Evaluaton by Chloë

1. In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

This question can present a challenge as most short films contain some of the most inventive and unconventional work to be found in film making.


Short films can follow a set genre, such as horror, comedy or drama, just like feature length films. They also have a complete narrative, with a beginning middle and end. The main convention of a shot film is, obviously, the fact that it is shorter than a feature length film, ranging from anything from a few minutes to half an hour.


In our short film, we have changed the conventions of feature length films to fit our media product.


1. Camera Shots

The key point of any film, the range of shot sizes used can make or break a film. Above are two screen grabs, the top showing the opening shot of our film, and the other a shot form the film Inconceivable. The shot in Inconceivable is a worms eye view shot close up.


I personally found this shot interesting, as it is from the baby's point of view, which allows the audience to see it form a human viewpoint. Close ups are one of the most important shot sizes out there. They allow connection with the character above, as you can clearly see the emotions displayed on their faces.


Similarly in our short film, we have used many close up and POV shots. The image above is a eye line mid close up of the male protagonist sitting alone on a bench. This allows the audience to see the emotion on his face, which is key to the development of his character and the story.


We also use POV shots, in which we see the images from he male protagonists viewpoint. This is critical to the film, as it gives the audience an insight into his world, and how and why he pictures others lives.

2. Camera movements.

Like the size of the shot, having inventive camera movements provides a base of a film. Above are two screen grabs, the bottom from my short film, and the other from a film called About A Girl (As the film has been removed from Youtube, this link takes you to my analysis of the film)


The opening shot of About A Girl is that of the female protagonist dancing and singing to herself. This still and almost serene  camera shot is in great contrast to the next shot of the female protagonist walking and talking whilst the camera follows her on a Steadicam. The jerky, hand held like movement of the camera gives the audience the impression of normal human viewpoint, so they feel as is they are there with the girl.


In our film, we have made sure that there are moments of stillness and moments of rapid movement to give the audience a sensory experience. The screen grab about shows a male character walking away from the camera. This shot was filmed using the hand held camera, so it is purposely jerky and unfocused.


However we have not used the camera in this way top create a sense of being one with the character. We have done this to convey to the audience the male characters sense of paranoia and fear form the bullies.

3. Sound

In our short film, sound is of paramount importance to the product. Many short films rely heavily on non diegetic soundtracks and diegetics of objects in the film to create the atmosphere they want for their film. Dialogue is not always of great importance to a short film. Above are two screen grabs. The top one is from our film and the bottom one is from  a short film I analysed called The Black Hole.


The Black Hole uses only diegetic sound. The sounds are that of a typical office; printers, photocopiers etc. This conveys to the audience the monotony and boredom of the male protagonists life. Again no soundtrack is used, which allows the audience to become completely immersed in the world of the male protagonist. However no dialogue is used. I found this really interesting, as it allows the actor to show emotion and feeling through facial expression  and body language solely, which is then picked up by the camera shots.


During editing, the sound of the black hole was added to the film. This diegetic sound give the black hole a more realistic feel


Our film differs slightly due to the fact that we have a soundtrack, recorded by our group members. The soundtrack plays throughout the sections of the film that contain the male protagonist. This motif is repeated every time the male protagonist appears, which creates a stable Base for the audience to recognises.


During editing, we used layers of sound to create certain emotions in the audience. In the screen grab above, we can see the male character walking away from the camera. We used layers of recorded sounds, mostly insults and laughter, to put over this image to create the illusion of the male characters paranoia and fear that he is constantly surrounded by bullies. In shows the audience the torment that he is  going through.


We have also used a voice over, which allows the story to be gently explained, without the use of dialogue. Minimal diegetic dialogue is used, only enough to add to the story of the pregnant teen girl.

4. Editing

Editing can be the most crucial part of any short film. Above are six screen grabs. The three on the right are from my short film, and the three on the left are from a BBC short film My Beast Friend.

In My Beast Friend, editing is used to create the seamless transformation from man in a cat suit to actual cat, and visa verse. As only the male protagonists character  can see / hear the man - cat, the woman has to be seen to pick up the cat before editing can show her holding the man - cat. Use of match on action is important in any film to create seamless transitions between shots.

In our film, we have used match on action multiple times. the example above shows the sink, the shot it snaps to of the female protagonist opening the pregnancy box, and the shot of the sink again after she has thrown it into the sink. This match on action shows the audience key props in the film and shows then the importance of the props.

5. Lighting

Lighting is an important part of Mise en scene, as it develops mood and atmosphere. Above are two screen grabs. The one in the top is from our film and the one on the bottom is again from Inconceivable.

As most of the film takes place in the day, it is interesting to see that the Inconceivable directer used the dark of night to use lighting creatively. The shot above shows the female protagonist walking in the dark being lit only by the lantern she carries. The surrounding darkness connotes to the audience that she is alone and incomplete without a child. The lantern lights her face subtly, and allows the audience to see her upset and frustrated facial expression.

Similarly, in our film we have the traumatised ex - solider, who has post traumatic stress syndrome. When he sits bolt upright in bed, the lighting from the left side source highlights only part of his face, giving the character a deep and troubled look. The low key lighting, along with the desaturated colour, makes the character look upset.

6. Pace

Having a pace-y short film involves the audience and gets then feeling strongly about the film. Above are two screen shots. The one on top is of the soldier lying in bed, the one on the bottom of the male protagonist in The Black Hole taking money from a safe.


Showing the male protagonist in The Black Hole taking money from the safe, thus breaking the law, increased the pace in the film. Short films often have a fast paced beginning or ending, to quickly absorb the audience into the film, as it can be hard to do so when you only have a few minutes.


We have tried to achieve a fast paced scene in our film, by layering images on top of each other, as well as layered sound effects, to create a flash back style nightmare for the ex - soldier. The confusing layered screen confuses the audience and creates a sense of urgency and panic in the audience, increasing the pace.


However over all the film is relatively slow paced, to create a sense of loneliness and peace. We do this with sweeping shots of the sea and long tracking shots of the male protagonist.


7. Narrative

Many short films follow a non liner narrative. This is because that there is often not enough time in the film to create a liner story line to a high standard. Above are two screen grabs, one showing our male protagonist and the other showing the female protagonist from About A Girl.


About A Girl follows the non liner storyline of the female protagonist. Like many short films it follows the story of one main character. This allows the audience to really identify with one character, instead of bombarding them with many main characters; this could be difficult to handle in a short film.


Our short film s very similar to About A Girl as it follows a similar narrative. The non liner plot line focuses around our Male protagonist who suits in a bench and pictures the lives of passers by. It flickers between him and the other minor characters, allowing the audience ton create a relationship to the male protagonist. The voice over, different to the diegetic sound of About A Girl, helps the audience understand the plot.


8. Character

Characters in short films or often eccentric, lively and bold characters. This is to draw in the audience and to give them something to immediately grab on to. Above are two screen grabs. The one on top shows one of our characters, the office work, sitting in his office. The one below form My Beast Friend shows the cat man sitting in his box.


The cat man certainly fits the bill of an eccentric bold character. It automatically grabs the audiences attention. The swearing, angry Scottish cat is of great comparison to our male protagonist.


In our film, we inverted this stereotype, and created a quiet calm character for the protagonist. This also grabs the viewers attention. Instead of smacking them in the face with a mad character, we are softly encouraging them to watch the film by making them ask questions about the character of our protagonist, such as who is he, and why is he so quiet.


9. Facial Expression

As many films uses close ups to show emotion, the mise en scene of facial expressions is of great importance. The two screen shots about show the male protagonist form The Black Hole and the female character from out film.


These two images depicted different emotions, so are good examples. The protagonist in The Black Hole is showing the emotion of greed, as he want s the money. The chocolate bar is symbolism of this greed. I thought that the close up facial expressions was compelling and made me want to carry on watching the film.


We used facial expressions in our film to show emotion as we have many high emotion plot lines for the minor characters. Above you can see the female character finding out she is pregnant. Even with the stick in the way the audience can see the fear and upset on her face, which suggests that she doesn't want to be pregnant.


Poster


We have applied conventions of real life media products to our films poster too. Below is a poster for the 2010 film Brighton Rock directed by Rowan Joffe

We can tell a lot form this film from the poster:

• We can see that it is a hybrid film, combining the genres of action and social realism. The male on the front of the poster looks almost menacing, and his costume connotes to the audience that he has importance business to attend to, as he is wearing a suit.
• The darkness of the background and the pier suggests to the audience that the film takes place in dark, scary times. You could argue that this film could be in the crime genre too.
• The two female characters suggest to the audience that this film has aspects of action in it. The female in the red coat looks frightened, like she might be running away. The colour red also suggests a target, like a bull to a red flag, which connotes to the audience that she may be a victim in this film.
• The other female character looks skeptically at the male character. This suggests that she is involved with him, but my not approve of what he is doing to her and other people.

Generally conventions of a film poster are

• To encourage the audience to go and see the film.
• To have the writing justified, normally left
• To have reviews and star ratings on to show the audience the reception of the film.
• To include the relevant information of stars, director, producer etc.

We have used similar conventions in our poster.

• The male protagonist stands out against a blurred background, connoting to the audience that he is the focal point of the film. His positioning tells the audience of his importance.
• His strong stern facial expressions reinforce the serious drama of our film.
• The desaturated colour of the posters also connotes to the audience the male protagonist loneliness in the world, and the blurred background shows that he is alone, even when surround by people. This is why he pictures other people lives.

We have also followed the general conventions, to give the poster a professional feel


Little White Lies Review


As part of our assessment, we have to follow the house style of the LWL magazine. This means using the exact layout that the magazine uses.

This includes:

• A large, landscape picture from the film, normally depicting a moment that can be easily photographed.
• The title, justified left,in bold.
• The director, stars and release date in bold italics underneath the title.
• The first letter of the review in a large bold font.
• The three analysis of the film at the end; anticipation, enjoyment, and in retrospect.
• The reviewers name in bold.
• 3 columns or text
• The magazine is aimed at 25 to 35 year old film literate males, so the lexis of the review should be sophisticated and film relevant.

We think that we have been able to achieve the house style in our review

We have inserted a picture of our male protagonist walking towards the camera, have the release date, director and stars in italics under the bold title. The actual review is in 3 columns, has a bold starting letter and the reviewers name is also in bold.


We have also added the little eye in the bottom right corner. As LWL have themed magazines, such as the Black Swan issue, they normally have a little motif in the corner of every page. We have imagined that our film would have its own issue, so have put an eye in the corner.


In conclusion


I feel that overall, our three media products follow the conventions of typical short films / posters / LWL reviews. We have done everything possible to give our products the most professional finish.


2. How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

Script:

"Overall, I think our three media products work well together. The short film, along with the poster and review are effective, together a marketing package the would provide a base for the film to be marketed.

In the poster, the main image is that of the solitary male protagonist. Having just the main protagonist the forefront of the poster connotes to the audience that he is the main focus point in the film. This fully links the poster and the film together. Having just the male protagonist on the poster raises questions for a potential view, such as ‘Who is he?’, ‘What is he doing?’ and ‘Why?’ These questions are then answered in the film, which opening shots include one of the male protagonist sitting alone. This will remind people of the poster and associate him to the film. We also used the images to create a sense of loneliness and secrecy in the poster, as the protagonist stands out of a blurred back ground. This conveys to the audience that he is alone, an image which is later reinforced in the film.

Our review also uses the iconic image of the lone protagonist, again to link it to the film whether the reader has seen it or not. We have tried to follow the house style of a conventional Little White Lies review for our own review. This includes keeping the bold title of ‘Blind Eye’ across the image of the protagonist walking towards he camera. This again links the ancillary tasks together with the image.

As the review is in a magazine aimed at 25 – 35 year old males, it is unlikely that our target audience would be reading this magazine. This is why the poster is of paramount importance to pull the audience.

Overall I think we have a strong media package, with a compelling poster to draw in the audience and a reverse, if read by the target audience, to encourage the audience to go and see the film."

3. What have you leaned from audience feedback?


Looking at the audience feedback, it is clear that whilst some aspects of the film where praised, others needed work on.


To evaluate the film, I gathered together a group of people who where in the target audience demographic, 18 to 25 years old, of both genders. Of the 20 people 10 were male and 10 were female. My volunteers watched the movie and provided responses.

This response tells me that whilst some members of the audience understood the concept of the film, others were not. One female member said 'I thought he was a mind reader' This suggests in future, I should be careful to work on narrative more. Narrative is by far the weakest aspect of the short film, as we found it difficult to portray our ideas to the audience.

This response correlates with what I thought in my previous answers. I definitely feel now that I should have filmed more shots for this particular scene, as this would have provided a better emotional response from the audience.


Other remarks


One audience member said 'I did not understand the final story when the man was tying up his shoes and dressing in a bed sheet'
-As the creator, I know that this scene was to show the male character becoming his alter ego, thus breaking out of his mediocre life, how ever this was not conveyed clearly to the audience. I have come to the conclusion that more shots should have been filmed to make this ending clearer.


However we have had many positive comments as well:


'The whole soundtrack was intense, really gave the film an edge.'


'The pregnancy story was shot really well, looked great.'


'I'd go and see it as part of a film festival.'


On the whole, I think that we have proven that with a few tweaks to the movie, we have a powerful social realism film that effects our audience demographic.


Ancillary Tasks


To get overall feedback for our poster and review, we have put a picture of them onto the popular social networking site of Facebook.

We received good feedback for our poster, will many respondents saying they felt it 'looked professional.' They said the aligning was perfect, although one said that the writing at the bottom reading 'Don't turn a BLIND EYE' could have been enlarged to increases awareness of it.


Our review received similar responses. I also printed off a copy and showed to a friend who is an avid 'Little White Lies' reader. He said:


'I feel that this is a great attempt at a LWL review. The layout and format is spot on. the only thing i would change would be to use some more sophisticated lexis in the actual review itself.'


This is great feedback, and makes me confident that the ancillary tasks have been completed to a high standard.


4.did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

http://prezi.com/pno4f69jp5c4/new-media-technologies/