Sam- Evaluation

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

9 Frame Shot Sequence of researched films.

Narrative: 

• The narratives in all of the short films had many different lay out's, some being non-linear, others being straight forward linear to the end point of the film, but on short film in particular which I felt had a good narrative base was 'The Last Man On Earth'. 
• The start of the film not much is given away, if it weren't for the title then the audience may just think it is a homeless man walking down the street maybe very early in the morning as it appears deserted. Confirmed by the character that there has been an 'event', nothing is given away by the directors and this could make the audience trigger guesses as to what the event may have been; it gets the audience thinking about the film. 
• I personally found this choice of scripting to be a clever technique as it engages the audience into the film from a very early point.
• For a narrative theory for this film it was edging towards Todorov’s theory as there is both equilibrium and disequilibrium with him poisoning himself and then finding another man exists, leaving him in a 'tricky' situation. 
• In another one of the short films Nightwalking, it uses a non-linear narrative. 
• The choice to use a non-linear narrative is clever in the sense that it gives the viewpoints of both characters and their perspective as to what is happening for them on screen, dramatic irony is used here cleverly as the audience after hearing both views of characters know more about what each character is thinking. This use of dramatic irony is clever as it makes the audience feel somewhat silly after finding out how both the characters are feeling through a clever use of narration. 

Characterization:

• In short films as they are obviously shorter there isn't really anytime for the audience to really feel too 'attached' and really bond with the characters, therefore this means that the director has the job to create an obvious looking character who the audience can identify almost impetuously what each character is about; and that is carried out through mise en scene. An example would be in the short film 'Support'. There is a man lying in a hospital bed with patient costume on surrounded by many pieces of medical equipment. Instantaneously the audience know that this particular character is in hospital, is a patient and is ill with all of the life support around him. Having such a limited amount of time in a short film it is key that the director makes it easy for the audience to identify a character in such a short period of time, I mean this particular short film is just 2 minutes long. All of the elements of mise en scene such as props, costume and setting are key to giving the audience an idea of what the character is about.
• Also in short films as there isn't much time their is only a real limited amount of characters with normally up to 2 or 3 key characters as there just isn't enough time for the audience to bond with every character for example: In a highly budgeted film such as James Bond there are many key characters and of course always a bond girl. In the 'Quantum Of Solace' the 'Bond girl' gets killed and the audience feel somewhat sad however, in a short film where there isn't a lot of time if a character who you haven't got to really know dies it is somewhat meaningless.

Camerawork:

• I found that with many of the short film's there are a lot of complex shots such as clever focus pulls and  wide range of shots from extreme close up's to extreme long shots. The use of many complicated and aesthetic shots could be done due to the fact that they aren't well known directors and possibly looking to impress and break into the film industry, and to do that you have to impress. However as the majority of short films aren't budgeted it means they won't be able to perhaps rent out a stun car driver and perform a focus pull of a car doing seven or eight consecutive flips which would be seen as impressive, whereas in Bond films again for example where they are highly budgeted they can afford to hire stunt drivers and take many different takes of a car doing numerous amount of flips and choose their favorite shot.

Sound:

• With sound in short films there has been a re-occurring pattern of the use of foley's. The use of foley's and non-diegetic sound I have seen to be very popular in short films as perhaps it they need to stress one key factor of a short film more than anything else. An example of this would be in the film Night Walking and Support. In the film Night Walking there is added foley's of the sound of the man walking towards the woman, this highlights the importance of the man trying to get closer and triggers stereotypes of the man chasing a deserted woman at night- danger? Also with the film Support, the added foley's to the bleeping of the machine to monitor the mans heart rate is increased to once again make it the key point of the frame- It stresses that the audience need to pay attention to this sound and if there is a disrupt in rhythm then it once again spells danger. 
• I also feel that sound is more important to short films than large budgeted films as they need it more to help set the mood/atmosphere of the film (through non-diegetic) sound. This could be due to them not having the finance to shoot as many shots and truly visualize all  what the director wants too, therefore they do it through sound as it may be cheaper.

Mise en Scene:

• Using mise en scene in short films is key as it helps the audience identify certain characters quickly as they don't have as much time to explain each character like in a normal film. One trend that I wasn't particularly shocked to notice was the fact that the setting/location of each short film was normally kept down to one place. The choice to do this is probably to do with the fact that they have a short time to get the film across and don't want to from too many locations leaving the perplexed as to what is going on. Another reason for this could be due to the fact that the may not have the budget to fly to a luxurious location such as Dubai and shoot a 'quick beach scene'- that being an extreme example.  

Use of genre conventions:

• With short films, a large majority of them could have a 'shout' to cross over into the Drama genre. An example of where one of the short films I researched would be with the film Night Walking. Night Walking is a Drama as it is representing a real life social problem and their are emotions being expressed by both the characters. Both of the characters express different feelings in the short film Night Walking and they are both very much so in contrast to each other for instance, the man is trying to create a happy atmosphere and is trying his hardest to not alarm the woman, where as the woman is extremely frightened and just wants to get away from the male character. Having both of these points in the film suggests that these are genre codes for a film falling under the Drama genre. The genre codes to a drama to conclude is that it is somewhat social realism, and the characters are emotional and you (as the audience) are made to understand the emotions. 

Editing/Post Production:

• For the editing of the short films it is clear to see that they are done very professionally done and they haven't cut (pardon the pun) any corners whilst editing. A trait carried over through all types of film is the changing of filters/editing of colours throughout a film. An example once again would be in Night Walking where everything is made black and white, as it is at night it would be predominantly black however, making it black and white further more stresses the fact that there is darkness and helps set a somewhat vulnerable/negative atmosphere.

Themes and issues: 

• Short films tend to focus on what key factor of the film and build/focus the rest of the story-line around this one particular event or character. A reason for this is probably due to the film being a short film, therefore meaning that there isn't enough time to create a numerous amount of issues and have them all effect one and other, as well as reaching out to the audience about each issue in the limited time available for a short film. The confusion that could be created from having too many different factors/issues in one film could be another reason for a short film to limit the amount of key issues/events in a film and this again all relates back to the length of the film; they just wouldn't have the time to portray all of the issues effectively. The one issue that is usually focused on in a short film is generally one which can be related to by people who are watching the film. An example of this would be in the film 'Support' where it is about a depressed man wishing to take his own life but accidentally taking another man's instead. Suicide is something which is widely publicized in the world therefore the audience would know how bad this part of the film is and would be able to understand what is happening.

Does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

9 Frame Sequence of our short film, 'Home'.

Characterization:

• For characterization, we used the research of other short films to help portray how our characters could potentially be portrayed in our short film. We followed the trend of our researched films to not swarm the audience with heaps of details about both characters, and instead we only gave the audience enough information to be able to feel something/understand each character. We used Mise en Scene to help portray our characterization for each character, an example would be the portrayal of our female character: through mise en scene the audience is able to identify that she is well dressed, seems to work in an office and is not of a low social class status (as well as finding out she has lost her ring). As for the male character we intentionally kept details of him to a minimum, and we had to do this for our short film to really work; if the audience knew that this was the women's husband, then the 'break in' to their house wouldn't be seen as bad but as we don't know he live their, then the audience immediately jumps to conclusions and lead on to think the worse (all influenced by things such as his dark clothing and actions in the shots). We tried to use a modern and realistic representation of what two people at this age what look/feel like in this situation in order for the audience to be able to relate to the characters.  However, the audience is only really felt inclined to with both characters at the end as this is where they are educated to the fact that both of the characters are actually at the least engaged. 

Sound:

• As for sound we tended to also mimic other short films and keep diegetic sound to a minimum in our short film. We felt that this was the best idea as we had seen how pace/suspense can be added to the film through non-diegetic sounds such as soundtracks, or foleys. The only real diegetic sound that we used was the dialogue of the male at the end giving the audience the equilibrium at the end, radio, phone and car sounds. We felt by having no real diegetic sound and only really using the soundtrack it left a somewhat eerie atmosphere around the location, and we liked this. We listened to the film both with and without the soundtrack and we were more than astonished as to how important the soundtrack was to building suspense, pace and atmosphere for the film. Without the soundtrack the film lacked a purpose really, it was as if neither of them were really going to cross-paths... they could have just been two different strangers millions of miles away from one and other!

Camera Work:

• For our camera work we used many different camera angles/shots to try and give off a numerous amount of different points. An example would be when it seems the protagonist (the male character) appears to be breaking into the house, the camera angle is high and we tried to portray the fact that society is looking down on this character. As for shots, we used a wide variety of shots just like other short films we researched therefore sticking to the convention of short films. We did this as we are trying to impress the audience, where as short film directors would do it to to possibly try and break into the film industry. We used big close ups of both characters and of props; we used a close up of the exhaust so it highlights that this is a key part of the shots and adds a sense of urgency to the film. As for on characters we used close ups so the audience is able to understand what each character is feeling emotionally. 

Editing and post production:

• With out short film we created a basic stand alone title of our short film 'Home'. We did this to ensure that we didn't give anything away to the audience, we wanted to keep them guessing. We felt this kind of enigma in our film was needed for it to really succeed. We also created basic titles in the film for example the starring of the two actors, and we did this so it stands out from the film and the audience are able to tell who the actors are if they like them and maybe would want to see them in another film. 

Narrative:

• As for the narrative of our short film we tended to stick with the popular convention of making it linear, simple and easy to follow. We did this as we didn't want too much going on our film and we wanted the audience to focus on one point at hand, and feel something towards that issue. As for theories we applied Todorov's theory where there is an event which upsets the balance of the film (the equilibrium), and then at the end of the film there is a resolution to balance out what has happened. In retrospect to our film the equilibrium would be seeing the male character 'breaking in' to the house of the female, and then the resolution would be when you are finally educated the fact that he has just lost his keys and had to climb through the window to get in.     

Mise en Scene:

• As for mise en scene in our film we stuck to the general stereotypical representation of each character in how they were dressed for example, the male had a hoody and wasn't really dressed up very smart where as the female was well and smartly dressed with assets such as jewelry. We chose the costume of these characters to be different and possibly be seen to be in a different social class just so we could try and trick the audience into thinking that they don't have anything to do with each other, yet. We did this as we want to keep the surprise at the end of the film the fact that they are actually married. As for the location of our film we challenged the general convention of short films by using many different locations in our short film; for example the office, outside the office, the car journey home, the house, outside the house. Having all of these different locations challenges the fact that there are normally only 2 or 3 locations in each short film.

Themes and Issues:

• For themes and issues I believe that we stick to the convention of having an issue at hand like in other short films such as support, the issue is the fact of suicide and so many people know that this is a massive issue in society. One issue that could be potentially seen in our film is the fact that there is a 'burglary' appearing to be taking place, the audience may be able to relate to that if they know someone/or have had experience of burglary themselves. Judgment of people in society and stereotyping is also an issue, and the audience is taught after the film that they have probably made a quick judgement of character, and that it is the wrong one. 

Genre and Conventions:

• With short films, a large majority of them could have a 'shout' to cross over into the Drama genre. An example of where one of the short films I researched would be with the film Night Walking. Night Walking is a Drama as it is representing a real life social problem and their are emotions being expressed by both the characters. In our film we present the issue of having the emotions of what it'd be like if you knew you were getting 'burgled', and we did this by showing her emotion with close ups for example as we wanted the audience to see her emotions. The genre codes to a drama to conclude is that it is somewhat social realism, and the characters are emotional and you (as the audience) are made to understand the emotions. Therefore to conclude we have stuck with the convention of sticking to the popular genre of Drama with our short film.

Ancillary tasks- Here is analysis of British, Independent Films I analysed to help create the best possible poster for our film.

Ill Manors

Ill Manors is a British Independent film written and directed by Ben Drew (famous musician 'Plan B').

• The image included on the movie poster is some what 'raw' and 'rough' looking, this indicates what the film is going to be about, and educates the audience of what kind of genre it'll be allowing the film to bring in the right audience.
• The tagline 'we are all products of our environment... just some environments are harder to survive in' furthermore indicates that this film could be quite violent. In addition it is backed up by one of the reviews on the poster using the word 'bullet', the choice of words is very much so relevant to the image on the poster and educates the audience of what to expect before watching the film.
• The film poster has both 'PLAN B' and 'A BEN DREW FILM' presented on the poster who are both the same person however, using his well-known band name Plan B on the poster may be done to increase popularity of the film as he is using his musical fan base to generate a bigger audience.
• Having all of the positive reviews on the poster in crystal clear capitals allows the audience to read these full of praise reviews, resulting in them being left impressed; leaving them wanting to watch the film.
• Having the name of the film in such a visible location is done due to the film producers/distributors wanting the audience to be able to see clearly what the name of the film is if they are intrigued and want to watch it. However having it in such a bold character may suggest that the film may not be as popular as other films for example, in an extreme case such a Avatar which had hundreds of millions of pounds in advertisement. it had such a small title due to them not needing to publicize the name of the much anticipated film as they had a bigger budget.

Genre

• The films genre for this British film is thriller/crime. This is suggested through the posters gloomy and dull color combinations of grey and a yellow/green tint.
• There is an empty and dark space behind the character in the poster which looks exceptionally empty and eerie, but made to look intimidating by the primary dominance of the darkened colors which makes the audience think what lays ahead for this character?
• The rough outlook of the stereotypical 'council estate flats' in the sides of the posters marks the film to maybe be in a somewhat poor location, as well as confirming it for the audience.
• The man holding the gun suggests the fact that the film is going to be violent and include 'crime' in one way or another, not to mention the fact that he is dressed up in stereotypical dark clothes for these kind of events, (also backed up by one of the reviews saying 'bullet paced and unforgettable').

Representation

• In concept with representation a lot has been given away about one of the presumably main characters of the movie, suggesting the fact that he commits crime. This is all carried out through mise en scene with the lighting being darkened near the character, and a gloomy and miserable sky's above possibly suggesting the fact that it's gloom/daunting times all round for everybody in this film?
• Predominantly the main factor is the fact that he is holding a dangerous prop in form of a weapon, the gun. The gun suggests the fact that there will be shootings/crime committed in this film.
• This is furthermore backed up by the fact that the character is wearing dark clothing which is usually used on characters who aren't up to any good, which suggests that he will also be committing crime in the film.

Audience

• In terms of audience and who it is targeted for, this film could have a wide range of targets.
• In first terms the films emphasizes the fact that the film is written and directed by that of Plan B (Ben Drew). In doing this it suggests the fact that they are trying to boots the popularity of the film by bringing up some of his loyal fans over from music into cinema, they're making them spend their leisure pound on the cinema rather than his music on this occasion.
• For a wider yet more accurate viewpoint of who the target audience for this film would be for, it is clear to see that it is dominantly aiming to bring in fans of crime movies. Having such a wide and open portrayal of the character on the poster holding a gun in what looks like a 'run down' and 'rough' location; it ticks all the boxes of a stereotypical genre codes associated with crime.
• As for age the movie is clearly aimed at an older audience maybe younger adults/older teens due to the fact that the film is certificated at an 18. Having to make the film and 18 cements the fact that the film will contain violence, and backs up the point that is would be enjoyed by those who are fans of the genre 'crime'.
• If this film were to be non-violent at rated at an PG for example then the colors on the poster suggests a lot about the audience. The colors on the poster are very dark/gloomy and daunting. Where as if they were to be bright and happy such as yellow and a shot of a blue sky then the film would be given off a different impression, therefore the colors used make it point towards an older audience.

Media Language

• The characters positioning in the frame and use of a medium-long shot is key in the poster, it allows the audience to see the element of unknown laying behind him and see how empty the shot is. This also educates the audience in where the film will be set.
• The dark colors used in the photo suggests the fact that the film is going to have a 'darkened' atmosphere and will be criminal related.

Tower Block

Tower block is a British thriller film directed by both James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson, and written by James Morgan.

• Image used in the movie poster is clever in the way in which it blends in with the title 'tower block' in the style of an actual tower block. Having this as both the image and the name of the film suggests the fact that the 'tower block' is an extremely important factor in the film
• The tagline used 'no-one gets out alive' immediately suggests the fact that nobody will be getting out of the tower block alive. Having both of these on screen allows the audience to put points together and give a rough underlining of what the film is about, and wanting to know more... why does nobody get out alive, how did they get in that position in the first place? Not to mention the fact the font color is red which means that their is danger as red, is commonly known to be the color of danger.
• Having the actors/actresses names clearly visible in large characters on the poster clearly suggests that they are either up and coming or popular actors, this also suggests the fact that they may be trying to tempt fans of individual actors/actresses in to watching this film as they may have liked them in previous films. However in contrast the directors name is not advertised as much; this suggests that he isn't as well known possibly trying to prevent 'putting off'' potential naive audiences who are judgmental of non-established directors.
• Once again the title of the film is the dominant figure of the poster in line with the image of tower block. This could be due to them trying to emphasize the importance of the tower block in the film as well as them informing the audience of the films name so that if audiences are interested, then they are fully informed of what the film is and what the film would be set on.

Genre

• The films genre is thriller, which is implemented and suggested in many ways on the poster, such as...
• In classic thrillers there is always the element of unknown, and with this posters design it leaves the audience asking many questions: Why's the tower so important, whats going to happen in the tower?
• The tagline 'no-one gets out alive' confirms the fact that there should be death in this film like the case with many thrillers and sticking to generic codes, as well as leaving the audience wanting to know if anybody beats the odds and gets out the tower block... alive.
• The people on top of the tower block are overshadowed by an intimidating dangerous red. This red color confirms the fact that these people are in danger and leaving the audience wanting to know why.
• The tagline highlights the key events and focus of the film, and like with most thrillers it will be around that of death.

Representation

• Not a lot has been given away in terms of representation and any of the main characters involved in the film, as there isn't a clear character from the film shown on the poster.
• However the shades people on top of the building on the character appears to be an outline of a male. This man is standing with a strong and confident posture which could mean that their could be a strong male character in this film.
• Having no character on screen makes it hard to interpret any ideas of characters as it would be made easier by costume/hair and makeup (Mise en scene) .
• However the main point of the poster being a tower block, it indicates that this will be the location and play an important role in the film. Tower blocks can be seen to be fairly working class conditions, therefore the people represented in this film could be working class people.

Audience

• On the poster the name of the actors/actresses in the film are clearly presented along the top line of the poster. This could have been done due to them being popular and trying to lure fans of specific actors to watch this film as they are starring in it.
• The genre of this film is outright thriller therefore meaning that this film would obviously be one for thriller fans. The typical mystery and questions left by thrillers is what makes a thriller, a thriller in my opinion... and in this case its no different! The poster gives nothing away and leaves the audience wanting to watch the film and find out more for example, will anybody beat the odds and get out alive?
• Age wise, the movie is certificated at a 15. Having the movie at this certification concludes the fact that this movie wouldn't really suit a younger audience due to the presumption of there being violent/killing scenes.
• As for a more specific audience I feel this is aimed at for older teens/adults. The main/key characters used in the film are in general at an average of 30 years or older; this could suggest that the director wants adults to be able to relate to the characters due to them possibly sharing the some similar characteristics, but this could be sparked off by their age relation.

Media Language

• The extreme long shot of the tower block in the poster could suggest that the location is fairly isolated and there isn't really an escape?
• I feel the technique of pathetic fallacy has also been used on the poster. For example, the stormy weather surrounding the building could mean sorrow/bad times ahead as rain has been widely known to represent saddened moods. I feel this because if I were to picture the weather around the tower block to be that of sunny it wouldn't have the same negative mood surrounding it.
• In terms of the lighting around the poster it is that of a somewhat neon blue, the same color of police/ambulance sirens! This could indicate the fact they are both needed in the film, which must mean crime/violence... it's a sub-consciously links the two.

Our short film poster 'Home', and how it challenges/develops forms and conventions of real media products.

• For our poster I feel that we have communicated what our film is about, by giving a rough representation of what the film is going to be about through: colour, mise en scene, and images on the poster.

• For the colouring of the poster we choose to dominate the use of the colour black. The reasons why we decided to do this is because the colour black is seen to be very daunting, and are colour associated with mischievous people. We want to represent the fact that this film is going to have a bad event taking place such a maybe a murder or a robbery, and we felt sticking to dark colours was the best way to give off a darkened atmosphere for the film.

• The film credit blocks below the imagery of the poster is there to help make the poster look good and as professional as real life media posters. We have also associated other logo's such as BBC Short Films with our poster as we felt that this is a realistic representation of what a short film poster would be like the reasons for this being; the fact that BBC Short Films supports independent short films and we have created an independent short film.

• As for the font and title of our film we have chosen to go for the basic colour of white as it clearly stands out ahead of the black background. Having the title so big was something that we chose to do so it made the poster eye catching, and the first thing the audience would notice is the title of the film- therefore if they liked the look of the poster then they would know the name of the film and hopefully go and see it. Also having the title as HOME, it helps the audience understand the fact that the film could have something to do with one of the characters home and hints to the audience the key location of the film.

• Having the two characters on the poster us as we want to show the potential audience what the characters look like, and then they can judge through their mise en scene what kind of person they are going to be. The clever blend of the house or 'Home' of one of the characters in the background is used to help the audience understand the fact that this house must be of a significant location to be on the poster, and that is why we decided to put it on the poster- it educated the audience of where the location of the film is going to be set around.

• As for the titling of who the characters are being played by, and who is starring in the film, we decided to make this also more than easy to see as we want these 'stars' to help promote our film. We could have boasted the fact that these actor's were up-and coming rising stars in the movie industry and this may have tempted people into wanting to see how they perform.

We carried out research into many Little White Lies reviews, and learnt what they did to create a great review, to help us make our review just as good in a similar style. Here is what I found out:


Little White Lies

Little White Lies is a British bi-monthly which is published by 'Church of London' with their first issue being released 8 years ago in 2005!

Renown for its illustrative and exceptionally creative style, Little White Lies writes and illustrates reviews related to cinema.

With the readership of the magazine being creative, male and in the age bracket of 25-35 years old, the magazines advertisements focuses on this type of reader. However, with the low amounts of adverts in the magazine (below 10), the magazine makes most of it's money through it's cover price and loyal subscribers to the magazine.

Design/Layout

The magazine has a creative and illustrative design to it with symbols/drawings a familiar occurrence. In terms of reviews the layouts are as follows:

Page measurements - 196mm wide, 245mm in length.

Column measurements - 52.4mm wide, 107mm in length.

At the top of the review there would be a big banner image stretching over nearly one quarter of the page 168mm wide and 70mm long. Centrally underneath would be the title of the movie, who it starred/was directed by, and when it was going to be released.

Example of banner image and movie details.

In terms for the actual review the mode of address can change determined by who is writing it or what film they're reviewing. The review has a wide rang of vocabulary and is intelligently written with carefully structured paragraphs. Averaging at 450-600 words per review, the review is graphically 'perfect', for example the end columns match up perfectly to the sides of the banner image.

At the end of the review there is a review system which consists of three sections:

Anticipation- What they were expecting

Enjoyment- What is was like whilst watching the film

In Retrospect- Taking all pointers into consideration after the film, and giving it a rating.

Gangsta Squad Review

I think the review system is clever and unique as it offers three levels of review instead of just one cliche rating... it's different! The review used here is for the recent film 'Gangsta Squad' which has been given a couple of different ratings which is good as it gives the readership more reviews/opinions.

                                                             Our final film review:

Our final Little White Lie Review

Our review is effective as we have copied the style of successful film review magazine ‘little white lies’ using indesign as we wanted to mimic their style of reviews, therefore this means that we didn't challenge any conventions.

What we did:

• We used the same lay-out, placing a photo of our film on the top of the review, showing roughly what our film is about. We used similar fonts for subheadings, headings and the actual review, as well as using similar language, features and conventions of the little white lie reviews. We mimicked, having an almost cover photo of at the top of the review.
• For the actual review itself we used the same structure as a little white lies review, giving a rough indication of what the film is about, informing the reader who was starring in our film, without giving anything away using a wide range of vocabulary.

• For the actual photo itself, it entices the audience into wanting to read the review as it grabs their attention wanting to know what this character is all about.  And this is why we chose the photo we did, we believe that it gives a good representation of what our film is about.

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

Here is a video response of me answering this question, I couldn't get the pictures to go on top of the audio, therefore they are only up for a few seconds each when introduced.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our audience demographic was for people aged 16-35 years old. Offering an intense nail-biting film, we felt that the films content was perfect for the chosen audience. If the audience was able to relate to our films themes and issues, then it would be even better.

On a the social networking site Twitter, I asked people for feedback on what they thought was good or bad about our film. All of the people who replied to my video were in our audience demographic so that straight away makes it more useful:


Daniel Johnstone, aged 17-

James Ely, aged 18- 

Matt Bishop, aged 18-

All of the feedback that I have received on our film come from people who are in our audience demographic of being between aged 16-35, and this is good as it will gives us reliable and effective feedback as to what went well or bad with the film.

We wanted to create a clever narrative where there is a lot of suspense, high pace and intensity to our film and from the research it is clear to see that they felt the suspense. Two of the three mentioned how the use of cross-cut editing in the film created the suspense, where as the other person (Daniel Johnstone), mentioned how the music was the key reason for creating suspense and building tempo/pace. In particular the comments of how the soundtrack creates suspense, that is the one that please me most and the reason behind that is; we had to find a relevant, royalty free soundtrack which we could use on our film and make it work- it took us days- "it's just nice to see that the time and effort is enjoyed".

As for the twist at the end of the film we wanted to ensure that nobody was expecting it, and that it would be a welcomed/comical resolution to the film, and from the feedback above I believe it shows we did this successfully:

1) "Didn't expect the ending at all!"
2) "The ending was unexpected and made me laugh! haha"

From these comments above it does show the fact that people didn't expect the ending, and that they liked the twist- someone even found it funny!
For the ending it is fair to say that we were inspired by the short film 'Love fields'. This is a film where it appears a man is possibly raping or murdering a women in a cornfield, and as a matter of fact he is just helping a woman deliver her baby! I personally am very happy that we managed to pull this type of unexpected ending off, as if you watch it again after being educated of the ending it becomes a whole new different film.

< << Short film 'Love Fields'.




From the comments it is clear to see that people liked our editing of of the film, and in particular the cross-cuts as it mainly builds suspense.

The 'Camera work' of our film was also heavily praised with a numerous amount of shots being pointed out and having feedback as "being really good". This is good as we stuck to the general convention of short films by using a numerous amount of camera angles/different shots, and we did this as we wanted to impress the audience and make our film as best as possible.
"I liked the shot of the car exhaust zooming off"- Was part of our feedback from Matt Bishop. I am happy that he acknowledged the car to be speeding off more due to the close-up of the exhaust, purely because that is the reason why did choose to have a close up of the exhaust, it helped add more urgency and increase pace/tempo.
One of the constructive criticism comments we received:

Paul Seward, aged 17-  "I feel the film worked well however, I can't help but feel if this was shot in the dark then it would have helped create the atmosphere even better as burglaries tend to take place at night, not in broad daylight!"

Those comments we received from Paul Seward we felt were true and we agree that it would have helped build the atmosphere itself even more due to the dark being associated with:

• Crime
• Mystery
• Secrecy
• Enigma

Therefore we feel that these comments were valid and very much so appreciated and true in our audience feedback.

To conclude I feel that it is clear to see that our film went down well with our target audience demographic. With comments saying that they 'didn't expect the end' and that there was 'suspense', shows that we were successful in creating the kind of film we wanted to- A fast-paced drama with a twist! In general the audience feedback also shows that they enjoyed our film and it shows that with the right camera work, mise en scene and sound you can create a great short film. The audience feedback also showed that we could have improved our short film by shooting it in the dark, and this is something we would consider if we were to create a similar film again.

Poster feedback:

We all created one poster, the one on the left is the one I created and the one on the left is the one that we decided to take forward and improve for our final poster.

Poster 1:                                                                                 Poster 2:

We asked 10 people as to what of the two posters they preferred the look of, here are the results:

Poster 1:                                                                                     Poster 2:

8                                                                                                   2

The feedback on how many people prefer the other poster (left) as oppose to mine (right) clearly shows that the one we are going to take forward is option 1.

General audience feedback:

From the audience feedback on the poster the generalization of why they preferred poster one over poster two was due to, "Poster 1 looks a lot more professional".
They also preferred the images used on poster 1 as it 'wasn't just one photo', and the way the images fade into the darkness of the poster looks very professional & is creative! 

We decided to carry poster one forward and develop it to use as our final poster as the audience feedback clearly favored poster one.

                                                           
We helped produce the final poster from audience feedback on all of the following features: Fonts, imagery and colouring.

Liz, aged 23: "Perhaps make the title of the film even bigger, make it stand out and be the first thing you see!

Steve, aged 18 "Keep the fading of the images into the background, I dunno, it just kind of makes it look like this film is all about darkness!"

Sam, aged 17 "It may sound silly but put the 'baddy' behind the good guy or girl! It just kind of makes it seem like that they are always watching him, and/or maybe the protagonist is always one step ahead!"


All of the comments above we took on board, and put into action!

• We made the title of the film stand out even more by increasing the size of it.
• We made the 'antagonist' be behind the female on the poster so it seems that he is 'always watching her'.
• We kept with the style of having the imagery fading into the darkness of the poster.

This is our updated and final poster, we decided to update images of the two characters, who now wear appropriate costume, and updated the location of where the film is set (background of poster).

To conclude I feel that the poster has represented our film well  in   trying to give off the fact that  the film is meant to be 'dark' and something bad is going to happen. We used the audience feedback to help improve our drafts, and choose which one to ultimately improve and make our final poster. It shows that if you do stick to genre coding, and stereotypical dark colours it helps represent a film in the manor you want.

Review feedback:

This is our final movie review, copying the style of 'Little White Lies' reviews we wanted to create a review which is well written, looks professional and one which tempts the reader into wanting to see our film!

I surveyed 5 different people asking them a variety of questions about our review, or general 'Little White Lie reviews', here are the people, questions asked and their response:

James, aged 18                                                           Female,
Matt, aged 18                                                              Malesjs
Laura, aged 18
Tim, aged 17
Dan, aged 17




Have you ever read a film review before ours?

Yes
Yes
No
No
No

Have you ever read a Little White Lies film review?

No 
Yes
No
No
No

If yes, what did you think of them as oppose to other reviews?

I felt it was more creative than other normal film reviews, it isn't like other ones; it uses language you wouldn't expect to see in a review like swear words! I just suppose it's more creative really.

What part of our review did you like the most?

The photo at the top!
The language you used in it was very clever.
You enticed me into wanting to see your film, you tease!
Dunno really.
I like the review system at the end, it all looked very professional too!



From all of this audience feedback on our film review, and other reviews in general it is clear to see that I have surveyed a number of different individuals. Some of them surveyed didn't really appear to be interested in film too a great extent, where as others really enjoyed the review and were 'enticed' and wanted to perhaps see our film!
One of the comments that I am most pleased with is that they called our review professional looking and that we 'teased them'. A review is there to give the audience a taster of what a film is about and pretty can give them a nudge in the direction to see our film, therefore I am happy that they found our review to be enticing! Having it look the part is always a massive factor in whether or not a review is going to be a good one, and having feedback from our target demographic and having them say it looks 'professional', I feel means we have succeeded in creating a strong review for our film.

To conclude I am exceptionally happy as to how 'professional' are review looks, and how well we managed to mimic that of Little White Lies. We succeeded in creating a well written review, which leaves the reader wanting to see the film... success!

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

I chose to do this question on the online presentation creator Prezi, as you can be as creative as you like and I can answer the question using clever visuals.

Prezi

The Advanced Portfolio Evaluation - Dani

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

Click. Flash. by Trifecta/Heatstroke was a 2011 finalist for the National Film Challenge

http://filmchallenge.org/2011-Finalists/2011-finalist-click-flash.html

The story is about a broken down country singer who finds that having a simple drink is much more than what she bargained for.

I choose this short film because it is very powerful as it shows an innocent person having a drink and what the outcome could be. The film is extremely well done visually and audibly and the scene transitions made the story even more exciting and un-expectable that it makes you shiver.

Representation:

• This film deals with the issues of drink driving and the risks you take when driving intoxicated. The facts are that even an innocent person who would never hurt anyone like the country singer can do such damage to someones life, including death. It sends across messages of how easy it is to kill someone when driving and the responsibility an individual has if something goes wrong.
• The genre is 'fantasy' and 'drama' because it is what she is dreaming in her head at the bar as she did not understand what she had done wrong and why a women was laughing at her.
• The expected audience for Click. Flash would be between the ages of 20-35 and either male and female as they may be able to relate to her. 
• Negative representations are shown as it is a young female character therefore, it is seen as if only young people drink and cause accidents while driving. However, the ambulance people see to be acting alot more like older adults and are showing more of a looked up to figure.

Narrative

• The film does not give much away to the audience until it starts to get to the end of the film that we identify she is involved in a car crash and the plot is that she had killed someone down to her drinking. The story makes us understand that she is drunk and that the characters at the bar are all seen at the driving accident scene.
• It is a circular narrative structure because the film begins with her car driving along a road late at night and it then flashes back to her at the bar earlier on, and then takes us back to a similar point by the end of the short film of her driving and then hitting into the women who is jogging on the pavement. This creates an impact on the audience as there must be a reason why the film starts with a point of view shot of someone driving and how the end of the film almost gives a shock as it is very graphic and unexpected. 
• David Bordwell and Kirsten Thompson say that the story includes everything that has happens in their lives and this is also events we do not see. Therefore, the plot only includes events of the story that we see in the film. In this case we only see the female character driving and at the bar, we have no idea why she is feeling down or what has happened to her to make her drink and drive and the reason for her reactions. The events in the story are 'plotted' to create a narrative. 
• An action code is used in this narrative as we see flickering lights, a bottle of alcohol dripping and the sound of sirens start to get louder. This kind of code tells us that an action will take place and enables the audience to engage and predict the plot. 

Genre

• Short films typically using genre as they are smaller in length of time and they must have a plot and story therefore it must be categorised into a genre to be identified.
• Click.Flash's genre is fantasy and drama because she is dreaming and the scene at the bar is very confusing as the audience have no idea why the characters are acting strange, rude and manipulative towards her, until the end where it all unravels.
  
  

Audience

• The this type of film makes your 'spine shiver' as it is very dramatic and surprising about what is about to happen as no one would want that to happen to them. 
• The makers of the film try and get the audiences expectations high as the film draws to a close as the bar stuff start to shake her, point bright lights in her face, almost trying to scare her. She then realises that her guitar is broken and smashed it. This may symbolise that her life is over even before we have seen the accident. 

Media Language 

• 
• The film begins with a series of point of view (POV) shots. The first shot is the sight of the road and the vision in which someone is driving a car. The image in which the car is moving seems blurred and unsteady. This instantly gives the audience an idea that the driver may not be completely concentrating and stable.

• A close up is taken of a wine bottle which is leaking. This particular shot is repeated three times throughout the short film indicating that an event relating to alcohol has either happened or is about to happen. The shot is very dark and mysterious, still not giving away anything including what exactly the alcohol is. The audience are left anticipating the outcome of this shot. 

• Throughout the entire five minutes of this short film there are constant references back to alcohol. Firstly, the barmaid pours wine into a glass, there is a close up shot of this directing all our attention onto the alcohol. The liquid is red symbolizing the accident that is going to happen, which the audience will later find out. The barmaid passes the glass to the customer who immediately downs the drink. This indicates to us as an audience that maybe the customer is an alcoholic or that something is troubling her. 

• The audience gets introduced to a third character who keeps laughing to herself. She comes across as very suspicious as her face is not shown until later and there is no indication as to who she is. The women regularly laughs throughout the duration of the scene, still giving no information away, including her identity. . 

• We then see a forth character who is asking for a 'light' and just like the others he is coming across very mysterious. This close up shown signifies that the audience are oblivious to who this man is and why he is there. 

Two Cars One Night  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Pc6cBP-8U

Narrative - As shown in 'Two Cars One Night' a common feature of a short film is a simple narrative idea as the more simpler a short film is the more creative you can make it. It involves three children waiting in a car park for their parents and the female and one of the male characters start talking in a humorous but sweet way and in the end they exchange a ring. Nothing exciting is mentioned but this gives a chance for the creators to really elaborate on their camera work and effects. Although, many short films feature no or hardly any narrative but are still good to watch. 

Lovefield  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4meeZifCVro

Genre Conventions-  
We tried to create the same effect as this short film. The audience is completely taken back by this film at the start as we immediately think that the male character is hurting this women as she is screaming in a corn field and she looks very weak. However, towards the end we then realize he is helping her deliver a baby. It creates a story that takes the audience on a roller coaster ride of emotions and combines elements of horror, suspense and drama. 

Mise En Scene - 
The short film is set in a corn field which looks to be in the middle of nowhere this creates the feeling of vulnerable and lonely. Short films are known to only use a limited number of locations as they have such a short time otherwise time can be taken up. As shown in Two Cars One Night only a location of a car park is used. 

Our first impressions of the representation of the male character is that he is a hillbilly and looks very dirty and horrible. Also, we see a mid close up of his tattoo on his arm of a skull representing death so we immediately think he is a murderer. 

As in our film, short films tend not to give anything away till the end as all we see in Lovefield is a small womans foot and we do not see any identifiable clothing or facial areas. 


 

Does our short film use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Editing/post production:  When it came to creating our 'Home' title and credits we wanted to use a different inventive style to still show our theme of mystery. Again we used dark colours so the white could stand out just like our poster idea and we used a large font to make sure our title is clear and significant. 
We used alot of cross cutting from one character to another to create more suspense and intensity as made it flick faster to make the audience feel more on edge.

Narrative: We used the codes and convention of short films by keeping our narrative simple and easy to follow, as from past experiences the film can be hard to understand if made too complicated. We stuck with two main characters and two different locations to keep it simplified as the most successful short films are very simplistic. Our film is about a female character who realised she has lost her wedding ring while at work and rushes home to see whether it is there. In the meantime the camera flicks to a suspicious man who seems as if he may have broken into the house and is looking for something. We tried to make the film as intense as we could by cross cutting from one to the other to emphasis the meeting of the characters at the very end. We kept to the linear narrative so it starts with an equilibrium and finishes with the resolution in terms of the Todorov theroy.

Representation: Our characters use  modern representations of gender  so our target audience for the film could relate to the  the characters better to understand them. The way in which you can tell our film is a modern representation is how we have used high technology props such as a mobile phone and a car which are key parts in the film. The male character represents a strong and independent male as he is on his own and does not seem worried at all as he walks around the house with his hood up in broad daylight. Also, as we find out in the end that he had lost his keys, he does not seem to call anyone for help therefore he is seen that he can handle things for himself and does not rely on anyone else such as the female character. The male character also does not give much away as we hear no speech from him till the very end.
However, the female is a modern representation as she is working and trying to look after the house at the same time. She comes across as very caring and not that quiet. Also, she is not relying on the man to go and check the house, she is doing it herself. She is independent. 



Camerawork: Overall, we used the forms and conventions of many short films through the camerawork. We used a range of shots from close ups, low angles, point of view shots to really get the feel of how the characters are feeling and to make our short film more interesting and fun to watch. It also builds a relationship between both the characters and the audience. We did things such as put the camera in the draw when it was opened, high angle shots looking down on what the character is doing, shots of facial expressions up close and looking through windows. Also, the best of the best shots i feel we did is when the female character switches on the engine and then we see the exhaust start up with smoke coming out of it conveying the idea of urgency.

Genre conventions: In terms of genre and its conventions we used drama which normal people can relate to as it seen as very realistic rather than a horror. It almost creates a connection between the film and the audience which then normally is effective and creates a successful film. Our film portrays the journey of our two characters development and the heart of the drama is the conflict at the end as we keep it intense till the very end. 

Sound: When it came to sound we used both non-diegetic sound and diegetic sound i took it from films that inspired me. We only used one non diegetic sound throughout our whole film to build the tension as it gets more intense as the film goes on however i feel maybe we could of used more of a range of sound to make our film a bit more interesting. It is important to make sure we still had diegetic sound to keep the idea of realism such as the music in the car, the sound of the mobile phone ringing and the engine starting. It allows the audience to hear what is happening on the screen at the time to make sure they understand the film properly. 

Mise en scene: The use of mise en scene was important in our film to ensure we got across the theme of the characters and what sort of people they were. The female character is dressed smartly as she has been at work this explains that she upper class, whereas the male character is harder to tell because he all in black clothing showing no colours of personality or conventions. When it came to locations we challenged the codes and conventions of real media products because there is normally only one location used as it can cause confusion for the audience as there is little time to film. There is alot of travelling and cross cutting from each character but we tried not to establish the location in the first scenes so the audience weren't question where they were.

Themes and issues - We did not focus on a particular theme or issue unlike many other short films therefore we challenged the codes and conventions of real media products by not giving the audience what they expect by not highlighting an issue. However, you could say it is how the audience perceive the male character to be (antagonist), and then at the end the film proves them wrong.

Ancillary Tasks 

Conventions of movie posters: 

As shown below these are analysis of films i have already completed and identified their audience, genres, themes, mise en scene, issues and narrative. 

Wild Bill
Trailer -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo5IaRnKyFk

Narrative

• We can tell the main character by looking at the poster as he is situated in the middle of the frame and closer than the other characters in the background.
• He comes across as being quite a rough male character as his appearance seems dirty and he has cuts over his face indicating he may be involved in violence.  
• The characters in the background range from a man and a women dressed smartly looking very formal compared to four young men all wearing big jackets and either wearing a hat or their hood up. This indicates to the audience it may be the main characters gang or friends he is involved with and are key parts of the film. However, the characters dressed more formally may be the people that are after them as they seem like opposites.
• The theme that is communicated with the audience is that the film is associated with British criminals and working class  people as the main character does not seem to have alot of money as his clothes look dirty and his face looks all beaten and bruised  And by the look of his fists we can see that he is involved in alot of violence.

Representation

• The poster is representing working class men who may have been involved in crime and just been released from prison. The ages of the characters range from young teenagers to middle aged adults showing that this film may be about the family of the criminal and how it effects families as well as the society in modern day life.
• The more formally dressed man and women are looking at the main character or at the other characters in a bad way this shows that they could be after them for something they may have done. The other characters are looking towards the audience where the main man is looking this indicates that they are part of him and involved with him.
• By just looking at the poster we can only see an outline of places in London representing that this film is set in the back streets of London, this shows to the audience how rough the boys are. The main colours used are black and yellow. The yellow is darkened which represents dirt and unpleasantness and the black may represent death or depression. Also, i have noticed that two characters in the background are dressed smartly in black which portrays one of class elegance and wealth. Classy clothing is designed in black such as the mans suit and the females smart top, this shows they are higher up than the other characters.

Genre

• This film comes across as being a drama film as it is about Bill when he comes out of prison and what he has to face with. It is about him and his sons as they have been abounded by their mother and he has no choice but to look after them. This is also showed in the star reviews 'Outstanding' or 'A Hugely Enjoyable and Impressive Debut'.
• It is very interesting the way the films title is on Bill's knuckles looking like a tattoo saying 'Wild Bill'. Tattoos are permanent markings on the body which portrays that Bill will always be wild and uncontrollable. Also, they are seen to make a person look unattractive and dirty and limit a persons opportunities in life because of their negative connotations and associations. 40% of companies will not hire a person with tattoos therefore already the poster shows that this film represents crime and violence on the streets with people such as bill being unemployed and creating drama.
• Violence and crime are probably key aspects of this film because the poster is nitty and gritty and there are fists shown up closest to the poster expressing that he is going to hit someone. Also, we can see flat blocks in the background in London and we know that crime often happens on flat blocks especially in the capital of the UK where there is alot of gangs.

Audience

• The audience of this film would aim towards young adults and the older generation because the films certificate is 15 therefore their would be content which involves bad language and violence. I feel that mainly men would watch this film because the characters are mainly male as well as the themes and issues that are tackled in this film. However, there are some female characters therefore some females would be interested in watching this film and interested in the themes shown in the poster.
• This film aims towards working and middle class people because it is located in the crime areas in back streets of London. Upper class people would not really be interested in watching this as they could not relate themselves to the situation.  

Film Language

• Facial expressions play a vital part in this poster as not one of the characters comes across as being in a happy mood. They all seem very serious portraying that this film is not to do with comedy but with serious issues to do with London crime.
• The mise en scene of this poster, especially the way in which the characters are positioned with his fists being bigger than anything else, creates a sense that he is more powerful than them and is in control. It is as if he is the one that causes the most mischief.
• The way in which the star reviews and the names of the actors are all positioned very accordingly and look very neat and bold to make sure that they stand out from the yellow background. They are also all in capital letters this makes the words seem as if they are being outspoken and like the characters are 'too much'.
• There is a mid-shot of all of the characters in the background so we can see what they are wearing. This shows to us exactly what type of people they are, their attitude to the way they live and representations of that type of class in England.

Now is Good 

Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TEXZacgWoo

Narrative

• With this poster we can immediately tell who the main two characters will be in the film as they almost take up the entire frame and just by looking at the poster we can tell that they are very connected to each other. However, the audience can see the movie will be mainly based on the girl as she is looking towards us, creating more attention towards her. It is although he is protecting her.
• The background is of the sky, portraying that they are in heaven or in a very happy place. Or it may be that someone is passing away.
• 'Live every moment, love every minute  is the tag line, this instantly gets us thinking that the female is ill as we say this when someone passes away. We realise how short life is and that we should all live life to the full and make the most of it. In the film we realise that the girl has leukaemia and has given up her treatment. 

Representation

• The representation of gender and sexuality are shown in this poster. The characters are obviously in a relationship as they are within close proximity and are wearing similar colour clothing in order to relate themselves to each other.
• Also, they both seem as if they are feeling down especially the male as he is looking downwards as if he is sad that she has an illness. He is also wearing a darker coloured top. However, the female is looking upwards towards us representing that although she has a deathly illness she is still strong. 
• In the title the word ' Now' is a different colour to the rest of the words which tries to emphasis that she has not got much time as it could be 'later is good'. It ensures that the reader of this poster looks more at this word and understands that maybe her illness is killing her and that she wants to do as many things as she can in the rest of her life. 
• The background of this poster is of a blue clear sky with some white clouds and it looks just like you would of heaven. It gives a more clearer representation as when someone dies they go to heaven, it is known to be a very calm place. Also, they are blocking the sun light behind them but it seems as if there is more light shining on her highlighting to us that this film is based around her. 

Genre

• I would say the genre of this film is romance and drama as it is about a real life situation involving love. However, the plot is that she is dying from the disease and wants to live ever moment of her life to the full that she has left. 
• The actors names are in yellow and so is her cardigan. Yellow is associated with joy, happiness intellect and energy. This may represent her character and what her personality is like while she is suffering from leukaemia.  
• I feel all classes from working class to upper class would enjoy this film as it can touch anyone. Suffering from an illness such as leukaemia is very sad and can have an impact on anyone's life no matter how much money they have. Also, people who appreciate romance films which is mostly female like to watch people in a good relationship (as shown in poster) to get an idea on what they want to have in the future and get enjoyment out of seeing someone in love.  

Audience

• I feel the main target audience is teenage and young adult girls as it would be very emotional and is based around love and affection which normally only females like to watch. The certificate is a 12A therefore any girl as long as they go with an adult if under 12 are able to watch the film.
• However, the film could relate to both genders if they have been put in a situation with someone who has leukaemia or if they have lost someone due to the illness or even if they have been diagnosed themselves. 
• It is based on a book called 'Before I Die' by Jenny Downham which is a young adult novel therefore, any young adults or anyone else that has read the book will be more than likely to watch the film. 

Film Language 

• The colours of the fonts and the characters clothes are very similar contrasting from a range of blue, yellow and white. This overall makes the poster look connected as a whole and make the poster pleasant to look at. They are soft, not harsh colours symbolizing that the film story is very touching and emotional. 
• In terms of positioning, the characters are taken in a medium/close up shot as we can clearly see their facial expressions, they both look very sincere and serious. Also, we can see a small part of their clothing aswell as the background as they are roughly similar colours which indicates they all have something to do with each other.  
• Overall, this poster is very eye-catching as we can fully see the characters and it attracts its target audience by the use of soft, easy colours and we can already tell what the movie will be about by the tagline and the way the characters are pictured. 

Poster conventions: 

1. The films name needs to be displayed clearly and must stand out from the poster. Also, to see what it is advertising. 
2. The added convention is quotes from the film giving the audience a feel about what the film is about. 
3. The actors names are important on a poster especially if they are well known as it will promote the movie, whereas if the actors are unknown people may not be as excited to see the film as they do not know who is in it. 
4. A tag line is another convention to a poster as it makes the movie original and one of its kind. Also, to give the audience an insight into the story. 
5. The date the film is going to be released is vital in a poster as it tells the audience when they are able to go and see the film and whether it is coming out in the cinema or as a DVD. 
6. Every poster must include text at the bottom displaying the director, actors, production companies and funding logos. 
7. Another convention is quotes the film has received from newspapers, magazines or viewers expressing what they thought about the film, they would want to put this on the poster to show it is a good film. 
8. The images used must reflect the movie in some way for the audience to be able to identify its genre, themes, issues, actors and many more. 

Most of the conventions mentioned above are for a big budget film posters which has an actual release date, whereas short films are not advertised in this way so short film posters may not have all these conventions as they are not needed. 

Does our poster use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

• The films title is located at the bottom in a large font so it stands out and catches the audience's eyes. It is easy to read and understand because it is the largest text on the poster and is the opposite colour to black. 
• We wanted to keep our poster simple and not over crowded as we do not want it to be seen as an eye scorcher. We only used three images one of which one is of the house and then two close ups of me and Curtis. As represented in many other film posters, we have taken separate pictures of the two main characters wearing the same clothes but just taken separately to emphasis their facial expressions, lighting and body language. Our poster does not give much away as the film is based around mystery and the unexpected. 
• On nearly every movie poster that we see the actors names are mentioned clearly and are highlighted therefore we decided to do the same. Although our actors are not Hollywood stars, actors names make up a movie poster and the audience can clearly see who is playing what character. 
• We made the text at the very bottom which states the production company, cast and crew members to show who was included in the making of the film. Also, we have used funding logos such as BBC films and Lottery funded to identify who helped the financial side of the film. 
• Another convention we have used were quotes and reviews from media places such as newspapers. We added these to our poster to highlight to the audience what people enjoyed about the entire film and the good points so it would attract more attention. Also, it had a positive impact on the poster aswell as it shows that the general public have good reviews on the film. 
• Overall, I feel our film poster is very effective and targets our audience of young adults with the use of colours, themes characters and editing. However, i feel we could of added a date of release to tell the audience when they are able to see it in the cinemas or on DVD. 

Review

Little White Lies 

What is little white lies magazine? 

The first Little White Lies magazine was published in 2005 by The Church Of London. It is a British movie magazine and is distributed throughout the UK in shops including WHSmith, HMV and urban outfitters. 
They reach their customers through high street distribution and subscriptions. There is on average 16,500 copies sold and this is then read by 4 people. Also there is 2,000+ subscribers. 
The magazine takes one main film and uses this as its theme. As shown for example; The Black Swan. 

Target Audience: 

As shown above Little White Lies main audience is males aged between 25- 35 and work within the media and creative industry. We can see from the content of the magazine that it is aimed at informed and educated media fans aswell as people who are interested in art and graphics because alot of the magazine is hand drawn and created through IT. 

The advertisements that are featured in the issues are things such Wild Bill film release, A horrible way to die DVD, intellect books and AV festival which is a festival for Art, Tech, Music and film. All of these advertisements are aimed at males who are interested in the film industry as Wild Bill is a film about a gang in London. Also, the DVD of a horrible way to die does not seem appealing to females as i have never heard of any of these advertisements featured in the film. 

This is a review i have taken from Little White Lies. 

http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/theatrical-reviews/this-is-40-23187#film-still

• The design and the layout of little white lies reviews are all the same. Normally a screen shot or still image is used at the top to illustrate what the film is about and the characters involved. 
• The title of the film is normally in bold and in a large font below the picture. 
• Underneath the film title is three headings 'Directed By', 'Starring' and 'Release Date', this gives more facts on the film to give the reader all they need to know about the film before they read the review. 
• Another major part of the review is the ratings the magazine have given the film out of 5 for anticipation, enjoyment and in retrospect. This overall sums up the film and gives the audience an idea on how good the film is going to be. 
• When it comes to the language there is roughly 550 words and approximately 6 paragraphs. The reviews have to be very justified and just give an overview of the film without giving too much away. 
• Each column is 52.4mm wide and 107mm long. 
• The use of nouns, adjectives, complex nouns, rhetorical questions, complex language and many more. 

Example of what's involved in review: 

Each paragraph: 

1. Gives an overview of film (Historical/political areas) 
2. Link to characters 
3. Introduced protagonist 
4. Genre - Repetition and variation from standard with references to other films 
5. Directors inventions, themes and aspects of style
6. Genre repetition and variation from standard such as key scenes and unique elements. 
7. Summary of end scenes importance; distinctive genre features compared to Hollywood's styles. Finishing with a positive last sentence as little white lies have given the film a rating of 5 out of 5. 

Does our review use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

Here is our final review: 

• In our review we have used the same conventions of the Little White Lies Magazine. We didn't challenge or develop the conventions of the magazines because it would not look like the magazine itself as it has a particular style. 
• We followed the language in which Little White lies write their reviews and in each paragraph we covered different areas such as the characters, directors style, summary of film and the genre conventions used. 
• The audience of our film have us a 4 for anticipation, 3 for enjoyment and 4 for in retrospect which was carried out with questionnaires so we could get an idea on what scores to put on our review. 

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

I do apologise that the films are sideways but i can not rotate them. Here is me talking about our poster: 

Me talking about our review: 

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our target audience  demographic is young adults from the ages of 16 to 35 who are interested in intense, exciting and dramatic films. Also, people who can relate to the film are more likely to understand the themes and issues we have used.

Lydia Hague, 17years old -

"I thought the film had a clear story line and it was easy to understand what was going on. I liked the way it was intense as the female character got closer to the house where the man was. Also, I thought the camera work techniques were very good and made your film look more professional. Overall, i thought your film was of a high standard and has a good story line for a short film narrative. However, if filmed in the dark it could of been even more thrilling!"

Rachael Connor, 18years old -

" I very much enjoyed watching your film, i feel it targets your audience of young adults as the characters used are of this age. I was confused at the start as i was not sure whether he was a burglar as he did not seem to be rushing around but at the end i understood with his line of 'sorry babe i lost my keys'. I like how the tensions builds and us as an audience are unaware of what is going on it makes us want to watch more. Well Dani i think you have done a really good job for A level Media!"

Mae Frishaeur, 20 years old -

"I have never watched a short film before but i liked the way it is short and simple and very interesting to watch. The different angles you used i felt was really effective in the telling of your story and keeping us as an audience entertained. I loved the music you used it made the intense atmosphere and created the tension for a dramatic short film! Make sure you show me the next one you do!! I thoroughly enjoyed it."  

Shown above our the people i asked for feedback for our film. They are all within our target audience therefore we can get an idea on the pros and cons of our film. What i learnt from this feedback was that although they all told me they understood the concept, it was hard to grasp exactly what was going on first time round. It appeared to them that the male character was a burglar but he seemed too relaxed. We wanted to create an intense film so maybe we should of made him out to be more of a burglar to surprise the audience at the end that he wasn't. As in the short film of Lovefield the audience are shocked to see that the girl was actually having a baby. 

I have also learnt that people really liked our use of camerawork and techniques as they thought it was very clever and more interesting to watch. They wanted to see what we could do with our media skills to impress them. Also, they liked our use of music as it made the film very exciting and dramatic and got more quick towards the end. 

However, Lydia did comment suggesting that maybe if we filmed in the dark it would of created more suspense as darkness represents thrill, hidden and secrecy. 

In conclusion, I learnt from my audience feedback that they were really impressed by our work and really enjoyed the film. They felt they had to watch it from beginning to end. This shows a short film with the right editing and sounds can become successful and be enjoyable for the audience!

Audience Feedback On Poster - 

The target audience for our poster would be the same as that for our film. Before deciding on which poster would appeal to our target audience best we made these two posters. 

1.                                                                                         2.

General Audience Feedback on them was: 
1.  It looked more like a love story than a dramatic film and the pictures of us are not in our costumes. 
2. The use of colours make it look like a fantasy and it does not look very exciting. 

We decided to develop poster number 1 as we felt it looked the most professional and suitable. Again, we asked our audience what they thought we should change to improve it. 

Change the costumes to the same used in the film and make sure we are in character as the facial expressions seem happy therefore we want to make it more serious.

Take a picture of the actual setting and use that in the background.

Make the characters stand out more by using opposite colours and enlarging the characters faces.

Enlarge the title and font. 


With this feedback it helped us to produce our final poster: 

I asked people face to face to see what they thought of the two posters and then conducted a pie chart on the audience feedback. I found out that over half thought we should make sure that we used the same costumes as used in the film as it is only a short film therefore it can be quite confusing if the poster looks different. 
The other points that were commented on were about the title, font, picture of location and making the characters stand out to make it looks more professional and stand out. 

Audience feedback on Review - 

• For our review i found it hard to get some feedback but i did manage to get a friend of mine to fill out a questionnaire as shown above. He is a male and within a target audience. He was full of compliments of how professional, creative and interesting it looked compared to other reviews he had seen in other media products. 
• However, he did mention to me that maybe the review gave to much away about the storyline as it is only a short film. Little White lies normally do reviews for the big Hollywood movies which are much longer therefore it is easier to do just a brief outline of the film. 

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

I answered this question using Prezi which is interactive and interesting to watch. 

Prezi  -  http://prezi.com/t86obbopgw1p/how-did-you-use-media-technologies-in-the-construction-and-research-planning-and-evaluation-stages/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=prezi_landing_related_solr&utm_campaign=prezi_landing_related_owner