.:Today's Lesson:.

Today in creative media Mr Powell showed me briefly how to use a program that allows you to easily make a web site. It all seems fairly basic and i hope i will be able to create my web page fast enough.
An extra thing i learnt how to do today is using the grab tool. This tool is found at the bottom toolbar on the mac books. All you have to do is have a picture up on the screen that wont allow you to copy it, then once you pressed the grab button, on the toolbar that's now above the Internet site press 'capture', after the drop list appears you then click 'selection'. Next you click and drag around the area you want, apple c it then go into the gallery or where ever you want the picture and paste it. It's as simply as that.

.:Mulan:.

Mulan is a Disney classic animation. This movie site has strayed from the normal background colour choice, as it is red. It's not plain red if you look closely at it, as it has Chinese symbols all over it. This helps create the movies mood as it is set in China. This site has everything everywhere, it's all brightly coloured but it's a bit disjointed. It's a site for little kids, as it has a very basic format and it has numerous games. It's not like Love Actually where there are heaps of links everywhere which a little kid might find confusing. This site just has a main menu then only a couple different buttons. This site isn't nearly as effective as Love Actually, 1408 or even UP. It has a strong emphasis on the Chinese theme, also unity is created as the as same font is used throughout the site. Overall its promotional materials are just a clone of the website which could be better organised. therefore i don't think the promotional materials are very effective. The target audience are children between the ages of 4 and 12. I can easily state that this site is very effective at appealing to their target audience. This site didn't have a poster unlike 1408 nor did it have ecards and screen savers like Love Actually.

.:Love Actually:.

Love Actually, is a romance comedy. The movie's theme is Christmas, that's why the feature colour of this site is a nice bright red. The background is white, and the focal point is the present in the middle of the screen, and when you click on one of the characters it navigates away from the main screen. It shows you a trailer, photo's and blurb on the chosen character. This is available for all characters. It also has special features such as quiz's and other little things. This site is very interactive, everything you click on leads you somewhere, to do something different. This site has chosen white as their background where as 1408 chose black and Mulan has chosen red. White is generally more flexible and light hearted. I will be having a white/cream background for my website. Love Actually has everything most other normal movie sites have, though it also has calming, happy music automatically playing. I think i might add music to my site as I've fond by looking on this site, it's quite effective. The Love Actually site is lacking a poster, yet this does not hinder it's effective abilities. This site gives audiences a clean, bright and ultimately happy feeling. In my opinion, the website is effective in appealing to the intended target audience which is fifteen year old's and older. The menu system for this website is very complex, finding promotional materials is quite a challenge. Though the menu system makes this site very interesting and a lot more effective. This site has various downloads available such as; screen savers, desktops and ecards. Having all this available, increases it's promotional effectiveness as not many sites have these types of materials. I just adore this site as it creates the ultimate Christmas mood, through the colour scheme (red and white), shape (giant present in the middle of the screen, and red bow boarding every page) and general tone.

.:Poster Thoughts:.

I'm going to have the title at the top left hand side of the poster. This is because with our language we read from left to right. This means the first thing anyone will see is the movies title. The characters i want to show on the poster are the old man, Doug (the dog) and rusty. The house with the balloons attached is something that must be included, the whole movie is centered around that house and having an adventure. For that reason i also want the adventure book to be on the poster as well. I don't want the poster to be really busy. I want it to be plain and simple but effective. I only want a slogan and the title on the poster. The slogan will be something like "Ready For Your Next Adventure". The slogan needs to suggest something about an adventure, that way it has a lot of reliance to the movie. Due to the old man going on a massive adventure and honoring his wife's wishes. The background of the poster will be white, with faded clouds, i think clouds are a must, if i don't end up using them o the poster i will need to use them in the web site.

.:1408:.

The movie 1408 is a horror/thriller, it's an adaptation on the Stephan King novel. The target audience i believe is 15 year olds and younger, in some scenes it's pretty graphic. However it's an amazing story line that is developed in a way that younger veiwers might not understand. This sites colour theme consists of is a rusty gold colour, black and red. The gold colour i imagen comes from the colour of the room key. Black is an all round scary, and depicts confusion and uncertainty. Red of course is meant to symbolise blood, this gives the viewer the feeling someone dies or comes close to it. What's different about this site to happier movies sites is the fact that there is just one focal point, one area of interest which is in the middle. This site is very effective as it has black all around the outside then starts to fade into the golds, browns and reds in the middle. The balance of this site is amazing. The center of the site, is the key which reads 1408. The two main characters are on either side of the key, the main actors names are also displayed. Above this collage of pictures is a single sentence. This sentence gives you a bit of a clue to the movie, it says "The Dolphin Hotel invites you to stay in any of it's stunning rooms. Except one." This ties together the room number and key. I just found out thats only the entrance to the site. When you click on a button it takes to to the real site. The top half of the sceen shows you the bed in the room 1408. Then the nice hotel bed and bright lite room begins to change, as the clock above it all starts at 60:00 and counts down rapidly. It all turns an erie blue colour which then shows all the blood stains everywhere, a noose apears and so on. After this little thing has finished, it returns to normal with the brightly lite hotel room with no blood. A service menu then appears, this menu has cast and crew, trailor, photos, biogaphies ect. The menu is black with red writing, the colour theme continues. Also the repetition of the warning and the room key bring a deeper meaning into the site. I don't think my site will be anything like that, not just because its a different genre but it has so many things moving, it's hard to explain. This film has a link to the original trailor, as well as numerous trailor-type interactive clips. The welcome page has a poster style to it, and lures you in. The important elements that are common in all three sets of promotional material are colour, style, font and the overall mood it creates. In my opintion, this website is effective in appealing to the intended target audience. I don't dislike anything about this site or it's promotional materials apart from their a bit scary.

.:Research:.

As you know I'm doing the movie UP, i had originally visited the Pixar site and had been looking at that site. However i have also now looked at the Disney site about the movie. On this site there is games, different colour theme and lots of clips from the movie; including trailers. I think it's interesting how the two site that are about the same movie re so different. The Disney site has what i wanted from the beginning, and that is clouds as a background or at least an element for the site. I thought maybe having a moving background of clouds would be really cool. Also i want a game or two on my site considering this is a movie aimed at children. Though in saying this, the movie also attracted many teenagers and adults which means i can use bigger words on the web site, i don't have a limited vocabulary.

This Disney site that I've been talking about is;
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/UP/main.html#/epk/videos/

.:Second Mash-Up Lesson:.

Mr Powell is talking about finding the movie that we want to use. We then have to do a web site, and a poster. I'm going to start my research, I'll do this by just searching some movies i like. I will go onto their official sites, to get an idea of what's on them.

My first idea before, the news came that we weren't actually doing mash-up's. I was going to get the movie 1408 - it's a thriller, and i was going to have Disney princess going to stay in the room. It would of been cool. You would have to of seen 1408 though, to get what i mean. Oh well, new idea time...

I have now decided to do the Pixar movie 'Up'. I have chosen this for several reasons; i have seen trailers for the movie and it looks funny and cute. Pixar movies are always amazing and of an outstanding quality. No one else in the class is doing it so far, or if they are now, then they have copied me. The Pixar site has heaps of good information on the movie. Also the Pixar web site has a white background which black writing but this enables them to have lots of really bright pictures.