A2 Media Evaluation

Movie (One Day)

What ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

NarrativeMy movie begins with equilibrium, at the start it seems calm and the slow non diagetic music at the beginning shows no threat or danger, Todorovs narrative mentions this as a conventional start to a movie, the slow pace of the movie also backs this theory.

He then continues to add that the equilibrium and calmness is ruined by another force or person, this is evident in ‘One Day’ the bike is stolen and this causes a dilemma and gets in the way of equilibrium.

Up to the point where the boy who has stolen the bike is being chased it all seems very conventional according to a criminal genre movie, but this is where i shifted the movie from a conventional criminal to a strange Sci-Fi genre, with teleporting and jumping through fences, this doesn't follow conventions, but this was intentional i wanted something different, i tried not to make my movie too typical, which is why i added the strange Sci-Fi twist toward the end.

Opening sceneI think the opening scenes in movies are on of the most important part in a movie, its the make or the break, if a move has a boring start nobody is going to want to carry on to watch. The beginning of my movie is risky, because it is quiet and establishes the scene slowly, nothing much really happens that would want the audience to keep watching.

However having some audience feedback, they say the opposite, the audience like the contrast between the slow beginning and then the gradual introduction to the plot.The slow beginning inclines the audience to keep watching as it is a clear build-up to something and creates atmosphere and a small amount of mystery as to what relevance the boy riding the bike has to the movie.

To a certain extent my movie follows some conventions to an opening scene, a lot of movies start slowly and show very little dialogue or action, the opening scenes in a movie are usually to introduce characters and plot, i think 5 minutes was too little time to establish characters this is why i didn’t focus much on dialogue, it would confuse the plot. I used the opening scene greatly to show the ordinary realistic scene and setting, a bit of attention was payed toward introducing characters but not a great amount.

Double Page Spread

This callout introduces the article, this is very conventional, many double page spreads use this to introduce what the article is going to be about and to give the text a focus. The photo on one half of the page and the article

and text is also conventional to a double page spread for a movie, it gives the double page spread a professional look and makes it seem tidy.

In a lot of double page spreads the article is split into two equal chunks so i followed this to give my double page spread another tidy and professional feature.

I didn’t follow all conventions of

previously studied double page spreads, i

noticed that a lot of them had a smaller

callout or quote, but i chose not to put one in as i think it would cramp my page and be floating around

making it look untidy.

Another convention i decided to ignore was the colour schemes, my double page spread shows an unusual sepia colour, usually plain colours are used, like black gray or white for example but i think the sepia theme gives a sense of mystery and it makes it stand out a lot, the black text also stands out well on top of the sepia background

PosterI chose to not follow many conventions, i wanted a different poster that stood out, i followed a few conventions, such as the main character on the front and the large movie title.

The title is one you would expect to see on a poster, its large and

stands out, the unusual thing about it is the curve to it, i think it

has a larger impact with the crooked, cracked look.

The colour scheme is very basic and has a feeling of mystery to it, this is enhanced by the orangey tint to the edges of the trees (which i achieved

through photoshop) the colour scheme is kept to a small pallet, i

think a vast colour scheme makes it look messy and distorts the

meaning of the poster.

The conventional body shot of the main character is a key to a film poster i think, i don’t think there is much other pictures you could add to a poster without making it look strange and not apparent to what the movie would be about.Every poster i

researched had the actors that starred in the movie, i thought this would be a good touch and would work perfectly too fill the gap at the bottom,

which also happened to be the typical place for

this information to appear.

To give the sense that this was a

professional looking poster i notices that a

lot used quotes complimenting the

movie, so i made up a few quotes to give it the same look as a

real movie poster.

How effective is the combination of your main

products and ancillary texts?It was key that all three products had to show some kind of relevance or link, there is clear links between all three of my products.

My poster and my double page spread have obvious links, they both use the

same “Cracked” text, i chose to use this text as i think it reflects my movie, the text looks strange and unconventional similar to my movie. I used this text on almost all parts on my poser, i didn’t use it as much on my double page spread, however the main callout is in this text and shows a clear link to the poster.

The colour schemes that runs through my ancillary products are almost similar, i tried to make them the same but the posters orangey colour would’ve been to dark to use in my double page spread so i made them closely similar and used a sepia colour for the double page spread which was deliberately trying to match the poster but it didn’t go as to plan.

My double page spread and poster i think go well with my movie, it shows the main character on both, they both also give a good impression on the movie without trying to look too deeply into it

Improvements i would makeNothings perfect but there would be a few things that i would like to change and would be feasible for change.

To begin with my movie. The sound and visual quality isn’t the best, its sometimes hard to pick up on some words in dialogue, this isn’t so much a problem as dialogue is limited but if i could i would change the sound quality so speech was easier to interpret. The visual quality would be unavoidable unless i used a different video camera, the video camera made the movie pixelated and sometimes hard to see faces, with another video camera the quality would’ve greatly been improved.

The Poster. I think my poster is the strongest part, i am relatively happy with my poster and without being overly picky i don’t think there would be much i would wish to change. I would maybe change the bottom and add more text so it would cover the bottom with information, as seen on many other movie posters.

My Double Page Spread. If i wasn’t so rushed toward the end i could’ve spent more time and produced a better double page spread, however i didn’t have the time so i think my double page spread looks rushed. With more time i would’ve liked to neaten it and pay more attention to detail and the text. The colour as well would’ve looked better if i had more time to play around and adjust with colour.

Audience feedbackI gained feedback through showing my movie to friends and family, overall my feedback was rather positive. However, there was obviously bound to be some critics.

Without going to deep into my feedback and the full opinions of people the general discussions my movie brought up were as follows..

ProsPros ConsConsThe movie had a good plot line with a anticipated

twist.The sound quality made it hard to understand

dialogue.

The editing complimented the movie and was used to introduce Sci-Fi well.

The acting was quite poor, added humour though.

The beginning helped to establish setting and realism.

Some parts were a bit too abstract and strange.

The movie was unusual but worked well and made it more interesting.

Sometimes it was hard to understand exactly what was happening, conversations were limited and

almost unexpected.

Music worked well with the movie and fitted the changing plot.

Technology and equipment usedMaking my movie, double page spread and poster, i used a lot of new software and technologies.

I used indesign to make my double page spread, i have used this programme before, and i feel comfortable with using it now, i understand what i’m doing on it a lot more than when i started the course.

I used imovie to edit my movie and piece the clips together, i filmed my movie in short clips and seamed them together, this is what i used for all editing, including music and effects. I was a rookie to imovie but i understand how to use it well now.

I filmed my movie using a basic video camera, it was a hand held one with few settings and adjustments but it was good enough, i have never filmed a movie before beside my preliminary work in year 12.

To do my poster i used photoshop, i also used photoshop to edit the picture on my double page spread, i am familiar with photoshop and have used it many times before, so luckily this didn’t strike any problems.