Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

During our earlier research, we analysed films from similar genres (Hot fuzz, the other guys, etc.) in order to challenge or use the same conventions and techniques that we had seen.
The first convention that we could relate to our trailer is the 'eye stare' scene from Hot Fuzz (4-5 seconds in). This is used in combination with eerie music to build tension as dramatically as possible, suggesting an action sequence is about to take place. We used this technique at the start of our own trailer to build tension in a similar sense. However, we challenged this convention by using the audiences expectation of an action scene and replacing it with a funny one, in order to establish our spoof action/comedy genre.
From the film 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop' (8-15 seconds) we noted how an unexpected change in atmosphere in a trailer, or a scene that does not follow in sequence or with the music, can be humorous to the viewer. This was because at the very beginning of the Paul Blart trailer, we see a character who appears unfit despite the surrounding characters suggesting this location takes fitness very seriously. The fact that the tense music and the sound of the man speaking do not alter, despite his appearance on the scene, provides for a subtle joke for the viewer. We therefore used this convention in our own trailer, in our 'car slide' scene. The action build-up beforehand combined with the music suggests that an action sequence is about to take place, but in fact a funny scene occurs instead. We then followed the convention shown by not altering the sound, and keeping the music as action-orientated. This made the funny slide seem out-of-place, adding to the humour of the scene.
Regarding our ancillary tasks we used a number of conventions found in popular magazines and on posters. In both cases we used a large main image, demonstrating the importance of our trailer. We also used stereotypical images and styles associated with out genre/narrative, i.e. sirens in the poster and stripes on the magazine cover. We used the form of a traditional magazine layout, as we had a large-font title at the top, a main feature in the middle and snapshots of other films (to suggest a review later in the magazine) at the bottom. We also included a barcode and a price on the magazine to add a sense of realism, but developed the convention of having them located next to eachother (which is usually seen on most magazines), and instead had them separated.

Evaluation - How Effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As part of the G324 media brief we had to develop two ancillary tasks, which we chose to be a magazine front cover and a poster. We decided that these two tasks were best suited for us as the other option was a website homepage, and neither of us had any experience within that area. We also had experience with programs such as Photoshop which could be used in the design of posters and magazines.

In order to ascertain a starting point for our poster we looked at film posters of similar genres and narratives, specifically 'Hot Fuzz' and 'The Other Guys'. We noticed how the two main characters stood in the very near foreground, as a typical action-orientated scene took place in the background.

In relation to our trailer, we incorporated 'sirens' behind the title so that the viewer of the poster would instantly recognize that the genre of the film displayed would, at the very least, be part action. This assumption would be enhanced by the background flames, and the unexpected addition of a Mexican-styled costume would demonstrate that the described trailer is actually an action-comedy.

Using our previous research of popular magazines such as 'Total Film' and 'Empire Magazine', we learnt some conventions of magazine front covers and found ways to use and adapt them.
The first thing we noticed during our research was that the magazine title was almost always obscured in some way, usually because of a main character of a new feature film partially blocking it. This is done to suggest to the reader that the magazine is already successful and well known, so the reader should already know or easily work out what the title is. It can also be done to draw attention away from the title and to the main feature itself, suggesting that the magazine holds interesting and valuable content.
We used this convention in the sense that our title is partially obscured, but also challenged it by obscuring it with a tear effect rather than by placing the feature in front of it. We did this in order to make the word 'Torn' autological (a word that describes itself) to have a greater visual effect and to make it more memorable.

In relation to our main product, we kept the same title from the poster to add continuity and to develop a sense of realism, due to the fact that when distributing a film, producers attempt to display the title or slogan of the film as much as possible, to increase awareness of the film.
The stripes located behind the words 'news, reviews and movies!' are also associated with the police, being found on police tape. The colours are usually yellow and black however, but this stood out to much on our magazine cover and drew attention away from the main article. We therefore kept the stripes but changed the colours to grey and darker grey, colours which stand out much less.
I believe we made our magazine cover look professional and realistic, but I would like to have included another image that holds great significance in our trailer, such as the car from the car slide scene. This would have held greater similarity with the magazine covers we researched, and also would have had greater relation to our trailer.

Our Finished Film

Here is a link to our finished product:
Bad Cop Bad Cop

We uploaded our film to YouTube originally, where it received 116 views as of today. We then decided that to expand our audience and gain the opinions of our peers/target audience, we would post the film on Facebook where it gained another 46 views. The comments we were given will be further discussed within the 'audience feedback' section of the evauluation.

Amendments to The Chief Ispector Dialogue

After discussing the chief inspector scene with the actors involved, it was decided that Mr Aherne would decide upon his dialogue spontaneously. This was done so that the scene would seem genuine, and myself and Gaz could respond accordingly to the unexpected dialogue. We recorded the scene, and are very pleased with how life-like the scene appears. These are the corresponding changes:

Chief Inspector Scene:

Actors: Mr. Aherne, Tom, Gaz

Camera starts behind Tom and Gaz, and is low angle (to make the chief seem more powerful). The chief is in the centre of the shot, between Tom and Gaz.

Mr. Aherne: "Let me get this right. I want to make it plain to you two donuts! You've made a total mess-up of this operation, and frankly you are so pathetic that if I never saw you again it would be soon enough!"

The camera now cuts to a point-of-view shot of Mr. Aherne, showing Tom and Gaz scared.

Mr. Aherne: "However! You've got one chance to get this operation done right. And look at the state of you, get yourself a disguise!"

This is where the scene would end and the disguise scene would begin. We will also edit the scene so that the disguise music starts after Mr. Aherne says 'However'. This way the music could start off quietly, building up, and increasing tension. By the time that the disguise scene begins, the music would be at full volume which will suggest that this paricular scene is fast-paced or exciting.

'Setting' scenes

Although Gareth was unable to attend school recently due to the adverse weather conditions, I decided to try out some 'setting' scenes, which is very small clips (0.5-2 seconds) of the outside of where a scene will be taking place. Examples of this can be seen in the dinner for shmucks trailer at (0.08) and (0.15). Despite both scenes being indoors, a shot of the building is shown quickly beforehand.
One such scene is outside of the house that is robbed. I decided that we may need to explain the setting, rather than just starting the scene inside the house, which may confuse some viewers. I therefore filmed just outside of the location. However I decided to try various scenes with 'Pans' and 'Tilts', rather than just simple scene of the setting. These techniques also draw the attention of the viewer to what they're moving towards, i.e. the house, suggesting that something is about to take place within the house.
However, these setting scenes have been filmed in heavy snow. As we film the indoor scenes, sunlight may shine brightly through the window, confusing the viewer as to whether this is the same location.

Todays Attempted Filming

This morning Gareth and I decided to meet at the costume shop at 9, to rent the costumes, and then head to radnor park to film our newspaper/disguise scene. When we met however the shop was closed, and we had to wait for it to open. We eventually rented our costumes however, which consisted of two police helmets, two police pullovers, and two fake moustaches. But by the time we got to our filming location at radnor park and had set up thetri-pod and camera, it had started to rain, and we had to protect the camera from rain damage and therefore had to go inside and cancel our filming.

To try and ensure that we get our filming completed soon, we have taken the following measures:
- We are meeting on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday to film our scenes.
- We have considered an alternative scene to the newspaper scene which will be indoors and therefore unaffected by the weather.  This involves quick cut close-up shots of Myself and Gareth getting into 'disguise' then a shot which pulls out to show the whole disguise.
- When we wear our disguises we will take photographs, and edit them for our ancillary tasks.

Issues with filming

As I mentioned in my 'weather' post, conditions for filming are becoming less and less suitable, as we are currently experiencing heavy snow and have forecasts for even more snow this week.
It is now a large possibilty that we may have to adapt our script to fit in with the weather, so we have begun to think about outdoor scenes that may have to be changed.
In the first scene of our storyboard, we tilt the camera down from the sky to meet gareth who is drinking. This would actually look quite good in the snow, as the sun may reflect off of falling snowflakes, supporting the idea that the setting is 'nice'. However, we do not want to distract the viewers attention away from gareth, because we have already drawn their eyes to the snow.
But we do not want to run into problems with continuity, with it snowing heavily in one scene and then sunny the next. Therefore, if we were to film in the snow, we may have to film each scene quickly while the snow lasts. Also, if we discovered a mistake with our filming, it may be too late to change it as the snow would probably have gone. So we may have to just 'leave' the mistake, which is obviously not something we want to do.