Evaluation Question Three : How Did You Use Media Technologies In The Constuction, Research and Planning and Evaluation Stages?

Although I have fundamentally chosen to display this response within a transcript format, I have also created a audio response which highlight how I used a variety of media technologies in the construction, research and planning, ancillary and evaluation stages :
 
 
Transcript Answer
 
INT.  STUDIO CORRIDOR.  DAY. LIVE.

Long tracking shot of TOM MATHEWS walking down the corridor into the studio

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directly to the camera)

Hello and welcome to ‘Film Uncut’, i’m Tom Fellow here to gain all the inside knowledge you want to know from the people behind the camera about the films that will be hitting the screens near you


INT. STUDIO SET.  DAY. LARGE POSTER OF ‘MOMENTS BEHIND TWO CHAIRS.

Close up shot of TOM FELLOW (interviewer)

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directly to the camera)

 
With short films now becoming a trend for film as a product, and now holding respectively its own categories at ‘The Oscars’, we had a great discussion last week about why so many amateur film makers are attracted to this form of film when we were joined by John Kahrs the director of the best animated short ‘Paperman’ and Shawn Christensen the director of the best live action short ‘Curfew’, discussing whether sites such as virgin media shorts and BBC film network, alongside YouTube are a great value or an added completion to this already competitive market in media. This week we are going to explore an more amateur reflection of short films, when we go behind the scenes with film director and media A-level student Alice Leng, who has for her advance production work had to create a 5 minute short film. Our topic today is centred around the technologies that are required within the development of a five minute short film, and to gain a perspective from as an amateur film maker how important they are in the creation of a non-professional film.

 
Long shot of both TOM FELLOW (interviewer ) and ALICE LENG (director) sat diagonally opposite each other

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directed towards Alice)

 
Now Alice, I love your short film, the simplicity of it which still delivers an thought provoking and intriguing plot is one to be admired, and as I’m sure many of our watchers will agree that the visual imagery is beautiful and real show case of the city in which we all live, and I know I for one am taking the extra moment to step out of my own busy life and look at the world and others around us! Now for today’s main exploration behind the scenes I would really like to know how as a media A-level student did you use media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages?

Close up shot of ALICE LENG (director)

ALICE LENG (O.S.)
(directed towards Tom)
 
 Every stage in the production of film is of great importance whether the film is professional or simply for an A-level production, and in turn all aspects of my film development from the researching, to the planning, to the actual construction to the post-production relied upon media technologies and therefore overall it has played a vital part in the construction of my short film ‘Moments’.

Long shot of TOM FELLOW (interviewer) and ALICE LENG (director)

I found that with the creation of ‘Moments’ I have been able to grow on my knowledge of the technological software programmes of which I first encountered within my foundation production of the opening to ‘Genetics’ (2012), and although I wanted ‘Moments’ to be appear realistic in order to allow for the audience to identify with the situation and protagonist character, technology was still of great important. This being because technology in itself was not something I just encountered during post-production editing but was an element that enabled me to research into the conventions as well as tracking my progress and development along the way on blogger, plan and in turn produce the film and throughout the whole production of my ancillary tasks (the poster and review), I was highly reliant on all technological software’s from Photoshop to publisher to in-design.

Close up shot of TOM FELLOW (interviewer)

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directed towards Alice)

I can already tell that whether amateur or professional film maker technology plays a vital part in the development, construction and evaluation of both a feature length and short film. Now Alice within your piece could you explain to our viewers what specific technological equipment you used in the physical construction of your short film ‘Moments’?

Close up shot of ALICE LENG (director)

ALICE LENG (O.S.)
(directed towards Tom)

The main primary resource I used throughout the whole construction process of my short film was a cannon HD camera which I used to film all my visual footage on. I found that this piece of equipment was a high enough quality for my need and as I had used the equipment for my previous work (‘genetics’) as well as throughout this production when creating my own blog videos, I felt confident with working the camera. The main issue that can arise however through a standard cannon HD camera is the lack of sound clarity due to the lower quality microphone on the camera which I discovered from my previous work, whereby I used the camera to record through a closed lens cap the voice over of the mother as well as the digenetic on screen dialogue of the conversation between the two male characters. However as my piece is a silent film and therefore is highly reliant on sound, I decided that by developing on the issues that had arisen from my previous work with the sound quality, that I would record the music separately, within a recording studio this in turn allowed my sound to be of a much higher quality and I personally think that it creates a more professional finish. This demonstrates how making these small changes to the technological equipment  such as using a recording studio rather than just relying on the camera can make a big difference to the overall finish of the film.

For the majority of my filming I used a tri-pod stand for the camera, this in turn made a difference in stabilizing the movement of each individual shot, and overall created a better quality to the framing of each shot. However unlike my foundation production piece, whereby I felt restricted by the Tripod and to start with was very reluctant to move away from it within my filming, I learnt that from some of the shots such as the home videos within ‘Genetics’ the most effective ones were those hand-held shots. Therefore although I tried to use the tri-pod for as many shots as necessary there was some that it was not possible to apply this form of equipment such as the opening shot whereby the camera was positioned directly on the floor in order to capture a low shot of the feet getting out of bed. Although in the end I did not need to apply this effect as overall I felt I managed to convey steady shots consistently throughout my piece, I would of been able to use a ‘stabiliser’ effect in premier pro in order to correct shots whereby the camera is unstable, this in turn teaching me that within post-production technological software’s are able to correct issues that can arise within the physical production process, and as a director it is vital to have gained an understanding of such simple but very useful effects.

Close up shot of TOM FELLOW (interviewer)

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directed towards Alice)

I’m sure our watchers will be grateful to hear that the equipment does not need necessarily to be over complicated in order to produce a high quality piece, but at the heart of a successful piece is a little bit of creative vision and confidence behind the camera and off course in the technology you are using. Now we all know that technology is vital in the editing stages of post-production of a film, and as you started to touch on the effects that can be created within such programmes could you explain to me as well as our viewers which editing technologies you personally used within the post-production of ‘Moments’?

Close up shot of ALICE LENG (director)

ALICE LENG (O.S.)
(directed towards Tom)

Similar to my previous production work, I was highly reliant on editing technologies within post-production, and used the software programme ‘Adobe Premiere Pro CS4’ to edit the physical footage that I captured. A previous project that I had conducted ‘Life in the Lanes’, a short film capturing the hidden secrets of Norwich lanes, was edited on ‘Windows Movie Maker’ however although this piece of software was effective for this project, I felt that especially with regard to manipulating sound through key frames this form of the software was too simple for my short film. I felt confident with editing on Premier Pro, as it is a software that I have used both throughout my foundation and advanced portfolio work, and therefore I was able to develop on my basic skill and broaden my knowledge of the software through experimenting with manipulation but also learning that a professional effect can be created through a simple transition positioned at the exact moment in the sequence rather than needing to create a dramatically edited piece. I was able to manipulate the colour of some of my frames, as when gaining feedback from my initial footage a suggestion was made that some of the shots may benefit from a slight colour correction. The programme also acted as a hub for all my external footage, music, title sequences and original indent from my production company ‘Seaside productions’, and in turn it allowed me to draw all the separate elements together through cuts and transitions to create a smooth sequence.  From my reviewing previous work of editing for ‘Genetics’, I feel that my lack of knowledge in post-production showed through the “overload” of cross-dissolve transitions, I feel that I have learnt from this that an professional effect can be create through the saying “less is more” and learnt that transitions can be extremely effective within a piece was used at the appropriate moment, for example applying a cross-dissolve over a simple dip to black transition at the points where the scene cuts from one location to the next creates a more smoother overall finish to the film. As I mentioned before a strength to using a more advanced piece of media technology such as ‘Premier Pro’ over a more basic one such as ‘Windows Movie Maker’, meant that I was able not only to overlay the audio on top of my footage but was also able to add key frames, which in turn allowed me to manipulate a small segment of my music rather than having to change it all, for example I was able to add a key frame to increase the volume of the music for the opening scene, and then decrease it once the ambience of the scene changed. However the only issue that arose within the editing process was when it came to exporting my footage, as I was using my YouTube account to stream my piece, I had learnt from my previous work that the image quality is higher when exported under a YouTube format, however when I did this the footage became jumpy and therefore I had to export it as a quick time file which did have an effect on the image quality. This in turn demonstrated a limitation to the technological programme as the image quality is greatly affected when a sequence is converted into a quick time format.

Although I used Adobe Premiere Pro CS4’ to construct my film sequence and was a vital programme in the editing of my footage captured, when it came to constructing the title sequence I drew on the previous knowledge I had gained and used the programme ‘Adobe After Effects CS4’. This programme allowed me both to create text over a plain black background for the end titles and also create text over a transparent background which in turn allowed me to overlay my main title ‘Moments’ on top of the opening shot within Premier Pro. The programme also allowed me to create a number of layers; therefore I could create a simple animation sequence for my main title by having each individual letter as a different frame and fading them one after another, as well as creating a fade in-fade out sequence for my end titles.

Close up shot of TOM FELLOW (interviewer)

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directed towards Alice)

It is so interesting to hear the work that goes on in post-production, as I’m not sure about our viewers but I know that I for one take for granted the work that goes into creating a simously simple film piece, even just bringing the footage together is a much more time consumedly process than many account for. It’s also good to hear than sometime less is more, as I’m sure we all can fall victim to trying to over complicate everything ending is a less effective result. Now we have focused specifically on the media technologies that you have used in the construction of ‘Moments’, but could you explain what different technologies you used when carrying out the research and in turn planning of ‘Moments’

Close up shot of ALICE LENG (director)

ALICE LENG (O.S.)
(directed towards Tom)

With regard to the research stage I wouldn’t of been anywhere without the Internet, which has provided an almost limitless source of data. Therefore it has played a great importance in the development of my short film by allowing me to find out about the conventions of a short film, evaluate the work of previous film makers and research into the elements behind my own idea of a silent film. I had never previously worked in the form of short film or even viewed many short films, and therefore the internet enabled me before starting the main project to gain some background knowledge. By using Google I was able to research into how a short film differs compared to a feature length film, for example the most obvious difference is the length of the film as Gareth Evans stated "short films are long films that end earlier", in order to be classified as a short film it must be less than 40 minutes long and Gareth Evans also indicates that a short film needs to imply more than is possible to be screened in their limited time. I was also able to specifically research into the criteria of a good short film, for example a successful short film is one that rather than following a cliché idea develops its own twist and original aspect to a certain subject matter.

The internet also allowed me to access websites such as BBC Film Networks, YouTube and Virgin Media Shorts which allowed me to discover which shorts by other film makers had been most popular, and from these develop an understanding as to what kind of plot, narrative and overall style worked. For example I discovered that as a sub-genre to short film, comedy was well received this was demonstrated by the positive feedback gained from short films such as the ‘Black Hole’ and ‘My beast friend’. Although I was not attracted to creating a comedy, it did help me understand that some of the most well received films were those with the most simplest of plot ideas.

I was also able to search the web in order to develop my own a basic knowledge behind the fundamental forms of my film idea. For example I again used Google, and specifically Wikipedia in order to gain an understanding of silent film as a form, I then was able to use YouTube in order to access clips of exemplars silent films for example ‘’, from this research I discovered that within a silent film the visual images are of great importance that the story must be told through action rather than words, therefore many of expressions are almost theatrical and the pace of the film itself is much slower than a conventional film. I also discovered that the music is the replacement for the dialogue and therefore within a silent film, it is crucial that the music works in sync with the visuals. I also used Google as a source in order to research behind the stages involved within the planning of my construction, for example I wanted to not only construct my storyboard but also develop an understanding behind the process, storyboarding which was developed by Walt Disney in the 1930s is seen as a large blueprint for the film as it provides the visual layout of the film and with regard to animation or silent films it is sometimes used in place of an actual script. I also researched the elements behind writing a script and constructed my own ‘Media Glossary’ whereby I explored in detail different shots, angles, camera movements, narrative and sound.

Long shot of both TOM FELLOW (interviewer ) and ALICE LENG (director) sat diagonally opposite each other

Another main technology that I used was Google Blogger, this form of media technology allowed me to document the chronological developmental stages to my production piece, from the initial brief, to the weeks of research and planning, to the physical construction, to the hours of editing and then onto the final evaluation. The use of blogger therefore meant I could log my work in an efficient, interactive and systematic way. In order to personally make my blog more user friendly and in turn effective, I utilized the interactivity of it by streaming videos directly from YouTube, documenting my written work such as my storyboard by taking an image with my phone and uploading onto my page and creating shortcut links to the websites which I had sourced my information, this in turn allowed for my blog to be more eye catching, interesting and easier to navigate. By having my own blog linked directly to my schools blog I was able to be followed by other media students, which allowed for me to gain feedback throughout my development from my peers, which has been a great asset.

Close up shot of TOM FELLOW (interviewer)

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directed towards Alice)

So we have explored the media technology that was of great use to you within the variety of stages of the development of your product, and a little extra question from me before we explore the media technologies you used within the final evaluation stage of your project. I know that for your advanced production you also explored the importance of marketing within the film industry and in turn had to create both a film poster and a film review in order to market your own short film ‘Moments’, but were there any specific media technologies that helped your to construct these two pieces?

Close up shot of ALICE LENG (director)

ALICE LENG (O.S.)
(directed towards Tom)

Similar to my film, for both of my ancillary tasks I had to explore and apply a wide range of media technologies from the internet to Adobe Photoshop to Microsoft publisher to In-Design and to simply Microsoft word, all playing a vital role in the final creation of my poster and review. Firstly similar to with any product, research was essential to the creation of my ancillary tasks, and therefore the internet again was a great source. It helped me source the conventions behind each element, for example for film posters I was able to source from Google Images a number of example and concluded that one of the conventions was to have a main, eye catching visual image positioned in the centre of the poster to attract and draw the audience in. However with my research into my existing film reviews, this taught me that technology is not always necessary to research, in order to gain an understanding about the conventions behind the review I decided that the best way was to physically buy the film magazines and learnt that for example the images for a film review is conventionally taken directly from the film and that all the reviews had some form of star rating.

In terms of the construction of my film poster, I used a variety of media technologies, one being Adobe Photoshop CS4 and the other being a site that has been recommended by a peer Pixlr.com, although a less comprehensive programme I found that when combined with Photoshop I was able to distort and manipulate the original image via the web programme, for example I faded the main image and using the focal tool made the shoes and label the only element in focus. Similar to how I used premier pro as a base for my editing, I then used Photoshop as a base programme for my poster, whereby I could import the image that I had edited on Pixlr and add layers on top of this original image, which was a skill that we had worked on within software workshops carried out at the start of our production.

 
I also decided to construct my film review on a less conventional media programme. I started to construct my review on ‘Adobe In-Design’ however I was limited by the software of which I had access to from my own home computer and therefore decided that I would construct my review in publisher which would enable me to complete it at home. Drawing on my research I had carried out into the conventions of the review, I sourced by image directly as a print screen, this I then imported into Photoshop whereby I cropped the edges and faded the image a little, in order to create continuity between my poster and review image. I actually constructed my text boxes however on Word and then cut them into Publisher, whereby I was then able to use the margins and column tool in order to establish my layout for my review, overall although the programmes I used were less comprehensive, I still feel that I have been able to through media technology create a professional finish. The limitation to Publisher did however come when it came to exporting my review in order to upload onto my blog as an image, I had to firstly save it as a PDF this is turn allowed me to open in within Photoshop when I was at school and from there I was able to save it in an JPG format.

Close up shot of TOM FELLOW (interviewer)

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directed towards Alice)

 
Wow, well after establishing the effects that can be created through a variety of media technologies and learning that less expensive options can still create an overall successful effect, I’ve just got one last little question to ask, when constructing an overall evaluation of your work what specific media technologies did you employ for this stage?

Close up shot of ALICE LENG (director)

ALICE LENG (O.S.)
(directed towards Tom)

 
Well my evaluation, I feel rather fittingly has allowed me to draw upon all the previous media technologies I have used through the variety of stages. I have used blogger not only to stream my responses to the evaluation questions, but also to look back through my who project as well as my foundation portfolio in order to develop an in-depth analysis of my work, such as looking at the work I constructed into the target audience at AS in order to answer the question on audience feedback at A2. I have used the internet to source additional data, such as that on the definition of a form and convention as well as accessing images and clips in order to make my responses more interactive and visual. I used the cannon HD camera and tri-pod to record my responses to some of the questions, and edited my footage on ‘Adobe Premier Pro CS4’ but created the question sequence on ‘Adobe After Effect CS4. I also used photo websites such as picmonkey.com in order to create photo collages as evidential proof to support my answer.

All in all therefore without the variety of media technologies, I would of not been able to create my short film ‘Moments’, as throughout each stage I was reliant on some form of technology, for the logging of my progress on my on-going blog, to the researching on the basic conventions, to the creation of the products, to the editing of the footage and even to the evaluating of my work. However the most important thing is to feel confident with the software you are using, to feel comfortable with experimenting and playing around with different effects and overall developing on your skill within this area.

 
Long shot of both TOM FELLOW (interviewer ) and ALICE LENG (director) sat diagonally opposite each other

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directed towards Alice)

Well thank you Alice for taking the time out to have a chat to us about how you have used media technologies within your work as an A-level student and providing us with an insight into the importance of these technologies at every stage of development. I look forward to hearing about your future projects in the future.

TOM FELLOW (O.S)
(directed towards audience)

 
Tune in next time to ‘Film Uncut’ where we will be exploring a different topic and another inspiring director, until then I leave you with the short film ‘Moments’
 
Scene cuts to ‘Moments’ film 
 
PHOTO COLLAGE OF MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
 


Evaluation Question Two : What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?

Below is the video I have created of me discussing what I have learnt from the feedback I received from my audience. I have also displayed the script of which I follow within the video
 

 
The Script For Evaluation Question

INT. FAMILY HOUSE. BEDROOM. DAY.

Camera focused on bed with fairy lights behind. Long shot of ALICE LENG (aged nineteen) sat on bed, discussing what she has learnt from her audience feedback.

ALICE LENG (O.S)
(Reflective voice)

As a product a film is derived for a target audience, and the feedback gained both during and after the production is essential as it gives the director the chance to see how the product will be received. Therefore the feedback I gained on my pieces was crucial to my over development of a successful film. I was able to develop on my AS exploration of defining the target audience for certain media products within my A2 production by gaining an understanding of the importance of addressing the target audience. Therefore in order to ensure that the audience was drawn into my short film, I understood that feedback would be crucial not just after the creation but throughout the process of my advanced portfolio as for my AS I only gained feedback after the creation of my film although I did gain it after the initial rough cut it meant that I was restricted on how many elements I could change so this has also taught me the value of feedback.
 
I gained some initial feedback early on during the production stage when I created a video explaining my idea behind my short film. This video I streamed onto my blog, in order to allow for my peers to watch during a feedback lesson and in turn allowed me to gain written responses of their thoughts and suggestions behind my idea, and therefore affected some of the decisions I made especially relating to the narrative of my piece.  Shoes have been an object that has been present through the development of my short film idea, and from the initial feedback I received, many of my peers stated that idea of walking in another person’s shoes and the philosophical meaning behind the object was a strong concept, for example one stated that “the idea of walking in someone else's shoes has always been in film, making a short film about it would be a great way to highlight this point in life about how you should consider other people before yourself”. However I also took board the suggestions put forward and have found that it was of great value to my creative decision making. Initially I decided to create a visual piece, that was a montage of clips so therefore a more contemporary artistic piece rather than following a linear narrative however from my feedback, suggestions we made such as “I really like the idea, but feel perhaps you do need some structure and follow a certain person”. This feedback I found very valuable and decided that although I would continue with my visual aspect by creating a silent film, I would create a more structured piece by incorporating a linear narrative that focused on one particular character.
 
I also gained some initial feedback to my idea for my short film from the audience research I carried out. This I conducted in the form of a radio broadcast, and allowed me to use my idea as the “discussion” for the show. I asked alongside the questions regarding their ideas about the criteria for a short film, “Do you like this potential idea put forward for a short film?” and “is there anything you would like to add?” From the feedback I received overall they found my idea appealing and intriguing and were especially interested to see “how the plots and themes will be translated in such a short amount of time with no dialogue”, however a suggestion was made that maybe “the audience is left a bit in the dark about the main character, I think they need to be given a bit more of an insight into the character as this is such an integral part to the overall arching theme of the piece”. I took this piece of feedback on board, and although was still keen on keeping the audience in the dark so they could make their own personal interpretation I did create a character biography in order to ensure that as the director I understood my character in-depth, which I felt would be reflected within the piece.
 
The main feedback I received was post-production. I firstly created a ‘rough cut’ of my film before I incorporated the music or final credits, in order to allow for suggestions to be put forward and in turn for me to make any changes to the footage, as for a silent film the music works in sync with the visual images so I would be unable to make changes after that. Each of my peers filled out an ‘audience research sheet’ where they could not only give me feedback but also an estimated level and score. Overall the feedback for my film was positive, with comments being specifically made on the location, the variety of shots and the framing (I was especially happy with the recognition for the variety of shots and framing as I felt that this was an element that was weaker on my AS piece and has showed my progression from AS to A2 and the development I have made). One issue that arose from my feedback was that related to the disturbance of wind over the footage, however I had decided once I made the choice to develop a silent film that the only sound I would have would be non-digenetic music, so therefore this issue had already been overcome. Another piece of constructive criticism was that relating to the fact that “the tags were a little unreadable”, so in the future if I was recreating this piece I would try to emphasise the labels and ensure that they were in focus for a longer period of time so that they were readable to the audience, in turn also showing the importance of the labels.
 
An issue that had arose early on from feedback of my initial idea, was that maybe I needed more structure in order to make the plot understanding, and although through development, my piece followed a more linear narrative I was still concerned that people wouldn’t understand the concept, visual imagery or meaning behind my film, as my piece is so dependent on audience interpretation. However in order to use a variety of tools for feedback, I streamed my piece to a group of people without telling them anything before hand about my own concept and interpretation of the piece, I then asked each person to write a summary of the interpretation they made of my piece in just two sentences. To my surprise all of the feedback I received demonstrated that they understood the symbolism of the shoes, and the overall concept behind my film, therefore demonstrating that although it was a thought provoking piece the basic elements were understandable. An example of the summaries I received is that it “Considers how a person is reflected by the shoes they wear - where they belong and the quality and stage of their life”.
 
Although throughout my project I ensured that I gained feedback, the majority of my feedback was gained from media students and therefore I felt that once I had created my final cut it was important for me to gain feedback from a wider target audience. I therefore decided to stream my piece not only on YouTube, but also on my facebook and ask for general feedback to my piece, which I found of great value. On my YouTube account I have received 85 views and 2 likes, which is defiantly an improvement on the 22 views for my AS piece! In terms of my facebook, the overall response feeling was positive an exemplar response is ““Alice this was so beautiful! I don't think you could've chosen a better title, 'Moments' fits with the Film so well. The music reflected the mood completely, along with the dark lighting (getting in your mise-en-scene!) You used so many different camera angles which kept it interesting for the viewer. The fonts of the credits really suited the whole film.”
 
I also created a questionnaire which I felt would enable me to gather a wide variety of feedback from a larger sample, but in a quick and inexpensive way. These questionnaires I handed out to variety of ages ranging from 15 to 55, both female and male. From the feedback I received I learnt that my piece is diverse and aspects appeal to both male and female, however because my protagonist character is female and I chose to have the ending whereby the two characters are linked together in a romantic form the female audience could relate more to the overall feeling of the piece (especially as it is all revolved around shoes!). Therefore I have learnt that my target audience is female, however the diversity of the film allows it to be of interest to a variety of ages.
 
I also added questions specifically aimed at gaining feedback on my ancillary tasks within the questionnaire. Although overall this would be one change that I would make to my project if I was conducting it again, as I would ensure that I gained the same level of feedback as I did for my film for my ancillary tasks especially regarding the magazine review. However the feedback that I did receive was positive especially with regard to my film review, as many saw my review as professional and in turn I personally viewed it as more successful than my film poster (one even stated that thought it was a print screen of a real review!), but by gaining more feedback would of enabled me to gain a broader picture as to what people thought of them. I do feel that my research into both elements however was reflected in the overall piece, as I learnt from this the importance of the visual image in creating an eye catching product and I feel that one aspect I did gain feedback about during the process of development was the visual images. From my feedback I learnt that the print screen would be much stronger as the visual image for the review over the poster, and going against the convention of using a visual image of the main actress and using the physical object of a shoe for my poster image would make the audience intrigued as to the plot of the film.  Suggestions were made however with regard to the poster that by having the quote in a different font, it made the poster wider although I took this criticism on board for me I felt that if I had used the same font for all the writing than the poster may have been too simple. Another constructive criticism that was put forward regarding my poster was that maybe I should of not have used the dots in the middle of each letter for the main title, as this can convey a mixed message to the audience as to whether each individual letter stands for a separate word, therefore although it was too late for me to make this change it was something I took on board as valuable and if creating again I would take this into account.
 
Overall I found that throughout the development of both my main piece and my ancillary tasks, feedback from my potential audience was very influential in terms of my creative decision making. An objective opinion was of great value, especially after so long working on my piece my own view had been overshadowed by faults I personally spotted, it was good to have a “fresh set of eyes” to view my piece and in turn give me both praise and suggestions of improvement. There the comments I received on the basis of my final piece gave me reason to reflect on the areas which I had strength in and areas from which I can improve next time, as after all media is all about developing on your skills.
 
SUMMARY OF FEEDBACK

 
So overall I have tried to use a variety of methods in order to gain feedback from my target audience allowing me to develop and learn from the suggestions put forward. The feedback includes : audience feedback sheets, written summary's, questionnaires, facebook, youtube, tallying and verbal answers to the questions I posed. From the feedback I gained positive suggestions especially regarding the overall concept of my film and the magazine review, but also constructive critism such as about the lack of structure could be confusing that has been an important asset to my fundamental creative decision making.


Evaluation Question One : How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product and Ancillary Task?

Within the distribution of all films, marketing is the element of which either can lead to great success or a total wipe out, no matter how great an actual film is without successful marketing the audience are not drawn in to see the film and therefore resulting in a low turnout however good marketing can contribute greatly to the success of a film.  Although film is a form of art, at the heart it is also a driven by profit, and therefore without the necessary marketing the film will not make the necessary profit, which is the reason why through my research I discovered that there are so many different forms of marketing, from the teaser to the main poster, billboards to reviews. However although the products do synergise together through a form of continuity, they must also be taken at the face of it as separate elements, each of which plays a different but crucial part in the overall marketing.

 
In terms of our ancillary task we firstly had to create a main poster for our short film. From the poster the audience are able to gain an initial idea about the film and it turn it also makes them intrigues as to the plot, narrative and theme of the film. Therefore essentially the aim of a film poster is to create interest and consequently revenue for the film that it is marketing.
My research into the conventions of film posters, demonstrated that the main visual image captures the audiences eyes, draws them into the poster and in turn creates the initial thought process behind the film. This I especially found to be the case with the poster for 'Hard Candy' whereby the image of the girl standing in the open dark metal animal trap is striking against the off white background. Through the use of costume the bright poster red hooded jacket and tights naturally captures the audiences eye and draws them into the film. When analysing this poster for myself I found that the fact it was simple and thought provoking, alongside the lack of information that it gave away made it intriguing and in turn made you want to see the film in order to answer the unanswered questions posed, such as in terms of the female although she is stood in the trap, the trap itself is open so is she in control or is she a victim?
 

As my film which I have created  is a silent film the visual imagery is a key component and therefore fundamentally for my film poster the main visual image was of great importance, I wanted to create a visual continuity between my film poser and film by using the simple sole image of a pair of shoes and label. The choice to go against the convention of the main image being of the main actor or actress I feel portrays my film in a less conventional way, and demonstrated the hidden meanings behind my piece. This is similar to the poster for 'Vertigo' where the image is just of a black sellout and not the actual characters, leaving as an audience member you in the dark and wanting to watch the film to find out more. By also using the shoes I feel I also demonstrate the continuity between my poster and the meaning behind the imagery within my film. We are all guilty of falling victim to superficially judging characters by the physical objects they own and wear and in turn not taking the time to step back and walk in the shoes of another's life, in order to gain a true perspective of out own life, we live our life for the future tense but take for granted the present tense of today. The label itself is contrasting to the shoes and gives the audience an insight into the original state of the character "the thing she most liked about the city - apart from all the obvious attractions, the theatre, the galleries - was that so few people asked you personal questions". Unlike my image which I decided thought the research feed back from my potential audience should be for the film poster original rather than a print screen, the quote itself is drawn directly from the film and displays how I have tried to have a connection between my ancillary products and the main film. This link of which allowes the audience to recognise that all three pieces are connected.


I developed originally two potential titles for my film, one being 'labels' the other being 'Moments'. I purposefully chose not to develop a title before I created my piece. As the title gives a name to the product, I wanted to wait until I was finally happy with the ambiance of my piece before deciding on a title. I chose the title 'Moments' as not only did it add continuity between my title (therefore all three pieces) and the signs used within my film "capture every moment enjoy every second", but also we all fall victim of letter those precious moments slip us by, and therefore I felt that when incorporated on my poster this would create the intital thought provoking response that I wanted from the audience. I felt that it was important to convey to the audience the meaning behind the title which I tried to do through the positioning and format of the title. I chose to position the title on the poster at the bottom of the page, as its the last place that the audience's eyes go and therefore means they go away thinking about the title. This concept I took from the analysis of the poster 'The Dark Knight' whereby whether it is their teaser or main poster that title is always positioned at the bottom of the page which leaves it as a lasting though in the audience's mind. By also displaying it as 'M.O.M.E.N.T.S', I felt I reflected not only that we should take the time for each moment in life, but also that as a mass population we do not take the time to step back from our own lives and walk in the shoes of someone else.


I chose to create continuity between all three pieces though the colour scheme; however the link is especially present through the combination of my film and poster. I chose purposefully to use the same soft dark grey tone for both my film and poster title, I wanted the colour to stand out again the light backdrop in order to attract the audiences eye but felt that black would not be in keeping with the ambiance that is created through the music of my film which is soft and subtle. I also chose to use the natural white of the snow as a connection between all three pieces, drawing on the fact that snow is a presence throughout my entire film, and therefore also a presence in the image for my review, when creating the original image for my film poster I thought that it was important that I used the white snow as a backdrop to the shoes.

I feel that my film review when combined with the main product is as effective as the poster at creating interest and revenue for the film, as it portrays a realistic evaluation of the piece. My main aim for my ancillary pieces was to create something that was identifiable to the real thing, and therefore I spent a lot of time researching into the conventions behind the product and in terms of the review this led me onto spending a lot of time analysing the variety of layouts to a film review from the 'Total Film' to 'Closer' to the 'Radio Times'. In the end I chose to develop a piece inspired by 'Total Film', I chose this magazine as it is a specific film magazine, and as a silent short film, my film is more appealing to a smaller cliche audience and therefore I felt that a review of my piece was more likely to be within a specialist film magazine than a general magazine such as 'closer' which tends to focus on the main stream feature length western films. I decided to create a double page spread in order to demonstrate that layout of the magazine however decided to only incorporate the actual review on a single side of A4 as I felt that as an audience member I am more likely to read a single page than a longer length piece as it is less overwhelming and if the review is too long the reader is likely to "switch off" towards the end.

One of the main conventions that I discovered from my research was the use of print screen taken directly from the films for the main images within a review, this in turn allowed me to incorporate an element directly from my film into my review (the print screen I took was at 3:07 minutes which I chose as I felt it demonstrated a strong aspect of cinematography, as well as the connection between the snow however I drew away from just using a simple image and incorporated a print screen of my two characters but by having their backs to the audience still creates a sense of intrigue). However my only downfall was because I was very interested in creating a review which could be incorporated into a real life magazine, so therefore I drew on a lot of the conventions of the magazine such as the colour scheme of black and red, this did distribute the continuity of all three pieces. However by using the print screen and ensuring that all three pieces incorporated my production company 'Seaside Productions' I was able to ensure that there was still a connection for the audience between the three pieces.

Overall I feel that both my poster and review work effectively when combined with my film by giving an intriguing insight into the thought processing behind the plot, this is done by leading the audience to ask lots of questions which in turn will drive them to watch the film in order to answer their own thoughts and ideas which they have drawn about the overall ambiance of the film.

SUMMARY OF COMBINATION OF MAIN AND ANCILLARY

Here is a short video of me summing up the points I have put forward within my written response :