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http://prezi.com/ry_ikzxwresi/present/?auth_key=upp9eit&follow=mqitlfwj20pb&kw=present-ry_ikzxwresi&rc=ref-36019491

Evaluation Question 3 Script

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

When looking at our audience feedback we used three main ways of asking our target audience – Facebook, Survey's and Verbal feedback. We ensured that there was an opportunity for internal and external feedback before and during the development of our trailer, to help broaden our knowledge and any potential areas that we could improve on.

We used Facebook, as this has the use of the 'like' button and the ability to comment on the video straight away and we were able to target a large audience quickly. We knew this would be a great site to use as it is the most popular social networking site and the one that most of our target market spend most time on. 

The video we posted onto Facebook received a total of 37 likes, so already we knew that people were enjoying our trailer because they had shown this through the like button. 

We used one person's specific feedback about our storyline, and how maybe there should be a further hook to the plot. This helped us to seek further development into the shots we used in the actual trailer and how we kept our audience hooked. Our teachers advised us to add shots such as the art gallery shots, the slap and the pregnancy test shot to add to the tension and drama of our protagonist's life.

It was clear also from our facebook feedback that the shots such as the paintbrush in the water at the end and the reverse shots were very effective.

Before we started filming, we sent out a survey using a well-know free Survey website called survey monkey. We used this as we were able to target our audience using e-mail as we could select the years (and therefore the ages) that we wanted to target. We asked questions such as who they rebelled against the most and why they may rebel. Although our concept of our trailer changed from focussing on rebellion to her family life and achieving her dream, the feedback we received was very useful because we used the comments about parents. We used these as our protagonist's art dream is almost a sense of rebellion against her father, so this research was key in the making of our  trailer.

We also used our fellow class students as well when searching and recieving feedback, through our screening day and throughout lessons. At one point we were struggling to decide which soundtrack to use and asked our classmates, who are within our target audince, to vote. They chose the piece of music with a better build-up towards our trailer and the timings of when the music finished as the other music option felt like a very sudden cut off. Using this emotional single piano was also effective when confirmed by our classmates as well when they told us 'they had goosebumps' whenever they watched it. This audience feedback helped us confirm the mood and emotion our trailer was going to depict and thus helped our end product. 

In terms of our poster, we created a vote on our Facebook page as well, to see whether our target audience preferred one of the options. We asked them again to 'like' which one they preferred and after 30 minutes, Poster option 1 was the clear favourite, with 80 likes and poster option 2 had just 3 likes, so this was an apparent indication of which one our target market preferred. We also asked for comments on why they had picked the other option and people said that they felt the picture was more effective and more eye catching rather than with option 2 poster, using a plain black background.

We learnt from our classmates as well from when we showed them our initial website, that we should change the font if possible, so that there was more continuity between our media products. Also the original background photo was one of our protagonist in the distance and they wanted a photo which showed more of her face and emotion that the trailer has. So we changed the photo with the advice of our target audience feedback.

Overall, audience feedback has been key to improving our trailer, poster and website, and helped us to see different options and how to improve our media products from their point of view, which was vital. 

http://maniafilm2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/audience-profile.html

http://maniafilm2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/target-audience-youtube.html

http://maniafilm2013.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/survey.html

http://maniafilm2013.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/update-on-our-social-networking-and.html

Evaluation Question 4 Script

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

When planning our media text we made sure we took advantage of the media technologies which were available to us, so that we could be extra clear on our target audience and what our market want to see, before we start constructing and filming. We used a well-known survey site called Survey monkey, to enable us to ask our target audience, important and vital questions that we wanted to know about our genre and what they wanted to see. This technology meant that we could post this website link on any social networking site or send it in an e-mail and people are able to answer this anonymously, but only if they have the link. This means we were able to control who answered our survey, therefore making it more valid as we know it was going to the correct target age and gender.

We also used a new technology called Google Doc’s which is an online database, which stores word documents, or PowerPoint presentations, which are able to accessed by people who have the e-mail and password. This was particular useful when we used this to upload our script, which meant that other group members were able to access it at any computer and print off their own copy, therefore speeding up the process and meaning that people can view it whenever they need to as well. This is free and enabled us to progress with our planning faster as we were all able to access the same point and share resources to work as a team.

When starting our constructing, we had managed to borrow a very high quality camera to film our footage on. This was accompanied by a tripod which helped us achieve a steady shot, and meant that we were able to edit the focus and light exposure on the camera without having to hold it up. There was also an autofocus setting on the camera, however we turned this off when we wanted to time when we wanted a particular point focussed on. This was important when we filmed the shot of the main protagonist looking towards her father and there is a pull in the focus as it turns from the focus on her cheek to her father in the foreground of the shot. This is very effective as it automatically focuses the viewer on the object which is more visible to the eye and shows that we want them to take notice of the in-focus object or character in this case.

When it came to editing our footage, we used our school I-Mac’s which were equipped with the latest i-movie software. This software enabled us to cut, crop, edit, change, swap, zoom, slow down, speed up and manipulate our footage to the effect that we wanted. One of the importances of the i-movie software for our one was that it enabled us to download our iconic font (helveticamazing) onto the software so that it was an available option for our title at the end. This enabled continuity within our media products and without this ability; it would look dated and disconnected with our poster and website.

The i-mac’s also had an important technology of editing the sound, with particular gages and bars which we were able to see when the music or the dialogue was too loud or too quiet. With the i-movie software we were able to edit this and the volume, with options such as ‘ducking’ which meant the soundtrack beneath the clips were lowered slightly and the dialogue at that point was able to be heard better. There is also an in-built microphone in the computer, which was of a high quality. This meant that we were able to record overdubs of the dialogue which wasn’t quite loud enough and also add extra lines such as ‘Dad, please please don’t hurt me’ which added to the eerie effect of the contrapuntal sound of her doing her art and the voice being heard over the top of the footage.

We were also able to use websites such as dafont.com when constructing our trailer, poster and website as we could download a legally free font that we wanted to use, this was called helvetica amazing. This gave our branding of ‘Mania’ more of an individual touch rather then simply using the fonts which automatically come with imovie such as Times New Roman.

When looking towards our evaluation, we mainly used social media and online technologies to establish what was needed for improvement and for feedback. We uploaded our two poster options to FaceBook and asked users to ‘like’ which one they preferred and within an hour we have a total of 120 responses, which shows the extent of how fast online technology can move and how quickly people can find answers to questions.

We also used YouTube to upload our first draft as users are able to comment, and when uploading to YouTube we also received a link which we posted on our other sites we were involved with such as Facebook and Twitter. With these fast links and the ability for users of social networking websites to view a video or photo in a simple click, this meant that more people were able to respond to our ‘posts’ rather than say if we sent out a mailed questionnaire or asked questions in person.

Evaluation Question 4

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

Evaluation Question 2 Script

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

As a group we decided that our ancillary tasks should all be linked so the audience are able to make a resemblance betweens the both the poster and the website. We chose to do this by having the same font in each task, as typography is a running theme throughout. We felt that this was effective as it meant the audience could instantly recognise our media task and could relate back to it.

We took a lot of inspiration form social realist films Fish Tank and This is England, we found that the titles were usually bold as to stand out and take your attention. We used this effect on our on all of our ancillary tasks, we used the font Helvetica amazing as we agreed that it stood out and has a gritty feel which relates back to our chosen genre.

The use of a tagline is an important factor in the advertisement of a film, it something that the audience will remember and will stay with them. Our chosen tagline relates back to the choice our main protagonist has to make, its hard hitting and also includes her love for art in the tagline

We the main inspiration for our poster from the film Fish Tank mainly due to the similar plot and genre, the photos of our main protagonist that we have used are also similar to those of Fish Tank.  The link has been made because both posters show a sad, fed up girl who wants to fulfil a dream she cannot achieve without risk. We decided to use different pictures for the website and poster to give our product more variety and to give the audience an idea of her struggle. The photos on the website all show our main protagonist in such a way that it makes the audience feel sympathy for her as the photos are mostly close ups of the girls face.

We looked at the websites for other films in our genre and found that the trailers were usually shown on the main page, this is so the audience can watch the trailer soon as they go on the website as it would be hard to miss, we decided ours should be the same, as by making it stand out more people are likely to watch it.

To combine our ancillary tasks and main product together we placed links to our Facebook, Youtube, Blogger and Twitter pages to allow an opinion from our audience, this was important as it meant our audience could participate in our media task and give us positive and negative feedback which could help further improve our final product. The date of release is also clearly shown on our website, this is to give basic information to the audience so they will know when to watch it.

We got the main inspiration for our poster from Fish Tank mainly due to the similar plot and genre. The use of a classification is important as it establishes your target audience, we used the rating 15 in our poster, and this is due to the sexual and emotional scenes seen in the trailer.

We used the Cannes film festival as a possible award in our trailer and on our poster, this is to let the audience to know about our genre as the Cannes film festival is usually associated with short independent films. Our ancillary tasks mostly conform to code and conventions of a social realist film, the shot of the dad with the belt in our trailer demonstrates this has it shows the struggle our main protagonist has in her way.

I believe combination of our main product and ancillary texts worked together effectively; each one is clearly linked as they use the same font and colour schemes throughout.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learnt from your Audience Feedback?

http://maniafilm2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/audience-profile.html

http://maniafilm2013.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/target-audience-youtube.html

http://maniafilm2013.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/survey.html

http://maniafilm2013.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/update-on-our-social-networking-and.html

Evaluation Question 2

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

Feedback from Screening

We were given the opportunity to present our trailer to the year 12 media classes in our school. This was a fantastic opportunity to get feedback on whether they felt we matched the conventions of our genre and whether they would be inclined to go and see the film.

We handed out a questionnaire to each person containing a variety of questions from "Would you watch this film?" to "What are the three main themes?". As you can see from a few of the responses above, everyone generally had the same answers. All of the participants noticed that it was a social realism, as well as being aimed at females and for the 16-21 year old age group. We also received an overwhelming amount of compliments on the adventurous story line as the participants thought it was quite challenging. The majority of the responses noted that the main themes were abuse, relationships and having a dream.

From the feedback, we can feel confident that through our use of shots and work in post production we have created an effective and appealing social realist teaser trailer.

Reflection

The overall experience of making a teaser trailer has been challenging, however extremely rewarding. As a team we have worked together to create a high quality trailer, website, poster and blog. We gelled well as a group as we could each bring something different to the final product. Bronwen is skilled when it comes to using iMovie software, the Wix website and most of the technical aspects. She was also the director during the filming of our trailer. Joe participated as an actor and spent a lot of time researching before we produced our product, which was essential as we needed to fit the brief and match our genre. I spent a lot of time in pre-production designing the storyboard and researching different theorists. I was also selected to be the main actress in the trailer. Acting was not something I had done much of before however the task was fun and successful. Over the past year, each of us have enjoyed working together and we believe we have become experienced, well rounded individuals in the media department. 

Evaluation Question 1

This question relates to how we used codes and conventions of our genre: social realism. We chose to present our evaluation questions through visual methods, combined with a audio layered over the top. This would enable the audience to view an example and a comment in context.  

"In what way does your media product USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE forms and conventions of real media products in association with our trailer?"

Evaluation Question 1 Script

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products in association with our trailer?

Mania is a social realist film, therefore should follow the conventions of this particular genre and also the conventions of a teaser trailer. There are certain characteristics that you expect to see that we should include in our product to demonstrate how we have understood, and reproduced a social realist trailer. 

Our storyline is similar to that of Andrea Arnold's "Fish Tank" which consisted of a teenage girl having a talent and wanting to per-sue it, however obstacles such as family and love intervene. We used the bad boyfriend and disruptive family life themes of fish tank and applied them to our own trailer. The storyline matches the conventions of a social realism as it is hard hitting and emotional. We captured elements of her struggle through shots such as the medium shot of the dad walking towards the screen with the belt.

As you can see we have included a main protagonist which is commonly seen in our genre. We chose to cast a female as the main character to make it easier to feel sympathy towards her and to emphasise the vulnerability of the character. 
The actress is an unknown female which confirms the genre. Unknown actors or actresses are usually seen in social realist films as the idea of the film is that it is meant to be a realist perception of life and the struggles people face. For example, in this is england, Thomas Aiden Turgoose plays a lead male role, however before this he was not well known, similarly with fish tank's Katie Jarvis playing mia. 

Another convention of social realist film is that they are based in a working class environment. We have depicted this lifestyle through the continuous use of tracking shots of the housing estate. The idea that the main character comes from a less fortunate background is a  convention of social realist films. We challenged this convention slightly as we did not want to focus predominatly on her socio-economic background, but more on the relationships she has within her life that, inturn prevent her from following her dream. 

One of our themes was sex which is a common convention of our genre. We showed sex through the medium shots of the girl putting her top back on in the boy's bed, suggesting she has just had sexual relations with him.
We challenge the stereotypes of the genre by narrowing the themes we exclude the use of  drugs, alcohol and antisocial behaviour, so we can focus mainly on the struggle between her father, her intimate relationships and her dream.

Social Realist films normally use mostly diegetic sound which we developed through use of dialogue as well as a sound track layered over the top.

Our trailer matches the conventions of Freytag's dramatic structure. Initially there is exposition, following a rising action created through the slow motion medium shot of the father walking towards the screen with a belt in his hand implying violence. Additionally, there is a climax at the end of the trailer when there is a rewind of her recent events which builds up tension and curiosity as to what will become of the character. As for the last two stages of Freytags theory, these are not appropriate for a trailer as having a falling action and resolution would reveal the whole story, which is not a convention of a teaser trailer. 

Improvements

Our feedback consisted of helpful changes we could make to our trailer to make it better. Our teacher's advised us to add an additional scene of the girl in a art gallery, instead of the shots of the girl looking at art colleges on her laptop. Also, we added a scene where the girl is slapping the boy from the trailer to increase tension and sense of 'mania'. Currently we are trying to get some footage of the main girl holding a pregnancy test to broaden the potential stories inside the trailer, therefore making it more appealing and entertaining. Furthermore, we are tidying up clips by stabilizing them on i-movie, making the voice overs fade in more smoothly and editing the colour filters on different clips.

Feedback from our First Cut

Feedback is essential when creating a media product as if the public do not understand or appeal to it, then it will not be effective. We used our social networking accounts to publish the first cut of our trailer in order to see people's reactions to it. We received a wide variety of comments as you can see below. Most of them are constructive and contain tips such as "work on audio" and "don't concentrate on the relationship part so much". We will use these comments to finalise our trailer to make it as attractive and effective as possible.

Poster Designs

We decided that our posters had to be well linked to our trailer. We looked at the images we had taken during the filming, and chose a photo that was emotionally intense. We did two designs and asked our target audience what one they preferred.

Poster Design 1

For this poster design, we  decided to use a large picture of the protagonist as that is a usual convention of a Social Realism. We used a photo of a part of the film, where she is outside doing art. We felt this represented the film well as it encorporated the mood of the film and the message that she is trying to break free from her restraints at home. We placed a Sepia layer over the top of the photo to get the brown-like feel, and also helps encapture the emotion we wanted to portray. We kept the font that we use in the trailer itself, for continuity and helps the viewers recognise the film more and therefore increase publicity. We also put the release date and the caption so people were encouraged to see the film.

Poster Design 2

 

For this second design we wanted to do something different with the layout. We changed it to portrait to see whether this gave it a different effect to the film. We wanted to use the letterbox type layout and this gave a good effect as it looks like a small cut out of the girls life and also doesn't give too much away. The facial expression of the photo is also very thoughtful and with the black background it gives a good dark feel to the poster.

 



We decided to choose Poster Design 1 because we felt this depicted our character better and helped portray the emotions she is feeling.

First Draft and Feedback

We decided to publish our first draft of our trailer onto our YouTube channel to see the responses that we get. This will be useful for gathering research on how to improve it.

We have evaluated our draft to ensure that we can improve the necessary faults so our final cut matches the conventions of a social realism. We answered the question 'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products in association with our trailer?' 

After reviewing our draft, we concluded what strengths and weaknesses the product had. These include:

Strengths 

- Award research

- Original film production company

- Creative font- for anchorage and title sequence

- Use of colour filters- black and white at the end

- Variety of editing techniques- reverse of girl's journey, slow motion in bedroom scene

- Variety of shots- tracking shot, point of view shot, high angle shot

- Variety of lighting- low key and high key lighting

- Good camera quality- Cannon with changeable lens and excellent zoom and focus features

Weaknesses 

- Sound is not as layered

- Voiceovers are not embedded- they stick out and sound irregular

- Shots of the laptop are basic and boring- too amateur, does not show our skill and genre

There are certain conventions that you expect to see in a social realism that we should include in our trailer to demonstrate how we have understood and reproduced a social realist trailer. 

In our first draft we have matched the conventions in many ways:

- We have included a main protagonist (the girl) which is a convention of a social realist text

- We have depicted a working class lifestyle through the housing estate shots

- The actress is an unknown female which confirms the genre

- The storyline matches the conventions as it is hard hitting and emotional through shots such as the dad with the belt and the scene with the girl in bed with the boy.

- Social Realist films normally use mostly diegetic sound which we used through dialogue

- One of our themes was sex which is a common trait of social realisms

- We challenge the stereotypes of the genre by narrowing the themes, excluding drugs, alcohol and antisocial behaviour.