Introduction

Jennifer Moloney

Candidate Number: 6200

Centre Number: 16607

Welcome to my blog. Here you will find my main product, which is a documentary trailer, 'Daddy's Credit Card', and the magazine cover and poster I produced to accompany it, as well as the research and planning involved to show my learning journey when creating these products.

Daddy's Credit Card Trailer

Link to video on Youtube

Daddy's Credit Card Poster

Movie Maestro Magazine Cover

Evaluation Question 1

Annotated & Analysed Video of Trailer

Evaluation Question 1 from Jennie Moloney

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation question 4 from Jennie Moloney

Audience Feedback Form

Analysis of a Film Magazine Cover

Video Editing

     I continued to edit my footage during today's lesson, learning more about how to use iMovie through trial and error. I did lots of filming in various shops around Southend High Street, and had plenty of footage to choose from.  I chose the clips involving a range of different camera shots and types in order to make the trailer more interesting and eye catching. 

The footage I filmed can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner. From these, I chose shots with a range of angles and camera shot types. There is a mixture of close-ups as well as establishing and mid-shots. I had to discard some shots due to the camera being too shaky, however luckily I had lots left to choose from. I also tried to show a range of materialistic items to represent both genders, as it very easy to focus on female materialism.

At the end of the trailer, I chose to use the text 'pixie dust' for the name of my documentary. It is sparkly and I thought it represented the idea of materialism well, as it is a glitzy transition and has an expensive, high-class feel.

At the end of the trailer I featured the production team and sponsors of my documentary. This is an important feature of a trailer, which I observed was at the end of most of the trailers I analysed. 

Film Poster Textual Analysis

Music Editing

The song 'Material Girls' by Madonna is too long for my trailer, so I edited it and cut it in the programme 'Logic Express' in order to make it shorter and involve more choruses, as the chorus is the main part of the song everyone recognises, therefore the song and trailer will be more likely to stick in the audience's head. It took a lot of time getting the cuts accurate so they aren't noticeable, but I am pleased with the final result.

Institutional Context

Editing Footage

Editing Process

This lesson I worked on editing the font in my documentary trailer. I thought it would work well to use the dollar sign ($) for the first letter of the word 'spend', as it adds a bit of colour to the text as well as being a play on words. I was contemplating between the colours green and gold for the dollar sign, but decided on gold, as gold connotes the expensive metal gold. By simply using the word 'spend' in large font filling up the whole screen, it catches the audience's attention, as well as telling them exactly what the documentary is about: spending.

I also worked on editing the colours of the clips and increased the saturation to 140% to make them brighter, more colourful and more eye catching. Although my documentary overall represents a negative view of teenagers spending money, it still has an upbeat feel, therefore I wanted it to be bright and colourful, rather than morbid.

With many of my clips, particularly the shots of Poppy shopping, they were originally too long and contained stutters and slip-ups on words as they were filmed spontaneously without a script. During the editing process, I cut them down significantly in order to create a quicker pace like in the trailers I previously analysed.

Photo Edits

Photo Edits

These are some photos I took of my friend Nyia in the changing rooms in Miss Selfridge. I plan to use them within the video during a clip of her talking about how much she enjoys shopping, and also in my concept art/mood board. For these edits, I kept it basic by simply enhancing the colours. I added contrast and saturation and boosted the colour by 1 to give the photos more impact and make them more colourful and eye-catching.

Planning - Music

   Music is an important component of any film, documentary or television show. It helps add to the atmosphere the director is trying to create within the scene or clip by reflecting a certain mood. I spent a few lessons trying to determine what songs I could use within my documentary trailer, and decided on 'Material Girl' by Madonna.

'Material Girl' is a fun, upbeat song which fits hand in hand with the subject of materialism. I thought it was perfect for a trailer, as it is very well known and appeals to a wide audience of all ages. 

Focus Group

 Name: Poppy
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Favourite documentary: Walking with Dinosaurs
How often do you watch documentaries?: Sometimes, once or twice a month
Favourite documentary genre: Anthropology
Most common documentary channel: BBC4
What do you like about documentaries?: Learning new and interesting things.
What do you dislike about documentaries?: When the narrator has a boring voice.

Name: Asha

Age: 22

Occupation: Caterer

Favourite documentary: The Union.

How often do you watch documentaries?: Seldom. A few times a year.

Favourite documentary genre: Psychology.

Most common documentary channel: Channel 4.

What do you like about documentaries?: Learning things that shock me.

What do you dislike about documentaries?: When they go off point and drag.

Name: Sophie

Age: 13

Occupation: Student

Favourite documentary: My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

How often do you watch documentaries?: At least once a week.

Favourite documentary genre: Culture.

Most common documentary channel: Channel 4.

What do you like about documentaries?: When they're funny and entertaining.

What do you dislike about documentaries?: When they're about boring subjects.

Name: Norman

Age: 80

Occupation: Retired

Favourite documentary: Child of Our Time.

How often do you watch documentaries?: Once or twice a month.

Favourite documentary genre: Crime.

Most common documentary channel: BBC3.

What do you like about documentaries?: When they're informative and particularly about my era.

What do you dislike about documentaries?: When they're boring and don't hold your attention.

Name: Michael

Age: 16

Occupation: Student

Favourite documentary: Man on Wire

How often do you watch documentaries?: A few times a month.

Favourite documentary genre: Personal feats.

Most common documentary channel: Channel 4.

What do you like about documentaries?: When they're about amazing, random facts.

What do you dislike about documentaries?: When they trailer misleads you and the documentary is not about what you think it's going to be.

Focus Group Survey

Focus Group Survey

Textual Analysis of Documentary Poster