Evaluation - Anthony

Advanced Portfolio – Evaluation

Anthony Taylor

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

There are a variety of established forms and conventions of media and genres we have worked in. I have looked at a number of British short films to help boost my understanding of the themes of Britishness.

Examples of British short films are: “For the Love off.”  Directed by Chris Sheriff, this film is based around the theme of multiculturalism and immigration of other people around the world. This film shows how one man who is separated from his son and has forced himself to Great Britain to earn money for the survival of his son back home. “For the love off”, focuses on the hard life people try to be independent and is encountered with many difficulties such as racism, disrespect for the working class and unfairness to people outside of the country. Common forms and conventions which can be identified in this short film are the themes used. In this short film we see the working class man living alone in Britain. He faces a hard life facing rejections and pressure from the people around him. He encounters an unfortunate event in which he is involved with another individual and is forced to hand over his well earned money. In comparison with our short film, our main character is faced in a similar situation in which he is bullied. Our short film and this existing British short film share the same conventions as they both present realistic situations.

Another example of a British short film is called “Gravity.” Directed by Collin Hutton this British short film focuses mainly on gun crime on youths. The idea of youngsters only in their early teens shows their irresponsibility on the use of hand held weapons without knowing the consequences of their actions. “Gravity” shows the social marginalization of the youths featured in this short film. This suggests the lack of freedom youngsters have and leaves them in deprivation. This is also a social realism film as we can see by the dull, gritty colours and camera movement in the short film. This technique seen in a number of social realism based films show us a more realistic view of the depressing reality and marginalisation of underclass people. We have used the social realism theme in our British short film product and incorporated the same similar style of filming in a sub urban gritty and dull environment. This creates a realistic point of view for the characters shown in our short film. Using this British short film as an example we have developed our idea of our media product and have based our theme around the issues of knife crime. Knife crime is a strong and serious theme which can be related to British identity. It shares the same forms and conventions of the short film, “Gravity” however we have progressed into our own theme which explores the dangers of knife crime in Britain in which we try to educate youngsters of today to raise awareness of knife crime.

With examples of short films we have developed upon these standards and have added an animation towards our British shot film. As part of theme of knife crime and purpose, our British short film aims to educate youngsters in making the right decision and allowing them to see how the actions of knife crime result with heavy consequences.

Other real media products we have looked at are Film Posters. Film Posters contain many conventions contained within them. Within a film poster it must contain the name of the main star(s) which allows any audience t quickly recognise the name of the main character and also reveal the genre of the film if the main star has been featured in many of one specific genre. Other conventions include a tagline, a short catchphrase used to advertise the film and show off more information about what the film may be based on. However we have also challenged the forms and conventions of regular film posters. As seen in our film poster we have not added the “Stars” name in our film poster. We specifically chose to do this as having the “Stars” name included would not have any significance towards the message of the film.

Another media product we have looked at is Film magazine reviews.

The product we have produced is an experimental, educational British short film based around the theme of knife crime and to increase awareness of youngsters aged 16-25 on the dangers and consequences knife crime holds and teaching young the difference between making the right and wrong decision. We have produced a film poster and a magazine film review article and have developed our ideas based around the conventions used in film posters and magazine reviews to create our own. In our magazine page layout we have the majority of the technical codes used in a magazine page layout. It features a main image which is a still framed picture taken from one part of the scenes within our British short film. Another technical code used is a headline to inform the reader on the issues of knife crime and what our theme on our film is based on. A Breakout Box which includes the main stars name and the production team involved and also features part of the animation used in our short film. We would also expect our audience to want a certain layout so we have lessened the column spaces used but will still use a suitable font size and an appropriate font style to the audiences liking. Incorporating other existing film magazine articles and developing it into our own idea our film magazine review article follows the regular codes and conventions of other media products. Our film magazine review article page is best suited for our genre as it is easily accessible. Our magazine page will be distributed to a large amount of people and our target audience will want to read our magazine page more comfortably and enjoyably. Ultimately all technical codes featured in our page will be easily identified making it simpler to read.

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

We have created a short film, film poster and a magazine film review article in which all three products work together.

All three products are united as they all share the same common genre of all bringing together the idea of knife crime which is what our theme is based on. Our film poster may be stronger than our magazine film review in terms of layout and the conventions each one has within them. Our film poster may be stronger in a sense where youngsters are interested in the presentation of the poster by the variety of colours and the combination of animation and an image taken from the short film itself. However in contrast the film magazine review, the review written may be stronger in giving more information on the short film and a detailed article given to the reader who may have an interest in perhaps watching the film. On the other hand, the film poster also makes it clear that animation is included in our British short film. Using the image manipulation software known as Photoshop CS4, we were able to cleverly combine and edit images together to create a blended image of real time film combined with animation.

In terms of narrative the film poster and the film magazine page review both work together to advertise the short film and raise awareness to youngsters on the theme of knife crime. The film poster however is more successful than the film magazine review page as young people are only interested in watching a film by what they like on the poster. A film poster allows our target audience to quickly gain a basic understanding on what the poster is trying to advertise and the theme displayed within the poster. However, a film magazine page will only attract as much young people who have seen the poster and are interested to gain more information on the short film. Our British short film begins with a normal day of a young male named Billy (Dominic McCoy) getting ready to live his daily life of a school boy attending sixth form. However, during his journey to school an unexpected event happens to Billy as he is approached by an aggressive youth (Josh Pascal) who demands a payment from Billy. The short film continues on to another day and this is when the animation enters the short film. The animation shows how Billy deals with his situation by killing his attacker with a knife. However, another day is also shown within the film where Billy refuses to use the knife to deal with his dilemma. This narrative aims to educate young people that knife crime is not the right choice/decision and should be avoided just as Billy chose too.

Each product we have produced may target wider audiences than others and may be more successful than others.

Within each product we made there may be different audiences from different age groups that may approach each product differently. Our poster may be best liked and approached by youngsters aged 16-19. However our other product, the magazine review article may be most suitable for young people aged 20 and above. This is because younger audiences still in their teens are only interested in watching the film by understanding what they see on a poster. The Symbolic codes embedded within the poster itself with the title displayed as a cartoon font with the tagline aside appeals more to the younger audience  rather than the film magazine review which contains a lot more detail  than the film poster. The film magazine review in contrast to the film poster contains more information for the viewer. Young people aged 20 or above are more likely to want to gain more input on what a film is about and are more keen and independent to gather information themselves in order to know if a film is worth watching or not. However unlike younger viewers under 20 they may have less interest in reading a lot more information and would rather go out to watch the film judging by the content of the film poster. Ultimately all three products produced do work together to reach our target audience. In each product it all aims to present the theme of knife crime with the combination of the animation and the footage taken both drawn together.

Film magazines and film posters all play an important role when marketing and being distributed. The film poster we have produced was to attract young people’s attention and present it in a way that would be best for their liking and interests. Film posters with different layouts will result with different target audiences based upon people’s likings and dislikes. The magazine review we have created is presented contains text which is less formal for an older adult but for a young person aged 16-25, contains words which they would best understand. However if the magazine page contained a lot more information and was very formal, our target audience may lose interest but would still gather a lot more input on the theme and story of the British short film.

3)      What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The audience we conducted was allowing people aged 17-19 to view our British short film. We were able to get their opinions on the clip and through their feedback were able to understand if the theme was clear, if the film had achieved its purpose and many more questions our audience feedback had answered. Through our audience feedback the majority of people who took part agreed the film was clear. Analysing our results a lot of people had written “Yes, the theme is clear on avoiding knife crime” Everyone had also agreed that the short film was suitable for its intended audience which is aged 16-25.

However one negative issue we had encountered was the duration of the short film. According to our audience feedback the some the length of certain scenes were too long and needed to be shortened to keep the viewer interested and aware of what is happening.  As a group we had agreed that certain scenes our audience had watched was slow especially during the beginning of the short film. As a solution to this we had edited the scenes to shorten the length of the short film as our audience would most desire. In addition to our audience feedback, many had suggested to add a score over the live action segment too. This was to ensure the audience watching our short film would still be interested and would not find it less boring. Adding score would also create a more realistic atmosphere adding emphasis to the gloomy, dull and gritty scenery when watched on screen.

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

For each product made we have used a variety of techniques used with different technologies to create our film poster, film magazine review and our British short film.

For our research and planning we had used internet research on existing media products to help gain an understanding on how we can develop our own ideas.  We had watched a variety of British short films as examples and the themes which were involved within each film. To document all our research and planning we had created a blog provided by blogspot. Blogger/Blogspot was perfect for documenting all our planning and research as the website can be viewed by anyone in the world. It is free and has many features included to make the Blog well presented.

For the productions of creating our British short film and filming, we had used Digital Video cameras for filming and Digital Still cameras for taking images of locations/casting which would be used within our film poster and film magazine review.  The advantage of using a Digital Video camera is the effect of the footage on screen is dull and gritty which was a good advantage for us. It creates a more realistic point of view which also relates to a more social realism theme as well as knife crime. In addition we had also used Digital Still cameras to document each location we had used in each of our filming sessions. One disadvantage however with Digital Video cameras is that they have certain limitations which cannot be changed unless edited with video editing software. The Digital Video camera had some sound limitations because we had to rely on the built in microphone which affected some scenes when filmed outdoors such as wind continuously blowing into the microphone. As a result our film was planned to utilise limited dialogue throughout the sequence. Another disadvantage was the lighting. During some filming sessions, during the day the lighting was very light and would affect the picture quality making the footage on screen appear either too bright or too dark.  Even if Digital Video cameras do have its downfalls, overall they are great for handheld movements, filming at different angels and creating that illusion of a dull and gritty display.

As part of our Post Production process we had used video editing and image manipulation software to create our film poster and film magazine review. The technology we had used was iMovie HD, video editing software used to gather footage filmed on a Digital Video camera and bring them together as clips which can then be edited to create your own film. The non-linear nature of the software allowed us to continue to develop our ideas in the post production

For our film poster, the software we had used was Photoshop CS4. Photoshop CS4 was created by Adobe and can be used to change the appearance of a chosen image or create a whole new picture using a variety of different images using the manipulation tools installed within the software. For our film poster we had taken a still framed image taken from one of our scenes when filming using the video editing software, iMovie HD. We then manipulated the image using a variety of colour layering, added the tagline and film title using a cartoon font style.

When creating our film magazine page review we had used desktop publishing software called “Pages”. Pages can be used to manipulate the way text and images are presented on a page. We used this software as it allowed us decide how the layout of our magazine film review page should be best presented. Pages allowed us to experiment in a variety of layouts such as the arrangements of columns used. The font and typography used was chosen specifically to what best appeals our chosen audience.

Furthermore we were able to obtain some copyright free music and sound effects which we added to our British short film. Copyright free music was used for our own personal use in which its purpose was to be part of British short film.

Overall all three products created were purposely aimed at youngsters to raise awareness on the issues of knife crime. Each product produced all have its advantages over one another but all work together advertising the main product of the short film.

Evaluation

Over the course I produced a main product and 2 ancillary texts:

• Main product: A short film exploring modern British themes.

• Two ancillary texts:

A Poster of the short film.

A Magazine review of the short film.

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

    All 3 of my groups’ media products; short-film, poster and magazine review either use, developed orchallenged the forms and conventions of real media products. Firstly in terms of the short film it was clear that after extensive research (in which I looked at numerous existing media texts), I could identify a specific set of forms and conventions that short films tend to follow. (Conventions of a short film) During this stage I identified many forms and conventions; for instance short films often do not follow a conventional narrative structure and can be either linear or non-linear, as well as either open or closed ended. This unconventional narrative structure also means that not all Short films follow Todorov’s theory of narrative structure. Additionally short films often incorporate a moral message or some sense of deeper meaning that is often explored through a plot-twist at the end of the film. Another important convention is that, as short films tend to rarely use special effects and keep dialogue to a minimum, frequently making use of voiceovers. This is due to the fact that they normally have very-low budgets and so avoid the use of special effects or expensive microphone equipment in order to keep costs low.

    Some if not all of these conventions identified are evident in the short films I studied when carrying out research into this form of media. First of all “Sold” by Nadia Attia (2004). The main character Jon Smith has all but given up on his dreams and aspirations, and it’s only through a strange shopping channel experience that he finally buys into the notion of happiness. This film is linear and follows a circular narrative structure; it doesn’t make use of special effects and explores a moral message of the lack of community in modern day Britain, but also on the problem of youth unemployment. They are also apparent in “Double Take” by Tou Stappard (2003), the film revolves around what happens after a young male steals a bag from a woman and discovers he is about to become the victim of a vigilante. The film is non-linear and open-ended, and again doesn’t make use of special effects or extensive dialogue. The film also has a moral message on the non-existence of British values in modern day society.

   
    My Short Film “Cartoon Violence” follows these conventions, and the film revolves around Billy (the main character), who is being bullied by Jack. The film explores the consequences of Billy’s action if he decides to protect himself by carrying a knife or not. The film follows these conventions as like “Sold” it has a linear narrative, and as in both “Sold” and “Double Take” does not make use of extensive dialogue and also has a moral message, that knife crime is a serious issue and that measures need to be taken to remove the causes of knife crime. However my project “Cartoon Violence” does challenge some of the conventions as we have made extensive use of animation, which is very unusual for a short film to mix animation and real footage. We purposefully decided to challenge this convention, as we believed it would emphasise the moral message of the film, but also make the film stand out from the countless other short-films that explore similar narrative themes.

    Furthermore during the research we identified various genres that were present in many of the short-films we looked at, the most common of which was crime, and within this genre of crime, youth crime was predominant. I also found that they portrayed negative aspects for example crime, anti social behaviour and the lack of British values. Also form the research I identified several re-occurring themes that all reflect the problems of modern day Britain; youth unemployment, urban decay, lack of community, poverty, immigration, etc…


     This is similar with the other products i.e. the poster and the magazine review. Firstly when researching the poster I again studied various existing (Film Poster conventions l)texts e.g. “The Matrix,” “Platoon,” “Shawn of the Dead” and “Elizabeth.” While studying these examples I noticed that there were two types of posters, a teaser poster and a full promo poster, both have very different conventions but as I produced a promo poster I will focus on this type. I identified that all film poster have a film title, a tag line, billing block as well as the name of the main stars as well as a main image that incorporates the stars, there is also a background image.

   
   The poster I produced very much uses these conventions as the poster does incorporate the film title, tag line, billing block and does include both a main image that incorporates the main characters and a background image. The only convention I challenged was that my poster does not include the name of the stars. I chose to do this because as the main actors of are unknowns and the inclusion of there names would be pointless as the audience would not learn any further information about the film nor would it further promote the film.

    In terms of the magazine review I again studied numerous examples of existing  texts (Magazine Review conventions) e.g. “Empire,” “Total Film,” “PreVue” and “Sight & Sound.” I immediately noticed that the different magazines had different forms and  conventions, but some of these forms and conventions were apparent in all of   the existing media texts. All of the texts had the following conventions, section title, film title, main picture, secondary picture, graphics, breakout boxes, call to action, etc… However it is Important to note that they all had different   modes of address, depending on their target audience.

     Out of all 3 of the products I stuck to the established conventions of a magazine review the most, incorporating all of them into my product and not developing/ challenging them at all. This is especially true in that I used the established layout conventions i.e. Section title is located in the top right hand-side of the page, Call to action and page number located at the bottom of the page, etc…

     As a result my magazine review appears to be very similar to other existing tests. However this was intended because the magazine review will be distributed at a film festival, and potentially consumed by a large variety of people and ultimately ensuring the article is easy to read and accessible is key to the product being successful. Thus the decision to use the established forms and conventions and not develop or challenge them would ensure that the magazine review produced would accessible and easy to read, as it would be similar to other existing products.

• How effective is combination of main and ancillary texts?

The two ancillary texts, the film poster and the magazine review are both very effective at supporting the main product (short film). However I believe the poster is most effective at supporting the main product especially in terms of audience. The short film has an intended audience of 15-20 (Intended audience of short film), and the poster targets this especially well due to a variety of techniques I made use of. The poster has a young urban look to it, achieved through the use of bright colours that would capture this particular age groups attention, supported by the graffiti clearly visible in the poster. The style of font used in both the film title and the tag line is also is aimed at the intended audience as it has a young almost graffiti like feel to it. The main picture of the poster displaying conflict occurring between two teenagers would immediately provoke similarities to “Kidulthood,” which was an incredibly successful film amongst 15 – 20 year olds, and so would further target the type of audience the short film is trying to attract. All these factors combined together target the intended audience of the short film very well, and is ultimately why I believe the poster is most effective at supporting the main product.

 

The magazine review on the other hand, although still effective at supporting the main product, in terms of audience it is not that effective. This is due to the magazine review being designed with a very different target audience to that of the film. As the people who attend film-festivals (where the magazine will be distributed), are normally older and more middle aged, this is reflected in the target audience being primarily males between the ages of 25-50. Importantly the magazine review does target this audience very well through the standard conventions of magazine reviews being followed, the neutral colour scheme adopted and the mode of address, simplistic but formal and without the use of colloquialisms and slang.

But ultimately the magazine review is targeting a male audience between the age of 25 and 50, which is simply not the intended audience of the film. The magazine review attempts to overcome this by incorporating a still of the animation as a secondary image to try and gain interest from an audience that largely is not interested in this sub-genre, and so simply will not be interested in the film. This is why I believe the poster is most effective at supporting the short-film, as they both target the same audience.

In terms of narrative the main and both ancillary texts all work very well together because they all communicate the narrative to the audience extremely well. The ancillary texts both work well as they both give a simplistic overview of the narrative. Both the poster and animation feature frames from both the video-footage and animation conveying to the audience that the short-film is a mix of animation and video-footage, both texts also clearly connotative the theme of youth crime/violence. However out of the poster and the article, the article is best at getting across the narrative this is due to the article, as the poster can only portray a limited amount of the narrative but the article enables the narrative to be to described in greater detail.

In terms of genre, the genre of youth and crime is seen in all 3 of the products. The main genre is quite easily picked up as both the poster and magazine review feature frames of conflict between two youths and so the genre of youth crime is clearly portrayed. However the genre of knife crime is a lot stronger in the film then any of the other texts because we choose not to focus to heavily on knife crime as all though we wanted similarities to be clear between our film and “Kidulthood,” we did not want the audience to dismiss the film as another cheap copy. Overall the texts work well in giving an indication of the genre I believe the poster works best as it emphasises the youth and urban aspect of crime more than the Poster.

From an institutional point of view the ancillary texts are very effective at supporting the main product, as they have both been produced to promote the film. They work together as they both target different audiences and so although attempt to make the film appeal to more than just its target audience. Furthermore the poster and the magazine review fulfil separate needs in terms of promoting the film, the poster is produced by the film production company to advertise there product and as it is a poster can be seen by a potentially limitless number of people. Whereas the magazine review fulfils a separate need, as after a consumer spots the poster and becomes interested in the film (the purpose of a poster), they will often refer to a magazine review before they make their final decision on whether or not to spend their money on going to view the film. This is often done, as magazine reviews are not produced by the film production company, but by an independent third party, and so can offer the audience an unbiased view of the film that would simply be impossible to get from the film production company.

·      What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is a crucial when creating media products, as it allows the development team to gauge the reaction from their intended audience and make the necessary changes to the product to make it more suitable for the audience. An example of this is that after audience feedback for Thelma and Louise (1991) they changed the ending to a freeze frame of the car about to go over a cliff, as during audience feedback the vast majority of the sample group said they disliked the original ending, in which the car goes over the cliff and explodes as it crashes down.

We carried out audience feedback by showing our film to a sample group; they then filled out a questionnaire. The feedback we received was mostly positive however some areas for improvement were discovered, and the most common responses were that there was too much walking and that a score was needed at certain parts of the film. As a result we made these changes in that we added a score to certain parts of our film, and cut down the walking and as a result the final version of our film is vastly superior to the first edit.


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We then did the same for both the poster and magazine review. This feedback was equally effective as it allowed us to gauge an audiences’ reaction and then make changes in response to these changes. In terms of the poster we received virtually no negative feedback. However one questionnaire a person did state they did not like the colour scheme and thought it should be changed, we choose to ignore this and keep the colour scheme the same, as the colour scheme was the most common feature of the poster to be praised during the audience feedback. And so even though we did not make any changes the feedback was still very valuable as it confirmed that the poster is suitable for its intended audience.

This was similar with the magazine review except this time we had one person say that the main image should be changed as they felt it did not accurately represent the film, however again while studying the feedback we received in the questionnaires we found that far more people highlighted the main image as positive of the magazine review, and so again we choose to ignore this. However we did make one change as several people did highlight that they thought a different colour scheme would work best, and so we I decided to experiment with different colours and eventually changed the graphic colours from blue to red and believe it is much more effective. Again I did not make drastic changes, as the feedback was very much positive overall, but nonetheless the feedback was still very much useful as it confirms that the product does target its intended audience effectively.

 

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

My group made extensive use of new media technologies to aide us throughout the creation of our entire project. In the research and planning stage I made extensive use of the Internet, utilizing search engines (Example of search engine I used), blogging technology Blogging website I used and video sharing websites (Video-Sharing website I used). 

An example of how video-sharing websites helped me with research into an animation styles.


In the production phase I utilised digital video cameras and digital cameras to produce the video footage and in the production of the animation I used of interactive whiteboard technology and animation software. In the post-production phase I used I-Movie, a non-linear piece of editing software to edit the film, Photoshop (photo-manipulation software) to produce the poster and Pages (desktop publishing software) to produce the magazine article and the Internet to download copyright free music, sound effects and fonts.

These technologies proved invaluable during each stage. Video-sharing websites proved particularly invaluable in providing short-films to analyse and gather information/inspiration from. In the production phase digital video cameras allowed us to capture high quality footage and audio, and the use of the interactive whiteboard allowed the animation to be of much higher quality and produced in significantly less time.

In the post-production phase new media technology was particularly significant as I-Movie HD (Information) is non-linear editing software meaning that we could shoot our film in any order we wanted. Non-linear editing software as it is non-destructive also allowed my ideas to continue to develop in post-production, and enabled to me to react to audience feedback. And the newspaper and poster would have been of much poorer quality without the use these of new media technolgies. In the evaluation section we used our blog to upload our evaluation to the blog.

However there were some limitations, first of all when shooting the film the quality of the camera was poor and at times the footage seems fuzzy and blurry, and could easily have been improved if we had access to a HD camera. Another major limitation was sound because the camera’s microphone was of very low quality that any sound picked up was often poor and very distorted, and so we had to greatly limit the dialogue. Also we had no control over lighting and so were greatly limited to only filming at certain times, and ensuring all shots were completed in the same day so as to not cause continuity problems.

Evaluation

Click on the image to zoom in

Evaluation

Our media project is a short film designed, story-boarded and shot by me and my group, as  well as the sort film we have incorporated a film poster and a film magazine review both adding to the short film and making this a all round product.

Question 1 

In what ways do your media product USE DEVELOP or CHALLENGE forms and conventions of a real media product?

There are many forms and conventions of short film, when viewing some short films it was clear at some of the themes that were coming up. We have worked in the genre of Crime and the sub genre could be anti-social behaviour. This is a very common theme in film however we wanted to add a different twist to just simply educated people about Knife crime. One form and convention which we have incorporated into are film is the purpose. Our film purpose is mainly educational. It has been created to educate people about the dangers and consequences of carrying a knife. This is a common purpose short film, this is because short films can easily be shown in schools due to their length. The educational purpose of the film is meant to leave the audience with a message also to tell them that knife crime is wrong and not “cartoon violence”. This is inspired by the viewing of ‘Gravity’ a short film about gun crime that tells people the consequences of playing with a gun.    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0422346

  Another convention we have worked in is the genre this being the theme of knife crime. This theme and narrative is a very establish theme as it must have been done on numerous occasions by directors. This theme was chosen due to be purpose and we felt that the two worked well together. Another convention of short films which we have worked in is social realism. Our film has a very “gritty” feel to it this adds to the social realism of the film. The film is purposes gritty and we have not changed any saturation or hue to make the film seem more “professional” this only adds to the social realism. We have also looked into is the type of narrative. A common narrative in short films is a non linear narrative which we have used. The day of our film gets played out twice this highlights the non linear narrative.  The conventions are used to a certain extent.  The purpose of the film has met the conventions of short films by using educational. It is clear that the film is purposely made to educate the audience the end of the film highlights this the most with a message being shown. I believe that the purposes couldn’t be more educational, it could be argued that the film is experimental due too due to the use animation this is the case however animation isn’t a typical convention of short films it is unusual for animation to be mixed with live action in short films. The choice of genre meets the conventions of a short film because it clearly is about knife crime (a genre of short films) and its consequences. The film follows the conventions of short films with the choice of social realism it is seen as this due to the gritty showing this makes it partly social realistic. The other part is the narrative which is a non linear narrative which is a very common convention of a short film. To an extent the film could be seen as a “classic” which follows standard conventions. The film could be because of some of the shots such as the point of view and some of its cinematography as well as its common narrative. However I believe overall this cannot be a “classic” due to the animation. The animation is the part of the film that no one expects or when they do see it they have seen it somewhere else before this is why it cannot be a classic. 

The next product is the poster, the poster uses many of the conventions that’s some of the reviewed posters have. Some of the conventions of a film poster a picture of the star or iconic image from the film this suggests the genre of the film as well as giving hints at possible plot and themes. If picture is the star it is usually intended to further advertise the film on the “fame” of the star. Are film follow this convention however it could be argued that Dominic (the main character) isn’t the focus point of this film. Another convention is background images; used to further promote the film, while also further suggesting the genre and themes of the film. This is used in our poster and shows that there is animation in our film so this also gives the audience an idea of what they would be going to watch.  In is poster we use a film title which simply promotes the name of the film. Another convention we use is the tag line This Enticing, catchy short phrases used to advertise the film and sell a movie, while also summing up the plot, tone, or theme of a film. The final convention we used was a billing block this promotes the studio and producers behind the film. The Typography of the billing block is usually 25% to 35% of each letter in the film title. These are all conventions that make up a poster all of them must be used/considered in order for the audience to know that the poster is a film poster. Our poster meets all the conventions, as all the conventions are necessities in order for the audience to notice they are looking for at a film poster, if some of the conventions don’t feature on the poster then the audience might not one notice the poster, or two even know that it is for a film. The poster also follows standard conventions of a poster so therefore it could be seen as a “classic” this is because all the conventions must be on the poster to make it a poster, the effect is that it becomes a poster and stands out as a film poster. The audience must know immediately that the poster is for a film.

In the magazine review we have incorporated many different conventions of a magazine review that are similar to the media products we see today. These included font, colour schemes, images and layouts.  The magazine section title is positioned at the top of the page. It has been shown with a red font colour to provide a clear visual element and also this is used as a way of a starting point for the reader. The selected main image is a gritty close up two characters within the film. It brings forth a connotation of conflict and this is shown through the way they are looking at each other, this is in context to the film as it shows a key scene where by the actors are in conflict over something, the audience begin to think of bullying due to the age, it is also clear that Dominic is a school boy. Plus there has been cropping of this image to focus on the two characters. All have been used in our magazine review to give it a professional look. We have used the graphics of red because this is the colour scheme of the magazine and it also is there to catch the reader’s eye on the review. The magazine meets the conventions of the magazine poster well. It has all the typical things you would expect to see on a magazine. We have followed a very traditional layout of a magazine. This could then make are magazine a classic technical layout with a main image, 2^nd image, main text, breakouts and layout left to right. The reason why we have stuck to a very traditional style is because we didn’t want to experiment with a magazine review and then for it to turn not looking like a magazine. The traditional layout also makes the article easily accessible and easy to read for the audience, rather than confuse them. We needed the audience to immediately notice that what they were reading was a magazine review. The type of article is also very important we have used a positive article. This is down to our type of magazine we have made it to promote the film and not be a critic of the film. This could be seen as a challenged convention, as film reviews normally present objectives and critical opinions.


 In the short film are film has definitely updated the standard forms and conventions of a short film. With the use of animation it has changed the typical conventions of a short film. The animation is the one part of the film that changes the forms and conventions of a short film. The animation has added a major twist to the film which is an important convention of many short films. When the audience are watching the beginning of the film they assume that the film is going to be an ordinary film about knife crime however when the animation kicks in the audience are surprised it’s also after the animation that the twist really kicks in. The audience are left with a major contrast of the animation (a childish, innocent way of portraying something) to then the real shot of a knife. The audience are left to reflect on what has happened. We have also tried to capture the contrast by the score stopping and then the credits rolling out with no credits to add to the reflection period. This twist is also defiantly unexpected this adds to the shock of the audience. I also believe that we have developed a standard purpose of educational, by using the animation we have put a vibrant, enjoyable thing into a much more serious situation. I think this is rare for an educational film to feature such a contrasting way of portraying a story.

I believe that the poster has not developed any standard forms I feel it is hard for a poster to develop the conventions without leading the poster away from it looking like a poster. For example if the billing block was developed into a more clearly colourful convention to make it stand out the audience would not be sure if it is an actually poster. I think the conventions can’t be developed for a poster they need to be featured in order for it to be a poster. However I do believe that we are poster has a twist, are genre is knife crime a very dark side of Britain, some of the connotations of knife crime is death, police and youths. We associate quite dark colours with this situation however are final poster is a very colourful I think this is a twist as it is unexpected. The reason for the colours is because of the graffiti which is also linked to the youth, so the colours are linked to the genre

The magazine is also very similar to the poster is that it can be hard to develop some conventions without the audience not understanding it’s a magazine review. The magazine uses all the conventions that a magazine should have. The magazine has no twists and uses al the standard layout.

 The short films has definitely challenged the conventions of short films with the use of animations we have challenged some of the connotations of animation. Animations are usually used for child films such as Wall-E( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZisWjdjs-gM) , Up (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkqzFUhGPJg) and Winnie the Poo (http://www.vidoemo.com/yvideo.php?disney-winnie-the-pooh-1995-vhs-uk-trailer=&i=bjJoaDNWcWuRpOVBfeTg) all these are noticeable are seen as “happy films” we have challenged this by using the animation in a negative narrative. This has never really been done before and this is why I feel we have challenged the conventions and forms of a short film. We have also challenged the genre we have chosen to use animation with a serious genre of knife crime this is the total opposite of what the audience expect. We have used standard cinematography and haven’t really challenged any of the short films connotations for cinematography this meant that the audience wasn’t shocked by any of the cinematography. The reason for this standard cinematography is due to the limitations. I also feel in the choice of using a replayed day it has challenged the expectation of the audience. I think that because we use a repeated day the audience don’t expect to see that in a short film.

We have also challenged the conventions of posters. On are poster we have not got the name of our main characters this is because they are unknown actors and it would have no real impact on the poster, so therefore it would be pointless to have the names of Dominic McCoy and Joshua Pascall-Noel. We have also not used a really large or bold title. It is very common that film posters have a really large title that hits the audience when first viewing. However we have decided not to go with the typical title but to blend it in to the colours this makes sense as the colours are so bright and vivid that the title is easily noticed.

The magazine has also challenged conventions and forms. One challenge is the lack of statistic boxes or fact files for the reader. It is very common for the magazine review to have a fact file on the director or the cast however we have not featured this the effect is that you are left with a very simplistic magazine review. Another challenged convention could be the type of article instead of doing a critical one we have chosen to do a promotional one that talks about the positive aspects of the film. This is a challenge of the conventions of a magazine review as people do not expect it they can expect either, positive or negative.

Overall the film challenges, uses and develops many conventions all of these effect the outcome of the products.

Question 2

How effective is combination of main and ancillary texts?

The three products work very well together all three have been designed, planed and made as parts of one a whole project. The parts we have had to work in to make sure that all the 3 products work well together are:

·                     Genre

·                     Narrative

·                     Audience

·                     Institution

The common genre which is seen in all 3 of the products is anti-social behaviour. The main genre isn’t always picked as the image of a knife is not evident in the poster and magazine so therefore the audience cannot pick this up. This was purposely done in the poster and magazine as we didn’t want to give too much away. The audience would need to watch the film to grasp that the film’s main genre is about knife crime, this is an advertising ploy to make the audience view the film.  The genre of knife crime is a lot stronger in the film then any of the other texts this is because we didn’t want the audience to know too much about the film before even watching it. The effect is that the purposes of the texts are solid. The magazine and poster is to get the audience to see the film to find out the genre, and then when they see the film they can get that the first hand genre is knife crime.  Overall the texts work well in giving an indication of “a” genre but to get the full genre of knife crime is the audience have to watch the film.   

I believe that the texts work very well in giving an indication of the narrative. The texts work together in the way that each gives parts of the narrative. And to get the full narrative the 3 must be seen as a package. Out of the poster and the article, the article is the best at getting across the narrative this is due to the article. The poster can only tell you the narrative to an extent but the article enables the audience to get description of the narrative, the article also has pictures. The audience could easily pick up the narrative from the film and wouldn’t need to see the poster or article before viewing the film. This is highlighted during our audience feedback

It is also important that different products have different target audiences. This is because of the different information on each product. The short film has a target audience of around 15-20 this is because it is 15 because it is for teenagers. It is also for the minimum of 15 year olds because of the knife scene and the use of “blood” is quite explicit. The target audience is different for the poster as it can be from around a 15+ the bright colours will capture the youth’s eyes however the deeper meaning will be picked up by the older audience. There is no limitation on the poster as anyone can view it and pick up something about the film it is whether the poster actually makes them want to see the film. The people that will be affected by the poster will be the 15+. However I believe that the 3 products struggle to reach the wider target audience. The short film has no characters above the age of 18 so therefore the older audience will not be able to relate to the film so therefore it will not have reached the older audience. I also believe that the article will struggle to reach our wider audience due to the type of magazine it is. The article’s language is not extremely advanced and it is written so that teenagers can read it with ease and get an indication of what the film is about. The wider audience might not be interested in reading such an article. Also the poster is not of a very “serious” view the older audience might not be attracted by the bright colours and want a more gritty/dark poster.

The poster and magazine both have been produced to promote the film and work in conjunction with the film. The poster is there to promote the film as when the audience see the poster it makes them want to watch the film. I believe it makes the audience want to see the film because of the sub title the sentence “We have a choice: Don’t let knives choose for you” This is a title that makes the audience think about the film and hopefully makes them want to explore the film. The magazine review is also key in promoting the film as it gives a detail article on what the audience can experience without giving the story away. When viewing both of them in conjunction I believe that they work well in promoting the film. The two work very difference in promoting the film. The poster can be viewed by anyone. This means that the poster promotes more a visual side of the film. If the poster looks nice then it will promote the film. However the magazine review is very different in that it is on the audience to pick it up and read it. All though both attract the audience they both attract very different audiences. Both are as important as each other when attracting a audience. As there is such a wide spread in the age for the target audience the magazine and poster have to attract the all ages within the target. The poster attracts the younger audience due to the visuals they don’t have to read anything to get the idea of the film, unlike a poster. The poster attracts the audience with its visuals if it looks good they will watch it. For the older audience the magazine might appeal to them, instead of going to see a film on the basis of a poster they might want to read more deeper into the film they can do this by reading the magazine review.

Question 3

 What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The audience feedback was given 6 questions each of the questions helped us in our final edited the questions and there most common answers were....

1) Is the theme of the film clear?

The majority of the answers were that they understood the theme .One person highlighted that the animation made it a lot clearer that it was about knife crime

2)Does the film achieve it purpose?

The most common answer was yes, they believed that it was experimental. One person highlighted that it was to an extent this made us review that it was fully experimental again.

3)Is it suitable for its intended audience?

Again the answer was yes. One person said that it should be specifically for males, as they are more likely to carry knives this must be considered.

4) Is there anything that can be altered or added to make the theme/narrative clearer and could be more suitable for its intended audience?

The most common answer was that the walking sections of the film was very long and needed to be cut.

5) What do you think of the editing? What works well? What needs changing?

Here people thought that the editing was good.

6) What do you think of the sound? What needs changing?

The most common answer was to add a score to as people thought it was a bit empty without it and that it was definitely missing a score

The audience feedback is important as it gives an outside opinion other than your own on what is good and needs to be improved. Also certain parts which you think are good may not be seen as good to an audience. This is not rare in the industry many film companies screen their films early as a first viewing after that viewing they will often take a survey or a interview on what they thought if there is a common problem then they can easily change it before they screen it to the general public.

The feedback was mostly positive, however the criticism came mainly about there being no score, we agreed with the feedback and we quickly responded and added a score that added a bit of thrill and some of the key parts of the story. Another criticism was that some shots were to long mainly some of the walking shots. The audience thought that they made the story partly boring and some of them were not necessary. Overall we reacted positively to the audience feedback and it helped us in finished off our final edit. We reacted by cutting shots and adding a score.

The feedback for the poster was very positive there were not many changes to make. The main changes were that it needed a bigger title and a different image size these changes were made and it helped in producing a really good poster. The article was very similar in that people thought that the image needed to be changed as well as the size.

Question 4

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

To produce the media film, poster and article we had to use certain technologies all these programs and equipment enabled us to create 3 high quality products. At the research stage the main source of research which aided us was the internet. This was a huge part of our research and background. We used various websites to help us to find out about film posters, short films and magazine article. One part which helped us in the short films was YouTube we could get different types of short films to get inspiration. To document are research we used Microsoft word and then finally a blog to which we could add images, links and video

When it came to the production we used a DV camera to capture the film. These cameras filmed onto tape, the equipment used was a tripod to keep the camera steady. To create the animation we used an interactive whiteboard. The animation would be created by drawing in the character and then taking a screenshot which would be saved as a JPEG. This would be done to give the overall effect of an animation.

When it to to post production we used I-Movie HD to upload are footage and edited it. To create the newspaper we used Pages and to create the poster we used Photoshop CS4. We also used certain internet website for a score or sounds effects. There were many advantages and disadvantages of the technologies we had available. First when shooting the film we were limited in the shots we could do. It was not possible to do a tracking shot with a track rail.  We could not do a bird’s eye view so we were limited to certain shots due to the lack of equipment. An advantage of this was that it added a less “professional” feel which added to the gritty social realism side of it. Another disadvantage in the production side was the quality of the camera we did not have the option to use a HD camera to get the maximum quality. However again it could still be seen as a advantage due to the gritty effect the SD cameras gave. The technology affected the way in which we shot are film, when story-boarding we had to think about what we couldn’t do and choose a shot that we could do instead of couldn’t. One part that was a major limitation was the sound because of the cameras the quality of sound that was picked up was poor so when we story-boarded we thought it would be a better idea to limit the dialogue, this didn’t have a major effect on our film as the film didn’t have much dialogue. One other limitation was lighting, we had limited control over the lighting the only real control outside was the weather. If it was too sunny then the camera would have to much glare this would affect us filming on that day.

Overall the main technology that influenced are project was the internet. It helped us in the research stage which then influenced us on the first idea. Then at the production stage it helped us in getting a score. When it got to the post-production we could upload are film to YouTube so that the world could view it this helped when it came to audience feedback and publishing are film.