Ashleen McCammond A2 Media Blog

All of my products very much conform to the conventions of each of the real counter parts of the media products, but also challenge them in small ways. My film trailer has a definitive beginning, middle and end, which conforms to the of real media products, which I know through research of film trailers of the same genre such as 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. The names of all of the starring actors are given at the end of the film trailer, just like a 'star roll' in high budget films. My film poster is of something which is of great significance to the storyline of the film, which again mimics posters for real film posters. My magazine does the same, with each of the important components of a real life magazine, such as the the name of the magazine being at the top of the page and a tag line.

In terms of challenging forms and conventions, my film trailer and film poster give very little of the storyline away in terms of plot. For example, although both feature the necklace, nothing is explained about it, therefore hooking the audience in as they would want to know the significance of it. This is more akin to film trailers of the 1960s, with films such as 'Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb as opposed to films of the modern day. The only kind of information that the film trailer gives to the audience in the background information - the kind of thing that would not be explained in the actual film, but the audience still need to know. I did this because I thought that it was the best way to hook the audience without telling the whole story in two minutes.

My film trailer and the ancillary tasks all have the colour red in common - it is used in my film trailer as a background for the necklace as well as one of my actors wearing the colour. It is also the background colour of my film poster and the colour of some of the text on my magazine front cover. I used this colour to link all of my products in a subtle, yet attention grabbing way. The colour is quite bright, therefore catching the eye of the audience, but the link is not totally clear and would be more subliminal, as the obvious link between the three products is the necklace and the actress.

The necklace is a fundamental part of the film - although no information is given to the audience about it- and so it made sense to use it to link all of the products together as a kind of 'branding'. This reinforces the significance of it to the audience through seeing it not only in the trailer, but also on the film poster. This links to the front cover of my magazine. By showing that certain actor on the front cover, it makes the audience think that perhaps the necklace has some significance to that character in the film.

Any audience feedback helped me greatly in the process of creating my media products. With my film poster in particular, I started off by doing a first draft of what I had in my head for the poster, and what i wanted it to tell the audience and then presented it to other to see. They then gave me ideas of how to improve it as what worked well, such as the colour scheme. Due to my audience feedback from my film poster, I combined two of my ideas together to make the poster more eye catching but not too crowded. It was through audience feedback that I came up with the idea of linking all of my products through the colour red.

With my film trailer, I followed my storyboard for the first trailer, but found that it would be too long if I included everything in it, so I cut parts that i did think were as important for the audience to see. I also found that after I put my chosen music in ('Heart of Courage' by Two Steps From Hell) that quite a bit of the filming did not go to the beat of the song, so again I had to change a lot of scenes around as well as film a new scene, which was the scene in the church. i ten presented this to a small audience to get feedback on it. It was through audience feedback that I got the idea to do a series of 'training' type scenes in it to contrast to that of the scenes in the woods. As it turns out, these training shots are used frequently in the trailer. Through audience feedback, I also found that some of the speech could not be heard over the music, which I would not have noticed other wise.

In main research of my film trailer, I used a combination of YouTube and IMDb to search for trailers of fantasy films. I then took notes on what each included information wise. I also compared modern film trailers, to those that were made 50 years ago and found that they had changed dramatically over that short space of time. I wanted to incorporate elements of both types of film trailer, which had a direct effect on my finished product. I also used Google and, again, IMDb to find real film posters for fantasy films to find what the forms and conventions were, and used this to model my own on them so that they were similar. For this I used Adobe InDesign, and as I found difficulty using this software, my end result was something that was simpler, but still had important information on it. For the film trailer, I used Adobe Premiere Elements Pro, I slightly updated version of the one that we had in school, and the one that I had been using. Due to this, I had to learn how to use these new controls, which was a challenge at first, but ended up finding myself more comfortable with this version.

I have completed all of the title screens for my film trailer and edited them so that they fade in and out of the screen. I wanted part of the first title screen to 'burn up' like paper when it is set on fire. However, I could not figure out how to animate it using the software avaliable so I changed it to just fading out. I have also figured out the timings for the title screens so that they are on screen for the same amount of time.

I have also found the music that I wish to include in my film trailer. It is from a company called Two Steps From Hell who make music for films and videogames. I have researched and found that I can use thier music for free so long as I don't make any profit from it. I am having trouble however, with converting the format from iTunes format to MP3 so that it can be used in my film trailer. Therefore, I just need to convert the songs and then editing and add them into the film trailer.

After completeing my filming and starting to edit it, I have found that I am not happy with some of the clips that I used. I need to refilm some shots in different places and need to organise this with my cast.

I have an idea of what I want to put into the film poster and magazine front cover, however I want to concentrate on completeing my film trailer before I do the film poster and magazine front cover.