Evaluation

The forthcoming report will critically evaluate all aspects of the media package which we have created, including the film trailer, magazine front cover featuring the film and the film poster.

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

The terms ‘forms and conventions’ are used to refer to the most typical aspects of any media product, and are an integral aspect which must be considered when constructing media. Our assignment brief states that we were to create “a promotion package for a film, to include a teaser trailer, together with a film magazine front cover featuring the film & a poster for the film.” A key phrase in this is ‘teaser trailer’, which is defined as a short trailer to advertise an upcoming film, usually released long in advance of the product, so as to ‘tease’ the audience. Our product certainly adheres to this aspect of conventional trailers, firstly because the release date for our product is in the summer, so it is indeed well in advance, and also because the trailer does not reveal the full narrative, thus teasing the audience and creating desire for them to consume the narrative as a whole. This is achieved because we did not include any form of conclusive scene in the trailer and manipulated Todorov’s theory of equilibrium. Todorov states that in a conventional film (whole film, not trailer) an equilibrium is established, which is then disturbed, followed by an attempt usually by the protagonists to re-establish or repair this equilibrium, and resulting in the success of this, thus a new equilibrium. However our trailer begins in relative equilibrium, which is then disturbed when the desaturation, high contrast and eerie sound is introduced in the library scene, but at no point in the trailer is the equilibrium truly re-established. Though this would not be conventional for an entire film, it is relatively conventional for a trailer, because of the mere purpose being to advertise the film and encourage the audience to view the whole product. This would not be achievable if the entire narrative was revealed through the trailer itself.

Still focusing on the term ‘teaser trailer’, it is suggested that a conventional movie teaser should be very short in length, roughly around 30-60 seconds. In terms of our trailer, it certainly challenges this particular convention, because it is actually much, much longer (specifically 128 seconds). It was originally planned to last around 60-75 seconds according to the storyboards, however we decided to extend both the canteen scene and the library scene, because it emphasised upon the tension – which is a vital convention for the horror genre, which is essentially what the trailer begins as. By doing this it enabled for us to create pace when the comedy element was introduced, via the fast cuts and the fast-paced synchronous music. Some would still argue that over 2 minutes for a teaser trailer is extremely long, which is a point we wish to focus heavily on when gaining audience feedback – to see if our target audience feels that it is an inappropriate duration for a teaser trailer, or if it actually does create the desired effects of building suspense & emphasising upon the comedy within.

In terms of the forms & conventions of  the genre of our trailer, the main challenge to begin with would be the combination of two very different genres, i.e. horror & comedy. Although this is not a non-existent ‘fusion’, it is certainly considered to be fairly unconventional. This is mainly because it must be done with such caution & precision, in order to avoid discombobulation of the audience, in order to fully establish what genre is dominant within the film. It simply would not produce the right readings for the audience if a film were to combine two diverse genres in such an equal manner, because the audience would not know how to appropriately respond, which can ultimately lead to the narrative being extremely difficult to understand and comprehend. We instead decided to use comedy as the dominant genre within ours, and to only use the horror aspect as a catalyst for suspense building, thus as previously mentioned to increase the comedy factor when it is introduced almost by surprising the audience; demanding them to pay more attention to the comedy elements. We also actually challenged the conventional comedy style to a certain degree because, as our film was being developed, we decided to actually include a heavy theme of parody; by making ‘spoofs’ of well-known blockbuster film characters, i.e. The Joker (antagonist of The Dark Night) and Harry Potter (Protagonist of the Harry Potter series). Parody films are argued by some to be completely segregated from the comedy genre, and an extremely contemporary theme. It is perhaps to reductionist to consider them as a completely separate genre, and should arguably be considered a sub-genre of comedy, because ultimately it does carry an extremely similar purpose, simply to make the audience laugh. The fact that they are an extremely contemporary sub-genre actually justifies the form of our trailer, because our target audience is of the product of a contemporary, individualistic, postmodern culture; thus the audience will have contemporary attitudes, taking preference to the dominant, modern genre of our film. In summary of our trailer then, it evidently conforms to some necessary forms & conventions, however deliberately challenges & even develops others in order to account for the target audience, and also to develop the combination of genres, perhaps to almost establish a new form of meta-narrative.

The first ancillary text which has been subject to much change through the development process from the original draft, is the film magazine front cover featuring our film. A conventional magazine cover layout is examined in the primary & secondary research for this portfolio. Our original 1st draft of the magazine was actually relatively challenging to the forms & conventions displayed in the various micro-elements. For example, conventional magazines normally carry 2 straplines; one at the top and one at the bottom. However, we did not intend on including a strapline, but rather just one tagline at the top, positioned above the masthead. The main coverline was also central, rather than set off to one side. This was because we thought that it would draw more attention to the main images, thus emphasising upon the parody aspect of our film – through the easily recognisable comedic gestures & appearance of Harry Pothead & The Joker. The barcode was originally positioned in a very alternative, unconventional position, which was reconsidered in early stages of the development, because of our magazine focusing on films in general; needing for the barcode to be in a conventional position, to conform to the other masses of existing film magazines. In the finished product, we can see that over the course of development many elements have become ever more conventional. We have chosen to incur this because having decided that the magazine would not be genre-specific, we aimed to keep it fairly conventional because of the vast range of demographics in the general target audience. Because the genre of our film is fairly unique, and we constructed a magazine which focuses on many genres, we wanted not to challenge or develop many conventions because although it may be more appropriate for the audience of our film, it may not be suitable at all for the audience of the magazine itself. However, we have deliberately manipulated and developed one convention by having a plain, black background, with a relatively large amount of blank space. The final convention which we have deliberately developed would be the positioning of the strapline, which is seemingly almost a part of the masthead. We chose to do this and feel that it works well not because of the drawing of attention, but actually because it connotes convergence, which is an integral aspect of new media technologies. This blends well with the ‘i’ aspect of our magazine, and further engages the target audience into focusing not only on the featured film, but also on the magazine in general.

The second accompaniment to our film trailer was a poster for the film. Unlike the magazine front cover, only 2 aspects have significantly changed; the position of the tagline/slogan and the content of the images. Though some of the billing has been repositioned, and the manipulation of the title (the ‘C’ being depicted as a half-eaten chicken nugget) these are fairly minor changes which will not really have a significant impact on the form of our poster. However the position of the tagline has arguably become more conventional because it is further from the title and closer to the main, dominant image. This is because it stands out more, and is easier to read for the viewer; this all contributes to emphasising upon the parody of the quote itself, which is a play on words of the title of rapper ’50 Cent’ film, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”. We chose to parody this particular film because it is likely a film which our target audience, the younger generation, will likely know of and be familiar with – emphasising upon the humour of the slogan. This is a development within the parody genre, and has not actually been directly done before in such an explicit manner in Hollywood parody films. This is positive towards our production because it makes it more of a unique theme.

In conclusion, our media product as a whole perhaps uses less conventions than it develops or challenges. This is because of the contemporary target audience, and the aim to develop traditional media forms and thus progress, satisfying the rapidly changing views of modern society. However, the 3 different products had varying levels of conformity to the traditional conventions of the media platforms, and developed various conventions to varying extent.

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

Our main product was a trailer for an upcoming horror comedy/parody film, with the 2 ancillary texts being a film magazine front cover featuring our film and a poster for the film. To begin, various media products are more often than not combined with ancillary texts for promotion & consumption purposes. It is often a necessity for this to be done, because the main product may not generate the expected audience if it is not promoted efficiently. In relation to the format of our particular products, it is essential that the ancillary products are complimentary to the main trailer. This is because if it is not achieved, then the appeal of consuming the trailer may be hindered if the audience gains a negative perception of the film therefore limiting the range of viewers, and perhaps discouraging potential audiences from viewing the trailer. This can also work vice versa, for example if the viewer is not satisfied with the trailer, they may regress buying the magazine if it over-features the film because of the negative expectation, or little/no attention will be paid to the poster similarly.

In terms of how effective our combination is, there are many aspects to analyse. Firstly, the beginning of our trailer depicts a horror-related narrative. Although this is not actually the main genre of the film, it is not explicitly depicted in the poster, and only subtly in the magazine cover. This is because the poster consists purely of comical elements, and the only denotative feature of the magazine is the black background. This actually could be problematic to the trailer, as if one of the ancillary texts is consumed by an individual before the trailer, then they may expect the trailer to be pure parody; without the horror element. However, although this could lead to confusion about the genre of the film for the individual, it may actually work in the converse, and further emphasise upon the funny elements of the trailer. It seems more valid then to look at this not as a disadvantage, but as a potential disadvantage or actually a potential advantage, dependent upon the individual’s reading of the horror element to the trailer.

However, despite the potential drawbacks, all three of our products seem to work harmoniously and compliment each other, promoting the film as a whole. Evidence for this can be cited from the similar themes used consistently throughout the products, e.g. the font of the title. This creates a sense of familiarity for the consumer, which is something that our target audience in particular would more than likely desire. The magazine also seems to work very effectively as a promotional tool, because our film is the featured film in that particular issue, which spreads awareness not only to those within our target audience, but also a diversity of demographics outside of this target.

- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To gain feedback from our potential audience, we conducted a focus group accompanied with a questionnaire/survey. We will gain verbal feedback from the audience during the focus group, and aim to yield quantitative, statistical data from the questionnaire. This will help to maximise the effectiveness of the responses given, because we will be able to interpret opinion& meaning from the verbal feedback, and statistically analyse the quantitative data.

Enclosed below are documents including the raw data gathered from our questionnaire together (in a separate sheet) with graphs showing a visual representation of these results. The questionnaire design is also included as a word document. Also analysation & evaluation of the results is enclosed finally as a word document too.

Audience Feedback Questionnaire

Audience Feedback Questionnaire Raw Data & Graphs

To begin, the various graphs of the demographic aspects of our participants reflect our target audience. This is because it is aimed at both gender, with the participants being 50:50 in terms of gender, the majority was aged 16-21 (80%) and the majority also being either a student of unemployed (80%). This was deliberate, because we wished to ultimately gain feedback from our target audience, but also from those outside of this bracket (with 2 occupied in sales, and 1 younger & 1 older than our targeted age group) because we wished to investigate their views on the film through the verbal feedback given. 80% of our audience perceived correctly both our intended genre and sub-genre (comedy/parody with the genre, with horror being the sub-genre). 90% found the dialogue clear or partially clear, indicating a good technical micro-element of sound within our trailer, particularly suggesting that despite the complications with the boom mic (detailed in the next section) that the editing of the various sound levels had worked effectively. 90% of our viewers indicated that the trailer had interested them in viewing the whole film, which was also an evident trend in the verbal contributions, with people remarking how they would “like to see the whole thing now”. Next, our censorship rating had not been decided, however the questionnaire results indicate that it would likely be a 15, due to 60% feeling that this was appropriate. This is likely due to the drug references & usage, particularly the term ‘weed’. Intriguingly, the only questions to gain fully diversified answers were regarding the best & worst technical features, with only 10% between most of the votes. This is actually very advantageous to us, because it can suggest that our trailer is very well balanced in technical terms, with no particular element lacking. The average overall rating for our trailer also indicates it’s success, because it gained a mean score of 8/10, also suggesting that our target audience is extremely appropriate and well considered. In terms of our ancillary texts, the magazine front cover gained an average overall rating of 6/10. The verbal feedback indicated that it was, despite elegant & classy, perhaps too plain in terms of the background and the masthead was not “striking” enough to draw sufficient attention. We deliberately intended these attributes to have a subtle effect, although perhaps we should have reconsidered this. However, all participants felt that the magazine front cover featured the film appropriately or partially effectively, which was a positive impact of the incorporation of our film into this particular magazine front cover. The most outstanding result was the average rating for our film poster, scoring a modal rating of 9/10 with 80% of votes over 8/10, and one scoring 10/10. This further backs up our choice of target audience, and also emphasises upon the technical brilliance of our poster. The final question also displays this because it asked wether the poster interests the viewer in the whole film, with 70% replying with yes.

In terms of the qualitative feedback given, much was actually displayed in the reaction of our audience. Viewers were forced to laugh out loud (linguistically preferred in our target audience typically as LOL) at certain points throughout the trailer. Common responses including highlighting the humor within our trailer, stating it as “hilarious” or “brilliant”. The audience also highlighted the transition between horror to comedy, which took them by surprise as intended. Also the “clever” dialogue was pointed out in the parody sections, such as Harry Pothead’s wordplay in the cubicle, alongside his role in the classroom scene alongside the Joker. However, some criticised the narrative & characterisation of the trailer because of the persona of the central character Shaomein. Though the clever name was praised, some did not understand the whole concept behind her role in the film. Also, the narration was subject to criticism because it was relatively difficult to understand and some stated that it had an “inappropriate pace” too. Regarding the ancillary texts, our audience generally indicated praise towards it, and having viewed the trailer commented on how it was an appropriate feature to include in this media package. In particular, the poster raised laughs from the audience as they payed attention to the parody strapline; ‘Get birdseed of die Cluckin”.

We actually decided to include another form of audience feedback, in the form of statistics from our trailer on YouTube. The statistics sum up what has been previously discussed, and also illustrate the importance of convergence within our target audience by the indication of views from a mobile device & various web 2.0 principles, i.e. referrals from Facebook. It has been exactly 1 week since it was publicly uploaded, and actually indicates that viewers have been drawn from Iran as well the UK, perhaps illustrating the vital role of globalisation in contemporary media. A screenshot of these is inserted below;

- How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning & evaluation stages?

Various media technologies have been vital in all stages of this project. Firstly, when conducting the research for our media products our main source of information was the internet. Without access to this, it would have been incredibly time-consuming, and perhaps expensive, to gain access to samples of which to analyse. For example, in order to view the magazine front covers which we analysed, we would have actually had to manually seek out archived copies or purchase new issues in order to examine them for research purposes. With the use of new media technologies, it was easy to use a search engine, e.g. Google in order to find the information which we required in a time & cost-efficient manner. The internet is now widely regarded as the largest source of information available, and thus aided us greatly not only in the research process but also with planning. When developing our ideas, it was essential to plan the construction of our media package. In order to maximise the effectiveness of this procedure, we used various hardware & software to complete specific tasks. Firstly, in order to create drafts of the layout for our film magazine front cover and poster, we used photoshop. This was advantageous because it allowed for us to develop specific skills during this process, which could later be applied in the production stage. However, we could not really use the editing software (Final Cut Pro) to create drafts for our trailers simply because footage had not been gathered, so we had to seek alternate means of planning. This was relatively simple, because we decided to create a storyboard. The utilisation of the internet made this considerably easier, because we were able to download resources & templates to use. Because of the success of this for our storyboards, we employed this in most other areas of pre-production, making the completion of certain necessary documents being completed in a very effective manner. Examples include the production schedule, budget, risk assessment, location release, talent release etc. which were sourced from the college’s VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). The files were also transferred between computers using either the internet, via an e-mail attachment or using a USB pen-drive in order to incorporate better time-management strategies.

The construction stage is arguably the most obvious as to how various media technologies were used. Firstly, the camera we used to produce the footage for our trailer and to take original photographs for the magazine & poster was the same model which I used for my foundation portfolio at AS level. This was an advantage because not only was it a very good quality & practical camera, I was also familiar with the technology and various aspects of the usage & maintenance of the camera because of past experience. This meant that valuable time which would have been used for developing my skills using the camera could be spent on other aspects of the advanced portfolio. In addition, the editing software was the same (Final Cut Pro) and thus the same advantage was present here. However, for this particular production there was 2 problems with various media technologies during the construction of our 3 media pieces. Firstly, and actually most problematic was the use of a boom mic. Although this is aimed at vastly increasing the sound quality, which should be a positive aspect particularly for a trailer with much dialogue, it was actually found throughout the production of our film trailer that using the microphone came with some considerable drawbacks. Whilst shooting, an extra member was required in order to hold the microphone, which actually lead to slight complications when arranging to film because of availability issues. The microphone also took a considerable amount of time to set up, i.e. attaching it to the boom pole and also linking it up to the camera, which meant that valuable time was consumed on the days of shooting. The most significant problem with the boom mic however came in a particular instance when it failed to work, which meant that the sound levels & quality were considerably different in various scenes – leading to threatening of professional continuity. We were able to resolve this by adjusting the sound levels in Final Cut Pro, however if we had not used a boom mic at all then there would be no need for this thus allowing for much more time to be spent on other aspects, which was lost due to the rectification of technical difficulties in the reality of our construction. Secondly, and far less significantly, was a slight problem with the software. The editing software was fine for myself, however my partner was not familiar with this and so we had to spend valuable time establishing the basic skills – this dilemma was also present the other way around, with myself not being familiar at all with Photoshop (the software used to manipulate images & create our magazine front cover & poster). However the skills were developed fairly quickly, making this only a minor issue in the construction stages.

Finally, despite the lower significance various media technologies in the evaluation stage compared to the construction stage, it is still an integral aspect. The advantages here are much clearer; with the main one being convergence through the internet has enabled me to collectively view the main product & ancillary texts on one platform, which is extremely advantageous in many ways. I am able to compare & contrast not only my products together, but via the internet I can examine existing products of the same type as well. This makes evaluation considerably easier and more efficient, thus allowing for more detailed analysis to be conducted.