Evaluation 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation 2

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

As you can see in the image below I have highlighted some of the key similarities between my two ancillary texts. I chose to use the same strap line as I wanted to link both my poster, magazine and trailer together and I also wanted for there to be an obvious similarity between them all. Not only this but I also wanted for there to be a sentence that the audience of my film could easily remember and when they were asked about my film I wanted this strap line to be one of the things they remembered. Therefore I felt that it was important for it to appear on both my ancillary texts and my main product.

The use of the same colour scheme is again another way of linking my poster and magazine together and showing that not only are they both talking about the same film but also that there is some continuity between the two. I chose the colours red white and black as I wanted to use the simple shades of black and white with the red to then add some colour and contrast. The reason I chose the red is it is usually a colour that represents danger or uncertainty and I wanted for this to be a sort of subconscious message my audience got about what to expect within my film.

The reason I put Chloe as the focal point of the picture on both my magazine and poster is I wanted it to be immediately obvious that my film uses

a women as the main character and victim. I chose to do this because I feel this is a key selling point behind my film and also think it may help to draw in a more female audience and broadens my target audience.

My trailer is connected to both of my ancillary texts as again it uses the same colour scheme, tag line and Chloe as the focal point. If you were to compare my trailer with my poster and magazine I think it would be immediately obvious that they were all advertising the same film and I feel all three are connected and the combination between them is effective.

However if I was to make my products again I would perhaps think about using the same text for each title of "Never Look Back" to make the connection between all three of them stronger rather than different fonts for each. I would also think more carefully about whether I wanted to use all three of my actors in both my poster and magazine or if it would in fact of been more effective to use just Chloe. This idea came up within my audience feedback where a few people suggested that perhaps I should have just used an image of Chloe for the front cover of my magazine to make the audience wonder why it was just her and what was going to happen to her, so this then gave a new idea to consider.

Evaluation 1

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

I would say that my trailer both uses and conforms to conventions of real media products in most ways. For example in my trailer it gives away the key points of the film but leaves it as a cliff hanger at the end so that the audience don't know what happens without watching the film itself. However they still get the idea of the plot without too much being given away. This is what happens in most trailers as it draws the audience in and leaves them wanting to know more, which then means they will want to watch the film. The reason I chose to stick to this convention is it obviously works as has been used so many times before and also I wanted to make sure there was the right balance between giving away my plot and keeping key points hidden for the film itself.

I originally wanted to do a trailer that consisted of mainly music with occasional speaking over the top as I felt this would challenge media conventions and most trailers tend to work the opposite way with speaking as the focal point and music in the background. However as I worked through my trailer I found myself sticking more to the conventions of real media products and using more speaking than I had originally wanted, the reason for this was that I found there were more key points within my trailer than I had first anticipated. So in the end I would say my trailer consists of half music with the other half voices and although it slightly challenges the real conventions of media products it mainly develops and uses them.

My film magazine front cover conforms and uses many conventions of real media products as it has the mast head, title, tag lines, barcode, a strap line and brief sentences about the stories inside; however although it conforms in all these ways I decided to do something slightly different. The way I did this was instead of using a magazine that already exists I chose to create one of my own and use some of my own ideas. Even though I chose to use my own name and make it more unique in that respect I did in fact take some of my ideas from already existing magazines such as the bold box around the title and the barcode from Sight and Sound. Although using my own magazine name and ideas made my magazine different I found it hard to steer away from the conventions of a real media text and instead simply found myself conforming.

My film poster looks like many other film posters however as I chose to put the title of my film on the bottom right of my poster rather than the centre this is one way it challenges rather than conforms to real media texts. I chose to do this as I felt if I put it anywhere in the centre of my poster it would simply look out of place and block up key parts of my photo. Also I wanted for my poster to stand out from others as I feel this would draw the audience in and make them want to learn more about why it is different. Another way it slightly challenges conventions is by putting my strap line at the top left hand corner and on a diagonal as most film posters again tend to put their strap lines in the centre either at the top or bottom. However it definitely conforms to real media texts by the use of the credits at the bottom and also the date the film is released in bold writing so it can be easily seen. Overall like both my trailer and magazine I have found that my poster seems to conform to real media texts rather than challenge them.

My Trailer

Overall I am very happy with how my trailer has turned out however there are definitely some parts I would change if I had the opportunity to create it all again. For example the two scenes I have of Chloe and Darren sitting on the sofa talking are not how I wanted them to be. This is because you can hardly hear what they are saying as the quality of sound is very poor and also the lighting does not work. The picture itself is also not very clear and if I had the chance I would definitely change this scene by making the picture quality better and the speaking clearer.

I like how the music has turned out and the music at the beginning is very happy and upbeat to fit the mood of the trailer at that time whereas towards the end the music is much more eerie and scary which I felt created suspense and a dark atmosphere.

I also like the close up of Chloe on the phone as I think the closeness shows her in a more vulnerable light which is how she is supposed to be represented. I think her screaming in the middle of the trailer and also at the end are very effective as it makes the audience wonder what she is screaming about and also what she is going through that could be so bad. The use of the crying scene at the end leaves the trailer on a cliffhanger as the audience don't know who or what it is she's upset about so this is supposed to draw them in and want to make them find out more.

Originally I wanted to re-introduce Grant, the psycho ex fiancé, back into the trailer using a shot of Chloe and Darren sitting cuddled up on the sofa just watching a film and enjoying each others company, then for then to be a sudden flash of lightning and Grant to just be standing behind them watching. However after playing around with many different ways of doing this, such as using car head lights, I came to the conclusion this would not be possible as I simply didn't have the technology to create the lightning affect. Instead I simply had to use the scene of Chloe and Darren sitting on the sofa with Grant walking behind them at the window; watching and stalking them.

If my film had been of a bigger budget I would have be able to create this scene and also many other scenes exactly how I wanted them. Having more money would have allowed me to buy the equipment needed to stimulate the lightning and also to be able to have the sound and picture of a better quality. I found that the ways I tried to create the lightning simply looked cheap and un-affective and although my film is of a low budget I didn't want this to appear immediately obvious in my trailer.

Trailer Soundtrack

(The first 7 seconds are corrupt but it then sorts itself out).

The clip from YouTube above is a screen recording of me creating the music for my trailer. I used GarageBand on a Mac Computer as I felt this would help me achieve the desired effect I wanted. Also it enabled me to create the music completely by myself and to play around with different ideas before I came up with the final product.