Evaluation Question 2 By O.J

How effective is the combination of your main product & ancillary text?

Brand Identity/Continuity

After designing, my movie, trailer, movie poster and my movie magazine front cover from looking at the final outcome of all three of these as a promotional package I believe it works very well.

The first main points I will point out will be the brand identity/continuity which is used through my three products which my audience can easily tell my target audience my media product is all from the same package and oozes elements of continuity. The form of typography used is called " 28 Days Later" which is used through out all threre of my media products.
As you can see from the segements I have taken from my horror magazine and horror movie poster you can see a brand identity and continuity within the ancillary text which could easily tell my taret audience   

As you can see from the segements I have taken from my horror magazine and horror movie poster you can see a brand identity and continuity within the ancillary text which could easily tell my target audience that all three of my media products belong to the same package, and understand that the three products belong together and are all promoting the same product which is my movie.

 Also from the picture above of two pictures which are the same with an effect used on the picture on the right this is also brand identity as my target audience will know this is the main and only character used in my trailer so by seeing these two photos whcih are used in my horror magazine and horror poster. This is an example synergy.


Cross Media Promotion

The cross media promtion I used in my three media products where to put the video onto youttube for all people to watch my trailer and give their feedback this could be accessed by a mobile phone that has internet or any technolgy that had internet and wi-fi my horror poster and magazine cover was put on twitter and facebook and was also put on survey monkey.

This was a good way to promote three of our media products and to give us plenty on constructive and positive feedback as it exposed our three meida products to the world but mainly the people who knoew about our project which is a lot of media students.

Evaluation Question 1 By O.J

The name of my groups teaser trailer is called The Plague which is a horror movie which belongs to the sub genre Zombie. Our teaser trailer does follow some conventions of zombie, the first convention our trailer follows which can be seen in the teaser trailer is how the zombie acts because zombies are basically human beings portrayed as a reanimated corpse or a mindless human being, which the main character in our trailer is a mindless human being, whose movement and reactions are very slow.

A second convention my teaser trailer follows is lighting which is a very common convention i wouldn't say we followes this convention but we did develop in our teaser trailer is that there is no high key lighting but their isnt rerally any low key lighting because in 90% of horro movies the setting is always dark but with our trailer it was only vividly dark.

In the video below you can see similiarities in the trailer Zombieland.

Costume were in my opinion our teaser trailer challenged conventions of zombie teaser tralie because in the zombie teaser trailers because in the zombie movies their costumes are normally ripped thei is always dirt or stains on their costumes and most of the time the costune the have on never really fits them. So our trailer challenged this convention because the costume our character wears seems fresh with hardly any stains and evident because the lab coat he wears is white.

You could say for our props our trailer followed conventions but not 100% alll the way as the plot of our trailer is a scientist whose potion or experiment goes wrong and turns into a zombie so props wise he has all the props used in a lab the only fault is that he is not actually in a lab, which will be elaborated more in the setting  and storyline.

The setting of our trailer was in the bungalow with a table with no props woth the room as what our character was doing in the room doesnt gel as he is making a potion so the setting should have been in a science labartory but couldn't be done so I would say our trailer challenged a convention as we didn't use the necessary setting.

Music and sound effects when watching other trailers with the same sub genre which is zombie as ours their was alot of dialogue screaming and hardly any, music that creates tension or suspense but in ours for sound we used a heartbeat speeding and down depending on what sence was on screen.

Skills Development Part 1 By O.J

 When doing my A2 media we were assigned to groups each group had four pupils each having different strenghts and weaknesses, so each pupil had something different that they could contribute in their own right to different projects we where doing during A2 Media.

The skills I have developed in working team:

• Taking other people opinions into consideration
• Having better communication with my group members
• Getting tasks done before the deadline not only for myself but for my team members
• Generally being committed to the cause by working during lunchtime

However working in a team has also taught me

• That other members may have a different work rate than me and that I have to be patient.
• That I must also step up to the plate If other members are not their to do there own task.
• And I have to make most of the choices when recording the teaser trailer as my team mates may not have good amount of knowledge when it comes to using to cameras.

So in part two of my skills development I will go more in depth in how my skills developed and how I used my experience and creativity to the best of my ability when making the teaser trailer, film poster, magazine cover and editing in all those departments.

Evaluation Question 4 (Print production/Advertising) - Jeffrey

During the development of the magazine and poster we already decided on the programmes that we were going to use to achieve the final product that we really wanted to see. As a group we had been deciding on the type of photos we wanted to see from the start of the year so when it came down to the time to take those photos there would be any hassle. Taking the photos for the final product wasn’t a long process but the build up was because we would look on Google for the type of effect we wanted in our photo and during lesson we would take time out from the lesson to discuss amongst ourselves how we would take the photos and then take them and to begin with the results were less than desirable. Our aim was always to have the lighting at a low key setting but we really wanted to experiment with the camera so we tried to get an effect which had half of the models face shrouded in darkness and the other half covered by light by using the lights and putting it on the left side of the models face which was unsuccessful. We also tried another effect which had the models eyes shrouded in darkness however it was also unsuccessful.

When creating the poster and magazine we used Adobe Photoshop CS3. 

This program help to make the image on the front cover more low-key as it wasn’t taken in a low-key setting; the programme was also used to remove part of the image that was used for the front cover. One good thing about the image used was that the coverlines and masthead suited it. Other than using Photoshop we used DaFont to download a particular font for our poster and it made the poster look like a more authentic horror poster but when looking for the font we came across a lot of fonts.

While we were on set we had to consider the following health and safety hazards:
The actor had no cuts when make up was being applied.
All bottles and other equipment were cleared when photos were being taken.
No loose items around so that people didn't trip

Evaluation Question 4 (Planning&Research) - Jennifer

PLANNING 


When on the planning stage of our final product, we used used technologies such as the Apple Mac Pro and the computer when planning our storyboards.



 We also used photo shop and final cut pro to make ourselves more familiar with the software, before constructing our final product.






I found that using blogger was extremely useful for updating plans for our final product. We also used blogger to help us with our skills development, uploading things that we thought were relevant to the blog and what we've learnt of the course of this project.

The use of a digital camera came in handy whilst planning for our final product. We tried to film from different types of angles, so that this way we could get an idea of what we were aiming for.

However, we could could often have problems with the batteries having to change them continuously, making it inconvenient.

We use Microsoft Word to create a detailed shot list for our final product.

Google was essential for finding examples of successful film trailers, magazines and posters. This really did benefit us as a group as we were very determined to produce a constructive final product.

Using apples browsing software 'safari', we were able to view a variety of resources such as images and videos, that lesser browsers would be able to provide because of unable high quality videos.

RESEARCH 

YouTube played a big part in our planning and research as it helped us with ideas of what a good teaser trailer should look like, as we compared them to one another. 

Parris's Skills Development

Throughout my A2 media course I have learnt and developed skills that will benefit me in various ways.

One of the main skills that has been developed is my team working skills, this is because in order for me to complete this years coursework I had to work with three other people. Working in a group has:

·         Taught me to value other people opinions

·         Things may not always go my way

·         Learning to trust others decisions even though they may not sound successful

·         To rely on others more

However working in a group has also taught me:

·         I will always be let down one way or a another (for example, certain blog posts may not be uploaded in time)

·         I will have to make the main decisions even if it is the wrong ones.

·         I will be doing the majority of the practical work as other group members may not know how to operate the instruments/software needed.

Test shots for our poster and magazine - Parris

In order for our group to get the correct low-key shots for our poster and magazine, we had to take some practice shots. 

The first practice shot we had taken was by shining the LCD light from below our models face.  Shining upwards from below creates a sense of fear because you can only see parts of the models face. It could also create a sense of fear because when telling a scary story to children, the story teller usually shines a torch upwards from below their chin.

We felt the shot taken went well, however it had come out darker than expected. Brightening the LCD light did not benefit our next attempt of taking the shot because it then started to show the parts of the models face we wanted hidden(for example from the forehead and upwards).

For our second practice shot we wanted to give a silhouette effect. By doing this we had to use a LCD light and place it behind our model where it is not seen but still have the light shine around him.  At first we had our model facing the camera and the light placed behind him midway between his shoulders. The outcome of this was not great because once the picture was taken; all that was seen was 2 faint likes that outline the top of his shoulders.

Our next attempt was to have our model standing sideways so we can see his profile.  Once positioned, we had then placed the LCD light facing the camera but behind his cheek.  This slightly benefited us because it gave us a clear bright outline of his nose going down to his throat. However it still was not the outcome we had hoped for.

For our third practice shot, we attempted to show only one half of our models face. By doing this we used the LCD lighting to shine on only one side of his face, at first we had the light on dim but unfortunately nothing could been seen in the shot. We then turned the light up to its brightest and it showed exactly what we wanted.

Magazine practice shot complete!

To create the shot for our poster we wanted to have amber light shining upwards from below and showing only one half of our models face. By doing this we had placed a amber filter on top of the LCD light to soften the light and change the colour. The very first shot taken was a success! This is because it only showed half of our models face and showed the parts of the face we wanted. The only disadvantage about this show is that it’s a little bit dark.