Evaluation Activity - Extended Task - Audience Theory

    It is fairly clear to understand that all pices of media text is produced with an audience in mind. This is the same for us as well. We produced our trailer with an audience in mind. This audience was predominantly working/middle class males. There are a number of theories regarding audince that I will now look at in this post in regards to out media texts.

   The first theory is the hyperdermic needle theory. This suggests that a media text injects its ideas, values and attitudes straight into a passive audience.

    This is why we decided our trailer to be a 15 age certificate.The reason for this is that we felt some of the topics that would have been covered if we were to produce a film would be too explict for a age group under the age of 15. Obviously, the trailer was less explict as a younger audience would be able to watch it on T.V without getting any negative ideas of aggression and violence.
    I felt that we also injected positive ideas towards the audience of someone chasing their dream. Thus why I felt that our trailer had much more of a positive feel taken out from it by the audience as opposed to the neagtive aspect of aggression.


Another theory could be the reception theory. This suggests that the text is not accepted passively by the audience. But the individual audience members interpretation of the text depends on their own cultural experiences.
 
   The stereotype associated with the working class of being aggressive could mean that our trailer feeds nagative information to the audiemnce. Despite this, I believe that our trailer is very much supported by the hyperdermic needle theory much more and thus the reasdon why we chose the age certificate of 15.

 A third theory could be the uses and gratifactions theory which consists of 5 reasons why audiences consume media texts. These are:

• To be Informed and Educated.
• In order to identify with characters and situation
• To be entertained
• To enable themselves to socially interact with others
• Escapism from their daily troubles and woes

A number of these reasons apply to us as well. For instance, the need to be entertained is one of the main reasons why audiences watch movies and thus we tried to make the audience entertained in the trailer through the music and quick cut in shots. That high intensity will build the audiences adreneline which would be a sign of them being entertained.

Anoother reason why they would watch our trailer is due to escapism.Our trailer is very different to a story that you would see in real life and thus will most probably provide escapism tothe majority of the audience.

Evaluation Activity - Extended Task - Genre Theory

    The purpose of genre is to offer audiences viewing choices and discriminations as there are certain connotations associated with genre which catches the attention of different types of audience. This was helpul for us as it narrowed who we were trying to aim our movie at and gave us more of a clear idea of what we need to include for our trailer to be a success and thus saved a lot of time.

Barry Kieth Grant proposed a theory regarding genre and suggested: that pleasure is derived from 'repetition and difference' (Neale 1980)

    This supports our trailer as we used a very similar storyline in our trailer that can be identified in other Sports/Drama films. Our "Rags to Riches" storyline can be identified in many films such as Rocky Balboa which shares the exact same concept but the difference by which Aran reaches the riches is different to that of Rocky. This difference creqates excitment to the audience yet we knew that the rags to riches storyline was a successful one and thus why we decided that our trailer would be based around this.


Another theory that applies to our trailer is John Hartley's theory where he argues that 'genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning-potential of a given text' (O'Sullivan et al. 1994)
  
    The reason why this applies to us is that we found that the our genre was restricted in what we could include and thus wouldn't be able to appeal to a wider audience as we felt that due to the lack of movies produced within the genre, the genres are very restricted. For this reason, we added a sub-genre of drama to gain the female audiences attention and make our trailer less restricted than it would have been if it was soley a sports genre.

   Overall, I feel that our trailer meets the needs of our genre as there are very little needs to be met within our genre. Due to having drama as a sub-genre, we didn't focus on it that much but helped re-enforce the idea that we needed a back-story. We didn't want the drama aspect to overshadow the sports genre and thu8s re reduced the amount of the back-story that we had included.

 

 

Evaluation Activity - Extended Task - Representations - Stereotype Theory

   Representation is best defined as the way in which people, ideas and events are presented to us in the form of media text. In our case, this is the way in which our Trailer, Magazine Front Cover and poster is used to present these certain types of people and events.

   Our main character; Aran is represented in a number of ways throughout our trailer. First of all, a huge part of the trailer can be seen as him training which connotes hard working and motivated. This is something that may not be associated with the working class but is a successful topic that surrounds the working class when looking at media and I found this out in our audience profiling through the rocky movies which shares similar connotations and was highly popular amongst the working middle class audience.
  
    Tessa Perkins (1979) produced a stereotype theory consisting of 10 criteria regarding stereotypes. these are:-
 

1. Stereotypes are always erroneous (incorrect) in content

2. They are pejorative concepts (express disapproval)
3. They are about groups with whom we have little or no social contact; by implication, therefore, they are not held about one's own group
4. They are about minority (or oppressed) groups
5. They are simple
6. They are rigid and do not change
7. They are not structurally reinforced
8. The existence of contradictory stereotypes is evidence that they are erroneous, but of nothing else
9. People either 'hold' stereotypes (believe them to be true) or do not
10. Because someone holds a stereotype of a group, his or her behaviour towards the group can be predicted

   Stereotypes have been seen to be unethical and wrong to put people in different stereotype groups but is understood that putting humans in categories is a fundamental process for humans to make sense of the world. It provides structure to these ideas of representation of people, experiences and people.

   Our trailer does fill some of the criteria posed by Tessa Perkins such as having very simple stereotypes of Aran being hard-working and motivated. Furthermore, our trailer sub-verts from some of the criteria as Aran is seen as an individual and can be identified towards individuals. Despite this, he is also seen as a minority as he is an individual and this adds to the storyline that he is facing struggles.

   Another representational theory is George Gerbners Mean world syndrome.This is where the audience watches and views so much media that the believe the stereotypes portrayed by these forms of media. Combined with Tessa Perkins theory of stereotypes being erroneous, Gerbener suggested that media is hugely influential and offers false information which misleads audiences.
   Our trailer would have a positive representation of George gerbners theory in regards of the main character being hard working and motivated. However, there are negative stereotypes that can be identified as Aran being aggressive as boxing is surrounded by aggression and this puts the label of the working class being aggressive which is a common stereotype associated with them which is somthing that I found out during my research stage.

   A final theory that can be assocaited with our trailer is Claude Steele's Cultivation theory. This suggests that social groups conform to the stereotypes that the media show. I believe that our trailer shows very positive representations of characters within it. Thus the cultivation theory is shown as more of a positive light in regards to our trailer. For example, if the working middle class were to see our trailer, Claude Steele suggests that they should conform to the stereotypes that we offer.

Evaluation Activity - Extended Task - Narrative Theory

   In this blog, I will look at the narrative theory in regards to my media text. There are a number of narrative theories that I will look at and each one applies to my text in different ways. The definition of narrative offered by Bordwell and Thompson in 1980 is:
    "A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time."

    Before looking at the theories, I will just give a brief overview about out trailer in regards to the narrative. Our storyline is offered though text and dialogue formats. Despite this, we don;t have such of a backstory. the reason for this is because we wanted to restrict our narrative range as we understood that it was a trailer and so we didn't want to give much information away. We knew that an unrestricted narration would be found more  in a movie and thus was something that we would have used last year during out opening two minutes project.
   We see our trailer as a subjective point of view as we give the audience a wide range of what the characters see or do as opposed to viewing the trailer at a specific characters point of view. We knew that either point of view would work for our trailer idea but we felt that having an objective point of view would be overcomplicated to produce and is very much rare to find in modern day media.

Propps Narrative Theory:-
Vladimir Propp produced his narrative theory after researching media texts and finding similarities. He suggested that characters took on the role of certain narrative functions. There are seven different types of character functions that Propp had come up with:-

1) The Hero- Is usually Male and the main character. Tends to embark on a mission to reinstate the equilibrium. The hero can be identified as trying to save the victim which is targeted by the villain. 
     In our trailer, the hero is Aran. It follows Propp's theory as he is on a male and is also on a quest. Despite this, our trailer doesn't start with an initial equilibrium and thus doesn't aim to reinstate the equilibrium but to create a new one. This can be shown in the trailer as he has most prevalence in regards to camera work and one word that can be associated with him by the audience after watching the trailer is his hard work which is the way that we are trying to tell the audience that Aran is attempting to produce a better equilibrium for himself.

2) The Villain- Is usually the one who creates the disruption and is the reason why the hero embarks on his journey. 
    In our trailer, you can see Damien as our villain as he is Aran's sparring partner but looks evil as he is beating down a helpless Aran at times. Although he was helping Aran, the audience could easily believe that he's Arans opponent and must beat him to succeed in his quest. Again this shows how helpful and relevant Propp's theory is as it applies to our trailer as well.

3) The Donor- Gives the Hero something to help him along his quest. This could be anything from a prop to some advice. This helps with the resolution of the narrative. 
    I am seen as the Donor in our trailer. I give Aran asn inspirational speech within the trailer which helps him along his mission to be the best boxer. This can be identified by the audience as this is the only bit of verbal dialogue throughout the entire trailer thus giving it extreme prevalence. Moreover, after that speech, Arans fortunes change and he is succeeding in comparison to the failures you could see against Damien before the speech.

4) The helper- Aids the hero in his quest and task of restoring the equilibrium.
     Muhammed is the helper in our trailer and can be identified as this very easily. He plays the role as Arans trailer and can be identified as this through the costumes that he wears which is typical of a boxing trainer to wear. 

There are three more criteria that Propp had included in this narrative theory but because our trailer has a restricted narration as we didn't want to give much away but we did include 4 of the most important criteria and we felt that this was suitable as we didn't want to over complicate anything. The three criteria that we decided not to include in our trailer are:-

1)  The princess- usually captured by the villain and the reason why the hero goes on his quest. 
2)  The Dispatcher- Sends the Hero on his task.
3)  The False hero- A character who looks as if he is a good character but gets revealed to have been bad.

   Todorov's Narrative Theory:-
  Todorov's theory suggests that all conventional movies follow the same 5 structures of narration. These 5 steps are:
    
     1) A State of Equilibrium
     2) Disruption of Equilibrium 
     3) Recognition of Disruption
     4) Attempt to repair the disruption
     5) Re-instatement of Equilibium

This was predominantly produced by Todorov for a movie piece of text but still can be applied to a trailer with the exception of the last step as that is giving too much away.

  We wanted to make our trailer conventional but also wanted to differentiate it by not following all the steps. We felt that this would help the audience ask more questions which was one of the factors that we had identified to say whether the trailer was a success or not.
   We followed steps 2,3 and 4 but left out 1 and 5. The reason we left out step number 1 was that is would get the audience asking about Aran's back story which is supported as he said "I've got nothing left." This tells the audience that the trailer starts off straight away with a disruption of the equilibrium where he is demotivated and needs help from his Donor. We still wanted to keep the trailer fairly conventional as we didn't want the audience to ask too many questions as it could be argued that we didn't include enough information and thus we followed the middle 3 steps. We don't know much about the mission Aran's on but we know its based around boxing which we felt was adequate information but still poses enough unanswered questions thus building interest in the movie.

Allan Cameron:- Modular Narratives in Contemporary Cinema::-
Allan Cameron defined his theory as “articulate a sense of time as divisible and subject to
manipulation”.

There are 4 different types of Mudular narrative Sub theories and the one that our trailer fits in with is Episodic narrative where everything takes place in chronological order. This is because we didn't want to over complicate the trailer and whilst doing our research, we noticed that a lot of trailers use this narrative type. 

 The two other narrative types can be seen below:-

   1) Anachronic modular narratives- This theory narrates a story using flashbacks and/or flash forwards where there is no clear dominance over any of the narrative threads. It also includes the use of repeat scenes in other peoples perspectives and this can be found used consistently in the crime genre.

   2) Forking-path narratives- This theory constantly juxtaposes to different scenarios thus posing different outcomes. It suggests that a small change in information can completely change the overall outcome and this narrative idea can be seen in movies such as Run Lola Run.

  Binary oppositions- Claude Levi-Strauss :-

    Levi Strauss's theory suggests that the relationship between conflict and opposition creates the narrative where the narrative can only end with the resolution of this conflict; whether it be positive or negative. Opposition can be visual or conceptional and to do with sound.

   Our trailer has a conceptional opposition as it could be argued that Aran is boxing for his love and passion for it. This is supported when I state that there is nothing left for him within the trailer. The conflict is related to Aran's success but we try not to give too much information away and its very rare to fond a resolution of the conflict within the trailer as again this is giving too much away in the same way as Todorov's theory. We do use the sound to support Levi Strauss's theory as it does support that he is on a mission to resolve the conflict although we're not quite sure what that is.

   Barthes Enigma Code:-

   Barthes theory suggests that there certain elements of the story that are not explained on purpose. This can be done in three ways. These ways are:

   1) Snares- Deliberately avoiding the truth

   2) Equivocations: partial or incomplete answers

   3) Jammings: openly acknowledge that there is no answer to a problem.

The purpose of the author in this is typically to keep the audience guessing, arresting the enigma, until the final scenes when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied off and closure is achieved.

We used equivocations a lot throughout our trailer as there are a lot of partial answers which we didn't want to further elaborate on purpose. We also used snares in regards to making Damien look like the Villain in the trailer but in actual fact, he could be seen as the second helper for Aran. We didn't use Jammings because we wanted the message behind our trailer to be that you can get whatever you want if you put your mind to it and this Jammings concept contradicts this.

   Overall, these narrative theories have been helpful when looking at how conventional out trailer is. I can conclude that our trailer can be classed as conventional with some deliberate unconventional aspects that differentiate our trailer to any other trailer available. For example, the fact that there is no equilibrium is very risky but I feel as is it was a successful risk to take and makes our trailer unique.

   

Evaluation activity 4

Imovie Software:-

Aran had used the Imovie software to produce the credits for our trailer. We decided to do this very late after we produced our final draft. We felt something was missing to make our trailer go from the draft to the final product. This was when we decided to make credits and decided to do this on Imovie as Aran had experience with this piece of software even though we used movie maker during our editing. I also had past experience with both software and could say that they were both very similar but Imovie was the best for producing credits. Thus Aran produced the credits which we then incorporated in our trailer on movie maker and realised that this was what we were missing. I felt the production of credits on Imovie was much less time consuming and much more professional. Moreover the font that we were using throughout the trailer in movie maker could be found in Imovie which was one of our main fears at the time. Both movie maker and Imovie are pre-installed programmes with very similar specifications.
                             

Here is a screenshot of Aran working on the credits using the Imovie software on his Imac. He then sent it to Muhammed who put it on the trailer.

Samsung Video Camera:-

We had a wide range of video cameras to choose from and surprisingly found out that Muhammeds video camera was the best. We tested 4 cameras and we had a wide range of criteria where the Samsung fulfilled the majority of them. We also chose this because we identified how sooth trailers are and this camera shaked the least which is what we wanted the most. Compared to a Sony camcorder that we had, the video quality was slightly worse for the Samsung but the Sony shakes significantly more and thus didn't meet our most important criteria.

    Due to the camera not shaking very much, it performed extortionately during the fast paced shots in which we had a lot of. It also was very smooth during the match on action shots that we had taken whilst Aran was boxing. When looking back at these shots, we concluded that this piece of equipment was perfect for us and that we had made the right decision when choosing the camera as we noticed that it was the smoothest with one of the best resolutions.

    One problem we faced was with lighting where the flash of our camera didn't make much of a difference. The way in which we overcame this was deciding what times we should go to our locations so we didn't have to worry about the lighting. We decided to leave for our running track early in the morning and this gave us sufficient time to film in our location without worrying about lighting.

   Overall, I felt as if we chose the best possible camera which supported our needs. It was light and easily manoeuvrable to to help with the tricky camera angles.

                                           

Here is a camera shot of the type of camera that we had used. It is very different to a contemporary camera used in most trailers but I felt as if it had done the job as well.

Windows Live Movie Maker:-

This was predominantly the software that we used for the majority of the editing for our trailer. We used this software for editing last year and thus made it much easier to us it this year. Also it helped us be more time efficient as we knew exactly what we were doing in regards to this software thanks to our added experience from last year.

   The programme itself was fantastically simple to use as well as the inclusion of exceptional features as well. All of this combined makes it much easier for to do our editing process and it was also very easy to bring all of our shots together along with using our effects such as our fades. The simplicity along with the fact that it done everything we needed made it very time efficient and allowed us to make a number of drafts to pick from and it also helped re editing it without any problem.

    Overall, I believe that the use of this programme was perfect for our needs. Prior to the editing stage, we were given negative feedback in regards to using such a simple editing tool but after we completed a our editing, these same critics gave us praise and this just shows that if you are good at a specific piece of software, you can fully utilise it which is what we had done.

                                            

Here is a screenshot of us using this windows movie maker tool. As you can see, this was during the early stages of our editing where we only incorporated the sound and the opening 3 shots. That being said, it only took us half a day to create a first draft which shows its ease of use. from this first draft, we only made slight adjustments which also shows how successful our research and planning stage was and how influential the storyboard was as we followed it very closely which was one thing that we did differently to last year and this saved a lot of time as well as made our project this year better than last year in my mind.

Adobe Photoshop:-

  This tool was used in the production of our Poster and Magazine front cover. Aran and I worked on the poster and Muhammed worked on the poster as he had this software in his house. Nonne of hus had very much past experience with this software so Aran and I spent a day getting used to all of its features which there were a lot of. I felt that this software was overcomplicated and very time consuming to get my head around. But as soon as we got grips with it, I felt that you could accomplish a lot from it and thus we produced two different pieces of text from this.

   The most important thing we had to deal  with was the cropping phase along with the text. Thanks to a number of forums and YouTube tutorials, we had the knowledge to get it done. Despite this, the production of the magazine cover and poster took as long as the editing phase of the trailer but I felt this was mainly due to our inexperience with the software.

   Overall I felt that this was a very handy piece of software as soon as we got grips with the way it works. I felt that if I were to produce a piece of text using Photoshop now with my experience, it won't take as long as it did to produce our poster and magazine front cover.

                                    

Here is a screenshot of the software that we had used for the poster and magazine front cover. This was a screenshot taken when we were trying to get used to the software. As you can see, there are many features that we had to get used to and thus we were trying each one out individually and now I can safely say that we have become very experienced in regards to this software.

Keyboard (Soundtrack):-

   

    We used a Yamaha keyboard in the production for our sound. Our friend and composer James Richardson said this was used because of its simplicity and how easy it was to transfer the sound from his keyboard to his PC. This again made us very time efficient as we hired someone with the expertise and knowledge that we required to produce the sound. This was only the initial part of our sound production. James stated and showed how we could add additional instruments through this electric keyboard whereby he added strings and mixed it all together. Once this was done, we simply added it to our trailer and worked around it during out editing phase and alongside our storyboard, we had a clear idea of what needed to be done.

                              

Here is a screenshot of the exact piano/keyboard that was used by James Richardson. As you can see there was a lot of features consisting of a lot of instruments which we exploited which the help of James.

Social Networking:-

We used a wide range of social networking platforms throughout the duration of our course. We used YouTube the most in the research and planning stage when researching other trailers as well as getting help through tutorials of Photoshop. Furthermore this was the website where we uploaded all of our videos including the trailer. It was very helpful to our success as we used it constantly but mainly helped us gain sufficient knowledge which gave us the confidence to experiment. We also used Dailymotion which is similar yo YouTube but not as good. 

   We used Gmail to transfer pieces of unfinished work for one another to do at home. This was helpful as everyone contributed and made this project a real team effort. Furthermore, all of us gained knowledge in all fields thanks to Gmail. For example, the questionnaire results were very time consuming to produce and so we all done a third and finished it in one day which would have been much quicker than any one of us doing it together.

    We also used primary social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to promote our trailer and get a wider range of audience feedback of our drafts instead of just our friends. We also used this to gain interest of our trailer through crating hashtags which we incorporated at the end of out trailer as well and thus made the most out of these social networking platforms.

    Finally, we used blogger to bring everything together through the creation of our posts. As all three of us had blogger, we could upload something for the other person to see as everyone had experience with this site thanks to last year.

   Overall, I feel that the success of our trailer depended on the fact that we used a wide range of social media platforms. Not only did it give us information but it gave our audience information about our trailer.

                                     

                          

Evaluation Activity 2

       Here are our 3 pieces of media text along with our directors commentry which was done by Aran. We understood the importance of all three pieces of text to be able to gain attention of a wider audience.

     One thing that we focused on and which I felt  we done well was to show our genre in all 3 text types. This was the sports, more specifically boxing genre. We also had a sub genre of drama but we didn't want to over complicate the magazine cover and poster so we decided to shun off our primary genre. I felt we done this well in the poster as Aran can be clearly identified as being in a boxing ring.
     Furthermore, we needed to attract our target audience which was our focus in the magazine front cover in regards to Aran's background in the magazine cover where the graffiti could be associated with the lower middle and lower class.  This means that we have used all three pieces of text to gain the audiences attention whereby all three of the types of texts combined helped achieve our objectives which we produced during our planning phase.
     We understood the trailer must include every possible way possible to attract out target audience. We knew that the success of the trailer would contribute to the success of the poster and magazine front cover. We did this through the locations, use of props as well as the information that is given in our trailer. Thus we used a number of hard hitting locations associated with our genre such as the working class looking boxing ring along with the river and running track. We used the river to present the back story of Aran as this is where we had the majority of the dialogue. We used very simple props but gave them a lot of prevalence in our shots thus would have gained the audiences attention. For example we showed the boxing gloves constantly throughout the trailer as this was one of the most important props to convey our genre. This complemented the head guard along with the boxing pads very nicely and thus really made our genre clear to the audience which was one of our initial fears. We wanted to make the information within the trailer clear to the audience and I felt we had done this thanks to the use of props and locations.
    We decided that we would focus on our magazine front cover and poster after the trailer as it would give us more of an idea of how we should present it. The problem that we faced was trying to differentiate the magazine front cover and poster to one another. This is when we decided that each should serve a different purpose as they are ultimately two different pieces of texts. Thus we finally agreed that the poster would be used to further shun out our trailer and the magazine front cover should appeal the the target audience that we were aiming it at which we found during our audience profiling research. Hence Aran is in a boxing ring in the poster to show off the genre and he is in front of a Working class background in the magazine front cover which would appeal to our working class target audience.
     All three pieces of texts were difficult to produce in regards to the amount of information we were trying to put into it as we didn't want to give much information away which made our thee pieces of texts more conventional as we wanted to sell the movie and tell the audience that there is still a lot to see which was what I felt was done well. I felt as if we put enough information in both the magazine front cover and poster for the audience to ask questions. I felt as if we should have added a bit more of a back-story in our trailer which would make that audience ask questions but because of a lack of a back-story, the audience may be asking too many questions which shows that we may have not included enough information.
    Overall, I feel as if all three pieces of texts complement each other very well to appeal to the target audience. But they also appeal to their target audience in their own individual way which sows that we have done well to differentiate all three pieces of texts and thus one of the three texts is bound to appeal to a specific audience and so we can confirm that we have successfully appealed to our target audience successfully using these three methods of advertising.


          

                           

Evaluation Activity 1

    Here are a number of screenshots taken from our trailer. All of these screenshots have some important input to our trailer whether it is setting a location or introducing a new character. This part of the evaluation re-enforces why we had put some shots in the trailer.

The title of the film:-

    We chose our title to be called Rise To The Top. There was a lot of deliberation of where we should place the title as we were putting it in different positions during the draft process. We noticed that other trailers try to give it as much prevalence as possible and we also followed this convention as we finally decided to put the title at the end of our trailer. 

   One reason why I felt this was a good decision for our specific trailer is because we had a lot of dialect in the form of text on the screen and so we had to make this piece of text more important than the rest and thus we put it at the end as it will be the last thing the audience remembers. Being a psychology student, I knew that people tend remember the start and end of any piece of information and that was the reason why we put it right at the end.   

    We also knew that we must differentiate the title from the rest of the text dialogue within the trailer. We kept the font the same as all trailers have a conventional "One Font" system to not overcomplicate it and we also followed this. That is why we changed the background specifically for the title where Aran can also be noticed. 

Here is a screenshot of the title right at the end of the trailer. we gave it a completely higher prevalence to the other pieces of text as it didn't have a black background as shown by the first screenshot making it different to any other pieces of text or titles that we included in our trailer.

  Setting/Location:-
 
     We understood that a trailer requires a number of locations and this was the hardest part in terms of showing a wide range of locations in a manner that will still make the trailer seem not over complicated and should compliment the pace as opposed to disrupting it. We introduced different locations throughout the trailer not really giving any prevalence to a specific location but it's rather spread out. We used a number of shots to show these locations which I believe can be seen by the choice of screenshots that I have taken below.
    I believe that one thing we had done well was use a wide range of shots to show the audience the different locations that we have and also tells them a bit more about the storyline. One example of how we used a wide range of shots was when we took the establishing shot of the running track. A screenshot can be shown below. I felt that this establishing shot was unique in comparison to the other shots we used to introduce the locations. Furthermore, we knew we were going to use this establishing shot as we found out that there was a stand there that we could use during our research and planning phase which not only shows the important of research and planning but also tells us that we had planned for this trailer properly.
    One problem we found was that we had many locations and thus this would affect the pace of trailer and could potentially disrupt the pace as a whole. Moreover, we would have wanted to add a little bit more in the trailer about Arans back story but due to this meaning the addition of more locations, we simply couldn't afford to disrupt the pace any further.
   I also feel as if our choice of locations were perfect in conjunction with the Boxing/Sports genre. These locations consisted of the boxing gym, running track and the footpath by the river. All these also showed off the storyline, plus told the audience that Aran was from a working class background which would appeal to out C1, C2 ad D target audience. The working class background could be seen by the old boxing ring as well as Aran running in public places amongst the public which isn't what's expected from boxers who are already famous or rich in real life.

   

Here is a screenshot of one of the way we established a location setting in our trailer. This was done by the title of the location shown above the door. The audience will then identify that this is the place where Arans training will be taking place here.

 

Here is the screenshot of the establishing shot of the running track. The camera pans to the running track from this point. We see almost all of the running track which shows that this was a perfect position to take this shot from as it can clearly be identified as an establishing shot.

 Costumes & Props:

    We used a wide range of costumes and props as we understood how someone's appearance can offer assumptions to the audience. We also knew that costume can add to the realism of the trailer as well as complementing the locations.We done this as we used a wide range of costumes to show that the movie is filmed over time. This is something I noticed in the Rocky movie where it tries to show the film shot over time as the training process takes a long time and this is something I believe we done well.

    We also used other conventional props that may not be noticeable but just adds to the realness and feeling of the movie. One of these props was Muhammed's hat which is seen in real life as a prop used by boxing trainers.

    One thing I felt we could have done better was introduce a costume that is completely different to what Aran was wearing. This is because all of Aran's costumes connoted training whereas if we had him in a suite or something a bit more formal, it would add to the back story.

Here is a screenshot of Aran. As you can see here, he is wearing the conventional boxing equipment with a tank top and shorts. We decided to have no sponsors and for Aran just to wear plain clothes to tell the audience that he starts off as unknown. Moreover, it also compliments the boxing location as it looks very gritty.

Here is a screenshot of Aran in yet another piece of clothing to show that its a different day but they're still in the same location. The boxing gloves Aran's wearing is a very important prop that is required to tell the audience the basic idea of the movie and makes the trailer much more understandable. We also witness Muhammed's hat on the right hand side which will tell the audience that he is his Arans trainer and he is also wearing a working class uniform again with plain clothes. As you can see, the boxing gloves are the only props with a sponsor or a brand name on it. This gives it most prevalence and catches the audiences eye in the shot which again helps the audience identify the genre in the movie.       

     Camera work and Editing:-

     We understood how important camera work and the editing process would be to the success of our trailer. All conventional movies have smooth editing and use a wide range of camera movements for many different reasons. I believe that different types of camera work along with the editing helps achieve the audiences need of escapism whilst watching a movie as different types of editing keeps the trailer flowing. This could be identified in our training montages where Aran was using the same sparring combinations throughout the trailer but the use of fades and cuts and length of shots made it feel different. The use of camera work could really be identified by the different angles in which we used. these different angles added to the intensity of the trailer as it was very fast paced.

        I feel our trailer is to an extent conventional in regards to the editing and camera work. We use a number of establishing shots along with fades which can be identified in many sports genres but the way in which we constantly changed the camrea angles made it less conventional to the genre yet added a lot of effect as shown by the screenshot below.

Here is a screenshot to show the use of our camera work. We closed up on Aran's feet and thought of this shot very carfeully as there is also movement inn the background. Furthermore, the camera is at a very low angle which shows hints of the unconventional style that I had mentioned above.

                                   

                           

 Title Fonts and Style:-

     The use of titles and text is vital to the success of a trailer. Not only can it act as a piece of non verbal dialogue but also helps dictate the pace. This is why we spread our text around. I felt we had done this well and we needed to because of the sports genre our film is associated with. I noticed there are constant changes in the pace of the genres and this is why we included so much text.
     One problem with putting so much text in a trailer is that the audience may not identify the most important pieces of text. We managed to get over this by putting the title at the end of the trailer. We learnt that people tend to remember the start and end of any piece of information the most and thus this was how we gave it the most prevalence.

Here is an example of some of the text that we included and the purpose of these pieces of texts are to dictate the pace of the trailer which is also accompanied by the sound as well. these actor titles were used to show a change in location as well. I felt as if these titles were a vital part to the success of the trailer and made it seem much longer than it actually was. This is because the constant changes in pace in such a short period of time makes it feel much longer.

Story and how the trailer sets up:-

    I felt as if the research and planning stage was the reason why our story made a lot of sense. Thanks to the detailed storyboard that I had prepared, we had a clear idea and thus we believed our understanding would also give the audience a clear idea of how we wanted the trailer to look and what sort of a storyline it was trying to portray. 

   We wanted to convey our sports genre as much as possible and this is why we added so many montages of Aran training. We also made it fairly conventional as we followed Todorov's narrative structure to an extent. The only bit that couldn't be identified was the initial equilibrium and we done this on purpose to make it less conventional thus different but also I felt that having an initial equilibrium will negatively affect what we are trying to tell the audience as we wanted to show that he is on a mission from the beginning and thus there is no equilibrium that he is happy with. Despite this we follow the middle steps of Todorov's narrative structure but we don't have an ending as it's only a trailer and we are also seen as conventional in that sense.

    We aim to be conventional as we understand that these conventions are what the audience expects from genres and thus we must follow them in order for them to be successful and meet the needs of our audience. We decided the way in which we would differentiate ourselves to any other sports movie is by becoming slightly less conventional to surprise the audience and not just make our trailer a typical sports/drama movie. During my research, I noticed that the majority of trailers follow Todorov's narrative structure and so we knew the relevance of this. It also helped us save a bit more time as it gave us an initial idea of how we were going to set up our trailer.

Here is a screenshot right in the middle of one of the montages. It just shows how the trailer starts up fairly high paced straight away. This shot is shown in terms of Todorov's narrative structure as recognition of disruption as Aran realised he's got a lot of work to do to succeed. This shot is followed by a championship belt which re-enforces this idea.

Genre and how the trailer suggests it:-

      Our trailer is of an sports/Drama genre. Our trailer shows basic pieces of text within it which supports this. Firstly, there are a number of locations which suggest that this is a sports genre movie and will attract a typical male audience. The most identifiable location for the genre is the boxing location as it connotes sports and boxing. Furthermore we knew we had to put this location in for the audience to understand what the movie was about, especially as we didn't want to give much away in terms of dialogue. The constant exchanges between Aran and Damien also re-enforces the genre as we actually see fighting. Moreover, the drama can be identified through the conversation shared between Aran and Myself. This is the reason why we decided to add the dialogue and make the drama aspect clear and try to gain the female audiences attention through this as they may not care much about the boxing sequences which my audience profiling has supported. Movies such as Rocky also has a back story to gain the female audiences which was what we were trying to achieve.
     
    We understand the importance of a genre and how each genre has certain criteria that is expected from the audience. This is why we needed to study similar genres in order to find out what sort of criteria needs to be met. Such criteria that we noticed were fast pace as well as a hero being Aran, A villain in which Damien can be identified as, a helper who is Aran's trainer Muhammed and the Donor who I am. Although this is a narrative theory, I understood the importance of this theory in regards to shunning out the sports genre in our trailer. Propp's theory has really helped in making the narrative clear with the genre and was a vital theory that we exploited during our planning phase.

   The non-diegetic sound aspect was also a very helpful way to suggest the trailer. Complemented with the shots and locations, it dictated the fast pace and made it feel like a boxing trailer. Movies such as Rocky is worldwide known for its soundtrack and this is what we tried to do with pur trailer. We also made our own theme music thanks to James Richardson which was one of the successes of the trailer and helped others identify our trailer as a sports genre.  
    
                                   

Here is a screenshot of the boxing ring as well as Damien who is seen as the villain in this trailer. Aran can be seen as the hero as well in this shot and the genre can be shown by the boxing gloves. This shows how much of an impact the location can have on the genre but also shows the importance of props as well to convey a genre.

    How characters are introduced:

   We noticed during our planning phase that the relevance of a character is given by offering as much or as little camera time. We wanted to maximise the amount of characters we include in the trailer to make it have more of a broad feel. Furthermore I felt we added a wide range of characters without over complicating the trailer. We introduced characters at different intervals to help the audience identify them but also to tell the audience that there is still a lot of information that they can gain from watching the entire movie and it helps gain more interest of the movie from the trailer.

    

    Again Propp's narrative theory was vital in this particular aspect. We wanted to show the Hero firs, which was closely followed by the helper and villain. We gain minimal information about the donor as it helped us give me a mysterious feel. The audience will identify that I play an influential part in Arans motivation but they don't know why which is why they will get intrigued. 

    As boxing is a individual sport we wanted Aran to be in the first and last shot. He is our main character and is a boxer. Thus we introduced him at the beginning and he will be the last thing the audience see. I was introduced with dialogue where the conversation between Aran and myself is the only  piece of diegetic sound within the trailer to show my sort of influence on Aran.

    Muhammed is also introduced towards the beginning and straight away can be identified as Arans trainer as he is always with him in the boxing gym. He is there in order to add to the realism of the trailer and although he doesn't have any dialogue in the trailer, he is a huge influence on Aran and this can be identified.
                                          
  Here is a screenshot of me being introduced to Aran. We also try to make this Aran's back story and this is done by not showing anything in that shot that could be associated with boxing. This again differentiates me from the helper and gives me more of the Donor role. As me speaking to him is what motivates him and thus I'm giving him a speech which he then uses to help him succeed. 

    Special Effects:-
    We understood how the most successful boxing related movies didn't have many speciel effects but focused more on making the movie more plain to add to the realism of the film. For example in Rocky, the use of special effects is minimal but they still add effect through the constant changes in the pace of the movie which can be seen especially during the fighting scenes. This is why we didn't want to overcomplicate our trailer with special effects but use the natural camera shots and locations to make it as effective. We knew this would be the best way in which to attract the audience.
    One thing that we had done a lot of thanks to our research was the constant changes in pace. We done this a lot as the only real effect we used was fade shots which were used frequently  but due to the constant changes in pace, didn't feel repetitive and helped with the fluidity of the trailer. 

                                     
Here is a screenshot of one of the fade transitions that we had used to link two shots together. These two shots were in our boxing location where the fade shot helped to show the audience that they are both linked and helped support the pace and flow of the trailer.

                             

   

evaluation activity 3 Audience feedback

Here is the video of our audience feedback for our trailer Rise To The Top. This was done by a number of participants where we got a wide range of responses in which a lot of information can be drawn from this feedback.

We felt as if we got a lot of positives from this audience feedback. Such as the success of the sound and pace combination. Furthermore, we have identified what we could have done better such as include a stronger back story that would appeal to more of a female audience.

    We got told that our trailer felt like a conventional sports/drama trailer thanks to the use of editing and special effects which supported the sound very well. We received a lot of compliments about our original production of sound which was one benefit and was also another reason why our trailer seemed conventional as the theme tune would be able to be associated with our trailer. This can be seen in Rocky where the theme music has become famous and has also contributed to the success of the sequel itself and prior to the audience feedback, this was what my group and I were trying to achieve and I believe have succeeded which can be supported with the views of the audience who really picked out the soundtrack as one of the strengths from our trailer. They also identified the storyline associated with the trailer being based around the "Rags to Riches" storyline which has been used in sports genre movies consistently over time. This told us that we had included enough dialogue for the audience to identify our storyline which was one thing that we were worried about during the editing phase but also we didn't give too much information away and thus kept a good balance.

   

    I feel one of the strengths of the trailer was the wide variety of locations that we had used from boxing rings to running tracks. We knew this was one of our strengths during the editing stage where we decided to use a lot of establishing shots to tell the audience this.  This wide range of locations had helped add to the realism of the trailer as a movie within our genre always has more than 2 or 3 primary locations which is what I felt we had done very well. The audience also agreed with us in regards to locations and told us how much he establishing shot stood out. This shows how good our editing was put together as well to ensure that the audience remembers as much information as possible.

    The most important factor that we knew we weren't clear on and the audience picked up was the lack of a back story. We identified this during our editing stage and knew that Aran needed a girlfriend in this trailer for there to be a back-story that could appeal to the female audience. This lack of back-story was also picked up by the audience as the trailer was packed full of action and boxing. Thus we decided not to film a back-story when we identified it during the editing stage as we were worried it would spoil the flow of the trailer. Despite this, I feel we showed enough of a back-story during the conversation between Aran and myself which would intrigue the audience but ultimately I do agree with the opinions of the audience and felt this to be one of the main weaknesses of our trailer prior to the audience feedback.  

   Overall, whilst looking at the audience feedback, I  feel as if our trailer was a success amongst them. This is because it seemed as if the entire sample enjoyed the trailer. Despite this, we knew we could have done additional bits to improve the trailer but we were a bit worried to take risks with our trailer, especially as we were in a position where our trailer was flowing very nicely already thus meaning that we were reluctant to make many more alterations.

Rise To The Top Magazine Front Cover Final

    Here is the official final magazine cover for our movie "Rise To The Top" We understood that there were a lot of flaws in our initial draft which we worked on and now have come up with this. This magazine cover was done mainly by Muhammed as Aran and I were working on different blogs but we were helping each other.
    The minor changes we have made from our first draft are the reallocation of the title and a strip at the bottom of the cover showing other movies. We also changed font sizes, we added different colours and a little bit more text to cover up some of the empty space as we felt we had too much.
    I feel these little additional details have very much turned our idea into a conventional magazine front cover which will not look out of place among other magazines. When asking  random people on the street whether they'd be able to imagine this as a genuine magazine front cover, 95% of them said yes. I had a sample of 20 people which I asked this question to.    
               


                          

    I feel as if the magazine front cover was much harder to produce in comparison to the film poster. The main reason for this that much more information and extras are required in a magazine front cover. A generic poster has one specific purpose focusing on one movie whereas Magazine front covers tend to include other movies within its front cover although it tends to give one specific movie main prevalence.

Film Trailer Credits.

Whilst looking at our final draft of our trailer, we had realised that we haven't included ending trailer credits. We were looking for ways to make the trailer as real as possible and we felt as if including this will fill in the missing place in order to make this trailer perfect. Fortunately for us, Aran had the knowledge and abilities to create these credits in a very short period of time. He used a tool on his Apple computer and it only took him 30 minutes to create. I realised we needed this when I was looking back at the trailers that I had analysed in our research and planning to see what we were missing from our trailer which really shows the importance of this stage in our coursework.

          

Rise To The Top Official Film Institutions

     I believe that our trailer has a unique feel to it. For this reason, we decided to make our own institution companies to include in the trailer. During the research and planning stage, we were considering using Rogue entertainment but during the editing process, we decided that this slightly ruins the unique feel of our trailer and thus spent a bit more time to produce two of our own film institution companies.
                     
                                  
   Above, is the film institution company that we were planning on using. Rogue pictures are known for doing similar genre movies to ourselves. Plus, we liked the way in which this specific institution company introduces itself in many trailers. Although we felt that this was a good one to put into our trailer, we felt as if it slightly decreased the authenticity of our trailer and it was then when we decided that we have the capabilities and are willing to spend a little bit more time to produce our own.

 
   Our first Film institution company that we produced is known as B.M. Entertainment. We came up with this name during a quick brainstorming session and it just felt professional

                                  .
    Above is a screenshot of our first film institution company; B.M. Entertainment. We gave this company a professional feel but we also felt as if the multi-coloured feature shows the uniqueness which further resembles the trailer. We felt as if we should keep a simple background as this shot will only last for a second and thus all that's required form this shot is the acknowledgement of the institution company. If we added any more to this shot, it will make it overcomplicated.

      Our second film institution company is known as Xplizit films. This is in recognition of our primary director Muhammed. We also decided this name during the same brainstorming session. This session was very constructive and it took no longer than five minutes to to come up with both companies.

                                   
    Above is a screenshot of our second film institution company. We made this slightly more complex but still with the same simple purpose of recognition. We did initially add animations to this on but thought it was irrelevant as we didn't want this to use up much time in the overall trailer thus we simply fade it in and out. We made this one look much more professional which tells the story we are trying to portray in this trailer with Aran starting off as working class and ending up as a world famous boxer. The working class aspect can be identified in B.M Entertainment and the fame with Xplizit films.

Rise To The Top Finished Trailer.

15/02/2014

   Here is the official finished trailer of rise to the top. We have released it after the deadline but this was due to understanding the importance of the trailer this year and thus spent most of out time on it. It was very much a team effort of Muhammed, Aran and I. As I predicted, the editing process was the longest but thankfully, we started very early which thus helped us play around and also get used to the editing.
    We had previously produced 6 different drafts prior to this final version which just shows how much work went into the editing. We have all come to the conclusion that this trailer is done and now we must just focus on our magazine front cover.  

            

Rise To The Top Magazine Front Cover

    Here is our first draft of our magazine front cover for rise to the top. I identified that Magazines tends to have an centralised image which takes the focus of the magazine. We chose the background due to the urban feel that our trailer has. The locations that we chose in our filming is very much working class locations and so I felt as if this background supports this.


                         

Rise To The Top Poster

   Here is the finished poster. We have slightly changed it from our draft. We felt as if our draft copy was along the right lines but was too simplistic. This is why we decided to put Arans head in front of the title to add more of an effect. Furthermore, we were thinking about shading in the titles but we thought that this wasn't necessary as our background is in black and white so this effect wouldn't be that effective. We slightly changed the font sizes but apart from that, we haven't changed much.



           

          
Here is the first draft for our poster. Finding the picture wasn't as hard as we thought it would be despite us having a wide selection to choose from. Surprisingly, the titles and captions were the hardest aspect when producing this poster. As you can see, we put the title in the biggest font as it's the most important aspect of the poster. In order to fill up some space, we decided to add a caption to the left of Aran. We have also added our own poster credits to make the trailer seem more original. I felt as if we achieved our aims from the poster. This was to give the central image as much prevalence as possible but also add information about the movie. We had a number of drafts before we felt as if we had completed.

          
We decided on using a black and white background to follow some similar movies such as fighting which also used a black and white background. As you can see below, our poster shares similar attributes to fighting including the caption.

Film Trailer Final Draft (Before final)

15/01/2014

    We have just completed the final draft our trailer today. We did complete our trailer within our planning time but we still have to make little changes thanks after the feedback we gained back. What we changed was the font and the colour from our previous drafts. We also re-recorded the dialogue as the wind overpowered the dialogue too much. Now it feels much clearer and the wind is a bit quieter yet noticeable which adds a sense of realism. This was probably the longest process as it took very long to sync the dialogue to our lips. I feel we done it well though thanks to Muhammeds expertise in editing.
    I feel as if our final piece of editing has made the trailer as a whole feel more fluent.  The trailer now follows a storyline without pauses. We cut down the pauses and so it would include a bit more action.



           

     We only need to do some minor changes to this draft yet they will be complex due to subtle changes effecting the timing of the trailer meaning that we may have to even change the sound.