This is based on the Comedy TV Series, Peep Show.

I thought it best to add this post, so that you, the examiner, understand what I actually mean.
Thanks

During my production of my coursework I encountered a few problems. Here I will be addressing each problem to show you how/ if I overcame them and also, how I would address these problems if I either had more time or was to complete a similar production in the future.

YouTube
YouTube is the largest online video sharing client. It is easy to sign up, and post your video to the world, whatever the content. I created a new account and began uploading video footage, showing my stages of production as I went along. However, YouTube has a ‘maximum length’ rule, for legal reasons, which disables you from uploading any footage longer than 10 minutes. Therefore, for my audio voiceover, I had to go back to Adobe Elements, split the clip into <10 sections and re-export each clip separately and upload them into my Blog in ‘parts.’ I feel that this is a slight annoyance as these videos now do not ‘flow’ and you may lose interest. Next time, I would find a way around this by either making a ‘play-list’ which all the videos are combined together online and played one after each other, or possibly even find a new website, one without a 10 minute rule. Saying this however, this is the main video sharing website online, and the competetors don’t even come close with the number of uploads viewers. Therefore, if I was posting all this research, created products and evaluations online for the general puublic to see, I would be recieving much less ‘hits.’

Edublogs
Our current Blogs are published on ‘wordpress.com’, however, we originally started with Edublogs. A similar website though it turned out that these were not sufficient. Edublogs has a ‘maximum upload limit’ for ‘free’ users, which means that once we reached that limit (and it was very small!) we could not make any new posts, upload any new images or even publish our work. Therefore, after some disscussion, our teacher felt it best fit to change website and transfer our work over bit by bit onto WordPress.

This is my scripts for my self interview, just incase you got confused with the questions I was addressing whilst still following my conventions of a comedy.

Presenter: Hi Mike
Answer: Hi Mike
Presenter: How are you today?
Answer: Im great thanks Mike, how are you?
Presenter: Im also great Mike! Thanks for asking.
Answer: No problem Mike
Presenter: Okay then Mike, shall we jump straight into it?
Answer: Fire away Mike!
Presenter: Okay, so the general public has a few questions for you regarding your trailer, poster and magazine front cover for your new film, Jennifer Reeves.
Answer: Okay sure.
Presenter: We’ll start off with the Research.
Answer: Always a great place to start Mike!
Presenter: Okay, here we go…

Initial Research

What do you think audiences expect from trailers/posters/magazine covers?
What makes most impact on audiences?
What things are most effective in communicating with your audience?
What makes them want to go and see a film?

Presenter: Okay Mike, now lets move onto your Trailer.
Answer: Oooo My favourite.

Trailer
Does your trailer work as a trailer?
Does it make the audience want to see them?
Is the genre of the film clearly established by the trailer?
What aspects/features/shots/messages are most effective?
What impression of the film lingers in the minds of audience members?
What narrative sense did audience make of the trailer?
What did they ‘understand’ about the film’s narrative from the trailer?
Was the trailer too long/too short?
Did the trailer sustain the interest of audiences?
How did audiences respond to your choices in relation to actors/mise en scene/colour/lighting?
Did the music work?
Did it sit well alongside the text and images?
Did it help establish genre etc?
What do audiences think about how people are represented in your trailer? Does the representation challenge or conform to stereotypes/expectation?

Presenter: Moving onto your Magazine and Poster work now Mike.
Answer: Brilliant, I’d love to answer even more questions.

Poster/Magazine
What features attracted the attention of your audience?
How do the target audience feel about the mode of address….the way in which the magazine/poster ‘speaks to them’ through both language and images?
How do audiences respond to your choices in relation to colour and mise en scene?
What do audiences think about how people are represented in your images? Does the representation challenge or conform with stereotypes/expectation?
How do the target audience feel about the mode of address….the way in which the magazine/poster ‘speaks to them’ through both language and images?

Presenter: Okay Mike, last hurdle now.
Answer: Cheers Mike.

Effectiveness:
How did you combine the poster with the trailer?
Is there a link between the poster and magazine?
How did you go about approaching the magazine cover and poster?
Do the ancillary texts work well with the trailer?
What could you improve?

Presenter: Okay well this interview has been a blast Mike
Answer: It sure has Mike
Presenter: Well thanks for your time Mike and we hope to see you soon. Good luck with the coursework
Answer: Cheers Mike, all the best to you too.

*wave at camera with smile*

Here is a post of a previous PowerPoint of ‘What is a film trailer.’ I feel that although it is a short PowerPoint, it shows a bit of research for my trailer and I can now compare it with my own for my Evaluation. I feel that many points explained, especially in the video links I have provided, I have covered.

Film Trailer Research

The most important piece of software for my A2 Coursework was Adobe Elements, a professional piece of video editing software which allowed me to combine each of my recorded clips, audio files and created titles all into one to create the film trailer which you see today. Here is a typical screen shot of what Adobe Elements looks like in full form.

This post will consist of some typical techniques I used within Adobe Elements to create certain and special effect, such a transitions, fade ins, voice over, zooms and more.

First of all we have the ‘timeline.’ This is where we import all of out media footage, such as audio video and image, and then reorganize them into the specific order we want. Up in the top right of the previous image is what is called the ‘bin,’ taken from the original stages of film editing where a editor would literally be cutting up pieces of film strips and throwing away the unwanted trimmings, clips and negatives. Before we place our clips in the timeline, we can drag them from ‘the bin’ and drop them on the ‘video playback’ screen. Here we can then use marker tools to select the area of video and audio we want to keep, and the area of video and audio we do not. Once perfect, we then can drop this into the timeline. It is here which you can choose the clip or image you want to edit, layer the different clips to create a special effect, such as two clips playing at once, fantastic transitions, even fade to black/silence or posiion them into a certain order.

Following on from the timeline, there are two extra buttons just above it which allow us to edit any clip on the timeline. The zoom button allows us to zoom closer into specific frames and the split clip button allows us to physically split a clip where we choose, so that we go from one part into two. This then allows us to rearrange clips at different positions.

Next is an image of the ‘effect and transitions’ column. Here I can choose from a wide variety of transitions and effects which allow me to add ‘extras’ to each clip. For ample, I have chosen to use a fade in and out to back on my ‘Fig Tree Studios,’ a zoom in and wipe out on text which introduces the actor/actress, ‘Danny Woodman,’ and finally added fade in and out to the audio background music to introduce the audience to the music slowly.

This next image is what we call a ‘title screen.’ It is, in effect, a still image with a transparent background with text. Using this, I could write any text which I wanted, such as ‘Meet Jennifer Reeves,’ layer it over the top of any clip or image, and then you can add effects such as slides or zooms to make the text on the ‘title’ fly towards the screen or whatever you feel best fit. You can edit the font, size of font, colour, and position. For my trailer, I have used this a few times, the characters names, the introduction and the editing credits. I also have used this in parts of my evaluation.

Moving onto audio, we have a variety of effects, just like the video transitions and effects, which allow us to play around the audio. With these options I was able to add in fade in and outs, and had the option to choose from things such as increase the bass, treble or dynamics. This was useful as I could fade out my audio backing track slightly when one of my characters had a bit of dialogue. The levels needed to be correct and the balance between the two had to be perfect so that the audience did not feel there was any ‘dramatic change’ and it all felt professional. With these effects, I was able to do this with ease.

Following on from the audio techniques and effects, there was another option to change the ‘audio gain.’ Here I was able to increase or decrease the volume of the audio without losing quality to fit in with other audio, for example, as I previously stated, combining dialogue with the backing music.

Now this effect allowed me to change the speed of both audio files and video clips. By changing the values, I was able to speed up clips to work with the backing music (such as I did on my Universal Logo at the start) or reduce the audio speed (which I did with a single clip of my voiceover) so that the clips alligned. I could also change the length of any images (such as my title screens at the end) to work with the voiceovers.

Finally, we have the ‘exporting’ options. Once my trailer was ready to be published onto my Blog for you to analyze, I needed to export the video in a full format which was compatible to be uploaded onto YouTube. The export options list allows us to choose different formats, which vary is file size and quality, for us to save the video as a final copy. For my project, I decided to export as a PAL DVD as this has the highest quality and was still able to be uploaded up onto YouTube.

I decided to be a bit clever and interview myself, again keeping within the conventions of my genre, ‘comedy.’ The videos last a total of 15 minutes and address a variety of questions which cover all four of the main ‘Evaluation Points.’

Here is a playlist on YouTube of a directors voiceover I created. I hope explain my thoughts behind each and every clip, both audio and video, and how to show you how i challenged, used, developed or ignored any media conventions of a trailer.

An idea came to me after creating my previous video of evaluating my feedback with Dan Sambell. I thought i should go around interviewing anyone i could find about my trailer. I would show them the trailer and then asked them to give me a short phrase in their own words about what they thought of the film.
However.
To challenge and develop conventions of a film and film trailer, I asked them to try to give a ‘comical’ response. Many traditional short reviews that you may see on the news, i.e. two students outside the cinema describing a film they just saw,’ are ‘normal.’ The people asked are very plan and simple, and the response they usually give are ‘It was amazing.’ Therefore, I felt it would be a great idea to mimic this for my own trailer (not full film.) I then imported all my recorded videos into Adobe Elements and created a video combining all of them.