1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?
Taking a closer look at my final product, you are able to identify the key codes and conventions of an Indie wood film genre. Also, since it’s a Romance film, I’ve considered the locations and colours used within my trailer, such as red when superimposes appears. I’ve done so, since red indicates love. These are one of the conventions not only Indie wood films use but also Hollywood. However, since I decided that my film is going to be an Indie wood film, I thought it will be great to have an unusual ending and not a typical ‘happy ending’ that is mostly used in Hollywood. Although, I did not reveal the ending in my trailer, because it will expose the outcome of my narrative and my demographics will not be interested in seeing the film, since they would be expecting what’s about to happen. Thus, this is one of the other obvious Indie wood conventions I used within my trailer. Also taking a look at Indie wood films such as – Clover field and Lost in Translation and comparing and contrasting these forms and conventions with Hollywood films such as Love Actually. This helped me to discover the dissimilar conventions in both ‘wood’ movies, such as the narrative of the film and how it ends. Also, I’ve discovered that Indie wood films usually don’t end with a happy ending and majority of the time the style of the camera shots are made to believe that the characters are filming throughout the film.
Also, since the genre of the film is Romance, it is conventional that something goes amiss that ruins both lovers’ lives. However, I’ve chosen an extreme case, when one partner is diagnosed with a deadly disease. Nevertheless, at the end it supposes to turn out to be good if it was a Hollywood film. For instance – P.S I Love You is also a romance film and the narrative is similar, but yet so different, because at last she abandons her fear of falling in love again, yet the ending of the film does not show her being in love again, but it suggests so as she gets the last written letter by her first husband asking her to move on. Although, my trailer indicates that his life is ruined, because ‘she was the one’ which brings my film to the conclusion. Also, since my demographic audience were an older generation I considered my theme and locations so it’s not too comic and appears serious. What’s more, before I edited my final product I considered the angles and shots I’m going to be using, in order to go well with my film genre. I made sure my shots don’t come across as comic, because it’s a serious storyline. For instance, I used slowly zooming in shots to the protagonist face, in order to indicate how he’s feeling and also added slow and gentle ‘halo’ instrumental to imply their passion towards one another. Also, I looked at P.S I love you film poster to identify the key conventions in a Romance film poster. I recognized that the protagonists are clearly portrayed within the poster. This is also very significant, because it attracts the demographics when they see well known actors to the British public.
Moreover, I’ve chosen to have a different ending to my film, contrasting the many Hollywood film endings. However, this convention is not visible within my trailer, ever since I wouldn’t like my demographic audience to know the outcome of my film. These are the conventions in both Hollywood and Indie wood films, because their aim is to interest they demographic audience before selling their final product.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?
Both of my final tasks have similarities, in order to suit my genre and address my chosen demographics. I used the colour red in the main product and ancillary tasks in order to signify love/romance. Also since my genre was romance I had to be aware of how I represent my product and reconsider the shots, music and editing used within my trailer. For instance, within my editing process I looked at a few romance genre examples to give me an idea on what editing is mainly used. Therefore, I came to a decision to use gentle and see coming editing, for example – fading out within the ‘bedroom scene’. I believe this gave my trailer a calm feeling, whereas if the editing was jumpy it would appear as comic and thrust the demographic audience from my chosen genre.
Thus, my trailer beyond doubt links to my ancillary tasks, because they both have the conventions of a romance genre, due to the colour, the use of the protagonist within my posters and writing. The first thing to point out would be the use of protagonists on my two posters. I’ve done this in order to attract my demographic audience, after they see two well known actors that would make them go and see the film. Therefore, I believe that this combination of my main product and ancillary task are effective, because not only the two protagonists appear within the trailer, but also insinuate themselves as talented actors. This is one of the conventions films use to sell their final product.
2. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I believe it was really significant to question my demographic audience, in order to make the trailer and the posters more appealing to them. At first I created a questionnaire with my top 5 chosen titles for my film. I constructed a pie chart to show the number of votes each title received. This helped me to argue with myself and consider what one is the most appealing title for my film. Also, this questionnaire allowed me to gain extra comments of my audience regarding the reason why I should use a particular title or why I shouldn’t. Moreover, I asked both younger and older individuals to make the votes fair. This also showed me that elder individuals have similar arguments and since my film is for elder demographic audience, I agreed to go with their choice. I did this through using networking sites such as Facebook to question my target audience. I believe this was a successful approach to contact them, because younger generation are more likely to answer through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, because today’s generation is more use to new technology, rather than being traditional. However, I did make a questionnaire on a piece of paper for the elder audience, a traditional way of approaching them.
Also, I asked my demographics audience if they liked the final product and their answers were very positive. This is because I considered their opinions before starting my final construction. They said my trailer is very predictable, however since the ending is very Indiewood it will make the target audience question ‘’what would have happened’’? Also, they stated that the non-diegetic music used went really well with the narrative and the fades out that I used set a very tense mood within the trailer, indicating that something is about to arise.
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
At first I used networking sites such as Facebook, in order to contact my demographic audience and question them which title they would prefer for my chosen narrative, which I briefly explained when asking so.
Also, I used YouTube in order to upload my pitch and my first draft of my trailer, to see what my target audience thought of my narrative and the way I decided to construct it.
I also used iDVD in order to burn my final product, so my demographic audience would be able to watch it on the DVD player.
Blogger – in order to record all my planning and research. Also for audience to see my poster and ancillary task, in order to receive some feedback.
Final Cut Express – to edit my final product.
Video Camera- to film my trailer.
Photoshop – to construct my poster and ancillary task.
Microsoft Word- to record my research and planning and at a later stage upload it onto blogger.
