Evaluation Q4

Hoalie

Movie Poster & Movie Magazine Front Cover (Print Production/Advertising)

Before we done our photo shoot for our poster and magazine we had already planned out what we wanted them to look like by doing sketches of them beforehand so that time will not be wasted when we were on set taking the photos.

First of all we started getting the main character (Jason) for the photo shoot ready by doing the make-up and costume for him. While Becky and Berry were in charge of the makeup and costume, I set up the classroom in the appropriate way, making sure the camera was in the correct position and the lights were accurate in order to get high-quality pictures.

The equipment used for the photo shoot were:

·         Canon Eos 400d camera

·         55mm Lens

·         Bowens Gemini Esprit GM 500 Flash

·         60cm Soft Box

When taking the picture for the poster, the lighting was positioned one the right of the model because the type of photo we was aiming for was one that had the left side of the clowns face faded out so that it creates a sense of mystery, by doing this when taking the photo it will involve less work doing the same effect on a computer and will give off more of a natural shadow.

To create a dark low key effect we made sure that the lights were off the classroom which was our location for the photo shoot, we also closed the curtain so that the sunlight did not interfere. Our actor was positioned approximately five meters from the blue screen to prevent big bold shadows.

The image manipulation software mainly used for the creation of the magazine and poster was Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 as this had all the tools necessary to create a professional look magazine and poster. It has tools to edit, cut, manipulate and  change an image, It also has a textbox tool where I can download the appropriate font and install and type directly onto the magazine and poster. Other software such as Adobe Illustrator was not needed as there were no illustrations that we were going to use.

The internet was a great help as I could research different types of magazines and posters that already exists and how I could use this in generating and making our one different so that it stands out among them and make sure that it still fits in with the horror genre. Each film title will have a very different font so its recognisable to the audience and immediately make them remember where it’s from. The website http://www.dafont.com/ was very useful as it had a range of different fonts we could choose from and be sure that we didn’t have the same font as an already existing film title.

It was very important for us to follow health and safety rules during the photo shoot because if we did not a serious accident could have been caused, not only to us but to the other people that may have been in the room at that time. To make sure that we were following the health and safety rules, we were supervised by Mrs Robertson (HRO) who was with us in the room.

The technologies used were mainly provided by the media department and were of all good quality so that we could produce good quality work. There was also a Mac Room that has very high tech computers that had all the software needed to create our magazine and poster. However I felt that I could work better with the newer version of Adobe Photoshop, The Macs only had CS3 so I decided to work on my personal computer which has CS5.5 and has no restriction, so I can add extra brushes and font. The newer version also has more features like gird view so I can view where I position the text and make sure they are in line on the magazine.

Berry
As a group we used blogger to present all our work, from our research to the final product. We presented our work in various forms such as videos, written text, links and images. For example, for things such as audience research we made blackberry messenger snapshots and posted images of them, along with the snapshots were short summaries of what the snapshots showed. For another part of the audience research a short video of the respondent answering questions were made. Using blogger to present our work ensured that all our research was organized and kept neat, understandable and well-presented. Blogger also gives us the opportunity to be creative with things such as the background – which we can design.

The majority of our research was conducted via the internet. This was because we felt the resources on the internet were endless. Google searching popular films and horror magazines always resulted in a variety of outcomes. This meant that when we searched for film posters and magazine covers I could access different posters from all different type of genres and time periods. We could understand the development of technology, make comparisons and birth ideas. We could then copy example magazine covers to use as a guideline for ours and to also use in a personal work such as our textual analysis. The internet itself is easily accessible, interactive and problem-free.

Youtube.com was also extremely useful. We used it in our research, for example when researching ‘teaser trailer captions’ we were able to search on YouTube for popular horror movies with captions, print screen them and then write summaries. YouTube also became very useful when we created a tester trailer as we were able to upload it onto YouTube. Here, our trailer could be watched and commented on. Uploading our own tester trailer meant we could gain positive criticism and feedback. Sharing the video would also be easy as all we would need to do copy and paste the link.

We used YouTube because it is a quick, efficient way of viewing other work, finding examples and sharing our own work. It is very easy to understand and also always provides a variety.

As a group, we used the internet for our target audience research, tutorial, definitions and film research. Firstly, during pre-production we needed to ask a sample of teenagers some questions. I am part of the social networking site, Facebook so I decided to make use of this and the friends I have on this site. Through Facebook I was able to ask a variety of questions via Facebook chat. This was simple, easy and quick. In order to understand the equipment we were using and be able to use it properly we had to research about it. This included finding pictures, and information about each piece of equipment such as the cameras and portable lights. The internet made this research easy as there was a lot of information and pictures available

For our trailer we needed to apply make up on the actors such as cuts, bruises. In the poster and magazine we needed to make our killer look like a ‘Klown’. To ensure our make-up was professional and well done we watched YouTube make up tutorials to make our bruises look realistic and tutorials to make our ‘klown’ make up look horror-like, scary and effective.

 

The growth of media technology has also helped us a lot as without it our research may not have been as easy. Being able to make videos, upload them; access the internet not only on the computer from our phones/iPods. Communicating with each other was also made easy as we could text, email or pin (blackberry services) each other. 

REBECCA

Planning and research ( development and pre production )
Throughout our project we have used a variety of media technologies to help and benefit us. The youth today  have all been brought up in a digital era and we have experienced and interacted with media technologies all our life. Technology convergence has also happened so quickly that we are able to do almost everything in a small compact object. For example phones now are all  converged they allow you to watch and take videos, take pictures, access the internet, read books and newspapers, listen to music etc
This of course benefits us greatly as we can stay in contact with each other and also access our blogger or any other necessary sites from our phone.

The iphone4S is a great example of technology convergence.
It allows you to do almost anything.
Music,
camera,
Internet,
Television,
communication
The list goes on.







The internet has been a very useful tool during the research and planning stages we are able to not only consume media but also to contribute to it. The internet gives us the ability to communicate to others and research things and this was a great advantage for our coursework.

From the start we as a group have been using a Google owned blogging platform, Blogger. Blogger enabled us to regularly post our progress. We used Blogger to post all our research, pre production and post production and everything that contributed to our coursework. The website allowed us not only to post text but to also post images and videos. This made our blogger look much more presentable and it enabled us to show our work and progress, for example posting screen grabs and behind the scene photos shows what we are doing and how far we have come.  Using Blogger helped in many ways to keep us organised and on track, it was also very easy to get instant feedback from our teachers and our peers.

Google was our primary online search engine. It is the most popular search engine and is incredibly easy to use. For me i feel that it produces the best and most relevant results. Google helped tremendously with research and images. Before we had even began planning our trailer we had to research and look into other horror teaser trailers,posters and magazine covers and Google allows to do just that. When searching for horror trailers however we did tend to go straight to Youtube which is a website that allows you to both view and broadcast videos. This gave us access to all types of teaser trailers old and new. Something that was also helpful was the comments left by people on Youtube after every video. This helped us see what sort of teaser trailers people enjoyed and what they didn't so we could avoid doing things that the 'bad' trailers did.
When planning what sort of trailer we were going to do Jason had completed a practice take in his garden so we had a rough idea of what we were aiming for and if our idea worked not just in theory but in practice too .
This was then uploaded to Youtube, again for our advantage people were able to comment and we would work around the comments that were made.

Social networking was a crucial point in our research and planning. We used Facebook, which is one of the most successful social networking site in the world, to help as do audience research . Facebook allowed us to ask questions to our friends through what is called Facebook chat which is an instant messaging chat service. This was very convenient because it is much quicker than simply doing a interview or discussion face to face. Doing a questionnaire over Facebook chat meant we were able to get our answers quickly and they were already there written down for physical evidence. Berry also went further and used her Blackberry phone to do even more audience research. Berry out of the four of us was the only one with a blackberry so she used this to her advantage and used BBM to do the questionnaires with her friends. BBM is a bit like Facebook chat as it is also an instant messaging service but unlike Facebook you do not need to be connected to the internet, so this meant berry was able to do this wherever she was.

Jason

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