2. In what way does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My research into the codes and conventions of short films have given me insight to what defines a short film(June 2nd
What is a short film). Short films are films compacted into a short time frame, averaging from anywhere between 5 and
30 minutes, with a limited amount of time this also means that there can only be a limited cast of characters. The short
time frame reduces any real chance of character development, however that does allow people to be able to define how
they see and relate to the characters more easily. Whilst analysing pre-existing short films I learned that small casts can
be very effective for comedic values, an example of this was the short film ‘The Heist’ (See post September 19th
Short
Film Analysis: The Heist) which featured only two characters. Together these characters formed a comedic duo in
which they used their fully developed personality to create various situations and events which create humour. The
short film ‘The Breaks’ (September 19th
Short Film Analysis The Breaks) made use of a wide variety of character
stereotypes in order to create humorous situations. Short films are not long so they take advantage of over reactions in
order to make each event have greater impacts on the audience. In this way I am making use of the conventions of the
short films as my film is made of a series of events, e.g. the recruiting of each of the characters and the introduction of
Malcolm. Again I followed the conventions of making the impacts large by making use of stereotypes for the characters
of Andrew and Mark. Andrew made use of a overly-friendly homosexual stereotype, whilst Mark made use of the shut-in
anti-social hacker stereotypes. By using these I was able to create humour when their eccentric personalities contrasts
with Malcolm's more average/plain personality.
3. Continued...
Short Films commonly share an idea of simple plots and low amounts of twists and turns. I believe that in a way I have
somewhat broken this as I have not concluded the narrative or the story and left how the heist itself could have gone.
This leaves the film at a cliffhanger, much like feature-length films often do. From what I have learned from researching
short films is that they have greater room for abstract ideals and application of references. An example of this is my
mentioning of 'The Gecko Team', which is a parody of the infamous hacker team 'The Lizard Squad' who became their
own internet icon and meme. Feature length films usually don't or can't make the more obscure references due to
having to appeal to a mass audience, however with short films they can be aimed towards a much more niche audience
and won't be as restricted.
In terms of distribution of my short film I followed the typical methods the short films use(november 7th
Short Film
Distribution), such as using various websites such as youtube where it can be viewed from anywhere in the world.
Another method I would consider using would be a DVD release as this sometimes works out well for short films
however sales vary greatly.
In a way I may have developed my own genre within the heist genres as I although the film made use of the common
conventions of heist film, but only developed it as far as the set up so it could be considered a heist without the event of
the heist itself. This also changes what the narrative itself is as before it would considered a 'Start' 'Middle' 'End' styled
narrative, however in this it never makes it past what would be considered the 'start' point.
5. How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?
I believe that throughout all three of my texts I have created a
synergistic effect linking them. I created this by making use of
consistent fonts and imaging. This is shown with the use of the font
'BlackListed' which I used for the main logo of the film, I have used this
font for my poster (shown to the left) my title sequence and on the
movie review. This will create a feel of familiarity towards the film as
when people see one of the texts, they'll recognise the others. The
main purpose of a poster is to advertise and promote a films release, I
believe that although the synergy links the products together however I
also think that the poster needed some form of slogan as the poster as
it is may not be able to promote the poster as efficiently as I would
like.
For my poster I took inspiration from the older Soul Bass posters, such
as his poster for 'Psycho' which offers little on image detail yet was
one of the most well known posters made, I had hoped to provide a
similar effect. For the poster I wanted each character to be
represented clearly by their silhouette, which I believe I accomplished.I
decided on giving each silhouette more humanistic characteristics so
that the audience could better relate to them regardless of form. I
made sure I gave Andrew's silhouette the tie as that was likely his
most distinguishing feature. I decided to make use of the typical
positioning by having the main character (Malcolm) in the front, with
the supporting characters behind him. When making this poster I had
to think about whether or not to include some visual representation of
Mr.X in the background of the poster. Since X is never actually shown
in the film I did not have a character design for him so in the end I
decided on not including in, I did however design Malcolm to be on the
phone for his silhouette indicating some form of external force.
Poster
6. How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?
Magazine Review
The magazine review is meant to be a brief overview of what the film is about and talk about what people have thought about
the film. To this extent my review has covered this however this may not be as effective the combination of the poster and the
film. Although I had intended this film to be aimed at a teenage audience, which generally make use of more images then text,
I feel that I didn't get the ratio correct and should have included more text talking about the film itself. I do believe that the use
of a star rating works well as it is a simple indication which anyone could understand. I decided on using an action shot of
Malcolm and Mark, I choose this as it was one of Malcolm's most animated scenes, this presented a more tense moment in an
attempt to make it stand out further as an action film, I did this again with the smaller image in an attempt to again make the
genre more clear. I think that the layout the of my film review however captures the professional yet not too formal appearance
which displays the information nicely and clearly. I made use of placing the film logo over the main image, a commonly used
technique in magazines, whilst again adding to how it appears professional but it also adds to the synergy of the three texts.
My use of quotes from other reviews would provide a source of
tertiary evidence for the reader. If a reader sees that other
people have given the film positive feedback then they will be
more likely to want to watch it. I feel a weakness of this text is
that my fonts sizes may vary too greatly, the film details are all
in bold and larger size than the rest, the quotes are larger than
the description and the description is smaller than the rest, this
inconsistency may lower its aesthetic appeal.
7. Audience Review
What us is your gender?
23
7
From this I have found that the majority of my viewers have
been male, which I found useful as thats more who the film was
aimed at, however having a few female opinions will benefit the
further feedback.
6
4
12
8
What us is your age range?
From this I have found that most of my viewers have fallen
under the 16 – 18 age range, which covers my target audience
and will again help me see what my desired target audience
thinks about my film.
23
Male
Female
15 and
Under
22+
19 - 21
16 - 18What age rating do you think Screwed should be?
12
15
18 Most of my audience suggested that the film should be rated
15,which I would largely agree with as I felt that although there
was some strong language used within the film however aside
from that there wasn't anything that really pushed the film into
the 18 margins.
8. Audience Review
What did you think of Screwed?
From these results I can see that most people enjoyed the film,
however only a few people voted it to be 5/5, I believe that my
past prediction of the film being rated 4. Since the audience
believes the film to be around this level I feel that the film itself
has succeeded in it's main purpose of entertaining the
audience.
From this I can see that most of my audience would expect
Screwed to be available as an online release. This would likely
be the easiest option for a short film as it wouldn't have to fit into
a TV schedule or deal with retail for sales.
Where would you expect to see Screwed?
9. Audience Review
Was the narrative easy to follow?
This result showed me that my narrative for my film was simple
and easy to follow. I was worried that my narrative may have
been somewhat confusing to the audience as its events don't
flow together as well as they could do.
Yes
No
What was the films strongest
technical aspect?
From these results we can see that my editing seemed to be my
strong point however both Mis-en-scene and audio were also
considered good. I can see that no-one thought that my camera
work for this film was a strong point.
10. Audience Review
What was the films weakest
technical aspect?
From this I can say for sure that my camera work for the film
was by far my weakest technical aspect and definitely and area
I would need to improve on.
What was your favourite scene?
From these results I can see that while all 3 scenes
received compliments, the Malcolm and Andrew scene
seems to be the most popular. At a guess I would say
its likely to the character Andrew being the most
eccentric and active character in the film.
11. Audience Review
Who was your favourite character?
Interestingly enough I learnt that Mr.X, although never having
actually appeat in the film, was voted to be the second most
popular character. Andrew again was voted mots popular, likely
due to his more active personality.
12. What have I learned from my audience feedback?
My results came from a fairly varied audience so I believe that I got a good variation of opinions in my feedback. Again the main
aim of my film is to entertain its audience which from the feedback I received I would argue that I have in fact reached that goal.
I have seen that there are definitely areas that I have been lacking in when it came to producing my film. My camera work for
this product was rather poor, I know that there were definitely shots which could have been much better if taken from a different
angle or distance. I have found however that the audience did like my use of editing when piecing this together as the majority
voted that as my main strength.
Again though I still question my narrative as Its not normally common to make an action film where the main event never
actually happens in the film. I believe that if I used this same narrative with a full-length film it would likely of had a better turn out
and the narrative probably would have worked much better.
Response Summary
13. What have I learned from my audience feedback?
Improvements I would Make
My first major improvement I would make to the film would be replacing the prop bomb I used in the first scene. I would do this
because I feel that it didn't really look all that threatening which defeats the purpose of the 'bomb threat'. It doesn't really live up
to the Action genre I was looking for. Another change I would make would be refilming the phone call. I think that I would this
time film scenes of an actual person playing Mr.X (as opposed to a voice over) and also do some closer shots of Malcolm on the
phone to emphasise his reactions further.
I feel that I would also have to rework the script as I used quite a few cliché lines in there and the film probably would have gone
smoother with a more original script. I would also re add a previously cut out character of Alice, a female assasin with a lack of
social skills which I had originally designed. I cut her out due to time restraints however I feel like a the female character would
have allowed the film to appeal further to the female gender and bring in more viewers. I also feel it would of helped Malcolms
character start to develop as he would be forced further and further out of his comfort zone.
14. How have I used new media technology?
Research Stage
During the research stage, I made use of Web 2.0 resources to research and learn what I needed to create my own shirt film.
My primary source for finding sites which gave me a look into what the codes and conventions of the genres are as well as what
actually makes a short film a short film was Google. When I was done at looking at other peoples research I began gathering
first hand research by making use of youtube to find previously existing short films.
For my survey I made use of Google Drive which has a feature which allows the user to quickly and easily create online surveys.
These surveys would be constantly updating and allow an easy and clear feedback of results with features which can
automatically sort the information into graphs for easy analysis.
15. How have I used new media technology?
Construction Stage
Luckily for me the technology involved in these steps where mostly software I was well acquainted with. For the creation of my
poster I made use of Adobe Photoshop, a software I have been using for well over 6 years. This software allowed me to develop
and produce the graphics needed for both my poster and my film without any issues or challenge. Adobe Premier was the
software I used for the bulk of the short film editing, this again was a software I've made use of for a long time and did not have
any issues when it came to editing the footage. For the editing of the sounds I actually made use of a software known as
Audacity. This software I had only used a few times in the past so I was not as familiar as I was the rest however It didn't take
me long to figure out how to clean up the voice over dialogue and then add the modulation sound effect.
The main challenged I faced was learning to use Adobe AfterEffects. I had never used this software before and as I soon found
out it functions quite a bit differently from the other Adobe Software I've made use of. At the start my original title sequence was
just going to be the blank text with variating, inconsistent effects, however after I learnt about creating keyframes in After Effects
I started to grasp a much better understanding of the software. By the end I didn't have enough time to invest into learning to
more advanced capabilities, but I did manage to create my current title sequence which I believe worked out well given the
basicness of it.
16. How have I used new media technology?
Evaluation Stage
Whilst working on this evaluation I again made use of media technologies. I again made use of Google Drives to create the
audience feedback survey. This again gave me a good number of results but to make sure I had people fill this in I made use of
the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook. By using these I was able to spread word of my film and have them watch and
survey it. Another way I was able to gain feedback on it was by uploading the video to youtube and adding the survey link into
the description of the video. This mean it was easily accessible to find the video when the search criteria matches or was
similar.
To get this slideshow onto Blogger I made use of an online service called 'slide share' which allowed to to upload this to them
and have them convert it to something that could be displayed without error.
17. Did I use these new media technologies effectively to achieve
my short film?
All across this project I have been making use of media technologies in order to progress however I don't think that one can ever
master one of these softwares that I have been using as new techniques and software updates are constantly being release
along with new features, making it unlikely to know everything there is about the software, however that doesn't mean you can't
stop learning. With this is mind my skills in Premier and After Effects have gone up quite a bit since the start of this course and I
believe that I have been able to be more effective at its use therefor being able to use it effectively for my short film I would
consider that a success.
