The document discusses the process of creating and presenting a pitch for a short film called "Eighteen". It describes how the presentation went well and gained valuable feedback. It suggests one improvement would have been to better organize the presentation order to clearly describe the flow of ideas that led to the film. The rest of the document provides more details about aspects of creating the short film, including narrative structure, filming techniques, mise-en-scene, editing, sound, genre, a mock film magazine spread, and film poster conventions.

1. Hannah Miller

2. *
*One aspect of our pre-production process, included created and
presenting our pitch for our short film. We chose to create a
PowerPoint which explained all aspects our short film including
inspirations, and our decisions towards the genre and narrative
aspect of our short film ‘Eighteen’. Overall the presentation process
went well and we were able to gain valuable feedback from the
audience which helped further develop our short film. One thing that
I would improve within our pitch was the order in which we organised
the presentation; as by placing them in a better order we would have
been able to properly describe the flow of ideas which resulted in the
idea of our short film ‘Eighteen’.
Hannah Miller

3. Hannah Miller
*Narrative-
*Narratives appear in all films, they describe the structure
in which a story is told; the traditional narrative structure
which most films follows is: exposition, rising action,
climax, falling action and resolution.
*Non Linear; is a disrupted narrative which uses flash backs
and jumps in time to disjoint a flowing story.
*Linear; describes a story which is told in a logical order-
following the exposition, climax and resolution structure.
*Our short film adapts some elements of the traditional
narrative structure, as all characters in the scene have an
individual scenario which develops to show their struggle
with mental health and repression from a pressurising
modern society.

4. Hannah Miller
*
* Filming various shots of different angles of the same scene to benefit more fluid
editing; this relates to conventions of real short films, as real production use this
filming technique to create subtle and flowing cuts within the film. Our short film
would have been even better, if we had filmed more shots of each scene in this
style; as it would have meant that we could have created smoother flowing cuts
within our short film- meaning that an audience wouldn’t recognise any unnatural
editing techniques.
* One important aspect of our shots filmed, was the use of mirrors within our short
film; conveying the feeling of self-reflection for both the character and audience.
As well as this, by shooting an over the shoulder shot of a character looking into a
mirror; we are able to place the audience within the scene as a way of fully
projecting the emotion and meaning of the scene to an audience member.
Reflecting on this, this I believe that although the quality of our shots isn’t the
highest, the use of the mirrors within shots is a successful prop to use; to further
develop the themes within our film to our audience.

5. Hannah Miller
* Mise en scene-
* Short films carefully decide on a characters clothing to portray their
personality, age and lifestyle; in our shirt film we decided to dress our
characters in young clothing which represents their younger as well as the
modern setting. Also, in some scenes a characters clothing was used to
further represent the characters emotions; and example of this is seen
within the beach seen as the character wears dark clothing to develop the
theme of heartbreak and isolation.
* Also, films use a variety of lighting within shots to revel the tone or
emotion within the scene; the most recognisable being low key and high
key lighting. Our film is shown to frequently use this convention; an
example of low key lighting within our short film is the scene in which the
young girl is in her bedroom. By including the low key lighting in the
scene, we are able to further display the sadness experienced by the
pressures of social expectations; such as photoshopped images in
magazines.

6. *
* Editing-
Most short films all follow similar editing techniques to produce a form of media that has
a smooth flowing narrative; which can be easily followed by the audience.
Our short film ‘Eighteen’ uses many of the traditional forms of editing including:
-Cutaways (frequently used within our short film as the characters interact with props
such as magazines and during the opening credits.
-Match on action (shown when a character is opening and walking through a door)
-Eye line match (we have tried to maintain this element throughout the editing,
especially during the beach scene where we cut from the character looking onto the sea;
to their view of the sea)
-Although our film is edited in the style of a montage, it is still extremely important that
we edited shots to maintain continuity (overall, this was an element which we found hard
during the editing process; however I am proud of the outcome as we had no experience
of editing footage before starting this coursework)
-We have used the transition fade to black within our editing (it was hard to not over use
this within our film, as it is an easy transition to slot in between shots; however we have
mainly used it when including the title image within our film.)
-Dissolve, we have frequently used this editing technique (on premiere pro) to smoothly
transition between shots. Upon reflection we have used this editing technique frequently
and it would have been better to use a range of editing techniques.
Hannah Miller

7. Hannah Miller
*Sound-
*Most short films conventionally use diegetic sound, which is filmed
during shooting and later edited over the scene.
*As a group, we made the deliberate decision to record a voice over
and use this audio to play over the film opposed to diegetic sound
captured during filming. One of our friends and frequent writer,
agreed to write a poem; this poem perfectly suited the genre and
theme of our short film.
*Also, we looked for some ambient backing music to maintain a pace
throughout the film and contribute to the narrative. At first we
didn’t think that the film would require any other sound, as we
wanted the attention of the audience to be focused on the visuals
and poem. However upon reflection, the backing music
complements the voice over, by contributing to the pace of the short
film.

8. *
* After conducting research based around genres of short films, we decided as a
group that the plot of our short film fit into the genre; drama, particularly teen
drama. Some examples of how our short film portrays conventions of the genre
drama are:
* The narrative of our film portrays scenes of real life events that the audience
would find relatable; our short film includes scenes that show heartbreak (shown in
the beach scene); as well as the damaging effects of expectations regarding
appearance and social standards. Our target audience would be able to recognise
these similarities and hopefully feel comforted yet empowered to think of their life
beyond isolation and repression from metal health issues and social expectations.
* The (female) characters are presented as real life examples of young girls going
through modern struggles, it was important that through the characters normal
young clothing (mise en secne), poem used for our voice over and settings; we were
able to create a highly recognisable scenario which presented a drama based
narrative. I believe that this is one of the strongest aspects of our film as we can
confidently state that by using the conventions listed above and also the opinions
and influence of young people who surround us; we were able to make a short film
that is impactful but true to life.
* An improvement that would further develop the audience’s recognition to the
genre of our short film, towards real life events, would be to include more
situations that have an effect on young girl’s mental health; such as the pressure of
education and exams.
Hannah Miller

9. Hannah Miller
*
* Double page spreads in film magazines use conventional techniques which can be identified
in their structure and form. My double page spread follows some real conventions, explains
of these are:
* The text follows a three column structure
* The article includes a main title
* A pull quote is included within the design
* My double page spread includes a main image; however this is developed by the inclusion
of a secondary image that overlaps the main mid close up image.
* My article includes a banner; however the placement of the banner (at the bottom of the
page) goes against the conventional top placement which I have seen during my research.
* My article uses a colour scheme which visually relates to the short film plot in some way;
as the film is based around young girls, I decided to use pink as part of my theme to
emphasise the social expectation that pink is a colour associated with women.
* I have challenged the conventional layout of a film magazine double page spread, by
including flowers which frame and overlap certain aspects of my magazine pages- including
my main image and writing located in the typical three column structure. I have chosen to
include this, as they match he colour scheme and house style of the pages; as well as
including flowers due to their connotation with a scene in the film and their association
with girls. I chose to add a dark filter over the light pink roses, as it creates a sense of
corruption and darkness to a typically innocent and delicate object; this relates to the film
as it shows that although it may not look like it everyone has dark times within their life.

10. Hannah Miller
*
*

11. Hannah Miller
* Film posters use wide range of the same conventions, which make them recognisable as a
media product. In order to ensure that my poster for our short film ‘Eighteen’ included and
used real media conventions; I chose to follow some of the conventional guidelines.
* My poster included a main (mid close up) image which represented the film. I have developed
this convention within my film poster, by adding a black and white filter over the image; this
was taken as inspiration from other film posters I had researched. I chose to do this as it linked
with my house style and colour scheme, as well as contrasting with the expectation that girls
love the colour pink- our film is based on challenging society's social expectations upon women.
* I have challenged the conventional layout of images on a film poster, by overlaying a secondary
image over my main image. Also the second image, which is a mid-lose up shot, had been
edited to have a pink filter over it; this complements the house style and colour scheme, as
well as relating to the tagline and theme of the play.
* My poster includes a Masthead which states the name of the short film, ‘Eighteen', I have
chosen to write this in large bold lettering as I follows the style of examples I have researched.
* I have chosen to include a tagline within my short film poster, as it follows the traditional
conventions; as well as using the written word to further attract the readers attention to the
film.
* I have included a billing block of all of the names of our group, this follows traditional
conventions, as all of the film posters I have researched have included this. I like the
positioning of the billing block on my poster, as it develops the minimalistic house style shown
within my poster.
* I have chose to include a blurb (exciting review) as it follows conventions of a film poster; as
well as using emotive language to capture the readers attention. Unlike some of the posters I
have seen, I have chose to only include one blurb feature; as I believe that by adding more I
would overcrowd the poster and I wouldn’t be sticking to the simplistic house style of m short
film poster.
* I have challenged the traditional conventions of a short film poster by including a lot of
negative space within the design, this has allowed me to maintain the readers attention with
the most important features of the poster; images, masthead, billing block and blurb.