Matthew Gollick evaluation

1.       In what ways does your media product use developer challenge form and conventions of real media products?

First of all as a group we set ourselves separate job roles. This meant that each person had to complete research into a specific area. First of all we looked into genre types such as horror, action and thriller we completed this by watching films of similar genres and also looking at the film certificates of the films as well as the narrative of the film. Our next step was to break down the genre into specific types. Once we had come together as a group we looked at each other’s findings, we later came to a decision of creating a psychological thriller.

Our next step was how we were going to establish a plot for our film. Here each member of our group had taken away the research and creative a narrative for our film. Our final decision was to make a non-linear narrative. This means that our 2 minute film would not follow an ordered sequenced. We decided that we was going to include flashback cuts in our film we completed this by using effects such as black and white masks over our filming to show that we had gone back into the past, this help us to tell the life story of Amy’s life. We used a non-linear narrative so that we could flash between the present event and the past. We used our title sequences at the beginning of the film to show the present day. Then we used flashbacks to see how Amy’s past life experience had effect on her actions. We made our film fit the requirements of the genre we had previously researched into this. We wanted to follow the ways in which some psychological thrillers we created to tell a story however we wanted to make ours different from others already in the market so that it would stand out from the rest.  We made out film fit this genre by successfully meeting the requirements by using a narrative that will follow a character along their life (telling a story). We completed this by researching into similar film narratives such as the films se7en and the taxi driver.

Throughout our film we used several camera angles to create a mood for our media product. We used these conventions of real media products to create a mood which helped tell the story of our film we used camera angles such as point of view when Amy is looking up at the tree during our title sequence.  We also used a low angle shot to show how the bullies have power over Amy. We used the conventions on real media products to show shot movement such as tracking during our title sequences to show Amy as she walks through the woods. We also used a pan shot during our film to show Amy as she approaches the centre of the woods. Finally we used a large amount of camera positions such as long shot to establish the scene; close up to show facial expressions of Amy’s character we used a variety of camera positions throughout the whole title sequences and film.

Here is a example of camera shots

 

Here is a exmple of camera movements

We used continuity and editing to challenge the forms and conventions of real media products in the market today. Like the films were researched into we have used continuity of the pacing and rhythm in our edits. We successfully used shot reverse shot to establish the flow of a conversation of the characters involved in our film obeying the 180 degree rule. We used fade in and fade outs so that our film was consistent throughout.  We successfully used several fades and cuts in our film so that the rhythm of the film flows without any problems occurring.

Here is an example of fade in fade out

Here is a example of 180 degree rule

For our film we research into music for our film using non copyright music. After coming to a decision of our music choice for our film we placed the sound track into our film (non diagetic) ready to edit into the actual filming. We used our media product to challenge the current conventions of real media products we included several sections of non-dialogue here we showed the viewers the facial and body expressions of the character Amy to the audience to create a mood for our film. The non diagetic sound in which we used created a feeling for our film.

We used forms of mise-en-scene in our media product of real media products such as our researched films the usual suspects and taxi driver they use the correct props ad costume and location. The current films in our chosen genre fit the location area they are set in. for example the taxi driver film is set in the location of new York, the filming is mainly filmed inside  the taxi as the film continues to follow the life of the taxi driver.  Just like the films in the market at the moment we also use costumes and props that fit the genre in which they are. For example the film usual suspects use appropriate costume and props for example this film is based around a crime film involving criminals, during the film they dress the main characters (the crooks) in suits and casual cloths this is stereo typical of this genre. Our film also uses the same conventions of existing media products; we used casual cloth for our characters in our film as it’s about school life. The props in which we used were also typical of our chosen genre psychological thriller, our film uses school bags and ropes which was typical of our chosen genre.

Our media product has developed the ways in which current media products use typography.For example the research that i have done into the film se7en use sa distorted effect on thier title. This creates a image of the film to the audience. For our media product we used the researched fonts in which I researched to create a title for our film. The font that we used made our title stand out we gave it a distort look to make it fit with the narrative of Amy’s life. We also used a font for our production company HMT productions which we also researched into. We used black and which in our titles to capture the effect in which the audience experience from Amy’s life.  For our title sequence similar to the films we researched we used a white font so that the titles would stand out from the background footage.

We challenge the conventions of other media products in our genre by using iconography in our chosen genre.  We used several shots in our film to capture the genre as other films similar to ours. For example the film the usual suspects captures the expected iconic image in which a criminal film would do. In this film we would expect to see locations such as offices, cells, interview rooms, etc. in our film we use iconic images which are typical of our narrative such as woods, lane and Amy’s home. This is typical of our film as it is about Amy’s life as she walks back and forth from her home and school on a daily basis.

2.       How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film starts by representing the young school girl Amy as being a stereotypical quiet school girl who has little friends but James. Throughout our media product Amy is always represented as a weak character that is isolated from the social groups that she comes up against i.e. the bullies. The bullies in the film are young school boys around the age of 14, we used a stereotypical image of the young school boys as being unpleasant and angry teenager this is stereotypical of their social group.  Amy’s farther which we included in our synopsis not our film was represented as uncaring and greedy about his job living away from home not caring about his family just his job as an officer. We also challenged the ways in which young teenage boys are represented in this day, the character James was the idol for this. He was the character that stands by Amy in the film when he meets her on the way to school.  Instead of ignoring the way in which young people are stereotyped in this day we made a character James who was the opposite of the stereotype of a young person, James is a friendly caring person who stands by Amy. Throughout our film we created each characters representation we used the following aspects of film to create this.

We used mise en scene to show a difference between the two social groups of Amy being imaged as an average person we used costume and props to create this. We also used mise en scene to show the bully’s social group as being stereotypical. The use of costume and props obey this for example the bullies where cotton jumpers and cotton trousers this creates a separation in social class which we used to create a difference between particular social groups.

We also used sound to create a difference between Amy and the bully’s social groups. This links to the reason Amy is targeted by the bullies in the first instance.  We used diegetic sound such as dialogue when Amy speaks with a posh tone to her voice compared to the bullies they speak with a common tone to their voice.

3.       What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

From the research which I did, we decided that we would use metrodome distribution and Columbia pictures (if we was to distribute to a foreign audience) to distribute our film. We made this decision based upon their wide range of technology such as film, TV and digital distribution. We could use this to our advantage to sell the film to a wider audience by selling our films and promoting our films through Metrodome and Columbia. Also with the company being a London based Trade Company we can branch out of our regional boundary to a larger scale national boundary. This will be extended by the American distributors Columbia pictures making our film a worldwide creation. We can also use Colombian pictures to involve some owners such as drinks companies to product placement of our film product this will increase our promotion for our film. This will involve a larger audience to go and watch our film.  Our film will be a low budget costing and will be suitable for metrodome distributor and Columbia pictures to distribute our film with them having experience of distributing films similar to our film genre, Such as taxi driver. The experience from the distributors will help us reach the large scale audience worldwide.

4.       Who would be the audience for your media product?

From the research which I did in the pre-production stages of the process of this project I made a questionnaire to find out who would watch our film and what they like about our film idea and what they would like to see in our film that we didn’t include. From this research we gathered I created a review of this information to see who our target audience was more than likely to be. From the results that we received from the audience were mixed responses however they all were helpful towards our final decisions. Some responses help us make the film to the audience’s needs. Many people liked the idea of our film and they stated that they wanted to read more. We had an overall variety of response from our audience which will be helpful for us throughout the making of our film. From these results we have made some minor changes so that we stand out from the current films in our genre. From these results we can see that we have more responses from the younger target audience of the ages of 16-17. We also found out that we had 80% of female response so from this we know we will be targeting a young female audience. We also found out that more people from Yorkshire were interested in the film idea. From the questionnaire I created we knew that we would be target a young female target audience. Furthermore we used this feedback from the audience in response to the target audience profile I developed in our treatment where we made this a solid decision of who was our target audience.

5.       How did you attract/address your audience?

We started researching into genre and real media products of our chosen genre psychological thriller. What the media product has to include making it fit the genre. We then created different film narrative ideas as an individual the next step here was to come together to decide on our narrative for our media product I created a questionnaire which included all the details about our film idea such as synopsis, film narrative and age certificate for our film. After we got the research which we needed, we looked back into our audience feedback for our initial film idea, to create a media product that was in response to the target audience feedback.  From this stage we created 2 treatments which included every detail about the film this included details such as special effects to help us attract the target audience. After the research stages of this project (pre-production) we then filmed our media product. Once we completed our editing stages of the process of creating media product and fully meeting the requirements of the audience which we captured from our research. I looked into post production promotion materials. I started researching into other film posters which were in the same genre as ours such as taxi driver and se7en. Then I created a film poster for our film which was going to help us sell our film to the target audience. This film teaser poster helped us attract the audience. I also looked into typography/ fonts research for our film that would help attract the target audience. We later applied these in our titles and promotion material. We sucessfully attracted our target audience, we gathered the results from our final questionnaire feedback form about our media product this included several questions about the audience and their own feedback in which they could comment about the film, the feedback was mostly possitive which meant that we had sucessfuly reached our target audience with their reqirements for this media product being sucessful. 

In the final stages of this project I created a feedback questionnaire for our audience to give us comments back about the film. We gathered this information and created our responses from the feedback.  From this feedback we found out the most successful aspects of our media product which helped us attract the audience. Here is a sample of the audiences positive quotes about our media product, “i really enjoyed the first 2 minutes it stands out from the films of your chosen genre the music and effects fits well with the film I liked the general theme of your film”. We also experienced some positive criticism which would help us in the future projects. Here is a sample of the audience feedback, “next time you should use different music”. The film feedback responses were helpful for use to reflect on what was good and not so good, so that in future projects we can improve in these areas.

6.       What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the pre-production stages of creating our media product I used a large range of types of media such as the internet, books, etc. These forms of media helped us on gathering the correct research of current media products of our chosen genre. I used YouTube and Google to create posts such as questionnaires for film ideas. During production stages of our media product we used final cut express software technology to edit our film together to make our final media product. During post production stages I used several technologies such as Google and adobe Photoshop to put create post production materials such as poster and questionnaires. This technology work very well for me to create a project using a large amount of multimedia. Throughout this project I used blogger to create and post up all the work in which I had created for this project blogger helped me put together this project. Overall the technologies that I used was successful for creating my media product however at times we did have trouble using them due to the lack of experience, however From using this technology I have learned how to illustrate my post with embedded you tube videos, I have also learnt how to create questionnaires using Google forms I have also learnt how to edit video using Final cut express.

7.       Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full production?

From the previous preliminary task during 2011 I feel that I have learnt a lot since then. From the brief of the preliminary task to show continuity involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down In a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task included a demonstration of match on action, shot/ reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. To the main task, the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

From the preliminary task I have used the aspects of the exercise across to the main task this included the shot reverse shot, dialogue and 180 degree rule. I have also included my knowledge from the last exercise of storyboarding to storyboard our title sequence.  From last time I have got better at storyboarding and editing our media product also working in general inside a group environment.

However, in the main task I have continued to learn different things which I did not learn last time. Such as filming the media project was my main role in the production stages of the main task and during this project I have continue to learn more about the media world.

Consequences.

This is the title of our film which we created after research into different fonts. This is the one that we found most appropriate and thought that to simply use black and white it made it a lot more effective.

This is the logo of our film production company. We combined our initials and came up with the name 'HMT Productions'. We used a font which was quirky and used the colours black and white for simplicity.

This is the first shot of the film, here we see a long shot of Amy walking through the woods and towards the camera, at this stage the audience are completely oblivious as to what is happening and due to the background track it helps bring suspense to the scene of the audience are able to tell that something is going to happen. Titles of the film appear on top of the footage.

The next shot is a close of Amy continuing to walk through the woods, this is where the audience are able to notice the expression of Amy which shows sadness and this indicates that something bad has happened or going to happen. This makes the audience want to know more and creates tension. More titles appear on top of the footage.

The next shot is a long tracking shot of Amy walking through the woods , the camera  follow Amy which gives the sense that the audience are with Amy in this experience, which helps the audience connect to the character instantly.

It then goes onto a pan shot of Amy walking towards a tree, this helps establish where Amy is as well as still involving the audience with the journey Amy is taking. 

The next shot is a still shot of a close up of a piece of rope hanging from  a tree. This shot creates suspense as the audience are unaware of what the rope is for, however start to create the picture that something bad is going to happen from the previous build up and the music.

Here is a quick shot of Amy tugging at a branch, this brings it to the audiences attention to the rope and we see that Amy is about to do something bad, this makes the audience want to know more and want to know why she is in this situation.

Here we fade into a long shot of Amy walking to school. We chose to convert the film into black and white to show that we go back into the past and are showing a flashback. By using a long shot we are able to establish where Amy is. We chose to carry on the music from the other scene for continuity.

Here we added a title screen showing that time has gone by and that we are now onto the next day, we found this was the easiest way to show the pass of time.

The next shot is a close up the mobile, this is so that the audience can be aware of what the message says. This involves the audience into what is happening and helps them connect even more with the characters, it helps to build up sympathy for the character.

Here we have the start of a conversation between Amy and James, we used the

Audience feedback responses

Did you enjoy the first 2 minutes of the film?
	Yes 5 56% No 0 0% some parts 4 44% People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

would you be tempted to go watch the full 90 minutes of the film?
	Yes 7 78% No 2 22% People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

would you tell a Friend about our film?
	Yes 6 67% No 3 33% People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

Did the film address your expectations?
sample of responses	Yes 7 78% No 2 22% People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

what did you like most about the film and what could we do to improve next time?

i really enjoyed the first 2 minutes it stands out from the films of your chosen genre the music and effects fits well with the film I liked the general theme of your film.

 it had a horror feel to it and fitted in as a psychological thriller with it focusing on the girls life. next time you should use different music.

i liked the use of flashbacks i think you could improve the effects usedi absolutely loved the film.

 i would watch this a million times!i thought it was good, I'd expect its concept to do welli thought it was really good. i would recommend it to all my friends.

our feedback response

our overall expressions from our audience feedback was mainly positive. 56% of people who answered our questionnaire fully enjoyed the film and its concept. we was pleased to see that 78% of people would go and watch our full 90 minutes of our film. from the feedback we was given was helpful for our project we now have a full understanding of what our audience likes most about or film and what we should do less of next time if we was to create another film. it was great to see that our research into this genre that we was not very familiar with had been really useful for our project.

post production audience feedback questionnaire

Here is our feedback questionnaire form for our audience feedback which we will send out to the focus group. This form, will conclude our project as it will gather audience feedback which will help us in this project to identify what was good and what was not so good, this will also help us to improve in future project.  

promotion poster consequences

Here is a promotion poster in this poster i have included the background image of the location/ setting the whole image which i wanted to create here was based around the location and the whole idea of isolation in Amy's life metaphorically meaning Amy's life experience. This sets a tone for the film to the audience before they view it. The font in which i have used for the title of our film gives the audience a feeling about Amy's character in the fact that she is mentally scarred from her experience of bullying. This font also helps set the tone for the film with the font being torn and faded but still very effective as it stands out from the poster. I have given the poster its catch tag line to help temptate the audience in. I have finally added titles of the director and producer and production group in a white text to make it stand out from the background image which i have taken a photo of  for this poster. the initial idea for this design for my poster comes from the research which i did earlier in pre production from the film "Taxi Driver". I like their poster design because it was effective way to set a tone ready for the film.

Film edit effects and sound

In the editing stage, we used various effects and sound. To match the storyboards and planning, we had to use fade effects to show the passage of time. Also, to differentiate the flashback part from the rest, we used the effect of black and white. This represents the past in this case and the flashback the character (Amy) is having. During this and before it, we used fade in/out effects to seperate different scenes. This also gives the film fluidity and makes it run smoother and makes it easier to follow.

The sound we used was non-copywrited. We tried many soundtracks to find the one that suited our genre the best. After much trial and error, we decided on one that had a negative tone to represent what is happening with the character. This representing her life of bullying, depression and being very unfortunate. The soundtrack shows this with use of instruments such as the violin.

Below is the trailer for The Shining which contains examples of fade in/fade out

Film title and Promotion poster Font research

Broken font, I like this font because it gives a scaring effect which is metaphorically in terms of our film which is about psychological thriller about Amy's life being a suspect to bullying. I also like the faded effect of the lettering this also links metaphorically to her being isolated from a group of friends/ family. I think this font is the most effective for our film title  and for our promotion poster so I have decided to use this font.

Pulse sands font, I like this font because it gives a sense of a constant metaphorically pulse of  pain which Amy is experiencing through her life when she is being bullied. However I don't like the font because it maybe hard for some of our audience to see.

smash font, I like this font because it uses a bold effect to make it standout however I don't think this font will look very effective on our promotion poster. Some letters maybe hard for our audience to read because they closely blend together.