Professional Example Analysis - Minor Task 02

 Analyzing the Professional Social Media Page of Stranger Things

The official Stranger Things Instagram page has been designed for promoting the series which is one of the media conventions that come with the high-budget properties. The profile picture itself includes a distinctive, artistically rendered black and red logo that clearly conveys the show's dark sci-fi genre and its already established brand identity. Right underneath the follower count (20.8M, which shows the great audience engagement) the release dates of the last season (one last adventure, Volume 1: November 26, etc.) are all clearly stated. This is the most important Call to Action , which is also the main source of information for the corresponding big fan base.

Using Highlights is very effective and also a great layout convention. These round icons represent categories for the page's contents and allow the followers to go straight to the part of the content that interests them. For instance, "ST5 PREMIERE" and "ST: TFS" (The First Shadow) are clearly creating audience expectations by dividing promotional content for different products like the new season vs. the stage play. This feature serves as an archive that allows the most important promotional content to be always visible, no matter how far down the feed it was originally posted or when it was posted. Importantly, the icons themselves are made of the unique, often creepy, visuals (e.g., the silhouette of the Demogorgon), thus the show's aesthetic is carried through the entire profile.

The Engagement Strategy is based on fan participation and insider access, rather than simple show clips. The main feed with three columns that is located below the Highlights is where this strategy is realized. The team is constantly sharing Behind The Scenes content, including casts pictures, set tours, and blooper reels. This is a very important engagement technique because it gives the viewers a feeling of authenticity and uniqueness, which makes the characters appear as living persons and bolsters the one-sided relationship between the viewers and the stars. The account also regularly posts fan edits and User Generated Content in the tagged and Reels sections. By emphasizing fan artwork, the page not only recognizes but also the creativity of the fan community, thus further encouraging the discussion and content creation which effectively turn the audience into free marketers of the show. The content mix combines higher quality production stills with casual, candid BTS for emotional connection which guarantees that the huge follower base is simultaneously thrilled and engaged and always ready for the next adventure.

Professional Example Analysis Minor Task 01

Analyzing a Professional Postcard of La La Land 

 The color palette is the most essential and stunning visual of the poster. The background includes very dramatic colors like vibrant purples, deep blues, and magentas. This brilliant coloring not only immediately hints to the film to be of the musical or fantasy genre but also indicates that the happenings in the film are more dreamy than real life. Besides, the color choice strongly supports the theme of Hollywood glamour and ambition, making the whole image simultaneously romantic and a bit magical.

In the poster, the main characters are framed using the Rule of Thirds, with the bottom-middle part of the picture constituting the area of their position. They are continuously being the focal point, performing a dance, and each showing enormous energy through the body. While their seizures in the middle, to the audience, through the very instant interpreters in the film, it is Movement, Music, and Romance. Just below the characters the soft lights of Los Angeles city seen in the negative space between them and the bottom edge, offer the film the realistic locality without being a distraction to the main characters. The female lead's dress bright yellow and the dark background's contrast is so clever creating a situation where the lady literally stands out of the frame and attracts the viewer's immediate attention.

Typography is also an important style convention. The title of the movie "LA LA LAND" is at the very top of the poster and in a big, clean, white letter that is very sharply contrasting with the purple background. It is so big that the title is the second most dominant feature on the poster after the dancing figures. All the other necessary information like the stars' names, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, the director's credit, and the release date are all nicely arranged around the title. 

Another very important element is a strong Call to Action. The professional postcard is not simply an image but it also insists the audience to act, and this is done through the Call to Action, a short and clear text such as "SEE IT NOW" or "IN THEATRES 8 DECEMBER." By this text, the audience is told with no uncertainty what the next move should be. Moreover, many modern promotional postcards will have a QR Code as well. This is a very strong way for the audience to interact, as they can scan the code with their phone and be directly taken to the website for ticket sales or trailers, thus getting engaged immediately.

Professional Examples Analysis- Major Task

 Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) is a major feature film that falls within the horror/thriller genre, and its primary goal is to create maximum fear and suspense. The story revolves around a character, Mike Schmidt who is told to watch over a spooky, deserted restaurant, which is also evident through camera techniques that make the viewers feel alone and always being watched by someone. The director skillfully manipulates the audience's emotional responses and creates suspense for each jump scare by utilizing a variety of shots, angles, composition, and movement.

The opening of the film immediately establishes a tense atmosphere through specific shot choices. The first scene, shows a security guard getting killed, which begins with a Close up of him putting in a screw at a vent which instantly forces the audience to focus on a small, anxious detail rather than the bigger picture. This immediate intensity is often followed by a rapid Pan and Zoom In  movement as he runs and tries to escape through the facility which quickly pulls the viewers into the environment. When showing the vast exterior of the building, the camera uses a combination of Tilt and Pan movements in the Establishing Shot (1st Scene). These controlled movements slowly reveal the size and ominous nature of the location, visually preparing the audience for the scale of the threat. Similarly, when introducing the mall (2nd Mall Scene), a wide Pan combined with Deep Focus is used to ensure everything in the background is sharp. This Deep Focus is a deliberate choice, emphasizing that danger is not confined to one spot but could emerge from anywhere in Mike's surroundings. The use of static camera movement also creates an eerie stillness, briefly lowering the audience's guard before the action starts.

The way elements are arranged, or the composition, is very essential for building suspense in this movie. The film frequently uses the Rule of Thirds and Negative Space together like Mike is often placed on the left or right line of the Rule of Thirds, leaving a large area of dark, empty Negative Space next to him. This is a good technique because the dark, empty space causes the audience to constantly anticipate that a threat, an animatronic or monster will suddenly enter the frame from that void. The movie also uses  Framing to guide our attention. In a few important moments, the camera uses a Deep Focus and a Close Up on Mike, but the background remains perfectly clear. This combination forces the audience to manage two types of information simultaneously: Mike's immediate emotion and the surrounding danger, which maximizes tension. A simple yet powerful example of Framing is the final shot on the animatronics' Eyes, which cuts out all other information and isolates the focus entirely on the source of the danger. For dialogue, the Over-the-Shoulder Shot (OTS) at Eye-Level is the standard for scenes like the one with the counselor. This shot is relatively neutral but, when paired with a Medium Close-Up (MCU) on the counselor, it maintains the tense, formal atmosphere of a confrontation.

The manipulation of the camera's angle and movement is essential to show Mike’s state of mind and his lack of control. Shots taken from above, such as the frequent Bird's-Eye View, make Mike look incredibly small and controlled by his environment, perfectly conveying his loss of power and isolation within the vast pizzeria. This effect is also achieved with High Angle Shots, which subtly minimize the subject. In direct contrast, Worm POV and Low Angle Shots are used to look up at the animatronics, which instantly makes them look overwhelmingly large, powerful, and threatening, maximizing the audience's fear. When Mike is shown watching or observing (e.g., at the campsite), the Profile Shot (PS) is used. This angle emphasizes his personal thought process and his careful, detached role as an observer. For action and panic, the camera movement becomes erratic; when Mike runs across the tile room, the camera uses a Tracking Shot, following him closely to increase the sense of urgency. This contrasts sharply with intense psychological action, like the flashing scene, where Random Movement (Man's POV) is used, shaking the frame to mimic Mike's confusion or fear, making the scene feel raw and chaotic.

As the film moves toward the climax, the dynamic camera movement increases the psychological stress on the audience. The Arc Shot  is used during moments of massive realization or high emotional stress, where the camera circles the subject. This intense movement signifies that the character is undergoing a massive shift in reality, and the world is literally spinning around them. The most visually jarring technique is the Dolly Zoom (as the officer approaches or after the store scene), which visually distorts the background (often accompanied by a Push In + Pan). This effect symbolizes the character's psychological shock and creates a dizzying sense of panic that pulls the audience directly into the character's distress. In summary, the film's success in building fear relies on this blend of technical choices, from the isolating Bird's-Eye View to the terrifying Tracking and Arc Shots, which are all key reasons why Five Nights At Freddy's creates suspense throughout the entire movie.

Reflection and Skill Audit

 

Reflection

The area where we still need to work on the most is lighting. Since we used natural window light in the classroom for filming, it was really difficult to maintain the same lighting throughout the shooting, which, to a small extent, affected the already gloomy mood of the scene. Next time, we would bring lighting gear to eliminate the inconvenience of having the perfect mood only done sometimes by the lighting being right.

We did notice, however, that the management of time was the most important factor. The process of coordinating filming days and immediately going into editing and designing was a quick one, and having a more detailed timeline from the very beginning would allow us to make every single detail just the way we want it.

Content Creation and Final Upload

 Content Creation

For all our promotional materials like the postcard and these Instagram posts for which we used Canva. We started by selecting our best four still images from the classroom video, making sure they clearly showed our camera angle skills while also capturing the depressing mood of the girl missing her friend. We created a simple, lens-shaped logo and a clean, consistent color scheme to give the project a professional brand identity that reflects the technical film process.

Teaser Post

We are now moving into the final stages of promotion! This teaser is designed to grab attention by only giving a hint of the story's emotional core and the video's technical focus.

The final product of this post includes an anticipating sentence which acts as the teaser, countdown and mock engagement as well as necessary hashtags for the post to look more engaging.

The Final Upload

Minor Task 02

 Brief To Minor Task 02

We chose Instagram as our social media platform for Minor Task 2 since our whole project is based on visual skills like camera angles, photography, design, and Instagram is the one that displays these elements excellently. The main goal of this mock page is to produce film promotion and marketing practice. Creating posts, sketching out a profile, and employing tactical hashtags, we are discovering how to create excitement around our Short Film Preliminary Video, attract viewers to the product, and keep a professional brand identity like using our custom logo and color scheme that connects all parts of the preliminary exercise.

Planning The Page Layout

The Profile Mockup

This is only the trial mockup which consists of photos we took during the photoshop. We are yet to work on the further promotional strategies like teasers, countdowns, and mock engagement along with the final upload.

Reflection On Minor task 01

 Evaluating Design Choices

Our main goal was to make everything look clean and connected, and we achieved this by using the same simple logo and a dark, focused style across both the postcard and the digipack. The choice to use the specific quote, "Just one minute. Endless ways to look," and the lens-shaped logo was very effective because they immediately tell the viewer what the video is about: seeing the same short scene in many different ways through the camera. On the postcard, the decision to show multiple images (close-up, long shot, etc.) was smart because it visually proves that we understand the technical part of the Major Task. Finally, including the QR code on the back is a brilliant practical touch that makes it easy for anyone to access our work.

Challenges and Improvements

The biggest challenge was making sure the pictures from the school classroom looked consistent, especially with the lighting, because the original photos weren't taken just for the design work. This meant we had to rely heavily on editing features in Canva to adjust brightness and contrast to match the pictures. A small challenge was making the four images fit well on the digipack without looking too busy, but we solved this by laying them out cleanly. For future projects, one improvement would be to take high-quality still photos specifically for the digipack before filming starts, so we have perfect images ready to go. Also, we could try experimenting with slightly different color palettes to see if a pop of color would make the final package stand out even more.

Editing Process and Final Upload of Postcard

 Editing Process

I carried out the entire editing process using Canva. Firstly for the logo, I aimed to keep it simple and elegant. The logo along with the saying, "Just one minute. Endless ways to look," holds a tight relationship with the main ambition of our film. The whole aim of the film was to learn and to show the audience how different camera angles and shots could change the perception of a simple scene.

The saying "Just one minute. Endless ways to look" perfectly paraphrases the video. "Just one minute" indicates that the video is very short, almost like a test clip, and it is limited to a single place—the school classroom. "Endless ways to look" elaborates the central idea of the Major Task, which is to show that a single scene can be captured and interpreted differently through various techniques like long shots, close-ups, and other angles.

Final Logo

For the main postcard, the layout was split into a visual front and a functional back. The reason we used multiple images from the school classroom video on the front was to demonstrate the main concept of the task: showing how different camera angles change the feeling and perspective of the same scene. On the back, we focused on a clean, organized structure with clear areas for the message and address, plus a dedicated QR code so people can easily scan and watch our final video.

Final Postcard

Minor Task 01

Introduction to Minor Task 01 

This section is only a brief introduction to the preliminary tasks that our teacher has assigned us. We are going through these exercises to acquire all the necessary skills for the main test later on. It is basically a warm-up that makes us aware of the entire process, experiment with our skills and to ensure that we are absolutely ready for the final one project. So after producing the video which was our major task, we were assigned a minor task which is creating a postcard for the short film video that we have produced.

Planning and Layout

The decision about the postcard and logo design was made in such a way that they all go back to the primary aim of our short movie, which was to try out different camera angles and shots. One case in point is the logo, which is drawn from a photographer's eye because a lens denotes the camera's point of view. The font used for the logo is clean and attractive and made in the graphic design software, Canva. The flip side of the postcard has a split-panel design so as to present through multiple shots (like close-up and long shot) the very concept of the task that different camera choices alter the viewer's feeling and perspective of the same subject or scene completely. The dark, urban style and clean typography were intentionally selected to create a project that would have a serious and consistent brand identity not only on the postcard but also on the upcoming social media pages.

Photo Shoot

In order to make the visuals for our preliminary tasks, we did a photo shoot during the video shooting inside the school classroom that our video took place in. The primary purpose of this small photo shoot was to capture still images that depicted the different camera angles we had practiced clearly, like the long shot and the close up.

After the shooting, we selected the four best photographs for our postcard (minor task 01), as the depicted the required technical skills very well for the task.