A2 evaluation

Inwhatwaysdoesyour mediaproductuse,developor
challengeformsandconventionsofrealmediaproducts?
My brief was to create a short film I decided to research the psychological
thriller genre, as I analyzed films from this genre I identified key codes and
conventions that were commonly used, these then influenced the planning
and creation of my media products. Whilst I was doing this research I came
across the film “portal: no escape” this followed the same sort of idea that
I wanted to produce in my final product. The narrative follows a woman
waking up into a room that she has no recollection how she got there as
well as there is no clear escape, within my piece I wanted my main
character to wake up in an isolated place with no recollection of how he
got there along with that when he thinks he finds an escape he ends up being in a different place or where he ‘woke up’.
As well as, they have used close ups/extreme close ups throughout the beginning of the film to entail the characters
facial expressions/ body language to the situation that they have been placed in they wake up which is one of the
conventions that I decided to carry out within my short film. As shown in both of these screen shots on the left and right,
they both shown right, these are both taken from right at the beginning of the short films, a close up is used to show to
character on screens confusion therefore engaging the audience into what is going to happen next and whether they will
find out why the character is reacting how they have. Another reason in which I decided to follow the convention of
close ups is so that they audience can being to connect with the character and build an emotional depth with what is
going on, on screen. I also followed the convention of where the
character is placed within the frame (rule of thirds) as the character
made in Portal is positioned to the right of the frame and my
character is positioned to the left of the frame this then creates the
effect of abstract nature to the audience. Due to if they were
positioned in the middle of the frame it would make the storyline
seem much more balanced and typical.

I decided to challenge conventions of a typical psychological thriller as the
filming would either all be amateur such as paranormal activity which more
falls under the genre of horror, however still follows conventions of
psychological as throughout the film there is still questionable nature to the
audience. Moreover, the professional film aspect such as the inception or
shutter island they use big budget camera’s and it is clear that the film has had
a lot of time and money put it into it, where as short films typically have a
lower budget. Which as a result you could look at my film be a mix of both of
the ideas of shutter island and inception, as it follows the dream idea of
inception and follows partly some of the storyline of shutter island as he
thinks he is living within the flashbacks
and dreams he is seeing however
when the narrative begins to
unfold he realises nothing is real
and everything he is seeing is all a
fixation of his mind. As a result of
mixing the idea of amateur and professional film aspect it effects the
audience as it contributes to the audience’s confusion and engagement into
the film as well as it also makes the narrative come across as realistic and
abstract at the same time.
Within the small amount of film and narrative I employed theory elements of
the hypodermic needle by injecting the audience with small doses of
information to keep them intrigued but not giving away the underlining truth
of the main character being in a dream.

Another convention I decided to follow
from the ‘portal no escape’ was the
convention of a close up to engage the
audience with a clue into the narrative.
Within portal they use a close up shot,
however she is looking in the mirror at
a barcode that has been printed into
her neck/back. Within my film I used a
close up once when my character wakes up into reality, so that you can see the
tablets as they are the main focus of the shot as they are the closest to the
camera. As the frame begins to carry on the character begins to pick up and
look at the tablets more signifying to the audience that the tablets are a major
factor to the narrative, this can then be compared to whether the character in
portal looks in the mirror, smashes it then uses it to look closer at the signified factor/clue that is being away to the
audience. The tablets show the connection between the the message of the film and the narrative, as the dream
sequence and the lead to his mental breakdown in the bathroom link to the tablets are supposed to help with what is
going on in his head and resulting in him calming down which then connotes to the reader why he becomes so frustrated
and panicked to find them.

Therefore, in my short film that I produced I decided to follow the
conventions of film noir by using black and white shots for the dream
sequence as it presents to the audience that it is a fictional part to
the film. I also used the conventions of all of the three genres by
using low/high key lighting throughout to add intrigue and suspense
to the narrative. The desired impact that I wanted to create on the
audience was an aesthetic pleasing visual mixed with an abstract
message.
The typical codes and conventions used in a psychological film that I
discovered from my research are; traditional low key lighting is used to
create drama, use of shadows to create tension to the audience, plot
twists fast pace action contrasted by slow paced plot development
through dialogue, canted angle and uneasy camera. As well as, thriller
films usually follow the conventions of; ominous music, build of
suspense, battle between protagonist and antagonist, low key lighting,
quick cuts, diegetic sound of breathing, black and white shots, the
protagonist is typically a brave male and the antagonist will typically
have a hidden identity. I also developed research into Film Noir as I
wanted to use black and white shots and throughout my research I
developed the understanding that the typical conventions of Film Noir
are; low key lighting, silhouettes, Dutch angles, low/high angle shots,
wide angle lenses, shots of characters reflection in one or more mirrors,
1940’s style clothing and setting and extreme close ups.

Within looking into film noir I gained the understanding that it is highly focused on
the cinematic beauty within shots that it portrays to its audience; as an effect of
that you should be able to stop any film noir film at any frame throughout the film
and it should look as if it supposed to be a photo not a paused screen. I found the
idea of this fascinating and wanted to try and achieve this within my filming and
framing shots. I think I affectively achieved it throughout the scenes where my
main character is in the woods as if you do stop it at any frame it looks like a photo,
however during my amateur shots I have not achieved this. Although I did not
achieve the film noir aspect within my amateur shots, I decided to add the
convention of a silhouette for the antagonist from Film Noir as it then gives the
audience a clue that his alter ego is included within the narrative as his villain and
is supposed to be the person messing with his mind. This relates to Propp’s theory
of the typical characters we expected within narrative film making. I achieved
making the silhouette effect by using a spotlight that was turned on and off very
quickly causing a quick flash, then the camera blacks out. The only thing that I
would want to change when I filmed and produced another film within the film noir
genre is for me to produce a longer shot with a silhouette as the silhouette in my
film comes on and off screen very fast.

Within my production of film reviews I decided to follow the conventions of
empire film reviews as they are a big company that is well known for it’s reviews
and critiques on films.
The conventions that I decided to follow was the idea of how some of it is set out,
such as the picture taking up 40/50% of the page and then the writing taking up
the rest of the majority of the review. I also followed where the film title is placed
within the framing of the page, along with I followed that the slogan/quote is
written in a different colour and font size written underneath the film title. I also
followed the layout of the beginning part of the film review before it actually goes
into writing about the film where it writes about who is part of the film, how many
stars etc. As well as following the layout I also followed the way the text was
presented as the titles were different colour’s to the writing next to the titles.
I followed having a verdict at the bottom of my page
however instead of having two lines above and below
it I decided to use red dots to separate it from the
rest of the texts as it made it look more effective.
However I also followed the idea of the page number and who it was by in the corner of
the page however, I decided to put it at the top of my page instead of the bottom as I
thought it was more effective and would stand out more.
I have also challenged conventions of the film review I looked into as well as following the
conventions as I used three columns to write in instead of four. I did not provide an
information box on the picture as I thought it made it look unprofessional and partly
tacky. I didn't’t use the convention of having the rating underneath the critique and had it
in the information part due I thought it fitted there better than it was placed on the Empire
review. I also decided to challenge the convention of the black text on a white background
as I wanted to create synergy within my pieces and it fitted the genre of Film Noir more.

Whilst I looking into existing products of film posters the ‘Insomniacs’ poster that I came
across was the most predominant film poster that stuck put to me that I wanted my end
product to look like. The reason this poster stuck out to me the most out of all the
existing products that I looked into was due to it was giving off the same sort of image
that I wanted to portray in my media production. The elements that stuck out most to
me was the typography and how the image looks as it gives off the genre of the film.
Along as it fits in with the same sort of idea that I wanted to portray in my media as the
film is called insomniacs it connotes that there could more than likely be a dream
sequence within the narrative or something more along the horror lines. Therefore,
during the production of my piece I decided to refer to this poster and I then changed
some of the ideas of it so that it would not end up being a copy of it. The first thing I
changed was that my character was going to be
standing up with his eyes open where as in the
insomniacs poster, the main character is laying down
with her eyes closed. However, I decided to follow the
idea of the character being doubled as part of my idea I decided to include an alter ego
within my production therefore I thought it would look really effective along with my
idea. I decided to follow the conventions of the dark colours used around the character
and then only having low key lighting on the character followed by white typography. I
also decided to use the typical film credits at the bottom of my film poster as most of my
film posters followed this convention, plus I also liked how it made it look more
professional. However, I decided to challenge conventions within the film title and slogan
as the fonts I was trying to pick for my poster were described to be too ‘feminine’
therefore I did further research into texts fonts until I found this font on ‘dafont.com’. The
reason o why I picked this text font was due to it presents the idea of being trapped as
the letters seem to look trapped themselves.

Howeffectiveisthecombinationofyour mainand
ancillarytasks?
Within all three of my main and ancillary tasks I used the continuity of synergy by using
the theme of black and white effects throughout all of my pieces created. I chose to do
this as it presents the abstract nature that I wanted my film to put across to my
audience as well as it can portray the darkness of the narrative along with the idea of
Film Noir that I wanted to portray within my piece. Within my film poster, I also decided
to follow the idea of the alter ego being shown on the poster as it is supposed to show
part of the storyline to the audience so that they can judge whether or not they will like
the film and whether they want to watch it before they do. Therefore, in all of my main
and ancillary tasks the all then follow the theme of showing the antagonist within them,
however in my film poster I did not include my protagonist however it leaves the
audience questioning whether or not it is the protagonist or the antagonist as
boundaries begin to become blurred in the dream sequence.
One thing that I did not follow was the same text on each
my media products, the reason to why I did this was because of the abstract storyline,
therefore breaking the tradition of the texts being all the same. As well as, I wanted to
follow the conventions of a typical film review therefore I decided to keep the text that is
traditionally used within film posters and decided that Sans Serif would not be a good text
to put on a film poster. However, I also followed the typical captial writing for the credits
on the bottom of the film poster as well.

WhathaveI learntfrommyaudiencefeedback?
Within my final feedback I decided to follow through with some of
the questions I had already asked in previous survey associated with
my media production as I think it was beneficial for some questions
to be carried out the whole way through the process of my media
piece. One of the questions that I did repeat through the whole
process of my research, planning and making stage was the age of
the people that would be watching my piece as they would be the
target audience that I would be aiming my short film to. What I
learnt from repeating this within my surveys was that my main
audience was 17/18 year olds as they were the highest percentage
of people filling it out and watching, therefore I decided not to make
my short film not to include anything of an 18 certificate. For
anything to be classified as an 18 certificate it would have to
include:
• No restrictions on foul/offensive that is used
• Hard drug use
• Very strong sadistic or gory violence
• Intense sexual scenes.
Therefore, whilst planning and producing my short film I had to make sure that only a selected amount of foul/offensive
language is used which the only language of this sort that is used is when my main character begins to panic and repeats
“fuck this” as he tries to escape. Moving onto the hard drug use of the certificate, I could of interpreted that the reason
my characters mind is distorted is due to a misuse of illegal substances, however due to the certificate and target
audience that I wanted to set my film to I decided to base it on the idea of paranoia and schizophrenia and the drugs
that are shown within my film are prescribed drugs. Although I could of use mild terms of violence at some point
throughout my short film I decided not involve any at all as it could begin to confuse the storyline and as the narrative
can be seen to be hard to follow at it is, I didn’t want to completely confuse my audience as they would be dissatisfied
afterwards as they would think that what they just had watched would be pointless and a waste of time. As well as, I did
not have to worry about the intense sex scenes as I did not want to include any romantic or sexual reference within my
film as it would take the audience focus away from the message of the short film.

The next question that I included within my survey was what genre would
they classify my film as. Due to it could fit into a couple of different genres
and I didn’t want to classify it as something that my audience would
disagree with, then people who are a major fan of that genre who hadn’t
watch it initially would criticize it, therefore giving bad feedback to my
production thus leaving the classification of the genre is highly significant.
Once I analyzed my results most people came back with the idea that my
short film would fall under the category of a psychological film. However
most films that are made today under the psychological film also fall under
thriller therefore leaving my film in the description of a psychological thriller.
All in all, I am pleased with this result as it presents that I followed the right
conventions and portrayed my message in the right way so it would fit the
genre I wanted to create and I'm glad that I'm audience recognized this.
I asked this question as I wanted to find out the audience satisfaction levels
and whether or not that I actually engaged themselves into the film and
found it entertaining or whether they were dissatisfied and found it a waste
of their time. On each number I put a comment so that they could relate what
they thought to the number and then give an accurate rating to the film
beginning from 1 being that they would never watch it again to 5 being that
they would watch it again and possibly even recommend it to a friend to
watch. In my final results the most common answer was a 4 which meant
that the majority (50%) of my audience found my film interesting and
engaged into it. My further 50% of answers were mixed as 35% of them said
that it was average as parts of the film got boring and the other 15% found
the film amazing and would recommend the film to their friends. Although I
got quite a variation of answers, I am happy with what I did get as none of my
audience said that they hated my film or didn’t engage into it at all.

Although I did not carry out this question throughout my research and
planning surveys, I thought it was a highly valuable question to involve
within my final survey as it would provide me the answers to what part
of my film was most effective. From the results that you can see in the
print screen on the left the editing was the most effective at it getting
75% of the answers and the acting/narrative came second both with
15% of answers. I am happy with the editing being the best factor due
it shows that my editing techniques have vastly improved from last
year as I was not part of the editing process and have only picked up
most of the skills this year from watching tutorials and help from other
students on what to and how to do it.
I thought asking my audience whether or not I had achieved to
present the message that I wanted to put across was an important
question as the message is the main purpose of my narrative. I
ensured that my final screening contained 6 candidates who were
within my target audience that hadn't had any prior knowledge to
my product therefore they would not have given biased answers
and the results would reflect truly on my final film. This also
relates to audience theory as I have tried to insure there are no
barriers to my message being received.

From my research I have developed a further understanding that the conventions and narrative that I followed was
effective on my audience as it was easy for them to work out what type of genre I was trying to create. I was
surprised at how many people actually ended up liking this genre therefore, I developed an understanding of how
popular the genre is and what kind of audience it is set out to. My target audience was also effective as in my surveys
my most common response on audience correlated with the preferred audience reading that I originally intended for.
Most my common rating on the overall quality of my text was between 3 and 4 stars. This tells me that I was able to
target effectively my audience and convey the message my text wished to show. However using the survey review
and general comments I would make the following changes to the narrative as some people said that the dream
sequence was quite hard to follow, cinematography and editing of the text so that they all match so that there is
more synergy within my production. The message that I was trying to convey successfully succeed to my audience as
the whole of my audience that answered my questionnaire said that they understood the mental illnesses I was
trying to create awareness of. I was also shocked at what people liked most about my film as I was expecting the
generic ‘message’ to be their favorite part however, the fact that the majority of my audience chose the editing to be
the best part was shocking as well as I was proud that my audience could pick out elemetnts of my film instead of
parts of the narrative.

Didyou usenewmediatechnologieseffectivelyin
theprocessofcreatingyour shortfilmandancillarytasks?
I have used new media technologies such as Premiere Pro CS6 to create the
idea of a distorted narrative that suits the genre of my film (psychological
thriller). I used the timeline to help pacing, the effects tab to adjust colours
and the sound sequence to create distorted sound design. Furthermore, the
use of premiere allowed me to work well with other Adobe software such
as Photoshop so that I could try and create a cohesive narrative between
them. Over the use of this professional level editing software had allowed
me to create a short film to a professional level. I am very happy with how
quickly I learnt to use these tools in the creation of my media product.
Sound played a key role in creating a sense of confusion and intensity
within my pacing and narrative. As whatever sound I needed to include had
to result in unsettling the audience, I avoided using a fixed soundtrack for
the first half of the film to make the sounds disjointed which makes the
scenes more confusing and abnormal. This is because it would help my
audience realize a disjoint to the narrative. This then creates a state of
confusion due to the dreams and flashbacks all become abnormal and hard
for the audience therefore leading them further gripped into the narrative
as they want to try and make sense of it themselves. Which would then
lead to the answer to the narrative to the reader which is when the main
character wakes up to find the distorted imagery is due to the fixation of a
dream that has been built. Therefore, I used much more softer and slower
music during this part of narrative as it build more sympathy from the
audience as well as it creates a sense of seriousness.

Didyou usenewmediatechnologieseffectivelyinthe
processofcreatingyourshort filmandancillarytasks?
I used my survey monkey affectively throughout the process of my short film
and ancillary tasks as every time I presented a new edit of either of the two
tasks to my class I provided them with questions I wanted them to answer
based on my media product. Such as what did they like about the new edit
and what would they want me to change about it, this helped me massively
as I could get an honest critique from my teachers and class mates who were
either making a product of the same media and had the right knowledge to
know what I needed to change as well as teachers who have seen many
different products before and knew automatically what I needed to change.
The benefits of using survey monkey is that I can use open and closed
questions, as I can choose if I want my audience to expand on their answers
or whether I want them to give a selected answer as if I asked for an
expanded answers on a simple question the chances are that my audience
will just go on to explain something that they don’t need leaving me with
inaccurate response. This would then lead to me having to work out what
answers were relevant and which ones were not making the whole process of
my surveys longer than they need to be therefore benefitting me as the work
is already done for me as well as having open questions so that my audience
can expand on their answers where I need them to.
I also used Facebook to publicize my media product, this was really effective
as it helped me to share my media product with friends and let them go onto
the share it with others so that I could get multiple critiques on my film. As
due to if I sent my products and surveys to only my friends I may only get
biased answers however if I stretched my audience response I would more
than likely get more accurate responses and views. The power of social media
is used by many film makers as it is a productive way to get your media
product recognized and shared quickly and effectively.

I was not experienced within the digital making side of the whole production as in my previous product I was based in the
research part of the production. This then lead me within this year to work out how to use Premiere Pro and Photoshop
and how to produce my idea’s that I had visually in my head into these software’s by watching YouTube tutorials to guide
me through and lead me the way through it, as well as some partial help from my classmates or teachers. YouTube helped
me through into how to add complex adjustments into premiere pro such as when I have the same character twice on
screen such “The Best Adobe Premiere Pro Quick Tips”. Therefore trying to effectively put two shots together and make it
seem as one without the audience seeing any defaults in the frame. I also watched videos on how to analyse clips and
then analysed their techniques and how they decided to critique the film they were watching such as what made the film
both good and bad. I then also used help from the adobe website as they have forums that are built for people to ask
questions on how to edit certain things.
I used blogger to keep my coursework updated and to upload my coursework, this was effective as it was connected to
my Google account therefore I could save it to my Google drive and then work on whatever I needed to wherever I was as
long as I had internet so that I could access what I needed to.
I have advanced my editing skills such as using colour correction, clone affect and refining/making my shots tighter and
more professional therefore learning “the art of the edit”.
I used Photoshop to create my poster and film review and again used online support such as YouTube tutorials and the
adobe website to help improve the layout and design of my work to ensure that it is professional. For example, I had to
research the spacing of text for my review as well as I had to learn how to gain other fonts that aren’t on the program such
as finding one that I liked and fitted in with the theme and idea I was trying to get across and then downloaded from
‘dafont.com’ into Photoshop so that it would be ready to use straight away when I wanted it.

I created an animatic by using premiere pro to cut up my storyboard into
slow processes of my story, I could then make a realistic idea of what
sound effects I wanted to use, how long the shots would be and what
audio I would want to be over my film.
The use of further equipment helped me develop my A2 final piece as I
used; a camera (canon) which had a movie/ film effect on it so that my
filming would come out to the best standard that I could get it to, a
handheld tripod so that if I needed the camera to be steady whilst I
wanted to move or get into an awkward angle/tilted shots, this meant
that all the shots that I did get would be perfectly steady, a spotlight so
that I wouldn’t I could have the flashes within my piece to the pace that I
wanted them to be as well as it made it look more realistic of a horror
based scene as well as I could get the right lighting for what I wanted
such as high and low key lighting along with the idea of the silhouette, I
also used a scarf to help balance my camera to the right angle I needed it
to be within my amateur filming shots as if I balanced it with my hands
the chances are that the camera shots would have been shaky
unintentionally.

A2 evaluation

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