Our Teaser Trailer - Paths

This below is our final teaser trailer , as a group we are pleased with the finished project we felt as if it displayed we set out to have within it at the start of our A2 course

Please comment upon this and give feedback on what we did well and you may have changed or added.

Our Magazine Cover

This as pictured above is our magazine cover , although the colour scheme is quite dark we felt as a group this was suitable considering the genre which we had created for our teaser trailer , we used our research and planning into real media texts that related closely to our  product and found that many of the magazine covers we analysed such as that of 'Bullet Boy' (2004) and 'Kidulthood' (2006) tended to stick to one colour throughout both magazine cover and film poster , as a group we felt it was important to stick to the conventions of our genre in order to make it easy to relate to from the angle of the audience.

We used the popular editing software 'Adobe Photoshop'  to create this , I personally feel as though it is a easy program to use and allows users to create projects which are very aesthetically pleasing.

Our Film Poster

This as pictured above is our film poster , questionably the hardest to create out of both film poster and magazine cover this is because as a group we had so many ideas of we all individually felt it should look and the conventions in which it should follow ; however we eventually agreed upon the fact that we should make it relate closely to our magazine cover although this isn't necessarily a convention within the media industry for magazine covers and film poster to relate to each other because even though they both are aimed towards the same demographic they have different purposes.

We tried to play on our 'film title' within the poster itself by using lines and so forth insinuating a path to the audience themselves without actually pointing it out as a obvious feature of the poster as we didn't want to detract away from the background off the poster ,allowing the audience to decide what influence the 'estates' have on the characters life and how it effects both their lives in different ways hence why they are both looking out from different angles.

Evaluation Question 4 - 'Paths'

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

During the planning and research stages modern media technologies were used such as that of 'YouTube' and 'Google' both of which were used to research... similar real media texts as well as being able to assess the construction stages of our production as we were able compare and analyse through the use of websites such as 'YouTube' ; 'Google' provided a wealth of information easily and quickly added ease to the construction stages as well as aiding in the organisation of our groups construction stage.

Social media sites such as that of 'Twitter' and 'Facebook' allowed us to share our media products amongst friends ; which is a source of distribution used by the biggest film producers so it isn't just solely used to the benefit of low budget films ; it works because it is effective in spreading the 'word' and creating a 'buzz' around the product.

In the production stages of our film we used a non -linear editing system 'Final Cut Pro X' which to begin with was difficult as we had never previously used the software and was used to a similar yet different editing software 'iMovie' ; however we quickly picked up the 'controls' and soon enough editing was under way , 'Final Cut Pro' allowed us finer cuts such as the blade tool which could trim within the millisecond contrast this to 'iMovie' the software allowed us to make a much more aesthetically pleasing final production.

We had the benefit of using HD cameras (Panasonic HDC-SD700) which coped well with the changing weather conditions which we experienced throughout our filming , something I wish we had the benefit of using is 'boom mics' as it would have improved the dialogue within the film.

To create our magazine cover and film poster we had used 'Adobe Photoshop' it is software we were already familiar with before the production process which meant it was easy for us to get started ; the result was pleasing we felt as if the finish was 'glossy' and 'professional' and conveyed the genre of our film well.

Finally YouTube is a website which I personally used very frequently as it allowed me to easily access other real media texts in order to analyse and compare , most notably it allowed us as a group to distribute our media package around the world globally; the videos which accompany my evaluation are all embed through the 'YouTube' , I used technologies which are part of my 'day to day'  I regularly use 'Face Time' which is essentially the same as the Director OneToOne's I have provided as a part of my evaluation process.

Evaluation Question 3 - 'Paths'

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback proved to be an invaluable tool throughout the post production stages it was easy for us to get 'side tracked' as a group ; we easily got caught up in what as media students we wanted the product to look like without actually taking into consideration what the audience would enjoy. 

However audience feedback allowed us to take on constructive criticism as well as positive feedback effectively allowing us to see what we did well as well what we could possibly improve upon ; although we also used audience feedback before our production process to see what our target demographic were expecting to see from a teaser trailer relative to our genre , this was helpful in more ways than one as it allowed us a group to concentrate on specific ideas without going 'creatively crazy'.

 Audience feedback with hindsight is something which I would have used more frequently throughout the post production stage because more than anything if your target audience doesn't enjoy your media product it is destined to fail and wont be a commercial success.

Evaluation Question 2 - 'Paths'

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

The main product and the ancillary tasks go hand in hand ; finishing our main media product 'Paths' made it easier for us as a group to know the specific features we wanted our magazine cover and film poster to have ; From a creative point of view it allowed us to have much greater direction as we already knew the major theme running throughout our media product and we wanted our ancillary task to convey this. 

The combination of both ancillary tasks and main media product with hindsight turned out be beneficial as it resulted in a overall 'media package' which seems concurrent and there isn't a piece within it which doesn't seem to fit or match with the others however it must be mentioned that within the media industry it isn't unusual for teaser trailers and trailers alike not to follow the same pattern as their relative magazine cover and film poster.

We took inspiration from films within our genre we found a pattern within the trailers and film posters of those particular films 'Adulthood' and '4.3.2.1' as examples of this they all shared the fact they used dark backgrounds which could be an extended metaphor for the trouble and sense of unknown experienced by the main characters ; we felt as if this was relevant to our project and as a results of this based our themes upon similar colour schemes.

                                           

Evaluation Question 1 - 'Paths'

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

It is important we identify the genre of our teaser trailer which is actually quite hard as it doesn't easily fit into any one genre ; however as our group we felt this was to our advantage as it meant we were able to use conventions of genres which wouldn't necessarily be associated with our media product such as the changing pace throughout the teaser which is normally related to 'Thrillers' ; this was effective in creating suspense and gave the audience a sense of uncertainty we further developed the use of changing pace by adding in 'slow-mo' coupled with the non - diagetic sound it was extremely useful in creating emotion with the scene.

Most notably but not obvious is our character casting which went against usual conventions , however it would be easy to argue that it also reinforced conventions ' one of our main protagonists was off Asian decent which although is becoming more common within modern British media it is still an uncommon sight as the only cases which come to mind within our genre 'urban drama' would be 'Ill Manors' (2012) and 'Shifty' (2008) both played by Riz Ahmed ; Although as I mentioned earlier the convention of character casting is reinforced by the fact our genre is a 'urban drama' and it is typical within this genre that ethnic minorities are cast in the main roles as is the case with 'Kidulthood' , 'Bullet Boy' and 'Top Boy' as well as many other low to medium budget dramas set within the inner cities. 

So overall it could be suggested that although our project does follow many conventions of real media projects which are relative to it ; it is also successful in challenging this conventions effectively as well as possibly creating no ones.