Rough cut feedback

Liam and Chloe's feedback - video 1 (year 12)

Liam and Chloe's feedback - video 2

I've shown my rough cut trailer (above) to some year 12 media students for their feedback. I had one beneficial conversation with Chloe and Liam about my trailer overall, which means that I'm able to re-work my rough cut to make it more appealing to my target audience.

ADD FEEDBACK

I also have written feedback from an other year 12, Lauren, who said:

"I think that the genre portrayed is romance.

I thought the music fitted in well with the theme of the clip and really helped to create a mood. The titles that came up were needed so the audience could understand what was going on. I thought it was a good choice onarrative because a voice over may have ruined the calm mood of the clip.

If it was to be improved upon, then you could include more clips that are not sped up or layered, as it would give more variation. Overall, I thought that this was a good trailer and interests the audience straight away."

My response:

One of the themes which would be developed if this was a film would definitely be romance, because, as a director I would want my main character to meet a guy who 'helps' her through her bulimia and also becoming free from the burdens she feels that she has upon her shoulders. Even though this would be an established theme within the overall film, I wanted to emphasize freedom and the path that teenagers take to get themselves into adulthood. This has made me realize that there is room to make my teaser trailer appear more serious. With regards to the timings of the clips, I have already worked upon this, and I feel that no more adjustments will be needed.

Re-working trailer

Changing my inter-titles

The feedback that was given on my trailer from my media teacher is that the inter-titles are too 'wordy'. Because of this feedback, I've decided that I will use her advice and make them shorter. As my trailer is representing a teenage girl who is finding the transition from teenager to adult-hood hard, I want my inter-titles to seem like something my target audience can relate to, or think back to and remember what it felt like for them.

Above you can see a screen grab of my work in Final Cut Express, which shows in the top right corner one of my inter-titles. Relating back to my research on the film 'Welcome To The Riley's' their inter-titles are of a similar variety. To view this please click here, and go to 20 seconds in the scroll bar.

Film poster feedback

After listening to Tia's feedback on my film poster for 'Lost' I have looked at the following:

• Quote along the top: Tia noticed that I had repeated the word 'fully' twice. This is the case, so I have re-worked what it says. Originally it read;

"The whole thing fully captured what it's like to be an outcast teenager. The romance between the two fully creates a lovely contrast and truly emphasizes Davies' amazing acting skills - Elle magazine "

This has now been changed to the following:

" 'Lost' captured what it's really like to be an outcast teenager living in the real world. The romance between the two helps to create a lovely contrast in emotions - also emphasizing Davies' amazing acting skills - Elle magazine"

After listening to Sadie's feedback on my film poster for 'Lost' I have looked at the following:

• Nothing.

After listening to Tom's feedback on my film poster for 'Lost' I have looked at the following:

• Nothing.

Questions for feedback help:

1) Does the writing seem conventional for a film poster?

2) Do you think the placing of the text and image is okay/suitable for a conventional film poster?

3) What do you think of the film poster overall?

Magazine front cover feedback

After listening to the feedback that Tia gave, I have experimented with the following:

• Font size: The original font size for the white writing along the left hand side is a size 12. As she thinks that it is too small, I have changed it to a size 14. After seeing the font to be bigger, I like it, however I think that it makes the front cover of the magazine look more like a paragraph instead of eye-capturing headlines. Further research into conventions of magazine elements (and the font size) I have found that font size should be no more than 10pt. Research was found here.

After listening to the feedback that Sadie gave, I looked at the following:

• Front cover image: I like the idea that Sadie suggested, about making the image more darker to help create a contrast between the colour of the text, however it isn't possible with Photoshop.
• The amount of text: As I have religiously followed the original front cover of Sight & Sound, I don't feel that it would be appropriate towards the style. If this magazine was to be following the codes and conventions of a magazine such as 'Empire' or 'Total Film' then I would agree with her suggestion.

Questions

1) What do you think about the red writing on the word "greatest" and do you think it should be changed to a white colour?

2) What do you think about the font along the left hand side?

3) How could the front cover be improved?

4) What do you think of the overall magazine front cover?

After listening to the feedback that Tom gave, I looked at the following:

• Anchorage text: I looked at adding in an extra line to fill up space, however, I don't think it fits in with the style of Sight and Sound.

This also meant that the bottom half of the front cover looked more crammed, thus meaning that if I was to add more information at the bottom, I would have to balance it out with the story lines. For this reason I will not use this idea from my particular target audience member.

• Font size: Tom also mentioned that the font size could be slightly bigger, so I will change the font size to 13pt. Even though I have only gone up +1, it has still made a difference, which could potentially make it easier to read for my audience. The font change has also meant that I've had to move down the text slightly, however, this has not created too much of a problem.

Final ancillary products (before feedback)

Final magazine front cover

With my final magazine front cover, you can see that I have related back to the March 2011 Sight and Sound magazine issue, as I wanted to create a spot on, conventional Sight and Sound magazine front cover. To create my own 'spin' on the front cover, I then changed the word 'greatest' to the red font which is used for the "&" in the Sight and Sound logo.

Final movie poster

My film poster inspiration has derived from the film poster for the recently released film "The Tourist" with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. I also looked at the film poster for an other recently released film "Chloe" which stars Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfriend and Julian Moore. Both of these film posters used a red font colour in order to attract their audience, also using a landscape photograph on top of the film's title.

Basic layout - inspired by different Sight & Sound front covers

This layout has been inspired by the March 2011 issue.

I really liked the simplicity of this layout, as I also felt that it was effective and eye catching for the audience.

Choosing font

Now that I have done my image manipulation, I am still looking for the 'perfect font' which will help my magazine resemble one of Sight & Sound's previous editions. Whilst searching for my font, I keep referring to the May, 2010 issue, as I really like the bold, eye catching font which is used in the middle of the left hand side.

I have found a font titled Headline, which I feel will help to capture my audience. Big, eye catching fonts are also used within Sight & Sound, so I feel that this font would fit in fine.

Here is a screen shot of the web page that has the font that I've chosen:

The reason as to why I've chosen this specific font is because it is bold, and also a tall font, meaning that it would take up the majority of the space in my box.

I do, however, feel that this font may not fit the codes and conventions, however, so far the font looks okay on my basic plan (which is below).

My design has now changed slightly, as I also like the layout of March 2011's issue, which is basic, and also creates a whole new look for magazine front covers, as the picture is black and white. This has meant that I need to research into a basic font for the left hand side writing. To do so, I have looked at 'basic' fonts on the 'DaFont' website, and have come across a font titled 'Vintage' which I feel has a quirky element, but also simple.

Image manipulation experimentation

Photograph manipulation 1:

The two above images are the same one, however the second image has also had a healing brush tool used (as well as selective colouring). I have manipulated this image as well as the one below, purely because I think it is also similar to the ones already used for 'Sight & Sound' magazine.

I like the tone of colours which has been used within this photograph, further being pushed by the red layer which has been placed on top. Having researched into the 'Sight & Sound' magazine front covers, I've come to the conclusion that this idea would fit in with their style, as all of the photographs and writing has colour co-ordination.

HTML scrollbox

Photograph manipulation 2:

This is the image which I've used for my first magazine front cover design. I have used a red layer over the top of the image, as it creates a more 'quirky' look. Out of the images which I produced during my photoshoot, I feel that this is one of the images which complies more with the ones used in the magazine already. I found that the images that have already been used with the 'Sight & Sound' magazine have a layer which help to create a certain atmosphere - such as 2010's December issue.

HTML scrollbox

Front cover fonts for 'Sight & Sound'

My favorite front cover which I have found in their 'Archive' is November 2010, December 2010 & July 2009.

With the July 2009 edition, I like the red brush stroke effect, so I have researched into some brush stroke fonts using DaFont.

My Brush font choices are:

• Levi Brush
• Edo SZ

Sadly, I have only found 2 fonts using 'DaFont' as I was looking for a specific type of font. I felt that, if I wanted to use a brush font, that I'd have to make sure that the brush stroke was apparent, as it creates the idea of the writing coming from the image.

Edo SZ font on basic plan

LeviBrush

Whilst trying to export my example of the 'LeviBrush' font my computer wouldn't allow me as "the font wasn't downloaded". I assure that it was, however there may be a font fault, which means nothing can be done about it. This means that I will not be able to use this font if I decide that I want a brush font effect.

Cartoon type fonts:

In the issue for November 2010, the cover is slightly more 'unusual' than the other ones I've seen for this magazine, so I felt that I should cover every convention I've found so far. For this reason I have researched 'cartoon font's' which look like 3D fonts. I have transformed my font list into a JPEG, however, it has not given me the option to have the image enlarged.

Note (RE: first basic film magazine layout): There is no justified reason as to why I have wrote "having fun?", as it was merely the first thing that came into my mind.

Decision of style of magazine

Why I've chosen 'Sight And Sound':

The reason as to why I've chosen this film magazine is because I feel that their image manipulation technique is easy yet effective. I like the way that they put together their front covers as they have the codes and conventions of any other magazine, however, they are slightly different - with the usual front cover having text on one side, or they use more than one font with the text.

I think that their target audience would fit the same one as mine (as well as the Little White Lies magazine) which would allow my film to generate a large interest.

A magazine such as 'Total Film' would be something that my film would aspire to, as it targets the mainstream films that are currently in the charts. This magazine, Sight and Sound does, however, also target quite a large audience already.

Film magazine research - Sight and Sound

Sight and Sound magazine research

• Magazine's website: click here
• Magazine's cover archive: click here (to see the links you will need to scroll down)

Front cover conventions: Pictures

The images above show the stereotypical front cover for a usual 'Sight & Sound' magazine front cover. These particular ones use medium long shots, so that the text next to the image wouldn't make the subject photograph look 'bulky' etc.

The middle image has been image manipulated with a grey layer, which creates the idea of bleakness; and the image on the left has been co-ordinated to have simple colour tones, which helps the magazine cover have an 'easy-eye' on the reader.

I feel that the magazine would tailor to my particular genre of film, as it means that it would have the target audience I would want to show, however it would also be sold in shops such as Wh-Smith, which would possibly guarantee a wider audience.

Film magazine research - Empire

Empire film magazine research

• Magazine's website: click here
• Magazine's interesting 'covers archive': click here; where you are able to view each magazine cover dating back to 1989.

I've found that the conventions of this magaizne are similar to the ones of the 'Total Film' magazine, as they target the same audience, also looking at similar genre's of film.

The magazine's pictures use the protagonist of the play, sometimes the antagonist (depending on the success of the actor playing them) so that they can successfully gain a large tent-pole audience.

Film Magazine Research - Total Film

'Total Film' film magazine research

• Magazine's website: click here

The conventions for 'Total Film's' front covers consist of the title always being in the same place (at the top) as it helps the audience to easily see what magazine is it that they're purchasing. The photography is usually either a close up of the protagonist of the film they have an 'exclusive' to, or a medium close up - long shot. The photo's are studio work with some utilizing a natural light, with others set up with the same theme as the film. An example of this could be the Avatar front cover (here), where they have used special effects to make the front cover look like a movie still.

The front cover also includes some text. The layout does not 'bombard' the reader with many headlines, as 'Total Film's' genre of magazine targets all headlines, meaning that the writing on the front will emphasize that they are repoorting on the "best of the best".

The magazine covers the popular "Hollywood action movies", which helps to emphasize their wide connections with the film industry.

Front Cover Examples:

As this magazine targets action movies, as oppose to my 'alternate' indie genre, I don't think that this will be a suitable magazine choice for me to follow, as the audience of this magazine would not be compatible.

Film magazine research - Little White Lies

Little White Lies film magazine research

• Magazine's website: click here
  

The magazines usual front cover conventions consist of a more graphic picture, with very little text. There is a 'Little White Lies' logo (usually along the top) with a circle where the barcode sits. I like the whole 'look' of this magazine, as people buy this magazine for the more un-usual and 'different' look; and not neccessarily for the content of it.
(all pictures have been print screened from the Little White Lies website)

I feel that the concept of this magazine relates to the genre of my teaser trailer, as it is for a more 'quirky' audience. I think that, if my teaser trailer was to be for a real film, and the magazine was to then publicise it through their front cover; then it would create intrest for the people who I believe to be my target audience, but they may not neccessarily have heard about it.

On the other hand, this magazine would conclude to a longer time process, as it would mean that I'd have to undertake tutorials explaining how to produce a White Lies inspired photograph. This could take any amount of time depending on how easy I find the tutorials etc. Keeping this idea in mind, I think that I will need to research other film magazines.