Evaluation Question 4

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


Blogger:
Is a new media technology that I have made full use of. It is an excellent way of showcasing my work on a particular topic and subject. There are multiple advantages to using it, which firstly did not use any paper which means I did not have to carry many books and writing materials to lesson and when I was doing blogging about the construction of my film I was able to use my smart phone to upload photos and to update my construction posts on the move. It also allowed me to send work to my other group members and to keep in touch by using the features to comment on each others work and my teacher could also keep a close eye on my work and view it from his home therefore my work could be exhibited to many people ( teachers or peers) enabling me to get feedback more efficiently. Blogger also allowed me to organise my work in chronological order by date atomically
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Sony HD camera 
Is a new media technology in which was used by our group to film our short in HD. This befitted us because it improved the overall quality of the film which included sounds improvements and video making smaller details clearer to viewers. The large microphone helped to minimise background sound in which makes a film sound unnatural whilst making less need to edit the background sound out at a later stage. 



YouTube 
Is a new media technology that benefited me and my group by allowing us to exhibit our work to an unlimited audience in order to gain a wider variety of feedback without the need of manually asking for opinions. This was done by enabling people who had viewed the video to chose from a like or dislike button, leave comments and subscribe to our channel. The subscribe feature was also useful because our group members could find our videos by doing so themselves which made sharing terms a lot easier.


Final Cut Express
Is a new media technology that our group used to make our editing experiences less time consuming and increasingly efficient. By using this programme, the group were not required to rely on linear editing which meant there was less risk of human error and better efficient features that did not require you to change your whole piece unlike the old method, this is called non-linear editing. This was utilised to its fullest potential. Another feature of the programme that came in useful were the preview boxes in which allowed us to look the things we were creating in live motion rather than waiting until the full piece had been rendered.

Photoshop CS4 
Is a new media technology in which I and my group made use of to enable quick editing skills so that we did not have to start a new project when an error/change was made. By using this feature we were able to easily go back on ourselves and changed what we wanted when we pleased. This was especially helpful when getting feedback from people because we were able to go back into it so easily. The software also allowed us to make multiple copies of one thing extremely easily and to upload it onto features such as my blog.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?


This is our treatment recording and then the discussion of how we should change our treatment to how it finally ended up. we did not change much in our treatment as we were fixed on the way we were heading and did not want to change it too much as it would ruine the film and our idea of the film. This type of feedback is most valuable because we have feedback of our teacher who is running the course and also of other students on the same course as us and they are doing the same work. This helps as they can see floors in our treatment and the understand what we have done to get to this point and how its been changed. We can then have feedback on our rough cut from our selected target audience at a later date 


Click HERE to be linked to my blog post of the first draft of the treatment. 


I have re-embedded the recorded feedback of the treatment below.




Below I have also embedded the videoed feedback of our peers.




This is our final treatment that has been updated after the feedback from our peers and that is shown below in the embedded video and the sound file of our treatment being read out and reviewed. After all this we took advice from from things they were saying. One particular thing we changed thanks to the help of our peers was the treatment didn't include scenes where our main character, Brian was getting calls from the obsessive girl and showing him getting more annoyed so we feel more sympathy for him.

Head Over Heels for Love Treatment

We created our rough cut for our film to show the class and see what they thought of it and what we should do to make our film better. With this video below the rough cut has no soundtrack, so one of the first things the class said was to insert a soundtrack. This was because some people said they didn't understand some parts of the film as there was no sound effect to explain the situation. For example at the end of the film when the screen goes black you don't know what happens as with the soundtrack you hear a sound of tyres squeaking and then a crash. This helps the audience understand what happens next even though you are still guessing what happens it leaves you on a cliff hanger.

We then went went away after what the class suggested to change in our film to make it better. This helped us see where we went wrong and actually step back and see our film for what it really is.

This is our final film after feedback.

So thanks to all of the time spent on listening to our peers and our target audience our first treatment and draft of our film has changed dramatically for the better. Our group cannot make up for all of our target audience so we needed to gather them for a viewing to see if we hadn't lost our way in the creation proses.    

Evaluation Question 2

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

This is our directors commentary on our main film and ancillary task. This videos is us as a group discussing our film and stopping at key parts to talk about that part in more depth. We also did this for our ancillary tasks which is in part of of this evaluation video. We talk about how the shooting that day went and what problems we came across. We also talk about what you can actually see like the type of shots used and how we did this shot and also how many times we actually shot that particular bit of the film.


Below I have embedded a video that I made with my group in two parts answering the question above.

Evaluation Question 1

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


Here are 9 key frames from other films together in one photo, I will be discussing them in terms of media devices and conventions.

I will start by discussing the first photo on the top left, this image is taken from Love Actually and shows two characters hugging in a close up shot. There is also a similar scene happening in the image on the top right, this key frame is taken from another love story the notebook. Both these film genres are romantic and a convention that appears often in this type of film is the two main characters have allot of screen time together and particularly when each of them are close like hugging and kissing. This is to indicate the closeness of the two characters, so in summery it is a classic convention in romantic films to show the two people who are supposed to be in love close to each other and that they are very comfortable in each others space. I have chosen to discuss these films because they are romantic like our short we created.

The image at the top middle of the group is a shot at the start of Zombie Land, a thriller film. I picked to discuss this film because our film in the peer feedback of our treatment was described as a romantic thriller. The image shows the convention of action packed life risking shots like the man falling of the balcony, as he falls he smashes through some of the text of the opening credits. This is also a common convention of most films where the opening credits match and give an insight on what is to come in the film.

The image on the middle left is taken from the romantic comedy film 'While you were sleeping'. It shows the main female character saving her crush. This film starts off following all of the classic conventions of a romantic film but then becomes a lot different towards the second half of the film and a lot more realistic. The film goes from being a perfect love at first sight story but then she realises as she gets to know the man and his family that she falls in love with his brother and as used as a tagline on a poster for the film it is 'a story of love at second sight.' This film challenges the conventions of classic romantic films.

In the middle of the collection of images, is a scene from You, me and Dupree, it shows the two main characters engaging in conversation in their kitchen. They are sitting in there kitchen at the breakfast table face to face in a very formal way, this could be a device used by the creators to show that this is a routine thing they do so they can sit down and talk about each others day.

On the middle right there is a scene from The Adjustment Bureau showing the two main characters enjoying a meeting outside of their homes. This is a common device to indicate that the two people are dating but not in a committed relationship.

On the bottom left and right there are images of ending credits for James Bond: Golden Eye. These credits overlay over the film and then the film fades out to black. These credits mostly follow the standard and dominant conventions of film end credits, they are white on a black background and they scroll from the bottom up and start with the top billed cast.

On the bottom middle of the group of photos put together with Adobe Photoshop CS4 is a film poster for a psychological thriller 'Single White Female' in this film the woman is portrayed as being obsessed over another woman, this could be considered as challenging the convention that women are often obsessed by males.    

Here are 9 key frames from our short film. Now I will be discussing how we have used or challenged the devices or conventions I established above from other films.

In the shot on the top left it shows us following the convention of the dominate male (Brian) saving Karen this is not like in the film While you were sleeping because that film challenges the convention whereas our short we have chosen to follow the convention but by doing this we re-enforce the dominant ideology that men are supposed to be strong and heroic. 

On the top in the middle there is a medium close up shot of Karen looking up to Brian this is yet another media device to show that the woman (Karen) is smitten by the male character and to again make Brian look more powerful.

In the middle left picture we have used the media device of the two characters holding hands and sharing each others space to show the mental closeness they have gained. We have also followed the convention that I established above which is in romantic films, the main  characters are close to each other in lots of the shots and they share the screen alot.

Directly in the centre of the photo collection, a close up shot is shown of Karen face is clear to the camera. This is so we can see her emotions and show that they are more significant than Brians. Additionally, this shot follows the convention of a romantic film showing the two characters close up in an intimate moment.

Directing your attention to the two photos of the main characters in the bottom row, these show Brian's resentment of the relationship, this is challenging the conventions of a romance film because normally the two characters go on to have a long happy life together where as in our narrative, you are lead to worry for the female characters sanity and personal safety.

The final picture ( bottom right) shows our ending credits of the film which follows the common convention of the films which is as established above, white text on a black background which scrolls upwards and begins with the cast going down in order of rank.

That is how our short film uses and challenges media forms and conventions.