Evaluation

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Teaser trailer: When we felt that we had completed our teaser trailer to the best of our ability, we felt that we should show it to our class, because they fitted our audience. After viewing our teaser trailer we got both positive and negative feedback. They felt that there were elements of our trailer which showed the romantic side and the comedy side well, which we were happy with because this was a specific aspect we felt was important. They also said that they felt it was too slow, and that if we sped up our scenes that it would be funnier. We took these comments on board and continued editing our teaser trailer. We sped up the scenes to increase the comedy element of our trailer, and to keep our audience interested. We then added a soundtrack to our teaser trailer once we had found an appropriate one. We then decided that we should load our finished film onto YouTube, and then onto the social networking site Facebook, in order to gain some feedback from our target audience.

As you can see we gained both positive and negative feedback from our audience. Most people felt that the voiceover we had used was too dramatic for our genre of film, and that it reminded them of a thriller or horror film rather than a comedy. Some people were also confused by the ending, but they still found it funny. Other than this, they again felt that we reached the comedy and romantic sides well, and that our film flowed nicely. We are happy with the feedback that we gained for our final product, we feel that we have reached our target audience well and that our film fits the genre that it was designed to. I personally think that the voice over which people felt was too dramatic infact worked very well for our genre and achieved the effect that we were aiming for.

Magazine: When showing our magazine cover to our class (our target audience) we received mainly positive feedback. They felt that the photograph we had used worked well and looked realistic. They also felt that the colour theme we had used which continued throughout our products was a good idea. What they did find was that we needed to vary some of the sizes of our captions more, position them differently, and change the colour of some of the words because they were hard to see from afar on the background. We took this feedback on board and made the changes which were needed. I think that our magazine works well and looks realistic because of the photograph we've used. Because the couple look so natural and what they are wearing looks glamorous I feel that this makes our magazine look realistic. I think that using our own title for the magazine worked to our advantage because it allowed us to create our own rules, and we didn't have to conform to the template of an established magazine. I think that the colours work well to portray our genre, and the continuous colour scheme throughout our products works well to link them together.

Poster: When we showed the class our poster we received a range of feedback. Some people felt that the layout was too plain, and that we needed to change it to make it more unique. We were also told that we needed something added to the background other than just it being plain white, to again make it eye catching. But like with our magazine front cover, they liked how the colour scheme continued throughout our products. We made the alterations we felt were needed, we put the title in the middle of the page, which went against the typical conventions of a romantic comedy film poster, which our audience felt was better. We also added pink hearts to odd areas on the white space of the background to make it more interesting and to also link with the romantic theme of our film. When we showed our class our final poster, they felt that it attracted the right audience and was eye catching and memorable. They thought that the photographs we had chosen worked well, and the placement of the title to split the two photographs up was effective.  I think that the layout is one of the best parts of our magazine. It enables us to show the two different times of the photographs easily, and although the title being in the middle of the page breaks the typical convention of a romantic comedy film, I think that it works well to show the transition the relationship between the two main characters takes during the film.

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

To create our A Level media coursework products we used a lot of the same programmes and technologies that we had to create our AS Level coursework. We used the same filming equipment along with Blogger, Pinnacle, YouTube, Media Converter, Facebook and Photoshop.

Firstly we used Blogger as a way to track our progress throughout the course. We were able to analyse and evaluate our work and ideas, and we are also able to get feedback from others on the site. Using Blogger enabled us to upload images of our work and to describe what we had done and learn from it, seeing why certain aspects worked well or not so well. Blogger teaches and helps us to take a step back from our work and look at it from an outside perspective, and prevents us from getting too involved with the project and not seeing it as an overall piece.

We also used the programme Pinnacle, as we had done last year. Pinnacle is editing software, and was vital to creating our teaser trailer. We used Pinnacle to load our footage onto and to cut appropriately and edit, we added sound and captions using this programme as well. We all edited our product between us using this programme, as we all felt that this was the best way to improve our skills on from using it last year. We wanted to use this programme to the best of our ability, and this meant that we had to use it carefully, making sure that we had saved our product each time before making any changes. We had to master using the Edirol and filming equipment, and getting the product from here onto Pinnacle.

We used YouTube to load our finished product onto in order to gain audience feedback for us to learn from. By using YouTube we were then able to link our film to our Facebook accounts and also gain feedback that way. Because all of the members of the group are well associated with Facebook, we felt that this part of the project worked to our advantage because of our skills with the site already, we were able to gain feedback from the audience our products were aimed at, and thus was most helpful to us.

We had to use a media converter called ZamZar, which enabled us to convert our song for our sound track from MP3 to MP4 so that it was compatible with Pinnacle. We also used it to convert the Universal file for the opening of our teaser trailer. We had never used a media converter before, so this was a new technology for us. It was very helpful and made our work look more realistic.

Lastly, we used the editing programme Photoshop. As I am studying photography, I am used to using this programme, but some other members of the group were not. We did not use this programme for our coursework this year, so it was completely new so some of the group. We used the programme to enhance the photographs we has taken for our poster, and I feel that by using this programme we made our poster look far more professional.