How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?

• Photoshop - I used Photoshop to create my poster and magazine.
• iMovie - I used iMovie to edit my footage, I used iMovie because it was good enough for what I wanted to do with the footage.
• Digital camera - I used a digital camera to film my trailer.
• SLR camera - I took the photographs with this camera.
• Mac - I used a Mac to create my work.
• PowerPoint - I used PowerPoint to create a movie pitch, this was the only time I used it since this time around we used Blogger to track out progression.
• Blogger - I used Blogger to document my planning and research, Blogger was much more easy to use than PowerPoint and it saved a lot of space on the computer and didn't stall whenever you open it like PowerPoint.
• Prezi - I have used Prezi to create a presentation, Prezi is a great spin on the usual presentation but I only used it once since it's not very practical and a little novelty.
• YouTube - I used YouTube to search for film trailers including I am Legend and 28 Days Later. 
• iPhoto - I added images to iPhoto so I could then add them into iMovie
• iTunes - I added music to iTunes so I could then add them into iMovie

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This is a podcast detailing the different types of feedback I got from the audience for my trailer, my poster and my magazine.

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

Main product 0 - 7:30

       Ancillary       7:30 - 12:05

(Part 2) In what ways does your media products use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 Like my poster and magazine my main inspiration for my teaser trailer were other teaser trailers and other trailers of a similar genre, 28 Days Later and I Am Legend were my main inspirations and they were my main inspirations when I was creating my trailer.

Use

• I used low key lighting in my trailer, although I was just following the conventions of a horror film these are also prominent features in the two trailers I chose as inspiration. 

• I used a lot of fade to black editing transitions, these are a prominent feature in the 28 Days Later trailer especially when the trailer begins to speed up.
• I used a lot of jump cuts in my trailer, these are a common editing transition because it speeds up the action, these coupled with the high and low angles show the characters panic.

• Like the I Am Legend trailer my trailer is isn't about the action and doesn't include it.

Develop

• I was inspired to create video blogs by I Am Legend, the video blogs weren't in the trailer but they are in the full film. I decided to add them into my teaser trailer.  In a character driven narrative it's important for the audience to interact with the character.

• The title slides from 28 Days later were an inspiration for me when I was creating my trailer. While they counted through the stages I picked up on important dates for my main character, I think they are a good way to create tension and set a time for the film to take place.

 Challenge

• I never shown any of the zombies, judging by the other trailers I have seen of the same genre it is uncommon not to show the threat in a trailer but I have done it because I want it to be a teaser about the character.

• My trailer doesn't show any of what happens in the actual film but instead acts as a prologue to it.
• In the trailer I have used very low key lighting, this can be seen when he is putting the papers in the bag, I did this because I wanted it to be as realistic as possible and the only light I wanted was to be coming from the lamp. I used it in challenge because I have made it very dark.

(Part 1) In what ways does your media products use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 Poster

This is my film poster I believe I have successfully used conventions from other movie posters of a similar genre, my most noticeable inspirations being the poster for I Am Legend and 28 Days Later. But while it's clear I have followed the conventions of these two posters, I have been able to be creative and I have challenged forms.

These are the two posters I have taken most inspiration from, I will refer to these as I talk about the conventions of my poster.

Conventions

• It's clear to see when comparing my poster to these two that I have gone with the idea of the hero alone in the centre of the poster. The image of the hero walking down the empty road shows that he is on a journey and it's something I wanted to include in my poster.
• I liked the idea of having the title along the bottom like the I Am Legend poster, this way while it can be scene it takes no attention away from the image of the character on the poster.
• I decided to go for this colour scheme because I believe it looks good on the poster, while it's not the same as the I Am Legend poster I stayed with the similar style but while I Am Legend used brown and beige. I used red and black, more like the 28 Days Later poster.
• I followed conventions with the colour scheme, it's common for horror posters to be dark colours, I used red and black. 

Challenge

• There is much more mystery around the setting on my poster it's now clear to see where it's set and it's just a road, however you can see that 28 days later is set in London because of Big Ben and Brooklyn Bridge shows that I Am Legend is set in New York.
• Suspense is what I tried to aim for even on the poster and I think I achieved this with the films tag line.
• While you can tell that my poster is a horror it's not quite so easy to see what kind of horror it will be, where as 28 Days Later and I Am Legend are both very clear with their taglines.

Magazine

This is my magazine cover, I think this is the product I pushed conventions the furthest with, but I did take inspiration from other special edition covers and regular magazine covers. The Total Film Superman special was an inspiration as was the layout of a regular Empire magazine.

Conventions

• The name of the magazine is at the top and the stories are at the bottom, these are simple conventions and I have used them to keep it recognisable as a magazine.
• I have created a barcode to be on the front of my magazine, I have also included the date on the magazine since these are necessary.
• I left the sizes of things the way they should be, I stretched the name across the width of the top of the page.
• The font of the magazine title was inspired by the font of Empire magazine, I tried to find something similar.
• I still included stories on the front of my magazine, I decided to this this because of the Total Film magazine, I didn't want the whole magazine to be dominated by my film, I still kept them zombie related to tie in with the special zombie edition.

Challenge

• I have dedicated the whole of my cover to zombie films and made the whole thing look like a bio hazard danger sign.
• The yellow and black colour scheme are unconventional.
• The photographs I used have also challenged conventions, the main character is not looking directly at the camera neither is he the main subject on the magazine. I did this because I wanted him to stay a mystery and feature is as much a zombie edition.
• I left a lot of space on my magazine, I did this because I wanted to recreate a bio-hazard sign and I didn't want anything to take away from the effect I was trying to create.
• The title of the film sits within a black box, the title of the film being featured sits second to the WARNING just above it, this is so that it doesn't break the allusion of the bio-hazard poster.

Finished Poster, Magazine and Trailer

Research and Planning: Finished trailer

This is the my trailer, I have corrected some of the things people didn't like about it, most noticeably the jump cuts when the character is searching through the paper.

Research and Planning: Creating my magazine

Now that I have finished my magazine I can show how I made the bio-hazard sign with my photographs. My first plan was to make my film poster like a bio-hazard poster although once my poster started to take shape the way it did I decided to change idea and make my magazine looks like a bio-hazard poster.

  The bio-hazard symbol

To begin I started by using the paint bucket tool to fill it in black, I then created another layer and made a yellow square to fill the whole poster, leaving some black around the edges. I then created the same shape as the three black pieces above copying and pasting it into the positions and then deleting the selection so it got rid of the yellow and left me with the black giving the same effect and creating the bio-hazard sign.

I got the three pictures I wanted: one of the character, one of a zombie hand, and an industrial zone. I then pasted them into the picture and resized them so they would fit. It would have been impossible to make them fit exactly so I used the magic wand tool to make a selection the same shape as the shape, I moved the photograph into position and changed layer so the photograph was on top, I copied the selection and pasted so I had the photograph the correct shape. I deleted the original photograph and put the shape into position.

Research and Planning: Trailer

This is my teaser trailer.

Bellow is feedback I have received for my trailer, some changes need to be made to it.