Evaluation Question 4

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

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

During production and planning

My target audience played a pivotal role in the production of my film. Before any of the production began, I used various different means to ensure that I was creating suitable things for my audience. I began using my target audience after our pitch, handing out questionnaires requesting some responses to things they liked and disliked that we could act on. I took these responses on board when it came to the production and tried my best to create the film that would satisfy the audience.

Around halfway through the production of our film, we exported the final cut document and watched it back and seen what we thought. When we had gathered our own feelings towards it, I put together a focus group of four eighteen year old women to ask some questions about what they thought. The main thing they said is that to enhance the twist ending we should involve more interaction between the two characters, which was something we had all thought too - making us realise that this was the target audience we should have been aiming for. At this point the only interaction we had was the initial office scenes, so our group suggested adding a scene between the them coinciding with the part of the montage that says "Maintaining a professional relationship is hard enough" which we felt truly enhanced the relationship between the two and was an excellent and effective suggestion.

When our film was completed, we again requested some feedback from our target audience to see what small improvements could be made to improve viewing experience - these improvements were listed on a blog post recently and truly made a difference to our film. The target audience in this sense were not only a group we had to please, but they were also very helpful. 

I personally used my target audience when conducting research for my film poster. As this was going to be the poster that was advertising the film that I wanted my target audience to see, I saw it fit to email them a selection of typefaces for them to choose which they would like to see on the front of the poster. It was a unanimous choice that despite my best intentions I did have to change. It was not that I was ignoring audience feedback, but the type of poster I initially intended on creating changed due to some research into 'cinema verite' - which is basically observational or truthful camera. Our handheld camera effect was regularly in play when using subjective shots from the stalker, which began to categorise our film into more niche and arthouse production areas. So the initial, sketched away font I intended on using was changed to a more simplistic font (Futura) to fit in with the art house theme of my poster, however I did seek some acceptance and advice from friends before hand, some of who are part of my target audience. 

After production and planning

Following the production of my entire film and ancillary tasks, I created a series of questions to ask the target audience I have been referring to throughout my portfolio. These questions were produced to assess the effectiveness of audience research and to get an insight into what I would change if I were to produce a film in the future, to meet and satisfy the needs of my target audience.

Here are the list of questions I produced:

 

Focus group video

My responses:

1. What have you learned from audience feedback? I have learnt that audience research is absolutely essential in creating the ideal product. Although our film did not follow all the pre-production plans or necessarily work the way we wanted it to in places all of the things I wanted to addressed were addressed according to the focus group. I have also learnt that some things do not need to be explained, when Megan, one of the focus group members, made the comment that she did not like the 'Shakey camera at the beginning', after filming was done one of the members said that she liked that bit cause the subjectivity seemed very raw and realistic, so the audience effectively understood 'cinema verite' which was brilliant to hear. The points of climax such as the stairs scene which we understood young females enjoyed, which was the main reason we aimed our film at the female market (the thriller aspect) were commended by the focus group as the main point they liked in the film, they liked the tension, which placed some faith in our decision to target this audience.
2. Do you agree/disagree with the comments? I did agree with most of the comments that were made, both negative and positive. I feel that the focus group perceived the film in the same way as I and appreciated the certain parts that I did. I too agree with Beth's comment that there should have been more speech to enhance the idea that Sarah was in trouble, and was something I would have done differently if I were to film 'AWAY' again, however this also emphasised just how well we targeted our film, 16-35 women appear to truly enjoy tension in films. With regard to the film poster however, I did not agree with Beth when commenting that the 'bottom part' of the poster was 'too cluttered'. A lot of billing blocks are extremely cluttered as they have a lot of people to address and credit whereas our cast and editing team were limited, therefore placing things like sponsors and logos was the only way to fill up the block. In comparison to feature films, my billing block looked relatively empty. I also agreed with Kate that I should have listed the actors names however I wanted to leave the radio trailer as simplistic and basic as possible to create enigmas.
3. What would you change if you could do the project again? If I were to create my film again I believe I would have involved much more movement into my film. Although this is something my focus group didn't address, I feel it looked very jumpy in places purely because when looking at actual comparative examples the transitions between shots and made a lot smoother through the use of panning or tracking. I definitely agree with Beth on the front of more speech, I feel that after I watched the film back it was lacking something and this is definitely it. In order to truly satisfy my target audience I should have achieved the one thing that we mainly targeted them for - building tension. I feel like in some ways the twist ending consumed the whole film in ways so the tension was not as clear throughout. I would also change the various things I addressed in the above questions, name in the radio trailer etc. I feel as though my poster was the only product that I was particularly pleased with, it was relevant to the audience, the project and the genre of the film itself.
4. Have you targeted your audience effectively? From audience feedback I do feel that we target our audience effectively. They all seemed to appreciate the narrative style and ancillary tasks the way I would have hoped. I feel that their main issues with the overall product were the same as mine, merely some cinematography issues that could have been easily avoided. However, I do not feel there are any other audience we could have targeted that would have appreciated the product the way they did. The story line was what we hoped would be appreciated by 16-35 year old women as it featured the various narrative conventions that this demographic typically appreciate, however I feel the various camera styles we used would have been more suited to a niche audiences not something so widespread, which was something I addressed during the production of the project. 

I believe however that I referred to audience feedback and used them to my advantage throughout the process and the product would not have been what it was without their guidance. Using applications such as email, twitter, things like focus groups and paper questionnaires truly benefited me and was hugely helpful in creating the ancillary tasks after the production of the film - as at this point I had a clearer idea of what our audience liked and didn't like.

Evaluation Question 2

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

Evaluation Question 1

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

Film analysis

Film Poster Analysis

Radio Trailer Analysis

• The use of a voice over is essential in creating a radio trailer, I used my AS Media teacher Steve to do the narration for me, as his voice was very suitable for what I was trying to achieve
• Although many often like to read audio trailers from a certain characters perspective, I preferred having an impartial, impersonal narrator that could simply list events as they happen
• Along with this voice over, I had several snippets of footage audio taken from FinalCutPro and imported into GarageBand, but also the acoustic loop we featured in the montage section of our film fading in, playing throughout the trailer and eventually fading out
•  I find impartial narration works particularly well in our case as being in favour of one of our two characters would defeat the message we were trying to get across, that stalking is not necessarily a sick deluded trait, but actually a psychological issue, it appears as a 'relationship' to them, despite how it appears to the victim, which we attempted to convey with the montage
• I found that the acoustic loop was particularly effective, with the set amount of beats and bars it helped to pace the narration, something I found when researching into various other audio trailers such as 'The Omen 2':
• I did not want to give too much away with my radio trailer but I did want to give certain things away such as the genre of the film in saying 'When love becomes an obsession'
• However I created a double meaning with the line 'And you can't get away', this idea of entrapment can work with both of my characters. Whereas Sarah is trapped under the stalking of the narrator, the narrator is trapped in his own psychological issues
• My trailer generally differs from the other radio trailers I have looked at, most have a passionate, and usually american narrative voice that is used to engage viewers, however as our film is somewhat a niche product, I decided that a calm English voice narrating the film simply and basically was all it needed; because although our film does contain some very tense and passionate moments, it is more than anything a lesson of understanding and sympathising with mental disorders
• The use of an almost POINT, EVIDENCE, EXPLAIN narrative whereby Steve makes a point and it is backed up with a piece of footage from the film became a style that I ended up carrying through my entire trailer, it is something distinct and particular to appeal to my niche audience, something I tried to achieve with both of my ancillary tasks
• Similarly to the majority of radio trailers I have studied, my trailer states distribution details in claiming 'AWAY - now showing in selected cinemas across the UK' Although my film is one that would often be exhibited on websites such as 'YouTube' and 'VMShorts' whereby it can gain recognition without the various payments that many films require, it could also be shown at cinemas as an almost pre-feature film video to grab the audiences attention, as well as displaying at various educational arts centres
• Using 2 pieces of speech from each character creates a balance between the two, enhancing the impartial narration. However beginning with 'It's been so difficult being away from you' in a smitten, calm tone to then 'My dearest Sarah' in a malevolent whisper conveys just how quickly love can spiral into obsession and how it can happen to a lot of people without their own realisation
• I feel that my trailer offers something simple and different that is perfect for my audience and the type of message I and the rest of Clueless Productions are trying to get across  

'AWAY' Radio Trailer

Radio trailer production

Today I am beginning the actual production of my radio/audio trailer for my short film 'AWAY'. I am going to use a variety of audio and audio effects. Some of my audio will be taken directly from the film itself, the audio separated from the video on FinalCutPro and imported into Garageband.

The critical voice over that all trailers feature announcing the release date, age certification, etc. will be recorded using a Zoom Box and I will be recording one of the teachers in the Media department, Steve Boyes.

I will also be featuring the copyright free tracks from Garageband that I used in the film, High Dissonance and Acoustic Picking 11 to symbolise the various states of the plot

The finished copy of my radio trailer will be uploaded before the end of the week

Film poster for 'AWAY'

Typeface change

As my poster plans changed when it came to production, and I focused on the simplistic, graphic art house look, the typeface that had been selected by my target audience was no longer fitting.

So I asked a group of my friends to select a font from a film poster they liked, and thought was relevant to mine, and they said they liked the font choice from the poster I displayed in the previous blog post for 'Black Swan'. However I realised it is important to take inspiration from other works, but not the copy exactly. So I played around a little with font expansion, changing the weight etc. and eventually came up with a bold, simple and stylistically indie font typeface for my photo. 

The typeface I am now using will be displayed on the next post.

Poster inspiration

As our film has progressed, with the various handheld pieces of footage, and the psychological lesson it attempts to teach, we have noticed that it has slowly became a somewhat  art house production. The various narrative aspects for example the twist, the morale and the unanswered questions that linger over the film are aspects that often feature in art house productions.

As I am now beginning the process of creating my film poster, I have been looking at various art house production posters, as well as posters of the psychological thriller genre, to combine aspects of the two to create a poster that meets our audience exactly.

Psychological thriller film 'One our photo' was a film poster concept I particularly liked. This film focuses largely on the obsession of the main character, which I feel the poster captures perfectly, something I want to apply to my own poster:

This photo displaying Robin Williams looking through the photo strips is enough to entice a viewer, without giving a great deal away about his intentions and what exactly he is looking at. I want to incorporate this concept into my own poster whilst following the cartoon like art house style.

I particularly liked the shot in our film of Adam's silhouette stood by the window looking in at Sarah on the sofa, however having this full image would give quite a lot away about our concept, so I thought that perhaps selecting Adam alone, cut around his body and color him a single block color, black for example and placing him at the side of the poster.

As this is a landscape photograph, I am intending to create a landscape poster, like those featured in countries such as Norway, to give our advertisement materials and international appeal. Here is a rough photo of what I would be considering using, with lots of refining and editing to create that art house 'look':

 

Although the film poster for 'Black Swan' is portrait, and various parts of text and image would have to be placed in different places, I am keen on the idea of a light cream background with the black against it, the juxtaposition of the the two contrasting colours works particularly well and is very fitting for the both the genre and audience, it has a particularly art house look, whilst conveying the idea of the different states of human psyche through the colours

'AWAY' Poster planning

I have conducted some research into the posters of both short films and of psychological thrillers, here below is some of the posters I liked the look at and could use to integrate some of the elements into my own poster.

Here are examples of a short sketch I devised on paper in initial planning of the poster and a draft version I created on PhotoShop showing the main line of my ideas. This is very much a draft and would be much more advanced in actual production, including my own photography and some true review quotations.

I came up with the idea of the title going on the locket, to give the poster an enigmatic vibe. Our film is largely based around a sense of ambiguity and the use of the locket is not suggestive of anything, it leaves the audiences mind wandering. As our film is targeted (psychographically) at experiencers and makers I feel this is title gives an opportunity for this audience to experience something new, this poster advertises our film in the way it is intended to, it encourages curiosity.

The somewhat sinister font however gives a thrilling element to the ambiguity, suggesting there could be something dark on the horizon. This is of course a draft and no ideas are definite, however this is an idea I am hoping to carry forward into the actual production of the poster.

Final film - 'AWAY'

'AWAY' improvements

Since the beginning of term we have been making various improvements to our film following suggestions from a focus group we put together. At the end of last term we exported a final video of our film to show to an audience, asked them a series of questions of what they did and didn't like, and what things they would have liked to see.

So, we devised a short list of improvements, with some of our own to enhance the overall product:

 

As we recognise that requesting information from the target audience is vital to create the best and most suitable end product, we took on all of the critique we saw fit.

 

Here is the version of 'AWAY' before the various suggestions were put forward and improvements made:

 

'AWAY' Typefaces

Displayed below is some audience research I conducted into which typeface I should have for my film poster for 'AWAY'.

First of all I created a short powerpoint displaying the various typefaces I was considering, numbered them all and sent the powerpoint to a number of people from our target audience - 16-25 year olds, particularly women:
 

Typefaces for ‘away’ powerpoint from bororocks123

Here are the responses I gathered:

As I am currently an amateur in the film industry, I understand how valuable audience research is and how vital that I take the responses on board. From my responses, along with my own understanding of the film and how it would fit with my poster, I have concluded that number ONE is the best typeface to use for my film poster. I agree with the results I gained, it is definitely the most fitting of the genre and was the general consensus of my target audience so I am certainly going ahead with it. Here is my typeface:

Radio trailer - drafting

Here is a short slideshow revealing the various steps I could take in the production of my radio trailer:

'AWAY' radio trailer

Here are some brief ideas about what could be included in my radio trailer that will be developed over the coming weeks:

Codes and Conventions of Psychological Thriller film posters

Radio trailer research

On the specification brief we were ordered to create two ancillary tasks for the production of our short film. The first was a film poster (which I have conducted  research and drafting on - shown previously) which was a mandatory task, and the second was to choose between a magazine film review and a radio trailer. After speculation I decided that for me personally (as these are not group work tasks) I would prefer to produce a radio trailer for the film. I felt a radio trailer was more fitting for the type of film we were doing, and ultimately less time consuming whilst still retaining what I believe to be a more effective form of advertising. Short films are short - that is their niche - therefore I did not believe that a double page spread on the synopsis and reviews of a film that lasts approximately three minutes would be as compelling and punchy as a radio trailer. Displayed below is some research and application I produced on radio trailers:

I will conduct some further research into the distribution of the radio trailers and will update the blog will the response of the idea of a radio trailer from the focus group we will be putting together a cross the next academic week.