Coursework text final drafts

Below are the final drafts of my main text, and ancillary texts.

Soap Trailer Final Draft

Magazine Cover Final Draft

Soap Poster Final Draft

Evaluation Conclusion

In conclusion, through this year's study, I feel as though I have learned a substantial amount about the art of film making, including how to use and manipulate conventions to address multiple audiences, both old and new. I also feel as though I know more about the intricate workings of a range of media, such as TV production, but now also the production process of creating images and utilising synergy to create a marketing campaign - an incredibly useful skill in some areas of work.
In addition to this, I feel as though I have also advanced greatly in my skills across a range of media devices, ranging from editing software, to image editing software, with my skills in Photoshop in particular having advanced. This is also highlighted in the juxtaposition from last year's coursework, which although I was proud of at the time, looking back it seems very stereotypical and contrived in comparison to my work this year.

Evaluation activity: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Technology is evolving at such an incredible rate, each day it seems a newer and fresher program or piece of hardware is created making our lives slightly easier. Even still, the technology we this year has changed rapidly from the technology we used last year for editing, and as of such we were able to use newer hardware too.

Last year we used a simple camcorder with tape and a tripod to film our horror movies, and then edited them together on Adobe Premier. The software was easy enough to use once I came to terms with the tools and how to utilise them properly, but our editing options were still limited to cuts, some fading effects and anything else that we could do manually, thus resulting in an incredibly lengthy editing process in which I'd need to spend up to an hour simply moving a text.

This year, however, we were editing using Apple iMacs, on the program Final Cut Pro X. The tools and process remained the same, but the program allowed us to add so many effects and clips that we were a bit overwhelmed at first. Although trailers usually don't have many effects I felt like there were a few effects I could add, one of which being the earthquake effects, which was used during the the scenes when there was a clash between characters, or if there was something significant happening. A few examples of this effect was during the scene where the father bumps into the homosexual couple, or again when the hooded character bumps into the businessman sending his jacket flying. I tried to make the effect subtle so it only just shook the screen, thus emphasizing significant events in the trailers.

Another significant improvement from last year to the new systems is the use of title effects. Last year, I was dreading having to animate the BBC logo at the end of my Soap trailer on Adobe Premier, as it would require either importing the actual clip from the internet which might pose some ethical issues, or I would have had to have used a simple screengrab, which would look unprofessional and would have ruined the overall effect of the trailer. However there is an entire section of Final Cut Pro X which is dedicated to animated title effects and other similar effects to add to the film. One of which was a red circling effect which looked similar to BBC one's famous rotating circle which appears after trailers and before shows. This also allowed me to avoid ethical issues with the editing as the title effect was an original Mac animation.

Another huge advantage that we had while constructing and editing our film was the ease of access that Final Cut Pro X allowed us, as instead of having to wade through multiple folders and drafts to simply locate the correct film like we did on the PCs, the Macs allowed us to simply open the program, and we'd be able to simply work from there. In addition to this, the Macs also have a tab in the bottom right corner as seen in the screenshot above, which provided fast access to other films we have made, such as multiple drafts, thus saving time getting ready to edit, and it also showed the locations and timings of every clip, sound effect and effect which meant if something was off, we could either use it to correct the timings, or locate and remove that item, again saving us a huge amount of time, whereas Adobe Premier required us to manually scan through the timeline to find the one effect, which with all of the effects we used, would take a long time.

Another useful feature in Final Cut Pro is the timeline and the clip area to the left of the screen. This is another huge advantage over Adobe Premier as all of the effects, pictures, clips and sound effects that I have used making the video is listed there, which means if I accidentally remove anything from the timeline I can quickly locate it once more on the screen and replace it, whereas Premier would require me to locate it again from the files and export it again. This along with most other improvements, made no significant impact on the editing process, except last year when I edited it took a few weeks, whereas this year the editing only took half a week, which I believe had to do with the incredibly time efficient use of effects and the layout on this program as opposed to Premier which took much longer to work with.

Another huge step up the Mac holds over last year's PCs was that the Mac allowed us to process high definition footage from an SD card, whereas the PCs could only handle tapes which left a grainy quality after editing. This in turn meant that we were able to capture all of the important details, such as David holding a photo of the baby, and therefore we were able to tell a more fluent story simply through the visuals as would be possible through the PCs. In addition to this, the HD footage looks much more professional as well having been filmed with digital equipment and also edited on state of the art software, which is what would probably have been used in professional studios such as BBC.
In addition to the availability of Macs for editing, we were able to also use new camera technology, as the Macs were now compatible. As mentioned, these cameras filmed in HD with SD cards to capture more footage:

This camera uses an SD card to capture footage which enables larger save files than last year's tape files. As of such we are able to film in high definition also. However the largest advantage this camera has over last year's cameras is that due to the SD card, we did not have to worry about filming over footage of ruining any files, and that allowed us to just pick up the camera after every scene and film another without having to fast forward the tape. This also means that the transfer between film and the computers was much faster, as it was a simple case of transferring the files between systems, whereas last year required us to transfer tape into the system which took much longer. In addition to this, sometimes I'd find that the tape didn't record properly or the footage was a bit damaged, and would require re-filming. This was not an issue using SD cards as the footage was instantly viewable after without having to rewind or fast forward any tapes, thus saving time.

Another advantage over last year was the use of youtube to upload videos using Web 2.0. Last year I uploaded some videos to youtube, such as the final draft of the horror movie to use for the annotations, but the rest of the videos were uploaded straight to blogger after transferring the file type via Windows Movie Maker. This year however, I uploaded the videos staright to my youtube accounts which not only saved time, but it also allowed us to upload the videos in 1080p - the highest definition, whereas transferring it on windows movie maker would reduce the quality substantially.
In addition to this, uploading the videos to youtube allowed people to make comments  which allowed the possibility for feedback from multiple audiences on whatever may be changed.

Returning from last year is the use of Photoshop. Since starting the course in the Summer of 2010, I have improved substantially on Photoshop. This is also useful as this course requires me to use Photoshop more proficiently than last year. This is due to my only use of Photoshop last year was creating a specific font style for use on the horror movie, and wasn't compulsory.

However, this year we were required to use the technology to create our ancillary texts, and so having improved since last year was incredibly beneficial, as the picture above shows an entirely original piece on created on Photoshop.

Finally, we also used cameras once more for the location shooting. The camera we used to document the filming and do location settings is called a Fujifilm Finepix S5800 Digital Camera with 8.0 megapixels and 10x optical zoom - the camera we used last year also.

These cameras were used primarily to shoot the location photos, however they were also used to document the filming process. The use of digital technology and SD storage, just like the camera, allowed us to quickly store information and upload it on the internet. This is beneficial primarily to the blog as it allows me to quickly and efficiently document important photos of the filming process, which helps highlight the steps taken to create our media product which is one of the main purposes of this blogger account - another use of new technology.

Evaluation Activity: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

An incredibly useful resource in creating any creative piece is the constructive criticism from others. When I had finished my Soap Trailer around Christmas 2011, I thought it was done well and could not be improved much more. However as always, whenever someone makes something, they are likely to be biased towards the work, either consciously or subconsciously.
Therefore the audience feedback session from an audience of year 12 Media Students was necessary to highlight any problems that were present in our media films.
Below is my first draft of my Media film, completed and uploaded to the internet on the fourth of January:

We then had to construct a questionnaire that highlighted any potential problems, and also asked general questions such as whether or not the trailer suited the Soap Genre.

My questionnaire asked 10 questions and was answered by 14 groups:

1. After viewing this trailer, would you say it suits the Soap genre?

2. Would you watch the Soap after viewing this trailer?

3. Is the music appropriate for the trailer/genre?

4. Should there be text to accompany the voiceovers?

5. Is the trailer the right length?

6. Are there enough conventional characters for a Soap?

7. Is there a variety of shots?

8. Is there anything that can be improved?

9. What works well?

10. Is the editing appropriate (lighting, transitions etc.)?

Once the questionnaire was distributed to the AS level class, whom were organised into various groups of fourteen, I learned that my movie was relatively well received by them, with many students complementing the choice of music over many other things.

However, through close analysis of the questionnaires, I learned that although the vast majority of people who viewed the trailer suggested adding text over the voiceover work. This was a good idea, although in the end I decided it would not help the trailer, as the text already added at the introduction to character segments did enough to establish the characters, and adding additional text to the voiceovers too would make the trailer far too cluttered.
I know this as I tried adding voice over texts when I was editing for the first time, and although it would have added more to establish characters, it did indeed make the advert far too cluttered. It also ended up revealing too much about the characters, whereas the text I have in the soap already reveals a small amount of back story through one and two word phrases, but left a majority to a mystery, thereby enticing the customers to watch the show to learn more. An effective use in marketing.

Another suggestion from my questionnaire's feedback is that the song we used was inappropriate. Although I disagree, I can see to an extent why it may not be conventional for a Soap. However, I was unable to change the music by this point because I had timed it to work with the cues on film, and also because although it is unconventional, that was also our objective; to market a show that follows conventions but is also it's own product in order to add something fresh and new to this genre. Therefore, I decided that ultimately, there was not enough people raising an issue with the music (with one of the criticisms saying yes and no) to justify considering changing it around and choosing another song to fit the mood and the film itself.

However, one complaint I learned from the questionnaire that I decided I did think was worth changing, was the point raised by group 6, in that the trailer was too long. This was also raised by group 14, suggesting we make our shots shorter.
Although not many people raised this issue, on hindsight, it was a glaringly obvious one, as the trailer ran for 1:46, which is astonishingly long for a trailer. Therefore, I decided that it was worth going through the trailer and cutting out shots where nothing happens, or shots that simply ran too long.
The end result was a significantly shorter trailer, which actually in my opinion, runs much more fluently than the first draft.

In this version of the film, numerous shots were shortened by around a second, to a few seconds at a time. This made the trailer seem much faster paced. I also used this opportunity to change the song arrangement, as the original version of the song was cut off in the middle and rearranged to start over. Although I made many, many attempts to smooth the transition as much as possible, it was incredibly noticeable and so I changed it to play normally.

However, I didn't just learn criticism from the audience feedback, a large percentage of my feedback results came back positive with many compliments such as good characters and shots, multiple comments about the choice of music being good, the text and voice overs, and one group even said I had the best editing.

Overall, just the same as last year, this questionnaire feedback has been invaluable in our coursework editing process, as it pointed out many good things and bad things about our trailer, which gave us a unique and in depth view from many others' observations, and it gave me much more of an insight in what to change and what to keep in my media trailer in order to improve it. The end result, I believe, was a stronger, better and much more fluent trailer which I think is more likely to look like it belongs on TV than the first draft, and so to the year 12s who have given us this information, I would like to thank you for your participation.

Below are the final results from the questionnaires that were returned to us:
Green (Positive)

Yellow (Criticism)

Black (No Response)

Evaluation Activity: How effective is the combination of your main product and anciallary texts?

The main combination between our main product and ancillary texts is described in the video below:

As described in the video, the main combination between our ancillary texts and the main product is the characters themselves, creating a synergy between the products. This is because the characters are the main feature of both the trailers and the show itself. Therefore, by using them as a marketing tool, besides creating a synergy, it also raises the excitement of the show due to the characters being semi-established already in the trailer.

Below is the script for this video:

[Begin Clip]
The main thing we needed to keep in mind during the planning stage of our media product is the conventions of Soaps and how we’d tailor them to our demographic.
Characters are vastly important to any Soap as they are always the focal point. If the audience does not enjoy the characters, the Soap is bound to fail. Therefore we found that, similar to Hollyoaks, the main appeal our Soap has to our target demographic is the majority of characters being of a teenage demographic also, and therefore the audiences can relate to our characters.
We therefore decided that, despite the troubles of the characters, we need to portray them in a way that showcased their troubles, but also made them sympathetic.
Therefore, as Teens tend to spend their time in social groups, we decided that the final shot should be of all of our characters standing around the signpost to Avenue Road – the sign that provided the inspiration for our soap title. However, I thought this shot also showcased all of the characters and therefore for the purposes of marketing the soap (our ancillary texts), would provide a good source of synergy both for the characters and the show itself, as a recognisable stance. However, despite the shot showcasing the characters, the location for the shot isn’t perfect, as it is bleak and does not showcase the mise-en-scene in an effective manner[go back to image of final shot]
[Show poster] therefore, I changed the positioning of the characters slightly, moved the sign, and changed the setting of the photo, thereby providing a better location for the combination for our characters to the mise-en-scene. This also makes the image look more original, as the characters are not in the same stance as they were in for the for the trailer.
This image also worked well on the cover of my magazine, [show magazine] as the characters are in a compact stance, and therefore, I was able to fit them all in position on the cover of this magazine. Additionally, the position of Harry, the drug dealer from the trailer, also works with the strapline, as he is immediately above it and therefore is instantly relatable to the strapline story.
Therefore, in essence, the characters are the show’s main appeal, and double up for the synergy between our three products - the film, the poster and the magazine cover. Therefore, using the characters as synergy allows an effective link between the film and ancillary texts, by creating an instantly recognisable image for both the characters and the show itself.
Thank you for watching, and listening to this presentation.