INITIAL RESEARCH: Chatroom/Poster Deconstruction

•         Icy blue colour (high saturation), almost like a colour negative’; this appears rather futuristic but yet cold and abnormal.
•         The embossed glow of the typography of the movie title fits in well with the rest of the colour theme.
•         The movie awards at the bottom half of the film is used for promotional means.
•         ‘Starring Aaron Johnson from KICK-ASS’ this adds to the credibility of the positive ratings. ‘British thriller’ suggests target audience.
•         The tagline ‘CONTROL. ALTER. DELETE’ is very effective as the words are specialist words associated with computers, which is primarily what the plot is centred on (internet/cyberspace/bullying).
•         The movie conforms to Golden Rule as the sinister headshot of the protagonist centres the poster within the ‘designated triangle area’, engaging the audience but also other areas of the poster attract the attention of the audience e.g. the arms and face against wall with the  luminescent light shining through.
•         ‘From the director of the ring’- adds to the credibility of the positive ratings. ‘British thriller’ suggests target audience
•         The movies critics ‘Welcome to the anti-social network...chilling’ at the bottom half of the film is used for promotional means especially as it’s a presumed reference to the ‘The Social Network’ movie release in the same year.

INITIAL RESEARCH: Chatroom/Website Deconstruction

This is the home page of the website for the movie ‘Chatroom’ and although the full live website isn’t up as of yet, it still has common conventions of a film website e.g. the attention grabbing centre image, the movie title in bold, movie slogan and cinema release date. The website also has relevant links at the bottom to find out more or show support from the film through known social networking sites- facebook and twitter.

INITIAL RESEARCH/PLANNING: Chatroom/Teaser Trailer Deconstruction

Evaluation: Question 4

"HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH AND PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?"

CONSTRUCTION

Final Cut Pro And iMovie

When constructing our teaser trailer, our main source of technology for our teaser trailer compilation was iMovie where our actual trailer was exported into being a singular video. Our main editing base for adding effects to make our trailer stand out was Final Cut Pro. Here we were able to adjust:

• Hue
• Speed
• Credits
• Sound

We were also able to add:

• Effects such as quick flashes fading in to introduce new clips

• 'Prism' effect to create a sense of disorientation to conform with our psychological drama genre

• Glitches to conform to the technological aspect and genre of our teaser.

As we created a teaser trailer this year, it was essential for it to be visually attractive due to its short duration, so by putting in assorted effects it hopefully made our work stand out. 

Photoshop

When creating the poster we used mainly Photoshop and this enabled us to manipulate the design, contrast and layout of our poster so that it coordinated well. We also ensured that there was continuity within our products so we used a blue/green washed out filter and places lines across the chosen images to create an electronic glow to conform to one of the genres of our trailer which was technology. This was hugely inspired by the Catfish poster as was the entire theme and plot of our teaser trailer which was inspired by Catfish- The Movie.

Myfonts

This was the website in which we obtained our typography(hyperlink) from. On myfonts.com we were able to search for a font similar to the one used for the Facebook logo and typed in the name of our film, 'Alternet.'(hyperlink perhaps film title) By doing this we added our own twist on something that is publicly used and made it personal and original, but at the same time it conformed to the genre of computerisation(hyperlink the ring BP) within our film. Once our typography was made, we printscreened the Facebook navigation bar and placed our made typography. Myfonts enabled us to manipulate our title appearance to make it suit our liking.

Wix

Wix.com aided us in creating our website. We took advantage of the new media technologies available so we chose a layout that was the most user friendly so our would be audience would find it easy to navigate. This efficiency was looked into by some deconstructions(hyperlink a website deco) of websites hence we altered the colours to conform with our poster and trailer keeping the Facebook theme by making the font blue. The image was edited with an effect on the website and then it was placed against a black background to stand out.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING 

Deconstructions

Deconstructing trailers, posters and websites was our initial research before planning our media productions. Once we had decided to do a trailer based around the psychological drama genre, we could research film productions sharing the same conventions and begin planning. ‘Catfish’ and ‘Hard Candy’ stood out to us as a main source of information for our media productions.

Youtube

All our researched trailers could be found on YouTube, which also allowed us to find related trailers and build a better foundation of research. We could also use IMDB to find recommended trailers consisting of similar conventions.

We also used YouTube to research and plan the soundtrack for our trailer. There were a variety of unsigned artists and non-copyrighted soundtracks we could use. We then used YouTube converter to download the audio we chose as an MP3 to place in our Trailer.

Survey Monkey

We used a website called ‘SurveyMonkey.com’ to perform a survey that would get the audiences opinion on what elements we should include in our trailer. This public feedback helped us ensure the most pleasing outcome for our trailer. To gain more results, we used Facebook to share our survey.

'SurveyMonkey.com' - Our survey.

Test Shots

Test Shots - YouTube Video

Test Shots - YouTube Video

It was important to plan shots that could be a challenge to set up when filming, therefore, we did test shots. We did a test shot of Matt’s room to experiment with lighting, mise en scene and camera angles. We also put some of the footage on YouTube, which we embedded in our blog so we could see the outcome to its full potential, as opposed to just photos. This also allowed us to experiment with filters on the camera setting and tamper with the colour of our shot.

Test Shots - Incandescent Photo

Test Shots - YouTube Video

SoundCloud

Before using YouTube, we researched suitable soundtracks on SoundCloud as it allows you to search for music of a specific genre that has been created by many unsigned artists. We found several tracks that could have been suitable however, decided on downloading one from YouTube.

Blogger

We used blogger to refine and finalise all our research and planning. It is where all our work is documented, and a database for us to look back via specific labels and remind ourselves of certain elements of research of planning we may need to work from.

EVALUATION

Facebook/YouTube

Considering our focal theme was 'Internet' and 'Social networking' we used Facebook as a method of evaluation and a platform to showcase our main media product and to welcome first hand feedback and response from our target audience. The interest, views, comments and likes we received on Facebook and YouTube were all positive and reassuring of the fact, our promotional package indeed appeals to our chosen audience.

(Snippet of the response of our uploaded Trailer to Facebook/YouTube)

Evaluation: Question 2

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

For all our media products, we aimed to create synergy between them to achieve a complete promotional package for this movie in likeness to real media products.

Our aim throughout the process of construction was to maintain strong visual links between our main product; teaser trailer and ancillary texts, the movie poster and website. The visual links included, design and likeness to real media products, as discussed in Question 1 but also the media products’ purpose to essentially promote. An effective combination as such, is important so our target audience can easily identify each media product as being a part of this fictional movie promotional package.

In deconstructing other promotional packages for real released movies, the level of consistency between each items of the promotion package is noticeable and I think, shows brand awareness.

(This is our final movie promotional poster)

The typography  for our website and poster was generated from MYFONTS.com and was heavily edited using software such as Photoshop e.g. Overlaying a print screened Facebook banner with our movie title in a font type actually called ‘Facebook’ on MYFONTS.com. This font we uniquely devised was used and positioned similarly on both media items to attract attention from our audience. The shared typography we would hope it would establish the link between Facebook and how it plays a role in our plot.

(This is the typography/logo used on our website and poster)    

On the contrary the typography for the teaser trailer wasn't exactly the same as the ancillary texts because our group initially envisioned the movie title typography on our trailer as moving media e.g. Computerised glitching effect when the movie title appears. The difference in font was deliberate because the glitching effect wouldn't work if we decided to create it on our ancillary texts and because ultimately we desired the first appearance of the movie title on the trailer to be attention grabbing. We believe the trailer typography still maintains the movie themes of ‘internet’ and ‘online’ etc and as well as subtly reflecting our psychological drama genre.               

  (This is the typography used for our teaser trailer e.g. Computerised glitching effect when the movie title appears.)                     

We also maintained the same colour scheme of all our media products (Mainly Blue/White because it's identifiable with the colour scheme of Facebook):

- Predominately black backgrounds
- White and blue font colours for the Facebook banner and matching website navigation buttons,
- White font colour for the production/director/actor information at the bottom of the poster.

(Left: The production company/directors/actors information in white font; maintaining the colour scheme)

(Left: The website navigation buttons in blue font; maintaining the colour scheme)
















The inclusion of the movies slogan across all our media items e.g. ‘Become your fantasy’is another aspect that we considered also very important because it again adds to the cohesiveness of the whole package. It presumably is one of the aspects our target audience would not only seek out to remember along with the movie title but also it links back to what the prospective movie would be about.

Using the same image of our protagonist, the character of Matt, we considered this another aspect that displayed a sense of continuity over the media products. Matt’s image is a strong, high definition close up which we hoped would stand as attention grabbing and for this reason, we chosen to use it across the ancillary texts.

Collectively, I not only think our three media products are indeed an effective combination but I also think it displays synergy and works together in a way that the audience are able to link them all together solely by design











(This is the image used for both
our website and poster)

Evaluation: Question 1

"IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PORUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?"

TRAILER

Conventions of a Teaser Trailer

Before researching genre, we needed to understand the conventions of a teaser trailer itself. We did this when deconstructing trailers and noticing common conventions that consistently appeared in most trailers:

• Fast paced
• Short
• Less information than a theatrical trailer
• Less dialogue
• Credits

Our choice of music allowed us to add pace to our trailer and differentiate equilibrium and disequilibrium.

The footage was condensed to one minute and eight seconds keeping it short and fast paced, giving away little information and instead documenting a montage of images from the potential film.

We involved little dialogue in our trailer, however, a voice over commonly appears in trailers, therefore this is something we chose to experiment with. As we felt it didn't fit with our trailer due do the soundtrack we had chosen and the pace of our shots, we decided not to use it in the final production.

Conventions of Genre

We decided to make our trailer a psychological drama therefore researched films of the same genre or consisting of similar conventions. There were themes of technology (social networking, the internet and anonymous identity) as well as homosexuality.

Due to our combination of genres, we looked at a range of films with different conventions. For psychological we looked mainly at the character of Donnie Darko, as we structure the character of Matt around him.

'Donnie Darko'

‘Hard Candy’ and ‘Catfish’ stood out to us for their conventions of social networking and identity. ‘Chatroom’ also fitted in with both our psychological and drama theme. ‘Catfish’ was a documentary, however, the style in which is documented facebook information through the use of extreme close ups was inspiration for our trailer. All three of these films linked in with the idea of anonymity and identity on the internet.

'Hard Candy' - extreme close up of computer showing social networking.

'Catfish' - extreme close up of computer showing social networking.

We looked at ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and ‘Shelter’ which helped us to understand conventions and seek inspiration on how to represent an intimate friendship involving elements of homosexuality through filming and editing etc.

'Brokeback Mountain' - Close up showing intimate connection between characters.

'Shelter' - Lighting seeting a refreshing, happy atmosphere.

The typography portrayed conventions of our trailer due to the editing and effects we added to it. After using PowerPoint and Photoshop to add computer generated style effects, we added further animation in Final Cut Pro. It showed similarities to conventions of the typography's we had previously researched and films we had deconstructed.

'Untraceable' Typography - Research that inspired our typography style.

'Alternet' - Final trailer typography.

POSTER

Conventions of a Poster

Before specifying genre, we needed to understand the conventions of a film poster in general. This meant picking out important elements that commonly appeared on a poster such as:

• Images
• Credits – highlighting actors and directors (possibly specifying other films they have made)
• Typography
• Quotes/ratings
• Catch phrase
• Links – Facebook, Twitter, film website
• Productions company logo

We included all these things in our final poster highlighting conventions of our film genre.

'Alternet' - Final poster design.

Conventions of Genre

As our trailer was a psychological drama genre, this needed to be portrayed through the conventional elements of the poster. The ‘Catfish’ poster strongly inspired us as it fitted in well with the conventions of technology and social networking through its use of editing (computerized images, typography etc.)

'Catfish' - Poster 1

'Catfish' - Poster 2

We edited the images to fit with the idea of being computer generated or displayed on a computer screen by using effects such as pixelate, scan lines and blue tints.

Editing poster images using iPiccy.com

Editing poster images using iPiccy.com

The typography we used for our final poster was inspired by the 'Catfish' Poster. We used a Facebook banner which tied in immediately with conventions of our film genre and social link due to its clear representation of social networking.

'Alternet' - typography and catch phrase used for both poster and website.

WEBSITE

Conventions of a Film Website

After deconstruction several websites, we could establish an understanding of common elements and conventions that were consistently appearing such as

• Typography
• Images
• Trailer (usually plays immediately)
• Action Buttons
• Links - Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Youtube, Tumblr
• Release date and where to buy/download the film or purchase tickets to see it.
• Quotes/ratings
• Production company logos
• Animation
• Catchphrase

We tried to include as many of these elements as we could when creating our website using an online website creator called Wix.com. However, animation, for example, was complicated to create using Wix.

Conventions of Genre

We did deconstructions of both the 'Catfish' and 'Black Swan' websites.

'Catfish' - Website laid out like a Mac desktop.

'Black Swan' - Website portraying psychological drama.

'Black Swan' was a psychological drama therefore shared similar conventions to our teaser trailer.

The documentary film 'Catfish' had a very interesting website which was a source of inspiration for our final design. As it was laid out as if using a Mac desktop, this linked well with the conventions of social networking and technology. We wished to add elements of a Facebook profile to our website to make this direct connection.

'Alternet' - Final website design.

Evaluation: Question 3

"WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?"

From the audience feedback we received, it was clear that there were many specifics that were being demanded by our audience.  The main lesson learned when having seen our audience feedback was that it was essential to meet demands of the ‘target population’ for our products to be successful and popular.

The process of actually taking our audience feedback into consideration was a simple one, which needed time and also it was essential to be aware of the unexpected which could be drawn from the audience feedback. Once an idea was thought of, it was then processed into different forms of analysis and then our products were created. The term product is used quite loosely here as the most audience feedback we had was for the teaser trailer.

Firstly, once enough people had answered the survey which was 54 in the end, the responses were made into bar charts on Excel and this showed clearly what the leading vote was which we would then try to enact.

The name our audience preferred for our trailer

Mise en scene our audience most wanted to see

The attributes our audience wanted to be part of our trailer

Once the audience survey analysis was completed, we then proceeded to actually trying to conform to their feedback. Having sat down and discussed the feedback we wanted, when filming and creating our trailer we used the feedback to shape the trailer in the making. I feel that we were quite loyal in respect to this and fulfilled quite a number of their desires, they are listed as followed:

We named our trailer according to the most popular name chosen by or audience.

The pictures were the source of obsession we created on behalf of the feedback.

The unexpected twist was that our protagonist was actually homosexual and was in love with his best friend
whilst using anonymity online as a girl.

SURVEY MONKEY

The heart of our audience feedback stemmed mainly from the survey we created on Surverymonkey.com. We did this in AS, and the audience feedback was not taken into consideration as much because our film opening was created already once we got the results back so changing it would have possibly ruined our implanted ideas. This year it proved to be really effective because we learned that by abiding to our audience's preferences, our product would be amiable which means it would gain more popularity. Once having posed the questions to our open audience I then moved onto creating graphs to show the results which would give us a clear insight as to what our audience preferred. This proved to be helpful as it gave us innovative ideas that we even forgot about, so by doing this it gave us more variety to create as well as when having to edit. From our audience feedback we created:

• a montage
• a jump cut
• a time lapse 
• a source of obsession for our protagonist which were drawings
• and we also used a selection of locations that our audience wanted to see such as a bedroom, the school and different rooms in the house

WHAT WOULD WE DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME?

In terms of the survey, I would definitely make more surveys that would coordinate with the ancillary products so we could obtain maximum audience feedback and for our work to gain more popularity as well as achieving constructive criticism. Also, there are many things that we did not include in our trailer that people wanted such as ominous piano music as the main track. We could not include this because finding an artist to play a piece with a few glitches was quite difficult, so we used dub-step which had piano elements within it.

VOICE OVER

This piece of non diegetic sound was excluded from our trailer purely because it did not conform with our trailer. The voice over also ruined the suspense created within the series of the clips and the pacing was really difficult to get right. We had asked peers in our class to listen to the piece and we had responses such as:

"Hmm... It doesn't seem as effective with the voice over."

"No, take it out, the music makes it perfect!"

"I'm not really listening to her voice because I'm focusing on the different sounds going on in the trailer like the dialogue and that. It sounds quite monotone."

YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK

Facebook and YouTube were our final technologies we used to 'advertise' and promote our finished teaser trailer. These networking sites enabled us to get an objective point of view as well as the positive comments we received because they are public and the people watching it would be a disinterested party as they hadn't watched it before. This was almost like the breaking point because it determined whether our trailer conformed to our audience's liking. We were glad to see that our trailer was successful as it received positive feedback from both YouTube and Facebook:

We have 134 views and counting on YouTube which is relatively interesting because we don't know who has actually watched our teaser trailer. The graph below backs this point up and shows us clearly on a graph the breakdown of people from different countries watching our trailer.

From all of this it is clear to say that audience feedback plays a huge role in shaping the final products.