Moderator.

Dear Moderator,

This is my A2 Media Blog, I have made my main product which is a trailer named Eye Spy and a poster for Eye Spy and a Magazine Cover for Premiere, which you will find directly below.
If you click on September 2012 it will take you to the beginning of my research and planning posts for all my media products, you can view this here.
My Evaluation starts on Monday 11th March 2013 for all in media products, you can view this here.

Hope you enjoy.
Abbie Dutton-Guiver.

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Evaluation: Question 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Question 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages.
Prezi.



A prezi explaining all the technologies I used during the research, planning and evaluation stages and brief descriptions of where and how I used them such as things like blogger and new websites we have found and used.


iShowU

An iShowU demonstrating all the technologies I explained in the prezi above, showing where I have used them and examples from my own work such as slideshare and prezi.



Construction.
Prezi.


This is a prezi to explain the technologies I used during the construction stages of all three of my media products, this breifly explains about equipment I used such as cameras as well as programs I used like Photoshop and iMovie.

iShow.

This is an iShowU demonstrating the programs I used such as Photoshop in which I use my own work as an example and go through the tools I used and how I achieved the effects. As well as going through programs such as iMovie which I used a lot for my trailer.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Evaluation: Question 3- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Question 3- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?



This is my edited video showing all of the audience feedback we received and where we got it from.


This is an iShowU showing where the audience feedback has influenced my trailer and ancillary tasks.

Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Evaluation: Question 2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Question 2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?



An edited video to show where our main product and ancillary tasks all link together, it is split into different sections and me and my partner both discussed our own work in this one video. It includes images and screenshots of our work to show and help visualise what we are talking about. 

  

Interviews with audience members just asking brief questions about my tasks.

An extra iShowU.

This is an extra iShowU explaining some points I missed out on the previous video, this only includes my work and again is split into sections so there is some editing involved in this video but not to the extent of my other video.

Monday, 11 March 2013

Evaluation: Question 1- In what ways does your media products use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 1- In what ways does your media products use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?





 

This is a powerpoint presentation which I have done and shared on SlideShare then embedded here which shows where I have used conventions from real media texts in both my main product and my ancillary tasks and then the same for developing conventions and then where I have completely challenged, which is when I have come up completely with my own ideas.

Research and Planning: Trailer.

Trailer.

These are some very final changes to our trailer to do with increasing the volume on some audio and altering some fades.

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Research and Planning: Trailer.

Trailer. 


Research and Planning: Advanced Settings for Editing.

Advanced Settings for Editing.



To edit the REC box to make sure you can differentiate between the teenage footage and the stalker, we needed to change our settings to advanced in iMovie so we could use the Picture in Picture tool, so we added it in and then placed our image in and cropped it to a suitable size and then the two videos are what we tested out to get the placement right.

Friday, 15 February 2013

Friday, 8 February 2013

Research and Planning: Magazine Progress.

Magazine Progress.


This is some more tweaks to my trailer, I thought the use of the word exclusive was a bit excessive so I changed some parts around so I put 'POSTERS INCLUDED' instead of exclusive and I changed the bottom banner to names of films instead and changed the font to the same as the coverlines so that it fits in well.

Friday, 1 February 2013

Research and Planning: Magazine Progress.

Magazine Progress.


This is the image I had trouble uploading yesterday and as you can see I have made the changes I said I would by aligning all the text and altering the spacing between certain things.

Research and Planning: Poster Progress.

Poster Progress


This is the image that I had trouble uploading yesterday and as you can see I have made the changes I stated so tidying up the eye and making the centre images bigger and the face more opaque so it stands out more. I also added the stars name across because that is a convention that I noticed with other real media texts.

Thursday, 31 January 2013

Research and Planning: Poster Progress.

Poster Progress. 

Since I last uploaded my poster image, I have since made the changes I stated I was going to do, but like my magazine the images have not been saved to my memory stick as I was having trouble capturing a screenshot image of them and then I saved the wrong image to my memory stick so like my magazine, the proper image will be uploaded tomorrow. 

Research and Planning: Magazine Progress.

Magazine Progress.

Since the last post I did on my magazine was published I made those changes to the magazine however the wrong image was saved to my memory stick and I don't access to it until tomorrow so I will upload the final changes image to it tomorrow. 

Research and Planning: Trailer Progress.

Trailer Progress. 


This is the trailer with all the added parts, the sound has been added over the logos and more shots have been added to the middle section and cut down so it is a lot quicker and jump cuts are used now and I added some small amount of sound over them so that it isn't silent. 

Research and Planning: Messing with Sound.

Messing with Sound

 


This is an iShowU of me adding some sound onto the trailer, I imported some sound effects into iTunes and from there I just added the ones I wanted into my trailer. .

Research and Planning: Magazine Progress.

Magazine Progress. 


This is my almost completed magazine I have now added all the necessary bits on like extra stories and barcode and just a few changes need to be made for example the main story at the bottom on 'Eye Spy' needs to move up slightly so that the bottom exclusive banner is seen as a separate story and the positioning statement needs to stretch across to the same length as the masthead. 

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Research and Planning: Trailer Progress.

Trailer Progress. 


This is the trailer so far, we have added all the captions and anything else we needed the only thing we need to do now is edit down some of the middle clips and add a small bit of sound over them and the logos. 

Research and Planning: Poster Progress.

Poster Progress. 


This is my poster progress so far, I have manipulated a few images and added them on top of eachother to create this effect. The first was getting the colour from an eye and then I just changed the opacity of the eye so it is just a very soft image over the side then I got the rubber and made the edges softer and changed the opacity and then started rubbing out all the white edges which you can see still needs altering which I will do. 
Then I got the outside of a camera lens and placed that around the pupil and changed the opacity again. I then over-layed two images one of all four characters together which I think looks really good in the background and then the image of Sammi edited is placed over the top but I think I want to make that middle section bigger and then make Sammi's image a bit stronger. 

Research and Planning: Poster Image Changes.

Poster Image Changes.



This is the image that I chose from my photos that I took, that I decided I want to stay as the main focus of the poster. It didn't have the same effect as the others but I wanted this to have the greeny effect but keep it darker than the rest so it has an eerier effect and stands out against the other images overlayed. 
You can see that I placed a rectangle over the image and filled it in with green and then added the effect 'Linear Burn' over the top so it created the green effect over the image.

Research and Planning: Poster Progress.

Poster Progress.


This is the progress of my film poster so far, I am now working on the main image of my trailer and now I have used all film stills to create an eye shape, I created the top half of the shape and then mirrored that below the line. Now all I have to do is manipulate images on top of this. 

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Research and Planning: Magazine Photos Social Networking Feedback.

Magazine Photos Social Network Feedback. 


Research and Planning: Magazine Location.

Magazine Location.


This is the location I used for my magazine photos because I wanted just a simple wall background to edit.

Research and Planning: Magazine Photos.

Magazine Photos.














These are the photographs for my magazine, the first time I tried to do my shots it just didn't work out so I tried again and they turned a lot more successful and these are all of my shots that I took and I think they have turned out really well and all have a nice bright lighting and in focus so I will be able to choose from a variety of these shots as to which one I choose. 

Research and Planning: Trailer So Far.

Trailer So Far.


This is our trailer so far, we have now finished editing all our footage into the trailer and all that we have left to do now is add our captions in and place our soundtrack over the middle part of the trailer where we currently have no sound and we think that, that particular bit of the trailer will benefit massively from the sound over the top and then we just need to lengthen the clip of the film name so it doesn't just cut out. We have also added a static at the end of the trailer so that it fits with the camera/CCTV theme of our trailer and it ends it suddenly leaving the audience wanting more. 

Research and Planning: Distribution Logo Change.

Distribution Logo Change. 


The previous distribution logo didn't work well in the trailer so we decided to go back to our previous ideas and choose a different one and this is the one that we chose and we think it looks a lot better as the text is sharper and the image is clearer so it looks a lot more neat and precise in the trailer. 

Research and Planning: Edited Film Title.

Edited Film Title.

We decided that our film name title looked a bit bland so we thought that we could add some sort of animation to it so didn't look as flat in our trailer. 
It took a long while to create this and it took a lot of altering with effects and ken burns but then it wasn't fast as we wanted it too be so we had the idea to record the effect on iShowU in it's orginal format and then import it to iMovie as a movie and speed it up but this is the original recording of the title at the original speed to the faster one is now placed in our trailer. 

Research and Planning: Titles For The Trailer.

Titles for the Trailer.

 Twitter and Website Names.
We watched some trailers and a new common feature was the twitter and website coming up at the end to help promote the film on different social platforms, we decided to give our website an interesting name like Dark Knight did with the campaigns to promote the films e.g. the whysoserious.com so we used our slogan for our website to create an eerie feel to our film and market our film further. 


 Film Name. 
We decided to use this distorted font for our film and added the strong green glow over the top because the green links with our strong use of nightvision in our trailer but we made it brighter so it obviously stands out more and is a lot more distinctive. We think that the font links with our trailer because of the colour but also the distorted letters reflect the environment of the trailer and it has a computer vibe to it which reflects the strong use of cameras in our trailer e.g. handheld camera's and CCTV. 

Coming Soon. 

The main part of the trailer is obviously the release date but because we aren't actually releasing our film we decided to add the 'coming soon' title instead and kept it with the same fuzzy effect and green colouring to create a house style for our trailer.

Saturday, 26 January 2013

Research and Planning: Magazine Progress.

Magazine Progress. 



I have now started to add coverlines to my magazine, keeping a similar house style and influences from my style model but also adding a few extra features like the small banner along the bottom and the red plus sign. 

Friday, 25 January 2013

Research and Planning: Partially Edited.

Partially Edited.

 

Research and Planning: Filming Location.

Filming Location.
 
These are the images of the location we used when filming our equilibrium, the first is with flash and the second without, we decided to film later at night because it would be better lighting for our footage as we wanted at night and this proved to be the perfect spot it was a small spot of the woods with a street lamp across the road from it so it provided us with some light which helped when arranging ourselves in terms of positioning and also added the blood and filming. 

Research and Planning: Equilibrium Footage.

Equilibrium Footage.

Thursday, 24 January 2013

Research and Planning: Poster Dissected.

Poster Dissected. 
The conventions of a film poster I looked at.

A property of this poster which I didn't write on the analysis that I liked was the fact it was landscape, it creates a more dynamic view of the film and the image stands out more. 

Research and Planning: Inspiration for Poster.



Inspiration for Poster.



I got the main inspiration for my poster after remembering this eye from Big Brother and then I thought about placing images inside the squares and make the shape more pixelated and adding a image in the middle and my  poster came from there.

Research and Planning: Magazine Cover Shot Types.



Magazine Cover Shot Types.


These are a few magazine covers that I have looked at that I liked the shot type or placement of images on it. 



The first is for Star Trek and I liked the black and white close up shot on the cover, it's quite unique and it definitely grabs your attention and the eye contact with the audience really draws them in. 
I think this could be definitely be something I could easily accomplish for my genre, although I don't know whether the black and white would work for my genre but I could always adjust that on my cover. 


The second is for Sherlock Holmes and it's a mid-shot from the waist up and he actually covers the masthead and the background is very murky, there is actually a lot of space on this cover and I think I could use a mid-shot for my cover as that was one of my original ideas although I didn't have the image overlapping the masthead but I think that this could possibly work with my idea so I could potentially look at using that. 

The last one is for the Adjustment Bureau, which is something that is probably out of my reach as the image is a long shot with a dynamic background and in my film, it's very much about simple battered backgrounds which would not look as good as something like this on a long shot cover so this is probably something that I should avoid.

Research and Planning: Magazine Cover Style Model, Dissected.

Magazine Cover Style Model, Dissected.

I used Powerpoint to dissect a magazine cover I liked and then analysis all the parts that I liked and could possibly use in my magazine.


Research and Planning: Changes During Filming.

Changes During Filming.


In our original plan for filming the equilibrium section of our trailer we stated that we wanted to use a camp fire and have the actors around the campfire and so on, however due to the change in weather conditions and it is incredibly damp and snow is still on the ground we weren't not able to do so. Instead we came up with another idea, we were still having the same idea as having the actors messing around with the handheld camera and having fun but then instead of them falling over drugged at the campfire we changed it to them having nosebleeds and it still fits with our plot and works really well in the footage.  

Research and Planning: Arranging Extra Filming.

Arranging Extra Filming. 


We decided that we needed some extra footage for our trailer so we arranged an extra day with our actors prior to our first date just so we made sure that we had a back-up so we used this opportunity and got some extra footage tonight.

We filmed today later this time as we were filming outside so we wanted it to be a bit darker when we filmed in the woods. 

These are some screenshots of the texts sent by me arranging some filming. They were sent to all the actors and my partner as well just so he had a record.

 
You can see here that the times did change and we filmed on the Thursday because not everybody was available on the Wednesday, but we all managed to arrange suitable times and individual texts were sent to people as well discussing at detail but I couldn't screen shot all of those.