Evaluation Question 4

The image you see for my magazine cover is not the actual magazine cover it is actually the link you see here- http://kristophercooka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/final-auxiliary-task-2.html

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation 3- Target Audience

Main Task

For my main task i successfully filmed and edited a trailer from scratch as well as two auxiliary tasks that all share the same bond. For this stage in my evaluation i am going to discuss the different sets of feedback that i received from multiple different sources and talk about how their feedback has helped me to not only make the same mistakes again in the future but if some of my ideas where good and memorable then they can be used  again in any future tasks.

I also collected some actual feedback from two of my classmates to help me get a better understanding of their opinions of my work and whether or not there is room for improvement in certain areas that only they can see. Both Joe and Mark are the age of my chosen demographic so the results that i gathered from them is very beneficial as they are my target audience and they are the people most likely to see the film.

 

Mark

 Mark spoke a lot about how he enjoyed my trailer which is great, he talked about how my use of quick cuts and the theme of it which is really good feedback, he also talks about how unpredictable my trailer is which is exactly the kind of vibe i wanted to put across so i am glad that people are experiencing this. Mark mentions that my only real weakness is the amount of black and white used in the trailer which i kind of agree with but at the same time im glad with the final product i chose to end with.

Joe

 Joes recording got deleted by accident so i couldn't upload his voice but here is just a transcript of what he said.
"Ive just finished watching the trailer for Heist and i actually enjoyed it, at first i was wondering why it was in black and white but once the trailer started to kick in and coloured scenes started to come into it i felt like it really worked  and  added to the overall theme of the trailer and also gave you an idea on the genre of the film. The use of editing is really good with techniques like dissolve and fade to black being a big edition, id like to see more use of editing if i had to say something bad about it."
 

The feedback i got from Joe was very helpful and he talked about my strengths and only weakness. Everyone who has seen my trailer likes the overall theme of it which is great as i wanted to create a certain atmosphere with my work. I could have experimented a little more with editing technique's but i stayed true with some of the basics because i wanted my trailer to be simple yet effective.  

 

Sticky Notes

What the sticky notes are is just simple feedback that was gathered by my classmates all have a similar pattern in terms of what i did good and what I maybe could improve upon. A lot of my strengths people thought where my use of camera angles and catchy music with a little bit of people liking the use of contrasting scenes with some being in colour and some being in primarily black and white. My negative feedback spoke about how i need more text in my trailer and maybe make itthe text a little less fuzzy, going back i don't see how more text could help my work as i already have enough and more would make it a lot more cluttered, the fuzzy text must have something to do with the video quality as my versions I've seen are all clear.

Facebook

I posted a link to my video on Facebook asking for peoples personal opinions on my trailer and i managed to gather some pretty good feedback. most of the friends i have on Facebook are mostly the same age as me and considering the main target audience for my film is 18 it really helps as they are my direct audience and the answers i gathered all are catered to my trailer. The feedback was mostly positive talking about how the use of music really worked with the trailer and portrayed a certain theme. I did get some critique however and it was about the use of text in the trailer and how it could have benefited being in a different location on the shot, when editing that certain part of my trailer i used a low angle and placed the text in the parts where the sky peaked through the different houses to try and create an atmosphere and the use of text was a good way of adding in different reviews for the film itself, i feel like if i was to place the text in a different position not only would it not make sense as its a low angle but it was also not benefit the background as the black text would be un readable on the different available locations where the text could be placed.

Reddit

 This is the response that i received when i posted my trailer on Reddit and asked the users there if they could give me some feedback. The guy who responded was from Canada and has had experience with what i did for my main task so it was a great way of gathering feedback from the other side of world and would lead to some real answers and give me a sort of outside opinion as my trailer has a real British feel to it. The users feedback is very helpful he talks about how most of my trailer could benefit more with the use of a tripod which is a fair assumption to make but i wanted my film to actually feel like a documentary esc trailer so the shakiness of the camera really goes with the theme of my trailer either way though it gave me a little to think about as some of my scenes could have benefited from being used on a tripod. He also suggested that i could have added some sort of record effect on the scenes of my trailer that feature my character talking directly into the camera, as this would have been a good editing technique to use i don't think it would have really kept up with the theme i was trying to portray and if im honest made it look a little cheesy and almost fake. The feedback gathered from this source was very helpful and gave me a lot to think about such as the use of a tripod.

Surveys

 I posted a link to my surveys on different social media sites as well on internet sites such as Reddit and i managed to get a lot of responses that are very helpful and compliment my strengths and weaknesses very well. These are my two responses that i feel are very impactful and overall very helpful.

Both of my selected responses think that my trailer is a genre that isn't listed already which is exactly what i wanted, my trailer is supposed to have multiple different codes and conventions from multiple different sources so i have a sort of comedy element, a documentary element and a thriller element, i must have done something right because even though i have no real specific genre both of them seemed to like it which is exactly what i wanted. The main things that the people enjoyed was the fact that my trailer was straight to the point and pretty much tells you whats happening and what the film is about which is something that i wanted to do for my trailer as i felt like if my trailer was to go off topic with other things you wouldn't really understand whats going on. Another positive comment i got was about how my trailer has many different codes and conventions of other genres but they all come together to make a hybrid genre of comedy/documentary/thriller which is exactly what i was going for. The improvements that have been suggested are pretty useful, the users thought that it would probably be better if i used a little less black and white scenes and more scenes that feature colour, i think this would be a good idea as i could really adjust the contrast and brightness on some of the scenes that are in black and white to make it more exposed and overall fit the scene an overall theme of my trailer. Another piece of feedback i got about my trailer was the overall length of some of the scenes and how they could maybe be a little bit longer, i think that my trailer works so well is because it has a mix of different quick cuts and jump cuts it sort of matches the personality of the main character how everything goes quite fast and before you know it its over. Both of the people involved with the surveys you see would both go to see my trailer if it was to come out in the cinema which I'm very pleased about and it goes to show that my hard work has payed off.

Pro's

Here is a bulleted list of the overall positive feedback gathered-

• Good choice of music
• Good use of steadycam
• Good use of black and white
• Has a mix of 3 genres
• Tells you straight away about the films plot and shows you the personality of the character

Con's

Here is a bulleted list of the overall negative or constructive feedback gathered-

• Text could have been placed differently
• Could have benefitted with the use of a tripod
• Could use a lot more colour scenes
• Use of time codes at the bottom of the screen
• Could have lengthened some of the shots

Auxiliary Tasks

Surveys

I also created a set of surveys that asked the users to have a look at my Poster and Magazine cover, once again i picked the two best answers i felt had the best and most useful things to say. The feedback gathered for my auxiliary tasks where very helpful as they are both positive and constructive feedback that i can not only use to help gratify the work that i created but also learn from mistakes that i may have made and mistakes that only other people can see. Im going to talk about the results i managed to gather from my poster first then im going to talk about the results gathered for my magazine cover. The results i received for my poster was pretty good both of my chosen examples believe that my text is of the appropriate size and is not too big or too small which is vital when it comes to a poster promoting a movie so im happy that i managed to get it right. Both of my examples however have different opinions on what genre of film my poster is though which goes back to my trailer where it has no defined genre it exists using examples of different genres, so i am happy with this response as i feel like it really does link in with my trailer which also happens to be one of the responses for what the user thought of my poster. Both of the respondents liked my colour scheme that i have for my poster which is mostly a mix of red and grey colours which sort of represent the theme of my trailer so im glad that they like it. One of the users really liked the way that i have certain parts of the poster fading away like they are about to disappear which sort of reflects on a certain part of the plot in the story which once again connects my trailer to my poster. My negative comments talk about how i should try to implement more colour and to also make the text more clear which after some consideration my work could benefit from both suggestions as it would add another layer to my work that would maybe make the overall presentation a lot more cohesive. My final  question for the poster pretty much sums up the probably most important factor and that is basically does the poster link well with my trailer and after both answers say yes im very pleased that my all aspects of work have a clear link to each other. My Magazine cover questions where basically the same as my poster questions and the feedback i gathered was pretty similar but with a few exceptions for starters the respondents suggest that i add more sell lines and have a lot more different colour which i feel will just make my magazine cover feel really cluttered which isn't what i was going for as my magazine cover is meant to be something professional that you would see on something like the New York Times.  The users thought that my main image was very good and that my magazine cover had an overall professional feel about it which is exactly what i wanted and im glad that other people think that it gives off that professional feel to it.Both users like my colour scheme and feel like it links in well with all of my other created products which is something that i was worried about as my magazine cover has a sort of different feel and style to it in comparison to my other pieces of work but im glad that people think that it links in well with my other pieces of work.

Pro's

• Main image
• Colour scheme
• Professional appeal
• Something different but keeps with the same theme as the trailer
• Parts of the poster look faded

Con's

• Try using more colour
• Add more sell lines
• Make the text more clear

Overall i am pretty happy with all of my feedback that i managed to gathered and it really made me think about my work and how it could have been portrayed differently had i chosen to do something a little different than what i did.  Im glad that most of the people who gave me feedback enjoyed all pieces of my work to an extent, the feedback was from multiple different backgrounds as well with my classmates friends and people from around the world all took part in my feedback.The compliments received helped me believe that i can use similar codes and conventions in the future and with the constructive/negative feedback i gathered i can also make my work overall better and not make silly mistakes.  .