Question 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

New Media is a generic term for the many different forms of electronic communication that are made possible through the use of computer technology. Old media forms include printed newspapers and magazines where as the “New Media” includes websites, email, Digital cameras, mobile communication and web advertising. The use of the term “New media” implies that the date communication is happening between desktop and laptop computers, and the media they take data from, such as compact discs, USB’s or floppy disks.

Below is a montage of images that I used, the images are of forms of "New Media" technology.

During preproduction work, as well as the actual filming and evaluation a series of new media technology resources were used enhance the quality  of our short film project.

1) Communication via text message and phone calls: Considering Charlotte (A member of our production group), goes to Hemel school and only attends Kings Langley for Media; it is hard to contact her in person regarding Media all the time. Instead, it is a lot easier to phone or text when we have relevant information regarding filming or any queries in general. Text messaging is an easy way to communicate with everyone, and I used this method a lot during filming. If mobile communication wasn’t possible, our filming would have been a lot more difficult. As a group we still would have been able to cope, but the process would have been a lot longer and less organised. Having the ability to contact each other when ever we need is encouraging and emphasises the benefits of working closely as a group.

2)  USB Sticks: Usb drives became incredibly useful during all of our media work. They are an easy way to transfer documents from different desktops. I used my memory stick when completing work I had previously done at school, to finish at home. My memory stick also acted as a method of backing up my work in case I suffered from any digital problems on my laptop or school log in. Using a memory stick is quick and easy and was very handy. As a group we could easily transfer each others work onto our own desktops without any hassle. If New Media technology wasn’t available, resulting is us not being to use USB sticks, the process of transferring documents would have taken a significantly longer amount of time. Instead we would have to produce several copies of our work and transferred the documents individually.

3) Cannon Digital Camera: The digital camera was used a lot during our filming for our short film. Taking pictures encouraged us to demonstrate the different use of light, the variety of shots as well as the involvement from everyone in the group. The photographs taken also helped develop my post card design and without the camera on the set I would not have been able to have the specific design I wanted. The Cannon Digital Camera produces pictures of an excellent quality and we borrowed the camera from the school throughout our work. If the camera was not available, we instead would have had to use our mobile phones. This could have worked, but the pictures would not have been of such a great quality which affectively could have lowered our final grades.

4) Hotmail Email Account: Similar to my USB stick, using an email account allowed me to transfer my work so I could open it on different desktops. It was also possible to use the email account as a form of communication, but in our case we didn’t need to use it to its full advantage due to having other forms of new media that were a lot easier. Once again, this example of New Media just made the process of transferring our preproduction work a lot easier and more sufficient. 

5) Blogger Web Page: Blogger is the webpage used to publish all of our documents for our Media coursework. Blogger has the advantage of us being able to personalise the layout and organise our work in the best way possible. We are marked in a variety of different ways, and to conform to these marks we have to complete different blog posts. Blogger is the important, to us students, example of a new media technology and if it wasn’t available it would be incredibly hard for us to publish our work and meet the criteria of the exam board.

6) Youtube: The website www.youtube.co.uk was very popular and useful for the production work for our short film. Youtube enabled us to look at examples of different short films, as well as publishing our own documents. Youtube is what our final film was published to, but we also used youtube accounts to publish different videos to help us develop our understanding of the conventions used in a short film. If youtube wasn’t available, it would have been virtually impossible for us to publish our short film.

7) Short Film Convention Website: The website published shows the conventions of a short film as well as showing a variety of examples. It also provides us with a detailed definition of what a short film is. I used this website to help develop a lot of my written work during our preproduction work. Arguably though, it the website wasn’t available it wouldn’t have affected the film product drastically. The website simply provided me with inspiration and a few ideas for the theory work on my short film.

Question 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Feedback for overall film....

My first feedback video is taken by my Media Teacher, Mrs Rolfe. In the feedback she compliments various points in the film, but also gives constructive criticism. Mrs Rolfe has been a media teacher for 10 years so her understanding on the expectations for a short film is high. Mrs Rolfe also enjoys watching many films, and with a husband in the film industry she is forever analysing and giving feedback on films.With the points she made in mind, it is clear that she has an understanding of the expectations for a short film and how, if we were to re-shoot the footage, we could ultimately improve.

Mrs Rolfe commented on the problematic issue regarding the title of our short film, the issues she raised was a point we didn’t initially think of, nor did we think it concerned our production, but after hearing Mrs Rolfe’s verdict it has become clear to all of us that the name of our short film isn’t as affective as the whole project itself. Furthermore, she continued to compliment our jump cuts and how they conveyed Lucas’s anxiety. Mrs Rolfe also noticed the continuity issue of the difference in lighting from the outside compared to the inside. When editing we tried to alter this, but it wasn’t as successful as we would have ideally liked. However, the idea of using fades was to represent a different day. Mrs Rolfe wasn’t keen to compliment the use of these fades, but as a group we can easily justify our usage…. We decided that the fades were symbolic to a change in day and a digression in Lucas’ mental state and emotions. Interestingly Mrs Rolfe discovered a continuity issue we didn’t notice when editing, the calendar that is positioned in the kitchen appeared to be a huge distraction for Mrs Rolfe and ultimately could have the same affect on other viewers. The same problem has occurred from many when watching our short film and this is the identification of the “forgive” written on the leaflets that are on the floor. Our choice of leaflets wasn’t ideal as it became clear that not only Mrs Rolfe’s eyes, but others too, were drawn to the fact that the leaflets said “Blood Donor” instead of “forgive”. It would have been more benefital for us if the leaflets were simplistic and “forgive” was highlighted more obviously. To conclude, Mrs Rolfe complimented our ending and the use of music and the final shot for our short film. This was encouraging to hear as we were unsure whether the shot would work to its full capacity as the face of actor Kelly wasn’t seen. However, we were proved wrong and it was a success and was complimented fully!  

After hearing Mrs Rolfe’s feedback, I thought I would benefit more if I structured a selection of questions for my evaluation, allowing those I ask to elaborate in as much detail as possible. Furthermore, this encouraged different opinions and analytic responses to take place and be justified throughout.

The first response is taken from a regular short film viewer, Helen. Helen gave a very encouraging response to “Closer” and complimented it fully. Helen did however, comment on a continuity issue regarding the photographs Lucas’ looks at when standing at the table. Helen is correct in saying that it isn’t the same girl as used in the remainder of the footage and with this in mind I would ensure that if we were to re-film our short, we would make sure that the photograph would be exactly the same person as used throughout. The reasoning behind using a different girl is justified with the lack of rescores on the day of filming. This however resulted in weakening a shot in our film, causing audiences to potentially loose concentration at a vital time. Continuing, Helen overall compliments the use of music for our short film, but does comment on the limitations of dialogue from Lucas’ friend Graham. Saying this, as a production group we decided that less dialogue from the friend would be more affective and allow audiences to raise questions in their head. Even though Helen commented on this and raised it as an issue, my personal thought is that the lesser dialogue we have, the more affective the piece actually is. Similar to Mrs Rolfe comments, Helen parallels with her response and raises the confusion raised about the films title. It has now become clear that the title could be a possible problem for our film. We have now created various advertisement properties, but if we were to be given the chance to edit those and change our film through the use of titles, it has become clear that the title would need to be justified more through the plot or either be altered to something more specific and  appropriate.

My second feedback response comes from a student at Kings Langley School, Lauren Jade Ash. Lauren complimented our film, especially highlighting our choice in music. Lauren also highlighted the issue we already were aware of, being that the dialogue that takes place outside is noticeably quiet and difficult to hear in comparison to the remainder of the film.  Through editing there was no more we could do to manage the sound levels, but as a group we agreed if we were to be given the opportunity to film again we would ensure that the dialogue was a lot louder so it wasn’t so awkward for viewers.

Photograph of me geting feedback.

Feedback for postcard....

I decided that before I made my final decision on my post card design I would receive feedback on the designs I made templates. The feedback I received encouraged me to follow my initial idea of using the post card design where we use the fridge magnet letters to show the title of the film. Even though my feedback was a demonstrated two different opinions, I felt that the justification of the design where I including the fridge magnet letters was a lot stronger as apposed to the vodka bottle design template.







After taking all the feedback into consideration I created my post card, to ensure it was off good quality I asked a regular short film viewer their opinion on my post card as a whole and whether she thinks it includes enough information, whether it is visually satisfying and any other additional comments with regards to its conventions.



Feedback for Film Review....

After creating my film review I again received feedback on the effectiveness of my product as well as the overall style and layout.  I sent an email to a friend of mine who regularly reads "Sight and Sound" magazine. I was assured from her knowledge that she would have a good understanding of the specific conventions the magazine articles include.

Personally I would like to highlight that if I was to redo my film review, I would ensure I still followed the conventions of a “Sight and Sound” review, but would also improve my technical language and critical analysis of the film itself. Overall though, I am very satisfied with the layout of my review and am overall glad I chose that specific layout.

Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Post Card....

My ancillary task consisted on constructing three different post card designs, and deciding a final design. Below is a screen grab of the main image which influenced my final post card design. Through my final design I wanted to convey the overall theme of my film, but leave an element of suspicion to the post card and films plot line.

"Screen Grab" of the narrative which influenced my post card design. 



I chose to use the idea of fridge magnets for my post card as I thought the use of lettering was interesting and quirky. Instead of writing “I forgive you” I chose to replace it by including the films name as well as relevant information for the films advertisement. Not only does the text add suspense, due to it giving no direct link to a person, it also directly links to a specific scene in my short film. With this in mind, it fits the conventions of a post card and would be a good advertisement tool. It also directly links to my short film and as viewers the link is somewhat obvious and simplistic, but affective.

Film Review.....

For my film review I decided I wanted to design an article to replicate one from the “Sight and Sound” magazine. Through research, it became apparent that our short film would be best suited for the monthly distributed review magazine “Sight and Sound”. The magazine often had specific sections for short films and I decided to go with designing an article from there as opposed to using the, less intellectual and more comical “Empire” magazine. It also occurred to me that the magazine would ultimately gain an appropriate audience for my short film.

I chose to include another film review to the left of my review to make it look more realistic and as if the article was from a magazine. At the top of my article I included all the essential information regarding the film; this would allow audiences to have a brief understanding of the certificate of the film as well as the main actors and the film’s title “Closer”. When writing the review I made direct references to the synopsis of the film, so at the bottom of the review I included it, giving audiences the chance to read it.  Following the conventions of a typical film review, my design was set out in a very similar way to those of “Sight and Sound”.

In my review I tried to make sure the reader was getting a good understand about the films plot line as well as the initial acting ability and camera work. I made a direct reference to the use of lighting and Kenny’s acting talent, encouraging audiences to be more intrigued and hopefully with full intention, get them to watch our short film. Personally it is the first scene that builds the character of Lucas and sets the tone of the whole short film.

The image on my film review was taken during the filming; it shows Kenny shouting in an emotional state. This adds suspense to audiences and also indicates a vital part in the short film itself.

Below is a comparative image of my film review and the "Sight and Sound" review i based my work upon.

"Sight and Sound" Film Review.....

My Film Review for "Closer".....

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Once I had completed my short film, post card and final film review I was encouraged to think about weather my work developed or challenged forms and conventions of real media products. 

 

Final Film.....

To begin, I separated my short film into a selection of 9 screen grabs from my film and have explored how they develop or challenge the conventions.

The photograph is of 9 different "screen grabs" from my film.

1) The first screen grab is taken when Lucas’ emotional state is deteriorating. This image could imply that our film fails to recognise the conventions of the films tone and mood because of the comical calendar in the back ground. Through our feedback, one of our responses did comment upon this and bring it to light. However, after discussions as a group we came to the conclusion that by having a comical calendar in the back ground could also enhance that the house Lucas is in, is “well lived in”. It could similarly be said that due to him loosing patience with those around him and himself, he wouldn’t have time to alter properties around the house. So, with this in mind, this specific point in the film follows the conventions of a short film. It makes the film seem realistic, a common feature in short film.

2) The second image could be seen to challenge the conventions of real media products. This image shows the distance between the two characters and how they are separated by a wall and window, this interaction is avoided due to Lucas’ behaviour. It could be said that this challenges the conventions due to the fact that “Closer” only focuses on the life of protagonist Lucas and any relations he has with other characters is limited. Less characters isn’t always common in short films, but is affective in my short film “Closer” and builds the tension and sets the mood and tone for audiences. Overall, it could be seen to challenge real media products and their specific techniques used, but in this case, it works to our benefits.

3) The third image is taken at the beginning of our short film and shows Lucas’ characters being established. The general establishment of a character at the beginning of a film is an obvious technique used in short films and by us using this affect in our short film, shows that we have developed the conventions of real media products.

4) The fourth image is taken of the concluding section in my short film. This image shows the films end titles, cast names. Including this information at the end of my short film develops the convention of a real media product as in the majority of short films; this information to appear at the end is very popular. Below is a screen grab from the short film “New Boy” and as you can see they have similarly included cast name titles at the end of their film.

5) The first image, similar to the fourth, also shows how my film develops the conventions of media products. The image shows our production company name and appears at the beginning of the short. This is a common feature in short films and including the production company name is vital for the films distribution. Including that information can advertise your film more successfully and also gives viewers additional information and opportunities to contact us as producers.

6) The sixth image portrays the mise-en-scene of our short film, this feature develops the conventions of real media products significantly. Our mise-en-scene is reflected in the narrative of our character Lucas’, his mental state has taken a toll on his surroundings and you can see them get drastically worse as the film concludes. This furthermore develops conventions of real media products as they match perfectly and Lucas’ house suits his current state of mind.

7) Screen grab 7 shows the resolution to the narrative that takes place in our short film. At this point in the film everything begins to conclude and you feel a sense of relief. This develops the conventions of real media products as the concluding factor is vital for the overall audiences understanding of film. It is nice how our film draws to a conclusion, and this aspect occurs in a lot of short films I watched throughout my research.

8) The eighth screen grab is of the title of our short film. This aspect in our short film conforms to the conventions of real media products, it is apparent that the majority of short films follow the convention of including a films title on a black drop at the beginning of the film. We chose to follow this convention as apposed to having our title appear on the action, because the remainder of our titles are presented with a black background and if we were to challenge this approach the continuity wouldn’t be disorientated. 

9) My final screen grab, also conforms to the convention of a media product. The image shows the narrative developing to a climax. The narrative is built up from the beginning of the film and hits a climax at mid point in the film. This structure is common in many films, not just short film. Having followed this structure, it is clear that our short film, again, conforms to the conventions of a media product as apposed to challenging it.  

Post Card.....

My initial post card design has been very much influenced by work of other short film post card designs. For the front of my post card I believe I have followed the convention of a real media product, I have done this by showing an image that relations directly to an element of narrative in my short film. When creating my own design of a post card, I included my production company logo as well as a “tag line”. By including both, I feel I have followed the conventions of a post card and also set up an ideal advertisement tool. The images that appear on both the front and back of my post card where taken with a high quality digital SLR camera and have been edited on the “Photoshop” software program.

The back of my post card similarly develops the conventions of a real media product by the specific layout I have followed. On the back of the post card it became noticeable that it was a necessity to include the films name, which the film was directed by and a brief synopsis. Arguably, not every post card I looked at had a synopsis, but I felt when creating my post card the idea of including additional information on the reverse of my post card would benefit its advertisement and suits the layout I created.

Below is an example of a post-card for the film "Divine", this furthermore visually shows how my post card equally conforms to the conventions of a films post card.

Film Review....

Personally I think that throughout my film review I have used conventions that reflect real media products successfully. To ensure I done so, before designing my article I done a lot of research on different examples of reviews and how they conform to their own specific conventions. After a lot of research I decided that I wanted my review to reflect the work of “Sight and Sound” magazine, with this in mind I took a more in depth look at the works of their articles and enhanced my understanding of the conventions they uphold.

Overall I used a very similar layout to “Sight and Sound” which is a clear convention that needed to be followed in order for my film to be justified as an example of a “Sight and Sound” review. I used only one picture in my review and enabled this to be the main focal point for my article. I structured my columns to appear underneath my title and image, similar to those of the “Sight and Sound”. To enable my review to look like it was from a magazine, I ensured I included an additional review to the right of my article. Overall I feel I have followed the conventions of a “Sight and Sound” review well.

Below is an annotated version of my film review compared to the sight and sound review I based my article upon. I have highlighted the similarities between them both and this is furthermore explains how my film review fits the codes and conventions of a “Sight and Sound” film review. 

Post 20

Below is a URL link of my short film, due to technical problems with our school's YouTube server, we are unable to embed the video and instead have to provide the link which directs you to YouTube itself where you can watch our short film that was, apposed to watching it directly from Blogger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkHBtwDgo4E

Post 19

Straight after filming we carried on with our short film process and began logging, capturing and editing out footage. It was ideal that our filming was completed over one day, as this enabled us to move straight onto editing with no holdbacks. As mentioned before, we did experience some problems when it came to the editing process, this was the point when we realised the flash from the camera was an interference for the lens on the filming of the short. Once we had an understanding of this, we all had no choice other than to re film. After doing so and ensuring there were no interference possible problems our filming was a success.

As a group we spent equal time together at the edit suite’s logging, capturing and editing our film. We managed to plan so we all edited in our free periods, this not only involved Charlotte travelling from Hemel School, but also some other work was put on hold to an extend, from all of us. Since the beginning of our pre-production work we knew that the music would be vital for our film, the music would give the film the chance to develop its mood and tone and to also set a pace for the actions that take place throughout. We began research for music quite early on in the stages of editing and after a lot of research we all agreed on two different pieces of music for the beginning and end. At first there were raised questions about having separate pieces of music; some thought it would work better if the music was the same throughout, but as we concluded our editing we realised that it did in fact work better with two separate bits of music. The music at the end draws a close to the short film, where as at the beginning the music creates suspense so together they work nicely in setting the ideal tone of the film.  We used the website “moby gratis” to pick our music, the website is copyright free and had a wide selection of songs we could choose from.

During the editing, problems with the volume of dialogue occurred. Kenny’s friend who stands at the window is noticeably quieter than the remainder of dialogue from Kenny. During editing we all individually tried to manage the sound levels to increase the volume, but the sound began to sound artificial and unrealistic if we increased the sound too much.  After increasing the sound as loud as we could, friend Graham’s position remained. Ideally, it would have been better if Graham was louder and through feedback we have received various criticisms on the volume of his dialogue and with this in mind we are all aware that next time we should place a microphone directly by him as apposed to where the noise is travelling too.

The 'Screen Grab' above if taken when Graham, Lucas' friend, is trying to comunicate with Lucas.

Similar to our AS project we added dissolves and fades to black to distinguish the difference scenes. These also elaborate the fact that each fade to black is a different day. We also used lighting effects in a few shots to reduce shadows on faces. In the scene where Graham is standing outside and dialogue is heard from him to Lucas, the light over Lucas is noticeably a lot darker as apposed to the natural light outside. Through editing we altered the lighting capacity and enhanced the light on Lucas, this worked to our advantage but is not as affective as it would have been if we had managed the light correctly on the day of filming.

The 'Screen Grab' above shows the difference in light from the outside compared to the inside.

Throughout filming and editing we came across minimum, continuity issues which we were incredibly relieved about. The most noticeable would be towards the end of the filming when Lucas’ has a knife with blood to his hand. In one of the shots the blood is there, however on another it has disappeared. When filming we filmed from a variety of different positions for those specific shots, so due to no fault but our own we didn’t match up continuity and put blood on his hand in all of the shots. This wasn’t too much of an issue as it doesn’t appear to be that noticeable, and there are no further comments on this in the feedback. Saying this, it is still apparent and we noticed it when editing and it could have been easily resolved if we paid a little more attention back when we were filming.



The ‘Screen Grab’ highlights the continuity issue with the blood on Lucas’ hand.

 Our overall editing process was completed reasonably quickly. This was because of numerous reasons, the first, most significant would be that we were a lot more organised with managing our time causing us not to be so rushed. The second would be that we had a lot more experience than last year, the editing process for me last year was tedious and long due to my limited knowledge on how to use the software (Adobe Premiere), this year I felt a lot more confident and could manage the program successfully and quickly.

Post 18

Planning was a key factor to the organisation of our tight schedule for filming. Due to the fact that Kenny went to a different school, we had to be organised and plan appropriate days for filming that all the cast and crew could attend for. Once we had a day set in mind, we went ahead to film in hope that it would be a success. The cast and crew all arrived at the location at the same time, causing a lot of stress and chaos, no one really knew what they were doing and we were lacking severe organisation skills! After arranging props and briefing the cast and crew, we began to film. Our filming was a little rushed and lacked the ideal quality we would have preferred. Throughout filming, we took several pictures to enhance our post production work, not realising that this was soon to be a huge problem for us. We managed to film over half way before the natural and artificial lighting became an issue, so we called it a day. Once we returned back to school to edit a rough cut, we found we had a huge problem with the footage we filmed.

Due to take several photographs throughout filming, the footage was disturbed by the flash, making our film to look overall awful! Even though this became incredibly frustrating for us, we knew we had no other choice than to re film. After being assured not to panic and that we had plenty of time to shoot our short we organised and planned our day affectively. When the day finally arrived for us to begin filming, we arrived at the location an hour before the time we asked Kenny to get there, giving us enough time to set up and prepare for our day. After a quick briefing to Kenny and any questions he had resolved we began filming at 10.30AM.... Making sure that any cameras and telephones were turnt off, limiting the distraction in the footage! We chose to begin filming early, so we could take full advantage of the natural light available. Not every shot however was taken in its first take; this wasn’t an issue because it allowed us to get shots of the best quality and to look of a professional standard. To avoid the same problem we had last time, but to still take a variety of photos, once Zac our director called cut we asked Kenny to stay in the same position allowing us to capture any photographs when the camera wasn’t rolling... Reducing the interference from the flash!

The location is set in a house not far from Apsley Train Station, so the noise from the trains did occur to be an issue. Whilst we were waiting for the trains to pass over the bridge, instead of waiting and doing nothing, we took advantage of our spare time and rehearsed the different scenes or shots, until everyone was fully satisfied. Rehearsing the shots was also helpful for whoever was managing the camera at that time, it allowed them to practice and gain confidence using the camera.

After various discussions regarding the necessity of one specific scene and its location, as a group we decided to abolish the idea of using a bedroom and instead to film the scene downstairs. We chose to do this for scene 7 purely because it wasn’t necessary, nor did it fit with the rest of our film, to have a sudden change in location. The idea of our film was to create a message of confusion and for Kenny’s mental state to increase as the lives with the regret of killing his girlfriend. Changing location would enable audiences to loose concentration and the quality of the filming would ultimately reduce. At first, it took some convincing for me to understand how we would benefit if we remained downstairs, but thinking about it now, the footage works so much better and I am glad we done it the way we finally did!



The ‘Screen Grab’ shows the change in location.


Due to there only being three people in our group, deciding on job roles became difficult as we found there was not enough people to fill every position. With this in mind, we all worked together to ensure everything was completed to a good quality. Thankfully we had clear sky and sunshines when filming, otherwise the noise from the rain could have ultimately become a problem when editing.