Saturday, 29 April 2017
Friday, 28 April 2017
Thursday, 27 April 2017
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
Evaluation question 4
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Since AS my skills in the use of digital technology, and the media technologies that I have used, have changed considerably. Media technologies that I used at A2 but not at AS include the video recording software "Ezvid," SlideShare, Meta-Chart, Bubbl.us and the screenshot feature on the Mac.
These media technologies have allowed me to project my research, planning and evaluation on a range of different mediums, meaning I have exploited the media more and used a variety of different methods in order to show each stage of the process. I feel this has helped me in every stage of the process, and has made my blog as a whole more coherent and well structured. For example, at AS I used a rough tally to communicate the results of my audience feedback. At A2 however, I put the results from my audience questionnaires onto a bar chart, meaning the results of the feedback were ultimately easier to analyse and form a conclusion from.
Since AS my skills in the use of digital technology, and the media technologies that I have used, have changed considerably. Media technologies that I used at A2 but not at AS include the video recording software "Ezvid," SlideShare, Meta-Chart, Bubbl.us and the screenshot feature on the Mac.
These media technologies have allowed me to project my research, planning and evaluation on a range of different mediums, meaning I have exploited the media more and used a variety of different methods in order to show each stage of the process. I feel this has helped me in every stage of the process, and has made my blog as a whole more coherent and well structured. For example, at AS I used a rough tally to communicate the results of my audience feedback. At A2 however, I put the results from my audience questionnaires onto a bar chart, meaning the results of the feedback were ultimately easier to analyse and form a conclusion from.
(AS)
(A2)
During A2, the numerous different media technologies that I have used have helped me in the pre-production, production, editing and distribution stages. For example, using the screenshot feature on the Mac has allowed me to outline areas of pre-production, such as my storyboards and call sheets, as well as areas of production and editing, such as post-production editing where I took screenshots of various stages in my editing process.
During A2 I have also made quite a bit of use of YouTube. For example, I have uploaded a casting video, an audience feedback video and two videos for my evaluations onto the platform, in order to add visual information and to help document various stages of the process.
In the spider diagrams below, I have gone into more detail on all the media technologies that I have used, and the strengths and weaknesses of using them.
Overall, I believe that these media technologies were all instrumental in making my final products a success, as they all helped in one way or another. The planning, production and evaluation stages all exploited these various media technologies, meaning my final blog uses a lot of visual information as well as text. The outcome of using these various technologies, I feel, is a blog that includes lots of written detail, through the mediums of SlideShare and PowerPoint, and also lots of visual information, such as Ezvid and Mega-Chart, meaning my blog makes use of a variety of different mediums to present information.
Monday, 24 April 2017
Evaluation question 3
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback is an important part of the production process as it allows for different opinions and viewpoints on how your production plays out. Having a range of different perspectives is helpful as it gives you as the film-maker an insight into how other people perceive your product and what they like/dislike about it. Without this audience feedback, the film-maker may not notice mistakes or they may perceive things as being better than they actually are, which is why audience feedback is important in order to overcome these things.
When conducting the audience feedback I considered Stuart Hall's reception theory. This theory states that the audience will read texts differently, and will either conform to the preferred reading, the negotiated reading or the oppositional reading of a text. When conducting my questionnaires and interview, I considered these different options. For example, with my first survey question where I ask what the costume of my villain should be, I had a preferred reading (the pig mask), a negotiated reading (the wolf mask), and an oppositional reading (not having a mask.) After telling the people who were taking the questionnaire what the plot of the trailer was and what would happen, as well as showing them the locations and a couple of test shots, they "read," what they saw, so to speak, and decided whether they agreed with my ideas or not. I therefore feel that the reception theory can be applied to this questionnaire.
With the video below, I have outlined the results of my questionnaires, while also going into detail on the interview I did with another student, and the outcomes of both the interview and the questionaires on my product.
Audience feedback is an important part of the production process as it allows for different opinions and viewpoints on how your production plays out. Having a range of different perspectives is helpful as it gives you as the film-maker an insight into how other people perceive your product and what they like/dislike about it. Without this audience feedback, the film-maker may not notice mistakes or they may perceive things as being better than they actually are, which is why audience feedback is important in order to overcome these things.
When conducting the audience feedback I considered Stuart Hall's reception theory. This theory states that the audience will read texts differently, and will either conform to the preferred reading, the negotiated reading or the oppositional reading of a text. When conducting my questionnaires and interview, I considered these different options. For example, with my first survey question where I ask what the costume of my villain should be, I had a preferred reading (the pig mask), a negotiated reading (the wolf mask), and an oppositional reading (not having a mask.) After telling the people who were taking the questionnaire what the plot of the trailer was and what would happen, as well as showing them the locations and a couple of test shots, they "read," what they saw, so to speak, and decided whether they agreed with my ideas or not. I therefore feel that the reception theory can be applied to this questionnaire.
With the video below, I have outlined the results of my questionnaires, while also going into detail on the interview I did with another student, and the outcomes of both the interview and the questionaires on my product.
Thursday, 20 April 2017
Evaluation question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The promotion and marketing of a film is very important in order for the film to be successful. If a film has good marketing and is promoted well and on a variety of mediums, then it is more likely to be viewed and therefore more likely to be successful. This is why the combination of main products with ancillary texts is such an important topic, as the synergy across the mediums can determine whether the film will be a success or not.
Looking at the Uses and Gratification theory, there are four reasons why an audience member might decide to watch a film (education, personal identity, entertainment, social interaction). In order for an ancillary product to be effective, it must tell a viewer that it conforms to one of these four categories, otherwise the viewer would have no reason to go ahead and watch the film. I feel my personal ancillary products conform to the "entertainment" category of the theory, as my main product is a horror trailer and thus has a purpose to make people feel frightened and conform to their visceral pleasures. In the video below I explore how I think my ancillary products are effective and how they work with the main product in order to appeal to a potential audience.
The promotion and marketing of a film is very important in order for the film to be successful. If a film has good marketing and is promoted well and on a variety of mediums, then it is more likely to be viewed and therefore more likely to be successful. This is why the combination of main products with ancillary texts is such an important topic, as the synergy across the mediums can determine whether the film will be a success or not.
Looking at the Uses and Gratification theory, there are four reasons why an audience member might decide to watch a film (education, personal identity, entertainment, social interaction). In order for an ancillary product to be effective, it must tell a viewer that it conforms to one of these four categories, otherwise the viewer would have no reason to go ahead and watch the film. I feel my personal ancillary products conform to the "entertainment" category of the theory, as my main product is a horror trailer and thus has a purpose to make people feel frightened and conform to their visceral pleasures. In the video below I explore how I think my ancillary products are effective and how they work with the main product in order to appeal to a potential audience.
Wednesday, 19 April 2017
Evaluation question 1
In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For the purpose of this question, I am going to be referring to the trailers for Shaun of the Dead and Scary Movie, both popular films within the comedy-horror genre. Both trailers have a lot of views on YouTube, proving that they are popular films. I therefore think that they are good examples to use as they are representative of the comedy-horror genre as a whole.
Conventions of comedy-horror trailers:
-An establishing shot
-Montage editing
-Wide angle shots
-Sections of the trailer being strictly comedy or horror based
-A horror based font
-Gallows humour
How have I challenged conventions?
Despite making use of most of the conventions above, I have also challenged some of the conventions to both make my product more unique and also to change the direction of the genre. Nicholas Abercrombie says, "audience may enjoy the stretching of a genre in new directions." I found inspiration in this quote and decided to apply it to my project, deciding that a change in genre would bring positive results to my trailer.
A notable change in my trailer compared to the real-life comedy-horror trailers is more emphasis on the horror aspect within my trailer. Even though comedy elements are seen at the start, the predominant atmosphere throughout the trailer is that of a frightening, creepy one. This is for reasons such as me wanting to change the direction of the genre, as previously identified, as well as a natural change that resulted in shots and dialogue that connoted a more serious atmosphere to the one I had originally been anticipating.
Another convention I have broken is the use of gallows humour within the trailer. This is because the scenes that contain violence, such as the scene when one of the victims is tied up by the villain, is not meant to be funny and thus there is no humour to be found from violent elements of the media, despite there being humour elsewhere. This means, technically, there is no gallows humour within my trailer.
For the purpose of this question, I am going to be referring to the trailers for Shaun of the Dead and Scary Movie, both popular films within the comedy-horror genre. Both trailers have a lot of views on YouTube, proving that they are popular films. I therefore think that they are good examples to use as they are representative of the comedy-horror genre as a whole.
Conventions of comedy-horror trailers:
-An establishing shot
-Montage editing
-Wide angle shots
-Sections of the trailer being strictly comedy or horror based
-A horror based font
-Gallows humour
How have I challenged conventions?
Despite making use of most of the conventions above, I have also challenged some of the conventions to both make my product more unique and also to change the direction of the genre. Nicholas Abercrombie says, "audience may enjoy the stretching of a genre in new directions." I found inspiration in this quote and decided to apply it to my project, deciding that a change in genre would bring positive results to my trailer.
A notable change in my trailer compared to the real-life comedy-horror trailers is more emphasis on the horror aspect within my trailer. Even though comedy elements are seen at the start, the predominant atmosphere throughout the trailer is that of a frightening, creepy one. This is for reasons such as me wanting to change the direction of the genre, as previously identified, as well as a natural change that resulted in shots and dialogue that connoted a more serious atmosphere to the one I had originally been anticipating.
Another convention I have broken is the use of gallows humour within the trailer. This is because the scenes that contain violence, such as the scene when one of the victims is tied up by the villain, is not meant to be funny and thus there is no humour to be found from violent elements of the media, despite there being humour elsewhere. This means, technically, there is no gallows humour within my trailer.
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