YOUTUBE LINK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O58t4ldo9Q

This is my short film on Youtube.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

This evaluation question was completed on paper, I tried to scan it onto my computer but It didn't work. As a last resort I had to take photos and upload those! So I am sorry it is so difficult to understand. Hopefully you can still see what I have written.

This is my article. Which I created on Publisher. I used other real articles for inspiration. Above - as part for the evaluation question, I have shown the conventions I have used; the rating, the logo, the title, the image, the information on the left and the columns! I wrote the review myself. I found it challenging because I'm talking about my film, so I am biased. I didn't want to focus on all its faults and what I would have liked to improve, and I didnt want to be boastful and big headed about what I do like! I had to try and be balanced and find a happy medium :)

Evaluation Q - how effective is combination of task & ancillary texts

I asked my friends 'after having seen my film, do you think my poster summarizes and reflects it well?' but this part of the film didn't capture properly! So this is their answer :)

I used Abbie, Maddi and Charlotte because they are 16,17 and 18 therefore my target audience! I told them to be completely honest about my film. I thought It would be better, as an answer to the evaluation question, to have other peoples opinions aswell as my own - to make it unbiased.

Powerpoint

I created this evaluation answer on Microsoft Powerpoint but because It will not upload onto Blogger I had to take print screens and crop them. 

BLOOPERS

I have edited my bloopers and put the video on Youtube!

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

These are print screens of the feedback I have received on Youtube. The fact that I have feedback on it just proves that the website was the right place for me to upload the video, and that it really is popular amongst my target audience. I have 57 views and 5 comments, four of which are positive. The negative comment is from an older lady, this makes me feel better because I wasn’t targeting the film at her anyway. Her comment really made me think. I hadn’t really thought about the way it showing teenagers in a bad light. Teenagers already have a bad reputation due to the media and my film has only gone and reinforced what they say. They make all teenagers out to be lazy, smokers, drinkers, criminals and druggies. Ofcourse this it not true, and If anything, I would only ever want to change this view. However, my film includes Sam lying in bed, smoking weed, and stealing – so it only proves what they say to be right unfortunately. I felt that by using a teenager I was being more accurate, conveying the teen/drugs/ crime/action genre and allowing the audience to relate. I just hadn’t thought about how it put the age group in a negative light. By my feedback from my target audience on Youtube though, and the feedback I received on Facebook and from my friends -  It  seems that they are not bothered, and felt it was really gripping and entertaining. I am really happy that they recognized the camerawork, costume choices, music choices and found the ending shocking. This is exactly what I wanted!! It proves that my decisions were right in the production of my film and that it does appeal to teenagers and young adults. (I looked at the profiles of those who posted, they are all between 16-24)  

What I need to include

 

I made this chart using Publisher. I have used it to sum up the attributes, It is easier to understand than my notes.

Magazine Review

To find out what a magazine review includes I decided to look at a handful and find out what the most common conventions are! Here I have made notes on three film reviews. Two I scanned in from paper and one I made on Microsoft Publisher using a review from a website. I looked in 'Empire' Magazine because that is the most popular and well known film magazine in the UK, this is where I found the 'Dick and Jane' and 'Lust, Caution' reviews. The review for the short film was found online, I think this one looks amateur because It does not have a logo, the font isn't very proffessional and the red colour is not rich enough. It looks very simply made. Nevertheless the content I found was very much the same as the two from the magazine, they all shared the same attributes. Through observing these It has made it alot easier for me to write my review because I now know what to include and what to talk about.  

 

This is a plan for my film review article.

COLLAGE

Here is a collage showing a selection of photographs I took of Sam for the poster background!

They all include the camera, because without the camera there wouldn't be a storyline! It is the focus point of the film, and I want the audience to have some clue as to what the film is about from the poster. This is the same reason I have used Sam smoking cannabis in the image too. If the audience are aware there is drugs involved it will probably be the deciding factor as to whether or not they watch it. It will also make it clear that it is unsuitable for children. Drugs are very controversial - you usually get people who love them or people who are really against them. Those who love them would be eager to watch it as they can relate to the film! Those who are against them might want to see it because they are intrested in how they work etc but most would not. I am not worried about having a large number of people not seeing the film though because they are most likely to be under 15 or over 30 - therefore they are not in my target audience anyway! I have come to this conclusion because drug use is a lot more common amongst young people than older people - especially teenagers. This is probably because they are at the age of experimentation.

MY NEXT TASK IS TO CREATE A POSTER FOR MY SHORT FILM.
I HAVE THEREFORE BEGAN LOOKING AT DIFFERENT POSTERS TO FIND OUT WHAT THEY TYPICALLY INCLUDE AND LOOK LIKE.

They all include large bold titles in capital letters this makes it stand out and catch your attention. It also makes the title easy to remember! They each have a large image in the background which represent the film and reveal something about it, for example; 'The Grey' has the main character as the background, we now recognize him. The man is injured - which gives us the presumption that something dangerous happens. There is also snow in the image which shows that it is probably set in winter. The poster is very important because it gives the audience one of the first impressions of the film. If they have not had a chance to see the trailer then this poster could be the deciding factor as to whether or not they see it. It has to draw them in!

 

To draw my audience in I purposely used an image of Sam smoking cannabis, this I knew, would catch peoples attention - whether it was for a good or a bad reason!
As you can see, all the posters have the actors, producers, designers names etc directly below the title in small capital letters. (Except for the most famous names, which have been put at the top of the poster where they will be seen first!) I am making a small indie short film though, not a hollywood blockbuster, so there is no one famous - and therefore no reason for any names to be at the top. There are also distribution/production/supporting companies logo's at the bottom of the poster - I have copied this. I did not use the logo's of  The Warner Brothers or Sony because again, my film is not a hollywood blockbuster - there is no way it would ever get funding from huge companies like that! I instead used realistic,  less well known logo's like -  The Uk Film Council. (Which actually doesn't exist any longer, but never mind.)
To improve my poster I could remove the 15 rating, because on the posters above and many others I have looked at - there is no rating! Therefore it doesnt follow the conventions entirely accurately - but I would consider it to be a development. I personally feel that It would be better if film posters had rating's on because It gives the audience more of an idea of what the film is going to be like. Not only this, but It avoids disapointment for people who love the look of a film and then find out later when they go to buy tickets that they're not old enough!! The fact it is a 15 could also be really appealing for some, I know many people that judge a film based on it's rating - they think that a horror film won't be scary unless it's 18 for example. So many 15+ year olds will only see films with a high rating because it is going to be more shocking. Many people will go and see a movie JUST because they have just turned old enough and want to feel mature. So I reckon a lot of 15 year olds would feel tempted to see it purely for the fact that they are just old enough to see it! However this could also put people off the film, I know some adults that don't like to watch movies with a high rating because that suggests to them that there is something unpleasant in it - this is a slight misconception but I can understand.

Below are the two posters I made. I decided to make two because I had two favourite images and I wanted to compare them both and see what worked better! Both images consist of Sam smoking cannabis and the camera. I have edited both the images using Windows Photo Gallery. This software enabled me to change the contrast, brightness, colour and crop. I made the contrast higher and the brightness lower to make his face become more shadowed and his features darker. This makes him look more mysterious, as you can not see what he looks like very well! In the first version below, the camera is the main focus point and Sam is more in the background. I prefer that you can see the writing on the camera in this version, you can see the make and the stickers etc - it is much clearer and defined! I purposely made the title white so it would stand out against the dark behind it. By having the camera in the foreground, it makes the titles double meaning 'Exposure' more obvious to the audience. I think it is less obvious in this image that Sam is doing drugs, you can tell the cigerette is coned but it doesn't look as big as the one in the second poster!

This is my second poster; although I edited both the images using Windows Gallery - I added the text and the logo's using Microsoft Publisher. I prefer the colouring in this version, it is more red - which connotes danger and gives off more of a crime/action vibe. (Which is what I want!) Like I said, this image makes it more obvious that he doing drugs, the way the light is hitting the surface of the cigerette makes it stand out. The fact he is doing something illegal creates an uneasy/crime sort of vibe too. His face is not only dark from my editing but it is also covered by his hair, making him appear more mysterious because the audience are unable to see his eyes. Again, I have used the same white title to contrast against the dark background. Overall I think it looks really proffessional, the only thing I feel I could improve is by adding a website. I felt reluctant to add one because I wanted the entire film to be a shock, I did not want to give much away. However, after looking at a variety of other posters I can see that the majority have websites and I now regret my decision because I want it to look exactly like a real film poster and I think it is a website is a very good way of advertizing the film.

Here I have uploaded the poster to Facebook to see what my target audience think of it. I knew that by putting in on Facebook I would recieve some feedback because Facebook is the most popularly used social networking site by teenagers and young adults. It enables people to upload photo's, 'like' them, share them and comment on them - which is perfect for me! I really would like to know what people think is good about it and what they believe I should improve. I only put it on a few minutes ago and already have some feedback so the idea is looking promising :)

I have uploaded my short film onto YouTube because this is the perfect way for my target audience to watch it. My target audience is teenagers and young adults and these are Youtube's largest users too. YouTube is free and extremely easy to use. I can see if my audience likes it because they can rate it and either 'like' it or 'dislike' it. I put it up a week ago and already have 37 views... seeing as I have not told anyone I have uploaded it yet, I am very pleased about this! Hopefully people will also write comments so I can see what people like and if there are things they think need should be improved.  :)                                                        

 

At this point, Sam walks towards the Police Station entrance and then turns back to look at the camera. I wanted to exaggerate him turning around to show he was still indecisive about whether or not to go in, I also wanted to make it obvious this was the end of the film - so I changed the speed to 50% to create slow motion.  The last image the audience see is Sam's face as he looks back - so they have no idea what he decides to do in the end!! I like the idea of having a cliff hanger because It gives the audience the ability to predict/imagine what is going to happen next. It also makes them feel like they want to see more!! 

CREDITS

I had filmed a shot of the sun shining from behind some trees, it had no relevance in my actual film so I decided to use it as a background for the credits. To create the credits I used 'INSERT TITLES' and chose a font that was in block capitals and tight in terms of its spacing between letters. I decided on a font like this because I was inspired by several films. The snapshot above shows the font used by 'The Boat That Rocked' and the snapshot below shows a very similar font used in 'Rubber'. This is where I got the idea to use tight black capitals! 

THIS IS MY MAIN TITLE

THIS WAS INFLUENCED BY THE TITLES OF OTHER CRIME FILMS. ESPECIALLY JOHNNY DEPP'S 'PUBLIC ENEMIES' AS YOU CAN SEE.. THE FONTS ARE VERY SIMILAR. I like that they stand out and catch your attention, this makes the film easy to remember. Also, because the font is so plain - it does not give much away - leaving it up to the audiences imagination again.

 

 This is the moment after Sam has just discovered the horrible video on the camera; I wanted to cut to another day in another scene without it appearing to hard and blunt so I used the 'dip to black' transition. This I found was a lot softer. I even slowed it down to make the moment more sensitive and the atmosphere, sad. The next scene shows Sam at the new location. I had to make it clear that he was no longer at the forest and It was a different day. To do this I made sure you could see the 'Braintree Police Station' sign clearly, and I gave him a different costume to wear. 

   I made this shot of Sam walking from the background to the foreground faster because it was too long and boring.  I then edited the film so it would cross cut to the couple also walking in the forest. I made this shot faster too because it is not interesting watching people walk slowly. The cross cutting transition enabled the audience to see that they were both walking in the same forest and were likely to cross paths. I wanted to make it obvious that they were not just any random couple walking, they're significant to the plot!