Evaluation 4 - How Did You Use New Media Technologies in the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages

Adobe Photoshop CS5- This was the main new technology/software that we used for our ancillary texts. It is very useful because of the high level of detail that you can put into the making of our posters and magazine front covers. It is also not too difficult to use however some tools may take a bit of practise or need to be played around with in order to understand how to use it fully. Photoshop allows the user to edit and refine certain aspects of our poster/magazine cover down to the point of 1 pixel. This is helpful as we can really get into detail with some of the parts and make it look like a real magazine cover or poster.

The main things I used in Photoshop for the making of my ancillary texts were the magnetic lasso, transformation and text.
 - The lasso was useful for cutting out the main image and implementing it into my ancillary texts.






 - Transformation simply allowed me to resize any part of anything and move it around to my liking. This was extremely useful when deciding how to lay everything out.

 - I used the text tool quite a lot as there is a lot of writing on both my poster and magazine cover. The access to many different fonts meant that I could make it look like a real poster or magazine cover which is key in this task. This tool also allowed me to resize the text fully to how I wanted it (height and width) and allowed me to have a neater layout.

We also used Photoshop to make our title and production company logo. The simple to use tools such as background eraser and transformation made it quick and easy to make both of these.

Fruity Loops Studio 10 (FL) - The music for our trailer was made with this software. It is a music software where you can make any type of music, as long as you know how to do it. We felt like this software is quite difficult to use so we had to watch many YouTube videos to get the hang of it.

An advantage of making our own music in oppose to getting it from somewhere is that we can make it exactly how we would like to and we timed it to our trailer. For example, every time there is a beat played, the shot changes. This would be very difficult to do with a pre-made sample of music.

We also let the music create the pace and dictate the tension in our trailer - The music starts off very slow and gradually builds up into a crescendo. We decided to make our trailer follow the same pattern - it starts off slow and the shots get faster and more intense as the music builds and speeds up.

Social media - Facebook, Snapchat - Social media is a great way to communicate with others and played a key role in terms of the planning of everything and also acted as a platform where people can suggest constructive criticism to see what needed changing.

Facebook - It is the social media platform with the most members out of any other social media. We took advantage of this and uploaded our trailer onto Facebook, and asked people if they could deliver feedback.  Having uploaded this on a very popular site, it allowed more people to view it, which lead to more constructive criticism in order to perfect our trailer.

Snapchat - This played a key role in terms of our communication. There were many times where we were not together when making certain things such as the music or specific edits within the trailer. Using Snapchat effectively allowed me to communicate with the person in my group in these situations. The app has heavy emphasis on sending pictures and videos, which was exactly what we needed to see the progression of editing and music and if anything needed to be changed when we were not together.

YouTube - We used this to upload things such as our pitch, different methods of planning and our first drafts, as well as evaluations. This played a key role in our research as we could find thriller trailers to analyse. There is also a very wide collection of trailers to watch so we could get an idea of a wide range of films.

Email - This was used to send things such as files, drafts and ideas to do with our trailer.

Evaluation 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback

Trailer

After having the class and teachers watch our first draft for our film trailer, we received many different comments about it. The main thing that wasn't very good about our trailer was the pacing. The shots were too long and we needed to split them up.

To fix this, we ended up chopping the shots up to make them significantly shorter. Also, with the shots we had, it was not enough because the second half of the split shot kept coming up too frequently so we needed to film a few more shots to make the trailer flow better.

Another comment we received was to put "coming soon" where our title shows up at the end. This was to simply make it seem more like a real trailer and was also very easy to implement into our trailer.

Film poster

For my film poster, the feedback was for minor things such as the positioning of certain parts. The position of the billing block and social media were altered to make the poster look neater. For the title, slogan and "coming soon", it was originally much higher and covered the main picture. The feedback I received was to lower it down in order to make the main picture clear. Another minor thing that I changed was to increase the opacity of the blood splatter so it is still able to be seen, but not covering the main picture too much.

I also removed the age certificate in order to make some space at the bottom of my poster.

Magazine front cover

The feedback from classmates and the teachers was that what I included was good however the layout had to be changed in order for it to look like an actual magazine cover. I spent a good amount of time resizing, reshaping and detailing minor things such as the text in the circle look like it had been put on with a stamp, or simply, the position of certain things.

My magazine is also called "Silver Screen". There was a big "S" and both the words were written smaller next to the big "S". This covered up about a fifth of the page which meant that there would not be enough space for everything else. I wanted to move it down so I could put a slogan/tagline at the top.
 - In order to change this I had to design the title differently so I could fit more on my front cover.

My research on magazine covers has shown that a slogan/tagline is consistently used by many different magazine companies.

Research & Planning - Film titles

From my research on thriller film titles, I found that many thriller films have 1 word titles. This is clearly not always the case but the majority of them do. The single word title films have very 'serious' words such as 'Taken', 'Inception', or 'Identity'. These words also have multiple connotations and can be looked at and interpreted in many different ways. This is why we used a 1 word title.

Before we came up with the title 'Edge', we had other ideas for the title of our film.

-Verge
-Limits
-Duality
-Daydreamer

 - We thought that all of these were good and could not decide between them. Verge and Limits is the connotation of how he takes everything to the edge, including his life and his relationships.

 - Duality is similar to Split, as he has a mental disorder where he has dual personalities.

 - The title Daydreamer also came about as he is on drugs which makes him see and hear stuff which is not there, hence is daydreaming.

We ended up with Edge as we felt like this has multiple connotations and can be interpreted in a lot of different ways in comparison to the other titles. For example, the edge of his life and the edge of a blade - This can be interpreted by just the word 'edge' alone and key themes in our film include suicide and weapons.

Research - Shutter Island Trailer Analysis

Shutter Island (2010)

107 shots

Length - 2:22

As the trailer progressed, the shots got faster and faster. There were also many shots which was all 1 shot but flashed many times. This fast pacing is key in creating tension.

Audience:

The audience for this film is 15+ as it contains violent and frightening scenes, however is targeted to both genders, of any class or nationality.

Star power is also used as Leonardo DiCaprio is a very well-known actor and people who may not be fans of thriller films, may still want to watch the film as it has an actor that the audience may like.

Right at the start of the trailer there is an establishing shot of a large island in the middle of the sea. This straight away shows the audience where the film is set. As it is in the middle of nowhere, it may make the audience question what is on the island, where it is and why it's so significant in the film.






This next shot is of another location. Even though at this point of the trailer, the shots are slow, it is the start of the building up of tension. There is a large building with big, black gates with security there. This may make the audience wonder why there is security there. An extreme long shot is used here in order to show the property. The positioning of the security is a lot closer to the camera as it makes it more apparent on what the main focal points of the shot are.





A long shot is shown of a man dragging another man away. It is a very brief shot, which is not very apparent but is still noticeable. This also creates a suspenseful atmosphere.








A long shot of a prisoner in a cell is used here. It gives clues to the narrative and implications are made that it s not just a regular prison. This is given away from the larger than normal cell and that the prisoner is half-naked.

This close up shows a woman in her late 50s in low-key lighting with bright, harsh light coming from the flame which could connote the harsh world they're living in. It is a very short shot and you can just about see the woman's face, so therefore it is difficult for the audience to guess who she is. She also says "you haven't taken any pills have you?". This adds mystery for the audience as it makes them question what sort of pills they are and what do they do and why this person must take them, further adding to the mystery and tension without giving anything away.

This long shot shows 3 elderly men. In this shot, they are represented to be very important to society. This is shown by the clothing they are wearing (suit and uniform) which is black, as is the car and this connotes seriousness. It also shows star power as they are very well known actors, which may draw the audience into watching it.



A low-angle shot is used here which shows the lead character run up a set of spiral stairs. The low-angle is used here to make the stairs seem much bigger than they are, which may make the audience question what is at the top of the steps. It can also give clues to the narrative - There are implications throughout the trailer that the film is set in a mental asylum and is set before the era we currently live in. People may know that the treatment to mental illnesses used to just be a lobotomy which was done in an area separate to the asylum, which is what is shown here, and is what happens in the film.

Film Poster

Edge Film Poster

Edge First Draft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvsgFMweWAs