In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Below is our poster evulated with the main product in mind:
In terms of our radio advert, there is a distinct theme that ties it in with the main product. We made sure that we used the same actors for the voices so that continuity would not be an issue, and we used the same voices in the background to link it with the film. However, I don't think that the radio advert is our strongest ancilliary product because we didn't really research into radio adverts, only the conventions of a radio advert. I think that if we spent some more time planning the radio advert, it would have been much better. Having said that, I think the radio advert is pretty good as it covers all the conventions of a radio advert.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From the audience feedback, I have learnt that our film is not to everyone tastes, perhaps because some audiences are more passive and like to be spoon-fed the plot rather than having a more thought-provoking plot. Also, I have learnt that in terms of the poster, the font size of the title needs to be as big as possible. However, with the posters I looked at in my analysis of existing products, the title of the film was not very big. I think this is perhaps because the poster uses the actors to sell the film, but since we didn't have famous actors in our film, there was nothing to draw the eye, so the title being big was the only thing that was going to draw the eye. Out of all the products, the poster received the most positive feedback as we were able to use our skills; I have a interest in Art and photography, and both Hayley and I share an interest in digital art and use Photoshop regularly. Regarding the film and the radio advert, we are not very strong actors/voice actors, so these two came off as weaker.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The internet was probably the most helpful tool in the making of this coursework. Not only has it made it possible to make this blog for free, but it has provided us with existing products for us analyse and help us with our ideas, as well as providing information into 'Donnie Darko' and 'Memento' that we could use in addition to watching the two films. Also, it has provided a way of getting in touch with our target audience using FaceBook and Twitter, which meant that we were able to get their feedback easily, amking our coursework easier to evaulute as we hads more thean just our opinions of it. Furthermore, it enabled us to use different ways of displaying our work (i.e. SlideShare and PhotoBucket) so that our blog was interesting to look at. One diadvantage of the Internet, however, is that the connection speed is sometimes slow which makes uploading videos a long task.
Final Cut has also been one of the main aids in this coursework. Its advanced effects has enabled us to create a film that is better an ordinary film where only simple cutting techniques are used. However, it is quite a difficult program to get used to, espiecally when one has never used it before, and it is quite pedantic.
Photoshop was relied upon greatly in the making of this coursework as it helped us to create a professional-looking poster. Once one has grapsed the idea of Photoshop, it is a relatively easy program to use and it is easy to create artistic and professional effects. I think that the poster was the easiest task for us because both Hayley and I have experience of using Photoshop from our coursework last year and in our spare time, so we were used to the program.
