Thursday 18 March 2010
Evaluation of PROJECT (very VERY long)
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My film is called Isolation and tells the story of a man’s life. This basic plot outline would fit my short film into the Genre of Drama, or the subset of a ‘Biopic’. My film does conform to other aspects of the genre of Drama as well. The main plot is quite serious, with the downfall of our protagonist and his eventual death, which is a common feature amongst Drama films like ‘Philadelphia’ in which Tom Hanks is the protagonist and we follow his life until his death at the end. Another aspect of Drama films is characterization or developing the characters identity to create a sense of realism. The audience need a complex and diverse character to develop the character properly in their minds; if the character is undeveloped the audience will not buy into the story and the character will be stereotypical and uninteresting. Getting a strong sense of character is relatively simple in a feature length film (although some still fail) and you can create a connection with the audience and the character. In a short Drama film this is far more difficult as you have to develop your character in a very short time. My has little action as it is just one man going over in his head where his life went wrong, which proved beneficial as it gave me time to develop his character through Flashbacks and also the way he portrayed himself.
I also made the downfall of the man quite believable verging on the stereotypical, for example the affair he has and the alcohol. These themes are synonymous within Drama films, like the film ‘American Beauty’ in which Kevin Spacey’s character Lester delves into drugs and affairs to escape from his boring marriage. Making the films issues similar to other films lets the audience draw parallels between the plots, which add an understanding and a depth; they can relate my characters quick overview to other films and mix them together. The realism of the mans problems would also create an empathy for him if anyone in the audience has experience these troubles as well, which fits into the ‘reception theory’ in which people draw their own meanings into this character based on their own experiences.
Another form and convention of Drama films I have in my film is the way sound and lighting is used. Most of my film is in black and white which may not by an inherent factor within mainstream dramas, but it was an effect used to great effect in older films such as the films of the ‘New Wave’. Films like Billy Liar and Saturday Night Sunday Morning were part of this ‘wave’ in which they focused on real life issues and wanted to show a gritty realism to life in comparison to Hollywood. Despite colour film being around at the time, the directors chose to use black and white perhaps symbolizing the tone of the film and the feelings of the characters. This was an effect I decided to use in my film to show the difference between the present and his past, with the flashbacks. However the use of black and white was for another purpose which challenges the stereotypes of Drama films; I also used black and white to show that when he is in the grave yard he is actually dead. This supernatural aspect to my film goes against forms and conventions of Drama’s and gives the film a twist from what would be just a stereotypical Drama plot.
I used sound and music in my film to both challenge and support the conventions of Drama films. All the way through my film I made sure that you could hear the sounds of the graveyards. I did this by using sound bridges on the transitions slides and overlapping the graveyard sounds with the music. This was to give the realism to the scene and also an eerie tone, an effect that I have seen in the ‘Godfather’ films in which non diajetic soundtrack is mixed with diajetic sounds of either the city or countryside. Without even a character being present the film creates its own realism and tone and I tried to use this idea in my film, especially in the title credits where the screen is just black with the title, whilst the music and the graveyard with the eerie cawing of a crow creates a sombre tone from the outset. In contrast to the realism of the diajetic sounds, the main speaking in the film is a non-diajetic voice over in the mans head. I did this to not only give the film a spooky feeling with the main character just staring at the audience at times but also to give the feeling that the audience is in his head, gaining more empathy to his character. Despite trying to create a sense of the supernatural with the voice overs, it is not totally unheard of to use voice overs in films. Films such as the Shawshank Redemption use Morgan Freeman’s voice over to tell the story a lot like I used my characters voice to tell the story but I feel that I developed this technique slightly, to create this sense of the supernatural.
I nearly all film mise-en-scene is used to create realism especially in Drama films. I used mise-en-scene and camera shots to add to the realism but I also used it to hide the twist in the film. As I have said before I wanted to use pretty stereotypical issues for the man so the audience could fill in the gaps and develop their own views on him, and I added upon this with the mise en scene. For example in the scene with his wife watching TV I filmed it in a very basic room, one that you could find in any house. I positioned the camera in an over shoulder shot behind the characters sofa so we could see the whole room. The man is supposed to be bored so I put on a interior design program, which I expect many of the male audience could relate to and empathise with the character. These little tweaks to the shots were done on purpose to make the situation the man is in more realistic. I also used camera shots to create a realism in the characters. I used lots of close ups and extreme close ups in the graveyard to show the mans emotions and feelings. I also used medium shots to show the relationship between the man and his wife on the sofa, with most of their bodies in the shot showing the awkwardness between them. These camera shots were all to show the realism of the situation the man is in and highlight the feelings he had, supporting the idea of a Drama. However I also used camera shots and mise-en-scene to show hide the supernatural element of the film and also create some of the black humour. In the very first scene the composition of the scene has the protagonist out of the way to the right of the scene. The main focus of the shot is on the pair of legs of a passer by, who ignores him. The fact he is ignored and is positioned out of the way hints at the fact he is isolated and feeling insignificant as do the high angle shots that appear later. Another hint to the twist is the fact that the mans arms are always down by his side or out of shot. This is highlighting he has lost use of them as you would if you had cut your wrist. This idea came from the film supernatural film ‘Constantine’ in which Keanu Reeves kills himself and cannot use his arms. This use of camera shots to hint or hide the final twist challenges the froms and conventions of Drama films.
I also involved a black humour into my film to give the man another layer and the film another dimension and originality. Not only did I use flashbacks in my films but I also used thoughts the man had to show this dark humour. For example the scene with the gun and the hostage, which I used not only to give the film some action but also some humour. I got this idea from films such as ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Requiem for a Dream’ in which the protagonists imagine what they would like to do and the director chooses to show how it would happen. This effect is often quite humorous and added to this dark humour with the close up shot of the main character pointing a gun at the screen. It provides a complete break from the serious theme of the film and the angry, gangster style expression he has is meant to invoke humour. The fact he is imaging killing somebody makes the humour a bit more edgy, and would probably appeal to my most male target audience. So with this humour I am challenging the stereotypes of the seriousness of Drama films and appealing to a totally different audience.
In conclusion to this first question I feel that my film, despite the base plot of the mans life being quite realistic and the empathy I created with the audience towards him pushing it into the drama genre, I feel that this film is dispersed across many other genres and cannot be lumped into Drama genre. The dark humour throughout takes away from the serious tone, summed up by the irony of the Beatles song ‘I’m So Tired’ at the end and the supernatural twist drags it further away from the drama genre. I feel that the whole idea of a short film challenges the Genre categories that have been around since the 1970’s and the fact that short films have to pack so much into a short time results in films that have more of the directors influence on them, then the influence of genre. Short films are a chance for directors not to make an epic but to express themselves in a short time. To further this point I believe that short-film should either be its own genre, so people can judge the ‘greatness’ of the films or short films are more a result of the ‘Auteur system’ whereby films are influenced and rated on the style of the director and not the genre they are in.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Poster:
Before even attempting my poster I did lots of research into other film posters. I looked at films that were of a similar genre or plot to mine, such as ‘The Machinist’, to get ideas on how other film create effective combinations between the film and the poster. I found that with many films especially of a thriller or supernatural genre the poster had little of no clear hints to the plot. For example the ‘Machinist’ most just has the bleeded image of a post it note stuck on a wall. The only writing is that of the title which is in bold, the name of the actor and a quote from the film. I liked the idea of the simplicity of this poster as it left the plot line completely ambiguous which I thought I needed with my film, because I did not want to give the twist or even the plot away. Other posters I looked at were ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘Fight Club’. Sweeney Todd use of colour appealed to me because it had definite connotations with the mise en scene of the film. I decided that was another important aspect of combing film and poster. This final influence I got from the all was the simplicity and the focus on one tiny aspect of the film to intrigue the viewer. For example ‘fight club’ used a bar of pink soap as the poster. This is a complete red herring to the film and appears as a tiny sub story yet the poster makes it look as if it is important.
With my poster I chose to use a one image with bleed covering the whole page. This one image idea is in contrast to more mainstream and longer films that have a lot on the poster to entice the viewer with big hints, like the old ‘Star Wars’ posters that had nearly every character in the film on them. I thought of just having the main character on the poster but this seemed to me to be to crude, so I used a statue from the graveyard that proves gives no clue to the film at all on first glimpse. I liked the idea and the simplicity of using one object from the film to represent the film, and as this statue appears for about a second and a half in my film I feel it has the desired effect of ambiguous combination with the film. I change the colour of the statue to red, which further combines it with the film, telling the viewer there is going to be danger, as red connotes danger or even blood. Another feature from my research I added into the poster was the small amount of wording; I just have the title, the director and a quote from the film. The type is in a very basic font and white on a black background, to give nothing away about the film. I like the tagline of the film that stands out in contrast to the black background with white text. The use of a rhetorical question also draws in the audience.
I feel that my post fits in well with the conventions of that films of a similar plot have used and also draws they eye. However unlike ‘the Sweeney Todd’ poster I did not involve any of the characters as I wanted to keep the plot ambiguous.
If I were to do it again I would perhaps experiment with other forms of posters and see if I could challenge the conventions that similar films have stuck too. The main point in a film poster is to link to the film and draw an audience in without giving too much away. I feel I have to this with subtle links to the danger in the plot and the graveyard statue hinting at a location, but you could not really deduce any great plot hints from this poster. I used some digital computer editing on the poster; just changed the colour to red. The simplicity of the poster is to entice the audience to be inquisitive as to what it means, and then hook them into watching the film.
Article:
I looked at many article review pages, especially from the magazine Empire. For my article I wanted to make it genuine, as if it were in a mainstream magazine yet I also wanted a link between the film and the article which I feel aside from the picture does not appear that much in film magazine, in comparison to music magazines in which pages are wholly influenced by bands.
Firstly to fit to the forms and conventions of a film review magazine I started off with a simple border, that holds the page together. I used a plain white background, a feature key within Empire magazine. I also had a balance between pictures and texts hopefully achieving a 50/50 split. I used two stills from the film, one used as the focus of the whole page, bleeding to two edges. I also used a large bold header of the name of the film, telling readers immediately what the article is about. Another similar factor I used was a movie quote almost as a slogan from the film, on top of the main picture to entice the readers interest. I also used call outs in the writing, which is a factor more involved with music magazine and perhaps a place were I challenged the conventions of film magazines. However I did come up with a brand name and fit it to the bottom of each page, giving the article exclusivity to that magazine. All of these similarities are meant to root the article firmly into a film magazine.
However I did challenge the conventions slightly, to get more of a link to my film. Firstly I used the same font for my poster and my film to provide a sort of ‘brand’ link for the film. I also used the same movie quote from the poster in my article, giving the two great effectiveness in linking to the film. More subtly I tried to keep the simplicity of the poster and the black and white of the film and fit it into the article. I did with the two tone colour scheme, which contrast to the conventional 3 tone colour scheme that film magazines normally have. This use of black writing on white background just creates a small link to the film, but a link that I feel that film magazines are missing. Music magazines are far more flexible and so get across the bands ideology better and I think this is an idea that movie magazines could pick up on.
If I was to do the article again I feel I may have challenged the conventions a bit more and experimented with what could be achieved. I would also probably have look at less mainstream film magazines as stereotypically short films would not feature in a mainstream movie magazine like Empire. I may also have used some behind the scenes shot to create a sense of exclusivity with the film and the magazine, as they got behind the scenes.
Overall however I feel the combination of my ancillary texts with my film has worked well. I especially like how my poster sort of creates a brand identity for the film, as people would immediately link the two together with the quote and the statue. This ‘branding’ was what I tried to pick up on in my article, which I feel I could have done to a greater extent with more time, yet I feel on the whole the article goes well with conventions of a film review page.
What have you learned from audience feedback?
on the whole I was pleased with my audience feedback. The film got mostly positive remarks and scored an average of 4/5. the main positive points drawn from the feedback our that people said the film flows and they did not see the twist coming. Also the filming was smooth and we achieved an artistic feel to the film. Some people said there needed to be a bit more focus on his childhood, which I can understand as I had to cut some due to timing. I feel that trying to do a plot based Drama in such a short times harms the characterization and this is why people have said this. One or two said there needed to be more flashbacks, which further adds to the thoughts of creating a character in such a short time is difficult. Maybe the plotline could have advantages with being a feature length movie in which the character could be delved into.
I found this feed back to be helpful and made me think more into what a short film actually is and can you have a regimented structure to a short film. On the whole the reviews were positive and have given me great pride in my film, also helping me to determine its success’s and gave me some scope for improvement.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and the research, planning and evaluation stages?
Unlike the music magazine last year, in which most of the work was done inside on the computer, this year I had to get used to using a film camera. At first I had no idea how to work them, but after the preliminary practice filming for a couple of lessons, I soon got the hang of it. I started with simple camera shots at first the messed around with the tri pods and hand held to see what I could achieve. I now much prefer working with medium rather than still cameras, as you can give the art far more life. The only difficulty was doing a tracking shot for which you need either a professional camera of a very still hand. This is probably why there are not too many in my film!
Another new technology I used was Movie Maker. At first I thought this would be a simple matter of shoving the film together and bada boom! A Film! But no. uploading was the easy part and the editing was pretty simple. The hardships came with the voice over. I couldn’t acquire a Dictaphone or a microphone so the voice over had to be done on the camera. We then had to upload it and split the sound and film. That was difficult. Then, while hold 22 buttons at once you have to drag and drop the sound clip where you want it. It took half an hour to do one clip! After that hurdle though the rest of the program was very helpful, with transitions, sound adjusting and being able to post straight to Youtube.
The final technology I used was Microsoft publisher for my poster and article. Due to doing a magazine last year this proved very simple, and was able to get my ideas onto the screen with very little hassle. It is far more easy to create an article on publisher than word and also can be uploaded onto the blogs. Oh and finally blog were a technology used, but that was the same as last year aswell and apart from filtering my page for two months because of one swear word the blogs where very easy to use.
My film is called Isolation and tells the story of a man’s life. This basic plot outline would fit my short film into the Genre of Drama, or the subset of a ‘Biopic’. My film does conform to other aspects of the genre of Drama as well. The main plot is quite serious, with the downfall of our protagonist and his eventual death, which is a common feature amongst Drama films like ‘Philadelphia’ in which Tom Hanks is the protagonist and we follow his life until his death at the end. Another aspect of Drama films is characterization or developing the characters identity to create a sense of realism. The audience need a complex and diverse character to develop the character properly in their minds; if the character is undeveloped the audience will not buy into the story and the character will be stereotypical and uninteresting. Getting a strong sense of character is relatively simple in a feature length film (although some still fail) and you can create a connection with the audience and the character. In a short Drama film this is far more difficult as you have to develop your character in a very short time. My has little action as it is just one man going over in his head where his life went wrong, which proved beneficial as it gave me time to develop his character through Flashbacks and also the way he portrayed himself.
I also made the downfall of the man quite believable verging on the stereotypical, for example the affair he has and the alcohol. These themes are synonymous within Drama films, like the film ‘American Beauty’ in which Kevin Spacey’s character Lester delves into drugs and affairs to escape from his boring marriage. Making the films issues similar to other films lets the audience draw parallels between the plots, which add an understanding and a depth; they can relate my characters quick overview to other films and mix them together. The realism of the mans problems would also create an empathy for him if anyone in the audience has experience these troubles as well, which fits into the ‘reception theory’ in which people draw their own meanings into this character based on their own experiences.
Another form and convention of Drama films I have in my film is the way sound and lighting is used. Most of my film is in black and white which may not by an inherent factor within mainstream dramas, but it was an effect used to great effect in older films such as the films of the ‘New Wave’. Films like Billy Liar and Saturday Night Sunday Morning were part of this ‘wave’ in which they focused on real life issues and wanted to show a gritty realism to life in comparison to Hollywood. Despite colour film being around at the time, the directors chose to use black and white perhaps symbolizing the tone of the film and the feelings of the characters. This was an effect I decided to use in my film to show the difference between the present and his past, with the flashbacks. However the use of black and white was for another purpose which challenges the stereotypes of Drama films; I also used black and white to show that when he is in the grave yard he is actually dead. This supernatural aspect to my film goes against forms and conventions of Drama’s and gives the film a twist from what would be just a stereotypical Drama plot.
I used sound and music in my film to both challenge and support the conventions of Drama films. All the way through my film I made sure that you could hear the sounds of the graveyards. I did this by using sound bridges on the transitions slides and overlapping the graveyard sounds with the music. This was to give the realism to the scene and also an eerie tone, an effect that I have seen in the ‘Godfather’ films in which non diajetic soundtrack is mixed with diajetic sounds of either the city or countryside. Without even a character being present the film creates its own realism and tone and I tried to use this idea in my film, especially in the title credits where the screen is just black with the title, whilst the music and the graveyard with the eerie cawing of a crow creates a sombre tone from the outset. In contrast to the realism of the diajetic sounds, the main speaking in the film is a non-diajetic voice over in the mans head. I did this to not only give the film a spooky feeling with the main character just staring at the audience at times but also to give the feeling that the audience is in his head, gaining more empathy to his character. Despite trying to create a sense of the supernatural with the voice overs, it is not totally unheard of to use voice overs in films. Films such as the Shawshank Redemption use Morgan Freeman’s voice over to tell the story a lot like I used my characters voice to tell the story but I feel that I developed this technique slightly, to create this sense of the supernatural.
I nearly all film mise-en-scene is used to create realism especially in Drama films. I used mise-en-scene and camera shots to add to the realism but I also used it to hide the twist in the film. As I have said before I wanted to use pretty stereotypical issues for the man so the audience could fill in the gaps and develop their own views on him, and I added upon this with the mise en scene. For example in the scene with his wife watching TV I filmed it in a very basic room, one that you could find in any house. I positioned the camera in an over shoulder shot behind the characters sofa so we could see the whole room. The man is supposed to be bored so I put on a interior design program, which I expect many of the male audience could relate to and empathise with the character. These little tweaks to the shots were done on purpose to make the situation the man is in more realistic. I also used camera shots to create a realism in the characters. I used lots of close ups and extreme close ups in the graveyard to show the mans emotions and feelings. I also used medium shots to show the relationship between the man and his wife on the sofa, with most of their bodies in the shot showing the awkwardness between them. These camera shots were all to show the realism of the situation the man is in and highlight the feelings he had, supporting the idea of a Drama. However I also used camera shots and mise-en-scene to show hide the supernatural element of the film and also create some of the black humour. In the very first scene the composition of the scene has the protagonist out of the way to the right of the scene. The main focus of the shot is on the pair of legs of a passer by, who ignores him. The fact he is ignored and is positioned out of the way hints at the fact he is isolated and feeling insignificant as do the high angle shots that appear later. Another hint to the twist is the fact that the mans arms are always down by his side or out of shot. This is highlighting he has lost use of them as you would if you had cut your wrist. This idea came from the film supernatural film ‘Constantine’ in which Keanu Reeves kills himself and cannot use his arms. This use of camera shots to hint or hide the final twist challenges the froms and conventions of Drama films.
I also involved a black humour into my film to give the man another layer and the film another dimension and originality. Not only did I use flashbacks in my films but I also used thoughts the man had to show this dark humour. For example the scene with the gun and the hostage, which I used not only to give the film some action but also some humour. I got this idea from films such as ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Requiem for a Dream’ in which the protagonists imagine what they would like to do and the director chooses to show how it would happen. This effect is often quite humorous and added to this dark humour with the close up shot of the main character pointing a gun at the screen. It provides a complete break from the serious theme of the film and the angry, gangster style expression he has is meant to invoke humour. The fact he is imaging killing somebody makes the humour a bit more edgy, and would probably appeal to my most male target audience. So with this humour I am challenging the stereotypes of the seriousness of Drama films and appealing to a totally different audience.
In conclusion to this first question I feel that my film, despite the base plot of the mans life being quite realistic and the empathy I created with the audience towards him pushing it into the drama genre, I feel that this film is dispersed across many other genres and cannot be lumped into Drama genre. The dark humour throughout takes away from the serious tone, summed up by the irony of the Beatles song ‘I’m So Tired’ at the end and the supernatural twist drags it further away from the drama genre. I feel that the whole idea of a short film challenges the Genre categories that have been around since the 1970’s and the fact that short films have to pack so much into a short time results in films that have more of the directors influence on them, then the influence of genre. Short films are a chance for directors not to make an epic but to express themselves in a short time. To further this point I believe that short-film should either be its own genre, so people can judge the ‘greatness’ of the films or short films are more a result of the ‘Auteur system’ whereby films are influenced and rated on the style of the director and not the genre they are in.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Poster:
Before even attempting my poster I did lots of research into other film posters. I looked at films that were of a similar genre or plot to mine, such as ‘The Machinist’, to get ideas on how other film create effective combinations between the film and the poster. I found that with many films especially of a thriller or supernatural genre the poster had little of no clear hints to the plot. For example the ‘Machinist’ most just has the bleeded image of a post it note stuck on a wall. The only writing is that of the title which is in bold, the name of the actor and a quote from the film. I liked the idea of the simplicity of this poster as it left the plot line completely ambiguous which I thought I needed with my film, because I did not want to give the twist or even the plot away. Other posters I looked at were ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘Fight Club’. Sweeney Todd use of colour appealed to me because it had definite connotations with the mise en scene of the film. I decided that was another important aspect of combing film and poster. This final influence I got from the all was the simplicity and the focus on one tiny aspect of the film to intrigue the viewer. For example ‘fight club’ used a bar of pink soap as the poster. This is a complete red herring to the film and appears as a tiny sub story yet the poster makes it look as if it is important.
With my poster I chose to use a one image with bleed covering the whole page. This one image idea is in contrast to more mainstream and longer films that have a lot on the poster to entice the viewer with big hints, like the old ‘Star Wars’ posters that had nearly every character in the film on them. I thought of just having the main character on the poster but this seemed to me to be to crude, so I used a statue from the graveyard that proves gives no clue to the film at all on first glimpse. I liked the idea and the simplicity of using one object from the film to represent the film, and as this statue appears for about a second and a half in my film I feel it has the desired effect of ambiguous combination with the film. I change the colour of the statue to red, which further combines it with the film, telling the viewer there is going to be danger, as red connotes danger or even blood. Another feature from my research I added into the poster was the small amount of wording; I just have the title, the director and a quote from the film. The type is in a very basic font and white on a black background, to give nothing away about the film. I like the tagline of the film that stands out in contrast to the black background with white text. The use of a rhetorical question also draws in the audience.
I feel that my post fits in well with the conventions of that films of a similar plot have used and also draws they eye. However unlike ‘the Sweeney Todd’ poster I did not involve any of the characters as I wanted to keep the plot ambiguous.
If I were to do it again I would perhaps experiment with other forms of posters and see if I could challenge the conventions that similar films have stuck too. The main point in a film poster is to link to the film and draw an audience in without giving too much away. I feel I have to this with subtle links to the danger in the plot and the graveyard statue hinting at a location, but you could not really deduce any great plot hints from this poster. I used some digital computer editing on the poster; just changed the colour to red. The simplicity of the poster is to entice the audience to be inquisitive as to what it means, and then hook them into watching the film.
Article:
I looked at many article review pages, especially from the magazine Empire. For my article I wanted to make it genuine, as if it were in a mainstream magazine yet I also wanted a link between the film and the article which I feel aside from the picture does not appear that much in film magazine, in comparison to music magazines in which pages are wholly influenced by bands.
Firstly to fit to the forms and conventions of a film review magazine I started off with a simple border, that holds the page together. I used a plain white background, a feature key within Empire magazine. I also had a balance between pictures and texts hopefully achieving a 50/50 split. I used two stills from the film, one used as the focus of the whole page, bleeding to two edges. I also used a large bold header of the name of the film, telling readers immediately what the article is about. Another similar factor I used was a movie quote almost as a slogan from the film, on top of the main picture to entice the readers interest. I also used call outs in the writing, which is a factor more involved with music magazine and perhaps a place were I challenged the conventions of film magazines. However I did come up with a brand name and fit it to the bottom of each page, giving the article exclusivity to that magazine. All of these similarities are meant to root the article firmly into a film magazine.
However I did challenge the conventions slightly, to get more of a link to my film. Firstly I used the same font for my poster and my film to provide a sort of ‘brand’ link for the film. I also used the same movie quote from the poster in my article, giving the two great effectiveness in linking to the film. More subtly I tried to keep the simplicity of the poster and the black and white of the film and fit it into the article. I did with the two tone colour scheme, which contrast to the conventional 3 tone colour scheme that film magazines normally have. This use of black writing on white background just creates a small link to the film, but a link that I feel that film magazines are missing. Music magazines are far more flexible and so get across the bands ideology better and I think this is an idea that movie magazines could pick up on.
If I was to do the article again I feel I may have challenged the conventions a bit more and experimented with what could be achieved. I would also probably have look at less mainstream film magazines as stereotypically short films would not feature in a mainstream movie magazine like Empire. I may also have used some behind the scenes shot to create a sense of exclusivity with the film and the magazine, as they got behind the scenes.
Overall however I feel the combination of my ancillary texts with my film has worked well. I especially like how my poster sort of creates a brand identity for the film, as people would immediately link the two together with the quote and the statue. This ‘branding’ was what I tried to pick up on in my article, which I feel I could have done to a greater extent with more time, yet I feel on the whole the article goes well with conventions of a film review page.
What have you learned from audience feedback?
on the whole I was pleased with my audience feedback. The film got mostly positive remarks and scored an average of 4/5. the main positive points drawn from the feedback our that people said the film flows and they did not see the twist coming. Also the filming was smooth and we achieved an artistic feel to the film. Some people said there needed to be a bit more focus on his childhood, which I can understand as I had to cut some due to timing. I feel that trying to do a plot based Drama in such a short times harms the characterization and this is why people have said this. One or two said there needed to be more flashbacks, which further adds to the thoughts of creating a character in such a short time is difficult. Maybe the plotline could have advantages with being a feature length movie in which the character could be delved into.
I found this feed back to be helpful and made me think more into what a short film actually is and can you have a regimented structure to a short film. On the whole the reviews were positive and have given me great pride in my film, also helping me to determine its success’s and gave me some scope for improvement.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and the research, planning and evaluation stages?
Unlike the music magazine last year, in which most of the work was done inside on the computer, this year I had to get used to using a film camera. At first I had no idea how to work them, but after the preliminary practice filming for a couple of lessons, I soon got the hang of it. I started with simple camera shots at first the messed around with the tri pods and hand held to see what I could achieve. I now much prefer working with medium rather than still cameras, as you can give the art far more life. The only difficulty was doing a tracking shot for which you need either a professional camera of a very still hand. This is probably why there are not too many in my film!
Another new technology I used was Movie Maker. At first I thought this would be a simple matter of shoving the film together and bada boom! A Film! But no. uploading was the easy part and the editing was pretty simple. The hardships came with the voice over. I couldn’t acquire a Dictaphone or a microphone so the voice over had to be done on the camera. We then had to upload it and split the sound and film. That was difficult. Then, while hold 22 buttons at once you have to drag and drop the sound clip where you want it. It took half an hour to do one clip! After that hurdle though the rest of the program was very helpful, with transitions, sound adjusting and being able to post straight to Youtube.
The final technology I used was Microsoft publisher for my poster and article. Due to doing a magazine last year this proved very simple, and was able to get my ideas onto the screen with very little hassle. It is far more easy to create an article on publisher than word and also can be uploaded onto the blogs. Oh and finally blog were a technology used, but that was the same as last year aswell and apart from filtering my page for two months because of one swear word the blogs where very easy to use.
final magazine review
This is the final draft of my film review page. One page is a review of the film and the other page is an interview with the actor from the film, which are two common features within film magazines.
I stuck with the pretty main stream codes and conventions of film magazines like 'Empire' to achieve an authentic style and also to challenge what people see as a short film, which is usually specialist, by putting it in a more mainstream type of article so more people could access this short film. I stuck to conventions like using the pictures to dominate the pages, with bleeds to at least two edges. I also used add in’s like side boxes describing the pictures and also call outs articles to draw the readers interest to the page. Another feature I noticed in mainstream magazines is a movie quote incorporated into the page, which I tried to emulate in my by taking the films sort of slogan and putting it onto the image. The slogan in a question and this directly involves the reader, giving a sense of a bond by asking a question. I also used rhetorical questions in the articles and some well-used clichés, which I saw, were features of film review articles. Another added aspect with the link to the website at the end of the article creating another dimension to the review of the film, and people who are interested could gain a type of intertextuality and look into the world of short films. The page is a pretty stereotypical layout with a page header that is the movies title, immediately telling the reader what the article is about.
To challenge conventions I put the genre of short films, which usually leans towards niche audiences, into a mainstream format. However I also challenged a few magazine conventions like not using a 3-colour pallet, as I wanted the article to link to the films dual tone black and white.
Overall I feel this page works really well and looks as if it could be in a mainstream movie magazine. Its even has its own brand name 'Movie-Book'! The use of codes and conventions I have seen in other mainstream texts has helped me achieve the same effect, yet this review has subtle challenges to stereotypes of genre and colour use, to create cohesion between the film and the article which is surprisingly uncommon, aside from the images, in movie magazines.
magazine base
This is the base outline of my magazine article. I gave it a pretty generic name of 'the movie book' just to highlight it as a movie magazine. I have also used larged bleeds of stills from the film and also text boxes with added information on the,which are both factors I saw in my research into magazines.Wednesday 17 March 2010
Audience feed back results
I handed my questionnaire out to 16 people who watched the film. The results were interesting and helped to measure the successes in the film and also a few not so strong parts.
The results of the first question with the rating was a great and well-appreciated result with 13 people giving it 4/5. There was even one 5!! This was surprising to me but I hope it truly represents people’s thoughts on the film. Other successful result was that every single participant agreed the film flowed and said the editing was smooth. This technical side was a main goal of my film, as I wanted to achieve an artistic edge to the film, as well as the plotline.
Most of the participants understood the twist and did not see it coming. However some of the participants said that the film could do with more flashbacks, hinting that some of the graveyard scenes were too long. Despite this on the whole I think that the film had more successes than failures according to the questionnaire. All of the participants said that they would recommend the film to other people and the film kept them hooked. I also got some constructive criticism with the last question with people saying there could have been added focus on his childhood and family life. This was included in the film originally but had to be cut for time. However this does tell me this story could be fitted into a feature length film, because of the strong plot line.
These results proved helpful and receiving this recognition gave me as a director confidence in the film. These questionnaires will help greatly with my evaluation, so thank you people.
final poster
This is the final poster design. I decided upon the red statue picture and used it to 'bleed' to the edges of the page, because I feel it not only looks the most eye catching but also has many pragmatic links to the short film. Red connotes many things, the foremost being red connoting blood and death and also hinting at the danger in the film. The poster also leaves the main plot line ambiguous which is a factor I took from the Machinist poster I evaluated. The title font is in white in contrast to the black to make it stark and stand out. I composed the picture with the title not at the head of the page as is often done with more formal posters, this was to give a more arty style and also it is a feature I have seen in other poster of the same genre. I put in a tagline from the film to use as a sort of slogan that would interest people and give a small idea to the plot line. At first I had put in stars as a review under the title but I believe it did not work and put too much on the poster, which I wanted to be quite basic and focused on the bleeded image. Overall I believe the poster has come out well and fits in well with the film project. It does need some finer points like the credits at the bottom of the poster that give an authentic look to the poster. However I feel the poster and picture would be associated well with the film and is quite striking.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
magazine article analysis
These magazine articles are all taken from film magazines and all of them have startling differences compared to the music magazines we looked at last year. The music articles were packed full of information and pictures with lots of subtexts and exta information. These pages are heavily dependant on a couple of large pictures and just texts put around them. The pictures are bleeds to at least one side of the page and in one case the whole page is a bleed image. The images and texts are on white backgrounds, a feature that I have found is prevalent in many film magazine. There are also bold titles so when you are flicking through the magazine your eye is hooked by the pictures and the films you want to read about. The actual reviews are in very small writing and often just chunks of texts, revealing that people read the reviews for more information then entertainment. I will try and incorperate these aspects into my magazine article by using large pictures and titles and an informative review of the film.
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