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

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

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

Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Ancillary tasks)

• My inspiration for my magazine cover came from the Variety Power of Youth issue with Nina Dobrev and Abigail Breslin. I thought this poster was really effective as it showed the two characters and there is a mode of address as they are looking right into the camera. I wanted to copy this style of having half of each girls face on the cover, which perhaps symbolises that the two girls together make a whole. 
• I also chose to put the title above the images of the two girls like in the Power of Youth issue, instead of it being behind the actresses heads in order to follow conventions of a real magazine cover. There is also a small puff outlining what issue and what month this magazine is, which is also a convention of a Variety magazine cover. 
• I decided to use a black title instead of the white in the original cover as I though it would stand out more against the light background and also because the dark colour adds a bit of mystery to the storyline, making more people interested in reading what the film entails.
• In the Power of Youth cover, they used a bright yellow colour to show what the issue was about, I was inspired by this and decided to put my text in the turquoise colour that I have used throughout my trailer so that audience can recognise the colour and link it to my trailer and poster. 
• There is minimal text on the cover, except the line of black with information about what is included in the rest of the magazine. I decided to include this as it is important for audiences to know what else is in the issue as they may be interested in another subject or topic that is going to be discussed within the magazine. 
• I think my magazine cover looks realistic and has the conventions of a real magazine cover. 

• My inspiration for my poster came from The Perks of being a Wallflower poster as I really like the simplicity of it. It shows the characters personalities, Logan Lerman's character being comforted by others as he is insecure and Emma Watson's character being loving. I think I was able to do the same in my poster, showing that Casey is sad and worried and Ellie is looking into the future and excited. This conveys the characters personalities well so that the audience knows what to expect when they see the film
• I chose to use the font that I had also used in the trailer to link the products together and I put it at the top of the poster like The Perks of being a Wallflower poster, It is the biggest piece of text on the poster as it is the most important convention of a film poster
• I also included social media links, which are also on The Perks of being a Wallflower poster, this is to create an active audience. This means that the audience is able to find out more about the film, or behind the scenes etc, this is a conventional method of establishing an audience
• I decided to add a review instead of a tagline, as I wanted to show that it my film was 5 stars and also I felt like there was quite a big gap of empty space between the credits and the characters so I wanted to include something.
• I think my poster is conventional and much like real posters especially like The Perks of being a Wallflower as it is also a teen drama.

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

1. I decided to put the main title of my film at the end of the trailer as this is conventional in a lot of different trailers. The title is the last thing the audience sees when viewing the trailer therefore it will stick with them, the title is repeated by the actors/voiceovers throughout and at the end they are presented with the link that ties the storyline together of friendship and separation. I put the title over action of a plane as the two link together, ‘I Wish You Were Here’ is a popular expression associated with travelling (the plane taking off) but also with the separation between friends or family, which is what my narrative involves. A film with a title similar to mine is Miss You Already, it cleverly uses a well known saying to relate it to the themes of loss and separation in the film. This title was also shown at the end of the trailer and is mentioned in a prior scene. 

2. For my trailer I thought it was important to include a range of locations and settings as in real drama trailers, the settings are always varied and don’t just take place in the one place. This shot is from Disneyland as this is where Ellie goes which was one of the things the girls should have done together. It is a well known place and the castle is the symbol that audiences can recognise. This location and sunny weather contrasts the scene of Casey at home, showing the separation of the two friends. This conforms with conventions of drama trailers for example in the Miss You Already trailer, there are a number of locations included Amsterdam and London, which are represented by symbols and landmarks, e.g. the bridges and the London Eye. There is also the contrast between Jess’ life which is good and Milly’s life which is the opposite. I wanted to portray this in the trailer without pulling too far away from the theme of friendship.

3. The costumes and props I used were quite typical for teen dramas, for example, the hat that Casey wears to show that she is ill, and mobile phones which are popularly used in teen films. One of the main props that may perhaps be unique to my film is ‘the list’. This prop is so important because it shapes the storyline of Ellie completing the list for Casey, which perhaps is not the best idea in the end as it leaves Casey feeling jealous and lonely. Another important part of the costume is Casey’s hat as this is a recognisable symbol of someone with cancer. It is featured in many films and usually represents that the person is weak and insecure, much like Ellie and Casey’s relationship becomes throughout the trailer. The hat could also symbolise Casey as a person, quite hidden and enclosed. A hat is also present in the Miss You Already trailer to perhaps symbolise weakness within Milly, therefore it is a conventional prop in this genre.

4. For editing, I used different transitions in certain parts of the trailer to create an effect of a flashback. I used bright, flash transitions at the end of the trailer when going from young Casey and Ellie to teen Casey and Ellie. I did this to symbolise the ‘best friend’ theme throughout and the coming of age that they had experienced together. I have noticed that teen dramas do use a lot of flashbacks to childhood memories in the trailers, therefore I thought it would be essential to include in my trailer too. In the Miss You Already trailer, there are flashes from when the girls were kids to present day to show how their friendship has stayed the same. I really liked this technique and so conformed to this convention of teen drama trailers.

5. I decided to use a cute, handwriting style of font as it is stereotypical teen girls handwriting, especially the heart dots for i’s. It is conventional and the audience can recognise the stereotypical girly writing and thus relates it to the genre of teen films. In Miss You Already, a similar handwriting font is used, however they use bigger and smaller with different colour writing to perhaps symbolise the difference in characters, Milly being bold and Jess being more quiet. I decided to keep the same colour of my inter titles because I also used this teal/turquoise colour in my poster, therefore this colour can be recognised by the audience to link the products together. I added in a “from the makers of…” inter title as this is a generic convention of trailers aswell as a review from a newspaper.

6. The opening of my trailer sets up the storyline as the narrative is based around the idea of a ‘list’ of things the girls want to do when they are older. Therefore it was important for me to include the fact that they have planned to stay friends in the future and do things together and not separately. This could give the audience an idea that things might not go to plan and the friends may end up being separated somehow, leaving the list uncompleted. I think the voice over also works well to sum up the film that some things in life can’t be planned and we just have to deal with issues day by day, which is how Casey begins to live without Ellie. The opening to Miss You Already also sums up the themes of friendship and separation, when Jess says, “I want Milly.” And then goes onto explain the friendship between the two girls.

7. The opening of the trailer also sets up the genre of the film. I really like the opening of the film because it really shows the coming of age aspect of teen dramas which is a generic convention in most films from this genre. We see the girls from childhood grow up into teenagers and we feel like we have come on a journey with them through their friendships. The things mentioned in the list are also stereotypical teen things, having makeovers, eating ice-cream and going to a ‘popular person’s’ party which are all quite generic activities for teenage girls. This shot is set in a school, which again shows the teen side to this drama as it is a generic setting for this genre. In the Miss You Already trailer, the drama genre is set up instantly as it starts with Jess giving birth, it is as if we have come in during the middle of a situation and leaves us eager to find out what comes before and after this scene. Does Milly come to the scene or is she gone? 

8. The characters are introduced at the beginning of the trailer as young girls so we are able to see how the girls have grown up together. Ellie is seen as the creative and loud out of the two as she comes up with the idea of ‘the list’. This also shows she is more adventurous and looks to the future, unlike Casey who just follows and comes up with the idea of ‘popular persons party’ which shows she looks for reassurance from friends or peers. As the trailer goes on we see this character development as Ellie becomes more adventurous and Casey becomes more insecure. In the Miss You Already trailer we see Jess as being the insecure one and Milly being outgoing however this changes throughout the trailer, showing development over time. This is conventional of a lot of trailers as we see need to be able to understand and relate the personalities of characters before seeing the film.

 

9. In my trailer I used the slow motion effect to represent memories and to intensify the emotion. I think this is conventional of teen dramas as it makes the action seem more special and meaningful that to have fast cuts like in action trailers. I used the slow motion effect when the girls are hugging to symbolise that the girls may not have much time left together so they want time to slow down so that they can spend as much time together as possible. In the Miss You Already trailer, the two friends dance together in slow motion, again reiterating the idea of time wanting to be slowed down.

FINAL MAGAZINE COVER

FINAL FILM POSTER

FINAL TRAILER

Feedback on Poster

I have created an Instagram account where I have been posting videos and pictures of my film and also the filming process. I feel like this is conventional to a lot of films as they usually have various social media accounts to promote their film. 
I recently posted my poster and asked for feedback on it and here are some of the replies:

Overall, I'm really happy with the feedback I have received as most were positive comments, the few improvements I have gained can be easily fixed, therefore I am really confident that my poster will be finished as soon as possible. 

Diary - Poster progress

I have carried on with my film poster and I think I am nearing the end. I have added all of the text that I wanted including the different conventions to a film poster including the names of the stars, the title, credits, release date and social mediu accounts. I am happy with my poster so far and I like the gradient background, showing that things start out light and then become sad/darker which represents the film. I am also using the same colour in my trailer for the inter titles so that they can all link together and so the audience know that the products are for the same film. I am really glad that I redid the photoshoot as I think this picture symbolises the storyline more, how Ellie is looking up and is happy whilst Casey can't seem to find a way to be happy. It shows perhaps the differences in attitudes towards the situation, Ellie is optimistic whiilst Casey is quite pessimistic. 

Third Draft of trailer

 I have created my third draft of my film using some audience feedback that was left on my second draft. The biggest changes have been to the inter titles, of which I have changed the font, colour and transition. I think it looks a lot better now as the font is all the same instead of different ones I had before which looked slightly unprofessional. I am happier with this draft and will hopefully gain more feedback, particularly teacher feedback which will help me with further improvements.

Film poster draft 1

I started to edit my film poster. I wanted my poster to include a picture of Casey and I at the bottom of the poster with reviews above and the film title. I went through different steps on photoshop to try and achieve this.

Firstly, I wanted my poster to be portrait so I changed the orientation to from landscape to portrait. The other posters I took inspiration from were all portrait so I wanted to recreate this style.

I also got rid of the background using the rubber tool, however I decided to leave a slight white hint around Casey and I to make it look heavenly perhaps. This could link to the girls' innocence or also the plot as Casey dies and could represent heaven or a halo.

I, then, added a new layer and used the gradient tool to change the background from plain white to a gradual change of shades of the colour turquoise. This is because this colour was used in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl cover and I really liked this colour and thought it was effective as it wasn't too bright, but still wasn't monochrome, which is a great reflection of the film.

I then added my films title to the top to see what it would look like with the images. I still need to change the font of my title, add more text and fix blemishes in the images. However, I am really happy with the progress of my poster so far.

Magazine cover draft 1

After redoing my photoshoot, i began to create my magazine cover. I was using the Variety power of youth cover for inspiration as i have planned to use the halves of Casey face and my face. I also wanted to add bits of information about the magazine on the cover to bring it to life a bit more and provide the audience with more information.

I am editing the cover on photoshop and so far I have cut out the background of the pictures and layered them together so that Casey and I are next to each other. I used rulers and lines so I knew that the two images were in proportion and also so I knew it was equally split in the middle. I had to brighten Casey's face because the brightness was different and too dark. I also found the Variety logo and put it in position. I think it looks good in front of Casey and slightly behind me as this is conventional to magazines to have the logo embedded into the picture. 

I still need to tweak the images in regards to blemishes etc, as well as add the rest of my text. I would like to add a bit of colour to the poster, so I might do this with the text.

Diary - Re-do Photoshoot

I tried to edit the photoshoot that I completed before, however it proved too difficult to edit therefore I chose to redo the photoshoot.

This was a bit of an inconveience as I had to find a time with Casey to take the picutres again.

This time, Elle helped to take the pictures and we used a white background instead of a green screen, which will be easier to edit.

Although the earlier photoshoot wasted some valuable time, I learnt from my mistake and am really glad we redid the photos.
Here are a few shots from that photoshoot:

Audience feedback

I recently uploaded my second draft onto Youtube and I received some comments of strengths and improvements on my film. I tried to get a variety of people to make comments, girls and boys however I found it difficult to get a wide range of age groups. However, my target audience is teen/young adult, so its good that I got the most feedback from this age group.

Here is some of the feedback I gained on YouTube and some comments in reply:

This is great feedback and I'm really glad they liked the flashback ideas. I think this person is confused because of the part where Casey's mum says, when are you going to tell her? However, I tried to make it as if Casey had another secret (that she is getting worse and won't recover). I might not have made this clear enough, so I might consider going back to this and editing it.

This person also liked the flashbacks which is great, they also liked the voiceover, so I'm glad that these parts are appreciated.

The improvement is useful as I didn't think about changing the animation but now I will definitely.

This person liked the range of locations which is good and the improvement is also really helpful. I still need to tweak fonts so it's good that the audience pick up on it as an improvement.

This person liked the music which is good! They also talk about the font colours, so I should look into changing this.

Here are some other comments I received:

Diary - Editing

After receiving my feedback, I returned back to editing to fix the improvements I received. I played around with text colours, fonts and transitions aswell as cutting some scenes together to make it smoother and make more sense. 

Second Draft film

I filmed some more footage for my film and I added it into my film. I also changed a few clips round and changed the transitions,
I will gain some audience feedback soon from this draft and then improve my trailer from there.

Diary - Photo shoot for magazine and poster

•  I found time to do a photoshoot with Casey for my magazine and poster.
• My friend, Georgina helped us out with a few shots.
• I used green screen to make sure that I could change the background to how I wanted during editing.
• I wanted to do a range of shots and I found my favourites, showing the friendship between Casey and I. 
• For my magazine cover, I needed to take individual pictures of us both to put side by side on the cover.
• I will commence editing as soon as I decide what my final pictures are going to be. I will ask the opinion of others which picture is the best for my cover and poster for audience feedback.

Draft of magazine cover

For my magazine cover I decided to try and recreate the Variety Power of Youth cover. I really like how the two girls half faces are included on the cover and it fit perfectly with my trailer as it is about two best friends. I think that if I do a photo shoot with casey this cover is easily achievable, however I must begin to learn how to use photoshop as I am still not completely confident with that software. I added a little box for text about the article inside so that the cover relates more to the film. I am hoping to do my photoshoot with Casey some time this week when we are both free.

Script

I decided to write a script for my trailer as most of the trailers I analysed had dialogue to help to explain to the audience what was going. I think trailers should have some dialogue otherwise audiences would be confused. I wrote a rough script plan of what I wanted to be in my trailer as well as the different settings in which these scenes will take place. I also thought that I'd include when I want the intertitles to appear. I think this will come in useful when I am editing so I know when to add these in, though I will see during editing if they fit well in these parts.

Music research and plan

To find my music, I went to a non-copyright music website and typed in the 'feelings' that I wanted in my trailer, I chose calm and bright because I want my trailer to be happy but also with a hint of sadness. 
There were a lot to choose from so I sampled most of them. I really like Water Droplets on the River as I feel like it really fits with my trailer and the emotions running throughout. 




Another non-copyright track I found was Two Together, The name caught my eye first as my trailer is about two friends being together and apart so I though this would be great. I really like the sound of it and I've discovered that I really like piano tracks. I will definitely consider this song as my music choice.



I also thought about this track called 'Eternal Hope', however I think that it is a bit too quiet to be in the back and not really emotional enough to fit with the feel of my trailer.



Final decision:

I have decided to use Two Together as my soundtrack for my trailer, as I really like that it is bright but also has a sad tone to it. I really like the piano as I feel it really compliments the emotion and feel of my trailer.

Film Poster research

I've been looking more into what ideas I have for my film poster. I was still a bit unsure on what I wanted to do for it or what style I wanted to do it in. I decided to type in to Google 'teen movie posters' and I found two posters that looked perfect! The two posters that really caught my eye were for The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Diary of a Teenage Girl. The styles are simple but still are eye catching. I like the fact that they are looking into the camera, and we can see the personalities of the characters just by standing/sitting there in front of the camera. I also really love the text and the type writer font.

I think I could try to create a poster like this, I would find a wall in school and shoot some pictures in front of that. I am thinking of maybe using a chalk board as the wall, we could write I Wish You Were Here and draw pictures, to make the poster stand out more.

I really love this idea and I can't wait to try it out.

Diary - Magazine and poster

I have been thinking more about my ideas for my magazine and poster and have been doing some research on magazines or posters that could I could recreate or be inspired by. I have been looking at a few magazines like Variety and The Hollywood reporter and deciding how I can shoot or design my cover. 

I also researched some teen drama posters and I have found a few that I really like:

Hopefully these real media texts will help to inspire some ideas for my magazine and poster when I begin to shoot, edit and create them.

First draft of my trailer

This is my first draft of my trailer I Wish You Were Here.

I haven't completed all of my filming yet as I am trying to arrange a date with Casey to do more filming. I have edited all of the scenes so far though and I am really liking how it is all coming together. There are some scenes that I decided against, for example, when Ellie and Casey plant a tree as I felt like it didn't really flow well in the trailer. 

I added some inter titles, but I feel like I should work on these a little bit more and perhaps add a few more. I also included some non-copyright music that I really thing brings the whole trailer together to set an overall feel.

I added a few voiceovers throughout the trailer, however I might tweak some of these as I near the end to make sure I am 100% happy. 

I will show this trailer to my friends and see if they have any feedback or constructive criticism, in order to get some audience feedback.

Diary - Filming in USA

Over my holiday, I filmed a little bit but not as much as I anticipated. I filmed the scenes at the airport where I stand by the window and watch the planes and also got some footage of the plane taking off although it is slightly blurry. 
During my time in Vegas, I got a few shots of the scenery and one shot of myself, which I could incorporate. 
I also filmed in Disneyland by the castle however over the two days I went, it was incredibly busy therefore I could't really get a range of shots. For the shots of scenery, I am thinking of adding a voice over perhaps saying "Look Casey, I'm in Disneyland, tick this off the list, I wish you were here!" for example. 
Overall, I'm slightly disappointed with the amount of footage I got, however I will try my best to make it work and I'm sure I can make it look good through editing.