EVALUATION - What have I learnt through audience feedback?

Through the entirety of my research, I had conducted several questionnaires and focus groups to help me find out certain points regarding audience, and what they expect on different conventions of media texts.

Here are my two questionnaires regarding posters and magazines:

Magazine Questionnaie
Poster Questionnaire

Decisions made on my poster was vastly determined by my questionnaires and what audiences expect to see. For example I created a focus group to see which of my several magazine names sounded most authentic. I asked my peers to score each name out of 10 - this persuaded me which name to choose, and I felt confident that this magazine name would be suitable to use, and thinking ahead - thinking if a film fanatic would see my magazine name in a shop and pick it up.

Regarding my marketing campaign, the teaser trailer, magazine front cover and poster - each decision about the different elements that made up each component was decided with the help of audiences, and what they expect.

For my magazine front cover, I decided to use a colour scheme that complimented each element of the cover, for example emphasising certain words in specific colours so that the audience will recognise its significance. 

Here are a few examples: 

After playing around with several colour schemes, and using my peers n the focus group, a unanimous decision was made on my final draft in relation to genre, and what looked appropriate for the style of magazine. 

My focus group was also relevant for my poster, deciding on weather reviews were effective and if they represented the genre. As posters in similar films had reviews with five stars or excellent phrases from well-known critics. The groups and I had decided to use reviews - from magazines and websites. However without discussing this with the focus group, I may have chosen the wrong quotes to say, if any at all. 

Here is what my poster looked like without the reviews:

My final part of my marketing campaign was the teaser trailer, I had decided to separate my billing into two separate shots. This was following similar trailers in the genre that had dine this. Bringing up the idea to my focus group gave me the reassurance that this is what they would expect to see as an audience, and that it would be effective in my teaser trailer. 

Here are my two separate billing shots: 

Not only did I include two separate shots of my billing, I also put a release date with social media connotation. Audiences said that they noticed reference to social media in modern film, therefore when brought up to my focus group we decided that it would be right to include this. 

This is shown with the 'Hashtag' in reference to Twitter: 

After the completion of each third of my campaign, I then came back to my focus group to get their feedback regarding audience, and weather I had created a unified campaign. I needed to find out what elements worked, and if it stood up against real media texts. Questions like, 'does my poster represent it's genre?', and 'What elements of my magazine can you see?'. Each response would confer my success in completing a unified marketing campaign for a film.  

The feedback I received are as follows:

Poster, the majority of the elements were spot on - the use of reviews, film name and billing were noticeable and audiences would be able to spot the genre. 

Magazine, all the elements match the real media text with the use of cover lines, banners and a large dominant image of a star.

Finally my trailer, again like my poster - following the same pattern as existing pieces from the genre. My choice of music, dialogue, lighting and camera shots all represent the genre and together with my magazine and poster, complete a successful; unified marketing campaign. 

EVALUATION - Using media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation

My campaign is presented in the form of a blog (Blogger, Google). At the start of my journey I had to set up and create accounts for Blogger, Sound Cloud, and Youtube. By doing so I was able to upload sound files, images and and video clips needed .

By blogging my research and planning rather than a written version makes the experience more immersive not only for myself, but anyone else viewing my posts. There are online advantages to using a blog, for example being able to upload images and sounds - to show my ongoing progress. Enabling myself to keep organised and making my research tasks easier to manage.

Whilst editing my teaser trailer on software called 'Avid', I was able to arrange every shot taken into separate 'bins' on screen before dragging them into the editing section.

To create my tag lines and billing, I used Adobe's Photoshop - this enabled to to crop, change colour and move around any images and typings that needed to be put in a certain place to look authentic. I used tools like the magnetic lasso, this enabled my to crop round images with young edges easily,  the eye dropper tool to make coloured the same from one spot to another - and the ability to fill spaces with different colours. Once these images were made and saved, I then dragged them into Avid and used special effects to make them fade in and out, and appear on screen with sound effects - these were taken from the BBC Sound Effects Library.

This is part of the toolbox on Photoshop, with the lasso tool selected.

Whilst editing my poster, I had to merge every layer onto one - therefore when I had my final piece each element was stuck and cannot move. This then made it easy to align everything to make it look picture perfect, and finished. I highlighted which layers I wanted to merge before finally clicking the button for them to do so.

Using the bins made my editing process easier and beneficial to recognising the right shots and the correct images. Each shot was carefully labeled and then selected regarding the label - making the process run smoother making fewer mistakes. I took the shots which matched my storyboard and running order, therefore having my 'bin' organised was essential. The multi-track feature allowing me to layer all my shots with their effects and music - then carefully edited together.  Having any titles on separate layers.

Here are screen shots of certain elements of the Avid editing software - the first being a bin of my shots, the second being my sound clips, followed by my layering tracks and my bin selection.

 The final image is what Avid looks like with all my bins selected, you can see all the elements of the editing software.

Upon deciding on music tracks, I used Spotify and Adobe Auditions to cut down any unnecessary parts of the track.  On a certain track I even took the beginning, and end of the track to used in different parts of the trailer - implementing fades to bring the music in and out where required. By using this modern technology, this gave me a huge advantage to make my trailer as realistic as one from Hollywood.

All this modern technology helped me create a marketing campaign to the best of my ability, and gave me an isight to Hollywood and production stages of creating a campaign.

EVALUATION - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Keeping a sense on continuity across all media products used to promote any campaign is essential, therefore audiences can recognise the same film being promoted. A coherent campaign helps establish and create a buzz for the film, almost forcing images and clips into audiences heads, as when it comes to the cinema, the film will be memorable and into the audiences minds. 

In my entire campaign I focused on making sure that every element was consistent and followed the same trend. For example the title on my poster and teaser trailer used the same font, making sure the film is reflected in all forms of promotion, and audiences will engage this. When I researched into different fonts, I had to make sure that the font chosen was suitable for the genre and could be used on both my trailer and poster. The font chosen was called 'Portmanteau' and was used on the title, tagline, release dates and both poster and teaser trailer. 

This an example of a selection of fonts, which I was able to use in order to make my title of my trailer look authentic, regarding the genre it belonged to.

This meant that when each element of the campaign is watched or viewed, audiences can instantly see that they belong to the same film. However for my magazine front cover, I used a different fond and colour scheme. Partly as my magazine had its own independent style, but also because magazines have their own style depending on their target audience. My dominant central images for both the magazine and poster were similar, even though the represented the same meaning.

Here is my fished, and edited titles - using a font I had chosen,

My tagline that ran throughout my campaign is 'Friend. Father. Foe.' Is is short, sharp and alliterates, following conventions of horror film tag lines. By recognising the same short tag line will yet again re-enforce the film for audiences. My tagline does give a hint into the storyline of the trailer, however once watched this will become clearer - in fact my tagline appears towards the end of the trailer. The tag line does not appear on my magazine cover, alternatively if a tag line was to appear, it may be different. 

This is my tagline in my trailer, which appear on three separate shots along side a clip to create suspense and follow a pattern. 

My dominant central image in my poster and magazine both portray the same effect, both using my main protagonist, and both doing a similar pose. Magazines often use pictures of the star, director or other characters of the film, this became apparent when researching into conventions of real magazines. I used an image of a peer who is my plays my lead role and is central to my campaign. 

My billing was the same on my teaser trailer as it was my poster, although the font use was 'Steel Tongs'. With this came my production company logo's - which were put with my billing as on genuine billing/credits. Again showing audiences that they belong to the same film. These are my two separate billings from my trailer, with their production companies:

The use of billing/credits are conventional to all forms of media products, they appear on most advertising campaigns, and show who are involved. The only differences in my billing were in my trailer - in which was split into two separate shots, wheres in the poster I had them upon full. 

However I did not include my billing on the magazine cover, instead using other conventions which I took time into researching. For example the use of cover lines, banners, and a large masthead. 

My production companies only appear on my poster and trailer, not my magazine - following the conventions of each. 

These are my credits for my poster, you can see the differences between this one, and the ones for my teaser trailer. 

Here is an example of my potential cover lines:

Potential Cover lines

Release dates in my campaign vary, the tearer trailer is much earlier on than the poster. This could be months - even a year in advance. Therefore I simply state the season of release 'Summer 2015', unlike on my poster where there is a specific date. The poster is released towards the release of cinema screenings and emphasises the film and its release. Making audiences aware of the film yet again, and prepare to go to the cinema to view it - after all that anticipation! 

There are lots of similarities in this campaign, production companies are the same throughout, appearing on both magazine and poster. I use the same image of my central protagonist, keeping my fonts the same, billing, web address and colour schemes. This is so that they all combine to my main product and advertise in the same manor. 

EVALUATION - Conventions Of Real Media Products (Magazine)

My last third of the campaign was a magazine front cover. The magazine build up a buzz and promotes the film, as I had decided to create a 'horror special' mainstream magazine, I looked and analysed many mainstream and independent horror magazines - in the same way with posters, to get an understanding of the conventions used.

Magazine Front Covers

A sample of conventions found are:

- Masthead, biggest font on the page ( top 1/3 or 3/4 of cover )
- Cover lines
- Banners
- Free gifts / posters
- Web address
- Slogan
- Other images

I also analysed many magazine front covers, here is a link to two of them:

'Total Film' Magazine Analysis
'Filmmaker' Magazine Analysis

Example of a large Masthead from 'Empire' magazine, having the dominant central image behind the text, and taking up 1/3 of the page.

On another 'Empire' magazine, there are a number of cover lines all and banners over the mid section of the magazine - much like on my own magazine which is dominated by the same conventions. 

Here are examples from my magazine, showing my banners and cover lines.
My banners:

Here are my cover lines:

My masthead: 

EVALUATION - Conventions Of Real Media Products (Teaser Trailers)

For my A2 media project, as part of my marketing campaign I had to create a taser trailer to combine with a poster and magazine front cover for the horror genre. Before starting I had to do major research into conventions of real media text to make sure my campaign was as authentic as possible.

Here is a sample of the research I had done into conventions of teaser trailers:

Teaser vs Theatrical

I began by watching a number of teaser trailers online, and compared them to their theatrical versions, which gave me an idea of the differences in terms of editing pace, content and structure for each trailer.

The first trailers I looked at were 'Fast & Furious 6', and 'The Dictator'. Both of which are big budget Hollywood productions. As I noticed the differences in teaser trailers to theatrical, I noted the differences and similarities to make clear which conventioneer belonged to each trailer. 

Teaser Trailer Comparison

By looking at a series of trailers and big game spots from a variety of genres, I saw the differences in camera work, editing and sound. When it came to preparing my own trailer, I used the research on the trailers and used conventions which were appropriate for my teaser trailer 'Fractured'. As you can see below my trailer includes production companies relating to the horror genre, a release date, and separate tag lines. I also used the conventions of fat pace editing mixed in a montage sequence to build up suspense and tension.

Here is my finished teaser trailer:

EVALUATION - Conventions Of Real Media Products (Poster)

My other third of the campaign was to create a poster. As a starter I looked at a variety of different posters from all genres to get an understanding of the different conventions used ranging from Romantic Comedies to Horror - finding a pattern of conventions that appeared on almost every poster ranging from billing, dominant central image, and stars names.

 Here is a link to posters which I had analysed from a number of genres:

Poster Analysis


Using all the conventions found in my research, I will be using to make my poster look 100% genuine. As I created a horror campaign, I looked at many horror posters to make note of the conventions, colour schemes and fonts used. Therefore when it came to editing my poster, I knew exactly what colours to use and what type of fonts would be appropriate. I took reviews from other magazines like 'Empire' to see what type of language and snappy comments are used, as a result I put four different reviews on my poster. 

A poster that inspired my own design and layout was 'The Lords Of Salam'
You will be able to see the similarities between this and my very own.

At various stages of my editing process, I chopped and changed the style and layout of the poster. My central dominant image is of my central protagonist, and have disguised his face and body to give him a more eerie look. 

 Once I put my cover lines in, I was able to change the font colour  to fit the colour scheme and then move my stars and film name. 

 Once everything was in place, I was able to fiddle with the colours and add different effects ti make certain elements stand out over others. For example the use of red to emphasise a word or phrase - even film names

 Here is my finished and flattened poster

Finished Campaign Pieces

After my research, planning and editing, I have finished each third of my unified marketing campaign. consisting of a magazine front cover, poster and teaser trailer.

Here is my magazine front cover.

Here is my poster.

Finally, my teaser trailer - 'Fractured'