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Evaluation. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?.
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In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
First off, the film itself challenges the happy ending convention seen in the majority of films. The film ends with the death of the main protagonist(See Here), with a solemn emotional voicemail to a loved one overlaid. As a team, we wanted to produce something shocking, and hard hitting. If we were to follow convention, and have the protagonist escape, it would not have been as shocking as we wanted. We really wanted the audience to think about the ending. This would have not been achievable following the happy ending convention.
Furthermore, often in film, if there is any hint of escape or success in a flash forward scene, the protagonist will succeed later on in the film. To continue our attempt at shock and awe, we wanted to provide the conventional hint, but go hard against the end success by killing the character off. This is again against the common convention I previously mentioned. The relatively new film Pacific Rim, is dark in this sense, and provides the audience with many dark and nerve inducing moments. However, it ends with the protagonist fulfilling his duty and escaping what seemed like certain death. Irritatingly, it was obvious that this was going to happen, we didn’t want ours to end up like that. Hence, the much more shocking end scene.
Despite these two efforts of defying convention, there are still several instances where we did conform. Firstly, the film itself has a beginning, middle, and an end that makes up the plot. This was done as it was a requirement to make the film an entire object within the short story guidelines. We were not allowed to produce a foreword for a longer film, or an advert, or even a part of something larger. This determined the fact that we had to build a story. This lead us to plan the plot as three parts, beginning, middle and end. Although being determinedly defiant towards some common convention, this was one we could not avoid if we were to achieve the fullest marks.
Another convention we used was the filming technique. However, only to an extent. Originally it was to be filmed on a smartphone capable of high quality recording, but not much more. Although a small scene was filmed and recorded, after that I bought a high standard DSLR as I thought it would provide a greater variety of features than the smartphone. Our filming conformed to conventions in the sense that the scenes were shot from a tripod, with a high quality camera, and the majority of shots were planned and organised. We did not want to shoot our film in an Avant garde manner as we wanted the films aesthetics to be its strongest feature. This resulted in an instance where we chose conventional filming, over something different, despite not wanting to conform to too many conventions. However, we felt that if the film was shot in an off the wall style, it would subtract from the beauty that we hoped to achieve with the DSLR.
Conducting research was also the reason particular conventions were used or not used. For example, the questionnaire results showed (surprisingly) that the group preferred a more alternative ending, to an obvious happy one. This was a great help when planning how the film ended, as we had the main story figured out for a while. However, the end was left undecided, until this research was conducted. It made our decision much easier, and made the film as suited to its audience as possible.
Research affected the conventions of the ancillary texts also. For example, I wanted to go against conventions in some cases. One of the biggest examples being my film poster. I noticed from research that it is conventional to have the title of the film at the bottom of the page. I went against this, and set my title in the top left corner of my poster. I was considering running the text along the bottom, but after I conducted the research, my decision was easier to make.
I believe that my ancillary texts fulfil their purposes. They fit together with my film, stylistically and on a content level also. As a result they work well as an effective trio. I also believe that they are professional, and follow enough conventions to look professional and realistic. The film in its own right works as an effective story, with a beginning, middle, and an end.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I believe that my ancillary texts and film all portray similar connotations. All three aim to achieve high levels of aesthetic quality, with the use of consistently styled mise en scene. The film itself was made with the intention of being visually stunning. I continued this when I produced the ancillary texts, especially the film poster; I intended to give it the same level of visual quality as the film. To do this I used stills that were taken during the shooting of the film. This meant that the photography was on point with the story of the film. This helped carry the mood from film to ancillary text seamlessly. The photograph that is the centre of the film poster, depicts exactly what the film is about, as it shows the protagonist with the all important package. I think this is an important relationship between film and synergy.
The double page spread carries a similar aesthetic trait as the film and the film poster. This is as a result of my personal style becoming evident. It is also as a result of me wanting to keep a similar theme between the three texts. The double page spread also uses images from during the films production, just as the poster does. I think this was important decision. This is because; although beneficial, shooting more photographs for the ancillary texts would take away the relationship between film and ancillary texts, whereas photos taken during production would only strengthen this. I did not want to ruin this connection, as the three pieces worked well together using the photos shot during the films production.
From a marketing perspective the three items are strong, because they interlink stylistically. The two ancillary pieces reinforce the darkness of the film, the strong aesthetics of the film yet provide interesting context also. One particularly strong link is between the film poster and film itself. The film posters’ title font and colour, is exactly the same as the title text that comes on screen in the film.
My audience feedback has been key in helping me develop both my ancillary texts and my film. Although no major alterations were made as a result of audience feedback, each item has changed under its influence.
The main plot of the film did not change drastically however, some smaller changes were input after audience feedback was received. The largest change was the addition of two phone calls in to the story line. These were added, as it was said that ‘the middle of the film was lacking slightly in content’. To act on this it was decided that an emotional set of phone calls were to be added, one in the middle, one at the end of the film. Not only did this add ‘something’ to the middle of the film, it also added dialogue, which there was previously none of. This particular dose of audience feedback was particularly useful, as it has directly affected the outcome of the final film. This will help improve the marks earned for it, and the completeness of the film.
This feedback also came from a source that was not included when research was being conducted. This was useful as it is a broadening of my films reach to a bigger audience. Also as the feedback was about the amount of content, rather than the style or genre, it will not take away from any research or planning done for the films genre. This would be a problem, if the feedback meant altering the films genre or style to a large extent, as it would then go against any conducted research.
My film poster received some small instances of feedback also. It was said that ‘the text wasn’t quite the right shade, resulting in it being a touch difficult to read’. I acted upon this and changed the font from almost black, to an off white. This meant that it wasn’t brilliant white, which would take away from the darkness of the film, but it was light against a dark background which made it more readable.
The largest instance of feedback was for my double page spread. I decided to change my DPS at a very late stage, after referring back to some research done previously to both DPS versions. This new version was where I received the most feedback. Once I had created the initial version:
I received feedback on how it could be improved from this stage. Before this I created it in one session. The feedback included: • Use columns for body text • Drop ‘page’ from ‘page 14/15’ • Use a unique font for the title • Use a slightly smaller font as it is convention After I received this feedback, I went on to build the next version of the DPS:
I acted upon every instance of feedback, and put some more of my own touches in. The lines to anchor the body text, and the shape to anchor the quote I added because I found from research that they are common convention.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Construction was the area where technology was used. Initially my smartphone was going to be the main piece of technology used to shoot the film. Its camera is capable of 1080p video, so we went on a trial shoot. The scene came out quite well, especially as it was a phone. However, the disadvantage was that it had no optical zoom, only digital, which meant the shot variety was very low. As a result of this, I bought a high end DSLR. This was to become the main recording device for the film, in replacement of the smartphone.
We filmed about 1/3 of the film in one session with the new camera. It was immediately a better piece of technology for what we needed. Not only was its superior quality a huge step up, but it provided 18-55mm optical zoom, which allowed a greater variety of shot. Its interface was also a much better suited piece of technology for what we wanted. It was much easier to review each shot that was filmed, because it was operable by button rather than the smartphones touch screen. This was an advantage as it was cold, and we were wearing gloves. The cameras menu was also much easier to use when it came to editing shot order, deleting failed shots and discussing planning the next one.
As a team, we did something it seems that not many other groups did. We edited after each filming session, so that we could see the film grow, and plan the next session. This was very useful after the first session with the DSLR as we could see how well its attributes worked, and what its strengths/weaknesses were. To edit my partner had Sony Vegas, a high end editing program on his home computer. We did not do any editing on Adobe After aftereffects at school. This turned out to be an advantage because we didn’t have to rely on school availability to edit, we could edit whenever necessary, and all I had to do was go to his house.
The software itself was excellent. It provided exactly what we needed to put the film together. As my partner already new the program he taught me the basics very quickly, so between us we were efficient at editing the film. The layout of the program meant that we could place the shots in the right order, and view them playing in the same window. There were also several layers to the editing bar, which meant we could layer shots over one another, edit the transparency and create a layered effect that displayed two shots in once scene. This technique was used in several instances throughout the film. The layers also meant that sound was easily placed over the right shots that it was required for. Each layer could be named, which was useful as there were multiple in use at any one moment, especially as the film grew in size.
The program also displayed the films running time as it each shot was placed in the right order. This was useful when planning the next shoot, as we didn’t want the film to be too far under or over the 5 minute mark. Sony Vegas also provided its own in house pre-set editing effects, such as ‘night-time’ or ‘pastel’. There were hundreds of these to make use of, which we did. They were selected and then dragged on to each shot to change the colours within it. We used a particular pastel option for most of the film as it gave it a very nice lighting effect.
Once each section of the film was edited in Sony Vegas, it was rendered in whatever quality we wanted; we used the highest setting as my DSLR matched it. Once rendered, it was uploaded to YouTube, a relatively new media technology. This allowed us to link the YouTube video to out media blogs to show the films progress. Both of these show instances of new media technology.
The construction of my ancillary texts required fewer programs than that of the film, which is to be expected. Primarily CS6 (Adobe Photoshop) was the program that was used the most. I did in their entirety both the film poster and the double page spread. The images for these texts were shot with my DSLR camera that was used for the filming. To save time and achieve authenticity I shot the still images during filming.
Photoshop was the perfect program for creating these texts. Although Indesign is a recommendation for creating these types of publications, my personal preference was Photoshop. This was down to experience of using it, and that I had it on my home computer, which gave me a lot more options when construction began.
I used many of Photoshop’s available features in my construction. The first of which, was to set the page size via international sizing to A3 for both texts. This was in landscape orientation. I then imported different images from the ones I had taken during filming, and narrowed them down to my favourites. Then I used a clever Photoshop feature – I selected them image I wanted to edit for my DPS, it then opened it in a new tab. I did the editing I wanted to (mostly resizing and some small colour correction). Then once I pressed save, the image in my DPS tab updated to the newly edited version. This became a very useful feature to me as there were often multiple images in each document. It meant that I didn’t have to open 2334582 different CS6 documents.
I used the text option in Photoshop regularly also. Although not being, the ideal program for this, I managed with it fine and had no severe issues. I used the pre-set shape tool on some occasions, especially in my DPS. I also then used the warp function on one of these shapes to produce a new shape. This is now a key element to my page, and adds to the aesthetic appeal of the DPS.
New online media tools were particularly useful for this element of my project. I used Microsoft word to create a questionnaire to conduct my first instance of research. Being a word processing program, it was perfect for the task. I used YouTube to study some filming techniques, which was unofficial research, but turned out to be rather useful. This research was in the form of video instructed tutorials. I did also use an internet search provider (Google) to research filming techniques, but this was less fruitful than YouTube.
The research I conducted for my DPS and Film Poster would have been a sight more difficult without the use of the internet. I used Google Image search to find different examples of magazine double page spreads, and different example of film posters. Once I found the ones that I wanted to analyse in further detail, I right clicked on them and selected ‘Open image in new tab’. I then copy and pasted the images from each tab in to Microsoft word. Here I analysed them and wrote up my thoughts, taking full advantage of the word count, spell check, and bullet point features. Finally I copied the text in to a new post on my blog (Wordpress) and linked the image via URL embedding from the aforementioned tabs. This was how I created each post.
Planning initially began as discussions between me and my partner. Some of these ideas were transferred to paper as small notes. Then the first instance of technology for me was when I started to write up the ideas in full in Microsoft word. After that, Blog posts were made without the use of Microsoft word, as they were only small. I used Microsoft word to write up a definitive plot outline after everything had been consolidated. This was then pasted in to a blog post.
More paper planning was done in the form of sketches and story boards. I then photographed these and put them in posts on my blog. I used my DSLR camera again to take these photos. They were put on the blog by putting my cameras SD card in my computer, and uploading them directly from there.
Whilst out filming, we did not want to carry an excessive amount of paper planning. As a result, we used photos from my camera and both of our smartphones instead of the physical paper copies. I also used my phones notepad function for brief memos whilst out filming. These proved to very useful, as they jogged my memory in complex situations.
Initially I wrote my evaluation in Microsoft word under headings for each question. Although not a great visual way to present the evaluation, it was the easiest method for writing the first draft. Word provided useful tools such as word count and spell check. Once I had emailed my evaluation off for feedback, I could then go back in to the program and easily insert or delete new phrases. I found Word particularly useful for this. Then once complete, I transferred the content in to Microsoft PowerPoint. This was to provide a better visual experience for the reader. Each paragraph was organised slide by slide, so the text is easily digested. PowerPoint also allowed for images, and hyperlinks to be inserted, which adds to the interest and interactivity of the readers experience. Presenting the evaluation in PowerPoint with title slides makes it a much more aesthetically pleasing item to view and digest.
