Evaluation 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

                                                   

Overall, I think that this year I have tried to challenge and improve my skills with media technologies and have done so effectively. I have also tried to use a variety of these in order to try and make all my work as unique and visually appealing as possible.           

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Feel free to press pause if you are still reading as this presentation goes through at quite a fast pace.

Evaluation 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation 1B: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Ancillary Tasks)

Evaluation 1B from elleniapanayiotou

Evaluation 1A: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Trailer)

1. I chose to put my films title at the end of my trailer as  this is one of the generic conventions followed in the construction of trailers. This also helps audience members as it is the last thing they see once all the action and information we want them to receive comes to end. This suggests that this is the last thing they will remember and they will then try and further analyse and think of the films narrative in their head further on from what they have seen. I chose to put my title in white text as I feel it stands out nicely against the black and doesn't distract from anything or give away any false ideas. When I asked some of my target audience members they mentioned that they thought the white worked nicely as it could connote the baby's purity and how although his birth mother is put in a difficult situation, it will have a bright future as he has people that care about him no matter what happens. Following my films title, I also added an extra inter-title which has the release date on it and the hashtag (#pricelessfilm) along with the social media usernames for my film which all audience members will be able to gain further information about the film or even interact with the producer and actors. A film which is very similar to mine and that I used as inspiration throughout the research and planning as well as construction stages is Fish Tank, not because of its narrative but for its structure as it is a film within the social realism genre and I feel it has effectively managed to captivate its audience members. Fish Tanks title, similarly to mine, was placed at the end of the trailer in the blue colour and beneath that are the names of the three main protagonists in white coloured text following the colour of the rest of the inter-titles they have included. After that, they included the release date of their film as well as billing blocks, giving credit to all those who contributed in any way while creating this film.

2. Throughout my trailer I tried including as many locations as possible to  expand the narrative and give my audience members an insight as to where my characters are from and why this would be important in my film. The shot of the left is one of the first things which the audience members see in my trailer and this is of a well preserved building in Central London. This is an important shot as it establishes location and prepares the audience of the type of characters that will be introduced. This building and generally the location suggests that the characters that will be introduced most likely come from a wealthy background and are living in London. Furthermore, this could suggest to the audience members that chaos may be included throughout the film either in the form of a problem, incident or even a lifestyle. I think including such a location is important as well as effective because in a trailer such as Fish Tank as seen on the right, locations help further establish the story and what will happen. As well as this, it adds an authentic feel to it, conforming to the conventions of a social realism film. In Fish Tank, I screnshotted this one because I feel that the character herself fits in with the location shown in the background and this therefore gives an understanding or even an assumption to the audience of the character type this person has taken on in their role within the film.

3. I think that the costumes I included in my trailer fit in nicely with not only the narrative but also the genre I chose as I feel it effectively shows contrast between "rich and poor". The shot on the left is of one of my protagonists Julia, going to Athena's house, especially in this scene in my trailer, once she is in Athena's house, the contrast is clearly presented as Julia is wearing a designer coat and has a Mulberry handbag connoting this character has wealth. This is further supported, as previously mentioned, when Athena is in her house and appears to have a minimal amount of things and is dressed down, in a robe and tracksuit. I think that this is again effective as it allows the audience members to see the clear contrast between the "two worlds" and makes them wonder what will happen further. The costumes and props used, are very helpful as they give clues and hints to the narrative and the characters. The shot on the right, is one I chose from Fish Tanks trailer and it is of the protagonist Mia wearing a hoodie and the lighting is very dark, this tells us as an audience where she comes from and what she is like as she doesn't seem to be wearing nice, clean clothing suggesting that perhaps, unlike my protagonist Julia she either doesn't have the money or just doesn't care as much about her physical appearance. 

4. While editing my trailer, I tried using a variety of transitional techniques in order to keep the audience directly interesting in the trailer and focus on the clues and content shown. This shot is an example of one of the transitional techniques I used and this is of the "cross blur". I used this because before it, I had an inter-title and wanted it to link although it was a slightly different scene. This helped it transition smoothly, allowing the audience to realise that this is an important piece of information. This shot is one which shows my protagonist Julia holding a cheque which she is offering to Athena so she will give up her child for adoption once she gives birth. I think that this shot as well as attracting the viewers attention for the narrative also makes it further clear that this particular character is presented in a financial advantage in comparison to Athena as her nails also support the idea that she is wealthy, I think this slight over the shoulder close up only works due to the costume which helps deliver those clues. The only thing I think challenges conventions and doesn't seem to work, although a slight detail and hasn't seemed to be picked up by anyone who has seen my trailer are the names on this cheque as my mum who played Julia, wrote Athena's actual name on it. However I do think this isn't a distraction as it just adds to the authenticity of the trailer. An example of other transitional techniques, still smooth yet different, are those used in Fish Tank's trailer shown on the right, which demonstrate how they used their skills to show a variety of action packed scenes in their trailer and did so through using different parts of the scenes previously included in the trailer with quick paced jump shots. 

5. For my trailers inter-titles and titles font style to be a block capital almost hand written one to add to the authenticity of the film but also make it stand out and be easily read. I added "some people have everything" along with other inter-titles as for my trailer I heavily relied on both footage and inter-titles to clearly deliver my films storyline to the targeted audience members purely because I didn't use any dialogue unlike most trailers, which I think this is something which challenges the form of a real media product as most use dialogue to help make the storyline and plot clearer. However, because my actors weren't professional, I didn't want to risk them not conveying any emotions or scenarios the way I wanted to. For this reason similarly to Fish Tank, but in particular Shank as that is the only trailer I analysed which used as many inter-titles as I did, they are used to help unravel the narrative as the trailer continues. Another reason as to why I didn't want to use dialogue, is because I didn't want anything about the plot to be given away and the inter-titles I used effectively make it clear and give enough insight, filling in the gaps of any questions that audience members may have. I chose to add "some people have everything" as it suggests that the next character introduced will be one with a financial advantage as well as allowing the audience members to know that they should be expecting to see a contrast as if it sounds like after that there will be another inter-title showing the opposite of these characters and this is something typical expected to be seen in a trailer of a film within the social realism genre. The inter-titles used in Fish Tank are again effective as they are only include one word, making it more interesting and gripping, leaving the context open for interpretation. 

6. I think that this is a good example of a shot which clearly explains and captures the story being told through one shot. This is because this shot in my trailer is actually shown to the audience members after the one below (number seven). This is because this shot shows this protagonist anxiously waiting in what appears to be a doctors waiting room, we can assume this because the image below shows the couple walking past a building with Harley Street written on the side of it and this further tells the audience members that this couple is going to consult a doctor for something, which is later on revealed that they have a problem conceiving a child. I feel like this is a good example as it portrays a main character in a realistic and lower point of her life and perhaps of hers in the film with an authentic insight. This is a matter which a lot of people around the world can connect to, so I think in this scene, her particular body language along with the music I added creates sympathy and/or even empathy towards this character who seems to be going through something tough. This is a stereotypical type of shot for a film within the social realism genre because it shows the calm as well as anxiousness in a worrying situation and shows how this character deals with it, giving us as an audience an idea of what type of character Julia is, suggesting that she is strong and is optimistic as seen later on. The shot on the right is again from Fish Tank and shows the protagonist Mia getting in a fight with some girls within her age group and I think this perfectly captures the film's story as it shows a teenage girl in a run down area with character types of a girl which seems to be behaving in an aggressive manner. 

7. I chose to screenshot two parts included in my trailer which I thought effectively showed how the genre is suggested within my trailer and I think a main hint of this is the company logo which is the very first thing we see as an audience. I chose UK Film Council as my distribution company because they have created a variety of successful independent films within the social realism genre as well as films of other genres so this lets my audience members from the beginning know what type of film this will be. Some social realism they have contributed to either for funding, production and distribution include Fish Tank, Bullet Boy and Adulthood, so I think that this as well as suggests the genre also manages to capture an already established audience. Another shot which I thought demonstrated how genre is portrayed within my trailer is the shot of Athena and Julia. The body language, mise-en-scene, costume, music and shot type for this scene help establish the idea that through this film audience members will see a raw and realistic insight of themes covering issues such as family, friend relationships and financial situations. The shot on the right however, is of Mia from Fish Tank drinking from a can of beer, I chose this one in particular to show how the genre is being captured because it clearly demonstrates one of the most stereotypical portrayals of teenage girls that come from such areas as for example, they behave and do things they wouldn't be expected to do at that age capturing that idea that these kids from these areas try and grow up ahead of their time. 

 8. For Julia and Steve, this is one of the first shots used which introduces them to my audience members. This shot is one of them walking down Harley Street, through this we assume that they are either a couple or married and are going to a clinic (as Harley Street is known for its well respected doctors) for a consultation. As well as the idea presented that they may be going through something tough in their life, this shot even as an introductory one is extremely effective as it gives the audience members further insight on these protagonists. Through the mise-en-scene and their costume we can tell that they are perhaps a wealthy couple as they are dressed very nicely and as these are the first characters we are introduced to in the trailer, this suggests that they perhaps very important for the development of the films narrative and we will be able to see why this is later on in the film. The shot on the right however, captures Mia and her mum in the middle of a fight, both of their language and body language being quite aggressive, conforming to the stereotypes of people who live on council estates and giving us further detail into their backgrounds. 

9. In my trailer, as well as a variety of transitional shots, I also tried using some other techniques to try and make the trailer as visually interesting for the form it takes as well as it's footage included. This shot demonstrates the use of special effects I included in my trailer, which is a side by side (split screen) of two videos of my main protagonists on the phone and through their body language we are able to tell that they are on the phone to each other and this is because Athena is talking while Julia's facial expressions are quite sad, neutral like. This suggests that at this point in the trailer, there has been progression into the narrative and I think it is an effective one as it shows at the same time both sides of the story and how this may possibly impact each character, giving the audience members the opportunity to decide which character they are sympathising with. This is one of the shots towards the end of my trailer and has a somewhat ambiguous ending, leaving the audience members wondering what decision Athena will make and what will happen to the baby. An example of these special effects and other editing techniques used in Fish Tank are at the very beginning of the trailer where Mia is getting ready and it shows her putting on eye liner to then fading to a black screen and then showing a shot of her drinking alcohol out of a bottle. This is put in place in order to conform to those same stereotypes and make the trailer flow a lot faster and smoother also possibly suggesting that although she is still young this may be a very dark time in her life.

FINAL MAGAZINE FRONT COVER FOR PRICELESS

FINAL POSTER FOR PRICELESS

FINAL TRAILER FOR PRICELESS

FINAL STAGES

Priceless Trailer: Draft 1 Ammendments

This is a slightly improved version of the first draft of my trailer. As suggested by my target audience, those who commented on it on YouTube, suggested I add a bit more footage as they felt they wanted to see more of it. Another audience members suggested I made the volume of the music tracks I chose the same throughout as they thought it wasn't consistent and because I also felt that it wasn't the same, this is the first thing I fixed. I also removed a couple of parts of some clips as they didn't really help or change the narrative in any way. As a whole, I think it is better with these changes, although they are small. I will also be waiting for some feedback from my teacher and will be making some changes in order to try and make my trailer as realistic as possible. 

Trailer Draft 1: Audience Feedback

As previously mentioned, I shared the first draft of my trailer on YouTube in order to receive some feedback. I shared this in a Facebook group chat and asked people to give me both pros and cons as I wanted to get different views and opinions on how I could improve my trailer. So far these are the only comments I received however, I did ask more people so I should have more feedback coming so I can try and improve as much as I can. 

Priceless Trailer: First Draft

This is the first draft for my trailer Priceless. I tried including as much footage as well as inter-titles in order to deliver my films narrative across to my targeted audience in an effective way. I feel like the footage I have filmed generally flows well and I am hoping the story line is in fact delivered to my audience members in the way I hoped. I have shared it on YouTube and I am waiting on some feedback, negatives and positives to see how people think I could improve my trailer in order to make it more appealing.  

Magazine Amendments: FINAL MAGAZINE

This is the final magazine front cover for Priceless, similarly to my poster, I spent a lot of time creating it to make sure that everything was as close to perfect as possible so I wouldn't have to keep making a lot of changes. After I posted this on Instagram, most of the feed back I received was positive which I was very happy about. Along with positive feed back I also received a couple suggestions for amendments. These included comments saying to try and create synergy between the poster and front cover, so I therefore, used the "KG why you gotta be so mean" front that I used both in my trailer and poster to write Priceless in and also added the tagline that I had included on my poster which makes the two products link in nicely as well as giving more detail into the film to the audience members. Another suggestion I got was to try and make the photograph slightly brighter as although the contrast seemed to work nicely, it was slightly too dark so fixed this by decreasing the contrast and increasing the brightness in Photoshop. 

Although I only changed a couple of things, I do think this feedback helped my cover look better. Overall, I am really happy with my end result as I think the colours, layout as well as the font links in nicely and I got a lot of feed back saying it looks like a professional one. 

Magazine Audience Feedback

As previously mentioned on my blog, I posted my magazine front cover on both Instagram and Twitter to get some feedback from those following my accounts. The Instagram account I created as I mentioned before, appeared to be most effective as more of my films followers were interacting and giving their opinions than those on Twitter, however, I still managed to get some useful feed back from Twitter as well. 

I created this collage to show the feedback I got from posting my magazine front cover on Instagram. When I posted the cover, similarly to my poster, I did so asking for both pros and cons in order to see what they thought worked well and what I could improve on. I'm glad I created these accounts as the comments I received were very helpful and allowed me to see what they would like to see on a front cover as audience members to then want to buy it. 

I am planning on reading through them all again and picking out some things I could improve on which would actually look good if I were to do so as I really want them to be as appealing to my audience members as possible, however, in comparison to my poster feedback, it looks like I haven't received a lot of comments that suggest amendments. 

First draft: Final magazine front cover for Priceless

This is my final front cover for the feature of my film on Sight & Sound. To create this, I used Photoshop and tried keeping the generic conventions of Sight & Sound magazine in order to make it look like a professional one.

 I tried keeping a similar colour scheme throughout my magazine in order to make it eye catching and appealing to those viewing. The photograph I chose, in my opinion is effective as it gives audience members an insight as to what this character is like but also other details about her, e.g financial situation and this accomplished through mise-en-scene as out of the window, along with the character as an audience we get a view of appears to be a High Street which suggests to the audience that this character may live on top of a shop. 

For the text, I chose to keep the same shades of yellow and red as those in the magazines masthead to make it all link nicely, I also used black to further accomplish this.Furthermore, I think that the brighter colour, in comparison to the highly contrasted photograph links nicely together. Overall I'm happy with how this turned out as I put in a lot of effort to create it in order to make it all look effective together and I think because I followed the generic conventions of the magazines layout, it does in fact look like an already released/ professional issue. 

I shared this front cover, just like I did my poster on both social media accounts and I am waiting for some feed back from my audience members that follow these accounts and interact through these platforms. I am waiting to see what they think works well and even what improvements they would like to see to make this cover as effective as possible.   

  

Priceless magazine front cover Progression

I created the collage on the left in order to show the progression of the magazine front cover I created. To make this magazine front cover I gradually added each feature to bring it together nicely and make sure each one was placed in the right position to further apply the generic conventions of a magazine front cover and make it look as professional as possible. 

In the first one, the very first thing I did was add a photograph which includes one of my main protagonists (Athena). I then added the logo/masthead on the left hand side and on the opposite side, I added the same coloured box with the same height but slightly smaller in length. This box includes the BFI logo as they are the publishers of Sight & Sound. Above the logo however, placed are both the issue and volume numbers, next to that is the price in British Pounds (£) of the magazine and above that is the release date of this issue. The very first thing placed in that box is the barcode. All of these are important elements of a magazine front cover because it enables all viewers to know how much the magazine is, which issue it is they are reading etc. 

In the second one, I then started adding blurbs etc to give it more of a magazine front cover feel and give viewers an insight as to what they can expect when reading this magazine. As I added a  circle as a puff in red and above that, wrote their typical "Every New Film Reviewed" tagline and underneath that I placed a blurb which usually is seen along with the puff on each issue this particular layout is used on. This blurb is "The Best Films of 2015", this is effective as it lets viewers know that one of the main articles/features of this particular issue is one which reviews all of the best films, in their opinion (an their writers, links with the little tagline under it) of 2015 and the part underneath which says that their writers chose their highlights of the year suggests that Sight & Sound likes giving its audience members a more personal experience as they could then feel that they are getting information directly from directors, which could possibly be their favourite ones. 

In the third one, I then added a second blurb which directly links to the main photograph, allowing the audience to see that one of the main features of this particular issue is about the release of a new indie film named Priceless. I wrote Priceless in Bold-Italics to make it stand out from the rest of the text featured on my cover. On top of "Priceless", I wrote my name as this is a generic convention which lets audience members know who the director of this film is. Beneath "Priceless", however, I wrote a little tagline made to look as though it is something said by one of the magazine's editor, making it a little bit more appealing to audience members. 
The third, one is also the final part of my magazine progression, also seen on the right. This is my first draft as a final front cover and I am relatively happy with it as I tried to follow particular layouts, especially the January one of Sight & Sound to make it look like a cover which could in fact be released/ created by Sight & Sound.

Change of magazine idea (central image)

I previously mentioned on my blog that I wanted to use a photograph like this one on the left while creating a front cover of a magazine as I thought it would be effective and give further insight to the audience about the characters included in my film and hints as to what may happen as the story unfolds.  

However, after I took the shoot for this cover (photographs are included on my blog),  I didn't really like how the photographic series of those ones in particular turned out but I did like one of Athena (one of my main protagonists) which I think would work extremely well with both the layout and themes of the magazine. The photograph I have decided to use is the one on the right because I think although simplistic, it includes elements which can be delivered as hints to audience members as to what is going on or even what will happen with this character throughout my film. I additionally like how highly contrasted it is, linking in with the tougher/darker themes covered within my film, the condensation/rain on the window further helps make this clear. The view outside the window gives hints that this character is one which may be in a difficult financial situation and as she is gazing outside the window this could suggest to the audience members that she may even be in a difficult situation in relation to her pregnancy.  I'm looking forward to creating my magazine front cover as I think it will now  work out a lot better than previously planned. 

Diary Post 11: Editing day 3

I have gradually been fixing the other two elements I was working on which I included in my other editing diary posts. Since I started adding inter-titles with the footage, my trailer is starting to come along a lot better. In this editing session, I purely focused on adding both music and sound to further help the narrative be clear to my targeted audience members. The sounds and music also help with creating and allowing the audience to go through a range of emotions, possibly those which my characters are going through. All of these elements put together, make a trailer look a lot more appealing while also captivate audience members making them want to get involved, find out more about this film and go and watch it once it is released. I am planning on working on it a bit more and once I feel like it is at a relatively good stage I would like to share it on YouTube and ask for some pros well as cons from my audience members.  

Shoot for magazine front cover

These are some of the photographs I took in the shoot which I had the front cover in mind for. I took a lot more photographs, however,  I narrowed it down to these 12 shots because I though these were most successful both as photographs but also as a source for giving more of the storyline of my film to those viewing it. 

In my plan, I said I would used a photograph similar to the second one on the first row as I thought it could make the audience wonder what is happening between the two characters making them want to watch the film. However, after looking at the all, I think a photograph I could use would be one like the third photograph on the third row as it captures Athena in an effective way and still creates the same element of curiosity to the audience members as the other photograph. 

My chosen magazine: Sight & Sound

After researching and analysing a variety of magazine types including Total Film, Hollywood Reporter, Little White Lies, Empire (very briefly at the beginning of Yr 13 for a mock up) and Sight & Sound I have chosen which magazine front cover I would like to create and have my film be featured on an issues front cover. 

Although all of them are well established within different media sectors (Indie and big conglomerates), I think the magazine that would be best suited for my film to be featured on would be either Sight & Sound (S&S) or Little White Lies  (LWL) and this is because of the genre I chose my film to be in which is social realism and due to the fact that these magazines are indie ones which would be more fitting for my film to be on a front cover of rather than a magazine such as Empire which usually includes bigger budgeted films. 

I really like both S&S and LWL as I think they are both extremely effective due to their simplicity yet eye catching layouts. I furthermore like the illustrative aspect LWL includes on their front covers, however, as I already included an aspect like that through my films poster I would like to create a magazine such as Sight & Sound which takes the form of a more traditional magazine and create it using a software such as Photoshop. 

On the right is a collage I created using PicMonkey. These show the different layouts, which are both very common that Sight & Sound create. The bottom ones, are usually those which are special editions or even are created in that layout to enhance something important which may be happening in the film industry. The above ones however, are the ones circulated regularly. They all have the typical rectangular boxes, one bigger than the other which includes the magazines masthead and tagline and one smaller which includes the BFI logo, date and barcode.  All of these magazines are highly effective and the central images are both  eye-catching and interesting and seem to work well with the colours and text fonts chosen. I am planning on creating a magazine front cover such as the one created for the Fish Tank feature (first picture, first row). 

Evaluation Planning

Evaluation Question 1A (trailer):
Collage of a shot from my trailer and a shot from an established trailer next to each other covering one of these areas listed below and write a paragraph explaining it, either directly on Blogger or on a software such as Slideshare.  

-Title of film

-Setting/Location

-Costumes and props

-Camera work and editing

-Title font and style

-Story and how the opening sets it up

-Genre and how the opening sets it up

-How characters are introduced

-Special affects

Evaluation Question 1B (ancillary tasks): 
This is the same task as the one above but with a main focus of my ancillary tasks (poster and magazine front cover) and how these challenge and/or develop the forms and conventions of real media products.  I would like to carry out this task on something like Prezi as I think I can bring both a visual and written appeal to it through this software. 

Evaluation Question 2: 
For this task I would like to use iMovie to add photographs and a voiceover on top of my main product (trailer) explaining this tasks aims in a more creative and interesting way. 

Evaluation Question 3: 
For this task I would like to use PowToon as I can bring both a visual and written appeal to this presentation and I can also add voiceovers, photographs and videos etc if needed. 

Evaluation Question 4: 
For this task, for the same reasons as above, I would like to use Emaze as I can bring both a visual and written appeal to this presentation and I can explain in as much or little detail as I want how these technologies helped me throughout this whole process for my coursework.

Evaluation Research

1. Katie Hamilton
http://katiehamilton25.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/evaluation-question-1.html

This candidate uses the technique of having a YouTube video with a voice over and other over lapping images throughout for 3 out of the four evaluation questions. This technique is generally effective as it is visually appealing and isn't necessarily visually heavy on the text used. However, I think she could have been a bit more creative about which techniques and websites she used for each questions to explore and demonstrate her different ideas. Overall, her work is detailed and thorough. 

2. Kayleigh Harris
http://kayleighharrisa2.blogspot.co.uk/

This candidate took a completely opposite approach to Katie's (above). Although these tasks are highly detailed, they aren't visually appealing as she only used a couple of screenshots/ photographs in each question and it appears to be too chaotic due to the amount of text used. I think it looks too busy and she could have used a variety of techniques and skills to show her evaluations. Personally, I don't like this approach so I wouldn't like to use something like this in my own evaluations.  

3. Daniel Windele 

http://danielwindele17.blogspot.co.uk/

This student tried using variety of techniques by including having a YouTube video to carry out his second evaluation task and for the first and second one having software equivalent to Prezi and Slideshare to do so. This student however, didn't carry out his forth evaluation question so I wasn't able to see if he used any more different websites that I could also use.  I like how so far from the two previous blogs I looked at, he has tried using different software as well as ideas to make his tasks seem as visually appealing as possible. 

4. Aneesa Anwar  

http://aneesaa2coursework.blogspot.co.uk/?view=classic 

This is also another example of how a student tries to use different websites to carry out their evaluation tasks. For her second evaluation task she has used Prezi, however, I feel although she tried to make it look as visually appealing as possible it does appear to look quiet busy.  For another question she uploaded a video on YouTube and added text and a voice over on top of her main product.  Her work appears to be detailed yet visually it's a bit busy. 

Poster Amendments: FINAL POSTER

 

This is my final poster for Priceless, I spent a lot of time creating it to make sure that everything was as close to perfect as possible so I wouldn't have to keep making a lot of changes. After I posted it on Instagram, I got a lot of positive feedback as well as some comments which suggested I do some minor improvements. These were mainly those about the tagline "out summer 2016" as one of my audience members commented it looked slightly stretched out so I fixed that and it does look a lot better. A long with that I removed some of the names in my billing blocks as they were far to big so the proportions from text to the bottom of the page weren't the same as those at the top. The only thing that was suggested but I didn't want to change is the colour of the font and this is because I didn't think it would stand out as much if it were a different colour other than black.

Although they were small amendments, I do think my poster does look better and I'm glad I have changed them as this suggests my poster will be even more effective than before.  Overall, I am really pleased with my poster. 

Poster Audience Feedback

As previously mentioned on my blog, I posted my poster on both Instagram and Twitter to get some feedback from those following my account. The Instagram account I created appeared to be most effective as more of my films followers were interacting and giving their opinions than those on Twitter, however, I still managed to get some useful feed back from Twitter as well. 

This collage shows the feedback I got from posting my poster on Instagram. When I posted the poster, I did so asking for both pros and cons in order to see what they thought worked well and what I could improve on. I'm glad I created this account as the comments I received were very helpful, especially because most of the people that gave me feedback were in fact within the age groups of my targeted audience members.  

I am planning on reading through them all again and picking out some things I could improve on which would actually look good if I were to do so as I really want them to be as appealing to my audience members as possible. 

First draft: final poster for Priceless

This is the final poster for my magazine. In the end, I slightly changed the ideas I had for the images in each circle. I thought it would be better if in the top two circles, included photographs of the two female characters with the child as stereotypically, women are much more nurturing that men. In the centre, I still included the photo of the baby and in the bottom two circles, I included two pictures of the couples in each one. 

I like how this turned out as I think it is different and is still eye-catching, I also like how it further makes audience members wander what the narrative is exactly about and why there appears to be a contrast shown. 

Throughout the progression of my poster I have been heavily relying on the rulers tool in Photoshop in order to make sure all the text is placed correctly and the image to text ratio is fitting. To improve however, I think I could possibly try out different fonts for either the reviews or the "out summer 2016" tagline to make them further stand out and visually appealing. In addition, I didn't realise this until now but the gap from the last text to the end of the page isn't the same due to the billing blocks as it is on the top of the page so to improve my poster I could also work on that. 

I have shared this poster on both social media accounts I created for my film and I am waiting for some feed back from my audience members to see what they think I could improve on. On both of my trailer's social media accounts (Twitter and Instagram) I used as an icon image (far right) one which I created on Photoshop. Although simplistic, I think it is highly effective as it informs the audience members on the social media sites available as part of my films promotional campaign and where they can ask any questions they have. This is almost serving as brand identity and I think it works very well. 

Priceless film poster progression

I created the collage on the right to show my poster progression. To make this poster I gradually added each feature to bring it together nicely and make sure each one was placed in the right position. 

In the first one I had a picture of billing blocks from the internet, however I created my own by the second draft to make it more fitting to my film. By the third draft I added the pictures I wanted to include in my poster to give further insight of the narrative to my audience members. Throughout the progression of my poster, I used a basic Photoshop font to just get the layout to my satisfaction.  

As seen on the left, by my final poster, I added a second review and had the particular text I chose to include for the inter-titles throughout my film's trailer. 

Film posters with illustrations

When I had the idea of hand drawing my final poster, although it was an interesting one, I was worried it wouldn't look as professional as it would if I were to use an actual photograph. 

However, I did some further research and found out that there are numerous films within a variety of genres that use illustrations as part of their posters. Some of these films include, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Beautiful Losers, which are both quiet successful films and the illustration included works very well with both the themes and ideas of the film.  

(collage created on www.picmonkey.com) 

Final Poster Sketch

This is my final poster sketch, I used the previous one as a guide and made the appropriate changes that I had in mind in order to make it a lot better. To create this, I firstly sketched it out and then used both water soluble paints and pencils to give it a visual combination of both a painting and photograph. 

I'm really pleased with how it went as I spent a lot of time both sketching it and painting it to get it exactly how I wanted it and I'm especially happy because it turned out as good as I had planned it would. I took a photograph of this and scanned it in to Photoshop. I firstly cropped it, as before I had some of the table I took a picture of the poster on and needed to get rid of it, however, there is still a bit of it left (as can be seen by the edges on the left so when I start adding the photographs and text in it, I will need to crop it a bit more. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product as I am hoping and think it will be very unique and effective. 

Diary Post 10: Editing day 2

Since the last time I edited my film's trailer, I kept trying to amend it and fix it as I went along. Today however, I purely focused on the inter-titles I wanted to include in my trailer. These are very important because as I previously mentioned, I don't want to have any dialogue included in my trailer so these play an important role in delivering and further making it clear to the audience as to what is going on and what will happen.  As well as that, they are important as they are some of the generic features included in a trailer and I'm trying to make mine look as well established as possible.I think it went quite well other than a little change which is that I had to change the way the inter-titles entered on the screen as they were too large and the text kept changing layout. Other than that, I think it is starting to come along together nicely and when I next edit it, I would like to add music and sound. 

Photographs for my film's poster

These are all five of the photographs I would like to include in my poster as I think this will bring it nicely together as it will look interesting with both elements of digital photographs and illustration (sketch). I furthermore think that this will link it closely to my film and give audience members a more general idea of what the film is about. I'm using photographs I took of each female protagonist with the baby and a photograph of the baby by it self along with photographs of the couples to give more insight into the characters that the audience members will see in my film. I chose these photographs of the couples as these are ones that they already had from times they went out as family, giving it a more natural and personal feel to it. I really like these photographs and I think they will work well nicely. 

Poster Draft

I created a collage using PicMonkey to put all of the images I used as inspiration when creating my very first poster draft. As previously mentioned on I wanted to draw my poster out to give it an element of authenticity. I only briefly described my plans for my poster so in this post I am going to explain exactly what and why I created it like this. I used these four pictures as inspiration for the colour schemes, techniques and style.

After looking at them all and taking elements I liked most from each one, I created a rough sketch and also added text to have as a guide. I think this worked out quiet well and I like the idea of drawing it as it is quiet different and unique, drawing in the audience.  In each circle, I am planning putting a portrait of each character and in the centre (where there is a slight formation of a heart), I'm planning on putting a picture of the baby. 

The only thing I don't particularly like about this sketch is how illustrated and fictional it looks, for example the squiggly  parts of the branch doesn't give it a realistic feel. So when I re-draw and paint this, I am going to only keep the squiggly parts for the heart in the middle . I do like however, the positioning of the text, so I am planning on keeping that the same. I would also like to add a second review, probably on the bottom left to add more positive features of my film to the poster, appealing to the audience. 

Poster and Magazine Ideas

 This collage includes the sketches I made of the ideas I had for poster ideas for my trailer. I chose these because I thought if any of them were used as my final one, my audience members would be able to get a feel as to what type of film mine is, even if they haven't seen the trailer. 

• The first one I drew is of a family tree and I chose this because my film covers themes of family relationships and backgrounds etc. 
• The second idea is of a weighing scale and I wanted in each side of the scale to put a picture of the baby I was going to use in my film. I thought that this one in particular was quiet a clever, one because if I chose to have this as I final one, I could chose to have the scales balanced showing how little power or say the child actually has about what will happen due to the circumstances (and of course as it is a baby). This I think would be an effective one as it will make the audience wander what will happen to the baby. 
• The third poster idea I had was of my character Athena standing to the sign showing her pregnant tummy and editing a British Pound sign on top of it in line with her tummy showing connoting to the audience that money in this characters pregnancy or even in her life may appear to be an issue. 

This collage, however, includes the sketches I made of ideas I had for magazine front cover features of my trailer. I again chose these three because I thought they were very strong ones and would each work very well in getting audience members further interested in my film and I think this is because the ideas for the central images of this cover are extremely strong and eye catching.  While sketching these all out, I had the Sight & Sound magazine layout in mind because as I previously mentioned on my blog, after my research I think that the most fitting magazine to my film is Sight & Sound. 

• The first one that I drew is of my character Athena standing to the side with her pregnant tummy showing and instead of it looking like she is leaning against the wall, I had the idea of her leaning against the title of the film. 
• The second idea I had is of both my main character standing with their body language direct to the camera but their heads facing the opposite ways. In the middle of them is the baby, suggesting to the audience that this may be the only thing connecting them. 
• The third and final idea I had is one which include two different pictures that I would then have to edit in Photoshop together. This cover idea includes both my characters against the wall in their house which once edited will give an illusion that they are back to back. I think this is an effective idea as in each picture, the background will be included, showing the difference in their social status and financial situation. 

For my final poster, I think I am going to have the one of the tree which I am planning on drawing/ painting out giving it a more personal feel to it, again linking it in with the social realism genre.  For my final magazine front cover will be the one with the characters looking away with the baby in the middle as I think this one in particular is most eye catching and will make my targeted audience wander what my film is about. I think that the ones I chose as final pieces will work extremely well both all together with my trailer and other ancillary tasks but also individually and I think they link nicely with my narrative, making this clear to my targeted audience that they are part of the same product pieces.