Final Product

This is our final Short film production, enjoy :)

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

As i believe, that last year for A1, my blog may have been too text heavy and if a blog is too text heavy, it tends to get a bit boring after a while. So in order to address this part of my evaluation, me and my partner Rachel will be doing a piece to camera.

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

For my main product, me and my group researched typical conventions from a short award-winning film "Wasp", which features below. The main conventions we learnt for our main product were:

* Original storyline
* Stereotypical Characters
* a range of locations
* a range of shots

We tried to put all these conventions to use in our main product, by trying to make the storyline as original as possible. We used storyboards to help us.









We also had Stereotypical characters in our main production such as:

* Victim
* Criminal

My research for my anciallary tasks were influenced by Empire film magazine.

I found Empire film magazine very helpful, when creating my film review page and film poster.

When producing my film poster i followed conventions from this poster:



In the film poster above, they have an establishing shot, with an actress's shot in the middle of the poster. Their title is very appealing, with a tagline above it, and like many other film posters they have all the film details displayed at the bottom of the poster. For example, Director's and film distributors etc.

I decided to follow these conventions, whilst creating my film poster, so that it can look as professional as possible.



I also tried to follow conventions from the image above, when producing my film review page.

When producing my main product i used Todorov Theory, which is also displayed on my blog. It helped me to structure my main product. However i do believe that my main product does not follow the typical Todorov Theory. The order of our Todorov theory looks like this:

Equilibrium - Images of victim at start

Disruption of order - When victim is hit by car

Recognition that the disorder occured - Shot of victim lying on grass

Attemp to repair damage - Dog walker finding victim

Return of new equilibrium - Shot of victim dead at the end.

We also tried to use a range of locations, to keep the audience interested. The locations which we used were:

* Sutherlands Pub
* Windynook Nature park
* Rachel's house
* My house
* My car

At the start of our main product we have several shots of the victim dead on the grass. We put a sci-fi effect on these shots and used ambient sound over the shots, to make it look like a "crime scene investigation". We tried to make it look professional, also by using "fade to black" transitions.

However, i believe we as a group both did our best to challenge, develop and use conventions of real media products in our main product. However i think my anciallary tasks, seem to have followed typical conventions more than my main product.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Media A2 evaluation

View more presentations from natashaR500.

For my ancillary task i had to create a film poster and a film review page to assist my final short film production. I created both, by using Photoshop, which played a major role in my A1 project.

Here is a plan for my film poster, i found this very useful in the planning and researching stage.



Film Poster



I followed a typical convention lay out. For example, title, and production company and producers in small print at the bottom of the poster. I used the "Smudge tool" on the victim's face, to make it look more effective and sinister.

Here is a plan for my film poster, i found this very useful in the planning and researching stage.



Here is my Film Review Page



As you can see i wanted to create a conventional lay out, which would look good in a film magazine. I used a Location image, so that the image would not give away too much of the narrative. However to make i look more effective i changed the lighting on the image. I also used "stars" on my film review page, as it is very conventional. When writing the quotes, i used Famous names of the film industry, to give a more professional feel to my film review page.

EVALUATION QUESTIONS

These are the questions which i have to address in my evaluation.

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

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

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

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

Audience feedback is essential to any film producer. Audience feedback informs film producers whether or not their film will be a success. I, as producer of my short film production "Flashback" chose to aim the film at consumers aged 15 and over. I made decisions which i thought were appropiate and which may influence success for my short film.

In order to recieve audience feedback for my final product, we gathered 30 students into a room, where we then screened our short film. They then carried out questionnaires based on the following screening of our film.

Results from my audience feedback questionnaire, told me that not everyone agreed that the film should be certified as 15, and that they did not agree, that a range of camera angles or locations had been used.











In order to get a wider audience, i posted my final product on the social networking site, "Facebook". Here is some feedback which i recieved from friends on feedback:

"Its mint that video Tasha, honestly!!" - Rachel Gillis

"Quite good" - Enxhi Vyshka

"Really good" - Lauren Dimmick

"Eee thats really good" - Lauren Jairath

"You could of had some close up shots switching back and forth to each speaker at each conversation. When the car was driving down, you should have stopped panning and let the car drive past the camera, not a bad start though" - Tony
Ly

"Your short film is really good, well done" - Alex Henry

"Well done....Really loved it...car crash bit was espicially good" - John Gardiner

I believe that audience feedback is more important that a film director's thoughts, as a film can not be succesful without the support of their consumers.

Overall i am very happy with the feedback which my final product recieved. I believe everyone was very honest while giving feedback.

We also recorded some of the audience's responses, here they are.

Film Name Questionnaire

Me and Rachel as a group, were very unsure on what Name to use for our short film. So we came up with a Questionnaire to help us. Here are the Questionnaire results.

Stop! - 15%

The Walk – 30%

The Mile – 5 %

Flashback – 50%

Todorov's narrative theory

We have been using Todorov's theory alongside our film production. We are currently working at the Disruption stage of events.

Target Audience

I believe our short film, will be aiming at ages 15 and above. I think this is an acceptable age because some viewers may find some scenes disturbing.

House scene

We got several shots in the boyfriends house when he was trying to get intouch with rachel. We were very happy with the effort we put into this filming. However when we got back to the classroom we realised that there was a really bad shadow on Connor's face. Which means we are going to have to reshoot this scene sometime.

03/02/2011

On the above date, we tried to film the hit and run scene. However because of heavy rain all day, this made it impossible to film. We did manage to get a quick shot of rachel stepping infront of the car. When we played the shot back we realised a cyclist riding past. This was really annoying, as the shot would of been very effective without the cyclist being in the frame.

We have decided to postpone filming this scene until 10/02/2011. To avoid any weather disruptions we have checked next weeks weather forecast, and thursday is going to be "Sunny intervals" :)

Actors Profiles

Natasha Rutherford
Plays the role of: Driver
Age: 17
Studies: Performance Studies, Media Studies and Business Studies
Hobbies/Interests: Reading, Swimming and going to the cinema.








Rachel Burns
Plays the role of: Hit and Run Vitctim and girlfriend.
Age: 18
Studies: Media Studies, English Language and English Literature
Hobbies/Interests: Reading and socialising with friends.















Connor Huntley
Plays the role of: Boyfriend
Age: 17
Studies: Media Studies, History and General studies
Hobbies/Interests: Football, basketball and rugby


















Jordan Hewison
Plays the role of: Dog Walker
Age: 17
Studies: Plastering
Hobbies: Bike-riding, Cricket, football and cooking














Racehl Gillis
Plays the role of: Car Passenger
Age: 18
Studies: ICT, Business Studies & English Literature
Hobbies: Reading, Dance, listening to music

Filming complications

We have decided to film the boyfriend scene again, as the previous filming we took of this scene, the audio was not able to be heard. Hopefully re-filming this will help us to move on to other scenes, which we need to focus on.

Filming Disruption

Well because we have already started filming, when there was no snow, we are now going to have to put filming on hold til the snow decides to melt again !

Filming

We have managed to get out and film another scene, as the snow has mostly all melted now.

Rachel filmed from the back of the car, while i was driving, and there was another actress in the passenger seat. The two girls in the front of the car, have just came from the pub and are on their way to get ready to go out on the town. Natasha the driver, has had a few vodkas, but thinks she is still capable to drive....

Music is playing in the car, to set the mood. The song is "DJ faling in love" - Usher.

Factors which contribute to project.

Blogger



Blogger is where i upload all of my past and present work. This is so other followers can have access to everything i have done.

Youtube



I have been using Youtube to anaylze short films, i also use youtube to upload videos on to my blog.

Google



Google is a search engine (if you didnt already know lol) where i go whenever i need to research something related to my short film production.

LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW

Due to crap weather conditions, we have had to delay filming for the time being.

WASP PART 1



WASP PART 2

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Wasp

Wasp is a short drama film consisting of 26 minutes. Wasp was written and directed by Andrea Arnold. The film was released in 2003, starring Danny Dyer Nathalie Press. The short film is about a single mum who is adamant her four children are not going to spoil her date with her ex-boyfriend. This leads to her abandoning them outside of the pub. The film shows the social class of the single mum, and the area she lives in etc. Wasp challenges the audience as; Andrea Arnold uses such a shocking social issue, as the plot.

The genre of the film is pretty obvious, from the start of Wasp. We know it’s a drama, as soon as we see the shot of the two mothers fighting.

The audience are made aware of the woman’s social class from the first establishing, panning shot. We are aware of the woman’s social class because of her appearance, for example, she is barefooted. The mother’s baby has no clothes on either, which could represent the poverty which is affecting her family. This leads on to a medium shot of the mother walking down the street, this shot establishes the woman as the mother, as her children are following behind her.

The dialogue used when the two woman are fighting, sounds clearly like a common, local accent. The children who are watching do not seem bothered, that their mother is fighting, maybe something they see quite often? One of the young daughters shouts “get off her you foul cow”. This contrasts to “well-brought up” children who would not know that sort of language.

The woman’s ex-boyfriend seems wealthier than her as he has a car. A reaction shot is used when the Man asks why she is with all those “kids”. The reaction shot is used, to show the woman’s facial expressions and to show how she lies without any hesitation. A close-up shot is shown on her feet, to remind the audience that she is still bare footed. The close up shot may also have been used as the woman may be trying to hide her feet from her ex-boyfriend.

The male actor in the film looks like a stereo-typical Chav, because of the clothing he is wearing, and how he wears them. For example, his collar is sticking up, which looks untidy and he is wearing a gold chain.

Another reaction, medium shot is used when the male asks the woman if “she wants to go for a drink later”. The mother, glances at her children sitting on the grass, then a close-up shot to the mother, again for the audience to see what her reaction will be to going out for a drink. Diegetic sound is used as you can hear the car engine starting up. However the man try’s three attempts to start his car engine, which means that the car is not in the best of condition. While he is trying to start his car, the camera moves to a shot of the woman, where she seems to be deep in thought, maybe about what she is going to do with her children.

A long-shot is used of him driving down the street; this captures the landscape of the neighbourhood. Several sharp, shots are used to also show the neighbour hood.
A close-up shot is used on a wasp, which is on a window pane, during this shot, we have diegetic sound coming from the wasp itself, but we also have non-diegetic sound playing in the background. The non-diegetic sound adds a lot of suspense to this shot, also because the title of the film is “Wasp”

The mother feeds her children sugar for their tea. This shows the lack of money which she has, as she cannot afford to cook a “proper meal”. It also shows the welfare of these children, and how basically they are being neglected from their own mother.

The mother comes across as a bit of a “tart”, because of a close-up panning shot of her walking to the pub. The clothes she is wearing make her look cheap, she is wearing a mini skirt with, but she looks a mess, because of her hair etc.

There is a scene where the family are walking over a bridge, which is located above a motorway. Diegetic sound from all the traffic is used at this point. A close-up shot is used on the little girl walking close to the railings on the bridge, and then a long shot is used with a large depth of view of traffic, and a small depth of view of the family walking across the bridge. These two shots are very effective because it makes the audience think, if there is going to be an accident involving the traffic and the little girl.

Various, quick, close-up shots are used on the people in the pub. These shots identify what kind of pub it is, by the kind of people who are there. A lot of medium shots have been taking, when the mother is standing at the bar. The shots have been taking from unusual angles, which gives a Voyeur effect.

An over-viewing medium shot is used, showing the children outside the pub, playing games in the middle of the road, with screaming dialogue coming from the children. This makes the audience feel uncomfortable at this point, as they could get hurt playing in the middle of the road. The following shot after this is dark, which shows the passing of time, while the mother is on her “date”.

At one point the audience is made to feel voyeurs again, when the camera is zoomed in on the woman and her date. This creates a more intimate atmosphere. We are made to feel like voyeurs yet again, in the car scene as the camera is positioned in the rear seats.

A close up shot, of the baby crying suggests to the audience, that something is about to happen to the baby. A long shot is used from the children's point of view on a group of males walking with bags of chips in their hands. This shot makes the audience wonder if they will say anything to the children. A reaction shot is used, from the bag of chips lying on the floor, to the children's faces. We know from this shot, that the children pick the chips up off the floor.

A close-up camera shot shows a wasp on the baby's cheek. This image, takes the audience back to the start of the film, where there was also a scene involving a wasp. It also relates to the title of the film itself.

Towards the end of the film, a scene is shown, where the whole family are sitting in the car eating chips. However there is an awkward silence in the car. Diegetic sound is used again, when the male actor starts his car, it takes several attempts to start, which happened at the start of the film.

At the end of the film, a long shot of the car driving down the street is used. As we see the car driving away, non-diegetic sound has been used. For example, music starts to play, and the children sing. This shows that the children do not seem affected by the nights antics. The credits then follow. The credits are very plain and simple, a black background with white writing, with the song “Hey Baby” playing, which was also featured in the pub scene.

Location shots

Here are our location shots, for our short film production.



This pub will be used in one of our scenes.







This shot is of a local nature park.







This road will play a big part in one of our scenes.