Evaluation

Evaluation video -

Superman II inspiration -

I couldn't find the entire fight on YouTube but I did find collection of all the Zod moments in Superman II, which has been a great inspiration for me when I was designing the characters and creating the trailer.

The 1980-1990s cartoons, that kept a realism with the body proprtions as well as adding a fantasy element to the cartoon, that have also been an inspiration for me, since they did not exaggerate proportions just because it is a cartoon, but tried to add a sense of realism with these unbelievable, larger than life character, something that adds and makes it easier for the audience to relate to these characters as well as put themselves in these characters shoes, which I have tried to do in my own production since I wanted my audience to be able to put themselves in the characters shoes and see the events through their eyes, alongside a relating factor with the characters.

Audience Feedback on my final product -

With the audience feedback I could have used a camera to actually record my friends reactions, as well as gain the input on the camera, instead of the comments, that way it might have connected my own audiences reaction to that of the actual reactions of fans in a film premiere. This way the response might have been a bit more apparent and unprepared for whereas the comments they might have taken a bit of time to think about the response that they have written.

But these comments have still been useful to me since I realised the ways I could have improved my animation through the use of a different software or by creating the trailer in another format like a motion comic as this idea was presented to me by a feedback, which shows how the traditional paper medium, comics etc. has progressed over the years and has come to the place where it is now because of technological upgrades a motion comic.

Evaluation

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Marxism

Marxist theory can be applied to any text that is about consuming other products - adverts, promotional material
Marxist critics would be interested in texts that -
-promote consumerism
-support and perpetuate capitalist ideology
-maintain existing system of power

Developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles, co-writers of Communists Manifesto  in 1848
They looked for logical and scientific explanation in society, instead of spiritual and religious ones

Saw history, not as a succession of Monarch and Dynasties, but as a continued power struggle between classes
Classes are defined by their production rate in their work
Saw the main struggle was between Capitalist (Manufacture) and the Workers etc.

Ideology- values and outlooks shared ideas by a group of people
Louis Althusser defined it as a system of representations (images, myths, concepts...)
...At the heart of a given society; in other words, a "world view" or "class outlook."

Dominant ideology in one which works in the interest of ruling class, keeping them in power Capitalism  works since it makes us believe we can't change who we are, and cannot change our class, so in forth preventing a change, sort of like in my own media text the character could not change the social class he is in, leading to his wife's death, so forth sets out to change this and leading in a battle, just like Marx claims history to be a battle of classes.

My own product is a Capitalist product, and going against Marxism since I am making my audience see it, by persuading them and brainwashing them through adverts, posters and trailers so that I can persuade them  to part with their money and spend it on my own product, henceforth making me and the production and institution companies more rich, everything that Marx was against.
Antonio Gramsci called this form of social control, Hegemony.

Capitalism
Based on drive of owners of means of production to maximize profits for company
Modern Industrial Capitalism belief is that pursuit of individual economic self-interest (making money for yourself) will bring benefits for society in general

Marxism sees it as exploitation of one social class, the worker, by the manufacturers

"Greed is good, Greed is right, Greed captures the essence of evolutionary spirit. Greed has marked the upward of Surge of mankind"
                - Gekko  in Wall Street (Oliver Stone. 1987, US)
Advert
Marxist critic would note that it does nothing to promote the working class, the ones behind the actual ad, who spent hours in making and putting the product together for the rest of the world to view or buy.

This is true since in all trailers and adverts we are barely given the name of the workforce that was behind the actual manufacturing of the product, just like in my own trailer I am not giving any recognition to myself as the producer and the director, I am only leading my audience into actually viewing my trailer and eventually going forth to watch the film. The only time the director, me, gets recognition is on the poster, since I am trying to sell the film using the Directors success and popularity.

Ideological terms - ads promote consumerism and assumes people are naturally accuistic

Magazine
-What Ideology lies behind the text?
Buy the magazine, watch the film, it is a must see, techniques that bring the audience to watch the film since it  is a must see will mean that a lot of the audience and the target audience of the film will want to see as well as making a few being left out of this group and having nothing to talk about if they have not seen this film, as well as not realising the importance of this film from the reviews within the magazine or the initial reaction from everyone else
-How is the magazine consumed?
See it, Pick it up, Flick through it for interesting articles and pages, Buy it and then go home to read through the articles.
To be able to do this I have made sure to make the magazine cover as eye catching as possible for them to pick it up and even have a flick through eventually leading to an article that leads them to buy the magazine, even if it is a subscriber cover, I am intending to make the audience feel left out since the limited edition to subscribers can have the effect of making the consumers feeling left out and not special enough, because of them not being a subscriber.
-How does the text contribute towards hegemony(social control)?
The text promotes success and reinforces the ideology of life becoming enriched if the general public sees this film.

In my own text I am leading the audience to buy into this genre or style of film making by teasing them with the best bits, as well as the action and explosions from the film to build an interest within them as well as a fan base that will lead to a great opening weekend for this film if it were to be real and backed up by a company or one of the majors of Hollywood

Buying and Selling
We are no longer buying just the product that is being promoted, but the brand as well, my audience are buying into my film but especially the brand as in the animation and the action genre.
The film can be sold upon the Directors reputation to self the film as well as the actors, just like in my own product I am selling my media text on the Directors name.
In aligning our identity and the brands identity, we buy into its ideology.
Nike ideology is clearly Capitalism
Nike no longer sees itself as a sports shoe or clothing manufacturer, but as a brand, a way of marketing and selling products
My own product could also be a Capitalist text
Since in some sense it can be seen as a brand, a way of marketing and selling products since not only will the film be a way of taking money from the audience as well as the synergy connected with the film, the toys, bed sheets etc. henceforth creating an entire brand of products from this one film in real life.

Enigma Codes

Enigma codes give the audience an idea of the film, but not the whole thing, they tease the audience to read or see something that is not visibly their, like a trailer which teases the audience into watching the actual thing by playing with their interests by only giving them a taste of what the director and the producer want them to see.
'In the control of the flow of information we are often teased by a riddle that requires us to guess the next piece of information to be revealed'
-keeps the audience engaged by establishing enigmas/mysteries as the story unravels
-common in horror and thrillers as well as some action and sci-fi

Using these codes, I will be trying to tease my audience by showing specific actions scenes that might give them a tingling sensation, as well as bring out an interest within them to actually watch the film when it comes out alongside hinting towards plot lines and enigmas/mysteries within the narrative of the film, so that they themselves will know that the film is not all action but has a plot line and a past for the characters, something that drives them to go to the feats that they never thought of like engaging their own partner and taking away everything they had and begin a rivalry between each of them.

Hermeneutic codes refer to elements of a story that is not fully explained
-full truths is often avoided
-keeps audience guessing until final scenes where all is revealed and closure is achieved e.g. -
      - Scream - the killers are revealed at the end of the film.

 I have used this codes in adding in elements and images that are not explained within my trailer which I think a lot of the professional blockbuster trailers tend to do, which to me is an important factor in allowing their films to become a success, something that I wanted to take and use in my own production to bring up questions within the audience, as well as allow them to view the trailer repetitively to break down and analyse the trailer till they either gain all the answers or are confused and are in need of wanting the questions which can only be found by watching the final film .

Proairetic codes refer to an action or event that indicates something else is going to happen
- by witnessing this event the audience can say what that character will do and how the story will continue

This code has allowed me to place in a scene where the audience, if they spot it correctly, will notice the hand with the cracks glowing which might lead them to know the outcome of this event like the character could end up dying or evolving to his next state, bringing up questions along with the fact that it slowly makes the characters more predictable and realise their intentions of what they are doing and what pushed them to do so, henceforth making my audience feel a bit special since they have realised and noticed this trademark of the character.

Semantic code
-connotation is featured strongly
-connotation is a text when the story is given additional meaning over the basic denotation of the words.

I have tried to place as much connotation within my trailer as I possibly could, but I still think there is room for a bit more, where the scenes have placed an idea within my audience as well as allowing them to break the scenes and images down, like the red rose in one of the scenes, which could lead to the audience understanding its significance as well as the role and connotations behind its visible presence.

Final Trailer

After all the research and the technical difficulties I have finally completed my trailer.

The Rating of my Trailer

I have researched into other cartoons as well as trailers to find out the ratings of a sci-fi, action or an animated films get from the official bbfc before their initial release to the public, so after viewing my entire trailer, I believe that the footage and the story of the film I am promoting through my trailer is appropriate for a lower audience of 5 and upwards but the action of the trailer has led me to declare the official rating to be 12A or PG because of the action which could eventually lead on to the revelation of a bit of blood as well as murder. Yet I still believe that my target audience may be a bit older because of the all of this as well as for the story line that I had in plan, yet I hope to attract the younger audience because of the animation and the powers of the characters and the comic based events that are shown within the trailer, including the familiarity with other animations and famous iconic cartoons like the X-men or Superman. Both had dark elements present in their animated series but they were still for a younger audience, maybe because the dark elements present within the shows were a way to educate and prepare the younger generation for their future and the real world, so this way it would have been easier for them to adjust to this world as well as seeing a bright future ahead.

Soundtrack

I have watched a couple of trailers, that gave me a couple of ideas to make my own trailer special and unique through the use of music that I have intended on using for the background music. Through the music I am intending on preparing them for the action, through this I am hoping it creates a sensational and atmospheric aura that helps to amplify the experience of watching my trailer and helping to enhance the action scenes of my trailer.

Trailer Soundtrack that I have used - Avengers - City of the Fallen

Complitications with short movie footage

Due to a few complications with my footage being corrupted and not having enough time to recreate the entire piece to meet my deadline, I had to make the decision of turning the remaining footage into a trailer rather than my initial idea of a short movie. Which did present the idea of having to rewrite my entire blog as well as having to add in a few more deconstructions and create a fresh new ancillary task - the magazine front cover instead of the review page? Although it was a bit more work it did save me the hassle of having to recreate my entire film, especially parts that had been corrupted. As well as losing a couple of my voice wok I had to settle with just having a theme song that places the audience on its feet with a couple of explosion sounds for my teaser trailer, which is a good thing since a teaser trailer does not give as much information of the film as needed to and instead gives nearly a lot of the good scenes from the film, to attract the attention of the audiences as well as to gain a mass audience to create a fan base for their film in order to gain the highest domestic on its opening week.

Character Sketches

 EDIT 27/03/12

Before I actually started the creation of my own production I created a few sketches and designs for my lead characters. For the designs I looked at a few sci-fi characters from TV series to cartoons to comics like Spock, Sinestro, John Carter, Tars Tarkas and game characters such as the ones in the Mass Effect franchise, so I can get an idea of how I want my characters to look like and present it so my audience can tell the difference and are able to understand that these are aliens from their appearance and that they were part of their planets military or have a high status, as well as who is the villain and who is the hero, but that does not mean that I am not taking the liberty to confuse my target audience as well as giving them a taste of each characters true intentions.

With the designs of their suits I wanted to give the feeling that they belong to their races military and I tried to portray that as best as I could, that is why there is a similarity between the both of them, both also have a small bit of difference that makes each suit different and unique, this was done to show the power of one in comparison to the other as well as how they may be from the same race and planet as well as sharing the same powers, there is quite a lot of different features to both as well as different motivations that separates one from the other

With their faces I wanted to keep a basic stereotypical look with the square jaw and hard features that are mostly common in heroes and villains, but I tried to add in a bit of Spock and Sinestro in them as well with the heightened eyebrows, and the angry but calm look alongside this sly, evil look that I wanted to be present in their faces. I ended up changing the goatee since one looked older than the other; I wanted both to be around about the same age, to really have a civil rivalry between them as well as most films tend to have the hero and villain roughly around the same age, to be a physical and intellectual match for the other.

Questionnaire

I created this questionnaire to see what interests my audience will have, so that I will know of what I need to do to meet their needs and also if taking the direction I am going in, animated trailer, is a good idea or not. I also wanted gain an idea of what age appropriate I should keep my film at and how much violence and swearing, if any, I should keep visible in the trailer. I gained my answers by the use of a facebook group that I had created for my production.

Facebook group screen shot

I needed to persuade the members of the group to answer the questionnaire and I thought I should do it in the simplest way, but still having a heavy impact on the members to answer it

DeviantArt journal screen shot

 I also used my deviant art account to gain a more wider range of answers for my questionnaire, since most of my watchers on my profile are from the range of 15-21 and plus, and of a diverse race I thought it was the perfect site to gain the more wider and broad range of answers from my audience

Questionnaire



Questionnaire Results

The answers that I received from my Questionnaire had provided me with all the necessary information and details that I took in to consideration and kept in mind when I started working on my trailer as well as add in features that my audience like. This also meant that whenever I doubted myself of something being too violent or moving away from my subject matter I just needed to look at the results of the questionnaire and I could keep on track, and continue on with the rest of my production. The results also gave me an insight as to what my audience are interested in and what kind of films they watch, This gave me a clear indication of what format of animation I should use but with my own artistic direction, to give it a unique feel, as well as keeping it simple for the audience to appreciate and feel comfortable with. But I think that I should have my answers a bit more varied by adding in Japanese animations like anime or manga, this may have made my questionnaire a bit more universal and without the addition of this feature I may have disqualified a whole group of people that would have been useful in order to help with the answering of my questionnaire as well as my production.