Evaluation

Please click the clink to be taken to my Wix website where I have hosted all my answers to the evaluation questions.

http://bethanyryalls97.wix.com/bethanyryallsmedia

Finished Product - Website Homepage

http://bethanyryalls97.wix.com/the-expedition

Please click on the link above to be taken to my final and finished website homepage as one of my ancillary tasks.


Note to the examiner - The layout of my website is structured and therefore appears different on different formats. I designed my website on a regular laptop at home rather than an Apple Mac and the site appears different on each computer because of the screen sizes. Therefore on a Mac, the site has a lot of extra space down the sides however, when on a regular computer/laptop it shows that I have built the site right to the edge.

Final Product - Film Poster

Finished Product - Film Trailer 'The Expedition'

Website Homepage Finished Product - Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback - What did you like about my website homepage and did it conform to the drama genre?

• "The title on the website stands out well, the white against the black background works and gives it a strong effect."
• "The name on the site matches the style of the name on the trailer and film poster."
• "I love the red 'cracks' that you've put in the 2 corners of the title, it adds something different and gives it a slightly eerie feel which then matches the narrative of a girl gone missing."
• "It looks like a really professional site. It has all the realistic features you would expect to see such as the menu, the sign up option and the social media links."
• "The automatic gallery is a really good idea, I like how it moves on its own making the site look really interactive."

Anything I could improve on?

• "I preferred your original title where it had an eroded/splattered blood look." = My response to this - "I chose to change the title as it felt like a horror website rather than a drama."

Second Film Poster Draft

The first film poster I sent out got mixed reviews. Despite the positives, there were a lot of things that I could improve on. I took this constructive criticism and changed the elements that I felt necessary.

• The first change I made was changing the date from a numerical format to, 'Coming Soon', I felt it looked more visually appealing than the number.
• Secondly, I moved the text higher up to give the poster a more spacious look and feel. The text 'From the director of...' I moved up slightly so that it came into contact with the sun ray on the main image. I liked the reflective effect that it gave the text.
• I then added a tagline. This is a common convention of film posters and I didn't consider it before now. I added this to give the audience more of a feeling as to what the narrative was about and felt it acted as a good 'hint'. I made this in a different font because I wanted the audience to be able to tell that this text was a tagline and so served a different purpose than the other text. On top of this, I changed the opacity of the tagline to give it a fading out effect. I did this as I felt is further emphasised the mysteriousness and also showed off more of my technical abilities.

Film Trailer Finished Product - Audience Feedback

Target Audience Feedback at the first screening of my trailer; 

• "You got the feeling that it was a drama just from the first 10 seconds in, clear representation and conformation to the genre style."
• "Had an emotional feel to it that made you get engulfed into the trailer and feel like you were apart of it, you felt like you were in the trailer and the tense yet soft music helped draw you in."
• "The music suited the footage and made it flow really easily, it was lovely to watch."
• "I connected to the character straight away, it was clear he was looking for the girl on the missing persons poster, and because it wasn't clear what relation he has with the girl it makes me really eager to see the actual film to find out what happens."
• "The film reviews that were included from magazines and newspapers made it feel like a real trailer - it also matches the style of the website homepage because that has reviews on it as well"
• "You clearly kept the continuity to a high level for all 3 products, you have made their similarities really clear"
• "I found it very realistic and there was nothing far-fetched in it, really dramatic"
• "The editing was smooth and there were no jumps that ruined the flow of it. The fade-in-fade-out transitions really worked"
• "I liked the quote from another director, gave it a realistic feel"
• "It looked like a real trailer, the text bits in between all used the same black background and white font which made it have an organised and professional feel"

Film Poster Finished Product - Audience Feedback

Positive Feedback 

• The simplistic style gives it a really mysterious feel but also gives the impression that it's a really emotional film. 
• I love the background image of the sun coming through the trees. It gives the poster a calm feel and once you watch the trailer you can see that they suit each other in terms of keeping the continuity going. 
• I like the plain, simple writing, it looks almost elegant. It matches the style of your trailer and the website homepage.
• Seeing the film poster would encourage me to go and watch the trailer because it doesn't give a lot of way and makes you instantly want to know more as it has a really professional and stylish look.
• The name, 'The Expedition', really suits the background image of the poster and it gets you thinking straight away what the film could be about. Also once you watch the trailer you can see why you have used the woodland image as the background to the poster.
• The colours on the page go really well with the colours of the main image. 

Anything I could improve on?

• Maybe you could have put a picture of the main character on the poster 
• You could have used a picture of the tree with the missing persons poster on it to maybe give away some of the narrative.

Website Homepage Draft - 3rd Attempt & Improvements

 Here is my 3rd draft of my website homepage. I have only uploaded the one picture below as this is the only change that has taken place. I worked on my audience feedback that I received in my last draft post and took my audience's advice on changing the title on my website to match the font and style in my trailer. I accepted this constructive criticism because I agreed that I needed to keep the continuity between my website and trailer. I am also planning to have the same font on my film poster.

The only thing I need to do to finish my website now is to add my trailer and get rid of my white template box so that I can upload the finished product.

First Film Poster Draft & Audience Feedback

Good Feedback

• I like the simplicity of it, it works with the drama genre really well.
• The title matches with the one used on the website and the trailer.
• It has a a really good eerie and mysterious feel to it.
• It conforms really well to the genre and looks apart of the whole set of products you have created.

Constructive Criticism 

• Maybe consider adding a picture of the main character on.
• You could have some of the text different colours.
• I think you should reconsider the fonts to make it and bit less repetitive
• The date could be better by saying 'Coming Soon' rather than a numerical format.

Ancillary Task Production - Website Homepage 2nd Draft & Improvements

2nd Draft 

In my previous post, I received audience feedback on my first draft of my website homepage. I took on board the comments I was given and spent a lot of time learning my way around the site even more so I had a more advanced understanding of what I was able to do with my design. This extra time I spent exploring, allowed me to discover so many other design elements that I could use.

I took my target audiences advice on reconsidering the placement on the page and rearranged it all to give it an organised, clean look and feel. Again, I used the white box as a template to show where my trailer will be embedded on the website. I used this a the focus point as obviously the site is acting as further promotion for my film trailer and so I wanted to make the trailer the main object on the screen and fit everything else around it.

From my research, I saw that some websites had reviews from magazines and newspapers. I thought I would add this element to my website as positive views reinforce the idea that the film is worth going to see and therefore the reviews I used would build up a positive influence on potential viewers if it were a real working website for a film. Overall I believe the reviews give it a realistic look.

Consequently, I kept the main colours white and red for the text. I kept these 2 main colours rather than using a large variety of different ones because I wanted to maintain the continuity throughout the page. The white and red stand out well on the black background and makes every element stand out and draw attention.

Ancillary Task Production - Website Homepage 1st Draft & Audience Feedback

Here is the my first draft of my website homepage - one of my ancillary tasks. For this brief, I have to create a website homepage which caters as a site for my main production - my trailer. Therefore, I needed to focus on maintaining continuity with the two products as well as being creative to make my site of a high standard and look visually pleasing for my target audience. 

I decided to use a wesbite called, Wix.com, a free and easy to use site which acts as a platform for you to then create your own website for whatever purpose. They had a range of existing templates for me to use, although, I started from scratch as I knew in my mind, exactly how I wanted my website to look.  

*The lines on the picture below are from the editing mode on the site, they will not show once the site has been finished*

As part of the mark scheme for my website homepage brief, I needed to show evidence of moving image on my site. This will be easy enough to do as I can simply embed and feature my trailer on the sites homepage for visitors to play. However, I haven't finished my trailer and so I created a white box to act as a template as to where my trailer will be placed once I have finished it. I also created four further template boxes where I plan on showing some stills from my trailer. 

From my research on existing website homepages for films, I found that they all varied and there was no set, conventional style on what layout to use. So, I went out and gathered some opinions from my target audience so that I could use this feedback and consider it when planning my designs. All 10 of my audience participants agreed that they would expect to find the name of the film at the top of the site to make it clear what that the site is advertising and promoting. Therefore, once I had created my banner I placed it directly at the top of the page and chose a large font to make visibility clear and precise. When creating my banner, I chose to make the 'X' red as it added a unique and creative flair to the site as soon as you looked at it. I also added two 'crack-like- effects in the corners in the same colour to make the name appear more mysterious and eerie. I found that that the white text worked well as the title then stood out against the harsh contrast of the black background. 

Moreover, I added a countdown where I selected a random date to act as the release date for my film. It is something I hadn't previously seen on any other film sites. When I asked my audiences opinion on the countdown, once again, all 10 said they liked the feature as it would build up their excitement to see the film more and also reinforces the release date even more to make people aware. 

I added a few more gadgets to the site to improve the sites social media links as every site that I analysed seemed to focus heavily on trying to get their audiences to engage with their film through their social media accounts.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK 

• Consider adding a few more page names to the menu
• Have the trailer bigger than the images next to it 
• Rearrange gadgets because some of the site looks a lot bare. 

MY RESPONSE 

I agree with all three of the main criticisms of my work and will go back to my website and follow all the advice I've been given.

Typography for Film Poster & Audience Feedback

To be able to successfully create my film poster I will need to select appropriate fonts that will help convey my genre to the viewers. To help me find the right fonts and texts that I am looking for I am going to be using a website called DaFont - a student friendly site which allows you to download different font styles which you can then download into Photoshop.

I searched through various different fonts and narrowed it down to a selective list that I like. I need the name of my film to stand out against the background of my poster and make it easy for readers to see it and identify it as the title of the film. To achieve this I felt selecting fonts that had a bold and chunkier look to them was best as these were visually easier to see. I also liked a few which had an interesting design element to them that would match my trailers narrative so I added these to my list as well.

I combined the fonts I liked into a list and then I asked a group from my target audience to give me feedback. Gathering a lot of audience feedback on my decisions is important because I want to know that I am designing something that appeals to them and be aware of how successful I am at targeting my desired audience.

From researching drama film posters, I saw that the fonts used varied in their style. Some had a calligraphy feel to them with the text being italics, whereas others used basic ones that had a sharp, stylish feel. I wanted to select a few different fonts to see which style my target audience preferred.

All these differ in style, boldness e.c.t as I wanted to see which my audience felt would be best for my narrative.

The first 3 fonts are basic sans serif, many of these types appear on film posters for dramas as the simple fonts reflect the realistic nature of the films narrative. My target audience group consisted of 10 members (male and female).

The fourth font, I found more unconventional but still a good choice as it has a slight effect on it, making it look faded/eroded. I felt this was a relevant to my narrative as it fits in with my woodland location vibe that I have in my trailer.

The final font is my least favourite as I don't feel that it conforms to the genre very well. However, I wanted to make it an option to see if my target audience recognised this. Below is my survey that I sent out, I named the fonts after the order that they appear on this post, e.g. - font 1, font 2 e.c.t.

As you can see, font 3 and 4 both received 3 votes. The most popular font was number 2 with 4 votes. This survey has proven that my target audience seem to prefer the most conventional, drama-type font. I am not going to use this font in particular, I am going to explore the different options I have to use this type of font on my poster.

Film Poster Planning - Ideas

Since I am in the midst of planning my film poster, I have been mentally planning out how it could look and what would best represent my film trailer on a print production. 

Whilst watching a film trailer in my spare time at the weekend, I came across this which acted as inspiration. I had the idea to create something very similar to feature on my film poster as it would be a different way of showing companies rather than just typing their names. 

March Action Plan (for 2nd March - 6th March)

• Make title for trailer
• Add trailer to website homepage
• Add images to website homepage
• Finish main image editing on Photoshop for film poster
• Add green audience classification to trailer
• Add header to website homepage
• Add background and edit it for film poster

Key


Red highlight - Not finished
Amber highlight - Nearly finished
Green highlight - Finished


As the deadline is approaching, I made a list of tasks that I need to complete to ensure that I achieve all my work to a good standard and meet the deadline. I have shown the list above of the critical tasks that I needed to get done this week. I have highlighted them according to the key above also, to show where I am with each of them.

Existing Wesbite Homepages - Jessabelle, Horror Genre

I was unable to screenshot of this website and so have included the link to it so that you are able to view it: http://www.jessabellethemovie.com/

Interactivity- The main homepage that you first see on the site advertises their links to social media to able audiences to share their views on the film. On their page button options one of them is dedicated as a link to their official twitter page which allows audiences a certain amount of interaction with the film such as tagging them in their tweets when they write a review or showing it to their friends e.c.t. This is good for the film itself as they can follow and track what people are saying about the film. An unconventional social media app they also advertise is their Snapchat account. This is unusual for a film as Snapchat does not really offer much apart from them being able to update audiences with pictures and videos to do with the film. However, even though it is unusual, this is what will make audiences add the account because some may want the extra 'thrill' of being sent scary videos and photos unexpectedly.


The site also gives people the chance to turn the audio on and off as they realise that their audiences will have different preferences. Moreover, they offer the option to register for updates on the film and upcoming ones from Warner Bros. Overall, the site has high interactivity levels for their audience to maximise their potential viewers.


Content - Furthermore, the site features a regular dropdown menu for uses to navigate their way around the site. These buttons are in white so they stand out clearly against the dark, ambient background. The menu is positioned in the centre of the page and this, along with everything else on the site is positioned closer to the bottom of the page. Everything fits underneath the sites title. The title is positioned in the centre of the page in a larger font to everything else - this ensures that it is the first thing that people see when they get onto the site. The typography of the title is a continuous thing as it is the exact same font that they have on their film trailer and posters. Subsequently, directly above the menu options is a large play button to allow people to watch the trailer straight away. This button is also a white colour and so follows the theme of white contrasting with the dark and eerie background that they show. The background- which also acts as the sites main image - is one taken from the film and so it carries on the genres conventions. The skull amongst the dark colours strengthen the genre codes and don't let the audience forget that the films genre is horror. Although, this image isn't actually a still, it is a gif and so it moves in the background. This gives the site a better and more professional feel as it is more complex than what a lot of film website homepages have.


Overall, the multi-media is limited on the homepage, however it has links to pages such as the gallery which ranges of media to allow viewers to flick backwards and forwards through images and save them if they want. It also manages to keep linking back to the film as it features the main female protagonist from the film. Consequently, it also manages to show the Shows that it’s a part of ‘Lionsgate Horror’ which is highly credited and recognised by many people. This can heighten peoples need to see the film as they can see that it is a big production that has a lot going for it as opposed to a ammeter indie film that appears at a film festival.

Existing Website Homepage