This is a blog to help me publish my ideas and work for my A-level Media Studies Coursework. For my A2 task I have decided to create a teaser film trailer, with a poster and magazine front cover to advertise the film. When i was deciding on what genre to do my film around i realised that most A2 students go for some form of horror film. Wanting to branch off and be different I decided to go with creating an Action Thriller film. This of course was going to be a problem considering I wouldn't be able to incorporate any explosion, firefights or car chases into the trailer. That's why i decided to do an action thriller so that I could have a trailer that meets the conventions without any expense effects.
Once i decided upon the genre I was going to do I needed to start thinking about the plot of the film. I will say that I was inspired by the Bourne Films. I wanted to create a story around the theme of a highly skilled agent who is betrayed by the company he works for when they try to kill him after a high profile assination. He survives the attack and comes back for revenge killing all those who work for his previous employers. I came to this conclusion after doing some research into what films have already been created in the Action and Action Thriller genres. I searched the Internet not only for inspiration for the genre but to try and find some inspiration for the story as a whole before i settled on my final idea which I stated before.
Target Audience
I then started to consider who my target audience might be. I looked at who the typical audience were for Action and Action thriller type films. The typical audience would seem to be any one form age 15 upwards. As a result I need to make sure the film rating doesn't exceed 15 to allow that age group to be able to watch it. The target audience audience for the poster and magazine front cover will be the same.
Once I had a concept idea for the story the next step was to create a story board. This can be anything from a complex diagram to some drawings on a piece of paper. Its important to create a storyboard because it gives you a guideline and an idea of what shots you are going to take for the film, that's the norm. Despite what I just said I am not going to be including my storyboard in this blog, the reason being because its so radically different from what I actually ended up doing. The reasons why will be explained as you read on.
--Very Important note--
I created all aspects of the project on my Laptop computer and I didn't always have access to the Internet and therefore Blogger. As a result of not being able to post every day I created a blog book. I then wrote down everything along with my thought process in my Blog book as I progressed through my project. This blog is a typed up version of all my notes from my blog book documenting my creative progress and thought process complete with images and video clips. That why it may appear that my entire blog was posted in two or three days.
Wednesday 20 April 2011
Friday 1 April 2011
Final Products
Teaser Trailer
The FIXER teaser trailer from Alex Dodds on Vimeo.
Final film poster
Magazine front cover
Evaluation Questions 1
Evaluation Questions 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Frame 1: This is the first shot of the teaser trailer and immediately gives the audience a powerful image. A man on top of a hill look out to a large mountain range. Hes in a grand hostile looking environment. This is a scene not uncommon in both action films and action thriller films. You will often see the opening shot be taken in some amazing location with protagonist doing something spectacular. NOT all films have this kind of opening but a good amount do. In that regard I have followed the conventions of some action thriller teasers, I set the bar high for the rest of the teaser trailer to follow.
Frame 2: The second frame is a caption that gives away a glimpse at the story or rather who this guy is. Hes a hitman a concept not uncommon in action films but hardly ever used as the main focus. By making this statement I had to make sure that the character I was portraying did in fact look and act like a hitman or assassin. I did this by always giving him both a professional look and mannerisms. Hes a lethal killing machine who sole purpose is to eliminate targets. but then he decided to take a more personal path of revenge.
Frame 3: Adding to what I said about frame 2, this frame shows an image of the FIXER in the middle of a job. Hes dressed in what could be roughly describe as ninja gear, hes not there to make friends and have tea. This costume set up is often seen in action films where you find professional hitmen or other stealth operatives.
Frame 4: Similar to frame one this frame shows another epic style shot often found in action thriller films. People who watch action thriller films will be expecting to see shots in amazing locations. This shot of the FIXER running across the sand into the sunset with downtown Dubai in the distance provides a powerful image that also gives a sense of place.
Frame 5: Frame 5 is the caption that reads, "He wants Revenge." I am sure you will have seen several action thriller films centred around the plot idea of revenge. Its a powerful motive that excels an individual to do anything to get revenge against someone. One way I have strayed from the normal themes of revenge is that I have added the notion hat a trained hitman who works for the government has been betrayed by the people who he works for when they tried to kill him. As a result he goes on a personal hunt to find and kill his former employees. This sort of narrative has only really been done in the Jason Bourne films.
Frame 6: In this frame we again see another epic shot commonly seen in action thriller films. In this shot we see the FIXER walking towards a large building with a spotlight shining in the shot allowing use to see him in a black coat, pistol in hand and the hot breathe in the cold air. Its a powerful image and the connotations are that this man is going into that building to cause chaos and pure violence.
Frame 7: In this frame we see a blurred image of the FIXER. You never really see the ghost blurring effect in most action thriller films. So I have gone against the normal conventions by adding this. I used it as a powerful image that gives the connotations that this man is so effective at what he does hes like a ghost when he enters an area. He gets in and does the job without anyone knowing he was there.
Frame 8: Frame 8 shows the caption stating when the film will roughly be coming. Almost every single trailer will have a caption giving some sort of indication as to when the film will likely be coming out, this can be anything from an exact date to a year.
Frame 9: Frame 9 shows the title of my film 'The FIXER' its one of the key parts of the teaser trailer simply because its what the film is called. Its what centres the teaser trailer and both ancillary texts together. Every single teaser trailer or any media product for that matter will always have a title that the film can be associated to and easily recognised.
Evaluation Questions 2
Evaluation Questions 2: How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary texts?
The main task of this project wasnt just to create a teaser trailer. We need to make a marketing package which included a teaser trailer, poster and magazine front cover. In order to have a good Media package there needs to be something in commin between each element. They need to have the same content and branding.
Using the same Images.
On all of my products there are the same simillar products. The man on the poster and magazine are the FIXER dressed in the same black coat, this same costume is then used in the teaser trailer. This allows the audience to easily recognise and associate this man as the FIXER. That Image of the man in the black coat will become known with the film The FIXER and people will recognise him on other forms of advertisement. In this way the products link together.
Branding
Branding is when you have something that relates to product displayed on everything. For example a title. On both my teaser trailer and my ancillary texts (Poster and magazine) you will see the same title, 'The FIXER' written in the same font and same size. The white/silver and the red colour for each word is also a form of branding that stands out from other titles and the audience can easily recognize and associate to The FIXER films. This is also true for all text/caption used in all products.
The main task of this project wasnt just to create a teaser trailer. We need to make a marketing package which included a teaser trailer, poster and magazine front cover. In order to have a good Media package there needs to be something in commin between each element. They need to have the same content and branding.
Using the same Images.
On all of my products there are the same simillar products. The man on the poster and magazine are the FIXER dressed in the same black coat, this same costume is then used in the teaser trailer. This allows the audience to easily recognise and associate this man as the FIXER. That Image of the man in the black coat will become known with the film The FIXER and people will recognise him on other forms of advertisement. In this way the products link together.
Branding
Branding is when you have something that relates to product displayed on everything. For example a title. On both my teaser trailer and my ancillary texts (Poster and magazine) you will see the same title, 'The FIXER' written in the same font and same size. The white/silver and the red colour for each word is also a form of branding that stands out from other titles and the audience can easily recognize and associate to The FIXER films. This is also true for all text/caption used in all products.
Evaluation Questions 3
Question 3: What Have You Learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback allowed me to learn vital things throughout my design process. I could figure out what didn't quite work and what did but getting feedback from my classmates and my teacher allowed me to really focus on all the small details and things that needed changing or improving.
Below are a series of video that I made with Billy Ford an ex St. Edmunds College Media Student. You may have seen some of his videos throughout my blog.
Poster
Magazine Front Cover
Teaser Trailer
Audience feedback allowed me to learn vital things throughout my design process. I could figure out what didn't quite work and what did but getting feedback from my classmates and my teacher allowed me to really focus on all the small details and things that needed changing or improving.
Below are a series of video that I made with Billy Ford an ex St. Edmunds College Media Student. You may have seen some of his videos throughout my blog.
Poster
Magazine Front Cover
Teaser Trailer
Evaluation Questions 4
Evaluation Question 4: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Research = 1. Google + 2. Youtube
Blog = 3. Blogger
Equipment = 4. Camera, video camera, Tripods
Software = 5. Adobe photoshop and 6. Corel Video Studio 12
Research
1. Google - Google is a search engine that came into mainstream use in 1998. It allows you to search anything you wish and get the results in less than a second. I used Google to research practically everything; genre, teaser trailers, images, posters and film magazines. If I needed to search anything I used Google because it is the best and most user friendly search engine around.
2. Youtube - Youtube is a place where you are able to view videos of almost any content and upload your own to been seen by anyone or select friends. I mostly used youtube to search action thriller trailers and embed the links into my blog. I also uploaded a view of my videos to youtube that were to big to upload directly to my blog. I also made my teaser trailer viewable for comment by anyone.
Blog
3. Blogger - Blogger allowed me document all of my work on the Internet to bee seen by anyone. It has allowed me to document my creative process and all the changes + Problems I ran into. It allows you to easily blog your thoughts and increment both video clips and pictures. You can also embed any links to any site within blogger.
Equipment
4.For the camera I used my schools media departments Cannon SLR EOS 40D camera, this allowed me to take high resolution photos that I could edit later. I learnt how to use the manual focus in order to achieve different shot variations. I also improved my knowledge of the various types of camera angles you can use and the importance of using a good tripod to ensure that you always have steady crisp photos no matter how you manipulate the camera. This goes for the video camera as well. For the video camera I used my schools media department's HD recorder which was a Panosonic HDC-SD5. I learnt skills like how to focus properly and maintain the focus even in low light conditions and how using manual focus can provide special effects like ghost trailing.
Software
5. Adobe Photoshop CS5: I used Adobe Photoshop to create my film magazine front cover and poster. I have been using Photoshop for several years now so I didn't really learn anything new this time round, I was just using skills I had already. I 'am a self proclaimed expert when it comes to photoshop and often help other in my class with any difficulties they encounter.
6. Corel Video Studio 12/ Pro X2 - This is the video editing software that my schools Media department uses as it is a very expensive piece of software. At first I found it difficult to grab a full understand of how to fully use the software but i quickly learnt all the functions it had to offer and it allowed me to create my teaser trailer. I had originally wanted to use Sony Vegas Pro but could not afford the software. It would have allowed me to edit in explosions and particle effects as well as other special effects. With Corel I learnt how to manipulate clips, cut them down, speed them up and even integrate two clips together. I also practiced using sound tracks and effects as well as advanced caption display methods.
Research = 1. Google + 2. Youtube
Blog = 3. Blogger
Equipment = 4. Camera, video camera, Tripods
Software = 5. Adobe photoshop and 6. Corel Video Studio 12
Research
1. Google - Google is a search engine that came into mainstream use in 1998. It allows you to search anything you wish and get the results in less than a second. I used Google to research practically everything; genre, teaser trailers, images, posters and film magazines. If I needed to search anything I used Google because it is the best and most user friendly search engine around.
2. Youtube - Youtube is a place where you are able to view videos of almost any content and upload your own to been seen by anyone or select friends. I mostly used youtube to search action thriller trailers and embed the links into my blog. I also uploaded a view of my videos to youtube that were to big to upload directly to my blog. I also made my teaser trailer viewable for comment by anyone.
Blog
3. Blogger - Blogger allowed me document all of my work on the Internet to bee seen by anyone. It has allowed me to document my creative process and all the changes + Problems I ran into. It allows you to easily blog your thoughts and increment both video clips and pictures. You can also embed any links to any site within blogger.
Equipment
4.For the camera I used my schools media departments Cannon SLR EOS 40D camera, this allowed me to take high resolution photos that I could edit later. I learnt how to use the manual focus in order to achieve different shot variations. I also improved my knowledge of the various types of camera angles you can use and the importance of using a good tripod to ensure that you always have steady crisp photos no matter how you manipulate the camera. This goes for the video camera as well. For the video camera I used my schools media department's HD recorder which was a Panosonic HDC-SD5. I learnt skills like how to focus properly and maintain the focus even in low light conditions and how using manual focus can provide special effects like ghost trailing.
Software
5. Adobe Photoshop CS5: I used Adobe Photoshop to create my film magazine front cover and poster. I have been using Photoshop for several years now so I didn't really learn anything new this time round, I was just using skills I had already. I 'am a self proclaimed expert when it comes to photoshop and often help other in my class with any difficulties they encounter.
6. Corel Video Studio 12/ Pro X2 - This is the video editing software that my schools Media department uses as it is a very expensive piece of software. At first I found it difficult to grab a full understand of how to fully use the software but i quickly learnt all the functions it had to offer and it allowed me to create my teaser trailer. I had originally wanted to use Sony Vegas Pro but could not afford the software. It would have allowed me to edit in explosions and particle effects as well as other special effects. With Corel I learnt how to manipulate clips, cut them down, speed them up and even integrate two clips together. I also practiced using sound tracks and effects as well as advanced caption display methods.
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