Written Directors Chair Interview
1)In what ways does your media product use or challenge conventions of real media products?
Prior to filming I was introduced to the conventions present in teaser trailers; 30-90 seconds in length, quick transitions in between shots, atmospheric music in the background, in some cases little to nothing dialogue and many more.
I can confidently say that our media product uses conventions present in real media products to communicate the genre and concept of our teaser trailer with our target audience. For example during the editing process i included quick transitions in between shots (especially during the chase scene) along with atmospheric music in the background and dialogue from the interrogation, furthermore using Final Cut Pro i altered the lighting of every chasing shot to black and white to make them appear as flashbacks. I understood that through many years of conditioning my target audience would subconsciously recognise these conventions and identify my teaser trailers genre and concept. Feedback on my teaser trailer has confirmed that through the use of conventions my target audience has successfully understood the concept of my teaser trailer. This demonstrates how through the use of real media product conventions it enhanced my ability to communicate important information (e.g. genre and concept of the teaser trailer) to my target audience.
The pacing in teaser trailers is a significant convention because it can determine the genre presented throughout the teaser trailer. For example in the majority of horror and thriller teaser trailers the pacing is slow allowing the momentum to build and around halfway the pacing increases in speed resulting in a climax at the end of the teaser. My teaser trailer conforms to this specific convention in pacing because it successfully teases the audience by providing them with a lot of new information about the main characters without revealing too much.
The use of dialogue ,the sound bridge of the the interrogation, is another convention i decided to use because it enhanced my ability to develop the protagonist as a character with many sides to his personality; for example seconds before John pushes his victim against the wall Malika's character states that John 'would never hurt a fly'. Through this use of juxtaposition my target audience would have felt compelled to ask many rhetorical questions which would have increased their interest towards the teaser trailer.
Prior to filming i was influenced by the hand-held camera technique used in the film Cloverfield because i noticed that as soon as the teaser began the hand-held camera technique grabbed my attention ; this technique was unorthodox and gave the teaser a eerie and realistic atmosphere.Which is why during the start of the teaser trailer i used the hand-held camera technique, i wanted to gain the audiences attention almost immediatly and the hand-held camera technique was successful in achieving this.
In conclusion my media product has used many real media product conventions. These include the use of quick transitions in between scenes, the sound bridge of the interrogation, the pacing of the editing allowing momentum to build until the climax at the end of the teaser. Through the use of these conventions it enhanced my ability to communicate important information to my target audience ; the complexities of the protagonist, the genre and concept of my teaser trailer.
2)How effective is the combination in your main product and ancillary tasks?
We intended to portray gritty and realistic themes throughout our main product 'Against the wall', to build a bridge of communication with our target audience. Therefore we continued to portray these gritty themes through the use of the contrasting black and light grey background colours in our magazine cover and film poster shown below. We decided to use both these contrasting colours throughout our main product along with our magazine cover and film poster because it served as an ongoing motif that could be subconsciously recognised by our target audience.
This technique of using the same colour schemes in magazines covers, film posters and teaser trailers have been used in both the hollywood and the independent scene.
For example the film Looper ,starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, uses the colour
blue in both Total Film's magazine cover and its very own film poster. Even in the teaser
trailer the colour blue appears in a couple of scenes. Through the use of this technique of
similar colour schemes there will be a slight association being made by loopers target audience with the colour blue and looper; making loopers film poster and magazine covers unique and recognisable. I believe that we have use this technique effectively by combining the colour schemes (black and light grey) of our main product and ancillary tasks to make out product unique and recognisable.
In conclusion I can confidently say that the combination in my main product with the ancillary tasks was very effective. The combination between the two helped to establish the brand identity for our product through the use of colour schemes consistent in both our main product and ancillary tasks.
With the growing internet community promoting my product through social networks like Facebook and twitter would be less time consuming and less expensive than advertising on billboards and bus stops. I strongly believe that if we focused on creating more exposure and awareness for Against the wall on YouTube, it would successfully create a buzz exposing the film to our target audience.
3)What have you learnt from audience feedback?
After receiving audience feedback on my main product against the wall, I received the weaknesses and strengths of my teaser trailer.
I've learnt that through the use of conventions present in thriller teaser trailers my audience understood the concept of my teaser trailer. For example the majority the audience stated that they acknowledged that they were watching a thriller teaser trailer because the pacing was "slow in the beginning and then picked up the speed near the end creating a climax".
However it seems that my use of the sound bridge with the interrogation scene could have been executed smoother since many people suggested that they could hear the transitions in the dialogue between shots. After hearing this piece of criticism I watched against the wall a couple more times and to some degree I agree. In my next project I will insure that the sound bridge is executed with more precision.
Another person stated that he enjoyed the camera angles used to capture the chase scene however another person suggested that there should have been a bigger variety of shots. This is an interesting piece of criticism because during the editing processes I had a discussion with my partner whether to add more shots; I did not agree with the idea because it made the teaser trailer appear as an opening sequence. Our decision to not add a variety of shots had a positive and a negative because some people thought that we needed to add more shots and some people thought the opposite. I will take this into account in my next project.
Most importantly I learnt that the audience made connections with main protagonists because they identified themselves with their social class, age, gender and choice in clothing. When I asked them if they were interested by the characters or the setting one person gave the following answer "I live around those estates where you filmed and that took me by surprise". After the audience finished watching the teaser trailer I asked the same person if he felt any type of connection with the protagonist and he replied “Yeah I did feel a connection because I always see people getting chased around my area". This shows that through the use of the setting the audience made an immediate connection with the protagonist. Therefore I've learnt that setting is really important because it can help the audience to make connections with the concept of the film and their own lives which enhances their interest.
In conclusion I’ve learnt that a majority of my target audience understood the concept of the teaser trailer along with the genre making my teaser trailer a success because my primary intention was to communicate the concept of the teaser trailer; that the choices you make can cause serious consequences. I also learnt that my use of sound bridge could have been more precise which inspires me to develop my editing skills before I start on my new next project.
4)How did you use the media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I've learnt that through the use of conventions present in thriller teaser trailers my audience understood the concept of my teaser trailer. For example the majority the audience stated that they acknowledged that they were watching a thriller teaser trailer because the pacing was "slow in the beginning and then picked up the speed near the end creating a climax".
However it seems that my use of the sound bridge with the interrogation scene could have been executed smoother since many people suggested that they could hear the transitions in the dialogue between shots. After hearing this piece of criticism I watched against the wall a couple more times and to some degree I agree. In my next project I will insure that the sound bridge is executed with more precision.
Another person stated that he enjoyed the camera angles used to capture the chase scene however another person suggested that there should have been a bigger variety of shots. This is an interesting piece of criticism because during the editing processes I had a discussion with my partner whether to add more shots; I did not agree with the idea because it made the teaser trailer appear as an opening sequence. Our decision to not add a variety of shots had a positive and a negative because some people thought that we needed to add more shots and some people thought the opposite. I will take this into account in my next project.
Most importantly I learnt that the audience made connections with main protagonists because they identified themselves with their social class, age, gender and choice in clothing. When I asked them if they were interested by the characters or the setting one person gave the following answer "I live around those estates where you filmed and that took me by surprise". After the audience finished watching the teaser trailer I asked the same person if he felt any type of connection with the protagonist and he replied “Yeah I did feel a connection because I always see people getting chased around my area". This shows that through the use of the setting the audience made an immediate connection with the protagonist. Therefore I've learnt that setting is really important because it can help the audience to make connections with the concept of the film and their own lives which enhances their interest.
In conclusion I’ve learnt that a majority of my target audience understood the concept of the teaser trailer along with the genre making my teaser trailer a success because my primary intention was to communicate the concept of the teaser trailer; that the choices you make can cause serious consequences. I also learnt that my use of sound bridge could have been more precise which inspires me to develop my editing skills before I start on my new next project.
4)How did you use the media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During the research and planning stages I used YouTube to browse through a variety of different teaser trailers in order to choose 5 to analyse on blogger. YouTube was crucial in my research and planning because it provided a wide variety of teaser trailers through the suggestion box and the comments. This enhanced my knowledge of teaser trailer conventions while also providing access to other teaser trailers that broke the conventions. YouTube also provided infinite insight into the mindset of many different audiences by adding a comment section underneath the embedded video. For example through the comment section I discovered that a majority of people were tired of CGI dependent blockbusters which swayed my decision to add as little Hollywood elements like CGI or car chase scenes as possible in my teaser trailer. During the evaluation stages I referred to the comments on my teaser trailer on YouTube to demonstrate that my audience understood the concept of the teaser trailer. Youtube was very useful during the construction stage because when I was unable to navigate through a programme i could find tutorials to help me. For example when i was using photoshop i was struggling to navigate through the programme so i went to youtube to find tutorials on how to navigate through photoshop.This increased my understanding and enhanced my ability to create a magazine cover and film poster.
In conclusion I used Youtube to gain a deeper understanding of teaser trailer conventions during the research stage, which enhanced my ability to perform a more detailed and analytical analysis on 5 teaser trailers. I used Youtube to improve my navigation skills through programmes like Photoshop, which enhanced my ability to create both my film poster and magazine cover.
During the research and planning stages i used google to browse through a variety of different websites including Empire.com and TotalFilm.com. Access to these websites enhanced my understanding of magazine covers and their conventions. By developing my understanding on magazine covers it increased my creative control while i was producing my own magazine cover. For example I used the same masthead as Sight and Sound because i recognised that this magazine was aimed at our target audience , which was a mature audience who enjoy critically acclaimed films instead of big blockbusters.
During construction I searched the web using google to find sound bites and music to use in our teaser trailer. Google provided a wide variety of sound bites and music which enhanced my creativity because I had the power of choice allowing me to experiment with more sounds and music. Google was very useful during the research and planning stages because it contributed an infinate amount of analytical information on teaser trailers and films in general. I was provided with a lot of examples of effective storyboards and shotlists, furthermore it increased my understanding of how to make storyboards and shotlists effectively to use during the construction stages. For example websites like http://accad.osu.edu/womenandtech/Storyboard%20Resource/ improved my ability to create storyboards, it describes how to make a detailed storyboard including camera angles and specific transitions.
In conclusion I used google to improve my understanding of coventions present in film magazine covers and film posters. This benefited me during the construction stage because I had the choice to either use or brake conventions which increased my creative freedom. I used google to improve my ability to create a detailed storyboard, furthermore I increased my ability to use my storyboard effectively during the construction stage of my teaser trailer.
During the research and planning stages i analysed 5 teaser trailers, magazine covers and film posters on blogger. I also wrote posts about my inital ideas and how they changed over time. Blogger was a very useful tool because it improved my organisation skills. I used blogger because it shows a sense of progression, for example I could observe how my inital ideas have developed over time and how through my planning and research i created a solid concept for my teaser trailer.
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