Video / Photoshop Final Evaluation

Market Research
During my Market Research assignment I was able to identify target audiences that may have been a suitable audience for my film. By conducting research, primarily from Facebook and a questionnaire on my blog site, I was able to take on board critique and change the look of my product to attract a different audience. The benefit of doing this is that I am able to implement suggestions and ideas and by making those changes or adding elements to a product tailor it more to the audience I have identified with my film.

For example, my first poster, attracted an almost equal split between men and women, and the age range between 16-24 and 25-34 was what I was aiming for. From this, the feedback I was given about what people liked or disliked about the poster, I was able to change and implement in my second poster that was trying to target a different audience.

From the feedback from my first poster I identified people liked the Masked Man and I was going to use this as a main feature within my second poster. However, as I was attempting to target another audience, to do so I decided that I would reconfigure most parts of the poster using the more familiar codes and conventions although not wholly. I decided to make the poster target the audience for a slasher/horror movie. I used the red text, as this is a typical code and convention for slasher movies and the white background which connotes purity and innocence. This contrast works well together and as the story is in relation to two girls, who are, by social convention, normal, end up in an environment that is sinister. However, I did attempt to attract a more female audience with this poster but it failed to do so as 83% of respondents were male. However, one person, who is female, said that she preferred this poster to the first as “the picture catches her eye”. This person also suggested that I should add a tagline as it tells the audience what the film may be about. What the poster did do however is from the feedback identify people who thought that this film may be a slasher/horror film which was the target audience I was aiming for.

My third poster had elements from the previous two posters in which reflect the comments from the feedback I received from my Market Research. I also decided to make elements of the poster to reflect an unconventional poster in one part, but also following some of the typical codes and conventions. I kept the mask as the main focal point of the poster as peple were drawn to this. I re-introduced from the first poster the black background as it has connotations with vulnerability and insecurity. It also represents the tone of the film. Mostly, the rest of the poster follows traditional codes and conventions of movie posters, apart from two still images from the movie. I have decided to add these because I wanted to create an intrigue for the movie, as well as the film is unconventional, so I felt the poster should reflect that. I also wanted to attract a predominately male audience for this film, as the two cast members are in their under-garments. This worked well as all those that commented or ‘liked’ the poster were male. For the most part I prefer my final poster as this reflects the tone and the content of the movie.

I can see how Market Research is excellent in finding or identifying target audiences. By using Market Research it helps create a media project using codes and conventions that audience of particular genres expect to see. By evaluating the feedback it is possible to change or amend elements of a media project, such as in this case a movie poster, to either increase an audience or to narrow an audience my marketing the project to a niche audience.

It must be said however, that any feedback received during Market Research is purely subjective. The feedback one may receive may not be beneficial and the creator of the media project should bear this in mind before going “gung-ho” on any changes because, in essence, it is only a small number of people’s opinions. For example, comments in my first and final poster had comments from men saying that the girls featuring on the posters “should be topless”. Ah, bless them. How am I supposed to take this type of feedback seriously and incorporate it within my movie – unless I was making “adult entertainment”. With that being said, the media industry is about making money and using Market Research can identify what people want so that changes can be made to attract a wider audience, therefore maximising income, and hopefully for the creators and investors, profits.

I have identified from my Market Research that an audience would use my film project for entertainment purposes. This is in agreement with the Uses and Gratifications Theory in which people use media for the following reasons:

• Information
• Personal Identity
• Integration and Social Interaction
• Entertainment

Photoshop
Prior to starting the course I had minimum knowledge and experience of the Photoshop programme. However, during this course I have been able to identify how powerful this programme is and how it benefits the creator of media projects such as creating a movie poster.

In the creation of my first poster I used tool a Lasso Tool which enabled me to cut around an image. I used this when cutting out the image of a masked man and the image of the girl with her hands tied behind her back. This was an excellent tool as I was able to remove these two smaller images from its original source that I had imported and remove them. I was then abel to transform them so that I could resize and position them parts of the background I wanted. I feel that this was done effectively, however, I had to reduce the harshness of the edges as it was evident that they had been ‘cut’ from one source and ‘pasted’ on another. This did not have a very aesthetically pleasing look. To enable me to reduce the harshness of the edges I used the eraser tool to enable me to “rub out” the edges and blend in the background. I felt that this was the hardest out of the three posters that I created because I was unfamiliar with the programme and with the tools that were available to me. I do feel that in the creation of this unconventional poster I have used these tools effectively.

With the black background it connotes the tone of my movie well as black has connotations with vulnerability and insecurity, in which the female characters face during the story. I do feel however, that the text is boring and does not represent the poster in a positive way. The decision to do this was to gain beneficial feedback from my Market Research as explained above.

My second poster had a more simplistic design and this was because I followed more traditional codes and conventions of a movie poster for the slasher/horror genre. Using the red text and the font connotes danger and violence which is what one would come to expect from this genre of movie. As the Masked Man was proven to be a key feature identified from the Market Research I decided to keep it, but I wanted to add a change to it too. This is why I decided that I would have the mask in the centre of the poster as if it is appearing out of the darkness. This creates a sense of mystery and suspense, which was again recognised through a comment from my Market Research. Because of the simplicity of the poster this was extremely easy to create and I as my Market Research proves; I successfully hit the target audience, in terms of the genre for the movie.

From my third poster I took the elements of the positive feedback from my first and second posters and implemented them into on. The black background was reintroduced, the Mask remained from poster two as did the colour and the font. The third poster also followed, for the most part, more traditional codes and conventions of a movie poster. However, I decided to add an unconventional twist, as my film is unconventional in its plot and story by adding two still images from the film.

It was during the creation of these posters that I found quicker ways to use Photoshop. For example simply by going to File > Save As and then selecting JPEG as the file type was quicker and easier that flattening or merging the numerous layers of the image. I also found it much quicker and simpler to select File > Place when wanting to add another image to edit, as it automatically created a new layer. I’m sure that with further use of the programme I will discover how and why other things can be done in alternative ways and if this is of benefit to me when creating print media projects.

Below I have annotated the decisions I made when creating my poster. For my second poster I decided to annotate a rough draft/design so that one can understand my creative thought process.

Poster 1
I purposefully designed this unconventional poster to gain greater feedback from my Market Research.

Poster 2

This poster was designed to attract a different target audience. This worked well as it attracted the slasher/horror fan base. This is also a rough design of the final poster as it shows my creative thought process.

Poster 3

This follows more conventional codes and conventions movie posters but I have still added and unconventional twist.

Film Production and Post Production

Due to numerous technical and software issues I was unable to edit my film as I had intended I wanted it to look. The film, had it come together as intended, was playing with gender representation, feminist theories, challenged social conventions and also had an ideology running through it which would have supported the Hypodermic Needle Theory in which media slowly injects the audience and the spectator submissively accepts this to be true as they are unable or unwilling to question the message being sent to them.

Because of the issues I faced I had to cut a Teaser Trailer, but I had decided to do so by going against the usual codes and conventions of a movie trailer. Although unconventional movie trailers are not commonplace they have been used to promote popular films. For example, and they are from different genres of movie, including my own; Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Kill Bill (2003). For these movies they have used numerous shots and sequences from the film and have used music to capture the feeling and emotion. There is either no or little dialogue and sound effects in these trailers, which I have attempted to mirror.

Below are some shots of my Teaser Trailer and I have annotated on the decisions I made during the production and post-production process.

Here we have the POV of the driver of the car watching the two women. In the previous shot we see rope and a Mask on the passenger seat. This tells the audience that something sinister may happen, but also wants the viewer to find out who is doing the watching. I colour corrected this shot with a hint of red to add warmth, as in this part of the trailer [and the final film had it been edited] all is well and lives appear to be normal.

In this shot everything appears to be normal. A boyfriend/girlfriend kiss but the boyfriend is wearing black which connotes a darker side to him and the woman is wearing pink that connotes girly-ness. The cover of the book is that of Poster 1, which tells us that what is contained in the book is not all good.

The Masked Man appears and the way he is framed makes the audience distant from this character. The fact he is wearing a mask and a black jacket tells us that he has sinister intentions. The shot has been colour corrected with a hint of blue to give a coldness to the scene. Again this gives the audience a sense that something is not right and that something bad may be about to happen.

 In this shot the red of the underwear connotes passion and danger. As we can see the danger is imminently behind her. As the story is about human trafficking, this red does not connote passion moralistically. The blood on the hands tells us something bad had happened. As we are low down, we are getting the view as if we are the dog that has been killed. The way the camera, the woman and the masked man are positioned tells us the hierarchy of power. Again I have colour corrected using a hint of blue to create a coldness in the scene. It has not worked too well here as the blue is too evident in the corners of the shot.

 

 

 

The doors represent a barrier preventing the audience to help the woman who is being attacked.

Another POV shot from the woman who is being held captive. As we see through her eyes we are made to feel vulnerable and insecure as the Masked Man moves in closer on us. From this shot we know that he is in power and in control.

With the second woman help captive she is framed in this was to make her appear small. This makes her seem unimportant and weak. As she is beaten we focus on the shadows again adding to the unimportance of her character and her plight. However, as the shadows give us enough of what is happening to her it takes away the barbarity of what is happening and leaves the audience to imagine what is happening. Depending on the spectator this could be as brutal and vile as their imagination lets them create.

From the POV of the second woman being held captive we see the power of the men over the woman. She is framed small, whereas the male characters are standing which represents their dominance. One character, holding a piece of wood which is being used as a phallic symbol connoting that the “penis rules”. Notice that none of the characters are framed in full as they are not real people. With that, I mean had the final film been edited in full, we know that this shot is in a dream and therefore none of the characters are “real”.

Here we see the emergence of womanhood as we find out that this character has killed one of her capturers. She is framed conventionally and from a slightly lower angle to give her a sense of power.

 From another POV of one of the captured women the Masked Man removes his mask to reveal his identity. I attempted to cut the shot so that the removal of his mask was more dramatic, and to follow a code and convention of a horror film, but I was unable to do so as the clip was too short. When I tried this it made it look pathetic so I stayed with the original shot as it was captured. Again, the Masked Man is in power. This tells us that despite the killing of one of the capturers men are still in control. However, again had I been able to edit the full film, we find that it is women who are in control, but you will have to wait until the full version is edited to find out how.

 

I decided with my shots to try and use them to aid the narrative code within visual texts. I could have made many shots more creative, but my argument is, film making is a medium to tell a story. Although having “artistic shots” makes the film engaging aesthetically what is the point if the film maker is unable to tell the story he is trying to get across. Unfortunately, many films now and film makers seem to follow style-over-substance, which maybe a code and convention in film making before long if were are not too careful! I feel music I selected suited the pace and the tone of the film perfectly as it creates they emotive repsonses that were required from the audience.