Archive for March 2015

Evaluation Activities - To do ASAP

Wednesday, 25 March 2015


EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of teaser trailers/poster/magazines)

You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of teaser trailers your particular design is, so choose them carefully.

Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.

The aspects you should consider across your nine frames are:

The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the trailer sets it up
Genre and how the trailer suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects

Remember to discuss narrative/genre/representation/media language/audience in your evaluation

Each one of these aspects should be a detailed post – try to be analytical and use media terminology in your response.


EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

You could record a voiceover to your trailer and make posts discussing how the 3 texts complement each other in advertising your film and appealing to your target audience

Posted by

Reply

Final Poster, Magazine Cover and Film Trailer

Thursday, 19 March 2015




Posted by

Reply

Poster Analysis

Monday, 9 March 2015

 Originally I was going to have a much less serious looking poster to reflect the humour in my film. However I found it was hard to keep the poster looking professional in quality whilst doing that so I switched to a more serious and commonly used poster font; trajan.  I also conveyed this sophistication through the colouring of my poster, it is not dark but relatively low in saturation much like the recent poster for Skyfall. I showed my genre through location as the MI5 building is clearly visible in the background however I left it as an enigma code how my character is related to the building. My character is young and female which should attract a wide audience of different ages and genders. Although having said this I tried hard to avoid catering solely to the male gaze and so my character is dressed practically in non revealing but fashionable clothing meaning that while she doesn't look bad, she isn't over sexualised. My tag line stands alone at the top, although it isn't a bold colour its positioning makes it stand out as it is in a relatively empty part of the poster. i felt this suited the tone of the poster better than if I went for a bright colour and it also grounds the film as having more of an understated British feel, again like the Skyfall poster.

The tag line works to hint at what the film is about and also shows the more lighthearted side of the film which should help to draw in an audience. I was influenced by the skyfall poster as it directly related to mine in terms of genre, action adventure that falls into the sub genre of British Spy films. However I also took influence from the Star Trek Into Darkness character posters as I liked the way they showcased each character and given the time I would like to do a similar series of posters, one for each main character.
I think that character posters like these are a really good way to build the fanbase around each character which in turn builds hype around the film's release and increases the chances of a sequel. I also had the image of my character positioned slightly to the side looking out of the shot to leave the audience wondering what she is looking at and to make her look more reflective, this builds anticipation without giving away the plot. By making the film look more sophisticated I avoid it falling so far into the action genre that it appears campy which can put off some audience members, especially females who I would like to appeal to as I feel they are often overlooked by the action genre. The slight military style of the character's jacket is a symbolic code suggesting she's had military or at least military style training, which works with the genre as it need to be believable that she would have the skills she demonstrates in order for the audience to be able to suspend their disbelief. This would pull in a male audience because of the military element, but also a female audience through the opportunity empathise with a female character in an action film which doesn't often happen.
Although most of the colouring in the photo has a low saturation, I decided to emphasise the blues in the picture to represent the character's goodness but also to place the idea of possible sadness as a symbolic code for the viewer. This idea of there being some kind of tragedy in the film is furthered by the grey, stormy sky which acts as pathetic fallacy. The urban setting of a world famous city will pull in many viewers as it is a recognisable setting often used in British spy films hence the fact big ben is visible in the background of the Skyfall poster.

Posted by

Reply

Audience Theories Evaluation

Wednesday, 4 March 2015

According to George Gerbner's mean world theory a media text can leave its audience believing certain things about the people and places it portrays. These can be negative, such as believing all teenagers are criminals and therefore can negatively impact that societal group. While from my trailer it could be taken away that all men are evil due to the gender of the foes portrayed, it does however subvert the stereotype that all women are weak.

 The hypodermic needle theory states that an audience is passive and a media text injects its ideas straight into them. From my film an audience may take away the idea that good will always triumph which is a positive, if overly idealistic, suggestion. However they may also believe that fights are easily won as my characters are shown repeatedly winning fights with ease, this could in a worst case scenario encourage audience members to put themselves at risk by getting into fights thinking they can win them.

In the uses and gratification theory people consume a media for one of 5 purposes: Entertainment, escapism, information, social interaction and to identify with characters and situations. My film would be entertaining and hopefully provide social interaction through people talking about it. It could also be seen as escapism as it would follow the traditional theme of the good guys beating the bad guys which is a very comforting thing for the majority of audience members.

 The male gaze theory suggests that everything in a media text is created to cater to men. I set out to subvert this purposefully by making my protagonists a group of women who are diverse in their personalities. I also don't sexualise any of the characters, regardless of gender,  as I believe the plot shouldn't rely on that to pull in audiences. For example one of my protagonists dresses in jeans, a shirt and a leather jacket. This is a comfortable outfit put together for practicality not to appeal to the male audience members who may prefer something more revealing.

 Claude Steele's stereotype threat theory suggests that if a group of people see themselves as being presented a certain way they may take on those stereotypical characteristics. In my film in order to subvert the male gaze i avoid portraying women stereotypically which would help to empower female audience members, however the lack of positive male representation in the trailer may promote misandry which is a negative idea i'd like to avoid. Therefore if I were to go on to make the whole film i would make sure to create some positive male representation as well. This way I would be able to avoid having a negative impact on my audience and feature well rounded representations of all members of society.

Posted by

Reply

Proudly powered by Blogger | Theme: San Kloud by Theme.fm | Converted by LiteThemes.com