In what ways does your media product use , develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My three products use the conventions of media effectively because they all have been inspired by my own consumption of texts. For instance , my short film is drawn from my love of thrillers and my magazine is similar in many ways to the booklets I often read at my local cinema. Whilst adhering to these conventions , I also attempted to distinguish them from other contemporaries and make them original. For example you could describe my poster as an art deco piece or you could see it as an unusual composition altogether. This merging of old and new was what I hoped would allow me to create something in my favourite genre , whilst also trying to create a completely unique work. In comparison with last year , I felt that I was less experimental with my design choices , so at A2 I wanted to stretch myself further. I did this by writing my own screenplay , a vital planning stage towards any real media product. I found this challenging , but decided to make the script mostly serious , as I am not as strong at writing other genres such as comedy. I tried to get inside the characters head and see the story from their point of view in order to make the narrative more    believable. With the story , I tried to challenge the structure of society and the level of control the government could possibly have in the future. I think this story was quite original for a short film , and I think many would have shied away from the complex idea , since the film's running time had to be limited.

 

Finally , with my magazine review page I mainly adhered to the typical conventions such as Total Film and Empire as I found this task the most difficult of the three. I began reading these film magazines , which inspired me and reminded me of the typical layout of the media platform. I added a masthead first then began building the page with my article I had written. I found it difficult to get the spacing of the columns correct , but I carefully overcome this issue. I also re read the text to check for any common punctuation errors.

Click her to check out my prezi on this question

How did I use media technologies in the construction and research , planning and evaluation stages

The main technology I used was a camera and tripod during the construction of my product , to capture the footage. I tried to use this technology in inventive ways , using a variety of long shots , close ups and wide angle shots to get a strange and original effect and direction. After I collected my footage , I added the shots to Adobe Premier Pro , where I added a score and effects. The music was essential as I wanted it to make the audience feel uneasy , similar to the effect Psycho or Jaws succeeds at. I made sure that this music was fast paced and dramatic , to go with the action that unfolds on screen. With Premier Pro , I also added the black and white effect that changed the films impact dramatically , as I would have been pretty forgettable without the black and white effect adds a sense of loneliness and plainness to the world I created.

Blogger was also an important technology because it captured my progress at each stage.With the blog , I had a record of what I achieved and thought it was a good way of collecting responces.A you can see , I have added various tecnologies to the blog , such as Powtoons , which reduced the ammount of writing on blogger and made it more engaging for the reader.I also included a variety of Prezis and Animotos to reduce the ammount of tedium of just writing all of the information.

What have I learned from my audience feedback?

From programs such as Survey monkey , I have learnt a great deal about my genre and what people think of it. With the aid of this software , I was able to gather responses and data about their opinions on the thriller genre. Most people who responded had seen a short film , but most of them had been Disney produced. This data made me think that they had not seen a short film out of choice , but were shown it before a blockbuster in a multiplex. I shows that short films do not get the exposure or attention they deserve and are mainly popular to mainstream audiences as short animations.  Asking young people through the use of video feedback allowed me to figure out what the social group I needed to aim for was. I enjoyed collecting the video feedback the most because I knew the people I was interviewing and felt more confident when asking them.


With regard to my blog , my class and I wrote post it notes on each others blogs, explaining the positives and negatives. With this feedback , I learnt that my blog lacked regular updates of my ancillary and main tasks , but also did not have a huge amount of planning such as actors photos or equipment posted. To remedy these problems I went ahead and posted photos of my two main actors and some information on them. This peer feedback allowed me to see different points of view and I doubt I would have been able to improve the blog as quickly and effectively as much as I have without it.












                                                       Powtoon on audience feedback

Final pieces of work

Film poster

This is the final version of my film poster , which I was told was the strongest piece of my three tasks. For this reason , it is the least updated and is very similar to the original.I have altered the BBFC rating at the bottom of the page to a 12A since it did not have n extreme amount of violence of an 18 or the bad language of a 15.With the poster ,  I tried to captured a cynical style, with the giant eye being symbolic of the world ruled by the government. I included many typical conventions of a film poster , with reviews , a tagline , actors names and credits. It is very clear from looking at the poster  that we are still unsure exactly what this films narrative is about , and I did this deliberately to intrigue but also keep an air of mystery surrounding the production.

Magazine review page

I have made some key changes to this ancillary task recently , including the change of the main image.The previous image did not really represent the short film itself , and it may have looked disappointing from the still to an audience. I have also altered the columns as they were out of place and looked unprofessional. Re reading the article , it was apparent that there were several errors in punctuation and grammar , which I quickly addressed. The verdict box at the end also looked very plain and you could tell that this had been made on Photoshop. I tried to make it look more casual and easy to read for the audience.

Illusion short film

After encountering some issues with the college drive , I managed to recover  a good version of my film , even if it has some key moments missing due to the inability to export the film again . I tried to make the film as strange and original as possible , because I wanted the film to be memorable and break new ground. I think the reason it is original is because it takes the style and conventions of the past and puts them into the modern era , complete with a vivd black and white style.

Deadlines

I have included a lit of deadlines below to show if I am on target or not:

22nd April- Blog complete and ready for marking (on target)

24th April-Blog evaluation complete and ready for marking (not on target)

As you can see from the deadlines above , I need to more spend time on my evaluation to make sure I gain a higher mark. I have completed the first question , but need to focus on the others by adding analysis and incorporating different technologies within my answers.

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

Within my short film , poster and magazine review page I attempted to create synergy. The  poster in particular was mysterious and elusive , so it intrigued but also kept the storyline and narrative as secret as possible so the audience could discover it for themselves when watching the short film.
The poster was drawn and inspired by the art deco style of the 30s , 40s and 50s , giving it a memorable and timeless quality. Similarly , the short film also recalled earlier periods of cinema as with the black and white effect and crime thriller storyline , similar to that in an Alfred Hitchcock project. I believe that the combination of my ancillary tasks  and my short film , was successful because the poster had the image of an eye overlooking the world below and I made this image prominent by the films close. My magazine review page on the other hand , attempts to address the conventional magazine layout and promotes the film to a wider audience. It took skill writing the review pages article as you have to be concerned in not spoiling the film for the audience while also critiquing its flaws and successes.

Blog feedback

                                                                What can I do better?
After receiving this feedback I discovered that my blog was currently marked at 13/20 and within band 3. Although I am pleased with this grade i feel that there is still a lot more to do in order to get a higher grade.Most notably was to improve on my time management which was not clearly detailed through the blog and add more technologies. I remedied this by going through and adding videos , interviews and more in order to make the blog much more interactive for the user. Another key aspect I needed to focus on was the lack of planning and research that I had pit into it including camera photos and actor pictures.