Voiceover Evaluation

A detailed voiceover Evaluation of my teaser trailer can be found on a DVD provided with the trailer itself and my two printed ancillary tasks

How Do My Products Compare To Real Media Products

Film Poster
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To compare my film poster with a professional media product I am going to be using the poster for the film 'The Last House On The left'. I have chosen this professional media product for comparison because, like with my poster, the main image is of a house. Here is the Film Poster for "The Last House On The Left":
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For Comparison purposes, I am going to be analysing Two main areas:
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Denotation and layout: Comparing this poster to mine, they layout and denotation is is similar. The main image has the house centralised in conjunction of mine, however the image on 'The Last House On The Left' itself is a much longer shot than the image used on my poster. The other three objects on the page, the name of the film, credits and slogan are again in simlar positions to mine. the slogan and credits are centralised and positioned in the same place as on my poster. The title of the film is slightly different however purly because it is a much larger title.
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The 'Last House On The Left' poster has two very apparent differences with my poster however; the first being there is no reviews on the poster and the second being no classsification logo. The creators have done this to make the house in the long shot image the complete focus of the page, attracting people to the title and slogan of the film.
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Denotation: Due to this Film poster and my film poster being very similar, the connotations that each poster generate are simlar. Both slogans on the posters engage the cousmer on a personal level as one is a retorical question, asking the coustmer to ask themselves what they would do, and one engages the consumer directly, as the slogan is refering to 'you'. Furthermore, the connotations of the house shots in both posters is a sinsiter location, connoting the genre of the film as well as causing the consmer to ask themselves more questions about what goes on at that location, thus generating the apprehension that a poster is supposed to.
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Film Magazine Front Cover
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To compare my film Magazine front cover with a professional media product I am going to be using the Magazine front cover from 'Total Film' a famous professional film magazine. I have chosen this professional media product for comparison because is it the type of magazine front cover I was trying to emulate in the creation of my magazine front cover. Firstly, here is the front cover I have chosen to analyse:
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Like with the analysis of the film posters, i am going to be looking at two main areas for comparison:
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Denotation and layout: This magazine front cover, though it is centralised on a horror film, has quite a few differences to the layout and denotations as my magazine front cover. in comparison to my magazine front cover, this magazine is quite conventional. The first main difference is that this total film magazine front cover is much brighter, the prodominat colour being white while it being greys, blacks and reds on my magazine front cover. Another distinctive difference between the two is that my magazine as distinct font and object differences; for example, my magazine has two three dimentional starts in the bottom left corner and top right corner, which is somthing that this magazine for total film did not include.
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some similarities between the two magazine front covers is that the title of the magazine is at the top of the magazine and underlapped by the images. furthermore, all other text and objects are leading down the right and left of the pages.
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Connotation: Though the magazines in themselves are different, the connotations are very similar. This is because that magazine front covers are constructed to make the magazine eye catching and create shelf appeal. in terms of this, both magazines are effective because they have eye catching in different ways

Evaluation Of Magazine Front Cover for No.38

The production of this magazine front cover involved several attempts in order to achieve the required effect ; careful consideration being given at all stages of design. The following presents the evaluation of the process.

Denotation: The focus of the cover are the images that have been placed to the right on top of the eye catching background. Starting from the top where the magazine title is situated, the 'F' of film travels along ,meeting a red and black three diminutional star at the top right corner. The title of the magazine; 'Film Release' is written in two different fonts, colours and sizes. The 'Film' part is written in a font called 'sand paper' in a white colour and uses a large font. The 'Release' part is written in a smaller font called 'Cracked' in a red colour.

Moving down the magazine, on the left hand side of the words 'No. 38 The Most Ambitious Horror Film Ever Made?' can be seen. It is written in a font called 'Assimilation', in white. The 'No.38' is also written in 'Cracked' font. Below this is a second three diminutional red and black star with the words 'The Oscars' written inside.

Four overlapping images with white and maroon borders also lead down the right hand side of the magazine. Each has a new word in, stating 'The images of No.38'. and continue down the right hand side where the barcode, price and issue number of the magazine can be found. Finally, centralised at the bottom of the magazine the text 'Matt Damon is back in the new epic Green Zone' is written in the white 'sandpaper' font.

Connotation: As this is a magazine front cover, the connotations constructed are not the same as the ones I created for the film poster. I have positioned the different objects to make the front cover as eye catching as possible. The background image is effective because it gives a sinister and mysterious effect.

The Text on the left of the magazine; 'No. 38 The Most Ambitious Horror Film Ever Made' is an effective sales slogan as it conveys an impression that this issue of the magazine is discussing one of the greatest film ever made which, of course, attracts people to the magazine.

How Does this Product Synergise with The film poster and film trailer?

This Magazine Front Cover has synergy with the film trailer and poster in two ways:

- Font

- Images

Font: the font used for the text 'No. 38' on the magazine front cover is the same as that used on the film poster. Furthermore, the 'Sandpaper' font used on the magazine front cover is also the same as that used in the trailer.

Images: The background image used on the magazine front cover is the same as the one used as a frame in the trailer. furthermore, the four smaller images on the cover are all taken from the trailer, and, subsequently, one image- the image of the house-is the same one used as the background for the film poster.

How Would this Product be Improved?

The only area that I would choose to improve is at the bottom of the page, where I feel it is not as professional and conventional as the top. Therefore this is how I would change it;

A simple but effective improvement would be to but a border around the text that reads 'Matt Damon Is Back In The New Epic Green Zone'. This would make the bottom of the magazine seem more 'full' and thus in synergy with the top.

Feedback

YouTube:

We decided to upload our film trailer onto the internet video sharing website called YouTube. YouTube has a feature where people can post comments and opinions thus giving us feedback. Here is the link to our video uploaded on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBYA1QJm5W4

Questionnaires and Polls

Another form of feedback that I used was a poll I took after showing the trailer to several people in my Collage. I asked them Five Questions:

1) Was the Genre of the Trailer (Horror) Apparent?

2) Did this trailer Make you want to go and see the Film?

3) In your Opinion, what was the best aspect of the trailer?

4) Do you think the trailer was long enough?

5) Did the trailer present an adequate amount of the films narrative?

Here are the results:

Question One:

Yes: 100% (30 Out Of 30 People)

No: 0% (0 Out of 30 People)

Question Two:

Yes: 80% ( 25 Out Of 30 People)

No: 20% ( 5 Out of 30 People)

Question Three:

Lighting & Mise-En-Scene: 45% (12 Out Of 30 People)

Sound: 25% (8 Out of 30 People)

Shot Construction: 30% (10 Out of 30 People)

Question Four:

Yes: 70% ( 20 Out Of 30 People)

No: 30% ( 10 Out of 30 People)

Question Five:

Yes: 52% ( 16 Out Of 30 People)

No: 48% ( 14 Out of 30 People)

Filmed Interviews

Conclusion To this Feedback

From these different methods of receiving feedback I was able to accurately establish what was effective with my trailer and what different areas could have been improved. The use of he feedback from youtube, the questionnaires and the filmed interviews showed me that the trailer I created managed to meet the different preferences we wanted. The feedback stated that the target audience was established effectively and that the trailer for filled the overall purpose of a trailer; to make a consumer want to see the main feature.

This feedback gave me an idea of what could be improved on the website furthermore, In the filmed interviews two of my peers both stated improvements they felt the trailer could have. Ironically however the two improvements they each suggested are the opposites of each other, which simply proves that all people have different opinions and in that aspect the trailer will never be perfect.

From the feedback I was able to determine that the trailer did not give quite enough of the films narrative away, and that it was possibly too short. However, this feedback is still debatable as this trailer was only supposed to be a teaser trailer.

Evaluation Of Film Poster for No.38

This is the final version of the my film poster. This was created after three major draft alterations, resulting in the final product being exactly what I had planned for.

Denotation:

The denotation of this poster is simple, the background image is the main focus of the poster, having the name of the film in large 'Cracked' font in the top left of the poster. The slogan is written in a font called 'Assimilation' and centralised at the bottom of the poster above the credits written in a font called 'Da Movie Script'. The two reviews are on the right and left of the poster, one being positioned higher than the other.These two reviews are accompanied by a golden star rating. Finally, I have placed a BBFC logo for an 18 certificated film in the top right hand corner of the poster.

Connotation:

I have created this poster in such a way as to generate two different connotations, the first involving the background image. The picture is a picture of an old, run down house presented in a very low sinister light. A mise-en-scene that I create by grey scaling the image. This image connotes a sinister, interesting location, and is the main one used to draw the consumer to the poster,-the other images are less noticeable at first but of equal importance in conveying the meaning of the film being advertised.

The second connotation that this poster generates is to do with the slogan; 'Now its time for you to ... die'. I chose this slogan to generate interest an intigue in the film, as this is a statement that makes the consumer want to ask the question "Why?" as well as developing others such as ; "Who is the perpetrator?","What does this statement have to do with the house?", and"Why is there so much evil involved?" These connotations, both of them working together effectively as a pair, generate the purpose that a poster is supposed to; to interest a consumer in the film.

How does this Poster Synergise with the film trailer and Magazine Front cover?

Synergy is developed between this product, the film trailer and the Magazine Front Cover in three ways:

- Font

- Image

- Slogan

- One of the Reviews

Font - The font used; 'Cracked', for the title of the film on the poster, is the same font and colour as used on the magazine to display the Films name.

Image - The background image on this poster is the same as that used in the trailer as the opening anchorage scene. Furthermore, it has also been displayed on the front cover of the magazine as a secondary image.

Slogan - The slogan on this film poster is line used as the final voiceover in the trailer.

One of the Reviews - The review on the left hand side of the poster is from a magazine called 'Film Release', which is the name of the magazine that I have created a front cover for.

How could this poster be improved?

Though I perfected the film poster several times, things can always be improved. The one major change that I would make would be to use a very advanced editing software to blend the slogan and film title into the background image. This improvement would have made the poster look more professional and also more sinister. The reason for my not being able to make this improvement was that I could not afford to buy the type of editing software that was needed to achieve it.

Evaluation Of Group & Own Performance

In this final section I will be evaluating the different aspects of my own performance and commenting on how this could be improved. The different aspects are:

- Production of Research and Planning

- Production of Media Products (Trailer, Poster and Magazine Front Cover)

- Time Keeping

- Working In A team

- Production of Research and Planning

As this section was simplistic in terms of researching information about the genre , I experienced no difficulties and had effective strategies for gathering information which involved being organised , methodical and thorough. In terms of planning the project, this was done with my other team members. We were ultimately able to complete this aspect to the satisfaction of the team but had to overcome initial differences in certain areas. .Tasks were distributed fairly between the three of us but we initially found it hard to agree on the treatment of the trailer, so much so that we ended up producing four different treatments. Another problem that occurred in this section was that we initially did not know we had to post all our work onto the blogger website. We had collated all our work into one presentation and subsequently had to convert it all to make it suitable for the blogger website.

Production of Media Products

Trailer: This section of the production part of the project was done as a group. We completed our trailer efficiently, using my own personal laptop and a teammate’s camera. As we had our own equipment, it meant that we could produce the trailer without having to source materials elsewhere. We took most of our shots very quickly at the production stage of the project, and had soon developed a basis for the trailer. As a group we had no problem sharing the workload and unlike the planning stage, we agreed on most decisions, with the exception of an issue over sound and pace as we started to develop the trailer more. To rectify this, we incorporated more short, almost ‘blip’ like shots, and I located a website that allowed you to download professional sounds which suited our purposes exactly.

Film Poster & Magazine Front Cover: These where my ancillary tasks and had to be completed on my own. These posed more of a problem than the trailer as I had some software issues. I firstly opted to create them both on Adobe Photoshop, but changed my mind when I found the software too hard to use. I managed to complete them using Microsoft publisher to a professional standard after producing four drafts and a final piece for each.

Time Keeping

This is referring to how well I was able to meet deadlines and how I managed the time I needed to complete this project. I would say I did this effectively even though my ancillary tasks took longer than I had planned. This overlapped onto time I needed to do this evaluation comfortably but hopefully has not affected the standard of it.

Working In A Team

I found working in a team to be a positive experience. My team members had similar opinions, views, work ethics and focuses. We were able to resolve problems in a friendly and constructive manner, tasks were divided fairly and everyone's opinions and suggestions were valued. I felt we worked very efficiently as a group.

Evaluation Of Media Technologies

In this section of the evaluation I am going to be assessing the use of the different media technologies that I used to produce and finalize this project. I will be discussing why I used them, how effective I though they where and whether or not I had any issues with them. The media technologies and software’s that I used to complete this project are the following:

- Imovie

- YouTube

- Blogger

- Standard Camera

Imovie

This was the software package created by Apple and used on Apple Macs. It is what we used to create our trailer. In our College we have two Macs, however, I own my own Mac laptop with this software on it, and therefore meaning it was efficient for us to use my laptop due to there being three groups.

This software was very effective. The editing tools that where available on it where perfectly adequate for the type of editing that we needed to do. The layout of the software was efficient and easy to use. The software allowed us to import sounds, images and shots very effectively as well as offering a database of sounds, transition frames, fonts and coulors (for text shots) on its own. Furthermore, Imovie made it easy to export the completed version of the trailer.

We experienced no problems with this software; however, initially we did not know how to use the entire program effectively. This was something we cover came as we proceeded to use and get used to the software.

YouTube

We used YouTube to receive feedback from other people. We uploaded our completed trailer onto the massive internet site in the hope of receiving comments from people across the world. This worked successfully as we did receive a range of feedback.

Nothing much can be evaluated about this as all it required me to do was locate a file and press a button titled ‘Upload’, so in that sense the software was very efficient.

One problem we did experience with it was that the first time around we attempted to upload the video from the school system,. Which was blocking us from doing it.

Blogger

This was an internet blogging website that allows us to post regular pieces of information as the project was progressing. We used this to post comments throughout our planning and research primarily, but then subsequently decided to use it to post the evaluation topics furthermore.

This software was effective as the posts appeared in chronological order, and furthermore could be edited after they had been posted. The users could furthermore edit the appearance of the different blogs to make it more specific to what they where doing, for example we placed a picture of the house from our trailer on our blog.

We had one problem with this internet site and that is that you cannot order the posts once they had been posted, meaning that some things become mixed together.

Camera

This was of course what we used to film and shot the footage in the trailer. My group mate was the person who provided us with a very advanced camera, tripod and computer connection methods, thus meaning we had everything that we needed.

The camera was very advanced, having lots of settings that attuned it to the different dark mise-en-scenes we used. Furthermore that sound quality that the camera produced was very professional. Finally, the camera was perfectly compatible with my Mac Laptop with made the whole process very effectively.