Media question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product

and ancillary tasks?

Our product… a teaser trailer• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xne_If41fjM

• This is our finalised teaser trailer. It’s for our film, ‘verses’ which tells the story of Declan mulligan who has to decide whether to do what his head is telling him (do what your parents and ‘friends’ expect of you) or follow his heart (write poetry which is his passion).

How will we attract an audience?

Main product:• The point of a teaser trailer is to ‘tease’ the audience, by

showing them a sneak peek of a film that is coming out. This will not be the full length trailer as it will be 30-90 seconds long, where a trailer would be 2+ minutes. A trailer usually comes out quite a long time in advance (around 6 months – a year).

• Our teaser trailer is a bit over a minute long. The scenes we used in it will attract an audience as we have introduced them to the protagonist (Declan Mulligan) and the supporting role (Adam McKenzie) which draws the audience in as they want to know more about them.

How will we attract an audience?

Ancillary tasks:• Film poster our poster is, in our opinion, a professional piece of work that is a

believable film poster. The large character on the poster is our protagonist, drawing an audience in as they can see his emotion in his face. The title is very prominent on the poster so the audience know what the film is called. All the other information that goes on every poster (credits and production companies) is also on ours, making it look presentable. The tag line really attracts the audience as it is in the middle of the poster and the message draws them in as they want to know what will happen to our protagonist.

• Magazine front cover like our poster, we believe our magazine front cover is done to a professional standard. We used a good photo of our actor to be on the front cover as he plays the protagonist. The extra sentences that surround the magazine are spread out so the magazine doesn’t look too crowded. The information on the magazine draws the audience in as they want to know more about the film and the stars involved. The colour scheme we used highlights that ‘verses’ is a British film. We used the typical information that goes on a magazine (barcode and price) to maintain the realist look of a magazine.

How we are attracting our audienceMain Narrative

Image• Our film, ‘VERSES’ is

focused on the protagonist Declan. He is our main narrative image as our target audience can relate to him in some ways.

• He’s a teenager who is having to make multiple decisions on his future. His friends are changing, his passion for poetry is growing and he’s struggling to deal with all the emotions.

• The majority of teenagers are going through similar situations and so recognise Declan as some one who they can understand.

Genre• Our film is a hybrid as it is

both a social realist film and a coming of age one. In addition to these film genres, the teaser trailer is a genre.

• Our target audience are both male and females ages 16-25. we tried to keep them interested by having teenagers be the focus, the setting be realistic – although social realist films are usually about lower working class, the majority of people in Britain are working to middle class, which our protagonist is, meaning ‘VERSES’ attracts a large audience.

Iconography• The iconography for our

film, ‘VERSES’ needs to fit into our genres. As there are multiple genres we have to think about, it can be challenging because some can clash.

• Social realism we used urban settings and unknown actors.

• Coming of age we focused on career issues and school setting.

• By using these iconographies, the audience automatically make a connection to the genre.

Audience feedback • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ppDVRemcic

Most important questions asked:

• What did you like about it? - the audience we showed our teaser trailer to were a varied group of male and females aged 17-50. The reviewers said they really liked our narrative as they got to know the characters but too much wasn’t given away so they are intrigued to find out what happens to Declan.

• What do you think can be improved? – the audience gave us good feedback as they told us that the sound wasn’t perfect, it was clear where we edited it in. In the middle of our teaser trailer, there are words that appear on the screen (school, home, friends, secrets) which they didn’t really like the colour and font.

• Who do you think the target audience is? – they knew straight away that teens were our main audience, but also people in their 20s are a part of our target audience. 16-25 was the correct range.

• From their feedback, we were able to see what was good, and attracted our target audience; and what needed improvements to appeal to a wider amount of people.

A small piece of our research of film posters

‘VERSES’ film poster feedback• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7XWGeNdDZkMost important questions asked:

• What do think the target audience is? – like the teaser trailer, the reviewers believed the target audience for our film is teenagers 16-25.

• From the poster, what would make you want to watch the film? – our reviewers said they were attracted to the protagonist and wanted to know what will happen to him. The tag line drew them in as well due to it giving them insight into the film but also making them want to watch the film to find out what will happen when friends, family and future collides.

• What do you like about the poster? – we were praised highly on our poster, especially the bottom half as our reviewers felt it is recognised as a professional film poster. Our tagline and title is what the reviewers liked the most as they’re both prominent on the poster.

• What do you think can be improved? – the main issue that our reviewers had was the background. They felt it was too simplistic as the colour is plain.

• From their feedback, we were able to see what was good on our poster and how it attracts our target audience. We were able to see what we could have done to improve our poster. We would use a more detailed background, but not distracting from the picture and title.

A small piece of our research of film magazines

‘VERSES’ magazine feedback • For our magazine, we made a questionnaire for our target

audience to fill in:

Most important questions asked:

• What draws you into the magazine? – our answers came back that the colour scheme, information circling the picture and the central image attracted them to the magazine. This helped us realise that the magazine looks professional and pleasing to our target audience’s eye.

• What do you like about the magazine? – the reviewers said they liked the title of the magazine and the actor on the front as they know that the magazine is about film and that this issue focuses on the actor and the latest film which is in bold on the magazine.

• What do you think can be improved? – we had highly praised feedback as there were a lack of improvement comments. Some felt the background was a little bland compared to mainstream film magazines.

• From their feedback, we were able to see that our magazine front cover was made to a high standard that our target audience would buy.

What we like about our teaser trailer

Main Product• The opening of the two characters as they are the

protagonist and the supporting role. We like how you get to see a bit about them; Declan is a studious person and Adam is from an urban area.

• The scenes between Declan and Adam show their relationship, that Adam cares for Declan and tries to help him. We see their ups and downs that they go through. Their friendship is vital to the narrative and we like how we’ve shown that in our teaser trailer.

• We like the camera shots we used as we felt we used varied ones to keep the audience interested.

• The song that plays in the background throughout the teaser trailer is something that we really like. We feel the song matches the narrative we’re trying to portray.

Ancillary Tasks• The poster we like the bottom half

especially. Everything flows onto the next, making it look professional. The title is at the correct size that people see that and know what the film is called. We like our tag line as it draws people in as they want to see what happens. The credits add to the poster looking realistic and we feel confident that the poster would be successful in the real media world.

• The magazine front cover we’re happy with our magazine because it looks professional. The information around the central image really draws in the reader. The title of our magazine is something we like because the reader will know that it’s a film specialist magazine. The colour scheme holds it all together and we like that the picture is a direct image to draw our target audience in.

We both feel that we worked really hard on our main product and ancillary tasks to make successful pieces of work.

What we would improveMain Product• We know that if we could make our teaser trailer

again, we would definitely would sort out the sound. There are multiple times in the trailer where sound is an issue, whether it’s the camera making the noise due to us holding it, or with just background noise.

• We also used multiple different fonts throughout the trailer with varied transitions. Although we like them, we would change some so they were more flowing as they don’t look like they go together.

• The numerous scenes we shot of different groups who know Declan can be a little confusing in the teaser trailer. We would only use one group and show them with Declan as friends, then again criticising his passion for poetry to show continuity.

Ancillary Tasks• The poster the top half of the poster is where

we mainly change things. The background is simplistic. We would add a background that possibly had poetry on it which we would fade in the background so it didn’t distract from the image and the title. The 2 reviews at the top would changed slightly. Our feedback showed that, for some, a bit of it is hard to read as it goes into our protagonist’s hair. We would make it clearer so the reader can see it and that they’re positive reviews.

• The magazine front cover we majorly like our magazine and so there is little we would improve. The background might be changed as it’s quite simple. The cutting around the actors body isn’t at it’s best, which we would make sure it’s as smooth as possible.

To Conclude...Overall, our main product and ancillary tasks are effective as they are

used to attract our target audience to what our film, VERSES. The positive feedback we got from all 3 products prove that we used the

correct techniques to draw them in. Our teaser trailer attracts our target audience as they get to see a glimpse of what’s in the full length movie, making them want to see the full trailer and then the movie. As for the

poster, they can see reviews from known companies and the tag line adds more intrigued into what will happen. Our magazine allows the reader to learn more about the actor, his character and the film itself. We believe

all 3 products are effective and will draw our target audience into watching the full length movie.