Post 48 - Evaluation: Question 4

Below is a Prezi I made for this last question.

Here is a link to it if it does not appear.

Post 47 - Evaluation: Question 3

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Throughout the making of our film, I took multiple opportunities to get audience feedback from out fragmented and wide target audience. I was fortunate enough to have contact to professionals of the industry through my teacher, which meant I was able to have conversations through email to gain feedback. The feedback collected from the professional editor Michael Harrowes [mentioned in the mind-map below] was very helpful to collect as whilst our target audience demographic was around the age of 15-24, we also wanted to expand our target audience towards the 'art-house'/'maturer' audience. 

Video feedback from within our target audience was all done through YouTube and filmed with a Flip Camera. This information was vital to the development of our film, especially in terms of continuity editing which was a major problem during the start of our production.

Below is a mind map with the feedback I received during the production of the film/poster/review and what I learnt from it.

* the image that relates to the asterisk in the mind-map 

As mentioned in the mind map above, I spent a lot of times collecting feedback from my target audience and from other sources of feedback which I was able to come into contact with. Below is a list of posts which link to the feedback written about above.

Post 6 - Logline feedback
Post 10 - Film Treatment Feedback
Post 36 - Second Draft Poster Design + Feedback
Post 38b - Magazine Draft Feedback
Post 39 - First Film Draft + Feedback 
Post 40 - Second Film Draft + Feedback
Post 41 - Third Draft + Feedback
Post 42 -Third Draft Feedback - Professional Editor

As a group we then created a questionnaire and had our target audience watch the film -and fill it in in regards to how they viewed the final film. Below is an image of two of the questionnaires we received back from out audience.

What I learnt from the feedback received:

• The genre of our film was very clear as all members of the feedback audience guessed the genre correctly or at least chose one of the genres the film consisted of.
• There was consistent mentioning of suspense in the second question of the feedback, the audience seemed to think that the music and pace of the film worked well together to create mystery, especially surrounding the main character. The two answers in the picture above show that the audience seemed to have a connection to Thomas because of how unnerving/unaware both the audience and the character were.
• The film was enjoyed by those who watched it, whilst during some feedback I was made aware that parts were confusing and was asked a few questions, it was stll enjoyed.
• As above, the storyline of the film wasn't all that clear to some viewers. We've learnt that we needed to think more about the plot beforehand and plan more before filming, as we know we did rush some parts to get the film done in time. More speech was suggested, however from my perspective there was enough speech and from other feedback it was suggested there was too much speech which we could cut [Michael Harrowes' feedback]. As I wanted the film to take a more art-house approach, my view was that the music and the film itself should push along the film, rather than the speech. 
• However it was clear from half of the responses that the storyline needed to be worked on.

Post 46 - Evaluation: Question 2

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task?

Here is a link to the Mixbook I made for this question 
- Link was added as the embedded presentation may be too fast

Post 45 - Evaluation: Question 1

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

Our short film was placed in the genre of 'drama' and 'mystery'. This commonly involves a journey, be it self or literal; conflict at the heart of the plot and realism, taking subjects which reflect reality and can invoke emotion and connect to an audience. Through my textual analysis I found that one convention of the drama genre is within the conflict aspect was a distinctive protagonist, who 'saves the day' and antagonist, the villain behind the conflict. However our film broke away from this convention with our protagonist acting as the antagonist as well. After looking back on these films I analysed, I looked at 'Vaculty'

Within this short film there was no set antagonist, similar to how we chose to make the antagonist hidden at the start, however it became apparent in Vaculty that the antagonist was the conflict that the protagonist experienced. We developed this idea by making Thomas slowly become the antagonist, his character being the driving force of the plot and the conflict within it.

Feedback given on our script by the acclaimed script writer Dudi Appleton in the form of a recorded Skype chat [shown below], told us that our idea was unusual and that our short film could be impressive if it was well executed. Because of this I think our film subverts the form of a drama film which usually have a very clear plot, whereas our film matches the form of a mystery film as the entire plot is based the audience being placed in a position where they are curious about what is being shown the them 

-Soundcloud file starts at 1:57-

The camera work for our film uses the convention of match on action. In the first shot of the film we used an establishing shot of the bedroom with a close view of the phone on the hamper. This was done with the desire to set up the plot instantly and create mystery as to why there is focus on an object and whether the plot involves it. This shot was tested at different angles to get the focus onto the phone itself. We used medium close ups matched with over the shoulder shots to show emotion on our character's faces; we have also used extreme close ups for reaction shots, which is a convention of the mystery genre. In the editing, I developed this connotation of reaction with quick cuts between these shots. This adds to the drama genre.

The lighting we used in our film helped the development of our media product, not only because it reflected the sitting, but also the internal mood of the character. For example, the final scene ends in a dark tunnel with shots showing the outside road and the lighting effects this had on the tunnel. It was chosen to represent how isolated the character is at the end of the film whilst everything else passes by. The use of the tunnel at night meant that at the location we had poor lighting and thus had to use the reflector for the close up shots, this was also used to highlight the emotions on our actor's face. The location was chosen so that the lighting which was dim and not as bright as the rest of our film. This was used to connote the change in plot. Shadows were used to add the plot. For example the shadow of the tunnel itself with parts of character in shadow, fits with the convention of dramatic films, where there is an air of mystery surrounding a character.

Sound layering was done during my editing of the film to add sound effects and at times layer music to create a more dramatic tone to the film. I developed the concept of using a sound as a representation, shown in the short film UNWIND, where the surgical noises have no physical viewing and are a representation of the plot of the novel the short film is based off. We used this by having a high pitched noise occur throughout the film when memories were taken. The music was also chosen to match the tone of the scenes. This in feedback from our audience told us that this helped underpin their understanding of the emotional content and narrative of the film.

Props within the film where used to help drive the plot along, as is a convention of dramatic films. The wedding album was chosen because it had the word 'wedding' on it, which meant that it was clear to the audience what the memory the female character lost consisted of. The phone was chosen because of the unusual case, which meant that in the opening shot it was noticeable to push forward the plot from the beginning, it also mean that audiences recognised the phone later in the film.

Photo comparison to an existing film

 

The poster I created for our film fits into the conventions of drama film posters as I was influenced by posters of the same genre, such as the 'Lincoln' and 'Filth' posters. These conventions included: A short simple tag-line; a centralised or single image on a coloured background and a contrast in colours. The use of a single character alongside bold and clear fonts entices readers to look at the poster due to the clash between the dark image and the bright white font with an image which catches the eyes and is solitary. In my posters whilst there is background, the character of Thomas is the only figure and reflects the solidity that many drama posters employ. I deliberately chose white font because of how the Lincoln poster used black on white, my poster uses white on black/grey.

When deciding on the magazine spread layout for our film review, my group and I looked at art-house/independent film magazines and focused on the simple form of the products. This was taken into account in our product, as we matched the layout to an exert from the magazine 'Little White Lies', specifically a drama action film. The image below shows the article from the magazine which we based our review off of. This was because of the simple layout and how the image complimented the formate of the text and vis versa.

Post 44 - Final Products

Film

Who did what:
Directed, Edited, Produced, Organisation, Props - Myself
Camerawork - Sabene for the majority and myself during shots in which Sabene was acting.
Acting - All of my group


Poster - Made by myself

Magazine Review made by all of my group

Who did what:
Writers - Sabene [first column], Myself [middle column] + Hannah [final column and the review scores]
Layout designer + maker - Sabene with some input from the rest of the group.
Photographer of image - Myself
Model in the image - Charlie

Link to the final review

Post 43 - POST-PRODUCTION: Editing sound

Towards the end of the editing stage of our film, I found the 'Adobe Audition' program which can erase background noise and edit a sound file. Through-out our production of the film, my group knew that we had unwanted background noise which none of us could remove successfully or to a good enough standard to have a high sound quality unless with 'Video Effects' in Adobe Premier Pro. However with Audition, I looked into how it removed external noises such as the traffic in our outside scenes. There was also a few inside shots where the tool want needed to remove any noise from the rest of the location as it was busy. I looked up tutorials on how to remove background sounds and found one very helpful, this is embedded below.

From the video I then set out to edit pieces of our film which required sound editing. The SlideShare below shows a presentation of the 4 stages of how I edited the sound. A more detailed description on what was being done on each picture is written below the presentation.

Post 41 - Post Production Edting from MellowShark

Slide 1. We listened through our sound clip multiple times before analysing what exactly would need to be done to it. We knew the disruptive sound of the traffic needed to be quietened, but the actor's voice needed to remain clear and not become tinny or echo like. I selected the clip and opened Adobe Audition.

Slide 2: Once the file was in Audition, I played the sound file again to see where the sound of the traffic could be cornered and, from my knowledge from the tutorial, selected to make the edit. I had selected the traffic at the start of the file as this did not have Charlie's voice in it, this was then make into a 'noise point'. Capturing this meant I was then able to go onto the next stage.

Slide 3: After capturing the sound, I used the short-cut CRTL-A to select all of the file to remove the sound from. Using the tool 'Noise Reduction (process)' I was then able to test and change the levels of the removal of the sound. This step took the longest as we didn't want the noise to become tinny and the echo of Charlie's voice kept becoming this. After I had made the sound file sound like we wanted, with less traffic and more emphasis on Charlie's voice, I clicked apply and listened to the file again before saving the new sound file.

Slide 4: We watched the clip again to see if the sound worked better, using the undo and redo short-cuts to flick through the two versions to see if there was an improvement and if we could still hear Charlie's voice clear enough. We were happy with the change and continued to edit other sound files in the same way.

Post 42 - Third Draft Feedback - Professional Editor

Along with videoed feedback, I took it upon myself to ask a contact my teacher had provided me about our film and receive feedback on the Third Draft of my group's film. This was done as we wanted feedback from someone who wasn't aware of the film and was viewing it for the first time with no background knowledge. The email below shows the feedback we received and ideas for how we could edit parts of the film. 

Things taken from the email which I then implemented in the editing of our final cut:

• Kitchen scene needs to be cut down, especially the female character shots. If we had time we would shoot Charlie talking, however we did not have the time to re-shoot.
• Lengthened the shot of the drawing in the last scene, this meant that hopefully the drawing would make more sense as the writing of 'wedding' was clearer for longer.
• Cutting the frame of some dialogue down to make the scenes more snappy and quicker.
• Delaying the opening title of the film to make it last longer over the empty bed. We then decided to have a transition between the bed shot and the bathroom shot.

Post 41 - Third Draft + Feedback

Below is the third draft of our film. This draft was much cleaner cut and the sound was edited to not jump like before. There were shots which we kept long to see how the audience reacted and from advice we then would edit the film to completion.


We then collected feedback from a member of our target audience who was not a media student but had been aware of the film, poster and the review.



What was taken from the feedback:

• The film itself could have been longer and whilst our group was aware when editing that our film was a bit shorter than we had originally hoped for, this feedback member later suggested that the film could have had more scenes.
• The music and sound effects choices were good, that they made the audience feel for the character, especially the end music.
• The guessing of the genre was spot on, so we knew that we had done well to convey the form and conventions of the mystery and drama genre.
• The target audience was suggested to be lower than what we had planned it to be. We agreed that those younger that our target audience may also be in the audience because of the sci-fi elements.

Post 40 - Second Film Draft + Feedback

Here is the second draft for our short film. On this draft music has been added and the cuts have been made much better.

The video below was the start of our feedback session. Here we have showed that they are watching our film and who is providing the feedback. We have a mix of both media and non media student and those of different ages.



After our audience watched the film, we had a question and answer session which is shown in the video below.

Post 39 - First Film Draft + Feedback

This is the first rough cut of our film, it does not contain out music selection except for the end and has very basic cuts. It also does contain a few sound effects.

Post 38b - Magazine Draft feedback

We collected feedback from our target audience for the magazine spread we, as a group, had created. The feedback received was given by those of the ages 16-20 years old, with some members of the group having watched drafts of the film and thus had a clearer take on the review. This feedback has been summarised below by one of my group members:

Pros	Cons	Room for improvement
Layout was neat with image and looks professional.	Font style too small	Small mistakes of punctuation errors and film title in inverted commas
Tone of voice fit that of a review; criticising	Slightly contradictory in places.	Maybe make the writing around the rating system could be clearer.
Directly addressing audience	Some points not clear and needed to be written differently to make more sense.
It gives provides what is good and bad
Not just actors were mentioned, the director was too.
Rating system and the comments were professional
Does not give away plot; entices you to watch film

From the feedback given, one of my group went ahead and make slight changes to the magazine spread in order to fit the needs of our target audience.

Post 38 - Film Magazine Two Page Spread Draft

In our final draft we used online tools to get fonts which were as close to the original fonts as possible. Using 'WhatTheFont!' I was able to source fonts from images of the original Little White Lies review page.


LINK TO THE MAGAZINE SPREAD

Post 37d - Conventions of Magazine Spreads

From my analysis of both mainstream and independent film magazines I have found conventions within both which will be transferred into my group's film review. These conventions are usually followed to entice the reader's attention and the prompt and boost hype of the film to make the audiences want to go see the film. The transferability of some of these conventions won't be easy due to the fact we chose an independent film magazine for our review spread, thus some conventions only within the mainstream features will not apply. I also used THESE TWO SlideShare to research the conventions.

• Image: Is required to present the main character/s to the audience. In larger magazines this may include multiple characters or even a scene, whilst in smaller magazines this may be a medium long shot or medium close up of the main protagonist in a shot to represent the genre of the film. Also can be a teaser.

• Font: Font size and colour will depend on the size of the magazine, but black and smaller font is general convention. However if the theme of the review is more related to a specific genre, e.g horror, then the font may change to represent the genre better; such as red font and a different style of font.

• Quotes: These will either be from an actor or director which can sum up the film; give some of the plot to entice the audience; be an exert from the review itself etc.

• Masthead - This is the banner/text, usually in the top left hand corner which tells the reader which magazine the review is in and acts as branding to identify to the audience and make a connection.

• Release Date: Will usually be at the end of a review unless in a seperate part of the page before the review which has key details. 

• Rating of the film: Can be in the form of a 5 Star system, or simply numbers for categories. It tells the reader whether or not the film is critically acclaimed. This will always be at the end of the review.

Post 37c - Annotated Film Magazines

Below is the annotation I made on a two page spread on 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' within Total Film magazine. Along with annotation of two pages of a 4 spread of 'Shame' within Little White Lies. I have made notes below both images to show the comparisons I noted from the annotation.

• Total film appears a lot more 'cluttered' and busy, with the 'similar films to watch', 'talking point' and 'predicted interest curve' filling up space where there could be review. In comparison, Little White Lies simply has all review, no 'mainstream magazine' features, just review text and then the scores at the end. 
• Little White Lies appears to look more sleek and professional.
• The layout of text in both reviews is actually similar, both compliment the shape of the photograph, however Total Films review is more dotted around the place, whilst LWLs review is straight and without disturbance.
• Both images to take away slightly from the review. The image of Shame does overpower the text due to the small font, whilst the Hunger Games pictures is placed in the middle of both pages and is what the audience see straight away.