This document evaluates a short drama film called "Cries Wolf" and discusses how it uses and challenges conventions of the genre. It summarizes the film's nonlinear storyline told through flashbacks, its use of realistic characters and settings, and its intentional lack of resolution. The evaluation also discusses how audience feedback informed areas for improvement, such as spending more time developing characters and the ending. Media technologies like online research, Final Cut Pro, and slideshare.com were used during construction, research, planning, and evaluation of the project.

1. Evaluation : ‘Cries Wolf’
A2 Media Production

2. 1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or
challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
• I used a lot of conventions from the film genre of
Drama. This includes realistic characters and
settings that the audience can relate to and a
regular life that is disrupted by an event.
• My short film also used Todorov’s theory of
equilibrium to disruption, but challenged it by not
having a resolution. We did this on purpose to
create a cliffhanger and suspense, which excites
the audience.

3. • Another development I used when it came
to conventions was to have a linear
storyline but told it through a flashback.
This is quite unconventional in mainstream
drama films. This also helped create
suspense because it makes the audience
wonder what happened to the characters
before to create the ‘accident’.
• We also cast young teenage actress quite
intentionally. This helps create emotional
contagion between the audience and the
characters, and is a representation for
them to relate to.

4. • Conventions of real media products was an
important part of the pre-production and
development process as it helped spark some initial
ideas, looking at specifics genres and their formats
and including them in our own work, as well as
some stylistic choices – such as camera work and
even costume.
• One of the ways we did this was to look at drama
films such as ‘The Social Network’ and ‘Awake’. I
learnt that the genre uses a lot of close up shots for
emotional impact on the audience and the use of
important props. As early as writing the script, I
made the creative decision to include these
elements in the plot of out short film.
• The research of real media products also showed
that a strong narrative was needed for a successful
and engaging film. This became vital for the
development of our pre-production.

5. 2. How effective is the
combination of your main
product and ancillary tasks?
• When creating my film poster I used the
hierarchy of a big image in the centre of
the page with smaller text around it to
draw the viewers attention
• I made sure the image illustrated the
genre of the film and wanting it to convey
some of the plot by having an ‘active’ shot
of the protagonists.

6. • I think the combination of my main
drama short film and the film poster
advertisement for the film worked well
because I used the same font and
colours on both for the title of the film
to keep them connected, as well as
using a professional style for the
credits on both.

7. 3. What have you learned from
your audience feedback?
• The audience that saw my film said that the camera
work and cinematography throughout the short film
was very good and well thought out in relation to
character, their power and situations.
• They also said the storyline was good, and a clever
adaptation of the fairy tale ‘The Boy Who Cried
Wolf’ but that the narrative slowed down in the
second half of the film, when it should have got
more exciting towards the climax of the plot. This
was due to the location staying the same
throughout the story and it being quite a
contained narrative. This could have been
improved by portraying ‘the accident’ more
dramatically and maybe a faster style of
editing.

8. • A change I would have made would be to
take more time with the ending of the film,
which people said felt rushed.
• I also would have spent more time on
character development and experiencing
their personality through the story as I feel
the progression of the plot took over.
• I did however like the look of the film, the
coloration which we edited in Final Cut
Pro, the pace of the editing throughout –
and specifically at the ending of the film. I
also learned that my choice of costume
was well throughout and got personality of
the characters across to my audience.

9. • As director, I was glad audiences noted a
good use and variety of interesting camera
angles, as well as some clever use of mise-
en-scene to convey some of the meaning of
the film and character significance and
emotions. I believe having a carefully
designed and detailed storyboard is what
led to this working very well in the
production.
• Also from the feedback received, we
realized that our effects sequence for when
the characters are drunk did not work as
well as we hoped from the storyboard and
could have been improved.

10. 4. How did you use media
technologies in the construction,
research, planning and
evaluation of your product?
• During my research I used online blogs
and reviews of films of the same genre to
investigate my target audience. This
helped me learn what Drama audiences
want from a text when they go to see it.
This paired with my knowledge of the uses
and gratifications theory helped my
decided on what conventions of the genre
to use.

11. • When constructing my short film I used
Final Cut Pro to edit and apply post
production to it. I used Final Cut Pro to
piece my film into order, as well as get the
pace of editing right for the mood of the
scene. We also added soundtrack to fast
paced scenes, or to add drama and sound
effects like heartbeats, footsteps and
doors closing to, on the one hand add
realism to certain aspects of the film and
on the other add drama and tension to the
dramatic scenes.

12. • In doing my research I used new media
technologies to find out information, such
a the internet and presented them using
programs such as www.slideshare.com.
This helped to label and connect my ideas
from what I discovered and easily showed
the link between my own work and the
conventions of those I looked at during my
research. It also helped to develop ideas,
like when writing the script, and help come
up with new ideas and changes.