A2 media evaluation

A2 Media Evaluation
BY ARTHUR HILL

In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
 My product falls into the comedy genre. I researched key concepts of the comedy
genre and applied them to my product whilst adding some new aspects so that my
piece stands out from others as something that is special and unique, keeping the
audience entertained and engaged. My film follows a linear narrative.
 My early research consisted of me watching various films and short films, mainly within
the comedy genre but some of other genres. I did this to allow myself to get a grasp of
the basic codes and conventions comedy but to also gain inspiration from other genres
so that I could potentially begin to think about genre hybridization when beginning to
create my film. I closely analysed how camera,mise en scene, sound and editing were
used for effect, discovering how something like framing can create comedy when I
watched ‘Every Frame a Paintings’ analytical videos of comedy films. I gained a great
understanding of how humour can be created when doing my research.

media products?
 Most of the films I watched followed the generic codes and conventions of
the comedy genre. Two films I watched, Bad Neighbours and Project
followed very similar conventions. They are both teen comedies. Both
revolve around the idea of crazy house parties with all the humour based
around sex, drugs and alcohol. The lighting was bright and natural and the
cinematography was basic.
 When watching these films I didn’t feel particularly engaged or entertained.
I didn’t like how the comedy came solely through the narrative, I wanted
my film to be comedic through other means like camera work and sound. I
also wanted to experiment with physical comedy as it seems to be being
neglected in modern comedy films.

media products?
 Despite this I did take some aspects from these films. My film follows some of the
conventions of Teen comedy;
 Set in a high school- A lot of my scenes were shot in school
 Set in a small town- most teen comedies are set in a small town that doesn’t have
much life to it, leading to their recklessness and in this case, Jason being slapped as
a way of excitement. My film is also set in a small village
 Lighting is usually bright, clear for the audience and goes either throughout the day
or day to night. Most of the shots I used were shot in bright natural light, if it was too
dark I occasionally used a Redhead light.
 Often some kind of sport is played during the film. In my case it was Football and
Basketball.

media products?
 Although I would call my film a Teen comedy, I certainly went against many codes and
conventions when creating it.Firstly I think the main characters in my film, Jason and
Harvey are not stereotypical Teen characters. Most characters in these genres of
films are over the top and exaggerated, with one great at sports and the other a
maths geek etc. However I think both Jason and Harvey come across as normal
teenage boys being portrayed in a naturalistic way. This is mainly shown through the
narrative like when they play football together, watch TV and talk about girl troubles. I
also used lots of close ups when they interact to show their intimate relationship.
 I also believe that the actual plot of The Slap, goes against the normal codes and
conventions of a Teen comedy. They almost always finish with a happy ending that is
expected, with lovers coming together or the bully being defeated. In my case I
wanted the ending of my film to be quite unexpected and unique.

media products?
 Thinking of a satisfying ending was one of the most difficult challenges I faced when
making the film. I wanted the audience to be shocked but more importantly I wanted
my film to carry a message with it, not just be a generic teen comedy. I think Harvey
punching Jason is a very powerful ending because you have seen the intimacy of the
two characters throughout the film and Jason betraying his best friend like that will
come as a surprise to the audience. I think they will feel a great deal of sympathy for
both Jason and Harvey after they have watched the film because they have both lost
each other. There is also an aspect of mystery to the ending as the audience never
finds out if their friendship is recovered.
 This ending goes against Todorov’s narrative theory,which is seen as successful by
many directors, but I am confident my film is still engaging despite it being an almost
unheard of narrative formula.

media products?
 I also challenged the stereotype of a female lead role in a Comedy. Most girls you
see in comedies are the subject of sex and boys lust. However I cast Jess because
I knew she could play the character in quite a minimal, down to earth way. She
doesn’t wear lots of make up or show any cleavage, which is often the case. But
instead is portrayed as a bit of a tom boy who can hold her own, shown at the end
when she hits Jason. This goes against Laura Mulveys theory of the Male Gaze,
which suggests that media depicts women from a masculine point of view,
presenting women as objects for male pleasure.
 To add to this, all the women that slap Jason at the beginning of the film are shown
to be in control over him, which is not often the case in Teen comedies, usually the
man is the more powerful.

media products?
 Whilst creating my first ancillary task, the movie poster, I researched and
analysed a variety of film posters within the comedy genre in hope of
gaining a better understanding of the codes and conventions as well as
finding some inspiration. I knew I wanted a picture of Jason being slapped
because that is the premise of the film and I wanted to clearly visualise it.
However I didn’t know what backdrop or font to use. I noticed from film
posters like David Brent: Life On The Road and Forrest Gump, that most
posters have a white background to them so I immediately added this into
my poster. I also found that the fonts used are generically Sans Serif so I
found an appropriate font that I was happy with. Despite this I thought these
posters did look slightly bland and boring so I decided to go against
convention and add in images behind Jason of the other lead actors. I think
this worked effectively.

media products?
 Before completing my own Magazine film review, I read many
others from magazines like Empire, The Guide and Film. I
discovered that their main purpose was to inform their readers
of the type of film it is and whether or not it worth seeing, often
giving it a rating out of 5 stars. They are written in an
entertaining but slightly casual way, as they try to come across
as just an average movie fan. The review must also be eye
catching, with bold colours and large images used. I tried to
follow these conventions when creating my review because I
wanted it to seem as authentic as possible. Despite this I did go
against convention and try to make the review humorous as this
is one of my strong points and I think it makes it even more
entertaining. I also added a secondary image in to make it seem
more full. I used the colour scheme of Empire magazine just to
make it seem more professional and real.

media products?
 Audio
 Audio was a crucial part of my film because I wanted it to be apart of the comedy I was
trying to present. After researching physical comedy, I learnt that a lot of the noises
were exaggerated to add to the humour. I applied this idea to my film whenever Jason
was slapped. I would isolate the noise of the slap whilst editing and increase the
volume from 1.0 decibels to 6.0. This made the slaps seem even more brutal and
painful, thus increasing the comedic effect whilst also adding a degree of sympathy
towards Jason.
 The main song I used was a rendition of Bye Bye Baby by the Bay City Rollers. I was
really pleased with this track because its upbeat and happy tones really go against
what the audience is seeing on screen when Jason is ‘Third wheeling’ Jess and
Harvey. It creates a certain amount of irony that I think is really effective when the
visuals and audio combine. I also used the song ‘oddball’ at the start of the film. I
chose this song because I think it perfectly represents Jason’s clumsiness and naivety
with its slow paced beat and cello melody

media products?
 Shot Types
 One aspect of my film that I was very passionate about from the beginning was the
shot types. I wanted to use unique shots that aren’t often seen in comedies to
make it more interesting and engaging, as I think Teen or any kind of modern
comedies are often far to boring and basic when it comes to cinematography. One
shot that I discovered to be really effective was the close up POV. Whenever Jason
was slapped I used this shot because I thought it was a great way for the audience
to see his emotions as they saw it from the perspective of the ‘slapper’. I gained
inspiration from many different directors such as Wes Anderson and Edgar Wright.
Two directors who really try and create comedy from other means other than the
narrative.
 Despite this I also followed convention with some shot types, for instance I used
the 180 rule when Harvey and Jason are talking about Jess and also used
establishing shots to set several scenes in motion.

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

ancillary texts?
I believe that my poster clearly represents the genre and plot of the film to the
audience. As the title of the film is ‘The Slap’ I think it was an obvious choice to
use a picture of Jason being slapped because it visualises the title and makes
it clear to the audience what the film is about. To make this even clearer I
decided to make Jason black and white and the hand in colour. This puts more
audience attention on the hand but also represents the fact that Jasons
tendency to be slapped has taken over his life and become his only way of
staying ‘relevant’
Having all three main characters shown creates synergy between the poster
and the film because it depicts to the audience that the plot will have these
characters involved with each other in some way. I went against convention
when choosing the images to use on my poster. Most comedy posters use
positive images with characters smiling or being happy. I decided to use more
negative pictures, wirh Harvey looking angry and Jess looking shocked,
because I wanted the audience to understand that there is a more meaningful
message to the film along with some serious scenes

ancillary texts?
The only negative aspect I would say about my poster would be that it potentially
doesn’t represent the tone of the film very well. The use of bright blue and white
gives off the impression that the film will follow a similar tone, bright lighting and
colourful cinematography.Due to the low budget we had along with lack of
equipment, I had to use natural lighting to film almost all of our shots. We filmed
mostly in November, December and January meaning the weather was mostly
overcast and so most of the shots we got looked quite dark and gloomy. If I was to
reshoot the film I would do it in summer so that the mise en scene fits the positive
themes and tones of the film. Despite this we did manage to use some artificial
lighting towards the end of the shoot with some indoor scenes and I think the
shots are some of the strongest, best looking ones we got.
Natural
lighting
(left) vs
artificial
(right)

ancillary texts?
Film Review
In addition to this, I also believe that the combination of my main
and ancillary tasks is effective through my film magazine as well.
This is because I have researched the key conventions of a
magazine review and applied them to my own. I analysed several
film reviews and saw many common similarities between.
Because of this I was confident that I could make a professional
looking review. Despite this, I also challenged convention and
added some pieces of personal taste. For instance , most film
reviews have a posed photo that is made for the review or for
promotional purposes. I decided to use still images taken from
the actual film because it gives a realistic insight into the film and
hints more about the plot. I also added another picture in the
bottom right, taken from the poster which creates synergy and
promotes the film more. It also shows the readers that Jason is
the main character.

ancillary texts?
 I also have used many generic conventions such as plot,
star rating, age rating and credentials. Having these creates
the impression that this is a real review as it’s a convention
in almost every review, making mine seem high quality and
realistic. I also used the thin column format when writing the
review to once again make it seem professional. The white
background colour also matches the colour of my poster and
the tone of my film. One thing I regret not adding is a pull
quote from the film. If the quote was funny or meaningful it
would have further enticed the reader to go and watch the
film. Despite this I feel that the major weakness of my review
was the actual content I wrote. Obviously I'm not a film critic
so I struggled to write about the technical aspects of the film.
I was also quite biased considering I created the film and I
definitely touched upon more positives than negatives.
Despite this I believe the review is entertaining and even
humorous at some points.

ancillary texts?
 I believe that synergy has been created with the poster and film review by my idea to put a
positive quote from the review and put it on the poster. This will draw audiences to the film
review after seeing the positive comment, and then the review will lead them to want to watch
the film.
 Showing my name on all the ancillary tasks will also help my name to be associated with the
film, thus extending my credibility within the industry.
 Overall I think the combination of my ancillary tasks was very effective. I believe they promote
the film well and clearly show its genre and tone. I would have liked to have had more time to
work on the content of the review, which I think is the weakest aspect of either tasks. Apart
from this I am satisfied with the finished products.

What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
 Throughout the process of making the film, I knew that target audience research and Audience
feedback were absolutely crucial to making my film the best it can be. Without a true understanding
of what the audience wants to see, my film would have not been as effective or popular as it could
have been.
 In the early stages of developing my idea, before I started filming, I decided to create a survey and
put it on various social media sites, allowing my friends and strangers to answer it. It would allow me
to gain a better idea of who my target audience is and what kind of people I should aim my film at,
thus allowing me to know what things I should keep and remove from my initial idea. I designed the
questions to seem quite general but they would in fact help me to know things like:
 Target age range
 Target Gender
I also asked some questions that would make sure I made the right choices in terms of the genre I
chose and the codes and conventions I had decided to focus on. This was important because even
though I may have felt passionately about certain things, my audience might not and I have to take their
opinion into account.

feedback?
 The first and one of the most important questions I asked
was ‘What is your gender’. The reason I asked this was
because the people answering the survey would be the
same people who view my film. I wanted to know which
gender was more prominent so that I could add in aspects
in my film that would appeal to them. Although I wanted my
film to be enjoyed by everyone, it was useful to know that
more males would be watching my film because this meant
I knew to use more male characters, so that my piece
would seem more relatable and to use more rude
language as other research has shown that males find this
more funny. Despite the results, my idea didn’t change
very drastically because I was confident that my idea
would appeal to both genders.
This is because teen comedy is a sub genre that
doesn’t stereotypically have a gender attached to it.
Action and Adventure films as well as crime thrillers
are often associated with men whereas rom coms
and horrors are often more popular with girls.

feedback?
 The next question I asked, which I deemed as the most important,
was ‘What is your age?’. Finding out the age range you should be
targeting for your film is vitally important because it majorly
influences your idea. I was very happy to see that the vast majority
of answers came from people aged 16-20. This was a relief
because I knew I wanted to do a teen comedy and that is the age
range who would find it most entertaining. If the 40+ age range had
more answers I would have had to rethink parts of my idea because
a lot of it wouldn’t appeal to them.
 Having this knowledge really shaped my idea because I knew I was
working on something that would be popular with my own age
group. This made me feel far more comfortable because I knew the
audience would relate to what I had created.

feedback?
 I then asked ‘are you a fan of comedy films? 'I felt that I had to ask this just
to make sure that my potential target audience did in fact like comedy
because none of the previous questions had linked to the genre I wanted to
pursue. I thought that some may not have an interest in comedy and their
answers would therefore be invalid. Luckily the majority were comedy fans
meaning their answers were reliable. If the answers had been mainly ‘no’ I
would have had to think about changing genre if it wasn’t very popular with
my target audience.
 I also wanted to find out what audiences found more funny, physical
comedy or spoken comedy. I was surprised to see that 85% of people
thought spoken comedy was more enjoyable. This was eye opening
because I was originally going to use a lot of slap stick comedy in my film
but after seeing this feedback I decided to focus more on the script and
spoken dialogue due to it seeming more important by my target audience.

feedback?
 My penultimate question was ‘What would you say is the most important aspect
of a film?’. I wanted to know what aspect out of Cinematography, Acting, Plot and
Soundtrack that my audience felt was most important so that I would know what
to put more focus on when I started filming and planning. Acting and Plot were
easily the most popular answers and this was very useful because I now knew
that I would have to cast actors who seemed authentic and professional. I also
put more time into working out the plot of my film because I wanted the audience
to be engaged and satisfied with the ending.
 The final question I asked was ‘what do you prefer, exaggerated over the top
comedy or dark or relatable etc?’ I asked this because I wanted to write my script
knowing what style of comedy would be more entertaining and even though I
personally prefer relatable comedy it might not have been the case with my
audience. Luckily it was and I wrote my script and plot with this answer in mind,
trying to keep the comedy quite naturalistic and also experimenting with some
dark themes hidden behind the laughter

feedback?
 After finishing my second draft, I decided to create another public survey. I wanted to get
other opinions on my film as only a select few had seen it so far, and although I got feedback
from them I wanted to get it on a wider scale.
 This survey was much shorter with only 5 questions:
 Did you enjoy the film?
 What was your favourite moment?
 What didn’t you like about it?
 Do you think the music was effective?
 Did it seem too long?
 I am very glad I did this survey as it helped me look at my film from different perspectives and
improve it using the information I had gained from the different questions.

feedback?
 Did you enjoy the film?
 I was absolutely thrilled with these results. To have 100% of 50
people say they enjoyed the film was a proud achievement for me.
More than anything it showed that I had made the right choice trying
to create something different and unique than other students work.
This gave me confidence in myself moving forward when
completing the film because I knew I was going in the right direction
and already had a good base format to work with.
 Furthermore, the results proved that I had been successful when
choosing my target audience. This is because I put the
questionnaire on Facebook, where the majority of friends are
teenagers. The very positive results prove that I made the right
choice and that my previous research had paid off. This was very
satisfying.

feedback?
 What was you're favourite moment?
 The reason behind me asking this question was so that I would know which parts are the
most popular with my audience, meaning I would know what not to cut or edit down when
making the final draft. The film was 6 minutes long at this point and I knew I would have to
edit some parts out later on.
 Lots of people said different things, which in a way was very pleasing because it showed that
the whole film was strong in a variety of areas. However I did see a lot of answers suggesting
that the best moment or scene was the montage of Jason and Harvey third wheeling. This
was a relief because it was one of the scenes I had worked hard on both when filming and in
the edit. I didn’t want to have to cut it down so it was a relief to see that the audience were
enjoying it too.
 Another popular answer was the narration. Although I knew I couldn’t cut the narration out it
was still great to see that all the effort I had put it trying to find a perfect narrator had been
worth it.

feedback?
 What didn’t you like about it?
 I wanted to see what my audience thought I could improve on and was intrigued to see if they
shared the same opinion as me on what parts weren’t as strong as they should be.
 Unlike the previous question, there wasn’t a great variety of answers. Most suggested that
the lighting needed to be improved, which is what I expected. Seeing this improvement come
up so often gave me the motivation to go away and research into how to improve lighting with
Premiere Pro and I managed to make a lot scenes look much better. Without the survey I
wouldn’t have felt compelled to do this so I am once again very grateful that I decided to get
some audience feedback
 Similarly, some people said that the audio was poor in some scenes so I used audacity to edit
out the background noise and improve the quality with my next draft.

feedback?
 Did you think the music was effective?
 I wanted to find out if my choice of music was effective because I had a lot
of trouble finding the right song to replace ‘Bye Bye Baby’ in my first draft. It
was great to see that my alternative was still just as effective and nobody
disagreed. I think the soundtrack is a crucial element of any film and it was
a relief to see that I got it right.
 Did it seem too long?
 I knew that my film was way over the time limit of 5 minutes and I was
aware I would have to cut it down. However I wanted to know if the
audience thought it was too long and whether or not they lost interest. 63%
percent thought it wasn’t too long and 37% believed it was. In all honesty
these results didn’t affect me that much because I knew I would have to cut
it anyway but I took a risk by keeping it over 5 minutes because I thought
details of the plot would be lost otherwise.

How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and Evaluation
stages?
 Throughout the entire process I used a variety of media technologies to help me create my
product.
 RESEARCH
 In the very early stages, my most useful tool was Google. I used it to help me research my
chosen genre and the codes and conventions that come with it, as well looking into short films
and how to make them. Without this tool I wouldn’t have been able to build up the knowledge that
would allow to me confidently make my film.
 I also utilised the power of Social media during my research phase. I promoted my film on
Facebook and Twitter to try and reach out to a larger audience. I also did the same with my
Surveys, created on surveymonkey, another very valuable technology that uses Web 2.0.
Surveymonkey allowed me too create surveys easily and post them on Facebook so that I could
get lots of feedback from a variety of different people. I gathered all my research and everything I
created was put on my Blogger page. A website that acts as an online blog or portfolio to keep
track of all my work. This was extremely useful as all my progress could be seen online and I
could easily look back at older posts that I had potentially forgotten about.

stages?
 RESEARCH
 Finally, I used the website IMDB (International Movie Database) to help me research my 10 films
to review and analyse, as well as the film posters. I looked at user reviews of highly rated
comedies to help me get started and learn how to write a technical review. IMDB also has a large
range of images from films and I used this to find film posters that I thought would be interesting to
analyse.
 PLANNING
 In the planning stages I used new media technologies such as Premiere Pro to create my
animatic. I did this by drawing it out on paper, taking a picture of each section on my smartphone
before using Google Drive to access them on my computer. I would then add them to my timeline
of Premiere and add the background noises and soundtrack in that I had found of sites like
YouTube and SoundCloud.
 On the right is a picture of my animatic before I began the edit.

stages?
 PLANNING
 I also used software like Microsoft Word and Powerpoint throughout the planning
stage. Word was used to create plans for my script and shot list. It was an
efficient tool and very easy to use. I also used it to create my Gantt chart. This
allowed me to create a schedule very early on in the process that I could look
back on and use as a guideline. It had dates in which I wanted things finished by
and it allowed me to stay on track throughout the planning process.
 I used PowerPoint to create some progress updates for my teacher. It helped her
gain a better understanding of what I had been doing and what needed to be
done. They showed things like what actors I had cast and what dates I planned to
film on

stages?
 Construction
 Last year I had used the Nikon D3200 camera for both my continuity task and main task and I was
very happy with the quality it produced so I decided to use it again this year. However this year I
also added an external Rode microphone to increase the sound quality. My DOP, Joe Candlin was
able to get a range of shots and use digital enhancement to get a professional looking feel to the
film. I was very impressed by the way he managed to use a camera that was new to him and I am
glad I chose him as my DOP
 I was slightly disappointed with the RODE microphone as it still picked up a lot of wind and
background noise that I had to edit out later on. Despite this I am happy with the equipment I used.

stages?
 CONSTRUCTION
 For the editing of my short film, I chose Premiere Pro. I have been using the software for a
number of years now for my personal YouTube channel and I am very familiar and confident with
it. I also used it last year for the opening title sequence I made. The biggest struggle I faced was
having to edit so many different shot types and choose which ones I wanted to use. It was a long
and difficult process and something I hadn’t really had to face before because I hadn’t done
something on this scale. I think I managed to successfully choose the right shots that helped
portray the story most effectively. I also had to learn how to edit the lighting in post production
because a lot of the shots I used were too dark or mismatched the previous shot. This meant me
going away and using google to learn new editing skills and apply them in Premiere.
 I also used Audacity, another software that I am confident with, to edit my audio. I did this by
extracting audio files from the raw footage and editing them in Audacity before putting them in
Premiere with the footage to match. Without this tool my audio would have sounded far worse
and my film would have felt less professional as a whole. Audacity allowed me to make sure
every word could be heard clearly.

stages?
 CONSTRUCTION
 I used Adobe Photoshop to create both my movie poster and magazine review. Just like premiere
pro, I am very comfortable using the software and learned most of my skills through doing Digital
Art at GCSE. Its fairly easy to use and is by far the most superior editing software.
 The part I found most difficult was making my magazine review seem authentic. I was very set on
making it look like it could have come out of an actual magazine. The hardest part of this was that
I didn’t think any of the fonts available on Photoshop looked professional enough so I used the
website Dafont to find a font that I wanted.
 One thing I would have liked to improve was the smoothness of my poster. The main image in the
middle is quite rough around the edges because I didn’t cut it very well. I wish I had spent more
time practising because I was quite rusty with my knowledge of how to expertly crop an image.

A2 media evaluation

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