Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I believe my completed product keeps to many of the conventions of existing film teaser trailers. Teaser trailers typically last between 30 and 60 seconds and I kept within this timescale so my product would be less boring to watch. This timing added to the mystery of the teaser trailer and I feel if it went on any longer it wouldn’t have been as poignant or effective.
My piece also contains written text which is commonly found in teaser trailers, particularly those of similar genre.
I think my perception of the trailer for ‘Paths of Glory’ was very much different to the original. As I had a lack of resources I decided that it would be very hard to recreate a war scene and so kept it very simplistic with just costume and props for the character. Although it is still evidently a film about a war it has a much more eerie feel and could also be perceived as a thriller. This might also change the target audience slightly and could be a little deceiving as not much of the plot is given away in my teaser trailer.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I think my teaser trailer is much stronger than the poster. I think I could have put across the genre of the film slightly more for the poster as there is little evidence of it being set during the war.
I feel the two are a little mismatched and so for my main task I will make sure the ancillary texts are as well thought out and presented as the main product.
They will both have elements linking them together and the images will be taken during filming so the characters are recognisable to an audience and make a whole package as opposed to just the main product and a poster which could be used separately.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Most of my audience feedback was very positive and the effects I used on the film footage were commented on as being very successful in making it look authentic to the era. The soundtrack was praised for creating the right atmosphere however I should endeavour to create a more original one, perhaps composing my own piece rather than using existing ones and putting them together to form one soundtrack.
I should also attempt to include more action and give away the plot a little more. Although my trailer gets across that it is a war film, as an audience it is hard to understand any of the characters, their part in the film and what relation they have to the plot.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The technologies I used were limited and so for my main task I feel I should like to expand this to get the best possible result I can.
I used a Flip Camera to film the footage of the characters and bought it all together with Windows Movie Maker. This software allowed me to add effects to the footage such as ‘film age’ to make it more authentic to the genre and believable. I was able to add text in between the footage and transitions to make the piece flow. I could also crop the footage and slow the pace down, adding to the mystery and permitting me to select the best footage easily and keep it in time with the soundtrack.
The soundtrack was created in Audacity. I selected a variety of sounds from Clip Art and put them together using this software. I could also incorporate quotes from the original film trailer by downloading the video, converting it to an audio file and the cropping it appropriately in Audacity. This sound clip was then saved and imported into Windows Movie Maker over the visual aspects.