Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have identified certain conventions from film media products of the comedy- drama genre and used them for my own product. I used recognisable techniques and shots so that my audience would be hooked and involved with the story instantly. From my research into comedy-drama film trailers I noticed that the majority are told in a linear narrative and also follow Todorov's narrative theory. I used both narrative styles when planning the order of my products storyline because it showcases both sub-genres in ways that will draw in the audience most effectively. A non-linear storyline would result in my audience feeling confused about how the story should make them feel. The storyline is both equally as dramatic as it is comedic and the linear narrative compliments the diversity best allowing the audience to understand the constant ascending and descending of emotions without leaving them depressed.
A convention linked with the humorous side of films that I developed within my own product was from the film trailer 'This is where I leave you'. Throughout this trailer it used faster editing of the characters smiling and laughing in certain sections to create a light and happy feel to the film, I tried to develop this convention within my own work by using the fast pace however I decided to  switch between scenes that showed happy and sad emotions so that the audience would get a rounder feel of the genre and understand deeper what the film would be showing.
Usually within trailers with the same genre as mine a lot of dialogue would be included to inform the audience. At first I was planning on doing this also however after my idea had developed itself I decided that I would try and capture the audiences emotions and attention through as little dialogue as I possibly could. Personally, I feel that what I was hoping to do can be seen within my work however it doesn't work as well with the audience as would have hoped. If I was to change my trailer in some ways, I would definitely include more dialogue within the trailer.
My magazine included and used a lot of conventions that would usually be seen within a film magazine. I chose to do this because I felt that from looking at existing film magazines such as 'Empire' and 'Total Film' the connection and detail that they include from the films is incredible, they jump of the shelf and that's what I wanted for my own magazine. I took inspiration about the type of layout that I wanted for my magazine from images on the internet and I noticed that there are repetitive conventions used within all film magazines. For example the placement of the title in almost all film magazines is in the centre and at the top of the page, I did this within my own magazine so that it would pop off the shelf.
Film posters have various different ways of using their layout to compliment their style of movie. For the 'This is where I leave you' film poster is was very plain and simple and to the point. I liked this style because it got the message across without giving too much information and confusing the target audience. I decided that this would be convention in which I used within my poster also. Therefore I only used the main title of the film, the names of the actors and other small information. I tried to challenge the convention of having the name of the film in a large font because I thought that it would make the audience have to look harder and notice more things about the poster. I don't feel that challenging this convention within my own work was a great idea because, even though its in bright colours and jumps of the page, the font would have pushed even more at catching the audience attention if say walking past it in the street.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
My main task was to create a film trailer in the genre of a comedy-drama, one of my two ancillary tasks was to create a magazine cover and the other to create a poster for the film. Personally, I believe that the combination of my main product and the ancillary tasks work well. The colour scheme that I chose for them can be seen and are quite constant throughout both ancillary tasks, I do wish that it could have been interpreted more within the film trailer as I found it hard to find locations that were mainly coated with pastel colours. Also In would have liked to have more time within the editing stages so that I could try and include the colours in through editing. However, I didn't have much time to colour grade the trailer due to filming delays which resulted in the loss of pastel colours within my trailer. The use of actors and locations link together throughout the different levels of my project which I thinks works nicely and allows the common connection between the three.
Out of the three products I believe that the magazine cover is the strongest, this is because it shows the audience the genre through the colour scheme and the foreshadowing of the drama within the clouded blue sky that I tried to include. I also think that it shows the conventions of a real life magazine best out of any of my products. Visually it links in many ways to other real life examples of film magazine and that's what makes it the best product for me.
The worst would have to be the trailer itself, I had never used any of the programmes or some of the technology that I used whilst making the trailer. Therefore my knowledge on how and what to do to create the best video was minimal. Also I didn't think through some of the decisions I had made for the storyline such as the bedroom scene in the middle of the night. This didn't work well because the set was extremely dark and once I had used a luna visual editing technique the clip was lightened but the colours changed so that it didn't match the rest of the video.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The audience feedback that I got was for both the ancillary tasks. For my magazine I drew a rough outline of how I was going to set the layout of the magazine with what could be the background image to convey my film. I initially drew two ideas then decided on the design that I personally preferred. I then asked people within my target audience of 19-25 year olds what they thought about the main image and what layout and font of text they thought would work best. The choice of colour that many said during giving their feedback was reds and yellows as they felt it would stand of the page and draw a buyers eye. The feedback that I received in this stage ended up quite similar to how real life film magazines looked. I was happy with this feedback because I feel that from research the layouts and styles in real life film magazines is eye-catching and will link to the target audience. Once I had the first set of feedback on the magazine I created a second rough magazine copy using Photoshop, I did this to show a similar product of how my final magazine cover will turn out. Again I presented the magazine to a group of my target audience and received further feedback. The feedback from this group mostly stressed concern about the colour scheme saying that it all clashes with one another and makes the magazine look lesser. The new colour scheme that was suggested was more towards pastel colour which would link in closely with the name of my film. Another suggestion was to give some of the levels of the magazine depth by creating shadows to help raise them off of the page, I felt that this was really lovely feedback and agreed that it would bring my magazine closer to a professional level. I then created my final magazine cover I tried to include any feedback that I received during the last audience feedback talk, however had to make certain design choices that goes against what some of the audience suggested, for example someone said that they think that the magazine should show more detail and by this I thought more text. I didn't agree with this as I felt that it would make the magazine look cluttered and draw the reader eye away from the main piece about my main media product. I was really happy with all the feedback that I received about my magazine and I can visually see the transformation from drawing to final piece and how it all helped me shape a better cover that links to my main product in various ways.
I used a very similar sequence with my poster, I started with two drawing of which I decided was the best and linked most to my film trailer. I then drew a rough outline of how it may look. With this I received feedback about the layout which was mostly positive and wasn't much change to it. I then created a rough idea using Photoshop. Once I had received feedback about this rough out line, which was mostly bad saying that they don't think that it would link or attract the audience. Therefore, I changed the design to my other one. I only created the second idea as my final poster design and didn't have time to receive any more feedback.
The creation of my main media product took longer than expected and I wasn't able to receive any feedback for it.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In my planning stages I used an array or different programs to help me research about comedy drama films, such as Google, YouTube, Blogger, Slideshare, IMDb and Microsoft programmes. To research existing comedy drama film trailers I used YouTube and IMDb for viewing purposes. IMDb also gave me crucial information about the films themselves that went and helped a lot during the planning stages. Blogger was what was mostly used to show my research and planning its what has held all of the information that I have gathered so that it is easily assessable for me and others to view. It was highly useful to me as I could imbed photos, videos and PowerPoints to showcase my work.
Technologies were what all of my main and ancillary task was initially filmed and photographed with, without having cameras, iMacs, tripods and even phones I wouldn't have been able to create any of my main products. I used the camera to film the footage that I included within my trailer and also to photograph the images that were used for the background of the magazine and poster. The iMac is where I edited both film trailer and ancillary tasks, I used different programmes in this stage for the editing such as premier pro and Photoshop. I feel that these specific technologies worked well and helped me create some really good work with my ancillary tasks and standard work for my film trailer. I do however feel that my use of the technologies during my film trailer filming and editing wasn't up to par and could have been improved greatly. The camera filmed the footage in as strange way that when editing made the film smaller that the size of the screen, this brought the standard of the trailer down I also feel that I could have learned more about premier pro as doing this would have helped me edit the footage better, resulting in the overall video to be at a higher, more professional looking standard.

Overall I am happy with both of my ancillary tasks as I feel that they work nicely with my theme and the genre that I had chosen for my trailer. I think that they look close to what real life film magazines and posters would produce and feel that my use of Photoshop during my editing brought them both up a level. I am not truly happy with how my trailer turned out and can see many different areas that could use some improvements however I learned a vast amount while filming and editing that will help me in the future.