Welcome to my A2 Media Studies Blog. Here I will present my research and planning for my production of a promotional film trailer alongside two ancillary products; a poster and a magazine cover, where I have tried to incorporate typical codes and conventions of existing media products. On the right hand side is a link to my Foundation Portfolio where you can see my skills development throughout the course, as I adopted new techniques and abilities.

29 December 2011

Progress Update

Over the Christmas break, I continued with the editing process and hope to produce a second draft trailer to show my target audience in order to gain feedback. I will then make changes in relation to their comments.

5 December 2011

Progress Update

Using the programme 'Garage Band', I have merged together two similar songs from different horror films in order to create a tense atmosphere to my trailer. The audio builds up slowly to a loud finale that I can work into my trailer to ensure the shots used match with the tone of the music.


28 November 2011

Progress Update

I have been making changes to the order of shots in my trailer and made decisions on reshoots and extra footage that is needed. I plan to film the required clips this week in order to import and edit them as soon as possible.

21 November 2011

Progress Update




In this lesson I began adding the production company logo and text frames into my trailer using the precision editor tool in iMovie

18 November 2011

Progress Update

In this lesson I have experimented with inserting an audio clip into my trailer as well as testing different visual effects. I made changes to the white point in particular shots to give a better feel to the trailer and introduced the 'Ken Burns' effect to vary the types of shot used throughout and to prevent the trailer from having too many still shots as it would not maintain a fast pace throughout.

17 November 2011

Progress Update

In today's lesson, I began adding the billing block to the bottom of my film poster, as well as making changes to the font styles and colours to create the right effect, using photoshop.


14 November 2011

Progress Update

In this lesson I began laying out the basis for my magazine cover, adding a title and main feature article titles to the front page. I included a barcode in the layout and a date and issue number to make the magazine appear official. I plan to carry out a photo shoot with my main antagonist in order to get an appropriate image for the magazine front cover

Notes for images (typical conventions)
antagonist, lighting from beneath to emphasise face (with make up)
dark background/setting - wooded area?
looking into the camera to attract audience attention

11 November 2011

Progress Update

I showed various members of my focus group different a rough draft of my trailer and parts that I wish to change in hope that they would provide some guidance. There have therefore been shots I have decided to remove and I have included some that I had originally discarded. I have also been searching for a possible soundtrack to modify and use throughout my trailer in order to build tension and create a scary atmosphere.

9 November 2011

Progress Update

I have begun work on editing my film trailer using iMovie. I have inserted audio clips from iMovie to test which would have the best effect throughout the trailer. After importing my footage, I started sorting which clips I would use for my final piece. I have decided to film more to ensure I can extract the best clips from all footage and ensure my character is represented in the correct way. I also hope to record an audio for my trailer - selected lines from the poem 'Antigonish' to create the right effect.

3 November 2011

Questionnaire Results

I have compiled the results of my audience questionnaire in order to get feedback on what viewers want from a trailer

Results

The results show that among an age 15-21 target audience, comedy and horror are the two most popular genres and a mixture of social networking, television, Youtube and cinemas are the tools most used to watch trailers. The answers revealed that the on screen image is the most effective part of a trailer, but also that the plot is a key factor when someone is watching a film. This means that I will have to use both a strong image and narrative to attract an audience for my trailer as well as minimising the use of text.

19 October 2011

Progress Update

In this lesson, I have been creating possible layouts for my promotional poster using photoshop

17 October 2011

16 October 2011

I have been producing an animatic to get an idea of timings used throughout my trailer

13 October 2011

Progress Update

In this lesson I have been creating a storyboard to plan my filming process