Evaluation Activity 4 - How did you use new technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Youtube

YouTube has been very helpful for us when we were needing to research other trailers. It has the vast majority of all films which has enabled to gather the information needed. The problems we encounted with the software was that at school it was very slow and time consuming. This may not be YouTube's fault but in fact the school connection. Overall we were happy while using this software.

Camera and Tripod

The camera and tripod have been very useful. The video camera has allowed us to film in a high degree of quality to make our teaser trailer look more realistic and authentic. The tripod allowed us to film still images which improved the different shots in our teaser trailer. We also used a microphone to help intensify our sound and therefore improve the diagetic sound especially. The only problem we had with the tripod was that when we went out filming one time it was in fact broken so we found it difficult to film fixed shots.

Blogger

Blogger has allowed us to record all of our work this year including our planning and research, teaser trailer, ancillery tasks and our evaluation. It makes it clear and easy to access. It is also very simple to use. Blogger has helped us gather all our research and then therefore we have been able to put this into our trailer, magazine and film poster. The positives for using blogger must be that it is very easy to find the research we have found and made. Some problems that we have come across while using are that is very easy to forgot to post things you have learnt and found out. Also from time to time it doesn't necessary work at home.

Evaluation Activity 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From our class mates feedback we thought there were quite a few positives while also being s couple of negatives

Positives:
- Editing was smooth and continuous throughout
- Starts off slow then speeds up near the end
- Film poster was simple but effective
- Magazine links in with genre of the film

Negatives:
- Possibly had a couple more locations to add the gangster effect
- Background lighting for the magazine front cover
- Some of the diagetic sound doesnt quite fit together

We feel all these criticisms are fair and we have taken them on board.

Evaluation Activity 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We are pleased with our final three tasks as they have all linked well with each other. We have tried to used similar font throughout because we felt it would give it a good effect and will make each tasks link together.From the dark colours used in our teaser trailer we have attempted to use the same colour again throughout. This is because the colours all link with our teenage crime/black cinema genre. Although the film poster is quite basic and lacks information, from our research we found that most film posters are quite basic so that it gets the audience thinking and talking about the film.

I feel that with our final teaser trailer we have come along greatly from our preliminary task. I feel that footage is a lot clearer and we have been able to use many different effects that we weren't aware of when creating our preliminary task. For example we used a simple fade during the trailer which i feel has been very effective. We have also used a time elapse in parts of the trailer, this was because some scenes needed to be speeded up to keep the pace of trailer high. We also feel all our shots are a lot more steady which makes the whole teaser trailer more professional.Various shot types were used throughout to make it more effective and more appealing to the audience.

Evaluation Activity 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Title font and styles

We decided to use quite basic font and colours throught the different tasks. We did this so there was a clear link between the teaser trailer and the ancillery tasks. We used the colours red, black and white mostly throughout all o the tasks as these link to our genre and have negative connotations, which links to the narrative of our film.

Storyline

We decided to start the trailer slow and speed it up as it went on. We wanted to do this as this is a typical convention of a teaser trailer and it also helps to build tension and excitement. The first scene is the buyers entering the car park to get the drugs. The camera then shows the dealers. Through the use of camerwork it is clear who are the buyers and who are the dealers in this scene without the need for any dialogue. The pace of the teaser trailer then picks up after the dealer punches the buyer. This is then follwed by the car chase scene, where we use fast paced editing to excite the audience. This is then followed by the tirle of the film, then a montage of one of the actors in his car. During all the scenes the backing trck is playing which again helps to build tension and excitement for the audience which will hopefully entice them to watch the film.

Genre

The genre is made very clear from the outset. It is clear it will be an action film due to the fighting scene followed by a car chase scene. Our teaser trailer could be classified as a hybrig genre as there are features of the action genre (fighting scene, car chase) and it could also be clssified as the gangster genre. This however is made clear due to the mise-en-scene especially (costumes, lighting, location). We felt it was crucial to establish the genre clearly as we want the audience to be aware of what the film is about before they go and see it.

Editing

These three shots represent continuity editing. We wanted to film the car chase from different angles and then edit it together to craete realism at a high pace. This is often done in a action teaser trailer where car chases are used. this fast paced editing helps to create tension and excitement for the audience. All of the shots were filmed from a fairly long distance, so that the audience can get a full viw of what is going on. We also chose to use fast paced editing as this is a common feature of most teaser trailers where montages are commonly used to create excitemnet towards the film.

Costume

We spent a lot of time thinking about costume for our actors as we thought this part of the mise-en-scene was crucial in oder to create a sense of realism and familiarity for the audience to relate to. We decided on using typical teenage gangster clothing which in modern society is hoodies and trackies. Our target audience is teenagers and young adults so the will be aware of the stereotypes associated with teenage crime, therefore this is a good way to introduce the personality of characters as we did in the opening scene. This technique is commonly used in teaser trailers when characters are intoduced. you can often tell the personality of a character by what they are wearing and how they are positioned in a frame. This therefore reduces the need for a lot of detail or explanation.

Special effects

We used special effects when editing this gear change. We speeded up the gear change so that it fitted better with the fast paced action. We were limited in the special effects we could produce as we didnt have the specialist equipment and software to utilise. This was a slight problem as most teaser trailers of the action genre include loads of explosions and special effects during a car chas scene.

Setting/Location

We decided to film our teaser trailer at night in a large, abandoned car park. We chose this location because it is a realistic setting to where a drug deal would take place. Another reason for this choice is the car pick is lit with streetlights which made it easier to film at night.This lighting also added more reality to the look of the location and we thought it was particularly effective in creating natural lighting. We introduced the setting in the first scene of our teaser trailer. This is a typical convention of most teaser trailers, as they usually introduce the setting in the first scene to make the audience feel comfortbale and at ease with what they are watching.

Title

The title of our film appears in the middle of our teaser trailer. This is not conventional of a typical teaser trailer where the title of a film usually comes up at the end or at the start. We have have tried to be different by showing the title half way through. We felt this went well with the flow of the teaser and helped to break up two different scenes. The title of our film we thought carefully about. We chose the name Class A as it has connotations of drugs and the first scene in our teaser trailer is a drug deal therefore we thought this was effective and gives the audience an idea about what the film is about.

Class A - Magazine front cover

This is our magazine front cover. At first we were thinking of doing an empire magazine front cover because it is well known within the media industry. We were finding it hard to emulate because we couldn't get the font to match up. So we decided to chose a magazine that was linked to our genre. Therefore we chose grime daily. We feel that the title goes well with the rest of the font and picture. The picture has also come out well which is good because it attracts the audience to it. We have included insides on other films such as shank and attack the block because they are both linked to our own film. We have tried to keep it quite basic so that the audience can visualise everything on the cover. The only thing that i would change to our magazine cover was the font of the title.