HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN
THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?
Upon
reflection, I believe the use of new media technologies in the construction,
planning, research and evaluation stages of creating my products was very
important. With the rise of convergence culture and the audience's desire to
participate in the age of Web 2.0, it is essential that the audience can engage
with filmmakers such as ourselves. It helps to generate a 'hype' for them
whilst giving us useful information on what they want out of a new crime genre
film (such as in the initial research stage where I conducted surveys).
However, I think in order to have an authentic presence, some interactions
should be done face-to-face, such as when I asked for feedback on my products
from my peers. Of course, when it came to presenting these products, it was
more efficient to use the most accessible platforms (i.e YouTube for the
trailer and any vlogs, which could then be embedded into Blogger and other
sites). I also acknowledged the prevalence of social media usage among my
target audience, as the median age was 19 (younger generations are known for
spending a lot of time online) and so used sites such as Facebook and Reddit to
gather informal feedback and reviews, keeping SurveyMonkey and Typeform for the
more formal research.
Using new software and hardware that was new to me was also important as it was
an enjoyable challenge and I had to adapt to the programs as we went through
post-production (such as learning to use Premiere Pro and After Effects,
programs that were completely new to me and my group mate Tia Briers). The fact
that these were modern programs that high-budget films have used helped our
trailer to appear more professional and polished. In all, I believe that
pushing myself to use these new technologies and engage with my audience in new
ways not only gave me more confidence and developed my skills, but made our
trailer all the better for it and ultimately gave us a unique learning
experience that we will always appreciate.
Part 3 - How has audience feedback benefited me as I progress?
Part 4 - Final Audience Feedback & Reflection
Part 5 - Conclusion - What have I learnt from my audience feedback?
Audience feedback was a key part of the construction process of my products. I engaged with my target audience through surveys, used social media to my advantage, and sought out opinions from friends and peers to try to improve my work. I think having this kind of audience interaction benefited my work immensely and is something the media industry as a whole seeks out, as evidenced by my research. Reaching out to my audience helped to not only improve products such as the trailer and poster, but to build my brand and make our presence known, as building a 'hype' is important for a film's success especially. There are certainly elements of this I could have improved on, such as by running a Twitter or Facebook page that focused on interacting with the audience (perhaps through polls and posting gifs). From this feedback, I learned more about the programs I was using (as friends who happened to be in the target range for age and gender were experienced in the programs too and could point out any errors) and even when I didn't completely accept some advice or pieces of feedback, it taught me to strive to improve my skills and I enjoyed the challenge and problem-solving aspects of the project. All in all, I believe audience feedback was essential to the construction of my products.
Evaluation question one is: In
what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The Trailer
Part 1
The video I created below compares my trailer with various crime trailers, explaining how they conform to or challenge conventions and representations.
(https://youtu.be/6N-ttxWkQAk)
Part 2
In terms of challenging conventions, my trailer is subversive in that it features a mostly female cast and the actor playing Anon, the serial killer, is female. Although it could be argued that in my trailer the females featured are victims, it is not typically common for crime films to have characters where the majority of them are female and even our one visibly male character is a victim, making the representations of them fairly equal.
However, it could be inferred that the character Alice (third person in
the image left) is a stereotypical representation of a lower-class
woman, and is somewhat sexualised because she wears a provocative
costume (short, lacy dress, black leather jacket, fishnet tights and
heels). Furthermore, this class status is reinforced by her accent in
the trailer and the phonetic divergences this causes. On the other hand,
Alice could be interpreted as empowering and not as much of a victim as
you'd think, as the actress performs her confidently. Similarly, George and Eve are presented through costume in a slightly masculine way; they wear hoodies and jeans with trainers and Eve appears dishevelled. More often than not, all female characters in crime films are as attractive as possible and objectified.
The fact that the actor playing Anon is female is subversive as usually, serial killer characters who give in to such destructive desires are masculine and dominating. Instead, here their gender is left unspecified; the distortion of the voice-over preserves their identity, and consequently the enigma of the trailer, intriguing the audience. Furthermore, the killer has an explained motive which is unusual for most crime films and is not purely giving in to a desire for carnage, communicated by the voice-over and prop photograph, making them more of a counter-type character, but an antagonist nevertheless. The voice-over itself could be considered as convention-breaking, as usually they present a protagonist's point of view as they attempt to overcome a great struggle, whereas here, it is the antagonist communicating his threatening world-view.
Our trailer perhaps conforms to conventions of the crime genre most in how it features the majority of the elements of the genre's repertoire. Firstly, in terms of typical locations:
We used a playground because in Britain where our film is set, these are typical locations for a druggie set-up or for 'chavvy' young adults to congregate, especially in the evening (although we chose to shoot in the daytime so it wouldn't be in use), making it quite suitable for our drug exchange scene with George and Alice. The relatively secretive, but informal, way in which the package is exchanged suggests the two characters are already acquainted, while communicating the illicit nature of the deal to the audience.
This location of an abandoned airfield, while not common to the crime genre entirely, gives the impression of a run-down place where druggies may meet up. Here, Eve appears dishevelled and sickly, which would repel the audience and make them uncomfortable, introducing a disconnect between the audience and the characters they may not relate to. However, this is not exactly a negative aspect, as my group mate and I had always stated we wanted the boundaries between the 'good side' and 'bad side' to be blurred and for the binary oppositions created to be confusing, giving an enigma for the audience to solve and enticing them to see the film. It therefore, rather bizarrely, appeals to either side of the moral spectrum, depending on whether an audience member wants the drug abusers or Anon to 'win'.
Secondly, my trailer features familiar iconography such as props:
Guns are an iconic symbol of crime films, as they are used in innumerable chase scenes, murder scenes, etc, by almost any type of character. What sets our film apart from the rest is that there is no evidence of any interference from the police and therefore no character to represent 'correct' morals and the law. This erases a possible binary opposition, blurring the lines even more and making the audience unsure of who to 'root for'. This shot is the last in the trailer and therefore has high-impact, as it seems as if Anon is directly threatening the audience with death. It is also left unclear which character Anon is pursuing at this point, and whether there will be any more revelations about their motivations for killing. Essentially, the prop gun is a clear symbol of death and gives the trailer a more perturbing atmosphere.
We also openly showed prop drugs such as cocaine and pills. This makes the genre of crime even clearer, as these are obviously illegal items. Interestingly, the lighting for the pills seems warmer in tone due to the sunlight and the hand shakes, suggesting a brighter escapism and implying these will get Eve, the character holding them, 'high'. Conversely, the shot of the cocaine on the right is colder in tone, implying a darker aspect of the narrative and drugs as a whole - possibly bringing us to Anon's point of view that these are sinful items and should be condemned. This darker turn is further expressed through George and Alice's dialogue as they begin to get suspicious of the disappearances of those in their druggie circle. In this, a typical narrative plot point is established as they must solve a mystery and figure out who the killer is (again reminiscent of the themes shown in film noir), although it is not entirely conforming to convention in that there is no representation of law and order: they are on their own.
Thirdly, we incorporated some approaches to micro features that are different from generic crime films, such as in cinematography and sound. Our trailer doesn't feature a lot of diegetic sound or foley sound effects and most scenes are left muted in a montage-style with the soundtrack being the main focus, whereas in a lot of crime trailers they will choose to feature exciting dialogue that has lots of exposition. Our approach was a lot different in that we wanted to maintain a sense of mystery and show that we are convention-breaking to generate interest. This approach can be seen in more independent, smaller films, such as the teaser trailer for A Monster Calls, in which there is hardly any dialogue at all besides one line spoken by the main protagonist and an off-screen voice-over.
In terms of cinematography, our trailer diverges from the norm because it is often quite artistic and unusually shot. For instance, this shot of a blood-covered hand dropping to the floor, while heavily implying death as many crime trailers do, has intense shallow-focusing and is clearly colour-graded to make the crimson blood striking against the blue hue the rest of the image has. This kind of creative expression is not often seen in crime films, at least not in mainstream films that tend to focus on the action in a scene with the camera positioned in a long-shot, so as to show explicit violence. The fact that this shot is at ground-level also positions the audience with the victim, making it all the more ominous.
Overall, through these convergences and occasional divergences from the style of the crime genre, the audience gets a pleasurable viewing experience from the repetition of genre tropes they are familiar with and like, but also the added surprise of unexpected elements, making our trailer distinctive, unique and refreshing in its approach to convention.
This is the final version of our trailer. We didn't end up making any further changes to our footage, aside from adding in the credit for Alex, who made our new soundtrack.
Today I received the final draft from Alex in .wav format, so I put it with our last draft of the trailer to check that the dialogue still syncs up correctly. It seems to have been successful...
I noticed a few subtle changes to effects such as the opening and how the piano notes seemed slightly muted and softer, which I like. Overall, Tia and I are really happy with this and think our trailer is a lot more effective. All that remains is to re-export the trailer properly on Premiere Pro with the new soundtrack and do any last edits we may need to, likely in terms of visual effects as altering any transitions or cuts may alter the runtime and therefore cause the soundtrack and dialogue to be out-of-time. We will also add an extra credit line for Alex to ensure he is credited for his work, which he will be able to embed into his website and advertise on YouTube, his portfolio, etc.
Today I received another draft from Alex. He said in his email that he changed the montage so it starts sooner but had to remove the piano note and replaced it with a different sound effect. He also fixed up our background noise in the scenes with dialogue so it sounds much better, and adjusted the volumes of the dialogue and voice-over so we can hear them more clearly. Below is the draft:
Overall, Tia and I are very happy with this. We think the montage sounds a lot more punch-y and effective, the volumes of the voice-over and dialogue all seem to be correct and easy to understand, and it has generally improved the tone of our trailer. I told Alex this and that we have no further comments to make and so all that remains is for him to master the soundtrack and polish it up in any way he sees fit. We should have a final copy by early next week.
