Paperclip: Magazine Cover

Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation: What have you learned on your audience feedback?

The audience feedback that we gathered throughout the production of our trailer managed to play a large role in the construction of our media product. In some ways the positive reception of our product amongst our audience allowed our group to know what techniques we were using well and to develop or explore this further in our trailer, for example the positive reaction we received across all our audiences both throughout the making of our film trailer and after the editing process was completed on the multiple uses of soundtrack and choice of music allowed our group to stick to the songs we had initially planned to use, as well as maintaining the same tone of music to fit the trailer such as being “young and upbeat music” from typical ‘Indie’ style bands such as Passion Pit.

Another way audience feedback helped in the construction of our film was through the constructive criticism which we received throughout the production of our trailer such as that on the narrative of our trailer and the way the story was structured. Audience feedback which we received after the first draft of our trailer indicating that the story line was unclear to the viewers as the trailer was too enigmatic and vague to allow the audience understand the relationship between the two protagonists for example, meant that our initial idea of constructing a trailer with minimal information to create intrigue for the audience to watch our film and become curious about the story developed insofar that the basis of the story was lost in the editing of the film. Therefore due to this constructive feedback our group was able to better our products to fit in the desires of our target audience and to overall appear to be a more professional and stylistic piece of work such as by altering the trailer from having no dialogue or non-diegetic sound to create ambiguity to having a trailer with much more integrated dialogue from other scenes in the movie to ensure that the viewers get a gist of what the story is about.

Audience feedback also helped to shape the smaller details of the film such as the font of the title in which we showed a list of possible title typography for the word Paperclip and the most popular and received as the most fitting with our media product was used in our film due to the influence of our audience criticism.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Overall as a media package of the film teaser trailer, film poster and magazine dedicated to our film ‘State of Flux’ the three products have been effectively combined. Throughout the three media products our group has carried on a recurring image and theme within our own style and that of the idea ‘Indie’ genre, therefore we were following the typical conventions of a very different genre to mainstream films and media products and meant we were targeting a very different audience of older adolescents or young adults between 16-25 years old as opposed to families or young teenagers.

-One way we combined our media products is through the lighting, colouring, colour scheme and overall look of the images in all of the trailer, poster and magazine such as by using the same ‘sunset’ hues of dark reds and oranges in all three products. By doing so we are creating an undoubted link between the three and developing an image or identity for our film project, using these colours is suggestive of the themes of love, desire and warmth in our film that the protagonists strive to feel. Likewise by using this colour scheme in the film poster as well we are giving the impression of distortion of reality as the colouring of the image is slightly ‘red enhanced’ (as done on Adobe Photoshop) and implying that reality has been somewhat skewed  as this is a theme that we explore in our film narrative of ‘reality versus fantasy’ therefore is we continuously use this throughout our products, audiences will learn to recognise and identify our product through this construction – an emotion of warmth and intimacy which is consistent across our products.

-Another way we combined our products to create an ‘identity’ is through the use of text and typography such as through the use of the ‘Action Jackson’ font from dafont.com. Therefore this relates our film to the genre of ‘Indie’ film and audiences identify our film with the use of our font for example, films such as Scream have a distinct typography which audiences recognise and identify with the film – through the use of the same ‘Action Jackson’ font in our trailer and poster we replicating this same technique. This font also develops the overall identity of our film across the three products as it is suggestive of a pleasant creativity and childlike innocence which we associate with the characters in our film.

-We have also linked our main and ancillary tasks together through the recurring use of doodles to symbolise the distorted sense of reality and the notion of being in a childlike state of mind – hinting to the transgression to adulthood that the protagonists will undertake. Through small hints of doodles that are significant to the image such as the train ticket, bird and milk carton in the film poster and the translucent autumn leaves on the magazine cover there is a continuous theme amongst our products that the audience will recognise. Likewise through the coloured and hand drawn photograph of Beatriz on the back cover relates to the idea that one of the protagonists may or may not be real throughout the narrative of the film, we also tried to recreate this idea in the trailer by using fade transitions on final cut whilst the two characters are in one locations at different times to create the sense that they are following the same path and again in the poster by drawing over the image of Caleb using the tablet so mimic the same effect with the rest of the products.

Evaluation: In what ways do your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

(1 ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ 2 ‘A Swedish Love Story: En kärlekshistoria’ 3 ‘The Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind’ 4 ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ 5 ‘Inception’ 6 ‘Before Sunrise’ 7 ‘Lost in Translation’ 8 ‘Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist’ 9 ‘500 Days of Summer’)

There have been many ways in which our media product of the trailer for ‘Paperclip’ has attempted to conform and subvert the typical conventions of real media products in the ‘Indie’ film genre:

– One aspect that influenced the construction of our trailer is the typical storyline of the romantic or drama genre such as that of ‘boy meets girl’ and that they eventually fall in love. Our group used this same idea and theme throughout our film, but attempted to develop and challenge the storyline to create an original narrative more typical of the ‘Indie’ genre. By subverting the narrative to a plot where the two main protagonists are in love (or should be) and are soul mates despite the fact they never get to meet – we are creating a new storyline that subverts the romantic genre and is more typical of the ‘Indie’ genre, as it is an unusual narrative that manipulates the real dimensions of time and life, such as with the recurring themes of coincidences and near-missing chances throughout our film. This is likewise to a film influence from ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ where the main protagonists meet and fall in love in a world after death rather than in life, or ‘A Swedish Love Story: En kärlekshistoria’ where the main protagonists experience the turbulences of a destructive and imperfect first love, as opposed to the stereotypical story of romantic films.

-Another aspect of real media products from the ‘Indie’ genre is the constant theme of ‘reality versus fantasy’ and the idea of what could or what could not actually be a dream. In the films such as ‘The Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind’, ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ and ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ which influenced the construction of our own film, the narrative surrounds around the theme of blurring the boundaries between what is real or what is potentially a fantasy for the characters in the film. Therefore our own media product attempts to use this idea in our own film and reinforcing its identity as an ‘Indie’ film, our media product also attempts to develop this theme further by never resolving the sense of reality or equilibrium at the end of our film – instead the audience is left with a sense of feeling lost or confused as they do not know whether Caleb and Beatriz’ experiences were reality or part of their imagination, this opposes to typical films using this convention which return the narrative to reality, such as in ‘Wristcutters: A Love Story’ where the two protagonists both wake up in hospital after having been revived from death or a ‘dream’. A film that likewise never restores the sense of reality at the end of the film is ‘Inception’ as the audience are unsure whether the protagonist is trapped within a dream or has returned to reality, this has also influenced the overall production of our trailer.

-The theme of isolation is a convention that is frequently portrayed in ‘Indie’ films, usually in the form of the main protagonist experiencing and braving the external world or their personal trials alone. Despite exploring themes of friendship or romantic relationships, ‘Indie’ films still give the sense that they are struggling in their own battle alone. Our film trailer uses and develops this idea by placing the parallel lives of two isolated characters that are braving the world alone, but at the same time are unknowingly braving the world together. Therefore our film challenges this idea by exploring the sensation of both an isolation from and attachment with the other protagonist, creating a complex storyline rather than simply using the conventions of real media products alone. Other film trailers have also explored the idea of two lonely characters uniting together through the events of the film, or the idea that they become ‘bond together’ whilst out film challenges this by implying that the characters are united before being separated again by the end of the film or the idea that always remain separated and never meet at all. One film that influenced this convention of a film narrative was ‘Before Sunrise’ in which the two protagonists meet for one day on a train journey before parting ways again.

-Constructively, themes of liberation and escapism are explored through the use of camera shots in real media trailers of the ‘Indie’ genre. By using camera angles and shots such as the wide shot with the protagonist placed in the centre this highlights the space around them, as well as the feeling of freedom or isolation as they look vulnerable and small compared to their larger surroundings, another shot is placing the protagonist in a busy wide shot where there is little empty spaces such as in the film ‘Lost in Translation’ where the female character emerges from a busy crowd in Tokyo, this creates the effect that the character is somewhat trapped and wishes to escape or become liberated – which is an effect and use of camera techniques which we attempted to replicate in the construction of our own film trailer. Frequently used wide angle shots in our trailer such as when Caleb and Beatriz walk alone on the beach or in an empty city street highlight the sense that both wish to escape their mundane lives, are undertaking a journey and must experience their trials on their own.

-Initially we attempted to challenge the conventions of a real media trailer by not using any overlay of voiceovers and so to create a sense of narrative enigma as well as a chance for the audiences to decipher the meanings behind the trailer themselves, however this meant that we compromised the plot and narrative of our own trailer and that audiences were not fully able to understand the premise of our story. Therefore in the end we decided to adhere to the typical convention of voiceovers and dialogue that appear at different times in our film throughout our trailer such as when Beatriz says “Somebody called me yesterday… I don’t know who but he sounded familiar”. In this way we can imply to the audience the story of our film without overtly narrating what it is such in trailers from the 1990’s and 1980’s where the narrators explicitly told the audience the premise of the film – we attempted to avoid this sort of narration as it did not fit the image of our product and made it a more contemporary film.

-Another media convention which we attempted to develop and use was the use of several different locations in the trailer to give the effect that there are a variety and vast span of locations and scenes in the film such as in ‘Inception’ ‘Garden State’ and ‘500 Days of Summer’ which are all trailers which show a range of scenes from the film rather than simply a few. Furthermore is the use of lighting and colouring which inspired us in the making of our trailer, such as of the use of silhouettes to create the feeling of a sophisticated air similar to that of classical, film noir films and the use of warm sunset hues such as oranges shown in many trailers such as ‘500 Days of Summer’ ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and ‘Before Sunrise’. We attempted to use this same technique in our film to develop this effect by usually filming in the early hours of the morning at around 7am and in the evening at sunset time so to create the silhouette and hue effect as shown in our beach scene. This creates the impression that our media product is more realistic and fits the constructive conventions of most media trailers.

Magazine Influence: Worn Magazine

Paperclip: Final Edit

Paperclip: Rough Edit

Comments:
-Music is effective and segues perfectly over the titles and shots. Music is also effectively edited to create the mood or atmosphere of the scene and setting.
-Vividness of colour contrasts with the blue/grey, more achromatic colouring of the office scene, providing an interesting juxtaposition of mood.
-Incredible framing and composition of beach shots and scenes.

Areas to improve:
-Add more diegetic sound, such as the intrusive ringing of a telephone in the office or the sounds of the office.
-Ensure that the voiceovers in the video are synchronised with their action and with the visuals.
-In the long profile shot of Beatriz walking across each other, it would be more effective to cut to Caleb before the end of the pavement to create the impression that they pass or are in the same place at the same time.
-Add dialogue to make the meaning and story of the trailer more apparent to the viewer.
-Need to record the voiceovers of Beatriz again saying the dialogue more clearly and slowly eg. “Someone rang me today…”

Title: ‘State of Flux’

For the magazine cover, we chose the title ‘State of Flux’ and wanted it to contrast with the white, plain background of the cover with bright, vivid colours within a thick, bold font. This could be easily achieved using the Text tool to write ‘Flux’ before using the magic eraser tool to reveal the artistic image behind which we thought was fitting of the title’s theme. This successfully creates a unique title font with an embedded image that is fitting for the complex meaning of the title, the magazine could take this further by changing the image each month and issue. Here are a few examples:

As a finalised idea, our group will maintain the images of space or colourful nebulas as part of the final magazine cover for our project as it in indicates a constant change and motion, which relates to our film and ideas.

Magazine Influence: Sight & Sound