2. • In relation to audience feedback I found that our focus group were extremely helpful in helping us with
decision making and contributing to help achieve our final result. They enabled us to gain positive and
negative criticisms to help us improve our work to help it appeal more to our target audience. Our focus
group gave positive and negative criticisms upon showing them our original film, Arboretum. The focus
groups main criticism was that Arboretum failed to include enough close ups, resulting in an absent
relationship with our main protagonist, in turn failing to create a bond with our target audience leaving
them not feeling involved with the film. Obviously, we didn’t want this to be the effect of the film, and we
felt this idea needed our audience to emphasise with our protagonist. However our film lacked this
response due to lack of close ups. The rest of the feedback was unfortunately negative; we therefore
decided to change our idea and start to re-plan for our new idea. When planning our new idea we kept in
constant communication with our focus group, as we felt when planning arboretum our focus group were
very absent and that was the reason for such a negative response to our film. This time however, we
made sure to ask our focus groups opinions throughout the research and planning stage. When changing
our idea we kept the supernatural element to our film as our focus group liked the idea we were making
a film with a hybrid genre as it would appeal to a wider target audience. After shooting ‘The Week’ we
presented our it to our focus group who gave mainly positive feedback, they did however feel needed
more sound to keep the audience interested in a group discussion with our focus group we came up with
the idea that a documentary style voiceover throughout our short film would be unusual and enticing for
our audience, we then went back to our research and planning and started to look into voice overs, this is
when we added the voice over to our film and after presenting it once again to our focus group, they felt
it was much more interesting and enticing. (ADD PART OF EXAM)Overall I felt our focus group was vital in
achieving what we have done. Without them our film would lack things that appeal to our target
audience, making them one of the most important if not the most important aspect in our research and
planning.
3. In what way does your media product
challenge use and develop codes and
conventions?
4. • During our research and planning stage of our production we gained lots of ideas from real media texts, these eventually
helped to form the basis of our short film. An example of conventions from real media texts that we used when making our
short film is Edgar Wright's fast cuts, commonly found in the films he’s directed; such as Shaun of the dead. These fast cuts
influenced our film greatly, and we went on to incorporate these 'fast cuts' in our film, to get the desired effect of a rushed,
mundane routine. We started our research by looking at horror films, one in particular Gothika. We liked the supernatural
element in twined in this film, however we decided we wanted to steer away from a horror film (as we decided that our target
audience wouldn’t be able to view the film if we made it a horror genre), and we did however want to take the supernatural
element forward. To stay clear of the Horror element we decided to look for films/short films that were a hybrid of both
supernatural and drama, after looking on YouTube we came across Ennis road a short film, this short film used a routine to
suggest a passing of time, this passing of time was achieved by replaying the same shots creating an mundane routine. We
wanted to recreate this in our film, and using Fast cuts inspired by Edgar Wright and inspiration from Ennis Road we managed
to achieve this, developing conventions of real media texts.We challenged the conventions of real media products when
deciding to use a male protagonist in our supernatural drama. A lot of films/short films we looked at included women as the
protagonist as the media present women generally to be more vulnerable. Goffman suggests that the media present men as
masculine and women as vulnerable. When looking at horror films such as The Grudge, women are used as the vulnerable
protagonists. However we challenged this convention and decided to use a male as our vulnerable protagonist, we decided to
do this as we felt it would be more hard hitting for our audience to see a male in a vulnerable state rather than a women due
to this not normally being done within the media. Looking at Ennis road the vulnerable protagonist is also a male. Female
protagonists are commonly found in supernatural/horror films, they are often portrayed as the victim and venerable this is
done because they are portrayed as ‘weaker’ than male antagonists.As a group we decided to choose a hybrid genre for our
film which was supernatural drama. This makes it difficult to apply certain conventions to our film due to being a hybrid of two
genres. This difficulty was because some of the conventions of each genre conflicted with each other. For example using low
key lighting from conventional supernatural films was difficult to use in our short film as it was a hybrid of both supernatural
and drama, the conventions of the genre drama is high key lighting due to attempting to have a realistic feel and reflecting the
real world. We therefore went against the convention of using low key lighting from supernatural films but went with the
convention of high key lighting as we wanted to convey a realistic feel. In terms of props and settings we went with the
convention of setting the main body of the short film in the protagonist’s house and work place, this is a convention of a drama
as it conveys a realistic lifestyle and realistic surroundings. Although this goes against of a supernatural genre as its neither an
abandoned or isolated place, it could be conveyed that his house is isolated and that follows the convention of a supernatural
genre.We used a similar sound score to that of a conventional horror film. I found that the common convention of
horror/supernatural genre music is high suspense music that builds tension, we were lucky enough to have friends that were
able to aid us in re-creating this type of music, fulfilling the convention of supernatural genre music.When deciding camera
shots we felt that close ups were good to use due to creating a bond with the audience, this is also a convention of
supernatural genre as the close ups are used as reaction shots. Close ups can be found in our film WHEN (ENTER HERE WHEN
FILM IS DONE ) we also used shots that follow our protagonist to go with the supernatural genre, the camera follows our
protagonist to make the shot seem as realistic as possible HAND HELD EFFECT. THIS CAN BE SEEN WHEN (ENTER WHEN FILM IS
DONE). These close ups are also a convention of short films. Therefore developing the conventions of media products.Overall I
have developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products.
6. • I looked at numerous different film posters and film reviews and these helped me understand the codes and conventions
needed to fulfil a good film poster and review. I looked at different film posters to help me find the conventional format of a
poster. I looked at film posters such as The Eye and Time After Time they both provided an insight into how the layout and
structure of film posters should be, enabling me to use these as inspiration when creating my own poster. I noticed
conventions such as large bold font for the title of the film, to attract attention to the name, an unusual main image to attract
attention and create an enigma code. From looking at these posters I was able to take ideas from these and use them in my
own poster. I liked the idea of using an unusual image to keep the audience wondering what the film is about, but also by
giving a snippet of information away, thus creating an enigma code making my target audience to want to go and see the
film. I particularly liked Time After Time’s film poster of the stop watch. From this I planned to take an image of my
protagonist holding a stop watch in his hand vertically to convey him dropping the stop watch, which would have
connotations of him losing control of time and death catching up with him. I also think the symbolism of the watch suggests
he is under pressure from time, I do however believe this image doesn’t give too much information away to the audience,
making them to want to find out more by watching the film, which will be effective as it will gain the desired result of my
target audience wanting to watch our film. I believe my film poster works well with the combination of my main product as it
advertises it well, without giving away too much information. I believe my poster subtlety highlighted the importance of time
in our film and suggests that subconsciously time is ‘creeping up’ on our protagonist. However due to not using an image of
my protagonist face which I found was a common convention of film posters I was detracting from address mode of address
which in terms of uses and gratifications theory creates an relationship with the audience, my poster ma lack this relationship
due to not having direct eye contact, which in turn could make people not want to go and see the film. My strapline ‘Time is
Running out’ is suggestive and leaves the audience wondering ‘why’ most straplines I researched had the same effect,
enticing the particular target audience. I believe my strapline creates a sense of disequilibrium as the audience are able to
see that something is perhaps wrong. When it came to looking at film reviews I took the same approach, I researched
numerous film reviews from magazines such as Empire; I also researched online film reviews, to help me widen my
knowledge of the common codes and conventions used. I then chose three film reviews to look at in detail, In Cinemas
Paranormal activity being one of them. I found that within most film reviews a action shot/screenshot from the film was
used, this normally became the main body of the layout, attracting attention to the target audience because it gives a
preview of the film. I therefore decided to use an action shot from our film in my film review, I wanted to also make this the
main layout of my film as I feel it splits the text up and will entice the audience to want to read on, if they are able to see a
shot from the film. The text within film reviews I found generally used colloquial language, creating a relaxed read; it also
gave little chunks of information about the directors/actors within the film. A lot of them also used a 5 * rating at the end of
the review. I incorporated all of these in my film review to conform to the common codes and conventions, this therefore I
believe helped to make my film review effective, and in relation to my main product the film review allowed for some
information to be released, without giving away the main plot twists, but still enticing my target audience to want to go and
see my film. I believe this is due to using a large action shot image and giving some opinions on the directors and actors, my
film review also give a vague outline of the plot, which I believe will help my target audience decide if they want to go and
see it, therefore working well with my main product to help promote and advertise our film. Overall I believe my ancillary
tasks work well with my main product as both allow for some information to be released about our film, without giving away
too much information creating an enigma code making my target audience to want to go and see our film.
7. • How did you use technologies in the
construction research planning and evaluation
stages?
8. Throughout the research and planning stages of my production I used a variety of media technologies to help me to produce a
final better production. Throughout my planning stage of my production I used ‘google maps’ to scout locations in my local area to
use for filming. I used this to find the forest area which we used to film our first film, Arboretum in. After using Google maps to
scout for places to film print screened the areas on my smart phone, which it then showed to the other members in my group.
Google maps became a very useful tool is looking around my local to find places to film. However we scrapped the Arboretum film
and starting planning again, this time we didn’t need google maps to help scout for locations as we planned to film in areas that
we already knew off, for example the sixth form and local surrounding areas. Another media technology device I used to help me
with my production was YouTube. YouTube played a major part in helping me with my production, specifically when searching for
tutorials to aid me in using other media technologies such as Photoshop cs3. YouTube helped me to progress my skills in
Photoshop, by being able to access vast quantities of tutorials. I used YouTube to search for techniques/tricks to make my
production more professional. I watched the Photoshop cs3 outline tutorial, this helped me to get a general feel for Photoshop
and taught me the basics, this lead me onto being able to create my final movie poster and film review. The video taught me how
to manipulate images including things like rasterizing layers, which came in useful when working with images that I had taken for
my movie poster. (link) Regarding YouTube and Photoshop the tutorials also helped me with more specific ideas that I wanted to
achieve, I was able to YouTube how to change the colour of an image on Photoshop, this lead me to be able to have my final
movie poster to be black and white, which I feel was more eye catching than the image being ‘normal’ colour, the tutorial taught
me to do this by going to image adjustments and then clicking black and white, this also enabled me to play around with the hue
and saturation. (link) I also used YouTube to find tutorials to help me work with the camera that we used to film with the canon
55od.I used the videos I found on YouTube to help me set the camera up to get the best shots, this allowed me to change the
brightness of the shots when dealing with darkly lit rooms (link) I also used Facebook as a communication technique when
contacting my focus group – this media technology allowed me to have group chats with my focus group and get hold of them
easily, it allowed for me to quickly organise meetings ensuring everyone got the message. It also allowed me to have contact with
my focus group even if I wasn’t with them; this was useful as it allowed me to find out peoples opinions on our
film/planning/research even if they couldn’t attend our meetings. IMDB was also another media technology website I used, it
helped me to find out information about films we were using in our research and planning stage, as well as watching the films on
DvD’s from our local video store I was able to use this website to find out additional information about the films, for example the
directors. This then enabled me to use google to search about the directors which made the films I was using in my planning and
research stage, enabling me to find out about their work, this was particularly the case with Edgar wright, both IMDB and google
allowed me to find our more about his fast cuts, enabling a good understanding for when I came to film my production and
incorporate these fast shots. I presented my work in numerous different ways, I was able to find out good websites to make big
chunks of text look more exciting from the help with google, I particularly enjoyed PowToon which is a fun cartoon animation
programme which allows you to make a slideshow of your work. I also used Prezi for all of the focus group feedback, this clearly
allowed for the feedback to flow as it is present in a chart like way, which shows the progression throughout our meetings in a
visual way.These all helped with my flow of presentation and enabled me to achieve my desired result to make my research and
planning look professional.
