Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

At the planning stage we did audience research of our target audience, which is 15-20 year olds, a couple questions about our film, things such as what they think to our plot, story and what they think we should do that might improve our film. This was after we gave them various bits of information such as the main outline of the film and the script.

The audience research was a success as many people who we asked questions to were interested in this genre of film and with the added twist at the end, they would be interested in seeing how the film pans out and how much it alters from films that are similar but don’t have this twist at the end. This twist was a major part of our project so this made it very beneficial to ask the audience what they thought about the twist. The feedback was good to receive as it was very interesting to see what our audience thought about the story and what they thought about the characters. The most beneficial thing we got from the audience research was to keep all main conventions of a romantic film with smiles from the characters and the sense that the two main characters are going to see each other while keeping the major twist unknown as to shock the audience.

This obviously means that when we are filming and editing our film, we need to make sure that there are no obvious hints about what is about to happen later in the film to make it effective. It was very effective to keep this under wraps throughout the film but we did but one inkling towards it with Liam Fountain’s character swearing after Kieran Lawless’ character says “you better not be drinking cause I’m getting a lift home with thee” and with the screeching car when Kieran disappears gives the audience that flashback of that moment. As our film has a lot of editing in it, with various shots such a split screen, and phone conversations which keep jumping from one person to another, it can get a little confusing for the audience if it is not edited and filmed properly, we made sure that we did this correctly and made sure the story made sense to the audience. When we first made the production the ending was in a different order and after one of our audience watched this they said it didn’t quite make sense so we changed the order round to make it more obvious.

In addition to this, although the main character in the film is dead and this is the twist in the end shows that he is dead, you don’t actually see how he dies which means that it may be confusing for some of the audience to understand that he is actually dead. Originally we decided not to have the sound of a car crash when Kieran disappears although after what we learned from audience feedback that it may be confusing if there is not a clear sign that Kieran is dead we decided to add it.

Another key piece of audience research that we picked up and we decided to take on board and changed our film massively was that the split-screen not working as well as having a little bit of both split screen and normal. This was because we wanted to have the entire film in split-screen although we had more than 2 characters, this made this concept a lot harder to do especially with conversations being had which could have given off an amateur feel to our film. We feel that just having split-screen now and again to show how similar the two characters are and for some phone conversations would work much better than having the entire film in split-screen.

We also felt that we wanted the audience to relate more to the main characters in the film, therefore we added more dialog and conversations between the characters to show what emotions they are going through. This was shown massively with the conversation right at the end between Bethany Vaines’ character and Nathan Denman’s character as the emotion shown in both their faces, body language and speech.

Media Evaluation Question 2

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used many types of media technologies in all stages of producing our movie project; these include types of hardware and software to help us in the production. Examples of these are digital cameras; the camera we used is a Sony HD 100. The camera is of great quality and the boom that picks up sound is also very good which gives clear conversations and has minimal external sounds such as wind making their way into the film.



This is a link to images of the camera we used to film or production. We also used editing software called final cut express. This is very good software to use to add all types of editing and effects to give your production the edge over other productions being shown around the internet. The software has a very simple layout which makes it easy for new uses to get to grips with the software and after a while of using the equipment you get used to the layout you can make a very good production that looks professional.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOTodkjB8KQ

This link shows how the software works and the basics of the kind of things you can achieve with the editing software. Another piece of equipment we used is digital sound recording equipment. We used something known as a zoom recorder to record the sounds we added into the film and also the voice over of the radio trailer we used this piece of equipment. This equipment gives a great sound quality which helps with the clarity and believability of our production.



This link shows images of the type of zoom recorder we used for our production. We also used the internet for our research into many different things about our production. The internet is probably the best part of our equipment as this helps us reach types of research we wouldn’t previously be able to achieve without it as many websites are from other countries so without it we would have struggled to get information and also to get ideas for our production. Websites we used are things such as:

http://freemusicarchive.org/

http://www.youtube.com/

http://lknmedia.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Kieran%20Lawless

These are websites we used to find our music fir our production, get ideas and information and also keep all our findings in a blog on Blogger.
These types of technology helped greatly with the creativity of our film as we realised the barriers of our film were very minimal and we could almost do anything our minds could come up with. A good example of this is the scene where Kieran disappears as the scene is actually two shots placed together instead of one continuous shot which made it very hard to achieve this but the editing software final cut made this possible. The internet helped massively as the music became a massive problem for us as our original piece of music turned out to be copyrighted which isn’t allowed for our production so the internet helped us find a piece of music which fitted well as well as being non copyrighted. The camera helped massively with its professional look and style as this helped the production look more believable and stylish and more like a piece of art than an amateur film. The zoom recorder made the radio trailer possible as without it we wouldn’t have been able to achieve the voice over that gave the trailer a very powerful feel and attractiveness for the audience. There were some limitations with some of the technology such as the editing software final cut only having a limited amount of effect to add. There were some aspects we had to scrap because if this, it wasn’t too bad as we made some changes which were very nice and could also be arguably better than our original ideas we had.
The following Link is for our feature length production:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJyeITd_msU&context=C4bdd1cfADvjVQa1PpcFMByT3JOu8CC38tTqROk_5j_tfP1DvKy-0=

Evaluation question 4

First of all, when we were doing our initial blog to plan our film and research we used an Apple Mac with the iMac interface and operating systems which are massively different from those I am used to using on Windows, which meant for the first couple of weeks using this, but I got more and more familiar with the overall outlook of the operating system with more experience. When we were researching, we also used search engines such as Google to find out genres of films and different ideas such as posters and radio trailers. Using this, but I got more and more familiar with the overall outlook of the operating system with more experience. When we were researching, we also used search engines such as Google to find out genres of films

and different ideas such as posters and radio trailers. This is a screenshot of the iMac interface.

When we were researching and using the internet to find out information about film genre and looking for things such as posters and radio trailers, I found the search engine Google useful as it gave images and information quickly and easily which made the whole process of researching easier and quicker. To the left is a screenshot of how we used google to look at different types of posters and what we need to put on our posters to make them successful. We have used google many times before on our foundation portfolio so we could do this very quickly and easily.

For our film, we used a Sony HDV 1000 and a tri-pod. Using the Sony was very effective for what we needed to film and was extremely easy to use with very little things to set up before we actually started filming which is always a bonus as we can just get straight on and start filming. But in addition to this, even though the Sony camera was very easy to use, it gives a very high quality picture quality which makes our film seem more professional. The only downside to using this sort of camera is that it is quite big and heavy, especially with the tri-pod as well which makes manoeuvrability quite difficult, it also takes up a fair amount of space when it is attached to the tri-pod, making certain shots more difficult than they would be when using a smaller handheld camera. Although a strong point from the Sony being quite big and bulky is that it gives a solid standing when you are using it with a tri-pod which can make it slightly easier to use on bumpy ground or against poor weather conditions such as wind. Below is the same camera we used when filming.

When constructing our film we used Final Cut express to edit it, this was key aspect of our film and without this we wouldn’t have been able to finish and construct it, this is because a large aspect of our film is in two different time zones and often more locations at once, for example when we used a split screen when two people are having a conversation over the phone, without using final cut express and editing it, our film wouldn’t have really worked and without knowing the story or plot you wouldn’t have been able to understand what was happening. Final Cut Express can be quite difficult to use when you first start although the more experience you have using it and more editing you do, you get more confident using it and editing more of your film. I personally thought it enhanced my creativity as this was only my second time using Final Cut express as I also used it last year at AS level to create my 2 minute opening sequence and I wasn’t very confident when I was using this particular Apple application although using it more made me feel confident using it and made me try more things and make our film more creative with some of the effects we used on our film.

Although editing went beyond our actual final product as we also used Adobe Photoshop when we created our A3 poster. This involved using Photoshop to import pictures such as the image of Kieran and Clare looking at the lamppost with the note on, writing text such as the title of the film and key points such as actor/actresses’ names and add effects such as blurring part of the background out to make the title and images more

prominent and important. Without using some type of editing software such as Photoshop, we wouldn’t have been able to create a poster like this. We also used an 12 megapixel camera to take the photo which would be put onto the poster, I have used a camera many times before so I could take a photo of this very quickly and easily, It is also easy to upload this picture onto a computer as you just need to connect a USB cable in both the camera and computer and upload. Using Adobe photshop massively enhanced by ability to edit large pictures like this into a poster as I have only really used photoshop before for small editing but now I have know how to work a lot of things in photoshop and have confidence to edit and create a large poster such as this one. To the right is a screen shot of me working on the poster using Adobe Photoshop.

To the left is an annotated screenshot of the effects of blur and using blur on our poster. We used blur to make the key aspects of the picture (titles, names and pictures are clearer and more prominant so they are the first thing that the audience sees and looks at on the poster. They can then also see  that they are an important part in the film.

We used media technologies to a large extent when making our film, but also a large amount of our planning also involved using media equipment such as digital cameras. We used digital cameras to take pictures of the different location so we can upload our location photos to the blog. We felt that location photos are a key part of our planning and preparation as they can show the audience what the different locations of our films will look like and how they relate to our film. New digital cameras are very high quality and give a high quality shot to our locations in our film.

Furthermore, we also used a sound recorder which we used both in the film itself when various sound wasn’t recorded properly or how we would have liked and to record a 30 second radio trailer. We found this to be a very effective piece of equipment, and even though we haven’t used one of these before, we found it incredibly easy to use. We then put the recorded sounds on GarageBand where we edited them and made them into a radio trailer.

Evaluation Question 3

Please click for a larger view.


To Summarise:

At the planning stage we did audience research by asking the public, particularly of our target audience (15-20 year olds) various questions about our film, in particular things such as what they think to our plot, story and what they think we should do that might improve our film. This was after we gave them various bits of information such as the story to the film and the script. We did this by sending about 10 people questions on the social networking site Facebook and evaluating the results that were sent back to us.  To thr right is a screenshot of the questions we sent to our audience.

The audience research was a success as many people who we asked questions to were interested in this genre of film and with the added twist at the end, they would be interested in seeing how the film pans out and how much it alters from films that are similar but don’t have this twist at the end. We took this feedback on board and the main point we took from the feedback is that the advertisements and overall story of the film needs to follow particular habits which are found in our genre of film although keep the twist at the end hidden until it actually happens. This means that it will be a surprise to the audience and will be more effective.

This obviously means that when we are filming and editing our film, we need to make sure that there are no obvious hints about what is about to happen later in the film to make it effective. As our film also has a lot of editing in it, with various shots such a split screen, and phone conversations which keep jumping from one person to another, it can get a little confusing for the audience if it is not edited and filmed properly, we made sure that we did this correctly and made sure the story made sense to the audience.

In addition to this, although the main character in the film is dead and this is the twist in the end shows that he is dead, you don’t actually see how he dies which means that it may be confusing for some of the audience to understand that he is actually dead. Originally we decided not to have the sound of a car crash when Ciaran disappears although after what we learned from audience feedback that it may be confusing if there is not a clear sign that Kieran is dead we decided to add it.

Another key piece of audience research that we picked up and we decided to take on board and changed our film massively was that the split-screen may not have worked to full effect. This was because we was originally because we wanted to have the entire film in split-screen although we had more than 2 characters, meaning that we would just have to sharply switch from one character to another, which would make it look slightly amateurish. We feel that just having split-screen now and again to show how similar the two characters are and for some phone conversations would work much better than having the entire film in split-screen.

We also felt that we wanted the audience to relate more to the main characters in the film, therefore we added more dialog and conversations between the characters to show what emotions they are going through.

Evaluation question 2

This is the link to my evaluation question 2 on SlideShare.
Evaluation question 2 link - SlideShare

Evaluation question 1

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

Our film generally follows a simple method in terms of the story telling and goes straight from start to end without any flashbacks or flash forwards, although the editing of the film means that our film may break away from conventions as we used a lot of editing which shows both characters at the same time on a split screen.
An example of shot-reverse-shot during a conversation in our film:



Shot-Reverse-shot



Our conventions of continuity worked and flowed throughout the film quite well and we thought our short film was smooth with no obvious cuts between characters or scenes. We also edited a lot of our film, in some parts when we were cutting between two scenes sharply and we put a black screen before we cut to a different scene. In addition to this, we used shot-reverse-shot which made the conversations between two of the characters, this makes the conversation between the two flow more naturally as you can see the facial expressions of both of the people having the conversation.

We also used a few close-ups in our film which we needed to edit correctly to make our film run smoothly, but they had the effect that they can give more of an indication into the emotions of our characters and writing on a note from Claire to Kieran. Here is a link to our film on YouTube:

Unforgettable YouTube Video Link

We use close ups in a significant amount between 3:06 and 3:15.

To the left is another screenshot towards the beginning of our film, it is a close up of both of the charaters when they are having a conversation over the phone to each other, this gives the audiene a view into how close the relationship is between the couple as you can see their facial expressions when they are talking to each other and shows how similar they are.

We believe our film takes a different approach to how these films normally lay out in terms of content, and is almost like two film genres rolled into one, one of these being a love genre and the other being disaster. Also as the film starts of as a generally happy and uplifting film which is the general convention of this type of genre, it quickly turns towards the end of the film which is why we think it goes against people’s expectations of what might happen in the film which will cause an element of surprise which is what we are going for. Our film and the plot could be considered in some ways, to the very successful film ‘Titanic’ which features two people in love and is a generally happy film throughout until the end where disaster strikes.

Our film follows the traditional genre of these types of films and several of our shots are split screens with Kieran on one half and Clare on the other doing the same thing, for example, one of these shots is where they are both walking past a fence and stroking their hand across it. We needed to make sure that both of the characters put their hand on the rail at the same time and in the same spot so that this particular ran smoothly and started and finished at the same time to each other because we are making the point across to the audience that the two characters are similar in many different ways, if they are not equal in this shot it can have a negative effect. A screenshot on this shot is above.

To ensure that the editting and cutting between two different shots was not noticable and to ensure smooth running we also tried to keep our characters in towards the centre of the picture when they are walking on themselves. This can be seen on the two screenshots above when Kieran is walking out of the house. Keeping the character in the centre of the screen ensures that it is not too noticable that there has been a cut in the shot and makes for a smooth running throughout the film.

There is not really any reference to any other films in our short film although the idea to use split screen came from another short film that we looked at during our research although we changed the method of this in many ways. We generally wanted to make our film unique and offer the audience something which they haven’t seen before in terms of the plot and the content of the film so we decided to try to keep away from using anything which may have been in another film.

We wanted our film to have a certain amount of audience pleasure because it breaks away from modern and general conventions, and we believe that it is an ‘old-school’ film in many ways where we let the disaster happen in the end unlike many modern films where the disaster doesn’t happen, we just let the film get on with it in some ways, which hopefully the audience wll have enjoyed as it doesn’t follow a normal plot and varies throughout the film.. This is why we took serious attention to the plot and script, because we didn't want to give anything away that there would be a twist at the end that breaks away from normal traditions of this type of film genre.

Critical Evaluation Question 4

Here is a powerpoint of the digital media which we used to help produce and edit our film. It shows both the digital hardware and digital software that we used in our production.

Critical evaluation question 4 how did you

View more presentations from stanleyladere.

Critical Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We first uploaded our video onto YouTube not long back. This was the incomplete version and was our target to gain some audience feedback on how we could improve upon our film in different ways relating from sound to different angles.

We responded to the comments made by the audience after their viewing of the initial video by adding some music to it to give it that little bit extra, as most of the feedback was about the lack of music on the video. The previous audience research that we had done prior to putting our video out there for feedback, was that we went round people and gathered primary research by asking them what they like in films and then what they liked about our film and how it could be changed as well as other questions related to this topic.

When we filmed and edited our film we made it apparent to the audience, using their feedback. The way we did this was to change the sequence of events around, so that the viewers could understand it more easily. The scene where the main character is looking at his girlfriend has been edited and moved near to the end of the film to give the audience a better idea of the events that caused this tragedy.

The audience responded to our film when we trialled it by providing us with positive feedback and how effective it was. The comments made by the viewers were very productive and let us know that nothing needed majorly changing with our short production. The film was interpreted differently by different people that watched it. Our film may have affected people of different cultures in certain ways. The reaction from people with different lifestyles and lifestyles similar to those in our film felt that the video related to them in one way or another.

The completed version after audience feedback is featured in the clip below.

Critical Evaluation Question 2

Here is the film poster for our A2 media production. As shown in the mind map above, the film has many attributes that mean it can relate to film posters from extremely successful films.

Below is the film poster for 2010 film 'Inception'. This is the main poster we based our design on. As you can see the title, movie quote and credits are all placed in similar positions to the ones on our poster. Both also feature big images as the background. The main difference is that the Inception poster is vertical, yet ours is horizontal. We chose to do it horizontally as it shows that the relationship of the two characters on each sie are being dragged apart, whereas the Inception poster follows the plot of the story as it's about going through levels of dreams which would be recognised as more vertical.

Critical Evaluation Question 1

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

Our media product uses forms of real life media products in various ways. The first thing that is similar to real media products that most people will pick up on is the different camera shots. These are done from different angles and really capture how one of the characters is feeling, may this be through facial expressions, posture or body language. The way the character on the right is walking up and down the room would signify a slight sign of anxiety. Another sign of anxiety can be sensed through an action that one character performs during the outdoor conversation. This occurs when the character puts his hand over his eye (below) after the other character in shot mentions about him driving home from a party - again this challenges conventions of those in real media products.

Our film develops conventions from our last media product, in the way it is edited. Last year we used a lot of fading in and fading out to cut between shots and scenes. This year we have developed this to make it look like it goes straight into the next shot or scene, This gives it more continuity in the sense that it gives the film a better flow.



The way the actual film runs from start to finish is quite similar to real life media products that are recently gaining popularity in the fact that the order of the film is different to the events that occurred in the film. Other factors that contribute to a lot of recent films which is challenged in our film is the use of split screen images. We use these to mix up our production and give it a bit more variety. In ways it also compares the two characters in shot's lifestyles. The shot shown below is one of a couple of split screen shots in our film.




We wanted to try and relate our film to the audience that view it so we didthis in as many ways as we could, but yet still trying to make the film effective. One section of the film - where Nick and Ciaran are conversing - is a section in which we thought the younger audience of whom our film is aimed at could relate to, as it refers to a party and going out and just having a good time. I feel that our film challenges conventions of real media products with the different range of shots that we use in our film. We have used a lot of close up shots to really capture important features like facial expressions and certain movements. Some are shown here:













The two shots that we captured here contrast in every way. They contrast in gender as one is male and the other is female. They contrast in moods as Ciaran's facial expression comes across as happy, whilst Claire's comes across as quite sad. They also contrast in the fact that one of these was shot before the incident, and the other was shot after the incident.