OUR FINAL FILM

Olivia Farren Evaluation

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

a) The Main Task - Short Film 

i) During the research of other short films, I noticed a number of conventions that are commonly used in short films. However, with short films you can't list every convention that is used consistently in every short film because they have become a creative platform for new and up and coming directors/producers to show case what they can do, and so short films are constantly unconventional and showing inventive and innovative ideas that are always changing common features. 

An obviously noticeable feature of short films is the length; the reason they're 'short' films is because they are quite obviously shorter than the length of a motion picture film. This means that the director has to fit the beginning middle and end of the plot into the film in the short time it has; although this means that the plot moves on quickly in the film, it also has meant that directors and producers have showed their story in different and innovative ways such as the plot not starting at the beginning of the story therefore leaving the audience to guess what has happened, or the narrative is non-linear to show certain features of the story and many more other way of presenting the plot has been used in a number of short films. 

When researching into other short films, I analysed four different short films; all different due to their genre; a romantic-comedy, action, a mickey-take documentary and a thriller; I decided that looking at short films with different genres would mean that I could notice the conventions of each short film genre, notice the conventions used overall in these short films as well as realising what I did or didn't want to use in my own short film.

(virgin shorts, vimeo, youtube, future shorts logos)

After creating the opening to a thriller film in my foundation portfolio, I understood the typical convention of the thriller genre; dark/dim lighting, pathetic fallacy, action and enigma codes that make the audience think that something bad is going to happen for example a knife, the soundtrack is often slow and represents a creepiness; even though these were the features of a thriller film, looking at 'Exposure', I noticed these features as well as some others that seemed to be included in this thriller. As it's a short film, there's less time for the director to show a complete story but also build tension and ensure the audience recognise the film as being a thriller; and so the complete lack of dialogue in 'Exposure' meant that it acted as an enigma code that made the audience think and wander about what was going to happen, it also means that the audience focuses on other features of the film to figure out what's going to happen. I do like the idea of no dialogue at all in the film, however, it doesn't work for all genres and so harder to use to create a social realism or comedy film.
This same technique of no dialogue did however work again in the rom-com 'Post-It Love'; it seems this is a fairly popular technique with short films if I have seen it be used twice with two random short films that I found; this could be a sound convention used in short films due to the narrative having to fit in the short amount of time the directors have to complete the story in; and so without dialogue they use other areas to present the story they need to. 
When it comes to sound; the non-deigetic soundtrack is an important part any film; motion length or short; it conveys a mood and aids with representations. 

When in came to aspects of mise en scene in other short films that I watched, I learned to know that each convention used depended on the genre of the film; even in short films where they're usually much more creative and innovative.
With the lighting of shots in short films that I watched, I actually didn't notice anything out of the ordinary that i wouldn't find in any other motion length film; but I did notice lighting decisions that matched the genres;

'Post-It Love', a romantic-comedy hybrid - very bright and colourful lighting; reflecting the colours of Post-It notes and happiness.

'Exposure', a thriller - very dark, dull, dim lighting; a common enigma code used in thrillers 

'Sundays', documentary-comedy hybrid - natural lighting is used to present the social realism genre

ii) Own short film 

We developed on this new convention through joining in on this narrative innovation but using restricted narration at the end of our short film and hiding what news the characters got and cutting before the audience can find out what happened, leaving suspense but also leaving a sort of resolution to the end of the film where they seemed to get their happy ending.

 However, this also challenges forms by not having a complete end but all short films are now challenging conventions and so I feel like we used, developed and challenged on the convention of short films that is to be creative and innovative; all together, not just with the narrative.

b) Ancillary Task One - Film Poster

c) Ancillary Task Two - LWL Review

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

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

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

Testing InDesign for LWL Review

I used InDesign to create a test document that would matches the same style, measurements and fonts of the Reviews in Little White Lies.

I just used a random picture from a random film to fill in the blanks and inserted test text to test the sizes and fonts.

We will use exactly the same style for our own film review as it matches the style conventions used in LWL, this is so that it fits with the rest of the magazine as if our review could actually be published.

I just haven't yet put in the lines inbetween the ratings; but these will be exactly central between each one, nor have I included 'REVIEWS' at the side of the page stating what section this page is from.

Here is the outcome of my test:

 

I think this looks very similar, if not exact to what the reviews look like that come directly from LWL.

Here's what a review from LWL looks like, that has been done by the magazine itself:

Initial Drafts of Film Poster

I created three separate drafts for possible final ideas for our film poster...

DRAFT 1:

• This version is landscape to accommodate for the fact that the youtube screen best fits in landscape.
• The credit block has space at the very bottom of the page, but I'd make it fit in line with the edge of the YouTube screen.
• The review quotes and stars to the left could swap sides with the award wreaths to the right.
• I would design a better award wreath and choose something appropriate to be written inside them.
• The title's font matches the font used in the film, but colour should change, undecided on this yet.

DRAFT 2:

 

 

 DRAFT 3:

 

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.

Filming Dates

Even though we do have the oppurtunity to film our material in half term; week beginning October 27th; as a group, we can't do this due to prior commitments, and so we all know that we need  to work out when we're all free to film by looking at our college timetables:

(Blue O's are Olivia's frees, Black O's are Matt's free and the Blue -'s are Gemma's frees)

We all have two free periods together first thing on Monday mornings; 8:45 - 10:45; as well as having a double Media lesson at the same time on Tuesdays.

We're going to begin filming on Monday 20th October, and as long as we have permission to film during our Media lessons, we'll also film Tuesday 21st October, as well as Friday 24th.

Permission to Film

We needed permission from either Marion or Andrew to film during our double Media lesson on Tuesday morning on the 21st, I emailed Marion asking her and here is the response:

However, we were unable to film on Tuesday 21st October due to having to buy some props, and the little time we had until our next college lesson. So, we therefore decided to arrange to film on Friday 24th October from 13:00 - 17:00. Here is the email I sent to our teachers and the response:

Organization of Actors

We first looked at when our free periods coincide with each other so we know when all three of us are able to film together. (see previous blog post to see when we're free)

Then, we needed to find our actors; we asked our friends who we thought would be suitable for the roles, however, we needed to know when their frees were as well, hoping that they are at the same times as ours. This became a problem as although we found a couple of different people willing to act the part of the sister for us, hoping that one of them had frees with us; it turned out that their free periods were at totally different times to ours.

To overcome this issue of actors, we decided that we may have to act in it ourselves; as we're a group of two girls and one boy, this meant that Matt had to play the part of the brother, and we then decided that Gemma would play the part of the sister, and I (Olivia), will be directing the camera.

Storyboard - Timed Animatic

Here is our timed animatic - overall, this comes to 5minutes 5seconds with 68 shots, during filming we may change some of these shots slightly or add more as we aim to film extra footage to ensure we'll have at least a five minutes short film.

Applying Representation to our Final Idea

After we decided on the story for our short film, and finalised the synopsis, plot and story; we then discussed how we wanted to represent gender, age, relationships, social group or any other issues and ideas to appeal to our target audience but to also not discriminate or offend anyone else, and so we had to think about all aspects of representation in this film.

One of the most important aspects of the story is the fact that our two characters, only characters, are brother and sister, and so we wanted to represent their relationship as being a positive one so that the brother/sister sibling relationship isn't portrayed as something that is always bad and an unhappy thing as this is not the case the majority of the time and so we wanted to present this relationship as being relatable for our audience; a factor that could also be found comedic.
For the brother and sister relationship to come across as positive, we'll show the two of them getting along; this will be done through the dialogue, the lighting won't be harsh or dark, instead we'll use soft/bright lighting to convey and represent the happiness and laughter shared between them.
However, even though siblings can get on, it's also well known that there is also a natural rivalry and power to annoy each other; we all agree that this is common knowledge shared by everyone who has sibling(s) and maybe even by those who don't, and to present an accurate portrayal of this relationship, we all agreed that we also need to share this annoying side of having a brother/sister with the audience for them to relate to.

We wanted to portray our characters as being the average brother and sister pair, and by doing this, we then need to present their genders as being what you'd typically expect to see from a male or female teenager, but without following stereotypes that could be offensive to anyone.
We want to show that the female character has an interest in what she looks like; and so she'll be wearing make up, but we don't want this to come across in a negative way at all and so this characteristic won't over power the rest of her personality and so we won't make it come across as vein as it's a negative attribute that's often stereotyped. As well as the female caring about her appearance, we will also present the male as caring about his looks by showing him touching to hair, maybe a bit too much; this isn't to come across as vein negatively, but to seem funny to the audience because it's either relatable for them that they're seeing this happen that they themselves or someone they know do.

As well as this, we will show them texting and playing on their phones a fair bit as we all agreed that this is a typical attribute of this generation and therefore we feel it's a good idea to show this factor to make it relatable and realistic for the audience as we try to appeal to them and to present social realism.
This is also a characteristic that is typical of the age group we want to show as well as who we want to appeal to.

Although we aim to show the 'average' teenager, teenagers are very diverse and are all very unique, and so it will be difficult to show the 'average' out of every teenager out there, however, we will portray the characters as best we can to not offend any viewers.

Showing these characteristics can also be done through the make up, hair and costume of our characters; we have already looked into how we can achieve the desired portrayal of the brother and sister as being average teenagers; you can see this blog post here: http://advancedportfolio201521.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/makeup-and-costume.html

Social class is also an aspect that is important to the representation of our short story; and so as a group, we also discussed how we think this should be presented.
We decided that our  characters are going to  be part of the lower to middle social class; this is because it is the most common class that college students are a part of and so our characters will be presented as belonging this class through the belongings; smartphones, laptops; as well as the house; a semi detatched or detatched house on a middle class street.
As well as this, we want to show our brother and sister characters to still be living at home as the vast majority of college students are, and we want to create a film that is relateable for our audience. We also wanted to represent this class because it's the same class as who we are targetting, and they have the most disposbale income to spend  their leisure pound on the cinema.

Pre Production Planning - Location Research

Location Pictures

Below are images of some of the rooms we may use for our film. We are yet to decide on our final location but the majority of the film will take place inside a house. We are aware permission will need to be granted to use this location.

A house setting is perfect for our film as it involves a brother and sister who live in the same house. The majority of the film will be inside as this gives our actors the space to move around and hide from their brother/sister. some of our pranks will involve props such as; scary mask, salt and sugar pots and perhaps a whoopie cushion. Another prank, in which somebody jumps out on their sibling again will require objects to hind behind, for example a sofa.

For one of our pranks that we want to include in our short film; swapping shampoo for glue; part of this, if not, all of this, the location of this would be in the bathroom. We needed a bathroom with  a shower curtain so we can't, and won't have to see anyone having a shower, and so as Olivia has a shower with a shower curtain in her bathroom, she took location pictures of this setting:

Initial Short Film Ideas