EVALUATION-Q1

In what way's does your media product use develop or challenge forms and convention's of real media product's.

At the initial planning stage i firstly had to choose which genre to make my film. I decided to make a horror as i believed it would turn out the best with the resources that are available. Therefore i had a starting point for my research. To begin with i researched the horror genre as a whole and i watched lots of horror trailer's to get the initial feel of them and to see how they tended to flow. The more i watched the more of an idea i got of how they are done professionally and i started evolving a story around them. Finally i got an idea of the storyline i was going to do, although it was not actually like any of the horror storyline i had seen so far. Also i decided to mix the genre horror with another genre, although this is not uncommon as most film's are hybrid genre's now. However i decided i was going to mix the genre's horror and romance which was rare. As these genre's are not usually mixed and each of it's main feature's go against the other one's convention's, it was hard to research so i decided to research the genres separately. However i did think it was going to be a good idea because as it was rare to do it was not going to be typical and predictable but original which is what i wanted. As i wanted my movie to have the more fast paced feel and full of tension i decided to make it more of a horror therefore i researched that most. There were certain trailer's i was trying to look for so i could try and find out how i could shoot the different aspects of my trailer.

Whilst researching horror trailer's on youtube, there were a few that really made an influence to my trailer. Firstly the trailer for the film 'Red Dragon' not because of how the actual trailer flowed or how it felt watching it but because of the story line of the film. It's about a serial killer who meets someone and accidental end's up falling in love with her, which is like my trailer. Therefore i analysed how the murderer acted differently towards the person he was falling in love with, and his victim's, and how this changed the more he seemed to fall in love. For example there's a clip in the red dragon trailer where he's on the sofa with the woman, and she's looking quite content but he seems stiff like he can't let his guard down. It's like he's really trying hard not to feel the way he does but he can't help it. In my trailer there is a similar scene where the murderer and woman are on the sofa in which he does not seem as relaxed as she does. This is because i was trying to get across the point that he's uncomfortable and not used to loving actions and feeling, as he probably didn't have much of a loving childhood either which is why he's grown in to the man he has.

Another trailer i tried to find was one with lot's of running and hiding and generally lot's of action but with out actually seeing anyone get killed. Whilst looking for this i found the film 'Prom Night'. This helped me as i analysed how the director used different camera angles for the different aspects. Also how they created lot's of tension and action with out actually seeing the deaths. For example in prom night there's a clip in which one of the girl's running away from the murderer goes and hides under a bed, and then he walks into the room and she can see his feet. This created tension with out even using much action. In my movie i imitated and developed this scene as it was simple enough to shoot but very effective.

The other film that made a big influence on my trailer was the French film 'Mutants'. In there trailer they moved from one scene to another by lot's of flashing light's. This confused the audience and un-nerved them. I wanted my trailer to have this effect so i decided i was going to use the same effect. However i developed it by putting some gory images in between the flashes. This make's the audience not take there eyes off the scene as they are confused and want to know what the flashing images are of which builds up the tension. This is also a very effective way to get from one scene to another. I used it to get from one killing to another to show it's a different girl.

The beginning of my trailer sticks to the conventions of a romantic movie, and the ending of my trailer stick's to the conventions of a horror movie but putting them both together is unusual although it does work.

In the first part of my trailer all the clips are quite slow and some are even in slow motion, with some 'fade in and outs' in between the clips, making them slower. The pace is very chilled and relaxed. The text between the clips (except the last one) are all the traditional, lovey dovey, boy meets girl and they fall in love. However the main signifier in film's is the music. In my trailer it starts out like any other romantic trailer:slow and relaxed, which makes the audience feel this way too. By getting the audience as relaxed as possible, it makes the second half even more effective because of the dramatic change. However so my trailer captured the audiences attention straight the way i put the shot of one of the girl's hiding under the bed as the opening shot. It's deadly silent, all you can hear is the girl breathing. So when it goes into the romantic part after it confuses the audience and make's them want to know what was happening with the girl, that keeps them watching.

The second part of my trailer is a lot more fast paced, with shorter clips and faster editing which makes the audience tense whilst watching it. The music also quickens and gets louder with the pace. It comes in quickly after the last piece of text which says 'But is it all as it seems?'. Whilst i was researching horror trailer's i realized that it's fast paced music through the majority of it, then right near the end it goes nearly silent then with another sudden burst of music to finish it off. This is how the sound goes on mine too. The silence in the clips near the end of marianne hiding in the bushes leads the audience a false sense of security and lets them untense, which makes it more of an effective ending to have a sudden bit of action which is enhanced by the sudden loud music to end it all off.


During the whole trailer it's only the murderer who is in it all and he's portrayed different in the different sections. Unlike the first half in the second he wears all dark clothes and a hat (although he did wear a hat for a scene in the beginning). This indicates the typical 'baddy' in black, and the victims were wearing light coloured clothes. All the victims were also all typically women who were represented as the sterotype weak feminine girl as they didnt put up a fight which is what usually happens in horror films so it was sticking to the conventions.

Q1 Poster

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How my movie poster and magazine covers stick to conventions:

Q1 Mag

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EVALUATION-Q2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task's?

My main product was my film which was then advertised by my film trailer, poster and magazine cover.

The top three images are still's from my trailer, then theres my poster and magazine.

The main image that link's all three of my product's together is Danny (the murderer) as he is in all three. He's the main character in the film which means he's the main image in my poster and mag too. People would be able to see it's the same person easily as he's portrayed the same in all three product's so even if my poster did not have the title on it people would still be able to tell it's a poster for Love hurts.

The main indicator though is the title and as you can see it's wrote the same in both the ancillary task's and the same colour in all three products. For all my product's colour was a big factor for me, and it linked all my product's together. The mojority of all my stuff is in black, white and red.

In my trailer the second half of all my clips were in black and white and when the text comes up, red flows across it. Then in my poster it's all in black and white except the blood and the titles. My magazine cover has colour in it but the backgrounds near enough black and the title's are in red again and there's some random, red blood splats on the cover too.

The black and white indicates that everthing's split into two: either good or bad, there no in between. As there's no colour in it, it make's everything more eary as there's no bright colours to indicate brightness and happiness.

Red is the only colour in all three products . In the poster it's only the blood that's in colour as well as the title's that look like they have been written in blood, which is also the same for the magazine cover. As this is the only colour, it show's it's importance. The main signifier for the colour red is usually blood, danger or love. These things things is what my film is all about. The blood and danger because the main persons a serial killer who kill's woman. However he end's up falling in love with a woman , much against his own will, which is the love part. I made the colour red important in my work because of the way it make people feel when they see it.

The way iv created all my products make's my film mainly aimed at 'D.I.N.K.Y's, or young couple's but who are over the age of 18. This is because it's all about someone falling in love which would appeal to couple's who would watch it together, or maybe mainly woman would like the romance side of it. Although the love story in my film is under strange circumstances because the woman is falling in love with a serial killer. This side of is what would attract it to the males so my film has a wide target audience. The ancillary task's are also aimed at both unisex as i dont beleive its aimed at one sex more than the other.

My film does not have a specific release date shown on any of the products, it just says coming soon on the trailer and the poster. If my film was going to be released in real life the release date would be shown in teaser's trailer closer to the time of it's release date and maybe on a different layout poster. For now my products are to get the audience excited about the film coming out in the future so by the time it did come out, it would have so much advertisement that a large scale of people would want to watch it.

EVALUATION-Q3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Since the first draft of my trailer, poster and movie magazine i got individual feedback off different people all the way through to my final peice. It helped me extreamly because as i am working on my own, it was helpful to have a different set of eyes to point out things i would not have noticed on my own, to improve my work.

When i had completed a final draft for my film trailer, the whole class got to see it so they could give there feedback. The main negative feedback i got was that the narrative needed to change or more shots needed to be added in to make it make more sense and so it was clearer what was happening. I acted upon this by firstly changing the text at the beginning to explain what was happening more, instead of having to film extra shots. The text said originally 'Falling in love is susposed to be a beautiful thing...But what happens when...You fall in love...With a serial killer?...' People said with the text like this it's not that clear whether all the clip's of him killing are in the past or wether he's still killing whilst falling for the woman. I re-watched my trailer myself after the feedback and decided to best way to change the narrative would be to show that all the killings were in the past. To do this i turned all of thoses clips into black and white and in as the romantic scenes were just finishing and the scenes from the past were coming on, there was a flash of white light to indicate they are in the past too. After the the trailer this leaves the audience wondering what the murderer is going to do with the girl in the beginning: whether he's going to kill her too, or wether he is actually falling in love with someone. Leaving the audience questioning is what's going to make them watch the film.
The only other negative feedback i got for my trailer was that the second half is mainly concentrating on the girl's, so it needs to be more clear that the man in the first half, who is suposedly falling in love is the same man in the second half, who is killing the woman. To overcome this problem i simply shot ab few more clips of the man and added them into the second half so there was more footage of him.


Once i had completed the first draft for my film poster and magazine cover i also shown these to the class.
I had created two poster's and wanted to know which one people liked the most and about 90% of people said they prefered the second one. As for the feedback for it everyone said they really liked it and that nothing needed to be changed. They thought that the layout of it was alot more effective and worked well in black and white. Also the picture of the girl is made alot more effective in the second poster than the first. Therefore i obviously chose the second idea for my final.

First Poster Second Poster

For my magazine cover i asked people which background they liked most out of two pictures of different trees and the set background called patina. I had had it orginally set for the first set of trees but after my feedback everyone said they prefered the 'patina' background so i reset it to that.

The other feedback was just small things after that, for example the shapes that were placed behind the advertisments were solid blocks and people thought that they should be less obvious. To do this i changed the opacity down from 100% of colour to 65% which made them more see through then solid colour. Then people just gave advise about moving the positions of things around a little but, like they said the text 'All new movies reviewed and rated' could do with being moved down a little bit so it's not blending into the white shirt of the main picture.

I welcomed everyone's feedback and asked people to be as critical as possible, so i could change my work accordingly so i could get the best possible outcome.

EVALUATION-Q4

How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

To get to my completed trailer, poster and movie magazine i had to use many technologies, in which i had to develop my skills in most of them to get the most effective outcome.
To get my completed trailer i obviously used a camcorder to film my footage and a tripod to place the camera on. Once i had filmed my footage i used a fire wire to import my clips on the school mac. On this mac i edited the footage i had at that time. I cut the clips down and made some of the clips black and white and out the aged film effect on them. This however made the size of my project really big as each effect was taking up lots of room. This made the school mac really slow for everyone. I then found out that my sister had a macbook so i put my work on a disk and took it home with me to work on it there. My sister's macbook is more up to date then the school mac's so i had to figure out who to work most of it by myself. To edit my trailer on imovie i cut down all the clip's to as short as possible to make it flow better. Also to keep the pace of the trailer as i wanted i changed the speed of some of the clips, for example the shot of the murderer and woman cooking at the beginning of the trailer was slowed down because i wanted to keep the pace slow and relaxed at the beginning for more of a shock at the sudden change. Then for a number of the clips in the second part were speed up as i wanted the pace alot faster to keep everything tense, For example i speeded up the end of the clip when the murderer comes out of the doorway and pulls the girl in backward. This made it look like it happened really fast so she didn't have a chance to get away.

The technology i used most was Blogspot as i updated at least every other day. The first thing i did after creating a blog was to put a background onto it to personalise it. Then i updated it regularly which my research and planning. My research and planning i mainly done on youtube, so i created an account for. I downloaded quite a few trailers off youtube and uploaded them onto my blog, For example i downloaded the trailer for 'True Romance' when i was researching romance thriller's because i wanted to know what sort of camera angles to use as the storyline for this film is quite similar to mine.
Another application i learnt how to use was slideshare because i uploaded some powerpoints onto my blog so i could get across all the information needed but by using different medias and technique's to make it more fun and effective. I downloaded a powerpoint which had lots of different posters on, so it was all in one place instead od downloading lot's of individual pictures of posters. I also done the same with magazine covers and a number of other things.

Even though i had someone helping me out with the background music for my trailer i still went on soundcloud to try and find some music that Chris could work with so he knew exactly how i wanted it so he could work faster and i would get the music i wanted. I aslo gave him examples from other movie trailers off youtube even though they were not copy right free. In case of emergencies and for some reason if i could not get the music that Chris had done for me i made my own music on garageband so i had a back-up.

Once the whole of my trailer had been complete i tried many different ways to try and bring it back into school. Firstly i tried bringing it into school on a hard-drive, however it did not work on the school mac's because my sister's mac is more up to date so the hard-drive had been set for the newer version of mac's. Therefore i tried bringing it in on a memory stick but it had been saved in a format which was newer then the school one's so yet again i couldn't get it on school mac's. My next attempt was to upload it onto youtube then download it again at school. However the name of the music software Chris used came up over the top of my film when it uploaded onto youtube so that was no good either. After that i tried to send an email to myself with it in, so i could re-open it at school and download it, however the file was too big to go into an email even though i had compressed it earlier. The last thing i could think of which i done was upload it onto a free website then download it back off on my laptop and save it on to there. The website i used was megaupload.com. Once i had downloaded it back onto my laptop i burnt it onto a DVD, which i then brought into school. However when i then brought the DVD into school the music and the film had saved into different files so i then i had to use some software to put the two back together. For this i used the software 'Windows Premeire'. I uploaded the two files and put them together then burnt the whole trailer off onto a new DVD.

To create my film poster and movie magazine i used photoshop. This was a new technology as i had never used it before. So all my skills for photoshop started out as nothing which have developed through the last six months which has led me to create an effective and professional movie poster and magazine to advertise my film. I used a large number of different effects and techniques on this programme and i know now how to use them confidently to produce good work.

These two poster's show hpw much my photshop skills have developed with in six months.

Feedback on my Blog

As i changed the skin on my blog at the beginning, people who view it, can not leave a comment on it. People have gone through it and told me what they think which i have been writting in my blog through out, but people can not leave comments themselves which is why there is not any.

Everyone Involved

To get to the completed version of my trailer, poster and movie magazine a number of people were involved in different ways.

Josie Guest (Me)

I came up with the idea for my trailer after watching other movie trailers. Once i had my ideas i directed and filmed the whole movie. After that i done all the editing for it. I also completed my movie poster and magazine cover by myself.













Daniel Clayton

He was the main actor, who played the murderer who seemed to be falling in love. He was also the main image for my poster and magazine cover which linked all three of my products together.













Siouxsie Guest

She played the girl who Danny (the murderer) seemed to be falling in love with.












Chris Myers

Chris is the one who's done all my background music and sound effects for me










Marianne Haynes


Marianne acting in my movie as one of the murderer's victims.













Georgie McCallam

Georgie also acted in my movie as one of the murderer's victim's.












William Guest

My brother Will is on my magazine cover advertising another film coming out called 'twelve again'.

Music

Iv got Chris Myers doing my background music for me as it can not be copy right and he went university to do music and sound.
To give him idea's of what i exactly wanted i researched music on already existing trailers. The one i liked most that would fit into my work was the music from the newest Halloween film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHslouUNiOO

I like the all the sound, all the way through it. For my work iv asked Chris to go along the line of this trailer. For the romantic beginning in mine i think the slow eary music from the halloween trailer would work if made slightly more up beat and romantic instead of eary.

Then for the second part of my trailer I want it to suddenly go fast beat like the rest of the music in the Halloween trailer. I told him to go with any thing in the Rob Zombie sytle music.

For my trailer i want the music to start as the Anchor bay entertainment logo comes on not before as i want the shot of Georgie under the bed to be silent, with just the sound of Georgie breathing heavy. I also want the shot of Marianne at the end, hiding in the bush to suddenly go silent, then with a sudden loud bang as Danny comes in with the log then for it to go silent again after.
This is a common effect, that the trailer begin's in silence then going into music for the majority of the trailer, for it to go silent near the end again and then to end with a sudden loud noise.




This is another Rob Zombie film, 'The devil's Rejects'. The sound on it works really well and it's really effective to make watching the trailer really tense. This is why i want to stick to a Rob Zombie style music for my trailer.



Just in case Chris didn't have time to do the music i wanted for my trailer, i went on Garageband and made my own back-up background music too.

Everything i used and did to complete my magazine cover...

Alot of the techniques i used for my poster, i used for my magazine cover too.

Like my poster i had to use a digital camera to take the picture's for my magazine.
These are the pictures i used:

These two picture's together form the main image of my magazine cover.

These are the two pictures i used to advertise other films coming out.













The Tools and techniques i used and where:

• Magnetic lasso tool-to cut around the picture's i used, and then coped and pasted them onto my main magazine.
• Frame's & Backgrounds-I used the ready background called 'Patina' that was in the frame's and background bit in photoshop.
• Text- there's lots of text on my magazine which are all of different colours, fonts and size. The 'Love' is in the font blackadder. I put it in this font because it was swirley which is a typical style to write the word love. The 'Hurts' is in the font chiller. I put it in this font because it look's like it's been written in blood. The two different font's help get across the two different side's to the man. Most the other writting is in the font bookman which was chosen because it's quite formal.
• Adjusting lighting- I adjusted the colour, lighting and contrast on every picture on my magazine to make them as clear as possible and make them stand out.
• Artwork- I used alot of different already existing shapes from photoshop on my magazine cover. I used the star shape to get the five stars under the title of the film. I also a bunny shape, to make it look like the boy from the film twelve again was drawing it on to the magazine. This was sussposed to be a fun, loving family film which was helped put across by the boy messing about. Then i used 3 'crop' shapes which are placed behind the advertisement's. I lowered the opacity on these, so there weren't a solid block of colour. Lastly i used two other crop shapes that look like splatter's. I placed these behind some text on the magazine, then turned them the red and lowered the opacity again. this make it look like blood splatter's, although iv made them so there not really obvious.
• Eyedropper tool- Iused this so i could get all the crop shapes the same colour and also the blood splatters.

Magazine cover from beginning to finish...

As with my poster my magazine cover came along way as my photoshop skills developed.


This is my first draft for my magazine cover...

This is my final draft for my magazine cover...

Everything i used and did to complete my poster...

To get my final piece for my poster I used a lot of different techniques to make it effective.

• First of all I obviously used a digital camera to take the pictures that are on my poster.

However what i believe I have developed most this year are my skills on photoshop. Last year as I chose to do a trailer, the only time i used photoshop was the beginning of 2008, where we where shown the basic skills on how to use it.
The techniques i used on photoshop, and where i used them...

• Magnetic lasso tool- to cut around the pictures i used, i then copy and pasted them onto my poster.
• Gradient tool-i used this to effectively smear black and white together for my background.
• Adjusting colours-I adjusted the colours of both my pictures to black and white and then changed the lighting and contrast to make it look as effetcive as possible.
• Brush tool-I used this to paint in the blood on the man's chest and on the girl's face to make it stand out from the black and white. I also used the painting tool to colour the man's eyes in red to make them stand out more and make him look evil.
• Smudge tool- I used this to smudge the line at the bottom of the picture of the girl into the white back ground. This made the colours flow better instead of leaving it as a thick line.
• Text- All my text on my poster is of all different sizes and colours. The main text 'Love Hurts' is in bold, and in red, then i added the effect on it to make it seem more 3D, and it make's it sort of look like it's been written in blood. The coming soon is in font in the same red as the title and blood. The text at the bottom is really small because on real film poster's the text is nearly unreadable at a4 size. It's in grey so it does not stand out as much as the other texts because it's not as important, but just says who the director, actors are and who the music's by etc.
• Eye Dropper tool- I used this so i could get the exact same colour of the blood for the titles, and the murderer's eyes.

Poster-Beginning to finish...

This is my first try at my poster this year, and my final piece. As you can see my photoshop skills have came along way since September, as my poster has came along way. My first draft looks very amateur and like an 8year has done it. As my skills developed, my poster changed dramatically and now looks like a professional movie poster.

My First Draft for my Poster...

My Final Poster...

The flashing images:

In the second half of my trailer where it turns from being a romantic into a thriller, there's lots of fast flashing images. These were put in to make the pace of the trailer faster to create more tension for the audience. Also it split up the shots of the different girls getting chased etc so it was clearer for the audience to see they were different girls not all the same one.

What the flashing images were of:
1. The first load of flashing images were: my younger brothers face with make up on(P1), he supposed to be a dead girl (he makes a pretty girl and you can not tell it's actually a boy). Then my sister's legs(P2), lying on the floor, with one of her shoes fallen off, then back to my brothers face (P1)

2.The second load of flashing were images of:my brother's mouth with blood coming out of it(P4), then a spider (P5) which was in my kitchen which i had to keep blowing on to make it move so i could film it, then the whole of my brother's face again with make up on(P1), then lastly a sheep (P5) which has had it's middle eaten out of him which i saw when i went on holiday in Scotland about 2years ago, in a field near a castle.

3.The third lot of flashing images were of: my brother's eye with make up(P6) , then his mouth(P3) , back to his eye again (P6) , then a clip of my sister pulling cling film over her face.

4. Then the last of the flashing images were of: My brother's face(P1) , then my sister's leg's (P2), then my brother's face again(P1).

-(P1) (P2)-

-(P3) (P4)-

-(P5) (P6)-

Feedback for my trailer...

Some feedback i got from my trailer:
Criticisms/Changes:
Firstly i got told i could have a opening shot that's more relevant to my trailer. It was a good shot (A tracking shot of some woods) but needed more relevance to the beginning of my trailer. It's relevant in the way that's where the murderer killed some of his victims which is in the trailer. However a shot that links nicely to the beginning of the trailer (the romantic part) would flow nicer. CHANGE- I am going to change the shot completely and change it to something like a panning shot of the big house there in at the beginning.
Another criticism was to cut the shots down more to make it flow faster although i had not finished cutting the shots down properly yet anyway. CHANGE- I have since then cut all the shots down as much as possible which makes the speed faster. I have also quickened up some of the shots to make the whole of the trailer have a faster tempo and increase the tension.
The other criticism i got was that it needed to be made more clear that the man at the beginning of the trailer who is falling in love with the woman is also the same man who is murdering all the other woman in the second half of the trailer. CHANGE- To get over this problem I'm going to just add in a couple of short second long shots of the mans face in the second half to show it is the same man.
Also another criticism that links into the one above is that the people watching were not sure weather the second half is showing the murderers past or weather he is still doing these killings now, even though he's falling in love. CHANGE- To help the audience understand the narrative slightly better, which is that the murderers still killing women even though he's now met someone, is that iv just moved one of the clips from the beginning, romantic part of the murderer and woman and put it in between the shots of the killings to show its happening around the same time.
Also when people watched it, it didn't have any of the background music on so obviously that needed to be added.
The bits people liked:

• People liked the general idea of my trailer because it was unusual but still it worked well. The mixing of a romantic with a thriller.
• They really liked the quick, flashing images in the second half.
• Wide range of camera angles were used.
• All the shots were clear and flowed nicely.
• The texts were good and explained things nicely also the transitions between them all made it flow well and there were effective.

Which poster is best?...

After having made the two posters i wanted to know which one people think is the best one?...

Another idea for my poster...

After the feedback for my poster, everyone said they liked it, the only thing to change was the postioning of the pictures and texts. I tried a number of different layouts and found it difficult to find an effective one. After alot of medling i tried changing the colours around aswell as the layout. It made my poster have a whole different feel and look.

Changes...
What i changed from the other posters was that the picture of one the women victim is now near the top of the screen in a slanted postion. It is also a bit larger and now in black and white and quite faded. This had made this picture alot more effective than when it was at the bottom of the screen in colour.
The postioning of the murderer has changed slighty too. Its been moved down slighty and moved more to the right. This image has also been changed to black and white and been faded but not as much as the other image.
The tagline was one the the main bits which i was finding differcult to postion correctly. However on this poster it goes quite nicely at the very top on it's own. I have also changed it slighty from 'Love is suppost to be a beautiful thing' to 'Love is a beautiful thing' because it now makes it irronic as the pictures are of a bloody man and woman.
The title of the film and the rest of the texts ('coming out soon' and the actors and dirctors name ect) is all at the very bottom and wrote really small, its hardly readable as the size the poster is on the computer, but it would be larger if the poster was made larger like it would do if it was for a real film. All movie posters do this, as the writting is not that important but needs to be on there.

Feedback from the teacher/students for my magazine cover

For my magazine cover i got really good feedback about the main picture. Everyone said it was very effective and realivent to show the split personality of the man. They also said they really liked the title for my magazine and the style it was in and especially how i drew the 'OW' in it.

Some advise on bits i could alter was the go back to my first choice of background because it was darker and because the tree background made it look abit like a gardening magazine. Other than that people just gave some advise on moving a couple of words and advertisements around a little bit.