Ben’s Blog

In the research I used computers to look at and analyse magazine covers, posters and film trailers to learn about and possibly get ideas from these 3 media types, so that my 3 products would end up looking realistic and professional (although still keeping originality as for the group trailer- it is an original idea and my magazine and poster are promoting the original film with an original title, idea, etc…Also my magazine is an original idea, “Film Now” does not really exist unlike some people who chose to do their own versions of an already existing magazine such as Empire so they had to follow their layout and style). My magazine although needing to follow conventions was allowed to be different and not a copy of an existing film magazines layout (eg: Empire) because I had chosen and come up with an original film magazine called “Film Now”. So although originality was put into the 3 tasks, conventions and knowledge was needed (eg: Barcode on magazine, release date (or coming soon/summer, etc…on trailer, title of the film on poster, etc…) and this was done through using computers, the internet (and on it by looking at and annotating pictures, watching and analysing trailers, reading and analysing information/text on posters, magazines, etc…). So to summarise, for research the hardware I used was computers and the software I used was the internet: for research general knowledge and into conventions, which involved looking at and analysing real film posters, magazines and trailers, microsoft word: for pasting in real magazines and posters and annotating them through using text, boxes and arrows to allow myself to annotate the real covers and then print screen, windows paint to use the print screen to allow the saving of my annotations of pictures and putting them on this blog, and my blog to write about and upload my findings and annotations to do with the research into film trailers, posters and magazines.

Here are some links to things I looked at in research:

- A teaser trailer for “Shrek Forever After” @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIlv9OgRnTM & “Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince” @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ngt8tux4k

- Teaser posters for “Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince” @ http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=52593 & teaser poster for “Shrek Forever After” @ http://image3.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID9207/images/Shrek_Forever_After_poster.jpg

- Film magazines @ http://www.totalfilm.com/magazine & http://www.empireonline.com/magazine/

In planning, planning for the trailer was mainly discussing with the other group members where, when and how to shoot the trailer- basically organisation through talking/organising without using technology plus the booking of cameras.  I came up with the title “Film Now” very shortly after starting work on it, and before that I had planned to use a temporary picture (as filming was not been done at this time). I used a picture of female rapper Diamond (can be seen below and in my draft screenshot of my magazine (when it was in making) as the temporary picture as I planned the picture for my magazine to be a long to medium shot of the killer (opposed to using a close up shot of the killer’s face for example)). Planning for the poster was just to use the conventions I had learnt and before shooting the trailer I did not know what type of picture to use but while filming I thought that it would be good to use the shot where a victim is looking through the keyhole and sees the killer as it compliments the title of the film well in my opinion.

In the construction of my film poster, magazine and teaser trailer, I used media technologies. For the construction of my poster I used computers and on it a program called Microsoft Publisher to create my poster and I used this and Microsoft Word to create and insert text onto my poster. All text I put on the poster was from Microsoft Publisher (eg: Coming Soon), except for the text above the film title, the names ‘Conor Campbell’ & ‘Danny Millen’ I imported from creation on Microsoft Word. I did this text on Word opposed to Publisher because it has a feature on text called ‘emboss’ which made the text seem more varied (to make it more interesting) but not too much, staying with the red & black colour scheme. On Microsoft Publisher I used the ‘insert- picture- from file’ to import in an 18 certificate, dolby digital logo and universal logo which I had saved on my pictures in my documents, getting the logo’s, using a computer and the internet. I also used the ‘insert- picture- from file’ stages to import the film’s logo and the picture I had chosen to choose for the poster. Which is a view of someone looking through a keyhole and seeing something outside (which is a victim seeing the killer). I also used the dragging feature so that I could move the text (in text boxes), and pictures to where I wanted. For my film magazine, I also used Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word in text, the same way as with my poster, using Microsoft Word for embossed text, and Publisher for other. Apart from on the magazine I used a larger amount of  different fonts (egs: Chiller, Castellar, Arial, Algerian) and used the website www.dafont.com (typing in Film Now, saving as a picture and then inserting it in) for my film magazine logo (Film Now). I then also used the dragging feature on the text and pictures (with the picture & text in picture format- eg: film logo from www.dafont.com, I also did ‘insert- picture- from file’ for these as with the poster) as with the poster, so that I could move things into the place I wanted.

 
For use of media technologies in construction of the teaser trailer: I used a computer to import video from the video cameras onto the computer, so that I could access it and edit the footage. After importing footage onto the computer, I used Windows Movie Maker to put together and then edit the footage to make it into a trailer, choosing better shots, making sure it was the right length, making shots look better, adding trailer conventions, etc…I then after completing the editing saved it using the ’save to my computer’ feature so that it would turn into a Windows Media Player file. Using that to play the trailer, which the purpose is to show to people, burn on DVD, etc…As well as using Windows Movie Maker and features such as importing and dragging pictures, cutting down footage, adding special effects (such as fade to black), etc…I also made pictures using Microsoft Word, print screening, pasting on paint and then saving as a picture so that it would be importable into Windows Movie Maker (an example of what I used this on was creating a ‘12 A trailer’ screen which I did by making a black background, importing the BBFC 12A logo and basic white text saying ‘trailer’). For music I used Windows Media Player to import a Trina song (which features just over a second of silence at the end before it would start the next song if it was imported as an album) which went into My Documents. I then dragged it onto Windows Movie Maker and put the full Trina song “Clear It Out” on the trailer, then I cut the song into 2 pieces, pausing where the song ends and silence starts and splitting the song into 2, deleting the song part, keeping the silence and copying and pasting it as necessary (as the silence is only just above 1 second) to achieve silence until the rock song is ready to come on.       

For use of media technologies in evaluation: I used people to get feedback through talking to them and showing them my products and this has been helpful overall in knowing what people thought could be improved on my main product and ancillary texts, which I paid attention to edited around what people were saying and what I was thinking myself.  I used this blog to put up my findings, conclusions and show the process of my work because it is available to see by all, features text and pictures and is easy to organise through tagging related work for example. I chose the programs Microsoft Publisher and Windows Movie Maker as the main programs, using Windows Movie Maker for my main product and Microsoft Publisher for my ancillary texts (as well as using a little of Microsoft Word & Windows Paint as well for both). I chose Publisher because it is easy to use for me as I know it well plus it has good features for creating/laying out magazines and posters. I chose Windows Movie Maker because it was not too complicated and has all the features needed for creating a trailer. Through doing this work, I have not learnt anything new through using Microsoft Publisher because I had already used this last year in creating a music magazine and in GCSE creating a CD cover/backcover/booklet so I know the program well. But I have learnt how to use Windows Movie Maker, not knowing anything about it or ever using before this coursework. I have learnt how to edit footage, add special effects, text, add sound, etc…and basically everything needed to know about the program that I did not know before. I used this blog to upload and write about findings and also used this blog last year so learnt everything about the blog last year although this year I did learn how to change the order of blogs as I was needing to change the order around of the resubmission of my AS Media Research & Planning, which I did by changing the time of each post as the blog is in time order. As well as Publisher, Movie Maker and this blog, I also used a lot of the internet, which I used for research, pictures, information, etc…and I have known how to use the internet for many years, so not learning anything new about the internet and how to use it but learning from using it to get covers of real magazines, posters, etc…