OUR FINAL FILM

Gemma Thomas- Evaluation

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

A- The Main Task
i) Short films that you have watched

The most obvious characteristic used in short films is that the length of the film is short, this means that the director must tell the story quickly so that there is a beginning middle and an end to the film otherwise it is more of just an opening rather than the entire film, also the director would not be able to use mystery and enigma in the film like you would in a full length film to build a sense of unknown due to the fact that there is not enough time. By the length being so limited in time it is common that few locations will be used throughout the film so that it is easy for the audience to stay interested in.  this is the same for the use of characters as in a short film if you had lots of characters making an appearance they would lose track of who was who as they wouldn’t have seen each character for a substantial amount of time to know them and also to like or dislike a character. In most films the audience will make an opinion on whether they like a character whereas if there are too many they wouldn’t be able to know the characters.

Another characteristic used is stereotypes, it’s easier with limited time to use stereotypes to allow the audience to understand who is who in the film, for example in the film ‘A Favour’ the director has used a Muslim man who is thought to be a terrorist but in actual fact a middle class white man was the one who implemented the terrorist attack. This plot twist challenges conventions of media as the white man is truly the antagonist and goes against stereotypical conventions of religion. In ‘Silent Things’ we see a man who is socially awkward and timid within himself, this supports stereotypical views of people with a disability and follows the conventions used in media products.

Actors used in short films are not often well known stars as I have found that most short film directors make their short films on low budgets so don’t have the funds to have large Hollywood stars in the film. The directors also tend to be new so are using their short films as a gateway into the larger film world.

ii) Your own short film

In my own short film I have used typical conventions. Firstly we used a small amount of locations for our piece which allowed our audience to understand and follow the story with ease.

We also followed a linear narrative structure which allowed us to start at the beginning of the story and progress to the middle and finishing at the end. This is the most common form of narrative structure although circular can be also be used.  Todorovs Theory 1977 is a simple classic form of narrative.

We only used 2 characters in our short film which again allowed the audience to follow the story simply and also build a small connection with the characters as they see the characters for a longer period of time than if we had used 6 characters, this may have become confusing and hard to follow.

In most short films there is a hybrid of genres. In our short film we do not have  a hybrid present as we have only used one genre of film which is comedy. This challenges typical conventions due to short films having at least 2 genres.

 B-Film Poster

i) Film Poster that you have analysed 

When looking at short film posters I noticed conventions which were on each poster in a similar way

• Text  justification on the left/right or bottom/top
•  Names of actors/ directors
• References to other films
• Website
• Age certification
• Credit Block – Legal Requirement
• Title size is larger than all other text
• Rating System
• Source of comment
• Main image- usually of characters
•  Release date often advertised.

Looking at the films I researched they all follow the majority of the conventions of a short film poster although they don’t follow them all.

 ii) Your own film Poster

When designing my own film poster we tried to incorporate every convention onto the poster so that it followed traditional aspects. The nature of our film made creating our short film poster difficult as it was overly colourful and due to the target audience looks childish in the finished product. Although this would normally be a negative for our piece it works well and creates a sense of naivety. We didn’t put an age certification on our short film poster although followed the other conventions which are expected.  

C- LWL Review

Little white lies is a high end magazine based on films and aimed at film junkies.  Little white lies includes film reviews of the latest film releases, interviews and adverts for similar styled films being released. For our task set we had to make a film review for our short film following the conventions of little white lies in both its layout and its language.

Firstly looking at the language of LWL I noticed that

•  The language is very in depth
•  It uses media language terms which the general public would not understand ( so focuses on a selective audience)
• Uses roughly 450 words in the review containing lots of adjectives and verbs
• Doesn’t give away much about the film which is good in case someone reads the reviews before watching the film.  

We then looked at the conventions of the layout of little white lies we then copied the style to make our own _ Click Here to see Conventions of LWL Layout

This is our final film review which follows the conventions of a Little White Lies film review. 

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

3. What have your learned from your audience feedback?

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

http://prezi.com/sw_u_rlquvtv/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Final Short Film Poster

After some small changes to the poster that we created using features from all of our drafts, here is our final Short Film Poster.

Our Short Film Poster

OUR FINAL LITTLE WHITE LIES REVIEW

What are the Conventions of Little White Lies

Each page follows the same convention for each review this includes:

• One review on each page
• There are 3 columns for the review with approximately 450 words
• The last column finishes half way down the page with a rating system at the end the paragraph
• Between 5-7 Paragraphs
• The measurements, fonts, sizes and titles are all the same on each review
• An Image at the top of the page
• The title, and the credits are centred
• The page number is also centred and has three digits, i.e 058
• The main text is justified to the left and right
• The rating system is justified to the left
• The first letter of the review is a drop capital approximately 3 lines down
• The word ‘REVIEW’ is on 90◦ degree angle

When creating my review I will look at the conventions and make sure each is included to match the review style from little white lies as these conventions are repeated for each review.

Initial Poster Draft Gemma

In the blank space in the bottom right corner I would place an image of the two characters from the short film.

I have followed conventions of a film poster by:

• having my title as the largest piece of text
• Including a website 
• Includes a Production Block
• Has awards shown
• Mentions other films

Pride- Poster Research- Gemma

Media language

• The Title is bold and in capital letters, this works with the title itself ‘PRIDE’ by having a bold font and in capital letters it emphasis that pride makes you stand tall and proud which the title does itself.
• The title is slightly higher than centre on the poster which is good as it stands out and catches people’s attention.
• The main image is centre of the poster and has a group of characters standing strongly especially the lady at the front, this backs up the image of having pride.

Representation

• The representation in this piece is either social class or sexuality, it could combine and be a representation of both, the reason I think sexuality is due to the title and the colours used in the poster but also social class due to the characters costumes.

Audience

• The target audience for this piece I think would be for females aged between 20-45.

Genre

• The genre I believe is a comedy as the colours present on the backdrop following typical conventions of a comedy, i.e. red and yellow colours.
• The characters are also standing quite comically in the frame

Avatar- Poster Research- Gemma

Mr Turner- Poster Research -Gemma

Media Language

• The Title ‘Mr Turner’ is placed at the centre of the page. The font suggests that this film is for an older target audience due to its mature font style and because the font is in a black colour. This allows the title to be the first aspect of the poster people will notice when they see it.
• The main image is centred although we cannot see the characters face on the film poster due to a paint smudge covering it although we do see his eyes. By being able to see his eyes we see that the main image is of a male character who is of an older age (possibly in his 60s).
• The main image stands out as the backdrop colour of the poster is white so any images and text on the poster stand out. The paint smudge is one of the main focuses on the poster due to its orange bright colour and this is the only colourful aspect of the poster.
• The rest of the font is either black or grey, the sources used to praise the film are in black in an italic type font which looks smart backing up the title style.

Representation.

• Due to the image, I can tell that the character is a male older character who is in at least their 60s
• The man looks to be a middle class/ high class man, this is demonstrated through his action and through his costume
• The man is painting so this would suggest the film is based around art.

Genre

• The film I would think is a drama piece and historical as in the poster the main characters costume shows a more outdated style.

Arranging to Film

Evidence of Editing

Evidence of Filming

 

Experimenting with Party Poppers for First Prank

For one of our pranks in our short film, we have planned to use a bunch of party poppers to scare one of our characters whilst the other pulls the strings to make them go off.

We bought a pack of 20 party poppers, which we decided was plenty, as we wanted extra to make sure that we could practise how we would make them all go off as well as extras so we were able to film that shot more than once.

Before filming the shot, we had to practise how Gemma was going to hold a bunch of the party poppers together and then also be able to pull all of the strings.
We practised this a couple times before hand; here is how it looked when experimenting:

Script

Script

Shot 1, 2 and 3.

An establishing shot of the house, the camera tracks into the front door. The camera then goes to within the house and we get a shot of the stairs and the hallway.

 Shot 4

Hannah, 16, comes running down the stairs after being pranked by her older brother, Jack, aged 17.

Shot 5

Hannah is clearly in a lot of shock, her hands are on her knees and she is finding it hard to stay upright. Jack is holding a scary mask in his left hand and is laughing very loudly.

Hannah: What the hell were you doing! I was so freaked out!
Jack: Haha!

Shot 6

Camera pans across, as both Hannah and Jack walk into the living room.

Hannah: (laughing) I swear all we do now is get pay back all the shit we pull on each other!
Jack: I was just thinking that! Come in here, I have got something to say.

Shot 7, 8 and 9

Match on action as the two enter the room. They then both sit down on the sofa. Jack pulls out his laptop. There is a track into a mid shot of them on the sofa.

Jack: Look at these guys' YouTube channel, so jokes!
Hannah: What is it?
Jack: Wait and see...

Shot 10

The camera gets a shot of the laptop screen. There is a mid close up which turns into a track.

Shot 11

The screen shows a YouTube page.

Shot 12

The camera returns to a 2 shot of them on the sofa.
They watch the 'Prank vs Prank' video on YouTube.
Both laughing.

Hannah: Omg! They are so genius!

Jack: I so know...and it's just like us, just obvs brother and sister..
Hannah: Ewww, Jack!
Jack: Shut up!...As I was saying, we should record all the pranks and shit we pull on each other and put it on You Tube!
Hannah: Not gonna lie, that is a pretty good idea from a simpleton like you.

Shot 13

The camera again returns to a medium long shot of them of the sofa.

Shot 14

The light bulb moment.

Hannah and Jack: Let's do it!!

Shot 15, 16 and 17

Sitting at a desk, Hannah and Jack create the You Tube channel. Camera goes from a mid close up to a track.

Hannah: What shall we call it?
Jack: I don't know, how about (need a name)
Hannah: Okay, cool!

Shot 18

Prank 1. There is a medium close up of Hannah as she gets ready to prank Jack.

Shot 19

Hannah places her camera on the tripod. There is a long shot at this point.

Hannah: It's Prank 1!! For my first one I am going to sneak behind Jack when he is watching TV. Let's go! (Speaking very quietly)

Shot 20 and 21

Carrying party poppers, Hannah very slowly creeps behind Jack, who is on the sofa watching football. The camera goes from a mid shot to a long shot of the living room.

Shot 22

Medium shot of Jack on the sofa. He is holding a TV remote.

Shot 23, 24, 25

Camera returns to a long shot as Hannah edges closer to Jack. She pulls the party popper and Jack jumps out of his seat in shock.

Jack (Hands on his knees and looking shocked): Jesus Christ! What you playing at!
Hannah (laughing extremely loudly): Haha, I got you back!

Hannah: Right, let's put it onto the channel.

Shot 26, 27, 28

Hannah and Jack get onto a computer to log their first prank onto the channel. The camera goes from a long shot to a track of the You Tube screen. The video is in the centre of the page, with 'YouTube' at the top. They then click upload.

Shot 29, 30

Prank 2. It's Jack's turn this time. He picks up some soy sauce and mixes it with lemonade to make it look like some coke. There is a medium shot.

Jack (to Hannah): I have made you a drink, shall we have a look what's on TV?

Shot 30, 31

Hannah has a sip of her drink and spits it out.

Hannah: Errr, what the fuck is that! That isn't coke! I wanted coke you idiot!
Jack: I may have accidentally mixed soy sauce with some lemonade! (Laughing)
Hannah: You idiot!

Shot 32

They upload it onto Youtube.

Shot 33

Prank 3. Hannah places a scary photo of a cat in a jar. She places it in a fridge.

Hannah (quietly): When Jack sees this he's gonna go mental!

Shot 34 and 35

Jack opens the cupboard and finds the jar.

Jack: Hannah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shot 36 and 37

They upload it onto Youtube. Their views start to increase.

Shot 38, 39 and 40

Prank 4. Jack pours glue into a shampoo bottle and places it back into the shower, whilst Hannah is in there.

Hannah (screaming): Jack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shot 41
They upload it onto Youtube. Subscribers and viewers are rapidly increasing.

Experimenting with Post-Production Effects

In today's lesson (17.10.14), we practised with After Effects to try to create the desired effect with recording the screen and to show the amount of viewers/likes/subscribers quickly climbing up.
We screen shotted the 'views' section beneath the video on YouTube and used After Effects to change the numers to count up.
Even though we tested with the number of viewers, we may use this effect with the number of subscribers instead of the number of viwes, but we will decide that later after we have done the majority of the filming.

Lighting Decisions

Generally in a comedy the lighting is bright so it creates a humorous aspect for the audience which in our piece is important as we want our audience to be engaged in what we are showing.

We will be using High key lighting in the majority of the film although at some points of the film we will be using night vision in the prank where the male character (Jack) sneaks into the female characters(Hannah) room.

As followed are some examples of what we do and don’t want our lighting to look like.

What we like	What we don’t like