Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I have decided to present the ways in which I have used conventions in real media products through sound podcasts. The videos below feature my audio commentary of how my work has used real media products accompanied by images as examples.

  

Below is a video of Lucy and I commenting on how our short film challenges the conventions of real media products. The sound hasn't picked up very well on the footage recorded so I have included a transcript of what is said below the video clip.

Transcript

Abigail: Hi I'm Abigail Stafford

Lucy: And I'm Lucy Matthews

Abigail: And we're going to talk about how our film PULSE challenges the conventions of real media products. The first way in which our film challenges conventions is the repetition of our cut shot of the train passing by. Usually in short films and features films there are various cuts used and loads of editing techniques are used to implement these cuts, however in our film only the video of a train passing by is used. The repetition of this allows the audience to build up a relationship with footage they're seeing and acknowledge that this is the cut between the two narratives. Also because the train is moving it shows the motion between the two narratives going from the future back to the present.

Lucy: Our film also challenges conventions by having no dialogue. We believe this an effective way of engaging the audience and make them become attached to the character in a more emotional way. It also builds tension and suspense, a main convention of a thriller short film shown through our research. We also wanted the expression of the body language to be portrayed stronger through no dialogue. 

Abigail: Another way in which we challenge the conventions of typical media product is in our ending, in an iconic film where there is a stalker and a victim usually you find out at the end what happens to the victim, so whether they're freed or attacked. However in our film, we've left it quite open ended as you can see by the broken camera shot at the end this is the kind of cliffhanger which allows the audience to be more engaged with the film as they wonder what happens as it unanswered and because they're engaged they are more part of the film themselves as they participate more and they'd like to find out what happens and so intrigues them to watch more.

Lucy: Also our film challenges the linear narrative by having a dual narrative this goes against Todorov's theory, something which was found effective in thriller films. It gives the element of surprise for the audience and allows them to be more engaged with the storyline and also is an effective way of building tension and suspense again.

Abigail: So they're the four main ways in which our short film has challenged the conventions of real media products.

The main way in which my media product develops the forms of convention of real media products is that although it is an iconic fairy tale plot of a vulnerable girl being kidnapped there are many developments to the usual storyline. First of all the parrallel narratives is a new approach to telling this iconic storyline and so keeps the audience engaged. Also, according to Todorov's theory there is a restoration of the status quo at the end of a fairytale yet our storyline ends quite open-ended and on a cliffhanger where the situation appears quite grim.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have collected audience feedback in a variety of ways.

This video shows feedback from Miranda Burns (the victim) and Kieran Forbes (the stalker) as I interview them about their roles and thoughts about the final cut of the film.

What have I learnt?

The first thing I learnt from this type of feedback is that both actors were happy with their roles in the film as they felt they could relate to the persona of the characters. The roles they played were different to any roles they have had previously. Both of them loved the plot and the concept of cutting between the two narratives. They were also both happy with the guidance that Lucy and I offered as the directors.

On another project I am working out outside of my school studies I am working with some short film directors. I asked two of them to review my film from a professional perspective. The response I got is featured below.

- Craig Ford - Director and Founder of Rockwood Pictures and Queer As Film

Cameron King - Director

What have I learnt?

I am very grateful for the feedback I have received from the two Directors Craig Ford and Cameron King, as their professional eye has helped me to acknowledge what works well in my film as well as any aspects I can improve upon in the future. Craig considered my film to be "Very Blair Witch" which is a compliment. Also he expressed how impressed he was with my first "dabble into film". This was very encouraging feedback from someone who has created professional short films, founded their own short film company and won numerous film awards over the years.

Cameron's comments were also very inspiring as he couldn't pick out any technical faults within the film. He stated that the use of a parrallel narrative was very effective in portaying the message behind my film. The comment he made that was most encouraging was "Your direction was influential yet unique, which is difficult for a director to achieve." both Lucy and I were extremely happy with this response.

Through uploading PULSE to youtube, Lucy and I received more great feedback about our film. 
 

 

 

What have I learnt?

The amount of views we have had from YouTube and the number of likes is very pleasing. Both Lucy and I are glad that our film turned out exactly how we wanted it to if not better. The email from the youtuber suggesting that we enter our film into a short film competition was also a pleasant surprise.

 

  After I uploaded our film to YouTube I then posted it on Facebook for all my friend's to see.

  What have I learnt?

Again, the feedback was great and it was clear that our friends understood the concept of the film and shared the same enjoyment that we did. As you can see by the comments above many of our friends were impressed and in some cases shocked at how well our film turned out.

  The main way in which I collected audience feedback was by creating a questionnaire.  I created this questionnaire and then showcased my film to 30 people of all ages. I organised three film showings whereby the audience could fill out the questionnaire immediately after watching PULSE.

  Below is the template of my questionnaire and a selection of the responses.

"Some very professional camera shots - love the rushing trains between scenes."

 

"It was intense and engaging, caught my attention straight away."

"looked like it was a big film crew directing it."

 

"drama in every shot"

 

"excellent construction, editing, sound and acting."

 

What have I learnt?

I analysed the responses for all 30 who participated in the questionnaire and the information collected below shows my findings.

 

STATISTIC: 100% SAID THEY WERE ENTERTAINED

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

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

Premiere Elements 9 Analysis

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Ancillary Tasks: Final Film Review

Ancillary Tasks: Creating my Film Review

I used Microsoft Publisher to construct my film review. Featured below is a still image of my creation process. I print screened the main picture from the film and imported it as an image. All of the bordering and the majority of writing was created using Publisher effects. The font I used for PULSE I did take from dafont and the barbed wire bordering was already an existing image.

Using basic lines on publisher I created the pulse monitor reading shown below. I did this simply by following a template and joining up individual lines to look realistic. I then copy and pasted this image numerous times, lined them up next to one another and altered the colours to create a monitoring effect.

Here is what the final product of my film review looks like:

Ancillary Tasks: Researching Film Reviews

The image featured below shows my initial research into existing film reviews. I found these images online and by reading through the reviews it gave me a greater insight into the various aspects of film reviews and what they should contain.

I then decided to purchase a copy of 'Total Film' so that I could conduct a more detailed analysis into the features of film reviews. As you can see by the images shown below I scanned in the reviews along with my annotations.

The annotations have not shown up very clearly on the imported images so I have decided to analyse one of the reviews I found online.

Ancillary Tasks: Final Posters

Below is my final poster representing the second narrative in my film PULSE.

Below is the final poster that reflects the main narrative of my film PULSE.

Ancillary Tasks: Creating the Posters

The first poster that I decided to create would represent the main narrative of an 'ordinary' day in the life of a teenage girl. I decided that the picture should be taken in the room that features in the first few scenes of the film. Also, using the prop of a lipstick suggests that the victim character is going about her daily routine and the camera acts as if it is the mirror.

Above are some of the initial photographs I took.

Out of the images taken the picture above is the photograph that I decided to feature. This is because the image is quite symmetrical and like in the poster of the Black Swan de-constructed in the previous post you can see the intensity in the character's eyes. 

However, the original photograph appeared quite plain and simple, so I played around with some of the texture effects on Adobe Photoshop.

Shown above is the effect that I chose as it softens the image and creates a sense of innocence and sweetness. Another option could be to have sharpened and darkened the image however I don't believe this would have represented the vulnerability of the character as well as this effect shown above.

Here this print screened image shows how I created the poster using Microsoft Publisher. I inserted the picture and used the print margins on Publisher to assess what the size of my poster should be. Also, I imported some possible fonts to use from http://www.dafont.com/ to see whether they suited my poster style.

Above is the image of the final poster. As you can see, I have adopted some of the techniques mentioned in the post before.

The second poster that I created resembles the other aspect of the narrative whereby the innocent victim has been captured by the stalker. 

As you can see by my initial photographs taken, shown above, for my second poster I have decided to keep the same angle so the victim is facing the camera. This allows the audience to see the fear and shock in present in the intensity of the victim's eyes. The top row of photographs were the first images to be taken. However, the hand of the gentleman used was to overwhelming for the image. Although, its force and positioning appears quite powerful it does distract the audience from the victim's reaction. Therefore, I decided to use somebody elses hand as opposed to that of the stalker that acts in the film. The second row features said hand model. The hand over the mouth is symbolic of a kidnapping and the dark clothing and background will be helpful when editing the colour complexion. 

Shown above is the photograph that I finally decided upon. This is because in this picture you can really sense the fear and despair of the victim through her facial expression and eyes.

Using photoshop I enhanced my image by playing around with various eerie effects. Shown above are my favourite three. Although I do like all three, I decided that the image on the far left is more iconic of a gruesome horror film as opposed to my film PULSE. As well as this, you cannot see the expression of the chracter in this shot. The photograph on the far right is the image I initially chose. This is because all of the features of the charcter are clearly defined illminated by the shadowing and lighting effect. However, the image in the middle has all of these attributes whilst maintaing a soft toning effect - giving the audience that glimpse of hope and warmth that she may survive her ordeal.

Hence why I chose this as my final image for my second poster.

Similarly to the production of poster one, here I used Microsoft Publisher as the publication where I created my work. This enabled me to lay out all images and fonts next to one another to see which worked and which didn't. This was the most efficient and effective method of creating the posters.

Here is the final product of my second poster.

Another reason why I decided to create two posters is not only because they can both represent different aspects of my film but also because my teacker's can decide which is my better piece of work and so decide which piece to mark and submit.

Ancillary tasks: Poster research

Before creating my ancillary task poster, I have conducted some research into existing film posters. Here are some posters that are a similar genre to my short film PULSE.

I considered the iconic conventions of these film posters and shall adopt some of techniques when creating my poster. When analysing this film poster of the Black Swan and seeing that it had an other poster (see below) I realised that because my film has a dual narrative I could create two film posters representing both of the narratives. I have now decided to research more into films that have a variety of posters to see how I can use the techniques they have used when creating my poster ancillary task.

As mentioned above, these posters of the Black Swan film represent the two sides of the story. The posters are complete opposites of one another and so portray both aspects to the audience.

Likewise, Spider-man 3 is another film whereby two personalities of the same character are shown. This is illustrated by the three film posters that I have inserted above.

The Batman posters featured above show the perspective of two of the main characters in the film The Dark Night. As you can see from the images, both posters follow the same format and are extremely similar. I have chosen not to use this technique as it won't successfully represent the two narratives of PULSE.

The poster above of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is an early example in film where two sides of a film are portrayed in one poster. Again, I decided not to adopt this technique as it could over complicate my creation and so by creating two posters I can clearly represent the two narratives.

Although these film posters do not necessarily reflect films that have dual narratives they do show two perspectives of the film and so give me an insight into possible techniques I can adopt and use within the production of my two film posters.

Producing the Short Film: Final Cut of PULSE

Producing the Short Film: Continuity Error

When playing back our content once we had imported the scenes to the editing package in the correct order, I noticed a major continuity error. In the clip below you can see that as she approaches the bottom of the stairs the victim turns the light off.

Whereas in the scene that it quickly cuts to next the light is back on.

Now that I was confident in using the editing package, I quickly fixed this error by cutting some of the end of the first clip so that in the transition to the next scene there is no alteration in the lighting. 

Producing the Short Film: Practicing Editing Techniques

Previously, I had never used premiere elements 9 as an editing package before so I was initially quite apprehensive to use it as the vast amount of features and technicalities were quite daunting. Therefore, before I edited my film for my coursework, Lucy and I edited a short introductory film for our school  teachers band that was shown to the school before they performed at a charity. This enabled me to try out a number of the features that premiere elements offers. Once I was ready to edit my PULSE film I was a lot more confident in which effects worked well and also how to apply them easily to the footage. Below is the school concert video that I created whilst practising the editing techniques of premiere elements 9.