group 70 a2 media practical

Evaluation

2009-12-17T07:41:00.000-08:00

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products
We were assigned to the task of creating a media package for a film. This included up to a two-minute teaser trailer, a magazine cover and a poster. We decided to create a comedy/ action film. We agreed to use our individual areas of strength, which ranged from using Final Cut, using soundtrack and creating text/ designs. After the planning stages we came up with the idea of a clumsy office worker who for fills his dream by becoming a spy when he realises his new boss has plans for world domination.

We were inspired by the films, Get Smart, White Chicks, Hot Fuzz and Johnny English. These films are all of the action/ comedies and use a balance between the conventions of both genres. The spy genre generally follows the traditional James Bond style of film, which features a dominant male character, a villain and a sexually attractive female. Over the years action/ comedies have become increasingly popular and have challenged and mocked the action film.

Much of the time the comedy films will be spoofs or parodies and contains famous aspects of other films. E.g. Austin Powers Goldmember – James Bond Goldfinger or the throwing of the jacket and missing in Johnny English. There are numerous references to action films in our teaser trailer including the main character falling over the table after hearing that his phone will self destruct in 5seconds which is a famous scene in Mission Impossible The comedy aspect of this is that it’s a practical joke which emphasizes the lifestyle of the main character. Another reference is the famous James Bond Gun barrel sequence. In our teaser we introduce the main character with the actors name displaying him mimicking the iconic Bond pose, but instead getting it wrong and falling over. This again mocks the spy genre through comedy. We use some screenshots of this sequence on the poster as a unique selling point.
In our teaser trailer, we used costumes and props to help emphasise the genre of our film (Action/Comedy). The main character of our film (George Fleming, a parody of Ian Fleming) is shown wearing a suit; this is a item of clothing that is commonly associated with spy’s. For example, James Bond is famously known for his tuxedos. The connotations of a smart suit are possibly a reference to class or a certain job that the person does such as office worker or spy. However, our film is crossed with two different genres. So in order to show this, we used the physical actions of the characters to show the comedy aspect of the film.

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The Empire magazine cover for the Bourne Ultimatum was the main inspiration for our cover. We used the grid reference to emphasize what’s technicality considered with the spy genre. In addition, we thought that the overall design layout gave the feel of 3 Dimensional design-helping highlight the connotations of the action genre.
This was due to the rotation of the text following the guideline of the slightly rotated grid in the background. My main strength is using software such as Adobe After Effects to create titles and posters etc. To create the magazine cover similar to the design of The Bourne Ultimatum cover for Empire Magazine, I used After Effects. The main difference between our cover and The Bourne Ultimatum cover is the difference in colours. To help emphasize the British side of the trailer, we used colours associated with England (Red, White and Blue). In addition, it also makes the cover very eye catching due to the bright contrasting colours.

Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After we finished the rough cut of out teaser trailer we showed it to about 25 people. We then gave them a questionnaire to fill in to establish what people generally thought about the film. Because of the genre being part comedy, we were worried that people may not find our sense of humour funny enough. Luckily though, lack of humour wasn’t considered as an aspect of our film and most people found the individual scenes to be very comical.
The rough cut didn’t include any music or the narrative as we were still in editing stages for the first screening, so there was little feedback on sound.
After our audience feedback we received comments such as “it needs to have a faster pace, to incorporate the spy theme.” “ You need one last laugh to finish the trailer off.” With these comments taken on board we decided to edit the rough copy by shortening clips and scenes to add a faster pace, also we decided to film a separate scene to add to the variety of location. This allowed us to separate the scene to give the effect of a change in time in the film. Also using this footage we added one comical factor to the end of the teaser trailer to leave the audience with a laugh. Which will leave the audience with a laugh emphasising the comical genre of the film every time they see promotional advertising.

Q4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We looked for a range of different sounds through soundtrack and freeplaymusic.com. We found a track fitted to the spy genre. We then found another track, which was fast paced and fitted well with the action scenes in our teaser trailer, but it did not emphasis the comical scenes. We needed to find a track that fit both comical and action genres perfectly. We searched through similar films such as Johnny English and Get Smart for inspiration; we then watched Oceans Eleven, which uses a “groovy”, “powerful”, and “emotional” soundtrack, which seems to lighten the mood of the spy genre. We produced a mix of sounds on soundtrack using the style of Oceans Eleven as a base of inspiration.

2009-12-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

Cool Britannia teaser trailer

2009-12-03T07:57:00.001-08:00

Final Poster and Magazine Cover

2009-12-03T06:57:00.000-08:00

poster and magazine feedback

2009-11-30T02:13:00.000-08:00

We have asked several people about what they think of our magazine cover, and what style of magazine comes in to their mind when they looked at it. The majority thought that it needed a bit more colour and needs to be striking. They all loved the picture and agreed that it was very cheesy and worked well within the comical genre of our film. Another section they though was weak was the text. They didn't think it was typical of a film magazine cover to have text that was generally very plain and boring, it lacked enthusiasm about the film. furthermore they thought the image of cool britannia, gives the idea of reds blues and whites, so this needed to come across more in the magazine cover.

Overall, we got good feedback from class members about the poster. People liked the way the main image emphasized the genre and the character. We also included a few still shots from the teaser trailer of the main character falling over which further emphasizes the character. We may need to edit the text mainly adding more corporate information and removing unnecessary wording.

Film Posters

2009-11-26T04:10:00.000-08:00

Sound development

2009-11-16T01:27:00.002-08:00

We have been developing the music and sound effects which will be used in our teaser trailer. We are mainly using the soundtrack software but also using freeplaymusic.com to obtain non-copyrighted professional music.
Since our film is an action/comedy, we needed to find a track that could play throughout the sequence that had the perfect balance between both genres. we looked on freeplaymusic.com, but couldn't find a track that we all agreed on. After looking through tracks that were either too serious or too comical we eventually were inspired by the track to Oceans eleven to mix a few simple sounds on soundtrack that had a "groovy/ cool" theme. We edited the different beats to fit to the different events in our teaser. After we had chosen the music we added a few basic sound effects of an office including a phone ringing, and typing.

Audience rough cut feedback

2009-11-16T01:27:00.001-08:00

After we showed the rough cut of our teaser trailer to the other groups we received some feedback from them. Firstly we were told we had to many long scenes in the teaser and we needed more short clips to fit to the fast paced action theme of the film.

Another point was that the sound seemed unenthusiastic to be an action/comedy, but this was before we added the voiceover and decided on the final soundtrack. After we recorded the voiceover we heard a few clicks in the sound. We then realized we spoke too close into the microphone and we had to do it again.

Originally we chose disney to be our film company, but we couldn't find any of their films that fit to our genre. There were a few Universal films that were action/ comedies, but unfortunately we were using an image of a planet at the start of our trailer which meant it would have looked odd to include the universal logo ( which also uses a planet ) as well. We eventually settled on Waner Bros which was the film company responsible for Get Smart ( another action comedy) which happened to be one of our inspiration films.

technical development skills

2009-11-16T01:11:00.000-08:00

Last year we gained experience with using Final Cut Express HD, Soundtrack, and Live type to edit our film sequences. This year we gained further knowledge with the software and we each practiced editing in different fields:

Zia: Instead of using basic sounds on soundtrack. I have learned how to download professional music from freeplaymusic.com. I have gained more experience on using soundtrack and this has helped my knowledge on how sound is relevant in editing and why film makers use sound effects for different reasons. I have also gained an understanding on using livetype and creating relevant fonts and designs for text. My areas to improve are using the cameras for filming and fully understanding the process of uploading film onto the MACs.

Rachel:

Mark: I used a professional piece of effects software called Adobe After Effects CS4 which is used in the film industry to create digital motion graphics. To create the opening sequence of the Earth Zoom, I used various images from google maps and google earth and linked them using parenting tools to create a smooth earth zoom effect. This makes it eye catching and appealing to the audience who are interested in the Action genre. I am going to use either Adobe After Effects CS4 or Adobe Photoshop to create the teaser poster and magazine cover. This is because I am very comfortable with the software and I know how to use it. A problem with using this software is that it isn't on the college computers so I have to make the title's and poster/magazine cover on my laptop at home. To transfer the files on to the Mac's in order to edit it into the trailer on Final Cut, I will have to use a memory stick. In addition, I had to match my composition on After Effects to the same pixel aspect ratio used on Final Cut to ensure the titles didn't fall off of the video. I learnt how to use the software at home from watching various Tutorials from the Adobe website and just through generally playing around with the software. Although I won't use the software to create special effects as such, it is a very powerful piece of software that has unlimited capabilities if you use your imagination. I am reasonably confident with using editing software but I could improve my skills and knowledge with using a camera and filming a film sequence.

Props and Costumes

2009-10-19T02:06:00.000-07:00

Here is are the props and equipment that we will use to in our trailer. The first scene will be staged in the office. We will put notice-boards together to make it look like an office cubicle. There will also be a desk full of paper and a laptop with a headset for the main character to use. The following scenes also take place in an office, and will be filmed in various places around the college including the performing arts building and the ILC meeting room. Furthermore we will need a toy car, a suitcase and maybe some weapons.

Costumes: Zia - Smart, suit and tie (emphasizes dominance and seriousness)
Mark - polo shirt, suit (emphasizes scruffiness and lack of care)
Rachel - Smart, office wear

Shot Composition 1

2009-10-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

We were given the task to go around the college and take a selection of different shots with a camera that could give us inspiration for shots we could use in our teaser trailer.

Three different viewpoints of the same object

Shot Composition 2

2009-10-15T07:01:00.000-07:00

A Medium Shot and Long Shot using Symmetry and Patterns

A Long Shot and Medium Shot using Leading Lines

Background Shot

Rule of Thirds

Johnny English Teaser Poster Analysis

2009-10-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

The Johnny English Teaser Poster is relatively basic. It contains a picture of Johnny English standing in a pose with him holding a gun and a parachute falling from above with him harnessed to it. The Tuxedo is a suit that is most commonly associated with James Bond as he is a smartly dressed spy. Johnny English is shown wearing a Tuxedo in the poster while having a parachute attatched to him. Although the clothing has references to party's any more relaxing activities, the gun and parachute have strong referneces to extreme activities. This shows the character of Johnny English and helps to reveal the genre of the film and that he is a spy without even having to read anything on the poster.

Text is used to help show the cross genre of comedy. The text reads, "He knows no fear, He knows no danger, He knows nothing". The use of colours helps make the text stand out over the poster. Although no bright colours are used, the basic use of Black and White helps to highlight the spy genre as it can be related to the Tuxedo suit. The only information revealed on the poster is the main actors name "Rowan Atkinson" and the name of the film "Johnny English". This is a very effective Teaser Poster as it reveals the genre of the film (Spy action comedy) but doesnt reveal to much about the film but keeping the reader interested at the same time. Fans of Rowan Atkinson will be automatically interested as they will be able to see clearly that he is starring in the film.

Get Smart Marketing plan

2009-10-13T04:53:00.000-07:00

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=getsmart.htm

Domestic Total Gross: $130,319,208
Distributor: Warner Bros. Release Date: June 20, 2008
Genre: Action Comedy Running Time: 1 hrs. 50 min.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Production Budget: $80 million

GROSSES
Domestic: $130,319,208 56.5%
+ Foreign: $100,366,245 43.5%
= Worldwide: $230,685,453

DOMESTIC SUMMARY
Opening Weekend: $38,683,480
(#1 rank, 3,911 theaters, $9,891 average)
% of Total Gross: 29.7%
> View All 20 Weekends
Widest Release: 3,915 theaters
Close Date: November 6, 2008
In Release: 140 days / 20 weeks

THE PLAYERS (click name to view)
Director: Peter Segal
Actors: Steve Carell
Anne Hathaway
The Rock
Terence Stamp
Composer: Trevor Rabin

GRADE THIS MOVIE
Readers B (1229 votes)
Your Grade Log in
GRADE BREAKDOWN
As: 497 40.4%
Bs: 562 45.7%
Cs: 112 9.1%
Ds: 28 2.3%
Fs: 30 2.4%

2008
Date
(click to view chart) Rank Weekend
Gross %
Change Theaters Change / Avg. Gross-to-Date Week

summary of our film idea

2009-10-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

Genre: Action/Comedy

Target audience: 12+

Our film is an action comedy based on an everyday, average guy stuck in a dull telecom job unable to socialize with other people. His company goes under new management and he suspects something bad is going on and no-one else believes him. Eventually he uncovers the truth and he lives his dream by becoming an action hero on a quest to save his company from going under.

rachels poster

2009-10-08T07:02:00.001-07:00

Hot Fuzz poster

2009-10-08T07:01:00.006-07:00

The main image in this poster are the two main characters played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. They are both dressed in police uniform and holding guns. However fans of Shaun of the Dead would be familiar with the two actors and know that they are comidiens. The tagline " Big Cops. Small Town. Moderate violence",suggests an action movie with comic themes. The title Hot Fuzz is bold at the top with a reference to Shaun of the Dead just below. The background is bright fire suggesting explosions which emphasizes the action genre. Peggs character is in front of Frosts which implies that Pegg is a stronger character.He looks strong and confident where as Frost looks confused and worried.

Johnny English Teaser Trailer Analysis

2009-10-08T07:01:00.005-07:00

The trailer starts with a voice over that straight away reveals the genre of the film (Spy action/comedy). This is also shown with fast paced editing showing clips of footsteps, a gun being reloaded and somebody breaking into a building. These clips all highlight the genre of the film within the first 10 seconds of the trailer. Titles are also used to highlight the genre of the film. Fly in titles are used showing a wireframe earth in the background which are elements expected in a action/spy film. The titles are simliar to such used in the Mission Impossible films.

In the trailer there are various parody references to James Bond to help target the public who are fans of spy/action films. A Aston Martin is shown to be used by "Johnny English" which is knwon as James Bond's gadget filled car. In addition, there is a clip showing Johnny English trying to throw his jacket onto a coat hanger. Unfortunatly he misses and his coat falls out the window. The office scene is a iconnic moment in James Bond films used in Johnny English to highlight the genre of Spy Action but also Comedy as his coat falls out the window.

Rowan Atkinson is a very well known British comedian, actor and writer known moslty for his roles in such television programmes as Blackadder and Mr Bean. He has also starred in films such as Mr Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, Rat Race and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Like James Bond, Johnny English is primarily based at the English Market so Rowan Atkinson highlights this as he is a very well known British Comedian. In addition, him starring in this film helps highlight the genre of comedy and intise fans of Rowan and comedy films in general.

Hot Fuzz teaser trailor

2009-10-08T07:01:00.001-07:00

This teaser trailor starts with various close ups of Simon Pegg who is famous for his role in Shaun of the dead. There are a number of quick cut action sequences which emphasizes the genre which the film is spoofing. This makes the audience expect an action trailor untill the main character "Pegg" is told he is being moved from London to a Welsh village. We then see Nick Frost in a comical role who was also famous for Shaun of the Dead.

There are a few comical cuts with a few references to action movies along with a voice over which at one point says "from the guys that have watched every action movie ever made." This shows that the makers of the film are inspired from other movies. The voiceover also says "From the makers of Shaun of the Dead" which proves that the film is being targeted at fans of Shaun of the Dead and is using the actors to their advantage.

A lot of the teaser involves Simon Pegg's character chasing a thief by jumping over garden fences. Nick's character follows but falls through one of the fences. This is a direct reference to Shaun of the Dead where a similar event occurs. The trailor ends with the title of the movie. The O in hot has been replaced by a police badge being shot which comically emphasizes the action genre.