Vicki's Blog

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storyboards final

The link below is to our final ‘What Love’s Worth’  film trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpiyl517Kww

Advanced Production Portfolio

Evaluation

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

In our filmmaking task, after discussing various possible ideas we decided to opt for the film trailer idea as we felt that as a group, we would be able to successfully pick out the key elements that are included in film trailers so as to make our own as convincing and as realistic as possible. Firstly we decided to make our film trailer that of a romantic genre as we felt that this would challenge us somewhat as we had not produced work of this generic style before.

Many successful films and trailers include a number of different intertextual references as an effective way to grab the attention of an audience and to tell the story in a different way using different techniques. Within our group we considered a number of different ideas for intertextual references by deconstructing trailers so as to see what goes on in them. One idea that we discussed from ‘The Notebook’ trailer stood out to us in particular as it is the exact same genre as ours and also has the same certification that we have chose for our own film, this being a ‘12’.    The part in particular is where there is a close up of the female character Ally, through a car window, which is closely followed by a long distance shot of Noah running towards the camera in order to run after Ally. This jumps to a shot of the car driving off into the distance. We chose to include a similar series of shots in our own trailer as to show a conflict within the characters romance which is a crucial element of a film trailer. After discussing possible options for our film, we decided to have our two main characters ‘Georgia’ and ‘Calum’ falling in love under unconventional circumstances. We also came to the agreement that our main female character ‘Georgia’ was going to be a work-driven and highly intellectual individual who deems her career to have much more importance than any man in her life. We decided to have her character appear this way so as to break the stereotypical expectation of a romantic film in that the woman is wholly lustful for the man and prioritises him over other elements of her life. As a result, we also knew that this would mean that ‘Georgia’ would be an excellent example of positive female representation as she is a strong, independent woman who is breaking down old fashioned traditions. Alongside this, we decided that our main male character ‘Calum’ would appear a sensitive and emotionally orientated individual which similarly, doesn’t follow the typical conventions in regards to usual male and female gender stereotypes especially of those usually included in romantic films. I have noticed that this is increasingly becoming the case in modern films like our own, as I feel it is a way of slowly moving away from the old fashioned elements in dated films. We also found that a large proportion of our female respondents from our audience research felt that female gender was very much so negatively represented currently; therefore we decided that we would go against this and challenge the usual conventions.

 As a group we carried out thorough genre specific and non- specific deconstructions of different film trailers especially those of the films that we were interested in using as intertextual references. From this process, we were able to identify the conventions and key characteristics of real film trailers and as a result, include the same in our own project. We particularly looked at genre specific film trailers such as ‘The Time Travellers Wife’ and ‘Casablanca’, so as we were able to get an idea of the different elements that are commonly used in this style of film. This benefited us considerably as we were then able to look at our own work and see where we needed to adjust certain aspects for it to appear a convincing romantic film trailer.                  After we had finalised our draft cut of our film trailer, we constructed a survey of which we distributed to each of the members of the year 12 and year 13 media groups so as we could get an idea of where we were at in terms of the standard and effectiveness of our trailer. By doing this we found out what others thought of our project by giving them the opportunity to constructively criticise our work and give further feedback on areas that that they felt we could improve.  Furthermore, from this we were able to obtain helpful advice and notes on how to improve our work and then were able to make necessary adjustments to our film trailer. Also, from gathering other people’s opinions of our work, we were able to see whether or not our film trailer was realistic enough and included all of the necessary conventions and continuity of a real film trailer such as whether the meaning and the shots were clear. 

 How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?  

The ancillary texts that I produced included a film poster and a film magazine cover, those of which I feel both follow similar generic elements such as the same certificate rating as our film trailer and both show the two main characters to be positively represented. I feel that they target the same audience as they both clearly show what genre our film is therefore attracting the same type of people that enjoy this particular generic style. The images that I chose to use for my film poster illustrate that the female character is strong and independent whereas the male character is emotional and it is apparent that his interests in terms of conventions are not those of usual male interests. However I have used one image of ‘Georgia’ whereby she looks slightly reserved, which I believe reflects the mixed emotions that she is presented to have in some parts of our trailer. I have also used some shots that show that there may be some conflict in their relationship throughout the film so as people are made aware that the storyline may but some what different of a usual romantic film.                                                                                                                        I included the tag line ‘Georgia has to decide…is love really worth everything’, as I felt that this would again, show the audience and people that are interested in the film, that major events will occur during the film such as conflict in the characters romance.                                                                As well as my film poster, I believe that my magazine cover is effective in complimenting my main product in the sense that it is clear to see the different personalities and characteristics of the two main characters from the image that I chose to use on my cover. For example the image shows ‘Georgia’ looking down, which I feel gives the impression that she is shy to commit an hesitant as to whether or not she should give her heart to ‘Calum’ whereas on the other hand, ‘Calum’ is looking straight at ‘Georgia’ which I feel shows the emotional and sensitive side of his character. I also decided to add a ‘Free What Love’s Worth poster’ line of text to the content of my cover as a way of promoting our own film, which I feel is an element commonly used on real magazine covers as a way of attracting people to take an interest and ultimately go to see the film.

 What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

 After showing our first viewing we distributed questionnaires to every student in our media class so as to gain audience feedback about our film trailer. We found that the majority of those who took part in the questionnaire, believed that we followed the specific criteria that was expected in order to create a successful and effective film which included aspects such as making sure our shots were steady and ensuring that our narrative was imaginative, interesting and most importantly, understandable. From these questionnaires we also gained a number of pieces of constructive criticism. For example, it was pointed out to us that one of our shots seemed to overlap another shot due to an editing error so we were therefore able to address this problem and then make the necessary adjustments.                                                                                                       From peoples comments we also decided to change our original plan of just having a voice over to also including dialogue in some parts so as to be able to clearly portray to the audience the parts where character conflict was taking part. As a group we unanimously decided that by changing this, it would also make the narrative slightly clearer to the audience and therefore easier to understand. We then carried out a second screening of the film which led us to change the sound heard on the film to mainly non- diagetic sound such as an acoustic soundtrack which we decided would play in certain sections which were highly dramatic as well as having a voice over.

 After further discussions and viewings of other genre specific film trailers we decided to include a conversation which was relevant to the storyline over the shots however, not as they were actually speaking. We got this idea from deconstructing ‘Twilight’ as it is a film that each member of our group was familiar with and great fans of yet also being of a romantic genre. The reason for adding this unusual element to our trailer was partly due to it being effective and very different but also because we believed that it would be too difficult to add dialogue, which would have to coincide precisely with the movement of the characters mouths and actions.

 I felt that we were given a number of various different opinions about the types of shots that we used in our trailer, therefore this was an area that we decided to try and improve in order to successfully look like a real film trailer. As a result, we removed a long shot, which was thought of as being too long in duration by some of our respondents. When looking at our final cut, we felt that this problem had definitely been removed as the shot length has been reduced which made it more of a quick and snappy shot so as to fit in with the usual conventions and style of real film trailers.

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

 In our initial pre- production work, we began by creating our own individual blogs (www.xvicx.wordpress.com) where which I created and uploaded my production log, audience research surveys, our plot synopsis and many film trailer deconstructions.                                     When looking at different film trailers we decided to carry out a number of general and genre specific deconstructions therefore, due to the introduction of digital technology I used the internet website www.youtube.com where I was able to access and view official trailers online. This process was very efficient and effective as it was a lot less time consuming and expensive than actually having to purchase the films to watch the trailers on the bonus selection. Likewise, the internet enabled our group to create online audience surveys with the use of the website www.surveymonkey.com. As a result of these surveys we were able to identify our target audience and from there, identify what they like to see in film trailers and in particular, what stands out to them as an individual. Using new media technology again, we were able to send out emails containing a hyperlink to our survey, to each student in all of the media groups so as a way of generating maximum amount of respondents. Through doing so, our feedback was able to hep give us creative ideas for our own trailer. We also used ‘Facebook’ as a way of gaining wider response to some of our work. For example we were able to send out a post to all our friends with possible titles for our film and then they were able to respond and let us know which title they preferred. As a result of this, we came up with the title ‘What Love’s Worth’.

When we got to the stage of actually filming our trailer, we used digital video cameras which allowed us to capture footage and then play it back so as we could identify which parts of the trailer we had filmed and whether they were of sufficient standard. We could therefore then decide which parts we still needed to film.

When we uploaded our footage onto the computer, we did so using a USB stick so that we were then able to edit the footage on windows movie maker, the programme that we all decided would be the best for the editing of our film trailer. Movie maker allowed us to add text boxes in between clips and film credits so as to enhance our trailer and give it a more professional look. Also by being able to add title pages and credits we were able to include our own production logo in our product so that it would make our work more individual to our own group.

We then had to record a soundtrack and a voiceover for our trailer so as a result; we booked a recording studio in our school and recorded the necessary material using the programme Cuebase 2.0. I felt that this software was very effective as it enabled us to edit in a soundtrack and voice over to our trailer which I feel is of a very professional standard. The programme was also very straight forward to use which was a major relief for us as a group, as we had never used software like this before.

When constructing my ancillary texts I decided to use Microsoft Word as I felt that I was very familiar with this program, therefore my work would be of the highest standard possible. Another factor that influenced this decision was that I did not have access to any other design programs on my computer at home which I felt would pose problems as if I were to have used any other program, I would not have been able to work on my products in my spare time at home.

Voice Over

It was a summer like no other… she was ambitious, smart and perfect in every way… And I was just a musician from the country… We were worlds apart… but had one thing in common.

Dialogue

Georgia: I can’t handle this any more

Calum: Well i’m obviously not good enough for you then am I?

Georgia: It’s not that, but you know how hard I’ve worked for this!

Voice Over

She had to decide… Was love really worth everything?… From the best selling novel by Shaun Warwick… What Love’s Worth… Coming this spring!

After we had finalised our draft cut of our film trailer, we constructed a survey of which we distributed to each of the members of our media group so as we could get an idea of where we were at in terms of the standard and effectiveness of our trailer. We wanted to find out what others thought of our project by giving them the oppertunity to  constructively criticise our work and give futher feedback on areas that that they feel we could improve.  Furthermore, from this we will hope to obtain helpful advice and notes on improving our work so as we can go back and make necessary adjustments to our trailer.

Film Trailer Survey

1. Was the narrative clear? If not, please explain.

 Yes          No

2. What genre would you say the film (trailer) belongs to?

—————————————————————————————————

 3. What did you particularly like about our trailer?

 ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

 4. What part/s of trailer do you think we could improve on?

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 5. Do you feel that there were any continuity errors throughout the trailer?

  Yes          No

 6. Was there a variety of different shots used?

  Yes         No

 7. Do you think the shots were steady?

 Yes          No

 8. Do you think text was used appropriately?

 Yes         No