Evaluation part 4

Throughout the making of our project I have used the internet to post my work onto blogger as well as to research and plan the film. In particular I used youtube for looking at title sequences, radio trailers and other short films as well as using google as the main search engine throughout. A problem we came across was the server in college as the ban width weren't big enough for us to upload our film. iMDB was helpful for me too when researchin
g into film genres, I used BBFC to look into film certificates also. Communication in the group was done through mobile phones and facebook, which was convenient for all of us as we could all get in touch with each other easily. I had few problems during using the internet however when trying to put pictures on my posts as they often wouldn't go where I wanted them to which I overcome by editing the html.

Our film 'Misguided' was created using Sony HD1000 cameras which are good quality cameras where you can get good quality filming in any location, the camera was generally easy to use and I feel like my filming skills have improved greatly. Another strength with the camera was the sound quality which was very clear. A problem we had with the camera was the focus rim on the camera, and therefore we struggled with a pulling focus shot as the camera has a spinning

focus rim (we

didn't end up using the shot in the final film.) A HD1000 tripod was also used, which was used to take sure shots were not shaky and to ensure they ran smoothly, some shots however we created to look shaky where we didn't use a tripod such as when Fiona is running down the stairs at the end, this works very well as we see things from her point of view insinuating worry and that everything is a blur to her. We also used a hand held camera to create a video diary which was very easy to use.

To edit our film we used final cut express which is widely used on

apple mac computers, I believe this programme has improved my creativity greatly. Final cut enabled us to cut out the shots that weren't needed and creating continuity. It also allowed us to alter the sound for example some conversation parts in the film weren't quite loud enough. We used different effects in the film such as fades, changing the colour, using cuts and flashes of light as well as speeding up shots such as in the party scene where everyone is stood around Fiona in a circle laughing. We didn't have any major problems the the mac's or the editing

software however sometime it was time consuming such as rendering the film when adding in new shots as well as when transferring our footage onto the computer. We also used a zoom recorder to record voice-overs for our film in a quiet room which we then put on the mac and edited and added to our film in final cut express.

To create our poster we all created individual designs and then as a group decided on a final poster design. The final poster was made on Photoshop, we used a photography studio to take pictures on a SLR camera to put on the poster. For our radio trailer we used final cut express which worked in our favour as we were very familiar with it. We recorded voice overs on a zoom recorder, took some sound from our film and used some copyright free music which works very well with the sound from the film, we also added in fades and sound bridges to make the trailer sound the best we could make it.

In conclusion I feel like the media technologies I have used has helped me improved my overall media skills such as editing, researching, sound recording and blogging, as well as boost my creativity. I think that any problems that occurred throughout the project I have able to overcome resulting in a successful project.

Evaluation, Question 1: In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product has a typical, convincing opening that is found in many modern films as it features a montage of events that our opening titles roll over. This montage helps to introduce our main character, Fiona, to the audience by showing her morning routine and portraying her as a geek who works hard and just gets on with life. We observed the language of media within this opening montage through editing the titles and certain shots to the offbeat of the music so it had a smooth, consistent feel to it. We also made good use of jump cuts so we could show a passage of time throughout her daily morning routine in a way that looked convincing but was time efficient as we only had 5 minutes to fit our entire film into and so couldn’t waste too much time on our opening montage. However, to avoid the film looking too jumpy, we made sure to include longer shots and make use of continuity in between all of our jump cut sequences, for example, when Fiona leaves the house and gets into her car we obey the 180 degree line rule and make use of match on action.

I believe that our film fits into the ‘Teen Drama’ genre as it has a storyline that reflects that of daily teenage life, however it is dramatised and so makes the story more interesting and have impact. The characters help to add to the believability of our film as they are all based on existing stereotypes, see left: in particular, Fiona, a typical geek who’s quite timid and unpopular, and Alice, a typical popular girl who is pretty, fashionable, has a lot of friends and can be quite nasty. All of our characters are deliberately meant to conform to modern day stereotypes so a sense of social hierarchy can be made apparent to our viewers and so that our characters stay close to representing real life teenagers, and our stereotypes are created through the use of carefully selected costume, make up and personality. The settings within our film also add to believability as houses parties among college students aren’t uncommon, meaning our storyline isn’t too far-fetched.

We include intertextuality within our film while Fiona is getting ready. In our film, there are cross cuts between Fiona applying make up and her walking down the stairs, and in the teen drama 'Wild Child' you're shown a similar sequence of cross cuts of a group of girls getting ready and then walking down some stairs. We believed this scene would be good to reference within our own film as we wanted to create an upbeat, flowing sequence that presented how a girl can go from geek to glamorous in a time efficient manner.  

Our film also makes reference to the short film I analysed, 'New Boy'. However, it makes reference to it in terms of themes as 'New Boy' presents an African boy's struggle with fitting in at a new school and our film presents a geeky girl's struggle with fitting in within her everyday life. Our film could be considered the opposite of 'New Boy' as 'New Boy' has a sinister underlying story and ends positively, and our story appears to have a positive underlying story (Fiona finally fitting in) but at the end there's a twist and the story ends on a negative note, showing the sinister intent of the film throughout. I believe that this twist to our story helps us achieve the audience pleasure we set out to evoke as the audience is lulled into a false positive emotion as things are going well, but are then suddenly shocked by the story's unexpected tragic outcome, which falls into Richard Dyer's theory of Entertainment and Utopia as these highs and lows of emotion help to cure an audience of boredom. As well as to shock and somewhat entertain, our film intends to educate teenagers on the dangers of alcohol, drugs and peer pressure, and I believe that this unnerving ending achieves this.

Evaluation, Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and its ancillary texts?

Reads:
Throughout the production of our film and its ancillary texts, our intention as a group was to send out a warning about peer pressure and the consequences that surround it. I believe that our film sends out this message effectively as we use a combination of believable characters and settings that our audience can relate to and a dramatic event to shock and educate our audience through the reception of our message.

Our radio trailer was created in Final Cut Express and features music, a narrative voiceover and sound snippets from our film. I believe that they all blend together well to create an authentic sounding radio trailer that will impress and interest an audience. As well as making our trailer sound authentic, we focused on getting across the message that a character in our film has to make some decisions surrounding fitting in by using snippets such as "It's a laugh, you won't regret it" and "Don't be a spoil sport" to present how others can encourage a person's decision. To relate this to our listener and get them to think, we ask them, "But how far would you go to fit in?" to make them consider potential consequences of succumbing to peer pressure, and therefore suggesting that there's a dark twist in our story and thus it can be dangerous attempting to fit in.

Our film poster, which was created in Photoshop using an image we took in a photography studio, also features the same rhetorical question as our radio trailer, "How far would you go to fit in?" which once again makes our audience consider whether fitting in is worth it. The colours used within our poster are mainly reds and blacks and therefore create a sinister feel within our poster. The main image is of the two main characters in our film, Alice and Fiona. I believe that this image is very important and portrays the meaning of our film excellently as it shows the power one person can hold over another, and thus how they can mislead them, as Alice has a grip of Fiona's shoulder and is shown to look very smug while Fiona looks innocent and unknowing.

I believe that our ancillary texts are very effective in selling our main production as there is a sense of synergy between them all and they intrigue our audience in a dark, sinister manner through posing a question to them which will ultimately make them curious about our film's story and thus want to see it. Our ancillary texts comply with Steve Neale's theory of genre as they send out a sinister feel and could potentially make an audience expect a thriller, however our genre is different to what our ancillary texts suggest, and so the shock value of our film will be even greater when the audience realises that they predicted the film incorrectly. This could also potentially make our film more memorable as it wasn't just another typical genre film that most people could predict the ending to.

Evaluation, Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evaluation, Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The Internet played a big part in the research, planning and evaluation stages throughout the construction of our media product. In the research stages, we used websites such as Wikipedia and IMDB to gather together information relating to genre and conventions, however, we had to ensure that any information we gathered was reliable as Wikipedia is open for anybody to contribute to. We also made good use of YouTube throughout the researching process so we could observe other films similar to the genre we wanted to work within. Throughout the planning of our film, we recorded all of our ideas and findings in the form of a blog on the website Blogger. We were able to construct our blog exactly how we liked, and so we decided upon a housestyle that related to our production company, Green Apple Productions, ensuring that the colours, texts and layout all complimented our logo well. During the evaluation stage, the internet proved to be very helpful as we uploaded all of our finished products (film and radio trailer) onto YouTube (we faced a problem relating to bandwidth at one point due to college server issues, but it was soon overcome) and then straight onto the social networking site, Facebook, where we were then able to share our video with an online community and gather feedback instantly from our target audience and others, which made gathering audience feedback very easy.

Throughout our planning stage we also took advantage of our access to handheld cameras by videoing some of our peers’ answers to a questionnaire we created. After collecting the footage, we then seized the opportunity to develop our video editing skills through using Final Cut Express. While editing, we played around with titles and split screens where there was a title displayed over 4 video frames as one got larger and began playing, shortly followed by other answers to the same question that faded in and out of one another. I believe that this was helpful at this stage as it eased us steadily back into using the software and gave us a bit of practice before we were to start editing our final film. 

I believe that the creation of our media product itself was the most insightful experience for us all as we once again used a HDV1000 camera and a tripod, however this time we were shooting in HD and also got the chance to use a zoom recorder to record the voiceovers within our film, something we hadn’t considered in last year’s production. We found that when using the zoom recorder it was easy to get too close to the microphone and cause unwanted bumping noises, meaning we had to redo our voiceovers until we were happy with them. We also encountered problems when using the HD Camera as on our first filming session we struggled with the white balance and focus as we’d set the camera to the automatic setting rather than manual, meaning the colours were off and the focus bounced from one place to another rather than staying focused on a point, meaning we then had to rearrange filming. The practice editing video to the right shows these problems. Another problem we had with the camera was its spinning ring. This setting made it very difficult to pull focus which came as an inconvenience to us as we’d planned to have a pulling focus shot in our film that we then edited out later as it didn’t look as we’d expected it to because of the camera’s limitations. 

Once we'd overcome all problems with the camera, we were able to finalise filming and begin editing our film. I think we learnt a lot throughout editing as we attempted things that we hadn't last year, for example, we keyframed some of the text on our titles to position them exactly, we edited cuts to fit in with the beat of the music used to give a sense of consistency, we played around with audio levels to lower or higher voices and music wherever necessary (we filmed without music playing and edited it in afterwards) and we took advantage of effects such ‘flashback’ to give our film a gripping edge. Examples of what I believe to be our best editing are at the end of the film where there is the use of several sound snippets from the film to create an eerie, haunting flashback for Fiona, and the scene where Fiona is getting ready as shots are edited to the beat and we use cross-cutting between her getting ready and walking down the stairs. 

As well as creating a film, we had to consider a radio trailer and poster. As a graphics student, I found creating the poster to be an exciting task and took advantage of the skills I posses by using Photoshop to mock up poster designs. When creating our final poster we also took advantage of our access to a photography studio and took photos using an SLR style digital camera to give us high quality photos that we could then use within our final poster. When creating our radio trailer, we decided to compose it using a combination of Garageband and Final Cut Express. It is made up of sound snippets from our film, copyright free music we found on college CDs and voiceovers that we recorded using a zoom recorder. I believe that creating a radio trailer has helped to enhance my creativity as I had to consider telling a story verbally without giving it away; something which is easy to achieve when using images as they tend to speak for themselves. Although this task was difficult, I believe we overcame it successfully and managed to blend a mysterious narrative alongside film snippets to create a wonder-inducing radio trailer that will hopefully intrigue people enough to watch our film. 

Altogether, I believe that the production of our film, radio trailer and poster have helped me develop creatively as the experience has offered me the opportunity to think about a storyline, consider editing in terms of both video and sound and, finally, how to represent a motion picture through both images and sound alone, showing that I’ve been able to think of how pictures can accumulate to give an overall picture, how one single image can give an insight into a whole story, and also how words can be used cleverly to tell a story's outline but not its whole content.

Final Group Poster

We all decided to use the design featuring Alice and Fiona for our final poster. To perfect the initial design, we changed the date on the poster and added certificate, production and distribution information to it.

Final Group Radio Trailer

This is our final radio trailer. We considered a format that would mix appropriate music, sound snippets from our film and a voiceover that would make the audience think about what our film entails. We believe that our trailer is effective as it all blends well together and sounds authentic, but it also intrigues the audience as it poses a question to the audience without giving any of our film's premise away other than the issue of how far a person will go to fit in.