Evaluation Question 4

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

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2

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

Evaluation Question 1

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

Media Platforms: 

One key way in which I have conformed to common conventions show by many real short film productions, is the use of YouTube to share my film. YouTube and Vimeo are the most common platforms that short filmmakers use to share and upload their productions. Personally, I have chosen YouTube as in an average month, 8 out of 10 18-49 year old watch YouTube. This age range includes out target audience and therefore ensures that our film will be made easily accessible to them. The website also has around 1.3 billion users, which is often the reason why it attracts many filmmakers to publish their work on the site.

Credits: 

An additional way in which we conformed to conventions of real media texts was in our use of credits. Typically, short film open with the title of the film, then end with rolling credits (similar to feature films). We chose to follow this popular format as we wanted to create a film that appeared professional.  Below have displayed screen shots from our film, along with images from films that I have analysed earlier in the course. I have put these images side by side to show how we have taken inspiration from real media products.




Camera and Editing: 

We also remained largely conventional in our methods of filming and editing. Much of the inspiration for our short film came from the films we had analysed earlier in the course. These included:

• 'Youth' - Tommy Petroni 
• '9 Meter' - Anders Walter 
• 'We Were Awesome' - Jesse Coane 

We chose to follow the common conventions and features we had found throughout our research, as we wanted to create a film that appeared professional and of a high quality. Below, I have created a short video displaying a few of the ways in which we took inspiration from real media products in terms of shot types and editing. 

Mis En Scene: 
One reoccurring element that I found in my research of real media products, was that short films tended to depict much of the action taking place in one key location. This appeared to be due to the low budgets and short running times of the film. However, our short film has subverted this convention as the action takes place in multiple locations.  Although these differing locations may not be conventional of short coming of age films, they remain conventional of the genre. For example we included locations such as schools and a teenagers bedroom. This therefore made our film easily identifiable as a coming of age story, thus appealing more to our target audience. This decision also made out film unique as a short film, as few other films include as many locations as we have within their narrative. 

Narrative and Genre: 
Films within the coming of age genre typically follow a journey of personal growth. Usually the narrative will follow the protagonist as they develop from an immature teen to a emotionally mature young adult. We have followed this basis for the narrative, however we have challenged Todorov's narrative theory. Rather than following a narrative with three conventional stages (equilibrium, disequilibrium, followed by equilibrium again), we have chosen to use a voice over to suggest what she may have done differently in her past. This is effective as we were able to conform to the conventional story line of personal growth as we have presented an older, more mature version of the character, reflecting back on her childhood. Our narrative also allows us to offer an interesting storyline within the short running time we were given from the specification. Also, we remained conventional to the coming of age genre by including familiar experiences such as exams, relationships and break ups, which our target audience will likely be able to relate with.

Voice Over: 
Voice overs are typical within the coming of age genre. However, from my research, I found that voice overs are much less common within short films. By making the decision to include a voice over within our narrative, we have successfully created a narrative that is well established within the coming of age genre, however stands out as unique against existing media texts.

Final Film and Ancillary Products

Issues With The Second Draft

After completing our second draft, we asked our teachers to give us some feedback on minor improvements we could make. One adjustment we were given was to make areas of the voice over louder in order to make them easier to hear. For example at 3.40 the narrator says 'go on road trips'. This is lost behind the music and is therefore hard for the audience to hear. We will therefore be going back onto iMovie and adjusting the sound of each segment of the voice over in order to make it easier to hear.

Second Draft of Short Film

Post-Production: Recording the Voice Over

Following the sound tests we conducted on a Macbook Pro, we realised that we would have to use more sophisticated equipment to record the voice over for our film. We therefore used a standalone microphone to record the voice over, along with a pair of earphones that allowed us to listen back to the sound in real time to ensure that the quality was at the level we wanted. We then exported the recording and laid it over the top of the footage. We decided to use iMovie for this as it is a software we are both more familiar with. We therefore exported our final film,with the music, then started a new project in iMovie.

We cut the voice recording into smaller segments and laid each bit of of the script over it's corresponding footage.

Post-Production: Choosing a Voice

In our script the narrator says that she is 'turning 21 this year'. As this is a key element of our narrative, we wish to cast a narrator that appears mature. We narrowed our choices down to two teachers at our school. We recorded sound tests for both voices, in which we asked our actors to read the script. We then laid this over the top of our film along side the music we had chosen, and decided which narration we preferred. Ultimately we decided to choose to use our teacher, Miss Montague, as the narrator for our film.

Post-Production: Creating the Ending Quote

As our film comes to an end, the narrator leaves the audience with the final line: 'don't waste your youth growing up'. We wanted to make this line impactful and therefore decided to have the quote appear on screen behind the protagonist as she walks across the frame. To achieve this we used Premiere Pro. Firstly we created a text box to go across the screen, and selected a font that would look slightly like graffiti. We then used the effects control to create a 'mask path' for the text to follow. We moved the footage along a frame at the time, the moved the text so that it followed behind the character. This resulted in the text appearing as Molly walked across the frame.

Issues We Faced in Our Second Draft

When editing we found that some of our clips did not have any audio. This was due to a fault in one of the cameras we had been using. However, after adding the soundtrack, we found that the additional audio distorted the sound of the music. We therefore made the footage silent, and this technical problem turned out not to be an issue.

Editing: Colour Correction

Following the feedback from our first draft, myself and Lucy decided to use colour correction in order to make our film look more visually interesting. For this we used the three-way colour wheel on Premiere Pro to allow us accuracy and control over the brightness, contrasts and tones on each clip.

We later decided that we would also add a filter onto the whole film. We found this filter on the Premiere Pro software, and found that it provided a more cinematic look for our film.

Below is an example of a shot before and after we have added the effect.

Improvements To Make To Our First Draft

To reflect upon the first draft of our film, we gathered a group of our target audience and asked for them to provide us with suggested improvements.

The first suggestion we received that appeared to be unanimous within the group, was that our initial draft was not long enough. The OCR specification that we are following requires our short film to fill a five minute time frame. Therefore we may need to have another filming day in order to collect enough footage to create a further 2 minutes of film.

Another improvement that was suggested to us was that we should alter the opening of our film and perhaps use the title sequence at the very beginning of the film. Upon further reflection, both myself and Lucy have decided that we are not happy with the montage at the beginning of the film as it appears out of place. We will therefore be beginning the film with our title sequence and then following that with the birthday cake scene in which the camera slowly rotates around the protagonist. This will therefore allow us to slowly build up the the fast editing sequences rather than jumping straight into it.

We have also decided that we would like to include some colour correction or a filter to the footage in order to create a more visually interesting film.

First Draft of Short Film

Magazine Final Draft

Magazine Review: Making Improvements

Text: 

From my feedback, it became clear that my target audience did not believe that my original draft looked professional. The main cause of this appeared to be the font of the text on my page. I therefore downloaded a font online that gave a handwritten appearance. I used this font for both the title of the page, the text below it and the release date displayed at the bottom of the page. This therefore made the overall page link to the genre of coming of age. I also included a large font for the first letter of the article as this is a common feature within many magazines and therefore makes the page look more professional. 

I also received feedback that the article was not entirely easy to read. To solve this issue I placed a black text box behind the text, then increased the translucency of the box in order to create a more professional look. I also used the hyphenate command in InDesign to ensure the text was easier to read. 

Further Adjustments: 

Again, in order to achieve a more professional look, I enlarged the background to ensure that it overlapped the bleed lines of the page. This therefore ensured that the there will not be a white boarder should the page be printed. I also added further details such as the blue text box in the bottom left corner. The bright blue of the box contrasts the warm tones of the page, therefore making it stand out. This was something I found was consistently used in the magazines I analysed and thus I believed I should include it. I also found that critical acclaim was a common aspect among magazine film reviews, and therefore I included a 5 star icon after the article. 

Ancillary: Magazine Review Improvements

Following the creation of my first draft, I referred to a focus group of my target audience and asked for their suggestions for improvements in my magazine review. I created a questionnaire with the following questions:

1.  Do you find the poster eye-catching?

- 'Yes, but the heading looks a little bit amateur'
- 'Yes I think the background picture really stands out'

2. Is the text clear and easy to read?

- 'Not really, I think you could maybe add a text box behind the article to make it stand out'
- 'The white font blends into background'
- 'The hyphenation makes some of the text hard to read'

3. Are there any further improvements you would suggest?

- 'The fonts might be a bit boring'
- 'You could make it link to the genre a bit more'

Magazine Review Page: First Draft

Firstly, when creating my magazine review, I designed a rough layout for where each of the conventional elements of a magazine review would go. I decided to create a review that subverts some of the typical conventions, in order to create a product that is unique to many others. Therefore I chose one main image to cover the whole of the double page spread. Usually, review pages include one key image along with multiple smaller pictures, however I have chosen to subvert this common feature and follow a design that is similar to the 'St. Trinians' review I looked at in my analysis. I have also decided to feature the title of my film in a bold font at the top of the page. This is not entirely uncommon, yet it is also not a typical convention within film magazine reviews. However. I have also included common characteristics such as columns for the article and text introducing the directors and production company.

Above is my first draft for my magazine review. I created this on InDesign. This software allowed me to used professional techniques in order to create my initial draft.

In order to create this initial design, I first chose a key image to cover the entirety of the page. Initially, I referred back to my initial research. From this I found the key image is often taken from an important moment within the film and thus provides an indication into the narrative. From my poster research I also found that sunset lighting is often used to promote coming of age films as it may connote an uplifting and happy narrative. Therefore I chose this particular picture as not only does it include a bright sunset, but it also comes from a prominent scene within the film.

I then followed a black and white colour scheme for the text on the page as I believed this would stand out against the warm toned background.

Post-Production: Making Titles

We wanted to create a title sequence that was both unique and linked with the coming of age genre of our film. We therefore decided to create handwritten titles, taking inspiration from the opening credits of the short film 'Bottle' by Kirsten Lepore:

We therefore researched different methods in which we could create something similar to this. Initially, we attempted to download fonts online. However this did not work as we also wanted to animate the text so that it moved in a similar way to the 'Bottle' film. We then decided to hand write the titles ourselves. Initially we took three photographs of three variations of the titles that we had written on a piece of paper. We then planned to invert the colour of the pictures on Premiere, then play them one after the repeatedly so that the text moved. However, as we had taken these pictures by a window, the colour became difficult to invert.

Therefore we re-did the same process, but this time on a school white board. This provided a much more successful outcome. Although, we did have to use a three-way colour correcting wheel on Premiere to make the text turn from a dull grey to a bright white.

Editing: Adding Black Bars

During the editing process of our first draft, we found that our film looked slightly amature. We therefore researched different methods we could use, that would give our project a more professional look. One of the techniques we found most appealing was the addition of black bars to each clip. This reduced the width of the clip and thus provided a more cinematic look.

We used Premiere Pro to achieve this. We created two new layers that would overlap a segment of the top and bottom of the clip and therefore make it appear more cinematic. Below is an example of a clip before and after the addition of black bars.