Evaluation task 3

3.What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the process of my A2 coursework I have been given continuous feedback on my main product and ancillary texts as well as my groups main trailer production.

After careful consideration and informal feedback from my media studies teachers and fellow students I decided to use this picture for my magazine cover. However I altered the image so the bricks were not present. I did this because many people who saw the image advised me to remove them because I had a desire to have a much darker themed magazine cover.

I also adjusted the picture to be black and white which merged perfectly with the black forest as my backdrop. I did this in order to show pathetic fallacy which is how the weather affects the viewing of a media text. My preferred reading would be for this to entice my audience.For this particular picture I learned that the use of colour and adjustments of images was essential if I wanted to show my audience the anecdote behind my magazine cover. In addition a man in blue jeans and a quilted coat is not meaningful to an audience so this provides further justification as to why I made the adjustment to make him look much more intimidating.

Above is my finished magazine cover which has the picture displayed above with the adjustments that I made. The text around the image was also carefully considered especially the masthead title 'MEDIA NATION' as my superiors were conflicted between the word MEDIANATION or to split the two words up. Originally There was an O in media nation but I decided to remove it as I wanted to make my magazine cover more eye-catching as well as interesting.

In my previous ancillary task drafts I struggled to arrange text so that It was short and meaningful for my target audience but audience feedback from my media teachers eventually enabled me to do so. As you can see in the above image, various words of significance are coloured in blood red which not only connotes danger and violence but it also emphasises the words to my target audience because they stand out. Various other micro elements on the magazine cover such as the slogan and the small images on the left feature an outer glow effect with a high opacity and distance to give a foggy effect. This adds variety to my magazine cover and showcases typical conventions from thriller magazine covers.

  My original idea was to this this picture for my film poster which was met with criticism from my teachers and fellow students for not being menacing enough. Moreover, the shot composition was frequently labelled as clumsy. Therefore I decided to use the picture below for my film poster instead of the above image.

This image is particularly unnerving as the protagonist has an aggressive frown and the composition of the image is levelled so he is looking straight at the camera. This will connote that he is a powerful and aggressive character in our narrative. For my film poster I duplicated the image and moved each face parallel to each other for the poster showing two halves of the protagonists face. I was informed by my teachers that they believed it to be a very effective technique for sinister film posters in the thriller genre.

Above is my finished film poster with the discussed elements with the protagonists face in black and white. In summary I believe that the ancillary texts construction phase of the coursework was made more effective and interesting for me as a student due to the feedback that I received. I has taught me the valuable of micro elements that when combined together can produce a holistic, good quality piece.

My main product which is my film trailer has been altered and amended 3 times until myself and my group were happy with it which is described in further detail in the adjustments to my trailer opening post. However in terms of audience feedback, we were criticised in our initial draft for using unnecessary effects which we quickly amended such as the use of our protagonists daughter saying 'I hate you'. This was criticised because we failed to show the relationship between the aggressive comment and our protagonist. The improvements can also be noticed in some other previous posts of mine such as: First draft for our trailer, Second draft of our trailer and Final cut of our trailer opening.