FINAL EVALUATION

Matt Jewitt

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The conventions of a teaser trailer are to follow the format of Todorov’s theory, these are equilibrium, agent of change, disruption and new equilibrium.

The equilibrium is the sense of normality at the beginning of the narrative. The agent of change is a scenario that occurs during the narrative. The disruption is the consequences of the agent of change within the narrative. The new equilibrium is the new sense of normality within the narrative.

Another convention of a teaser trailer is that it has to ask the audience questions throughout the teaser trailer. This is done through the use of semiotics. For example the use of colours, camera shots, angles, images and voiceovers.

Our teaser trailer challenged Todorov’s theory as the narrative of our trailer did not have a clear structure so therefore it did not follow any of the stages proposed by Todorov.

However our teaser trailer adhered to the convention of asking questions to the audience throughout the trailer as we felt this would get the audience more involved and would influence them to watch the film.

Our teaser trailer adopted the format of a live news broadcast which straight away have the audience asking questions about what’s happening. This was then followed by a hostage video which again would have the audience asking questions.

The ways in which we adhered to the convention of semiotics was through our variety of camera shots and angles and dialogue within the trailer.

However we challenged the conventional format of a teaser trailer as we did not have quick switching of scenes but instead had two separate videos merged together in the form of a news broadcast which essentially served as its own mini film.

The posters were laid out in the style of missing posters, highlighting the abduction of the two daughters of the Prime Minister. These designs add to the viral element of the campaign because they are realistic and continue the story that the Prime Minister’s daughters have been abducted.

I conformed to the style of missing poster in that they include a large picture, a description of the girls and large text to grab the attention of the reader. Also, there is contact information at the bottom of the poster. This includes a phone number and a website, the website is that of the film website.

I went against traditional film posters that merely advertise the film as theses are not always effective. The advantage of creating a missing poster is that it is more likely to grab peoples attention.

The final task of the project was to create a film website. I wanted to continue the viral aspect, so decided against creating a website based on advertising the film. I therefore decided to create a Police missing persons website. I felt this would be more beneficial as it followed the plot of the film and made good use of the viral element.

I used an existing Metropolitan Police missing persons website for to help me create the website. I followed the conventions used within it such as the Metropolitan Police logo, use of contact details and pictures of those missing. Instead of pictures to show the missing girls, I used the missing posters I created. I also uploaded the hostage video part of the teaser trailer onto the home page.

I have challenged the conventions of typical film websites as I have used a ,lot of text which most websites do not but I felt this would help the website feel more realistic. Also there are no specific features advertising the film so it is not completely obvious that this is a film website, but again I think this will benefit the film as it will make people more interested in the film.

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

The combination of the teaser trailer, posters and website are very effective because they all have viral elements and are directly linked to each other.

The teaser trailer is presented in the style of a news broadcast which gives a sense of reality to the film. This followed up by the distribution of the missing posters which are linked to the news broadcast which further increase the sense of reality. Finally, with the website it brings together the trailer and the posters to give the impression that the narrative of the film is actually occurring.

The above is helped by the fact that during the teaser trailer, the posters and the website, nothing is given away to give any strong indications that all of this is advertising a film. Therefore I think our products will be effective in that people will follow it wondering what is going on, which will hopefully result in them being attracted to the film.

Also through my audience feedback, it has shown that the teaser trailer, posters and website have all been effective in advertising the film and more importantly have been effective in creating a successful viral marketing campaign.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the project, I carried out a lot of market research. These included questionnaires and filmed responses to the questionnaires. I designed a questionnaire which was designed to gather information on what the public wanted from a film. They were also asked of what they thought about my original idea. However, that original idea did not develop as new idea was created which was more beneficial.

Once the products were beginning to be constructed, I did further market research. Again I did filmed responses to a questionnaire. I showed the products in their early designs to those who took part and asked what they thought of the campaign and what they could offer for us to improve. The feedback was positive, especially on the effectiveness of the trailer. They also offered advice about how to improve the campaign. One common improvement was to make sure the news broadcast looked authentic. There were problems with this due to lack of facilities but I decided to film the news report at the location of a school of which the two girls attended.

After I completed the products, I carried out further audience feedback. I showed the products that I had produced to 20 people aged between 15-30. I then asked two questions which were “do you think my viral marketing campaign was effective?” and “do you think my viral marketing campaign is a new and interesting approach to advertising?” The responses I got were positive. My target audience thought that the viral marketing campaign was effective and that it would interest and attract them if they saw the marketing products elsewhere. This feedback shows that the products prove effective and do work in attracting the audience.

It was important that the viral marketing campaign I produced was ‘different’ as it would have more potential. 14 out of the 20 respondents replied ‘Yes’ to the second question which shows that the campaign I created was both effective and new to the film industry. Although viral marketing has been used before, there does not seem to be any evidence of a film using viral marketing on such a large scale. My use of it would give the impression that the film will be popular due to the marketing campaign I used.

The use of market research is extremely important because it allows you to understand what the audience want and what interests them. You can also measure the effectiveness of your own marketing campaign by the feedback you receive. If I did not carry out as much audience research and feedback as I did, the teaser trailer, posters and website would not be as effective as they are.

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

stages? To make an effective an authentic marketing campaign, several media technologies are required, however some of these were new to me.

Camerawork: In the past two years I have developed my skills in using a camera. I can now use the camera to shoot a variety of different camera shots and angles effectively.. Examples I have used are tracking shot and high and low angle shot. By using these shots and angle I was able to make the scene effective..

Microsoft Office Publisher: I was fairly experienced in this and was able to use this experience to create the posters and edit the logo for our production company.

Serif Movie Plus: This was fairly new to me as I only knew the very basics but with some help and perseverance I have developed my ability and am now able to create a far more effective video. I am able to add effects and features that make the video effective

Macromedia Dreamweaver: I had never used this programme before. I found it very difficult and frustrating to use and it took a great amount of perseverance in order to get the website right. It did allow for some helpful feature like linking the hostage video to the page. However I feel that my skills in this programme could be vastly improved.

Fireworks: This was again new to me. I used it to create the logo for the production company. This was fairly simple to get to grips with and I was able to produce an effective logo.