FINAL TRAILER

This video does not appear in full quality as we had to compress it twice to meet the 100MB upload limit for Blogger, so please watch on DVD if possible. However, if viewed small screen, this does give a good impression of our work.

FINAL POSTER

FINAL MAGAZINE COVER

Evaluating Uses and Role of New Media Technology

This evaluation is presented in the form of a PowerPoint - please see below:

Presentation on New Media technologies

Evaluating How Products Work Together in Overall Campaign

This is another task that is presented as a kind of DVD extra or the kind of help video that is often posted on YouTube. Please view on the DVD for full quality but you can view a compressed version here:

Evaluating Audience Feedback (2)

Following our debate on the value of audience feedback, we decided as a class that it would be useful to get some final feedback just before submitting our work.

We asked the Year 12 groups who first saw our coursework when it was a rough cut months ago to look again, and also to comment on the print products.

We thought they would be a good choice because:

- they gave good feedback before
- they had seen the early cut so knew where we had come from
- they were unlikely to suggest major changes as they understand the deadline we are working to
- we had given feedback to them previously so they would be inclined to help.

As a result of this feedback (which we chose to have in written form after a viewing) we made the following changes:

Trailer

Addition of ident - our trailer did not 'feel' like one because it didn't have all the proper formal elements:

2. Change of music for mid section as the audience felt ours was not in the right tone - this section gives a feel, we are hoping for a more military battle-style atmosphere:

3. We re-filmed this section as one of the actors was slightly smiling - we also made the dialogue a little clearer:

4. Additional dialogue - ('killed in action' - for those who do not know what K.I.A means, and 'why didn't Scott tell me' - suggests secrets between brothers and a problem that Scott has that is ambiguous - therefore we do not know why the mother says 'no, no' - has Scott been killed? court martialled? kicked out army? Makes our trailer more open-ended):

5. Additional footage to make the 'going to the papers' section clearer. Also addition of Mum's voice to add to emotional impact and make it clear Sam feels he is doing the right thing, even if for wrong reasons:

POSTER

Not many changes suggested and very small:


 

Slight colour change to review and addition of drop shadow

Smoke adjusted to put attention on 'critically acclaimed'

Shadowing reduced on smaller images at bottom

Smoke reduced overall and wispy section top left removed - too 'magical' in feel

MAGAZINE COVER

Again, small changes suggested:

Red font shade slightly altered to be less pinky red and more dark (blood-like)

Smoke adjusted to allow 'with' to be read clearly

Background blending slightly altered.



 

Evaluating Audience Feedback

This evaluation is the kind of feature you might find as a DVD 'extra' and so is best seen in the DVD format as we have had to compress it and divide it into sections to be able to upload to blogger. However, it is possible to watch the presentation here, albeit in reduced quality:

Part 1: Discussion of value of audience feedback in 'real' media world:

Part 2: Discussion of value of our feedback in its different contexts:

Discussion of value of individual comments:

 

Evaluating Uses of Genre Forms and Conventions

Evaluate how your products used, developed or challenged

the forms and conventions of real media products.

 

 

TRAILER

Contact sheet (note, some of the images mentioned in the text are not in the contact sheet)

      Ratings card (no image)

• This is standard for all trailers that are being shown to an audience of a different age to the ones who are allowed to see the official film. Trailers can be cut to be shown before films with lower age ratings. We needed to add this to create a sense of institutional professionalism.

      Ident (no image)

• In real world media texts (trailer), idents are a key part of the text. They often occur at the beginning of the trailer. 
• In many real life media products, the composition of idents varies greatly. For example, THQ has a simple fade in transition whereas 20^th Century Fox has a cinematic feel as huge titles sweep in on an epic background.
• We wanted to make our ident memorable but brief and therefore decided on a quirky approach using fuzzy felt as this seemed n eye-catching way of producing a logo.
•  It is common in real life situations for companies to change their idents in order to suit the  proposed film. For example, for the film ‘The Simpsons Movie’ they placed a beloved character, ‘Ralph Wiggum’ on the 20^th Century Fox ident to match the comedic feel of the film.
• Our ident does not do that in this case as we felt that our film was unlikely to be big enough to warrant this treatment as it is not part of a franchise.

Adapted Warner Bros ident for Harry Potter

      Intertitles (images 1 and 2)

• In many real life media products it is common for trailers to contain some sort of narration, often a deep-voiced voiceover. We decided to use intertitles because we knew that there would be a lot of dialogue and other sound in our trailer and this makes it more difficult to place a voiceover. Also we had noticed that intertitles with emotional content are common in our war-based genre, as seen in this emotion-based intertitle from "Atonement":

•  In many real life media products, many of the names associated with the production of the film are placed at the end with titles that flash quickly on the screen. This may be necessary in our trailer to create a sense of trust in the institutions involved.
• We gave our intertitles a smoky background and ensured we used a green text to match the military theme and to tie in with the print products.

       Main title (no image)

• This was placed at the end of our trailer and is absolutely essential. We attempted to match it with the theme and narrative of our film by giving it a smoky background with a deep military style green colour text to accompany the feel of the film.
• This is common in real life media products as production companies often try and make the title associable with the particular film. It tends to occur at the end as this is where it is most memorable.

Characters (images 3,4,5,7 and 8)

• Within our trailer we really wanted to make each character powerful and recognisable to the audience. One of the main ways to do this was by using mise-en-scene to really show what type of person each character is. For example, the father was intended to be an aggressive and powerful character. We displayed this in our trailer by giving the father leadership style clothing e.g. suit and military attire.
•  It is common in media texts for the producers to give characters a real sense of identity and power. For example, in the latest trailer for Superman: Man of Steel, he is seen on several occasions wearing a superman costume making him seem powerful and domination and also establishing that he is most likely the hero archetype.

Full uniform to contrast with recruit's undress in Full Metal Jacket

• Psychological dramas focus largely on domestic situation and trouble that arises within a social group. It also offers the audience a lot of opportunities to relate to the situations.
• This is why in our trailer we made it clear that each character was going through some sort of domestic situation that was affecting them psychologically. We see this in shots involving the father grabbing the mother by the hair and also another where the mother wrestles a bottle of whisky away from the father.

Emotional moment in Atonement

• Although the audience may have been able to relate to the shots shown earlier in the trailer e.g. father ignoring son and mother trying to prevent alcoholism. We provided that further aspect of character identity that the audience may not be able to relate to e.g. extreme aggression shown by father as he points gun to sons head.
• Mostly all our characters fit into the genre conventions as a huge variety of emotions are shown which is common in psychological thrillers. E.g. sadness (mother and two sons), aggression (father and youngest son), happiness (youngest brother, friend and mother) and depression (both sons and mother). This is evident with shots such as the one where we see the mother on the phone. She seems to be hearing bad news as her voice crackles whilst saying the word ‘No’ again and again.

Classic receiving the news scene from Saving Private Ryan trailer

Camera work (3,6 and 9)

• A lot of close-ups were used during key scenes of emotion as this can really engulf the audience in a scene. We did this during scenes where the two sons were crying.
• This is a common factor in real life media products. For example, in the 2009 Sean Penn film ‘Into the Wild’, a young man passes away and in the next shot, his father is in tears. A close up is used here to really highlight the great amount of emotion.

Emotional close up Into the Wild trailer

• We went against much of the usual conventions of filming as much of the film is not filmed as an over the shoulder shot. Most of the scenes with diegetic dialogue were filmed as a two shot. This was mainly because we wanted to display the emotion of more than one character at a single time.
• We also used close-ups of important props to show their importance and their association with the characters emotions. E.g. in one of the last shots were a boy is shown to be shot down, we see him holding a family photo.

Family photo Brothers at War

• We also wanted to make the audience as involved as we could with certain situations. This was achieved by including a POV shot during the car crash scene. By doing this, the audience are put in the shoes of one of the character and gain greater sympathy for the amount of psychological pain this boy is going through.

 Editing (10 and 11)

• Right at the end of the trailer, we used a montage editing to create a sort of cliff hanger. This is common with most trailers as this is one of the main pull factors for someone to go and see the film.
• We also used an L-cut to make the trailer itself more effective. This is also common in current media products as the diegetic dialogue continues over the next shot.
• We also wanted to include plenty of quick cuts as to give the trailer a sense of pace that matches our genre greatly and is common in trailers of mostly all films (excluding more light-hearted films e.g. Rom-Com)
• We organised our shots thematically using the intertitles and the music to help mark the changes - different choices from the brothers, family conflict, the world at war and the montage leading up to the final shooting.

 Sound (no image)

• I believe that a lot of the film's emotion comes from the music. The non-diegetic sound matches the tone well in most parts of the films and also matches the emotion. E.g. choir type music overlaps the scenes were sadness is shown in the characters and is used particularly at teh end to create an almost epic feel. Drum beats also used to establish military connection and also an air of tension. In the middle section, music is used to create a senseof pace and action.
• It is common for most of today’s media products to rely heavily on sound, both diegetic and non-diegetic. Without music, many films and trailers lose their atmosphere completely.
• Diegetic dialogue is also an integral part of our trailer as it shows the characters' identity well. For example, when the father points the gun to his sons head and says “It should have been you”, the audience can get a real sense of his aggression.  

 

MAGAZINE COVER

Contact sheet 1

1. Barcode

• This is a necessity in every real world print products so we decided to include it on our magazine cover.
•  It gave our magazine commercial viability as the main purpose is obviously to sell the issue and make money.

2. Price

• By allocating a certain price to our magazine cover, we can give the audience a sense of what kind of magazine we will be.
• For example, we chose a price of £3.99 for our magazine. This way it appeals to a good volume of floating readers yet this may indicate that it is not an entirely ‘upper class’ magazine and might attract a younger audience as well as it is a little cheaper than many other magazines on the market.

3. Issue Number

• This is a small placement on our magazine cover yet as is the case with number 1 and 2, it gives it that professional look.
•   By allocating a slightly higher number, it would indicate that our proposed magazine has been going for a long time and is obviously successful for a reason.

Contact sheet 2 

4 & 5.  Mast Head

• The masthead is a dominating part of a magazine cover and we have followed the convention of placing it behind the main image.
•  We decided to make our masthead of ‘CINEMAX’ a bright colour. This is often the case in the real world as it draws in floating readers.
•  We picked a very cinematic font in order to match the existing professional fonts on the market - the letters need to be bold and quite thick as they may be partially masked by the main image.
•  By placing it behind the main image, we not only emulated real life products but also avoided drawing away attention from the important main image.
• We also ensured its positioning was not too dominating on the page. When looking at professional print products such as Empire, you can see how it only takes up a small part of the front cover.

Quite a lot of masthead covered here

 

6, 7 & 8. Magazine cover

•  Positioning is key with any magazine cover. We placed many ‘COMING SOON’ type thumbnails in the middle/lower third of our magazine cover as we noticed that where three characters feature in the main image, this kind of placement is often the case.
•  Our magazine cover takes up a similar amount of white space as most media products.  We follow the convention of the main image dominating most of the page.
•   The deep green background also links with the military genre of our film along with the smoky effect that is set upon it.

Smaller teaser images slanted along bottom; similar smoky effect

9 & 10. Main image

•  Our main image is the most striking part of our magazine cover in my opinion. In the real world, the first impression is made by the impact of the main image.
•  With three people featuring in the main image, we wanted to make it seem like one of them was conscious of the camera whilst the other two were not. This was mainly because we wished to follow the convention of most war film posters and we also wanted to discreetly hint that the character staring at the camera is the hero archetype. By making the other two characters face away, this was highlighted.
•   Choice of costume was also typical for the military style genre. By putting the three characters on the main image in army uniform, we could show the genre the film focuses on.
• The body language and facial expression of each character also suggests something about each of their characteristics. All three of them hold a very serious expression yet the middle one holds a look a greater anger. This links to the narrative of our trailer in which the main ‘hero’ archetype holds a great amount of anger towards the army.

11. Teaser Text

• We wanted to ensure our teaser text was effective in the sense it would appeal to a large audience. We achieved this by using varied bright colours and varying font styles. For example, we used a bright red for words like ‘STAR QUALITY’ and ‘expert’ as we wished to make them stand out. This is common in many real life media products.
• We also used words commonly found on the teaser texts of real life magazine products. One of these words being ‘EXCLUSIVE’. By having exclusivity, a magazine can sell a lot more copies as people want to find out about this ‘never before heard’ information.

12. Smaller images

•  These were included mainly to make our product look more like a believable magazine. We     cannot make the magazine focus entirely on our film as this is not the case in the real world and the magazine needs to offer a range of content to the reader.
• In order to make these images stands out against the dark, plain background. We placed a colourful band behind them so they catch the attention of floating readers.  They also act as a dividing feature on our cover
• It is common for real world media products to feature a band of colour with pictures or text set upon them around the bottom of the cover.

Contact sheet

 

POSTER

Title

 

• The title is a vital part of any movie poster. This is mainly due to the fact that it takes up a large majority of the page, but also because it gives hints about the genre and the narrative. The use of the Last Post, a famous trumpet bugle call, has obvious war connotations and as it is used in connection with fallen soldiers on Remeberance Day, also indicates the emotional and sad nature of our drama.It is therefore quite an intriguing and revealing title.
• The title is in thin font that we felt conveyed a sense of voth aggressiona dn emotion and there is a miltary colour scheme in play with the combination of khaki and brown.
•  One issue that we found existed with our title was that at first it didn't stand out and could not be read from a distance. So to fix the issue, we provided the title with a drop shadow to give it more depth and make it stand out more  as it fulfils a key formal function of telling the audience the name of the product and it must be as visible as possible.
• Placement of the title is also important. We wanted to follow the convention of many war film posters so we placed the title on the bottom portion of the page. This is due to the fact the main image normally takes up the top majority of the page and we noticed in our research that there are often smaller images below - therefore the title acts as a kinf of divider. 

Similar use of title as a divider

Background image

• With real life media products, we often see that a plain background image is used that is still relevant to the film. 
• For our background image, we used a screenshot of a woodland we gained from some of the footage shot for our trailer. The green and brown colours matched the military theme of our coursework pieces yet it remained simple enough to ensure it didn't take to much attention away from the main images and title.
• We also incorporated a smoke screen to elaborate on this military theme even further.
• We reduced the transparency to allow our characters to stand out.

Main image

 

• The main image is one of the most important parts of a film poster. It takes up the majority of the space and can establish genre and feel. 
• The inspiration for a main image came from looking at real world war film posters. They often display two or more characters looking into the distance. Therefore, we went for an image like this, with two of our main characters looking into the distance. 

Characters gazing into distance

• The mise-en-scene was also an important part of our main image. Only one of the characters clothing matches the military theme, so in this sense, we went against the usual convention of making the poster match entirely to the genre/theme. We decided to do this as we didn't want the whole film to be focused on the military. 
• Another way we followed real media products was by the decided facial expressions of the characters in our main image. They both carry a very serious expression which matches the very serious tone of the proposed film.

Credits

• Credits also featured at the bottom of our film poster. This is pretty much standard for most real world film poster yet we seemed to go against the usual credit conventions by including a huge quantity.
• It took up quite a large part of the poster and drew some attention away from the main image. I real work film posters, they are usually very subtle. 
• We again used the conventional cinematic font yet on a much smaller scale. This way, it matches the other text on the poster. To match the professional products, we improvised and created names for suggested roles e.g. 'Director of photography- Andy O'Driscoll'.

Other featured text

• There was also some other text featured at the top of the poster. This text links with the inter-titles of our trailer e.g. 'two brothers, different choices, a family separated by war'. This is a common occurrence in real life products as a famous character quote may feature on the poster.
• We also provided a 'make believe' name of the director at the top. This again is common with most real life products as it is considered the lead role in the film making process.    

Other images

• As is the case with most war film posters, were see other characters featured at the bottom, yet in most cases, they are more subtle than the ones feature in ours. 
• Here we see three characters, two of them dressed in war clothing, and one in normal clothing. This again links with the point suggested earlier that we don't want to focus entirely on the military side of the story but also the domestic side. 
• In real world products, the people featured in pictures at the bottom of the poster are often anonymous or in silhouette form. We went against this by incorporating characters yet it may have helped in the long run as it established some of the possible archetypes.
• As we see, the character on the left is in a very emotional/secluded state which suggests he may be the 'princess' archetype which requires saving. Then in the centre, we see a very serious, dominating character. This suggests he is the standard 'villain' archetype. Finally, on the right, we see a character standing heroically and looking into the distance whilst performing what we presume is an important task (phone call). Obviously, this suggests he is the 'hero' archetype.
• We also edited the images to make them a sepia/grey-scale tone. This draws attention away from the main image and is a common characteristic of real world products.

Evaluating Forms and Conventions

Trailer

Intertitles:

These match the same font / size and colour of our print products so that there is some cohesion and a set form of presentation that the audience will associate with our movie, “The Last Post”.

Will be presented on a smoky slide/screen with the green writing with the brown hue to the edges.

These are a narrative convention of the trailer form where it is important that key information is given quickly.

Example of similar intertitle from "Atonement"

Characters:

There are three main characters, although the mother does play a semi important role, as she appears to be the only person in the family who cares for the boys.

The two major, main characters are the two sons, the older one being in the army fulfilling his fathers wishes and family tradition despite not wanting to, and the younger son who stays true to his beliefs and is following his own path living his life to the full much to the dismay of his father.

The father is made out to look like an alcoholic and aggressive man who resorts to violence/drinking or shouting when things are not going his way.

The boys are around the same age, between 18 and 20, which is typical of these types of movies as war films are often based around the clash between new recruits and experienced personnel.

Similar conflict between old and young in Full Metal Jacket

Mise-en-scène

Films such as ours typically use young actors who are unknown by the audience which makes the feelings towards the characters more genuine as they have no previous recollections/feelings for the actors from previous movies that they are expecting to feel this time. Due to this the audience will be able to make unbiased predictions or attachments to the characters and will therefore be unlikely to care for deaths of characters they do not like or can't relate to.

We used props that are easily recognizable by the audience and that relate directly to this genre of the war/action.

We use replica handguns to simulate real life service pistols that the father would have had from the army when he was a part of it. We also use a range of replica weapons (airsoft) during the battle scenes, where the characters are all dressed up in dpm’s (design pattern material) that the military really use.

All clothing is chosen to directly reflect what other movies in this genre have. We use British standard issue DPM’s during the war scene reenactments and jeans and either a large black coat or hoody when we are not in uniforms.

The locations we used were key. We used a forest location to simulate a war scenario. It was an area that contained a large difference in terrain such as hills and craters in the ground but also mud and grassy areas with houses/structures built around the site. This made the filming seem like it was taken in a real war scenario rather than a mock up one.

Similar location and props in Generation Kill

The next location we used was a family home, which was meant to be the boys and their parent’s home. We used locations inside the house like the living room/bedrooms and the kitchen for the scene where the father is made to look like an alcoholic.

One major prop that we used was a photo frame that contained a picture of the mother the father and the two boys all happy in the same place, this is significant as throughout the whole trailer we only see this happen once at the dining room table but the family is not happy at this point. Towards the middle of the trailer the picture is broken by the younger brother, which signifies that the family has broken just as the glass and the frame from the picture has smashed.

Camera work:

We used a lot of different camera angles and movements throughout the whole trailer to provide different effects and to stress different emotions when they need to be focused on.

We use a large amount of close-ups for shots such as when the brothers are upset and we needed to show and stress exactly how emotional the scene is. We also used close-ups to show the significance of certain props such as the photo frame or the guns.

We used two shot to show the relationships between two characters such as the mother and the father or between the two brothers. The two shot allowed us to show the emotions as well as the body language of the characters as the two shot generally is either a mid shot or just a full body shot.

Close up - Saving Private Ryan

We use over-the-shoulder shots for significant conversations that require the audience to pay attention to the words as well as the characters emotions when they are saying it.

Camera work does not always reflect the genre it is portraying (unless it is horror with the shaky handheld camera shots) so the choice of shots can be very varied as the audience is not really meant to be aware of the choice of shots that they are seeing but rather paying attention to the content they are seeing.

Editing:

When making a trailer we can’t use every shot we filmed, as the trailer would end up being as long as the full movie. We had to use a technique called ellipsis that cuts out all unnecessary shots that the audience can guess what happens. For example between some one waking up and them being dressed you do not need to film them getting dressed as the audience should be able to figure it out.

We used L-cuts so that we could show as many shots as we can but keep the voice from the previous shot going so we still have context. The second shot still relates to the first.

We also used montage editing, which means that we used a series of short and fast shots in sequence to build up tension to a pinnacle scene. In this case they contained shots from the military training as well as emotional scenes between the families or even between the younger brother and his best friend.

Sound:

The main sound throughout the whole trailer is non-diegetic music, which only the audience can hear. We tried to make the music reflect the emotion or tension happening in the shots seen by the audience. This music tells the audience how they should feel and also tells them when something is about to happen, such as music that gets faster and louder when montage editing is happening, telling the audience something big is about to happen.

The dialogue in our trailer was chosen specifically to tell the audience what is happening in our story whether it’s the brothers discussing war or their father or the discussions between the mother and the father on their sons.

We will also have L cuts (dialogue from elsewhere in the film running under silent images) that is essential as it brings context to the shots that are being shown when the characters aren’t speaking. This is essential as without it our plot is complex.

The Poster

The poster displays two main images. One is the main image, which shows a picture of the two brothers, arguably the main characters in this movie. One of them is in army uniform while the other is not. They are both looking in different directions and faced in different ways, which almost shows how opposite their lives are. This hopefully conveys both the war genre and the emotional drama content of our film. This grouping of the main characters is common in war posters:

At the bottom of the poster is almost a banner of three images. On the left is the older brother who is in army uniform facing left. On the right is an image of the younger brother on the phone facing the other way. While in the middle of the two brothers there is a picture of the brother’s father looking straight between them at the viewer. This shows how the father is in the center of all the problems but also that he is the reason the brothers are split up and lead different lives.

We have the name of the film at the top of the poster not covering any of the image to show the importance of the characters and the title itself as they each are shown fully and not obscured by each other.

The poster includes a large text box at the bottom crediting all the actors as well as film crew and producers which is really only there to make the audience reassured that this is a professional movie - it is a feature of the film poster form rather than of genre.

We also have a general release date on the poster (like summer 2013 etc.) - again an important formal feature.

Magazine cover:

The magazine cover contains two main images that are faded together and have a smoke effect placed over them to make the image seem seamless. On top is the image of the father and the two brothers with the older brother and the younger brother being quite close together with the younger brother almost separated from the two displaying the relationship they have in the movie itself.

The image underneath this is a tower in the forest from the military training shots. The bottom of the top image and the top of the bottom image are faded together and blurred while a smoke effect is placed at the bottom of the magazine cover and runs to just under the faces of the actors making the images seem like they are one.

This careful attention to the main image was done to make sure the genre of the main film featured is clear to the audience. We have given enough clues to the military theme and also to the family drama to make this clear at a glance.

However, we did notice that films of this kind are not often the main feature for film magazines (no Empire or Total Film cover for Atonement or The Hurt Locker, for example) so we are breaking conventions of genre choice for the magazine company here.

The magazine includes the magazines name as well as the price, barcode and issue number. These are essential to magazines and have to be present - key layout features and again makes the magazine cover form clear.

The magazine includes text over the front either side of the image to highlight special features in the magazine as well as offers - this is in the kind of language often used for teaser text which tends to be exaggerated and to emphasise exclusivity and new material.

Towards the bottom of the magazine cover we have a bar that includes three pictures of other movies that feature in this movie. With their titles to show the viewer what to expect. This is because the magazine needs to show it has a variety of content.

Despite our unusual choice of film, we have fulfilled a lot of magazine layout conventions.

Adjustments to Coursework

We are now approaching the final deadline of the coursework, so we have to make the final adjustments to our coursework. We are also working on the evaluation tasks, and the two things go quite well together as the evaluation process is finalising our coursework ideas. Here are some examples of work we have completed since the break:


POSTER



FOCUS ON ADJUSTING TEXT AT TOP OF POSTER

MAGAZINE COVER

WORK ON TEASER TEXT AND LAYOUT - ADJUSTED TO NEW COLOUR SCHEME

MASTHEAD CHANGED TO BRIGHTER COLOUR AND COVERLINE ADDED

TRAILER

CREATION OF SOUNDSCAPE BY MIXING TRACKS AND DRUM BEATS AND ADDING LAYERS OF DIEGETIC SOUND

USE OF MOTION FILTER TO CREATE FLOATING CLOUD EFFECTS OVER TITLES

ADDITION OF FORMAL FEATURES EG COMING SOON

ADDITION OF END CREDITS

ADDITION OF INTERTITLES DIVIDING TRAILER AND ADDING STRUCTURE

REFILMING OF SOME SHOTS (ACTOR WAS SMILING IN THIS EXAMPLE)