Final Media Production Evaluation

We have now completed the project and have finished a full length teaser trailer for an action movie; we also have created three professional looking movie posters to coincide with out teaser trailer. The third and final part of the task that we were required to complete was the Movie Magazine Front Cover; we have also now completed this. All three of these were based around our story line for the idea of 'Precognition'.

The coursework option that we decided to choose was the teaser trailer for an action movie. There were 10 different options to choose from for our coursework.

The option that we chose was to complete was:

A promotion package for a release of a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• A website homepage for the film
• A film magazine cover, featuring the film
• A poster for the film

From these 3 options, we have chosen to include a film magazine cover and a film poster. As we are in a group of 3 we have decided to create one teaser trailer between us, one film magazine cover between us and a film poster each.

The other 2 people in the group are Dan Read and Sam Turner. We decided to call the film being 'Precognition'. This is the knowledge of an event before it occurs, it is the ability to foresee the future and predict future events. This is the main theme of our movie trailer. This is a good way to base our movie around. It gives the opportunity to be able to design a storyline around a main character that is able to use this ability.

In our media production our original plan for it was to have a trailer sequence with a large number of scenes that flicker through each one in a fast paced tempo. We then decided to go with a different approach and follow one character through a modern city. It followed the character leaving his place of work and being attacked. During this sequence the main character suffers one of his precognition. During the first sequence the character walks from work to his car, and as he is entering his car he is attacked by 2 men with guns. The trailer then cuts back to the moment in which he has his precognition and he is able to replay this moment in his life. The trailer doesn’t show what comes next, but the main character now draws a gun from beneath his jacket and loads his gun. This gives the viewer an insight into what could now happen and would hopefully make the viewer want to watch the rest of the action movie.

To complete these three tasks we collected a lot of research containing a lot of information that was relevant to our media product. We compared our product to other similar themes from previous work in the media.

There were lots of films from different generations and periods of time. We collected information from previous action movies with a similar basis to ours. For example we compared films like 'Die Hard', 'The Dark Knight' and 'Rambo'. We also compared the lead characters to the character in our film. We have used the examples of John Mclean played by Bruce Willis in The Die Hard quadrilogy, Christian Bale as batman/Bruce Wayne in the 2 latest Batman film and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the terminator. These are all classic original typical action heroes in modern films. We also collected information of the locations used in other action movies. We attempted to get the closest thing to the scenery used in the dark knight and I am legend. These two films are set in high rise modern cities. We found a modern area of Bristol with modern tall buildings to set our media production in. We then looked at soundtracks and special effects used in action movies. We attempted using these concepts in our trailer. We also looked at different equipment and props used in similar films; we used a number of props in our trailer. We looked at similar teaser trailers to ours and looked for small inspiration from others. We looked at the dark knight trailer and the clash of the titan’s trailer. Both of these are big production action movies. During the completion of our magazine cover, we looked at other magazine covers. We looked at the magazines: Total Film and Empire. Both of these are popular movie magazines. We also looked at other action movie posters to see typical common conventions in them. We looked at examples of posters from; '300', 'Hitman', 'Hot Fuzz', 'Street Kings', 'The Dark Knight', 'James Bond', 'Rambo', 'Speed', 'Transformers' and 'Shoot Em Up'.

When researching the other action movie trailers we looked to have some similarities but then looked to have large differences. For example we looked at a number of trailers and looked to change things like the amount of the storyline revealed in the trailers themselves. In our trailer we looked to keep the viewer guessing about what could happen next. We left the end open to the viewer’s imagination, including whether the main character was on the side of good or evil. The main inspiration for us was the Dark Knight which was a modern blockbuster action movie that had high publicity. In this film the lead character (the batman) is a character that tries to fight the forces of evil but at the same time can be portrayed by some as the villain. This movie is dark and doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending for good. It challenges the typical action hero of saving the day and everything is all good and fine come the end of the film. It simply leaves the end of the film open to a new threat. We have looked to incorporate this feeling into out trailer and allow our hero open to the discussion of siding with the good or evil. This gives the character an opportunity to show two sides to him. This is how our media product challenges typical forms and conventions of real media products. By contradicting the typical role of the hero but also it is similar to some other action movies. The opposite of what we have aimed for and what the main character in the dark knight is aimed to portray is for example John Mcclean in die hard or John Rambo in the Rambo series. These 'heroes' are typical heroes that come the end of the film have saved the day and everything is turned back to normality. These are the characters that the audiences are always supporting.

In our media production we were required to complete an action movie teaser trailer, 3 movie posters and a movie magazine front cover. All three of these tasks we have looked to keep them interlinked with each other. In each of our production pieces we used the house style text heading. It is the large bold font with the word Precognition. It is used in each of our movie posters, our magazine cover and the credits for our movie trailer. In two of our pieces (one of the posters and the magazine cover) we coloured the 'C' in 'Precognition' red. This was just to add a variety to our piece. Each of our pieces of production includes our main character. The three posters include images including him with a gun. The differences of our images are that the colouring used. We have used these to add to the effect of making them look more interesting to the viewer. The three images are a red colouring background, one is a yellow glow and the third is more of a dark shady background. The dark poster also promotes the main aim of the film, which is to show the main character in a dark sense and not have him as the typical hero. In each of our images the character is wielding a gun this shows that he could be dangerous.

During the course of our practical activity we have looked for different methods of collecting feedback. Posting out video on YouTube helped us achieve this as people we are not familiar with are able to give us feedback on our production. This can help more than peers or teachers as it is someone from a neutral view. They are only commenting on something they have seen on the web. We received a comment from a viewer saying that it was a great production but could be made better if we rearranged the lighting. As it was shot at night we had to use what lighting we had available to us. We have also received feedback from out peers. They have mainly told us that it is a good production but certain points needed to be improved. We took this advice onboard and fixed the problems due to audience review. I have made my product available to the audience by posting the final piece on YouTube which is available to view by anyone who has the internet at their disposal. We also have our posters and magazine cover and a link to our video on our blogger address. The same address that this evaluation is being completed on. Just a different post.

The media technologies we used during the production of our coursework are: we used Adobe Photoshop CS3. We used this to edit photos that we took. We incorporated this edited images into out poster designs and our magazine cover. All 4 of our images used in our designs were created and completed using Photoshop. We used effects such as colouring and lighting effects, shading effects and blurring effects. These helped our product look more professional. We also used Photoshop to create a template for our movie posters. These helped in the creation process as all we had to do was input an image into the background. We also used YouTube to post our final video on. This was easy as we just had to attach our video final to a YouTube account. We also used YouTube to view action movie teaser trailers. Another media technology we used a lot was the use of the internet. We used this in our research stage by collecting various information on different action movies and themes used in them. We also used it to gather information on different action movie actors. We researched a lot of information during our research using the internet, soundtracks, settings, trailers...etc. we also used the internet to post our various blogs on blogger. This was required to hand in our final production pieces. This was done on a regular basis to keep our blogs up to date. The internet was also used in posting our video onto YouTube. This was to allow an audience to view our final production piece. We also used the internet for collecting images for our research on other similar films.

Video Evaluation

Final Action Teaser Trailer

Below is a link to our final action movie teaser trailer.

Our Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iIOeT5liHY

Also we have included a link to the teaser trailer to 'The Dark Knight'. This is a clip that could be compared to our trailer.

The Dark Knight Teaser Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Weo0MEGU96s

Research

This is the research which we collected before we began our production. It includes information on related information to our production.

Movie Posters

This is one of the three final pieces we have decided to use for our final movie posters. In this poster we have decided to incorporate the small print text beneath the movie title. This is a feature on most movie posters. This includes information on the producers, the directors and the film editors. In this poster we have decided to make the 'C' in the precognition in the title heading red. We felt that it would look affective on this poster. In this poster we have decided to make the actors name along the top fade from white to black. This is to make it look clear against the contrasting background. In this poster we have decided to edit the background photo to add to the effect of it. In parts it is darker than the original photo. we have also included a slogan above the title heading saying 'some people were born to be extraordinary'. This represents the main story basis for our movie trailer.

This is one of the three final pieces we have decided to use for our final movie posters. In this poster we have decided to incorporate the small print text beneath the movie title. This is a feature on most movie posters. This includes information on the producers, the directors and the film editors. In this poster we have decided not to make the 'C' in the precognition in the title heading red. We felt that it would look out of place in this poster. In this poster we have decided to make the actors name along the top white and bold. this is because it looks clear against the black and red background. In this poster we have decided to edit the background photo to add to the effect of it. In parts it is darker. We have also made the image a red colour, this makes the photo look more appealing and gives it a look of blood. The gun can be an image of death which is associated with blood.

This is one of the three final pieces we have decided to use for our final movie posters. In this poster we have decided to incorporate the small print text beneath the movie title. This is a feature on most movie posters. This includes information on the producers, the directors and the film editors. In this poster we have decided not to make the 'C' in the precognition in the title heading red. We felt that it would look out of place in this poster. In this poster we have decided to make the actors name along the top fade from a lighter shade of gray to a dark shade. this is to adapt to the lighting behind it. In this poster we have decided to edit the background photo to add to the effect of it. In parts it is darker. This is a powerful image because it shows the hero/ main character in a striking image with the gun showing.

This is the template that we created. This was the main basis for each of our posters. We started each poster with this templates then incorporated an image and worked it all around this template.

This was another version of one of the final pieces. This has only slight tweakes to the final piece. For example the movie catchphrase or slogan is not included above the title. The actors names at the top of the poster has been changed so that the text is easier to read against the background.

This is another poster that we tested. This has an image that we decided not to use in our final piece. it includes an over the shoulder look of the main character from our teaser trailer. The blakc and white effect of the poster gives it agood effect and makes the different features stand out. This poster also doesent include the traditional 'Precognition' title that we have incorporated into all of our final pieces. it also doesent include the movie text at the bottom of the page which includes information on the creators of the trailer.

This is another image we tested. This image was also used in one of our final posters. The main differences in the two images however are that: At the bottom of the poster there is not the small print movie text which is on most, if not all movie posters. In our final versions of the posters this movie text has been incorporated. The actors names at the top has also been changed in the final pieces. The text and the colouring has changed. The background colour for this image has also been changed for our final piece from the yellow colour similar to another of our posters to a more deep orange or red colour.

This poster is one of our practice posters. This poster uses the same image as our final piece poster. However there are a number of differences. At the bottom of the poster there is not the small print movie text which is a regular feature on most, if not all movie posters. In our later versions of the posters we have incorporated this text into them. The Actors names has been changed at the top of the image. The font and the colouring has been changed, the colouring has been changed because it was difficult to read against the background of the image.

Magazine Cover

This is our final draft for our Film magazine cover. we finally decided to use the red/orange coloured background contrast rather than the black and white image. We used this because it looks more attractive and appealing. We have also decided to use the white text on the black background text boxes. This is to make the text less difficult to read.

This image above is our 3rd draft. In the image we incorporated a black and white effect, we decided to use this as it is also a striking contrast which could entice a reader and attract people to the magazine. However in our final draft we decided against using this effect as we thought that the red colouring looked appealing and makes the image stand out more. We have rearanged the subheadings on the cover page. To deal with the issue of the white bold title headings being difficult to read we have put the text in black background boxes. This allows a strong contrast of white on black which makes the text easier to read.

This is our 2nd draft for our Film magazine cover. In this image we have incorporated one of our own images into the background. I feel that the red contrast lighting effect that we have used in this image has a good effect and makes the image stand out and look appealing. This image however has some negative points. For example the white writing along the left hand side is quite difficult to read. We looked to fix this fault in our final draft.

This was our first draft for a practice magazine cover. In this magazine cover issue we used the title of our teaser trailer as the title of the magazione cover. This was just a quick draft to practice what we were going to base our magazine cover around.

Filming

The filming was carried out in mid february. We decided to film the sequence near the centre of bristol. The area was close to temple meads in an area of modern buildings called temple quay.

During the filming we came accross 1 slight problem. We carried out the filming on a thursday between 00:00 am and 03:00 am. during this time we were travelling along the wells road and were stopped and pulled over by a police unit. They had told us that a group of men had just robbed a post office unit and had escaped in a white Vauxhall Corsa. This happend to be the same vehicle we were driving in that night. In the boot of the car we had 3 model plastic guns. fortunatly for us the policemen understood we were not the criminals and allowed us to leave without any search. Which if they had might have took a lot of explaining and convincing that the weapons were being used for media filming and not looting.

The 5 screen shots above are the alternative location that was our first idea for filiming our production. We decided not to use this area as the new area we found was more suited to our idea for our film.

This is the video camera we used. It is the Fujifilm finepix S2500.