Evaluation

Here is my evaluation which is in three parts as it was easier to upload it this way. I am answering four different questions discussing my media products.
Part 1


Chris doyle evaluation 1 imovie from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.

Part 2


Chris doyle evaluation 2 imovie from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.

Part 3

Final magazine

Final Poster

Final film trailer

Evaluation brief

Below is the brief for the evaluations. There are four question I must address in my evaluation.

Screen grabs of editing poster

Here are some screen grabs of me editing and creating my poster for my horror trailer Remembrance day. I made this poster as it a good way of selling a film towards an audience.

 

In this image I had got my image of the poppy and put it into a new A4 blank document. I then highlighted different sections of the poppy with one petal pulled off and pressed the delete button so it replaced the background with the section of poppy that I had highlighted. This gave me this cool effect which you can see. Before I even started editing in Photoshop I had to crop the image down to size.

 

Next I decided that the poster had too much bright happy colours on it, so decided too add a black and white effect. This makes the poster seem much darker and misterious.

Then I decided to make the main poppy still have its colour so I dragged what I had before on top of the background to look like its a seperate poppy. This links to the film schindlers list as the film is in black and white, the only part that has colour in it is when we see the little girl in her red coat. This is used to capture the hearts of the audience, however this isn't what I have tried here I have tried to show that it is standing alone.

Then I had to add text to my poster telling the audience what the film is called. I decided to use fancy writing as I think it stands out more towards the audience and represents the film trailer well. I also used the colour of gold as it connotes the best. Trying to connote to the audience that this is the best horror film they will see.

The next piece of typography I decided to use the same text trying to stick to common conventions. I also used the same colour. The text that I added reads remember the dead this tells the audience what the film is about, feeding the audience information.

Finally I added my last piece of typography which reads out soon. This gives the audience more information when the film is coming. It also means that if the audience really want to know when the film is coming out they will have to look it up on the internet which shows the poster is doing its job correctly.

Screen grabs of editing magazine

Here is the construction of my film magazine which is trying to sell my film trailer Remembrance day to the audience. Before I started to create my magazine LCA I looked at other film magazines such as Empire so I could learn about common conventions and how a film magazine is laid out. After this I created flat plans so I had some idea of what I wanted my finish product to look like. However now looking at my flat plans compaired to my magazine they have some differences for example the name of the magazine the number of characters on the front cover. Underneath here is how I constructed the film magazine.

 

 I started my magazine on an international paper document which is basically a Photoshop document the size of A4. I coloured the page black as it connotes horror to the audience which is what my horror trailer is about.

 Next I cut out the image of a character Kieran from the background and added him to the black page. I then added some effects so that he stood out from the black page. I had the character look upset so that the audience may feel sorry for him and want to read about the film.

 Then I added a simple bar code which sticks to the common conventions of a magazine. I also added the date issue and the price onto the bar code giving the buyer  more information about the magazine.

 The main feature of a film magazine or any magazine is the masthead telling the audience what the magazine is called and about. My magazine is called LCA as it was a film magazine I decided to make my masthead around that so I made the letters out of camera and film equipment. For the L I have a sound brrom, the C is part of a camera and A is a film snap board. The light behind the image also makes it stand out towards the audience. The masthead sticking to common conventions has to be 1/8 of the page thus why the masthead is this big.

 Next I added some smoke and fire to the background as it connotes to the audience even further that this is a horror film magazine promoting a film movie.

 After that effect I decided to tell the audience what else is inside the film magazine trying to persuade them even further to buy this film magazine. By adding a sticker and offering the audience something free or something they can win makes them want it even more which I found through my surveys before creating this magazine.

Here I have added the text promting the film Remembrance day. It is the same text I had on my poster so the audeince can regonise it easy. I have also added a quote remember the dead as it could give information away on the front cover to the auidnece making them want to read even more.

Then I added text down the side promoting different films to the audience so they can see that there are different things inside the magazine if Remembrance day isn't their thing. I have also added a backing to the sticker so that it stands out more on the page from the black background.

After that I added more text underneath Remembrance day trying to sell the film more. I used simple text so that it was easy to read for the audience. This sells the magazine more to the audience feeding them simple information about the magazine.

My next step was adding more colour to the magazine so I decided to add an exclusive in red and black which still connotes horror towards the audience but makes it again stand out towards the audience.

My final step was adding the common convention of a strap line at the top of the page. This started at the bottom of the page but didn't really work as well as it does at the top of the page. Movies best year yet is written on this strap line which tells the audience in this first magazine that it is a film magazine. Many of the text images, stickers have had effects done to them making them bolder and stand out.

Critical reflection for magazine

Here is my final magazine trying to distribute my film towards my target audience. It is trying to sell many different films but its main one is "Remembrance day". I think my film magazine does a really good job of selling the film towards the audience as it represents the genre of horror to the target audience. Although I do think it could be improved if I took more time on its production. When creating the film magazine I stuck to most of the common conventions I had researched into. Many film magazine had one main image, large logo, etc. so I stuck to it although sometimes I had to go against my target audience who I surveyed what they wanted.

The typography on my magazine had to mainly represent the genre of horror although it is a film magazine so sometimes I had to use simple text just so I could show the audience there is more to the magazine than just horror. Many film magazines don't include much text so I stuck to this keeping the magazine as brief but still making the audience want to read it. If I were to do the text again I think I would take more care on choosing the text as it varys to often I feel. I like the colour of the text for the hobbit and the way I have added different effects to it. However for the simple text I feel I could have changed the colour of it and made it even bolder.

I decided to go against what my target audience wanted and just have one character on the front cover this adds more mystery to the film itself. I made sure that what the character was wearing connoted to the film. I was going to have more characters on the front cover but my images wern't the best with them in it. I made the actor stand out by adding an effect behind him to make him stand out from th black background. However just having one character connotes that he is standing alown. A darkness could connote to the audience that he is trapped. Photoshop made the image look much better but if I were to do this production again I would take more time on my image and make sure I didn't have to have a black background by actually going out and taking a good image else where for example a poopy field.

I stuck to the common conventions well by having a bar code, etc. however I didn't with the mathead. It is 1/8 of the page however I was going to have it stretched across the page like a normal magazine. But when I was doing this it made it ditorted and didn't look right, so I ended up making it a little smaller. The final masthead wasn't my first attempt my first attempt just had a snap board behind it. It looked okay but not amazing, so I decided to add different things to make letters, for example sound boom, snap board and part of a camera. This was made to stand out more by adding a light behind it.  Again this masthead wasn't amazing so I finally ended up with a spooky LCA effect to connote to the film its promoting. I like the masthead I have ended up with as it looks much better however if I were to do this again I would have leant from my mistakes of just adding an image behind the text as it doesn't look professional.

Cast list, equipment list

For my magazine front cover I had to decide who out of our cast I wanted to represent our film. Firstly I designed flat plans so that I knew what sort of style I was going for. Out of the three I created I preferred the one with the three main characters on the front (Without the killer). However on the day of the photo shoot I found that only having two of the characters on the front cover would work better. The two that I choose to be on the front cover were Alex and Kieran as they were dressed in the correct clothing. They wore army costumes,  these costumes relate to remembrance day. However after I had taken these images I decided just to use the one with just Kieran, as it gave me more space to work with adding features and the masthead. So for my cast list I took the images and Kieran was the character in the image, however Josh and Alex were there if I wanted to use them in my images. The rest of the magazine was created on a mac using Photoshop and using fonts from free sites such as Urban fonts.

Equipment I used:

Camera, Costumes, Memory stick, Mac (For photoshop and the internet).

 I used a camera memory stick so that I could transfer my images from the camera onto the mac thus allowing me to edit them.

 I used the camera 600D to take the images for my film magazine. This camera was very easy to use and get images in focus. I then used the memory stick to add them onto the mac.

  Here is an army costume which is very similar to the one that Kieran wore for the magazine front cover. This costume made the image seem much more professional and relates to the film itself. 

 I used a mac so that I could create my magazine. I used Photoshop and the internet to create my magazine. This was very helpful especially during planning as I could research common conventions to stick too.

Original magazine images

Here are some of my original images that I took for my magazine front cover. I made flat plans before I took these images however went against them whilst taking them. In my flat plans I had decided to have 3 main characters on the front cover, however went against this because of clothing, space, etc. Some of the images below I didn't even think about using for many reasons such as not in focus, etc. 

This image above I won't be using as it is out of focus, this will make my magazine image look awful. The characters also are too far apart, they need to be closer together giving me more space to add text around them. 

This image above is in focus unlike the other one, however the character is not looking at the camera thus not directing the audience. This goes against common conventions and I would like my magazine to look as professional as possible.  



This image again is in focus, however one of the chracters in the image has his eyes covered this hides his identity. If I ment to do this it would work however I want the audience to be able to recognise the characters on the front cover of the magazine.

This image unlike the others I will be using for the front cover of my magazine. I have decided to use this one as its in focus, has space to write around it, enough space for the masthead at the top of the page and finally as his facial expression connotes that he is depressed that represents remembrance day, which is the title of the film. The costume that he also has on also connotes that he could have been part of the war.

Survey monkey for magazine

I have created a survey on survey monkey to find out what sort of magazine would best suit my target audience. I created it on an online site called survey monkey which makes it easy to send my target audience or even post it on a social network for example Facebook, etc. I then can easily collect my results and post them here on my blog.

My fist question was what gender are you, I asked this so I could find out what sort of people were answering my questionaire. It turns out that there were more males than females, this could effect my results for example if more male colours appear in the further questions.

My second question follows the same guide lines as the first asking what age group the people who answered my survey are. Many of them were youths which could effect my magazine to be more youth looked with bright flashy colours. However this now tells me which target audience I am making the magazine for.

My third question was asking them if they thought being on a front cover of a magazine was a good way to advertise a film. Almost all of them agreed that it was apart from one. This is a good thing that most of them said it was as atleast this proves that they are interested in completing the survey and wont mess about with their answers or else the survey would get no useful results.

My next question was asking them about the colours for the magazine which should be used and should they relate the genre of the film on the front which is horror. This could mean using more reds, blacks, etc. There were many answers that said about using dark colours for the genre of horror, however there were a few that thought using blues, yellows, unisex colours, etc. would be a good idea to catch the audiences attention instead of just for horror.

My next question was the same as what I asked for my poster, which is what sort of image should be used on the front cover. I gave them the option of choosing from close up, key characters, villian, etc. and an other box which they could write more detail in. My target audience all thought it was a good idea to have key characters on the front cover and many of them thought it was a good idea to have close ups of there faces. This shows the audience want to know what the key characters will look like.  

My sixth question was asking my audience what sort of text should be used on the front cover on the magazine for example colour, size and font. Almost everyone said it should be bold and easy to read with many different colours being said. Most of these colours stuck to common conventions with them being unisex colours.

I then asked in my survey if a sticker saying "Win" or even "Free" would make the magazine more appealing. Almost everyone said it would apart from one person which shows that I should offer a free gift inside my magazine.

I then asked them what colours would mostly represent a film magazine. I offered many different colours with an other box if they thought of any more. The most popular colours were red,black,white and yellow which are also seen as mainly unisex colours.

I then decided to stick with the subject of colour and ask them what colour would make the masthead stand out more. Again many colours were said however the main ones were either blue or red. These colours can be seen as opposite for example one being seen as a boy colour and the other as a girl colour.

My final question of my survey was about the image asking my audience how light or dark it should be and where it should be taken either outside or in a studio. Many of them said that the image would look better if it was taken in a studio instead of on location and it was well lit instead of being dark. This will make it easier take my image for my magazine. I will listen to my target audiences ideas and add them to my magazine, however I will probably go against some of their ideas.

Flat plans for magazine



I designed 3 flat plans for my film magazine promoting my horror film trailer 'Remembrance day'. Firstly I drew the flat plans trying to stick to common conventions of a magazine for example having the masthead 1/8 of the page. My research I did into magazine front covers really helped know how to layout my own. After I created my flat plan I wrote below it key areas which I would need to create it. For example what colour I would have the background, the colour of texts and the lighting of the image, etc. 

My favourite flat plan that I have designed would have to be the bottom one as it has much more detail on the and looks more like a professional than the others. The front cover would also show more of the main characters than the others showing 3 instead of 1 which gives the audience more infromation about the film. The masthead is the same on all of the flat plans however I will most probably change the design and the name as it could be improved. I will design my magazine on Photoshop as it supplies the tools I will need to edit my images, text and other common conventions.

Institution research magazine

Here is my research into magazine institutions. I had done the research into this before for my AS coursework of creating a music magazine. I decided instead of making another one I would read over this one to refresh my memory and post it again on this blog post.

Magazine masthead ideas

Here are some designs that I have found free on urban fonts I will most probably use one of these designs for my masthead on my magazine. I have done research into different film magazines front covers and mastheads, many of which seem to be very simple but stand out to the audience. I will make sure whilst choosing my masthead that I stick to the common conventions of a masthead, for example it should be 1/8 of the page.

This one is called Base02 I really like the way the font is very gritty, I believe this may stand out towards a youth target audience. The font however isn’t very simple like the mastheads I researched. 

 

Agent Orange however is very simple and with the black bold lines behind the text is very easy to read as it stands out. Also with the inside of the text being a solid colour (white) it will be easy to edit out and add an image behind it, for example film equipment, graffiti, etc.

 

This masthead has the boldness like Agent Orange however seems to be much smarter, which maybe a good way to represent the magazine in a positive way.

Air Millhouse has the same smart effect however is in italics. Again for this font I could edit it so it had an image behind it making the masthead stand out more towards the audience.

 

Corpulent is very similar to Agent Orange as it is very bold which will make it stand out. However if I choose between the two I prefer Agent Orange as it has a finer boldness which I believe sticks more to common conventions.

This font has the same boldness as Corpulent however looks more like cartoon writing. I don’t think this would suit my magazine as a masthead as it doesn’t seem very professional.

 

 I really like the Toyland font because of the shadow below it this defiantly makes it stand out but again I’m not sure if it is right for a film magazine masthead.

 

This is a masthead I will not be using as it looks like a font you would get off of a children’s paint set, which is not what I am designing.

After looking at many different fonts I haven’t come to an absolute decision however out of the fonts above I would have to choose Agent Orange as it seems like a film masthead and would be easy to edit to add different textures in behind it.