Final Evaluation Alex Barlow Final Evaluation My A
Final Evaluation Alex Barlow
Final Evaluation My A 2 media studies coursework which I will evaluate consists of a short film called ‘The Heist’ which is about a group of people who are planning to rob a bank. There is also subsequently a poster that I have made and double page spread review that I have also made for the promotion of my short film.
1 ) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Final Film • Link: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Y c 5531 GT 9 Fs
1 ) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Final poster
1 ) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Final Poster Features • For my final poster I used several conventional features that are associated with film posters. I used a main Image that would stand out on the poster, I decided to use the image of the main character standing outside the bank, I felt like this would be a good image to show what genre the film is. In most film posters they always include the main characters. I felt like It would be a good idea to have only a certain section of the character showing in the poster so I only used half of their face and then I though it would be good to use an image of something that would relate to the character, so I used screenshots from the film showing something that sums up what the character does in the film. Then I placed that image behind the character and changed the opacity of that image down to 50% so it blended with image of the character. Another conventional feature I have used was putting on the title and then a tag line which is more often that not on most film posters. I made sure to include a billing block at the bottom of the poster as this is to give credit to people that helped my create my final media project and these are always used on film posters. I included a film review as well as they are always used on posters as well.
1 ) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Final Double Page Spread
1 ) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Final Double Page Spread In my poster I used several conventions that are used a lot in professional media conventions when making a double page spread review. One of the conventions I used was using a main image. I used an image of the main character from the film, I made sure that the image I used was relevant to the film so I used a screenshot from the film and I used this image as I felt like it would be a good indication on what the film will be about. In my double page spread made sure to include section heads which is the part above the image saying ‘ Every new film reviewed and rated’. This is always used in double page spreads about movies so I thought I should include it. I made sure to use a deck on my the double page spread which says what the review is about. In the Q&A section and the review section I made sure to include a drop down capital which is commonly used in double page spreads. On the image I used a caption which gives context to what the image is about and how it has relevance to the article.
1 ) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I opened my film with several quick shot of the main character with each shot lasting no longer than 1 second. I felt like this would be effective at I would show straight away what the pacing of this film will be like. I like the idea of using shots that are short in length as I fell like it will normally make shots of people grabbing a coat seem more exciting than what it is. Over the top of the starting sequence I used music that would increase the pace of the film as the music is played to the beat of his movement and creates a sense of tension. This is one of the first shot in the film, it is a mid shot which shows the main character. I decided to make him look as standard and as casual as possible as in most crime films the lead character is the least flamboyant character in the production. At the end of this shot I decided to use a whip pan as I thought it would be a good transition to show the character from getting to one place to another. This shot is often used by directors like Edgar Wright who was the director of crime films like Hot Fuzz and Baby driver. I looked at his style by watching both of these films and he often uses the style of fast shots and he also uses whip pans to transition for one shot to another.
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Then next few shots I used various different shots of the main character for the next sequence of them to the location they want to get to. I used shots varying from long shot, to close up shots. However I did have some other shots such as a point of view shot that would have been used for continuity however when editing this sequence I felt like that shot would have been out of place and would not of added to the sequence. All the lighting used for this section was natural as when filming I felt that the lighting was good enough but I did have to think about placing the camera in certain areas as I did not want to get a shadowy effect. The next shot I used was a tracking shot of the character’s feet as I thought it would be a good shot to show the charters movement from a different perspective as most shots in this sequence have just been mid shots of the character. The music used is still intense music as it makes what the character is doing as more serious.
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The next shot used is along shot of the character outside of the bank. With the camera work I focused firstly on the camera on the main character and then I changed it to a depth of field shot so I showed of the location which is the bank. I felt like this would be a good way to show where he is as the audience will then find out it is a crime film. The shot used was an over the shoulder shot to show the main character approaching the supplier to have a convocation. Once the supplier starts talking it switch to a reverse shot. I did this so I am able to use continuity. This is conventionally used in the majority of mainstream films as it is a good way to show convocations.
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? A sequence later in the film is a scene of one of the characters driving a car. One of the shots used was a point of view shot of the character driving. I felt like this was a good shot to use as it would add to the excitement of the film. The point of view shot is not normally used when driving in mainstream films so I was not sure if I should use it. however the shot looked very good so I include it in the scene. A shot later in the film used was a birds eye view looking straight down at the characters collecting their ID’s. I thought it would be a good use of this shot as I edited this part with this shot and with a mid shot but I decided to use the birds eye view shot as I felt like it was the better shot. For this scene I had to use extra lighting, I shot the scene without editing and I felt like the lighting was to dingy so I reshot the scene with extra light and it improved the scene.
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The used is a point of view shot. I got the main character to walk out of a door using a mid shot and then I cut it to a point of view shot of the character holding the gun. This is often used in films as it is a good way to show the guns up close, most action films use this as it is a good shot to use.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? • • • The use of colour in both my poster and double page spread uses the same style. In my poster and double page spread I wanted to make the colour very grey and dark. I did not want any colour to stand out and I also did not want to use colours that would stand out such as using very vibrant colours like a yellow so opted for my colours that were more grey. The film follows the crime thriller genre as the film is about a small group of people wanting to rob a bank. This is not only shown in my short film but it is also shown in the poster and the double page spread. An example of this would be the use of the images as the images are relevant to the crime genre. I used the style of the poster for the film triple 9. I used the idea of all the character being in their own separate blocks, however instead of just using a all white background I decided to add an image of something that would relate to the character and then I lowered the opacity of that image. I felt like it helped show that the film is part of the crime genre. The poster and the double page spread also link to the short film as all the media products focus around the main character. On the double page spread the only image is on the main character looking at the bank. An I also used the same image but from a different angle. This shot also appears in the film as well.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? • • It is important that the ancillary texts also show that genre of the film is part of the crime genre. It is important that none of the ancillary texts give away any plot points that are important. The title I used tells the audience enough about what will happen in the film without revealing anything. The subtitle also follows the idea of telling the audience about what the film is about but without telling them any plot points. ‘The Perfect Job’. However one issue with the double page spread and the poster is the layout. I feel that the poster is a a lot more stylish and it shows off what the film is about. Where as the double page spread looks more like a standard article and it does not tell the audience anything about the film compared to the poster which gives the audience a good idea on what the film is about.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback? Through out making my advanced portfolio I decided to use twice, I used it when I asked a focus group about what they thought About the idea of the film and then I asked them questions about what they thought about the film once I had made the first rougth Cut of the film so I could gain some feedback. Original feedback on my film idea: I got together a group of people who have a hug interest in films and asked them to do a survey based on the idea of my film. The first question I asked was ‘My idea for a short film is about a group of people wanting to rob a bank. Each of the 4 characters will specialise in different areas, for example one of the characters will be the driver and another will be the 'muscle'. Do you think this idea will work for a short film? From the response I got 90% of my focus group thought this would be a good idea for a short film so this is why I went with the idea of a bank robbery. I believed from this that my focus group and a wider audience would Enjoy the short film. The next question I asked was about the ending as I was Unsure on if the focus group would like the ending I had thought of so the question I asked was ‘The ending I was going to use was going to be all the characters are walking to the bank and as they go to rob the bank the screen fades to black and the audience only hear the sound of police sirens. Do you think this is a suitable ending for the short film? ’. 70% of the focus group thought this would be a good ending so I am going to listen to their feedback and use this as the ending to my short film.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback? Original feedback on my film idea: The third question I asked was regarding the name of the film. At this point I did not know what to call my 3 as I had 4 potential names that I could have used to I decided to ask my focus group and the question I asked was ‘Which name do you prefer? ’ and I used the 4 potential names and they could only select 1. The name that was chosen was ‘The Heist’ as 77% thought this was the best name. At the time I also liked the name the perfect job so I decided to use that as the subtitle. The fourth question I asked was which genre would you prefer the film to be I gave the focus group the option of action, thriller, comedy and drama. From the feedback that was given to this question thriller was the most selected so I will base my film around this genre more. The final question I asked before I started the production on my short film was ‘How would you want the characters the be portrayed? ’. The options I gave the focus group were ‘Have minimal back-story’, ‘Have a lot of back-story on their past in crime’ ‘all of them are very similar’ or ‘All of the characters are very different to one another’. From the results I had gathered 50% said they would like minimal back-story and the other 50% said they would like the characters to be different from one another. This will be good as it will be good to make all the characters different which will be more interesting for the audience.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback? I also did another questionnaire for my focus group to do. This time I showed them my rough cut of my film and I used the questionnaire to gain feedback on what my focus group thought about the rough cut and so I know how to improve my advanced portfolio. The first question I asked was ‘What was your opinion on the film? ’ I wanted to use qualitative data for this so I could gain their overall opinion on the film. The majority of answers I got were very positive however they did give some feedback said that I need to improve some of the editing that was in the film and that I needed to improve some aspects of the film. The next question I asked my focus group was ‘Did you feel the music was in-keep with the film? ’. I thought this would be a relevant question to ask as I was not sure if the music that I had selected was appropriate. So I asked my focus group about the music selection. Over 80% of the audience thought the music was Good and it suited the films style. The Third question I asked my focus Group was ‘Did you think it was executed well? ’. From the responses I gained from my focus group the majority said that the editing needed to be improved. So from this I went and reedited my short film making Sure that it flowed a lot better than the original rough cut of the film.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback? The fourth question I asked my focus group about the short film was ‘Were there any parts of the film that you didn’t understand? Please specify’. I thought this would be a good question to ask as some of the parts in the film such as the ending was left quite ambiguous I as decided to use an ending where the criminals would walk toward the bank and the screen would cut to black and all the audience would here is the sound of police sirens. The majority of my focus group said there were no parts that left them confused which is good however one person said that it took them a while to understand what was happening and another person said that they were confused by the ending. So when I re edited my short film I decided to edit the film so that people would know what is happening quicker, however I kept the ending the same as I felt like it was better to have a more ambiguous ending than one where everyone knows what has happened as some of the best crime films such as The Usual Suspects uses this type of ending. The final question that I asked was ‘Out of 10 how well would you rate the film as a whole? including acting, editing and filming’. The average score that was given was a 6. 75. So I then redited my film using the feedback and then I showed the final cut of my film to my focus group and the score went from an average of a 6. 75 to a 8 which I believe is a good score.
4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Wordpress - The first type of media technology that I used was Wordpress. I used wordpress to help me create my product. I used the blogging page to put different pieces of work I had done such as My case study and all my analysis of different short films, film scenes and film posters. By using this I can put all my work in the right order so it looks more professional as it is well presented. Photoshop - Before I had started making my product I had knowledge of how to use photo shop from making my foundation portfolio. I started using it when I was making a replicated film poster as I recreated the Usual Suspects poster. I learnt the basics when making my school magazine. So by the time it came to make the proper film poster and my double page spread film review I knew how to do different thins better and I could definitely see that I had improved using Photoshop from when I made my foundation portfolio. I had also watched a few tutorials on the internet on how to do different things such as adding a different background while using someone in the foreground. By doing the tutorials I think it has made my final products look a lot more professional and I had definitely improved. Premier Pro – To make my final short film I used Adobe Premier Pro, I thought this would be a good software to use as it is an industry standard editing software. At first I struggled to use it as I had no idea on how the software work. To get used to the software I did several smaller projects such as a recreating a famous film scene and I did my own continuity edit. I did this I would be a competent user when I started making my final project. I then looked at You. Tube tutorials on how to do stuff that I did learn how to do such as adding in the effect of fading clips out so I could transition onto the next scene.
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