reinforce this hypothesis.
• The seventh shot shows the car chase scene where you are looking back at a pursuing car in the wing mirror. This shot shows the genre as it is fast paced with quick cuts to gear changes and the speedometer rising which shows action and tension as the character is trying to evade his pursuers and evade capture which clearly shows the action genre as this scene shows various conventions of an action film.
• The eigth shot shows the first time we see the main character in his normal persona at his normal job. The audience dont really know what to think when they see this character as he seems like a normal office worker but they are slightly intrigued as they know the genre of the film so through the conventions of the genre they know there must be more to this character. This representation of the character allows the audience to link with him as well as allowing the narrative to flow naturally and create anticipation for the film.
• The last shot shows the only real special effect used in our trailer where shots of a masked figure in a pitch black room is layered with static to create tension and unease in the audience and add a hybrid genre twist to our film with elements from horror films with the quick shots and dark figures that are never truely clear as static covers up the footage for the majority of the time its on the screen. This hints at the narrative as the audience will assume the kidnapping has something to do with this masked figure.  

Final Trailer (Eye to Eye)

Our Trailer

Final Magazine Cover

 

This is the final version of our magazine front cover. This follows the conventions of an Empire cover through various fatures such as the plus and the various fonts.

Final Poster

 

This is the final version of our poster which follows conventions of a poster.

Posters Research and Analysis

All of these posters clearly show the main character(s) and clearly show the movie title. Some of the posters include additional information such as cast, crew and release date however this is not shared with all the posters. The posters with more information also contain some sort of tagline which is used to attract the audience. The posters show some form of setting from the film to give an audience a hint of the genre along with the main character and their outfit which also hints to the genre and narrative of the story. In our poster we will include shots of the main character along with the title ofthe film and possibly a date and tagline. I like that all of the posters show main characters from the films and some hint of setting and storyline from the background which leaves enough information from the audience to make them watch the trailer and then the film. We will try and use that in our poster with a simple background and focusing on the characters to grab the audiences attention.

Magazine Research

I have chosen to look at various empire covers to analyse common conventions that are shown throughout the covers.

All of these covers have conventions that follow throughout such as the matching colour scheme to the main image, the main character in the image overlapping the empire title. The empire tagline and website under the title. The use of the + symbol. The variations of font and sizes. Barcode and the angle of some blocks of text. the use of block backgrounds for some sentences. All of these characteristics we will take into account when we produce our own magazine front cover. I like the overlapping of the main image over text and the empire logo which we will use in our front cover to follow conventions. I like the use of the font on the joker cover which will work with our killer character and the ransom note to create an eye grabbing cover that will attract the audience and link with our trailer.

Font Research Continued

Today I carried on reasearching some possible fonts for our trailer and poster. I have been researching a wide variety of fonts but they all need to be quite clear and defined as I intend to reverse on of the 'eye's and this will look better on a clear font that can easily be reversed. I have also been looking at fonts with effects and textures in them that can grab attention and be more interesting for the audience.

First day of editing

Today we attempted to begin editing on the school computers however there was numerous issues with files not importing and not saving due to the network storage being full. Therefore to solve the issues at school I came home and used my laptop to begin editing and will use it from now on by bringing it into school during our media lessons.

Font Research

Today I began researching possible fonts for our poster and credits at the end of our trailer. I have found a few possible fonts through Dafont.com which will be good for our trailer and poster because we can reverse one of the "Eye"s so they face each other which links in with our stroy and the protagonist having an alter ego.

Filming 4th March

Today me and Mitch filmed the last of the footage we wanted to film of some outside shots with a replica pistol for some tension and mysterious shots to show the characters action alter ego. The weather was clear and we filmed it at dusk to give the shots a nice colour and tinge to the footage.

Filming 3rd March

Today me and Mitch managed to film the majority of the footage we wanted. We filmed the school scenes and the car scenes which will make up the majority of our trailer.

Character Photos

 

This photo shows the Protagonist in his normal every day office attire that will show the audience he is in his undercover normal persona that blends in with everyone around him and makes him seem like nothing extraordinary.

 This photo shows the Protagonist in his Action persona which is shown as more laid back and more prepared for action due to the lack of a tie, rolled up sleeves and a few buttons undone which shows the audience he is ready for action if needed and is not afraid to put himself in harms way to achieve his objective.

This photo shows our Antagonist in his outfit which is all black to blend in with the shadows and allows him to disappear from sight easily along with a mask that covers his actual face to preserve anonymity and create a link with the audience and the characters that makes them scared and uneasy in his presence due to psychological effects the mask imposes.

Filiming 1st March

Today me and Mitch attempted to film in the office location however it was in use so we had to alternatively film some transition shots of the kidnapper in the dark sports hallthat will be faded in to shots through a static sort of intersection of shots that I will create on Adobe After Effects.

Location Shots

These are the location shots I took today showing the office location for our normal persona of our Protagonist where he will find the ransom note. This location is good as it is a secluded office which shows he has a high position in the company and allows us to control the lighting for when the Antagonist leaves the ransom note.

Wednesday 8th Febuary

Today me and Mitch have taken some location shots of the office and some first photos to use for a draft of our film poster which shows the character and his alter ego looking at each other but shot side on that i will mock up using photoshop.

Mask Research

Today I researched some alternatives to the Anonymous mask that we could use for our trailer for the killer/kidnapper. I found this expression mask that would be very interesting for our genre of film as it is quite creepy and will give a hint of horror to our action film and will make the audience uneasy in the characters presence.

1st Febuary - Initial Poster Test

Today in lesson we all had a go at creating a first test poster to get used to the software and the tools that we will be using to create our actual film posters and magazine front covers. I created mine using mainly photoshop and this is what i came up with.

More Costume Research

Today i have done some more research into my (the killer's) costume and have talked with Mitch about it and we both agree that using a Guy Fawkes mask could be an intersting addition to the killer as not only will he have a hood but the anonymous mask will be effective in completely hiding his identity and keeping fully anonymous which can add unease to the audience and create an air of uncertainty around the killer character.

We will aim to create our character similar to this depiction with a hood and mask and will take our own costume photos soon.

Shooting 30th January

Today me and mitch took some shots of the office to establish the scene and location in our trailer. The office we have used is a good size, has good lighting and will carry the mise en scene of a private office. We also filmed some brief shots in the car of the pedals and gear changes to get an idea of the shots and some good angles to use once mitch has sorted his costume.

Shooting Schedule

Thursday 26th January - Collect office shots to use for our office location.

Friday 27th, Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th - Shots of the car, pedals, gear changes and engine sounds.