Evaluation

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

My focus group was very important for me through construction stages of my products as they were able to give me constructive criticism to improve them. Audience feedback was invaluable in the end as it gave me the satisfaction that I couldn't perform more to it unless I had more-professional equipment.
I had to choose a variety of different ages when getting audience feedback so it represented a wider spectrum of my target audience.

A YOUNGER AUDIENCE INTERVIEW

AN OLDER AUDIENCE INTERVIEW
Here, I have interviewed my mother who was around the era that I have done my documentary on. She would be one of the prime demographics that I was aiming my documentary for, so I thought it would be important to ask her some questions about it. The first rough 10 seconds are silence, please carry on listening until you hear our voices.

From this I have learned..

• Yes, good summary of what's to come and what the documentary is about
• Can be used on television as an advert
• The poster, magazine and trailer connect together - same fonts, same colour scheme
• Reminds people about the punk age
• Those people that were punks would be interested - nostalgia-building and also people from that time to be reminded of what it was like
• Also interest younger people that are influenced by them
• Associate a documentary with television but could be used in cinema
• Magazine looks realistic - can be aligned with Mojo and NME
• Portrays the punk genre perfectly
• Three products have to come out at the same time 

Things I could improve on..

• Didn't know who the person was in the trailer, maybe some indication at the beginning

Please press here to be taken to my questionnaire

Evaluation

Q1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products? 


You can read below whilst you listen. It includes links to trailers that I have similar conventions to.

In order for my trailer to portray itself as being realistic and true, I set out to find typical codes and conventions of similar media products which i could then relate to my own. The obvious convention that is shown typically in any trailer is text, anchoring what is said or to try and engage the audience more. You will be able to see this as a predominant feature in many trailers, not just music ones. Examples for my benefit were Talihina Sky, The Rise and Fall of The Clash and Filth & The Fury. (links)  I used this throughout my trailer, for example to anchor what my protagonist is saying when he is describing the punk scene in the particular time period. I also used it to reinforce what the trailer is about and to try and attract my target audience more, by using sentences and words like 'experience it again' and 'nostalgia coming your way'. 

Another way i developed the same forms and conventions of a real media product was the variety of footage put in, with voiceovers and real time music. Similar to The Clash documentary above, I used many different shots of old footage from the era I was doing it on. I didn't just stick to a shot of my protagonist talking then go on to footage of something, but actually intertwined all of them together so it flowed more and looked more realistic, alike many of the other trailers above. 
At the start of The Clash documentary, there was a shot I was influenced by when filming my own. I thought the beginning was really effective of a person graffiti'ing on a wall the name of the band: The Clash. The exert I cut out can be found here and I have put this earlier in my blog. As you will be able to see by my trailer I produced, I used this idea near the end of it as a background to reviews of the documentary. I thought this was effective because it symbolises the characteristics of a punk eg rebellious.


On another note, i also combined different shot types within the trailer to provide variety - this included high shots, mid shots, head shots etc with a use of the rule of thirds which i found a predominate feature in most documentary trailers with interviews. Many of the trailers I watched used the rule of thirds when performing an interview. If we look at Talihina Sky by itself for a minute, you will be able to see that when interviewing the members of the band, and family members, the camera puts them in a '1/3' of the shot. This makes it more aesthetically pleasing on the eye.

Lastly, a big feature which I played on was the use of stereotypes and props. In The Filth and Fury, you will get a feel for the genre of the film. This is done subconsciously by the mis en scene used for example of props, camera shots, language and lighting. Throughout my  trailer, i attempted to portray the typical '80s punk' by using darker lighting, reinforcing his tone of voice, cigarette smoking and the rough, rebellious concert footage found. I feel this is an important convention of the trailer as it reinforces and tells the audience that the genre of the film is music punk history and would also draw in my target audience. 

*PLEASE VIEW MY TRAILER AGAIN AND PRESS THE ANNOTATIONS ON AS I HAVE ADDED THEM TO EVALUATE IT COMPARED TO OTHER MEDIA PRODUCTS*

Article

I found this interesting...


"Music documentaries a tough sell"
In this article I came across, it talks about how 'filmmakers struggles to find a niche that works'. Filmmakers have found it hard to distribute films if there is not a superstar artist and/or a big name director's name attached. 


This made me think of my film and whether or not it would be a big enough sell to be shown in the cinema. It also made me think of my target audience, and the demographics of the population. Was there enough people that would see this in the cinema? Would people be interested in watching it? Even better, would people PAY to see it?


To conclude, I have realised that my documentary would be probably best to be shown on the television rather than the cinema, then be available to purchase online/as a dvd. This gives people the opportunity to watch it first, and then choose to buy it if they liked it. This would mean a lot of advertising would have to be done, to ensure people knew that this was going to be shown. I don't think this would be a profit-maximiser, but I think it will go down well with a good proportion of the public. I will look into this more in my evaluation when I get audience feedback.

Link: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002637?refCatId=3601

Storyboard vs Storyboard

Did i adhere to the conventions of previous trailers I've watched?

If you press here, you will be taken to a blogpost I have done previously where I had print-screened shot types in a music trailer called Talihina Sky. This was one of my first inspirations for my trailer. Since completing my trailer, I have done this for my own to compare the two and see if they adhere to the same conventions.

*please click on these to see larger*

Evaluation Prep

Evaluation Preparation

1. How does your media products represent particular social groups?
All my media products are predominantly aimed at middle aged females/males who were around at the time of The Damned. I attempted to show this through a variety of ways in my products. 
The first way I did this was by using a protagonist who was in the same age range as them - who subsequently happened to be Roman Jugg! Throughout the trailer, I get him to talk about things that the target audience could relate to, for instance he talks about Iggy Pop who was an influential musical figure back at that time, that the majority of people would know, and also he refers to the clothes that people wore in that time period. 
Many of the people who liked the Damned would have been quite involved in the punk movement and therefore may still have the characteristics (or at least be able to remember them) of one such as the 'whatever' attitude and rebelliousness which is some characteristics portrayed by Roman Jugg himself.
My poster and magazine cover are quite similar to this. The magazine cover uses an almost 'explicit' picture of him showing his middle finger (which detonated is rude!) that shows the punk characteristics that the social groups could remember from the time period I am aiming for. My poster attempts to represent the particular social group by using the black & white colour scheme with a fluorescent red to signify the confidence of the punk niche, along with a picture of the types of shoes that would have been worn in the days of the Damned.


2. What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?
I performed a vast amount of research on the different distribution companies for my trailer. My end result was not what I wanted as I didn't find a completely appropriate company, in my opinion. I felt there was a lack of information on the film posters I were looking at in order to research them and also a lack of companies that were not part of a big media conglomerate. I felt my film needed to be backed by an independent distribution company as the punk era was such a niche at the time.
However, the media institution I ended up using was Channel Four Films (previously Film4 films). I chose this because it was the one used by a couple of documentary films which came over as seemingly independent. However, The Damned were quite a big band in the 70s/80s so I had to chose a distribution company people would have heard of. 


In the case for my music magazine, the distribution company I would use would be Bauer Media Group as it distributes music mags such as MOJO which has a similar genre as the one I want to portray in mine. 


MOJO's Audience Profile Discerning and passionate music aficionados, the MOJO audience is predominantly male (77%) and affluent (63% ABC1). These heavy consumers of music see their passion as discovery without boundaries, genre and decade being secondary to quality.

"Bauer Media reaches over nineteen million UK adults across multiple media channels."

Preliminary task #2

Auxiliary Product #2

Magazine cover

1. I love this photo as I think it totally depicts how I would like my main character to be portrayed - it connotates the characteristics of a punk. I wanted to cut him out of the photo as I wanted to put him on a plain background. I did this by using the magnetic lasso tool. 

2. Next, I created a grey background to mirror the image which I put in black and white so they blend in well together. I decided here that I was going to do a cover of the MOJO magazine as it has the audience profile which is similar to my documentary target audience.

3. As The Damned were the first punk band to have a single out on a real label, I wanted to make the magazine feel very British, so one of the things I included on the front was a 'top 100 Britpunk singles' (which is a spin-off of popular music genre Britpop). To anchor the text, I decided to put a union jack as a background to it as though it were a sticker. I did this by following a tutorial on youtube.

4. Here I had decided that I would go with my own magazine title as I found it hard to copy the same conventions of MOJO which suited my colour schemes and wants of a magazine. I chose the title 'punk.com' because I believe it straightaway tells people what the genre of the magazine is thus stratifying my target audience. I also decided to call it by a website because it shows the different media platforms it can be reaches. It also goes with the idea that our lives have developed through web 2.0.

5. I start to build it more here, and as you can see the title of my documentary has been put on. I have changed it's font to suit the font of the actual documentary so people can associate the two together. I also made it the largest text so people realise it's the main story of the magazine. The red and black colour theme I found by looking at other real media products that showed an element of punk-i-ness to it so I used it to allow my audience to understand what it is. 

6. Here, I have included some text to give a glimpse of what the interview is about. This was a frequent element of all types of magazines. The barcode is very important in that it shows that the product is real. A barcode is on everything someone buys. I put it on there to show some authenticity. 

7. Adding some sub-headings to broaden what the magazine is on - all of which attract a certain audience demographic which is similar to my own (for the documentary).

8. With the addition of the price and date, along with other things, I finally finished.

**HAD TO CHANGE TO BECOME FILM MAGAZINE**